Old Major, the old boar on the Manor Farm, summons the animals on the farm together for a meeting, during which he refers to humans as "enemies" and teaches the animals a revolutionary song called "Beasts of England".
When Major dies, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, assume command and consider it a duty to prepare for the Rebellion.
The animals revolt and drive the drunken and irresponsible farmer mr Jones from the farm, renaming it "Animal Farm".
They adopt the Seven Commandments of Animalism, the most important of which is, "All animals are equal".
Snowball teaches the animals to read and write, while Napoleon educates young puppies on the principles of Animalism.
Food is plentiful, and the farm runs smoothly.
The pigs elevate themselves to positions of leadership and set aside special food items, ostensibly for their personal health.
Some time later, several men attack Animal Farm.
Jones and his men are making an attempt to recapture the farm, aided by several other farmers who are terrified of similar animal revolts.
Snowball, who has been studying the battles of Julius Caesar in anticipation of such a fight, orders the animals to retreat, then counterstrikes, forcing the men to flee.
Snowball's popularity soars, and this event is proclaimed "The Battle of the Cowshed".
It is celebrated annually with the firing of a gun, on the anniversary of the Revolution.
Napoleon and Snowball struggle for pre-eminence.
When Snowball announces his plans to modernize the farm by building a windmill, Napoleon has his dogs chase Snowball away and declares himself leader.
Napoleon enacts changes to the governance structure of the farm, replacing meetings with a committee of pigs who will run the farm.
Through a young pig named Squealer, Napoleon claims credit for the windmill idea.
The animals work harder with the promise of easier lives with the windmill.
When the animals find the windmill collapsed after a violent storm, Napoleon and Squealer convince the animals that Snowball is trying to sabotage their project.
Once Snowball becomes a scapegoat, Napoleon begins to purge the farm with his dogs, killing animals he accuses of consorting with his old rival.
When some animals recall the Battle of the Cowshed, Napoleon (who was nowhere to be found during the battle) frequently smears Snowball as a collaborator of Jones', while falsely representing himself as the hero of the battle.
"Beasts of England" is replaced with an anthem glorifying Napoleon, who appears to be adopting the lifestyle of a man.
The animals remain convinced that they are better off than they were under mr Jones.
Mr Frederick, one of the neighbouring farmers, attacks the farm, using blasting powder to blow up the restored windmill.
Though the animals win the battle, they do so at great cost, as many, including Boxer the workhorse, are wounded.
Despite his injuries, Boxer continues working harder and harder, until he collapses while working on the windmill.
Napoleon sends for a van to take Boxer to the veterinary surgeon, explaining that better care can be given there.
Benjamin, the cynical donkey who "could read as well as any pig", notices that the van belongs to a knacker and attempts a futile rescue.
Squealer quickly assures the animals that the van had been purchased from the knacker by an animal hospital, and the previous owner's signboard had not been repainted.
In a subsequent report, Squealer reports sadly to the animals that Boxer died peacefully at the animal hospital; the pigs hold a festival one day after Boxer's death to further praise the glories of Animal Farm and have the animals work harder by taking on Boxer's ways.
However, the truth was that Napoleon had engineered the sale of Boxer to the knacker, allowing him and his inner circle to acquire money to buy whisky for themselves.
(In 1940s England, one way for farms to make money was to sell large animals to a knacker, who would kill the animal and boil its remains into animal glue) Years pass, and the windmill is rebuilt along with construction of another windmill, which makes the farm a good amount of income.
However, the ideals which Snowball discussed, including stalls with electric lighting, heating and running water are forgotten, with Napoleon advocating that the happiest animals live simple lives.
In addition to Boxer, many of the animals who participated in the Revolution are dead, as is Farmer Jones, who died in another part of England.
The pigs start to resemble humans, as they walk upright, carry whips, and wear clothes.
The Seven Commandments are abridged to a single phrase: "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others".
Napoleon holds a dinner party for the pigs and local farmers, with whom he celebrates a new alliance.
He abolishes the practice of the revolutionary traditions and restores the name "The Manor Farm".
As the animals look from pigs to humans, they realise they can no longer distinguish between the two.
<EOS>
Alex is a 15-year-old living in near-future dystopian England who leads his gang on a night of opportunistic, random "ultra-violence".
Alex's friends ("droogs" in the novel's Anglo-Russian slang, 'Nadsat') are Dim, a slow-witted bruiser who is the gang's muscle; Georgie, an ambitious second-in-command; and Pete, who mostly plays along as the droogs indulge their taste for ultra-violence.
Characterised as a sociopath and a hardened juvenile delinquent, Alex also displays intelligence, quick wit, and a predilection for classical music; he is particularly fond of Beethoven, referred to as "Lovely Ludwig Van".
The novella begins with the droogs sitting in their favourite hangout, the Korova Milk Bar, and drinking "milk-plus"—a beverage consisting of milk laced with the customer's drug of choice—to prepare for a night of mayhem.
They assault a scholar walking home from the public library; rob a store, leaving the owner and his wife bloodied and unconscious; beat up a beggar; then scuffle with a rival gang.
Joyriding through the countryside in a stolen car, they break into an isolated cottage and terrorise the young couple living there, beating the husband and raping his wife.
In a metafictional touch, the husband is a writer working on a manuscript called "A Clockwork Orange", and Alex contemptuously reads out a paragraph that states the novel's main theme before shredding the manuscript.
Back at the Korova, Alex strikes Dim for his crude response to a woman's singing of an operatic passage, and strains within the gang become apparent.
At home in his parents' futuristic flat, Alex plays classical music at top volume, which he describes as giving him orgasmic bliss before falling asleep.
Alex coyly feigns illness to his parents to stay out of school the next day.
Following an unexpected visit fromR.
Deltoid, his "post-corrective adviser", Alex visits a record store, where he meets two pre-teen girls.
He invites them back to the flat, where he drugs and rapes them.
The next morning, Alex finds his droogs in a mutinous mood, waiting downstairs in the torn-up and graffitied lobby.
Georgie challenges Alex for leadership of the gang, demanding that they pull a "man-sized" job.
Alex quells the rebellion by slashing Dim's hand and fighting with Georgie, then in a show of generosity takes them to a bar, where Alex insists on following through on Georgie's idea to burgle the home of a wealthy old woman.
Alex breaks in and knocks the woman unconscious, but when he opens the door to let the others in, Dim strikes him in payback for the earlier fight.
The gang abandons Alex on the front step to be arrested by the police; while in their custody, he learns that the woman has died from her injuries.
Alex is convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison (Pete visiting one day informed him that Georgie has been killed).
Two years into his term, he has obtained a job in one of the prison chapels playing religious music on the stereo to accompany the Sunday religious services.
The chaplain mistakes Alex's Bible studies for stirrings of faith; in reality, Alex is only reading Scripture for the violent passages.
After his fellow cellmates blame him for beating a troublesome cellmate to death, he is chosen to undergo an experimental behaviour-modification treatment called the Ludovico Technique in exchange for having the remainder of his sentence commuted.
The technique is a form of aversion therapy, in which Alex is injected with nausea-inducing drugs while watching graphically violent films, eventually conditioning him to become severely ill at the mere thought of violence.
As an unintended consequence, the soundtrack to one of the films, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, renders Alex unable to enjoy his beloved classical music as before.
The effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated to a group of VIPs, who watch as Alex collapses before a bully and abases himself before a scantily-clad young woman whose presence has aroused his predatory sexual inclinations.
Although the prison chaplain accuses the state of stripping Alex of free will, the government officials on the scene are pleased with the results and Alex is released from prison.
Alex returns to his parents' flat, only to find that they are renting his room to a lodger.
Now homeless, he wanders the streets and enters a public library, hoping to learn of a painless method for committing suicide.
The old scholar whom Alex had assaulted in Part 1 finds him and beats him, with the help of several friends.
Two policemen come to Alex's rescue, but turn out to be Dim and Billyboy, a former rival gang leader.
They take Alex outside of town, brutalise him, and abandon him there.
Alex collapses at the door of an isolated cottage, realising too late that it is the one he and his droogs invaded in Part 1.
The writer, Alexander, still lives here, but his wife has since died of injuries she sustained in the gang-rape.
He does not recognise Alex, but gives him shelter and questions him about the conditioning he has undergone.
Alexander and his colleagues, all highly critical of the government, plan to use Alex as a symbol of state brutality and thus prevent the incumbent government from being re-elected.
Alex inadvertently reveals that he was the ringleader of the home invasion; he is removed from the cottage and locked in an upper-story bedroom as a relentless barrage of classical music plays over speakers.
He attempts suicide by leaping from the window.
Alex wakes up in a hospital, where he is courted by government officials anxious to counter the bad publicity created by his suicide attempt.
With Alexander placed in a mental institution, Alex is offered a well-paying job if he agrees to side with the government.
A round of tests reveals that his old violent impulses have returned, indicating that the hospital doctors have undone the effects of his conditioning.
As photographers snap pictures, Alex daydreams of orgiastic violence and reflects, "I was cured all right".
In the final chapter, Alex finds himself halfheartedly preparing for yet another night of crime with a new gang (Lenn, Rick, Bully).
After a chance encounter with Pete, who has reformed and married, Alex finds himself taking less and less pleasure in acts of senseless violence.
He begins contemplating giving up crime himself to become a productive member of society and start a family of his own, while reflecting on the notion that his own children will be just as destructive as he has been, if not more so.
<EOS>
The text of The Plague is divided into five parts.
In the town of Oran, thousands of rats, initially unnoticed by the populace, begin to die in the streets.
Hysteria develops soon afterward, causing the local newspapers to report the incident.
Authorities responding to public pressure order the collection and cremation of the rats, unaware that the collection itself was the catalyst for the spread of the bubonic plague.
The main character, dr Bernard Rieux, lives comfortably in an apartment building when strangely the building's concierge, Michel, a confidante, dies from a fever.
dr Rieux consults his colleague, dr Castel, about the illness until they come to the conclusion that a plague is sweeping the town.
They both approach fellow doctors and town authorities about their theory but are eventually dismissed on the basis of one death.
However, as more and more deaths quickly ensue, it becomes apparent that there is an epidemic.
Meanwhile, Rieux's wife has been sent to a sanatorium in another city, to be treated for an unrelated chronic illness.
Authorities, including the Prefect, are slow to accept that the situation is serious and quibble over the appropriate action to take.
Official notices enacting control measures are posted, but the language used is optimistic and downplays the seriousness of the situation.
A "special ward" is opened at the hospital, but its 80 beds are filled within three days.
As the death toll begins to rise, more desperate measures are taken.
Homes are quarantined; corpses and burials are strictly supervised.
A supply of plague serum finally arrives, but there is enough to treat only existing cases, and the country's emergency reserves are depleted.
When the daily number of deaths jumps to 30, the town is sealed, and an outbreak of plague is officially declared.
The town is sealed off.
The town gates are shut, rail travel is prohibited, and all mail service is suspended.
The use of telephone lines is restricted only to "urgent" calls, leaving short telegrams as the only means of communicating with friends or family outside the town.
The separation affects daily activity and depresses the spirit of the townspeople, who begin to feel isolated and introverted, and the plague begins to affect various characters.
One character, Raymond Rambert, devises a plan to escape the city to join his wife in Paris after city officials refused his request to leave.
He befriends some underground criminals so that they may smuggle him out of the city.
Another character, Father Paneloux, uses the plague as an opportunity to advance his stature in the town by suggesting that the plague was an act of God punishing the citizens' sinful nature.
His diatribe falls on the ears of many citizens of the town, who turned to religion in droves but would not have done so under normal circumstances.
Cottard, a criminal remorseful enough to attempt suicide but fearful of being arrested, becomes wealthy as a major smuggler.
Meanwhile, dr Rieux; a vacationer, Jean Tarrou; and a civil servant, Joseph Grand, exhaustively treat patients in their homes and in the hospital.
Rambert informs Tarrou of his escape plan, but when Tarrou tells him that there are others in the city, including dr Rieux, who have loved ones outside the city whom they are not allowed to see, Rambert becomes sympathetic and changes his mind.
He then decides to join Tarrou and dr Rieux to help fight the epidemic.
In mid-August, the situation continues to worsen.
People try to escape the town, but some are shot by armed sentries.
Violence and looting break out on a small scale, and the authorities respond by declaring martial law and imposing a curfew.
Funerals are conducted with more and more speed, no ceremony, and little concern for the feelings of the families of the deceased.
The inhabitants passively endure their increasing feelings of exile and separation.
Despondent, they waste away emotionally as well as physically.
In September and October, the town remains at the mercy of the plague.
Rieux hears from the sanatorium that his wife's condition is worsening.
He also hardens his heart regarding the plague victims so that he can continue to do his work.
Cottard, on the other hand, seems to flourish during the plague because it gives him a sense of being connected to others, since everybody faces the same danger.
Cottard and Tarrou attend a performance of Gluck's opera Orpheus and Eurydice, but the actor portraying Orpheus collapses with plague symptoms during the performance.
After extended negotiations with guards, Rambert finally has a chance to escape, but he decides to stay, saying that he would feel ashamed of himself if he left.
Towards the end of October, Castel's new antiplague serum is tried for the first time, but it cannot save the life of Othon's young son, who suffers greatly, as Paneloux, Rieux, and Tarrou tend to his bedside in horror.
Paneloux, who has joined the group of volunteers fighting the plague, gives a second sermon.
He addresses the problem of an innocent child's suffering and says it is a test of a Christian's faith since it requires him either to deny everything or believe everything.
He urges the congregation not to give up the struggle but to do everything possible to fight the plague.
A few days after the sermon, Paneloux is taken ill.
His symptoms do not conform to those of the plague, but the disease still proves fatal.
Tarrou and Rambert visit one of the isolation camps, where they meet Othon.
When Othon's period of quarantine ends, he chooses to stay in the camp as a volunteer because this will make him feel less separated from his dead son.
Tarrou tells Rieux the story of his life and, to take their mind off the epidemic, the two men go swimming together in the sea.
Grand catches the plague and instructs Rieux to burn all his papers.
However, Grand makes an unexpected recovery, and deaths from the plague start to decline.
By late January the plague is in full retreat, and the townspeople begin to celebrate the imminent opening of the town gates.
Othon, however, does not escape death from the disease.
Cottard is distressed by the ending of the epidemic from which he has profited by shady dealings.
Two government employees approach him, and he flees.
Despite the epidemic's ending, Tarrou contracts the plague and dies after a heroic struggle.
Rieux is later informed via telegram that his wife has also died.
In February, the town gates open and people are reunited with their loved ones from other cities.
Rambert is reunited with his wife.
Cottard goes mad and shoots at people from his home.
He is arrested.
Grand begins working on his novel again.
The narrator of the chronicle reveals his identity and states and that he tried to present an objective view of the events.
The narrator reflects on the epidemic and reaches the conclusion that there is more to admire than to despise in humans.
<EOS>
Among others, John Heath has observed, "The unalterable kernel of the tale was a hunter's transformation into a deer and his death in the jaws of his hunting dogs.
But authors were free to suggest different motives for his death".
In the version that was offered by the Hellenistic poet Callimachus, which has become the standard setting, Artemis was bathing in the woods when the hunter Actaeon stumbled across her, thus seeing her naked.
He stopped and stared, amazed at her ravishing beauty.
Once seen, Artemis got revenge on Actaeon: she forbade him speech — if he tried to speak, he would be changed into a stag — for the unlucky profanation of her virginity's mystery.
Upon hearing the call of his hunting party, he cried out to them and immediately transformed.
At this he fled deep into the woods, and doing so he came upon a pond and, seeing his reflection, groaned.
His own hounds then turned upon him and pursued him, not recognizing him.
In an endeavour to save himself, he raised his eyes (and would have raised his arms, had he had them) toward Mount Olympus.
The gods did not heed his plea, and he was torn to pieces.
An element of the earlier myth made Actaeon the familiar hunting companion of Artemis, no stranger.
In an embroidered extension of the myth, the hounds were so upset with their master's death, that Chiron made a statue so lifelike that the hounds thought it was Actaeon.
There are various other versions of his transgression: The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women and pseudo-Apollodoran Bibliotheke state that his offense was that he was a rival of Zeus for Semele, his mother's sister, whereas in Euripides' Bacchae he has boasted that he is a better hunter than Artemis:  Further materials, including fragments that belong with the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women and at least four Attic tragedies, including a Toxotides of Aeschylus, have been lost.
Diodorus Siculus (481.
4), in a variant of Actaeon's hubris that has been largely ignored, has it that Actaeon wanted to marry Artemis.
Other authors say the hounds were Artemis' own; some lost elaborations of the myth seem to have given them all names and narrated their wanderings after his loss.
According to the Latin version of the story told by the Roman Ovid having accidentally seen Diana (Artemis) on Mount Cithaeron while she was bathing, he was changed by her into a stag, and pursued and killed by his fifty hounds.
This version also appears in Callimachus' Fifth Hymn, as a mythical parallel to the blinding of Tiresias after he sees Athena bathing.
The literary testimony of Actaeon's myth is largely lost, but Lamar Ronald Lacy, deconstructing the myth elements in what survives and supplementing it by iconographic evidence in late vase-painting, made a plausible reconstruction of an ancient Actaeon myth that Greek poets may have inherited and subjected to expansion and dismemberment.
His reconstruction opposes a too-pat consensus that has an archaic Actaeon aspiring to Semele, a classical Actaeon boasting of his hunting prowess and a Hellenistic Actaeon glimpsing Artemis' bath.
Lacy identifies the site of Actaeon's transgression as a spring sacred to Artemis at Plataea where Actaeon was a hero archegetes ("hero-founder") The righteous hunter, the companion of Artemis, seeing her bathing naked at the spring, was moved to try to make himself her consort, as Diodorus Siculus noted, and was punished, in part for transgressing the hunter's "ritually enforced deference to Artemis" (Lacy 1990:42).
<EOS>
An expedition from Straumli Realm, an ambitious young human civilization in the high Beyond, investigates a five-billion-year-old data archive in the low Transcend that offers the possibility of unimaginable riches.
The expedition's facility, High Lab, is gradually compromised by a dormant superintelligence within the archive later known as the Blight.
However, shortly before the Blight's final "flowering", two self-aware entities created similarly to the Blight plot to aid the humans before the Blight can escape.
Recognizing the danger of what they have awakened, the researchers at High Lab attempt to flee in two ships, one carrying all the adults and the second carrying all the children in "coldsleep boxes".
Suspicious, the Blight discovers that the first ships contains a data storage device in its cargo manifest; assuming it contains information that could harm it, the Blight destroys the ship.
The second ship escapes.
The Blight assumes that it is no threat, but later realizes that it is actually carrying away a "countermeasure" against it.
The ship lands on a distant planet with a medieval-level civilization of dog-like creatures, dubbed "Tines", who live in packs as group minds.
Upon landing, however, the two surviving adults are ambushed and killed by Tine fanatics known as Flenserists, in whose realm they have landed.
The Flenserists capture a young boy named Jefri Olsndot and his wounded sister, Johanna.
While Jefri is taken deeper into Flenserist territory, Johanna is rescued by Tine pilgrims who witnessed the ambush and deliver her to a neighboring kingdom ruled by a Tine named Woodcarver.
The Flenserists tell Jefri that Johanna had been killed by Woodcarver and exploit him in order to develop advanced technology (such as cannon and radio communication), while Johanna and the knowledge stored in her "dataset" device help Woodcarver rapidly develop in turn.
A distress signal from the sleeper ship eventually reaches "Relay", a major node in the galactic communications network.
A benign transcendent entity named "Old One" contacts Relay, seeking information about the Blight and the humans who released it, and reconstitutes a human man named Pham Nuwen from an old wreck to act as its agent, using his doubt of his own memory's veracity to bend him to the Old One's will.
Ravna Bergsndot, the only human Relay employee, traces the sleeper ship's signal to the Tines world and persuades her employer to investigate what the human ship took from High Lab, contracting the merchant vessel Out of Band II, owned by two sentient plant Skroderiders, Blueshell and Greenstalk, to transport them.
Before the mission is launched, the Blight attacks Relay and concurrently kills Old One.
As Old One dies, it downloads what information it can into Pham to defeat the Blight, and Pham and Ravna barely escape Relay's destruction in the Out of Band II.
The Blight expands, taking over races and "rewriting" their people to become its agents, murdering several other Powers, and seizing other archives in the Beyond, looking for what was taken.
It finally realizes where the danger truly lies and sends a hastily assembled fleet in pursuit of the Out of Band II.
The humans arrive at the Tines homeworld and ally with Woodcarver to defeat the Flenserists.
Pham initiates Countermeasure, which extends the Slow Zone by thousands of light years, enveloping the Blight at the cost of wrecking thousands of uninvolved civilizations and causing trillions of deaths.
The humans are stranded on the Tines world, now in the depths of the "Slow Zone".
Activating the countermeasure costs Pham his life, but just before Pham dies, he realizes that, although his body is a reconstruction, his memories are real.
Vinge expands on Pham's backstory in A Deepness in the Sky.
<EOS>
The book tells the story of Paul Bäumer, a German soldier who—urged on by his school teacher—joins the German army shortly after the start of World War His class was "scattered over the platoons amongst Frisian fishermen, peasants, and labourers".
Bäumer arrives at the Western Front with his friends and schoolmates (Leer, Müller, Kropp and a number of other characters).
There they meet Stanislaus Katczinsky, an older soldier, nicknamed Kat, who becomes Paul's mentor.
While fighting at the front, Bäumer and his comrades have to engage in frequent battles and endure the treacherous and filthy conditions of trench warfare.
At the very beginning of the book, Erich Maria Remarque says "This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it.
It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped (its) shells, were destroyed by the war".
The book does not focus on heroic stories of bravery, but rather gives a view of the conditions in which the soldiers find themselves.
The monotony between battles, the constant threat of artillery fire and bombardments, the struggle to find food, the lack of training of young recruits (meaning lower chances of survival), and the overarching role of random chance in the lives and deaths of the soldiers are described in detail.
The battles fought here have no names and seem to have little overall significance, except for the impending possibility of injury or death for Bäumer and his comrades.
Only pitifully small pieces of land are gained, about the size of a football field, which are often lost again later.
Remarque often refers to the living soldiers as old and dead, emotionally drained and shaken.
"We are not youth any longer.
We don't want to take the world by storm.
We are fleeing from ourselves, from our life.
We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces".
Paul's visit on leave to his home highlights the cost of the war on his psyche.
The town has not changed since he went off to war; however, he finds that he does "not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world".
He feels disconnected from most of the townspeople.
His father asks him "stupid and distressing" questions about his war experiences, not understanding "that a man cannot talk of such things".
An old schoolmaster lectures him about strategy and advancing to Paris, while insisting that Paul and his friends know only their "own little sector" of the war but nothing of the big picture.
Indeed, the only person he remains connected to is his dying mother, with whom he shares a tender, yet restrained relationship.
The night before he is to return from leave, he stays up with her, exchanging small expressions of love and concern for each other.
He thinks to himself, "Ah.
Mother, Mother.
How can it be that I must part from you.
Here I sit and there you are lying; we have so much to say, and we shall never say it".
In the end, he concludes that he "ought never to have come [home] on leave".
Paul feels glad to be reunited with his comrades.
Soon after, he volunteers to go on a patrol and kills a man for the first time in hand-to-hand combat.
He watches the man die, in pain for hours.
He feels remorse and asks forgiveness from the man's corpse.
He is devastated and later confesses to Kat and Albert, who try to comfort him and reassure him that it is only part of the war.
They are then sent on what Paul calls a "good job".
They must guard a supply depot in a village that was evacuated due to being shelled too heavily.
During this time, the men are able to adequately feed themselves, unlike the near-starvation conditions in the German trenches.
In addition, the men enjoy themselves while living off the spoils from the village and officers' luxuries from the supply depot (such as fine cigars).
While evacuating the villagers (enemy civilians), Paul and Albert are taken by surprise by artillery fired at the civilian convoy and wounded by a shell.
On the train back home, Albert takes a turn for the worse and cannot complete the journey, instead being sent off the train to recuperate in a Catholic hospital.
Paul uses a combination of bartering and manipulation to stay by Albert's side.
Albert eventually has his leg amputated, while Paul is deemed fit for service and returned to the front.
By now, the war is nearing its end and the German Army is retreating.
In despair, Paul watches as his friends fall one by one.
It is the death of Kat that eventually makes Paul careless about living.
In the final chapter, he comments that peace is coming soon, but he does not see the future as bright and shining with hope.
Paul feels that he has no aims or goals left in life and that their generation will be different and misunderstood.
When he dies at the end of the novel, the situation report from the frontline states, "All is Quiet on the Western Front".
<EOS>
The story is set in an imaginary American town that has gone bankrupt.
(Its former major industry was the production of an unidentified product that never wore out.
Everyone has one now, and no one needs a replacement) The only place in town doing good business is the local sanitarium, known as “The Cookie Jar,” whose inmates look much healthier than the disgruntled townspeople.
("I'm Like the Bluebird") All the money is in the hands of Cora Hoover Hooper, the stylish, ruthless mayoress and her cronies - Comptroller Schub, Treasurer Cooley, and Police Chief Magruder.
Cora appears carried in a litter by her backup singers, and admits that she can accept anything except unpopularity (“Me and My Town”).
The scheming Comptroller Schub, tells her that he has a plan to save her administration, and the town, promising “It's highly unethical.
” He tells her to meet him at the rock on the edge of town.
At the rock, a local mother, mrs Schroeder, tries to tell her child, Baby Joan, to come down from the rock, when Baby Joan licks it - and a spring of water begins flowing from it.
The town instantly proclaims a miracle, and Cora and her council eagerly anticipate tourist dollars as they boast of the water's curative powers.
("Miracle Song") It is soon revealed to Cora that the miracle is a fake, controlled by a pump inside the rock.
The only person in town who doubts the miracle is Fay Apple, an eternally skeptical young nurse from the Cookie Jar who refuses to believe in miracles.
She appears at the rock with all forty-nine of the inmates, or “Cookies” in tow, intending to let them take some of the water.
Schub realizes that if they drink the water and do not change, people will discover the fake.
As he tries to stop Fay, the inmates mingle with the townspeople, until no one can guess who is who.
Fay disappears, and hiding from the police, admits that she hopes for one miracle - for a hero who can come and deliver the town from the madness (“There Won't Be Trumpets”).
Cora arrives on the scene with the Cookie Jar's manager, dr Detmold, but he says that Fay has taken the records to identify the inmates.
He tells Cora that he is expecting a new assistant who might help them.
At that moment a mysterious stranger, Bowden Hapgood, arrives asking for directions to the Cookie Jar.
He is instantly taken for the new assistant.
Asked to identify the missing Cookies, Hapgood begins questioning random people and sorting them into two groups, group A, and group one, but refuses to divulge which group is which.
The town council becomes suspicious of this and try to force the truth out, but Hapgood questions them until they begin to doubt their own sanity.
Cora is too caught up with his logic to care.
(“Simple”) As the extended musical sequence ends, the lights black out except for a spotlight on Hapgood, who announces to the audience, “You are all mad.
” Seconds later, the stage lights are restored.
The stage set has vanished, and the cast is revealed in theater seats, holding programs, applauding the audience, as the act ends.
As act two opens, the two groups are now in bitter rivalry over who is the normal group (“A-1 March”) Another stranger, a French woman in a feathered coat appears.
It is really Fay Apple in disguise.
She introduces herself as the Lady from Lourdes, a professional Miracle Inspector, come to investigate the miracle.
As Schub runs off to warn Cora, Fay seeks out Hapgood in his hotel, and the two seduce each other in the style of a French romantic film.
(“Come Play Wiz Me”) Fay tries to get Hapgood's help in exposing the miracle.
Hapgood, however, sees through her disguise and wants to question her first.
Fay refuses to take her wig off, and confesses to him that this disguise, left over from a college play, is the only way she can break out of her rigid and cynical persona.
She begins to hope, however, that Hapgood may be the one who can help her learn to be free.
(“Anyone Can Whistle”) Meanwhile, the two groups continue to march, and Cora, trying to give a speech, realizes that Hapgood has stolen her limelight.
(“A Parade in Town”) She and Schub plan an emergency meeting at her house.
Back at the hotel, Hapgood comes up with an idea, telling Fay to destroy the inmates' records.
That way Fay can be free of them and they can stop pretending.
When Fay is reluctant, Hapgood produces a record of his own - he is her fiftieth Cookie.
He is a practicing idealist who, after years of attempted heroism, is tired of crusading and has come to the Cookie Jar to retire.
Inspired by his record, Fay begins to tear the records up.
As she does, the Cookies appear and begin to dance (“Everybody Says Don't”).
Act three begins with Cora at her house with her council.
Schub has put the miracle on hiatus, but announces that they can easily turn the town against Hapgood by blaming him for it.
The group celebrates their alliance.
(“I've Got You to Lean On”) A mob quickly forms outside the hotel, and Hapgood and Fay, still disguised, take refuge under the rock.
Discovering the fraud, Cora and the council confront them.
At that moment, Cora receives a telegram from the governor warning that if the quota of forty-nine cookies is not filled, she will be impeached.
Schub tells her that since Hapgood never said who is normal or not, they can arrest anyone at random until the quota is filled.
Fay tries to get Hapgood to expose the miracle, but he warns her no one will believe it is a fake, because it works as a miracle should.
Fay wants his help stopping the Mayoress, but he refuses, since he is through with crusading.
Although she knows she still isn't out of her shell, Fay angrily swears to go it alone.
(“See What it Gets You”) As Cora and the police force begin rounding up Cookies, Fay tries to get the key away from the guards in an extended ballet sequence.
(“The Cookie Chase”) As it ends, Fay is captured, and dr Detmold suddenly recognizes her.
Fay tells the townspeople about the fake miracle, but the town refuses to believe her.
Detmold tells Cora that even without the records, Fay can identify the inmates from memory.
Cora warns that she will arrest forty-nine people, normal or not, and Fay, helplessly, identifies all the Cookies, except Hapgood.
She tells him the world needs people like him, and Hapgood can't turn himself in.
He asks Fay to come with him, but she still can't bring herself to break free.
Parting ways, they reflect on what they briefly shared.
(“With So Little to be Sure Of”) Word comes of a new miracle, two towns over, of a statue with a warm heart.
Soon the town is all but deserted, and Cora is again upstaged.
Again, Schub has the answer - since the Cookie Jar is still successful, they can turn the entire town into one big Cookie Jar.
Cora realizes she and Schub are meant for each other, and they dance off together.
As Fay resumes work, Detmold's real new assistant arrives, and Fay is horrified to realize that she is even more practical, rigid and disbelieving than Fay herself, and the new nurse marches the Cookies off to the next town to disprove the new miracle.
Horrified at seeing what she might become, Fay returns to the rock calling for Hapgood.
When he doesn't answer, she tries to whistle - and succeeds in blowing a shrill, ugly whistle.
Hapgood appears again, saying 'That's good enough for me.
' As they embrace, the water begins flowing from the rock - a true miracle this time.
(Finale).
<EOS>
In ancient Rome, some neighbors live in three adjacent houses.
In the center is the house of Senex, who lives there with wife Domina, son Hero, and several slaves, including head slave Hysterium and the musical's main character Pseudolus.
A slave belonging to Hero, Pseudolus wishes to buy, win, or steal his freedom.
One of the neighboring houses is owned by Marcus Lycus, who is a buyer and seller of beautiful women; the other belongs to the ancient Erronius, who is abroad searching for his long-lost children (stolen in infancy by pirates).
One day, Senex and Domina go on a trip and leave Pseudolus in charge of Hero.
Hero confides in Pseudolus that he is in love with the lovely Philia, one of the courtesans in the House of Lycus (albeit still a virgin).
Pseudolus promises to help him win Philia's love in exchange for his own freedom.
Unfortunately (as the two find out when they pay a visit on Lycus), Philia has been sold to the renowned warrior Miles Gloriosus, who is expected to claim her very soon.
Pseudolus, an excellent liar, uses Philia's cheery disposition to convince Lycus that she has picked up a plague from Crete, which causes its victims to smile endlessly in its terminal stages.
By offering to isolate her in Senex's house, he is able to give Philia and Hero some time alone together, and the two fall in love.
But Philia insists that, even though she is in love with Hero, she must honor her contract with the Captain, for "that is the way of a courtesan".
To appease her, he tells her to wait ("that's what virgins do best, isn't it.
") inside, and that he will have the captain knock three times when he arrives.
Pseudolus comes up with a plan to slip Philia a sleeping potion that will render her unconscious.
He will then tell Lycus that she has died of the Cretan plague, and will offer to remove the body.
Hero will come along, and they will stow away on a ship headed for Greece.
Satisfied with his plan, Pseudolus steals Hysterium's book of potions and has Hero read him the recipe for the sleeping potion; the only ingredient he lacks is "mare's sweat", and Pseudolus goes off in search of some.
Unexpectedly, Senex returns home early from his trip, and knocks three times on his own door.
Philia comes out of the house, and, thinking that Senex is the Captain, offers herself up to him.
Surprised but game, Senex instructs Philia to wait in the house for him, and she does.
Hysterium arrives to this confusion, and tells Senex that Philia is the new maid that he has hired.
Pseudolus returns, having procured the necessary mare's sweat; seeing that Senex has returned unexpectedly and grasping the need to keep him out of the way, Pseudolus discreetly sprinkles some of the horse-sweat onto him, then suggests that the road trip has left Senex in dire need of a bath.
Taking the bait, Senex instructs Hysterium to draw him a bath in the long-abandoned house of Erronius.
But while this is happening, Erronius returns home, finally having given up the search for his long-lost children.
Hysterium, desperate to keep him out of the house where his master is bathing, tells the old man that his house has become haunted – a story seemingly confirmed by the sound of Senex singing in his bath.
Erronius immediately determines to have a soothsayer come and banish the spirit from his house, and Pseudolus obligingly poses as one, telling Erronius that, in order to banish the spirit, he must travel seven times around the seven hills of Rome (thus keeping the old man occupied and out of the way for quite a while).
When Miles Gloriosus arrives to claim his courtesan-bride, Pseudolus hides Philia on the roof of Senex's house; told that she has "escaped," Lycus is terrified to face the Captain's wrath.
Pseudolus offers to impersonate Lycus and talk his way out of the mess but, his ingenuity flagging, he ends up merely telling the Captain that Philia has disappeared, and that he, "Lycus", will search for her.
Displeased and suspicious, Miles insists that his soldiers accompany Pseudolus, but the wily slave loses them in Rome's winding streets.
Complicating matters further, Domina returns from her trip early, suspicious that her husband Senex is "up to something low".
She disguises herself in virginal white robes and a veil (much like Philia's) to try to catch Senex being unfaithful.
Pseudolus convinces Hysterium to help him by dressing in drag and pretending to be Philia, "dead" from the plague.
Unfortunately, it turns out that Miles Gloriosus has just returned from Crete, where there is of course no actual plague.
With the ruse thus revealed, the main characters run for their lives, resulting in a madcap chase across the stage with both Miles and Senex pursuing all three "Philia"s (Domina, Hysterium, and the actual Philia – all wearing identical white robes and veils).
Meanwhile, the courtesans from the house of Marcus Lycus &ndash; who had been recruited as mourners at "Philia"'s ersatz funeral &ndash; have escaped, and Lycus sends his eunuchs out to bring them all back, adding to the general pandemonium.
Finally, the Captain's troops are able to round everyone up.
His plot thoroughly unraveled, Pseudolus appears to be in deep trouble – but Erronius, completing his third circuit of the Roman hills, shows up fortuitously to discover that Miles Gloriosus and Philia are wearing matching rings which mark them as his long-lost children.
Philia's betrothal to the Captain is obviously nullified by the unexpected revelation that he's her brother.
Philia weds Hero; Pseudolus gets his freedom and the lovely courtesan Gymnasia; Gloriosus receives twin courtesans to replace Philia; and Erronius is reunited with his children.
A happy ending prevails for all – except for poor Senex, stuck with his shrewish wife Domina.
<EOS>
Being transported to the Middle Ages, Ash Williams is captured by Lord Arthur's men, who suspect him an agent for Duke Henry, with whom Arthur is at war.
He is enslaved along with the captured Henry, his gun and chainsaw confiscated, and is taken to a castle.
Ash is thrown in a pit where he kills a Deadite and regains his weapons from Arthur's Wise Man.
After demanding Henry and his men be set free, as he knew it was a witch hunt, and killing a Deadite publicly, Ash is celebrated as a hero.
He grows attracted to Sheila, the sister of one of Arthur's fallen knights.
According to the Wise Man, the only way Ash can return to his time is through the magical Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.
Ash then starts his search for the Necronomicon.
As he enters a haunted forest, an unseen force pursues Ash into a windmill, crashing into a mirror.
Small reflections of Ash in the mirror shards come to life, with one becoming a life-sized clone, after which Ash kills and buries it.
When he arrives at the Necronomicons location, he finds three books instead of one and determines which is the actual book.
Attempting to say the phrase that will allow him to remove the book safely&nbsp;– "Klaatu barada nikto", he forgets and tries to unsuccessfully mumble and cough "nikto".
He then grabs it and rushes back, while the dead and his evil copy resurrect, uniting into the Army of Darkness.
Upon return, Ash demands to be returned to his own time.
However, Sheila is captured by a Flying Deadite, and later transformed into one.
Ash becomes determined to lead the humans against the Army and the people reluctantly agree.
Using knowledge from textbooks in his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, and enlisting the help of Duke Henry, Ash successfully leads the medieval soldiers to victory over the Deadites and Evil Ash, saving Sheila and bringing peace between Arthur and Henry.
The Wise Men return him to the present by giving him a potion after reciting the phrase.
Back in the present, Ash recounts his story to a fellow employee at his job, working in "S-Mart".
As he talks to a girl who is interested in his story, a surviving Deadite, allowed to come to the present due to Ash again forgetting the last word, attacks the customers.
Ash kills it using a Winchester rifle from the Sporting Goods department, finally ending the threat.
The original ending, preferred by Raimi and Campbell themselves, is one in which Ash is shown being placed in a cave and given a potion which will put him to sleep for centuries.
Echoing his experience in botching the recovery of the Necronomicon, Ash mishandles the specific instructions for the potion, accidentally taking an extra dose.
Ash awakes and arises from his cave to find himself in a post-apocalyptic future, in which the city of London is in ruins.
The original ending was restored to the film for the UK VHS release, which also had the S-Mart ending put in as a post-credit extra.
This scene has been restored on the Army of Darkness: Director's Cut Region 3 DVD released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the "director's cut bootleg edition" DVD and the double-disc DVD, which also featured the S-Mart ending of the film.
The S-Mart ending was shot for the American release; the studio wanted to end the film on a high note for the character of Ash.
Raimi believed Ash to be more of a fool, which is why he liked to torture him so much in his films; Ash being a goof and drinking too much potion was in his character.
<EOS>
The film follows two juxtaposed families.
One is the Northern Stonemans: abolitionistS.
Representative Austin Stoneman (based on the Reconstruction-era Representative Thaddeus Stevens), his two sons, and his daughter Elsie.
The other is the Southern Camerons: dr Cameron, his wife, their two daughters, and three sons.
The Stoneman brothers visit the Cameron estate in South Carolina, representing the Old South.
Phil, the elder Stoneman son, falls in love with Margaret Cameron, while young Ben Cameron idolizes a picture of Elsie Stoneman.
When the Civil War begins, these young men enlist in their respective armies.
Black militiamen under a white leader ransack the Cameron house; the Cameron women are rescued by Confederate soldiers who rout the militia.
Meanwhile, the younger Stoneman and two of the Cameron brothers are killed in the war.
Ben Cameron leads a heroic charge at the Siege of Petersburg, earning the nickname of "the Little Colonel".
But he is also wounded and captured, and is taken to a Union hospital in Washington,C.
There he meets Elsie Stoneman, whose picture he has been carrying; she is working there as a nurse.
While recovering, Cameron is told that he will be hanged for being a Confederate guerrilla.
Elsie takes Cameron's mother, who had traveled to Washington to tend her son, to see Abraham Lincoln, and mrs Cameron persuades the President to pardon Ben.
When Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theater, his conciliatory postwar policy expires with him.
In the wake of the president's death, Austin Stoneman and his fellow Radical Republicans are determined to punish the South, employing harsh measures that Griffith depicts as having been typical of the Reconstruction era.
Stoneman and his protégé Silas Lynch, a mulatto exhibiting psychopathic characteristics, travel to South Carolina to observe the implementation of Reconstruction policies firsthand.
Black occupation soldiers are seen parading through the streets and pushing white residents aside on the sidewalks.
During the election, in which Lynch is elected lieutenant governor, whites are seen being prevented from voting while blacks are observed stuffing the ballot boxes.
The newly elected, mostly black members of the South Carolina legislature are shown at their desks displaying inappropriate behavior, such as one member taking off his shoe and putting his feet up on his desk, and others drinking liquor and feasting on stereotypically African American fare such as fried chicken.
The legislature passes laws requiring white civilians to salute black soldiers and allowing mixed-race marriages.
Meanwhile, inspired by observing white children pretending to be ghosts to scare black children, Ben fights back by forming the Ku Klux Klan.
As a result, Elsie, out of loyalty to her father, breaks off her relationship with Ben.
Later, Flora Cameron goes off alone into the woods to fetch water and is followed by Gus, a freedman and soldier who is now a captain.
He confronts Flora and tells her that he desires to get married.
Frightened, she flees into the forest, pursued by Gus.
Trapped on a precipice, Flora warns Gus she will jump if he comes any closer.
When he does, she leaps to her death.
Having run through the forest looking for her, Ben has seen her jump; he holds her as she dies, then carries her body back to the Cameron home.
In response, the Klan hunts down Gus, tries him, finds him guilty, lynches him, and delivers his corpse to lt lt Lynch's doorstep.
Lynch then orders a crackdown on the Klan.
dr Cameron, Ben's father, is arrested for possessing Ben's Klan regalia, now considered a crime punishable by death.
His faithful black servants rescue him with help from Phil Stoneman.
Together they flee, along with Margaret Cameron.
When their wagon breaks down, they make their way through the woods to a small hut that is home to two sympathetic former Union soldiers who agree to hide them.
As an intertitle states, "The former enemies of North and South are united again in defense of their Aryan birthright".
Congressman Stoneman leaves to avoid being connected with lt lt Lynch's crackdown.
Elsie, learning of dr Cameron's arrest, goes to Lynch to plead for his release.
Lynch, who had been lusting after Elsie, tries to force her to marry him, which causes her to faint.
Stoneman returns, causing Elsie to be placed in another room.
At first, Stoneman is happy when Lynch tells him he wants to marry a white woman, but is then angered when Lynch tells him that it is Stoneman's daughter.
Undercover Klansmen spies discover Elsie's plight when she breaks a window and cries out for help, and the Klansmen go to get help.
Elsie falls unconscious again, and revives while gagged and being bound.
The Klan, gathered together at full strength and with Ben leading them, rides in to gain control of the town.
When news about Elsie reaches Ben, he and others go to her rescue.
Elsie frees her mouth and screams for help.
Lynch is captured.
Victorious, the Klansmen celebrate in the streets.
Meanwhile, Lynch's militia surrounds and attacks the hut where the Camerons are hiding.
The Klansmen, with Ben at their head, race in to save them just in time.
The next election day, blacks find a line of mounted and armed Klansmen just outside their homes, and are intimidated into not voting.
The film concludes with a double wedding as Margaret Cameron marries Phil Stoneman and Elsie Stoneman marries Ben Cameron.
The masses are shown oppressed by a giant warlike figure who gradually fades away.
The scene shifts to another group finding peace under the image of Jesus Christ.
The penultimate title rhetorically asks: "Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more.
But instead — the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace".
<EOS>
In Los Angeles in November 2019, ex-police officer Rick Deckard is detained by officer Gaff and brought to his former supervisor, Bryant.
Deckard, whose job as a "Blade Runner" was to track down bioengineered beings known as replicants and "retire" (a euphemism for killing) them, is informed that four have come to Earth illegally.
As Tyrell Corporation Nexus-6 models, they have only a four-year lifespan and may have come to Earth to try to extend their lives.
Deckard watches a video of a Blade Runner named Holden administering the "Voight-Kampff" test designed to distinguish replicants from humans based on their emotional response to questions.
The test subject, Leon, shoots Holden after Holden asks about Leon's mother.
Bryant wants Deckard to retire Leon and the other three replicants: Roy Batty, Zhora, and Pris.
Deckard initially refuses, but after Bryant ambiguously threatens him, he reluctantly agrees.
Deckard begins his investigation at the Tyrell Corporation to ensure that the test works on Nexus-6 models.
While there, he discovers that dr Eldon Tyrell's assistant Rachael is an experimental replicant who believes herself to be human.
Rachael has been given false memories to provide an "emotional cushion".
As a result, a more extensive test is required to determine whether she is a replicant.
Events are then set into motion that pit Deckard's search for the replicants against their search for Tyrell to force him to extend their lives.
Roy and Leon investigate a replicant eye-manufacturing laboratory and learn of Sebastian, a gifted genetic designer who works closely with Tyrell.
Rachael visits Deckard at his apartment to prove her humanity by showing him a family photo, but after Deckard reveals that her memories are implants from Tyrell's niece, she leaves his apartment in tears.
Meanwhile, Pris locates Sebastian and manipulates him to gain his trust.
While searching Leon's hotel room, Deckard finds a photo of Zhora and a synthetic snake scale that leads him to a strip club where Zhora works.
Deckard kills Zhora and shortly after is told by Bryant to also retire Rachael, who has disappeared from the Tyrell Corporation.
After Deckard spots Rachael in a crowd, he is attacked by Leon, but Rachael kills Leon using Deckard's dropped pistol.
The two return to Deckard's apartment, and during an intimate discussion, he promises not to hunt her; as she abruptly tries to leave, Deckard physically restrains her, forcing her to kiss him.
Arriving at Sebastian's apartment, Roy tells Pris the others are dead.
Sympathetic to their plight, Sebastian reveals that because of "Methuselah Syndrome", a genetic premature aging disorder, his life will also be cut short.
Sebastian and Roy gain entrance into Tyrell's secure penthouse, where Roy demands more life from his maker.
Tyrell tells him that it is impossible.
Roy confesses that he has done "questionable things" which Tyrell dismisses, praising Roy's advanced design and accomplishments in his short life.
Roy kisses Tyrell, then kills him.
Sebastian runs for the elevator followed by Roy, who then rides the elevator down alone.
Though not shown, it is implied by Bryant via police radio that Roy also kills Sebastian.
Upon entering Sebastian's apartment, Deckard is ambushed by Pris, but he manages to kill her just as Roy returns.
As Roy starts to die, he chases Deckard through the building, ending up on the roof.
Deckard tries to jump to an adjacent roof, but misses and is left hanging precariously between buildings.
Roy makes the jump with ease, and as Deckard's grip loosens, Roy hoists him onto the roof, saving him.
As Roy's life runs out, he delivers a monologue about how his memories "will be lost in time, like tears in rain"; Roy dies in front of Deckard, who watches silently.
Gaff arrives and shouts across to Deckard, "It's too bad she won't live, but then again, who does.
" Deckard returns to his apartment and finds the door ajar, but Rachael is safe, asleep in his bed.
As they leave, Deckard notices a small tin-foil origami unicorn on the floor, a familiar calling card that brings back to him Gaff's final words.
Deckard and Rachael quickly leave the apartment block.
<EOS>
In the American Old West of 1874, construction on a new railroad will soon be going through Rock Ridge, a frontier town inhabited exclusively by white people with the surname Johnson.
The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) wants to force Rock Ridge's residents to abandon their town, thereby lowering land prices.
After he sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky assistant Taggart (Slim Pickens), to shoot the sheriff and trash the town, the townspeople demand that Governor William Le Petomane (Mel Brooks) appoint a new sheriff to protect them.
Lamarr persuades the dim-witted Le Petomane to appoint Bart (Cleavon Little), a black railroad worker who was about to be hanged.
A black sheriff, he reasons, will offend the townspeople, create chaos, and leave the town at his mercy.
With his quick wits and the assistance of recovering alcoholic gunslinger Jim, the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), Bart works to overcome the townspeople's hostile reception.
He subdues Mongo (Alex Karras), an immensely strong, dim-witted, but philosophical henchman sent to kill him, and then beats German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) at her own game.
Lamarr, furious that his schemes have backfired, hatches a larger plan involving a recruited army of thugs, including common criminals, Ku Klux Klansmen, and Nazi soldiers.
Three miles east of Rock Ridge, Bart introduces the white townspeople to the black and Chinese railroad workers—who have agreed to help in exchange for acceptance by the community—and explains his plan to defeat Lamarr's army.
They labor all night to build a perfect replica of their town, as a diversion; but with no people in it, Bart realizes it won't fool the villains.
While the townspeople construct replicas of themselves, Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "William Le Pétomane Memorial Thruway", forcing the raiding party to turn back for "a shitload of dimes" to pay the toll.
Once through the tollbooth, the raiders attack the fake town populated with dummies, which are boobytrapped with dynamite bombs.
After Jim detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, the Rock Ridgers storm the villains.
The resulting brawl between townsfolk, railroad workers, and Lamarr's thugs breaks the fourth wall—literally—spilling onto a neighboring set where director Buddy Bizarre (Dom DeLuise) is directing a Busby Berkeley-style top-hat-and-tails musical number; then into the studio commissary for a food fight; and then out of the Warner Bros.
film lot into the streets of Burbank.
Lamarr, realizing he has been beaten again, hails a taxi and orders the driver to "get me out of this picture".
He ducks into Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which is playing the premiere of Blazing Saddles.
As he settles into his seat, he sees Bart arriving on horseback outside the theatre.
Bart blocks Lamarr's escape, and then, in a spoof of a classic cinematic gunfight, shoots him in the groin.
Bart and Jim then go into Grauman's to watch the end of the film, in which Bart announces to the townspeople that he is moving on, for his work there is done (and he is bored).
Riding out of town, he finds Jim (finishing his popcorn), and invites him along to "nowhere special".
The two friends ride off into the sunset—in a chauffeured stretch limousine.
<EOS>
Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns to his logging home town of Lumberton, North Carolina, from Oak Lake College after his father suffers a near-fatal stroke.
While walking home from the hospital, he cuts through a vacant lot and discovers a severed ear.
Jeffrey takes the ear to police detective John Williams (George Dickerson) and becomes reacquainted with the detective's daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern).
She tells him details about the ear case and a suspicious woman, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), who may be connected to the case.
Increasingly curious, Jeffrey enters Dorothy's apartment by posing as an exterminator, and while Dorothy is distracted by a man dressed in a yellow suit at her door (whom Jeffrey later refers to as the Yellow Man), Jeffrey steals her spare key.
Jeffrey and Sandy attend Dorothy's nightclub act, in which she sings "Blue Velvet", and leave early so Jeffrey can sneak into her apartment to snoop.
He hurriedly hides in a closet when she returns home.
However, Dorothy, wielding a knife, discovers him and threatens to kill him.
Believing his curiosity is merely sexual and aroused by his voyeurism, Dorothy makes Jeffrey undress at knifepoint and begins to fellate him before their encounter is interrupted by a knock at the door.
Dorothy hides Jeffrey in the closet.
From there he witnesses the visitor, Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), inflict his bizarre sexual proclivities—which include inhaling an unidentified gas (possibly amyl nitrite), dry humping, and sadomasochism—upon Dorothy.
Frank is an extremely foul-mouthed, violent sociopath whose orgasmic climax is a fit of both pleasure and rage.
He continually refers to her as "Mommy" and to himself as both the "Daddy" and the "Baby", who "wants to fuck".
Frank has kidnapped Dorothy's husband and son to force her to perform sexual favors; to "Do it for van Gogh".
When Frank leaves, a sad and desperate Dorothy tries to seduce Jeffrey again and demands that he hit her, but when he refuses, she tells him to leave.
When Jeffrey moves to leave, she asks him to stay, though he leaves anyway.
Jeffrey relays his experience to Sandy, asking her why there are people like Frank.
Sandy in turn tells him of a wonderful dream she had about robins that she interprets as a sign of hope for humanity.
Jeffrey and Sandy find themselves attracted to each other, though Sandy has a boyfriend.
Jeffrey again visits Dorothy's apartment and she tells him that although she knows nothing about him, she has been yearning for him.
Jeffrey attends another of Dorothy's performances at the club, where she sings the same song.
At the club, Jeffrey spots Frank in the audience fondling a piece of blue velvet fabric he cut from Dorothy's robe.
Jeffrey follows Frank and spends the next few days spying on him.
Shortly afterwards, two men that Jeffrey calls the Well-Dressed Man and the Yellow Man exit an industrial building that Frank frequently visits.
Jeffrey concludes the men are criminal associates of Frank, and tells his new findings to Sandy.
The two briefly kiss, though she feels uncomfortable about going any further.
Jeffrey immediately visits Dorothy again, and the two have sex.
However, when he refuses to hit her, she pressures him, becoming more emotional.
In a blind rage he knocks her backwards and is instantly horrified, but Dorothy derives pleasure from it.
Afterwards, Frank catches Dorothy and Jeffrey together and forces them both to accompany him to the apartment of Ben (Dean Stockwell), his suave, effeminate partner in crime who is holding Dorothy's son.
Ben lip-syncs a performance of Roy Orbison's "In Dreams", sending Frank into maudlin sadness, then rage.
Frank takes Jeffrey to a lumber yard and when he molests Dorothy, Jeffrey stands up to Frank by punching him.
Frank's cronies drag Jeffrey out of the car and Frank kisses Jeffrey's face, intimidates him, and then savagely beats him to the overture of "In Dreams".
Jeffrey wakes the next day at the same place and walks home, overcome with guilt and despair.
He goes to the police station, where he notices that Sandy's father's partner is the Yellow Man—an officer named Lieutenant Detective Tom Gordon (Fred Pickler).
Later, at Sandy's home, her father is amazed by Jeffrey's story, but warns Jeffrey to stop his amateur sleuthing lest he endanger himself and the investigation.
Jeffrey and Sandy go to a dance together and profess their love, only to be confronted by Sandy's boyfriend.
A confrontation is averted when the group finds Dorothy—naked, battered, and distressed—on Jeffrey's front lawn.
Barely conscious, Dorothy reveals her intimacy with Jeffrey, causing Sandy to become upset and to slap Jeffrey, although she later forgives him.
Jeffrey insists on returning to Dorothy's apartment and tells Sandy to immediately send the police there, including her father.
At Dorothy's apartment, Jeffrey finds Dorothy's husband (Don Vallens), who is dead from a gunshot to the head and identifiable by his missing ear, as well as the Yellow Man (Gordon), who bears a gruesome head wound and appears to have suffered a crude lobotomy.
When Jeffrey tries to leave, he sees the Well-Dressed Man coming up the stairs and recognizes him as Frank in disguise.
Jeffrey talks to Detective Williams over the Yellow Man's police radio, but lies about his location inside the apartment.
Frank enters the apartment and brags about hearing Jeffrey's location over his own police radio.
While Frank searches for him in the wrong room, Jeffrey retrieves the Yellow Man's gun and hides in the same closet in which he hid during his first visit to the apartment.
Frank fires sporadically, knocking over the dead Yellow Man, who had still been standing up, and when he opens the closet door, Jeffrey fatally shoots him in the head.
Detective Williams, gun drawn, enters with Sandy a moment later.
Jeffrey and Sandy now go ahead with their relationship and note the unusual appearance of robins in their town.
A montage sequence ends the film, which shows Dorothy and her son reunited.
<EOS>
Beginning several months after the events in Blade Runner, Deckard has retired to an isolated shack outside the city, taking the replicant Rachael with him in a Tyrell transport container, which slows down the replicant aging process.
He is approached by a woman who explains she is Sarah Tyrell, niece of Eldon Tyrell, heiress to the entire Tyrell Corporation and the human template (templant) for the Rachael replicant.
She asks Deckard to hunt down the "missing" sixth replicant.
At the same time, the human template for Roy Batty hires Dave Holden, the blade runner attacked by Leon, to help him hunt down the man he believes is the sixth replicant - Deckard.
Deckard and Holden's investigations lead them to re-visit Sebastian, Bryant, and John Isidore (from the book Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep.
), learning more about the nature of the blade runners and the replicants.
When Deckard, Batty, and Holden finally clash, Batty's inhuman fighting prowess leads Holden to believe he has been duped all along and that Batty is the sixth replicant; he shoots him.
Deckard returns to Sarah with his suspicion: there is no sixth replicant.
Sarah, speaking via a remote camera, confesses that she created and maintained the rumor herself, to deliberately discredit and eventually destroy the Tyrell Corporation, after her uncle Eldon created Rachael based on her and then abandoned the real Sarah.
Sarah brings Rachael back to the Corporation building to meet with Deckard, and he escapes with her.
However, Holden - recovering from his injuries during the fight - later finds the truth: Rachael has been killed by Tyrell agents, and the "Rachael" who escaped with Deckard was actually Sarah.
She has completed her revenge by both destroying Tyrell, and taking back Rachael's place.
<EOS>
An omniscient (though possibly unreliable) narrator relates that in 1750s Ireland, the father of Redmond Barry is killed in a duel over a sale of some horses.
The widow, disdaining offers of marriage, devotes herself to her only son.
As a despondent young man, Barry becomes infatuated with his older cousin, Nora Brady.
Though she charms him during a card game, she later shows interest in a well-off British Army captain, John Quin, much to Barry's dismay.
Nora and her family plan to leverage their finances through marriage, while Barry holds Quin in contempt and escalates the situation until a fateful duel beside a river when Barry shoots Quin.
In the aftermath, Barry is urged to flee from incoming police and head through the countryside towards Dublin, but along the way he is robbed of purse, pistol, and horse by Captain Feeney, an infamous highwayman.
Dejected, Barry carries on to the next town, where he hears a promotional spiel to join the British Army, offering the chance at fame and glory (and a lifelong pension) in return for good service.
Barry enlists.
Some time after joining the regiment, Barry encounters Captain Grogan, a warm-hearted family friend.
Grogan informs him that Barry did not in fact kill Quin, his dueling pistol having only been loaded with tow.
The duel was staged by Nora's family to be rid of Barry so that their finances would be secured through a lucrative marriage.
Barry’s regiment is sent to Germany to fight in the Seven Years' War, where Captain Grogan is fatally wounded by the French in a skirmish at the Battle of Minden.
Fed up with the war, Barry deserts the army, stealing an officer courier's uniform, horse, and identification papers.
En route to neutral Holland he encounters the Prussian Captain Potzdorf, who, seeing through his disguise, offers him the choice of being turned back over to the British where he will be shot as a deserter, or enlisting in the Prussian Army.
Barry enlists in his second army and later receives a special commendation from Frederick the Great for saving Potzdorf's life in a battle.
Two years later, after the war ends in 1763, Barry is employed by Captain Potzdorf's uncle in the Prussian Ministry of Police to become the servant of the Chevalier de Balibari, an expirate Irishman and professional gambler.
The Prussians suspect he is a spy and send Barry as an undercover agent to verify this.
Barry reveals himself to the Chevalier right away and they become confederates at the card table, where Barry and his fine eyesight relay information to his partner.
After he and the Chevalier cheat the Prince of Tübingen at the card table, the Prince accuses the Chevalier (without proof) and refuses to pay his debt and demands satisfaction.
When Barry relays this to his Prussian handlers, they (still suspecting that the Chevalier is a spy) are wary of allowing another meeting between the Chevalier and the Prince.
So, the Prussians arrange for the Chevalier to be expelled from the country.
Barry conveys this plan to the Chevalier, who flees in the night.
The next morning, Barry, under disguise as the Chevalier, is escorted from Prussian territory by Captain Potzdorf and other Prussian officers.
Over the next few years, Barry and the Chevalier travel the spas and parlors of Europe, profiting from their gambling with Barry forcing payment from reluctant debtors with sword duels.
Seeing that his life is going nowhere, Barry decides to marry into wealth.
At a gambling table in Spa, Belgium, he encounters the beautiful and wealthy Countess of Lyndon (Marisa Berenson).
He seduces and later marries her after the death of her elderly husband, Sir Charles Lyndon (Frank Middlemass).
In 1773, Barry takes the Countess' last name in marriage and settles in England to enjoy her wealth, still with no money of his own.
Lord Bullingdon, Lady Lyndon's ten-year-old son by Sir Charles, does not approve of the marriage and quickly comes to despise Barry, calling him a 'common opportunist' who does not truly love his mother.
Barry retaliates by subjecting Bullingdon to systematic physical abuse.
The Countess bears Barry a son, Bryan Patrick, but the marriage is unhappy: Barry is openly unfaithful and enjoys spending his wife's money on self-indulgent luxuries, while keeping his wife in seclusion.
Some years later, Barry's mother comes to live with him at the Lyndon estate.
She warns her son that if Lady Lyndon were to die, all her wealth would go to her first-born son Lord Bullingdon, leaving Barry and his son Bryan penniless.
Barry's mother advises him to obtain a noble title to protect himself.
To further this goal, he cultivates the acquaintance of the influential Lord Wendover and begins to expend even larger sums of money to ingratiate himself to high society.
All this effort is wasted, however, during a birthday party for Lady Lyndon.
A now young adult Lord Bullingdon crashes the event where he publicly enumerates the reasons that he detests his stepfather so dearly, declaring it his intent to leave the family estate for as long as Barry remains there and married to his mother.
Seething with hatred, Barry savagely assaults Bullingdon until he is pulled off by the guests.
This loses Barry all the wealthy and powerful friends he has worked so hard to entreat and he is cast out of polite society.
Nevertheless, Bullingdon makes good on his word by leaving the estate and England itself for parts unknown.
In contrast to his mistreatment of his stepson, Barry proves an overindulgent and doting father to Bryan, with whom he spends all his time after Bullingdon's departure.
He cannot refuse his son anything, and succumbs to Bryan's insistence on receiving a full-grown horse for his ninth birthday.
The spoiled Bryan disobeys his parents' direct instructions that Bryan ride the horse only in the presence of his father, is thrown by the horse, is paralyzed, and dies a few days later from his injuries.
The grief-stricken Barry turns to alcohol, while Lady Lyndon seeks solace in religion, assisted by the Reverend Samuel Runt, who had been tutor first to Lord Bullingdon and then to Bryan.
Left in charge of the families' affairs while Barry and Lady Lyndon grieve, Barry's mother dismisses the Reverend, both because the family no longer needs (nor can afford, due to Barry's spending debts) a tutor and for fear that his influence worsens Lady Lyndon's condition.
Plunging even deeper into grief, Lady Lyndon later attempts suicide (though she ingests only enough poison to make herself ill).
The Reverend and the family's accountant Graham then seek out Lord Bullingdon.
Upon hearing of these events, Lord Bullingdon returns to England where he finds Barry drunk in a gentlemen's club, mourning the loss of his son rather than being with Lady Lyndon.
Bullingdon demands satisfaction for Barry's public assault, challenging him to a duel.
The duel with pistols is held in a tithe barn.
A coin-toss gives Bullingdon the right of first fire, but he nervously misfires his pistol as he prepares to shoot.
Barry, reluctant to shoot Bullingdon, magnanimously fires into the ground, but the unmoved Bullingdon refuses to let the duel end, claiming he has not received "satisfaction".
In the second round, Bullingdon shoots Barry in his left leg.
At a nearby inn, a surgeon informs Barry that the leg will need to be amputated below the knee if he is to survive.
While Barry is recovering, Bullingdon re-takes control of the Lyndon estate.
A few days later, Bullington sends a very nervous Graham to the inn with a proposition: Lord Bullingdon will grant Barry an annuity of five hundred guineas a year on the condition that he leave England, with payments ending the moment should Barry ever return.
Otherwise, with his credit and bank accounts exhausted, Barry's creditors and bill collectors will assuredly see that he is jailed.
Defeated in mind and body, Barry accepts.
The narrator states that Barry went first back to Ireland with his mother, then to the European continent to resume his former profession of gambler (though without his former success).
Barry kept his word and never returned to England or ever saw Lady Lyndon again.
The final scene (set in December 1789) shows a middle-aged Lady Lyndon signing Barry's annuity cheque as her son looks on.
<EOS>
High school senior Buffy Summers (Kristy Swanson) is introduced as a stereotypical, shallow cheerleader at Hemery High School in Los Angeles.
She is a carefree popular girl whose main concerns are shopping and spending time with her rich, snooty friends and her boyfriend, Jeffrey.
While at school one day, she is approached by a man who calls himself Merrick (Donald Sutherland).
He informs her that she is The Slayer, or Chosen One, destined to kill vampires, and he is a Watcher whose duty it is to guide and train her.
She initially rebukes his claims, but is convinced that he is right when he is able to describe a recurring dream of hers in detail.
In addition, Buffy is exhibiting uncanny abilities not known to her, including heightened agility, senses, and endurance, yet she repeatedly tries Merrick's patience with her frivolous nature, indifference to slaying and sharp-tongued remarks.
After several successful outings, Buffy is drawn into conflict with Lothos (Rutger Hauer), a local vampire king and his acolyte, Amilyn (Paul Reubens).
Two young men, Oliver Pike (Luke Perry), and best friend Benny (David Arquette), who resented Buffy and her friends due to differing social circles, are out drinking when they are attacked by Amilyn.
Benny is turned but Pike is saved by Merrick.
As a vampire, Benny visits Pike and tries to get him to join him.
Later, when Pike and his boss are discussing Benny, Pike tells him to run if he sees him.
Not only this, but a studious girl from Buffy's class, Cassandra, is abducted one night by Amilyn and sacrificed to Lothos.
When her body is found, the news spreads through LA and Hemery High, but her murder is met with indifference from Buffy's clique.
When Pike realizes there is something wrong with Benny and that he is no longer safe, he decides to leave town.
His plan is thwarted, however, when he encounters Amilyn and his tribe of vampires.
Amilyn hitches a ride on the hood of his van which crashes into a tree just before Amilyn loses an arm.
Buffy and Merrick arrive to rescue him and Amilyn flees the fight to talk to Lothos.
After this encounter, Buffy and Pike start a friendship, which eventually becomes romantic and Pike becomes Buffy's partner in fighting the undead.
During a basketball game, Buffy finds out that one of the players, and a friend of Jeffrey's, is a vampire.
After a quick chase to a parade float storage yard, Buffy finally confronts Lothos, shortly after she and Pike take down his gang.
Lothos puts Buffy in a hypnotic trance, which is broken due to Merrick's intervention.
Lothos turns on Merrick and stab him with the stake he attempted to use on him.
Lothos leaves, saying that Buffy is not ready.
As Merrick dies, he tells Buffy to do things her own way rather than live by the rules of others and he says "remember about the music".
Because of her new life, responsibilities, and heartbreak, Buffy becomes emotionally shocked and starts dropping her Slayer duties.
When she arrives at school, she attempts to explain everything to her friends, but they refuse to understand her as they are more concerned with their upcoming school dance, and Buffy falls out with them as she realizes she is outgrowing their immature, selfish behavior.
At the senior dance, Buffy tries to patch things up with her friends but they turn against her, and she is dismayed to find Jeffrey has dumped her for one of her friends.
However, she meets up with Pike and as they start to dance and kiss, Lothos leads the remainder of his minions to the school and attacks the students and the attending faculty.
Buffy confronts the vampires outside while Pike fights the vampiric Benny.
After overpowering the vampires, she confronts Lothos inside the school and kills Amilyn.
Lothos hypnotizes Buffy again and when the dance music stops, she remembers Merrick's words and is ready to defend herself.
Lothos ignites her cross but she uses hairspray to create a makeshift flame-thrower and burns him before escaping back into the gym.
Buffy sees everybody recover from the attack, but Lothos emerges again getting into a fight with Buffy, who then stakes him.
As all of the survivors leave, Buffy and Pike decide to finish their dance.
The film then ends with the two of them leaving the dance on a motorcycle, and a news crew interviewing the students and the principal about the attack during the credits.
<EOS>
The Big O is set in the fictional city-state of.
The city is located on a seacoast and is surrounded by a vast desert wasteland.
The partially domed city is wholly controlled by the monopolistic Paradigm Corporation, resulting in a corporate police state.
Paradigm is known as because forty years prior to the story, " destroyed the world outside the city and left the survivors without any prior memories.
The city is characterized by severe class inequity; the higher-income population resides inside the more pleasant domes, with the remainder left in tenements outside.
Androids coexist with the human inhabitants of Paradigm City; while they are rare, they are sufficiently numerous that denizens of the city do not consider them unusual.
Several episodes show inhabitants of Paradigm City practicing some form of Christianity: people congregate in meeting places with crucifixes prominently displayed.
The practice appears to be based on custom, because no one clearly remembers any doctrine associated with the practice.
A ruined cathedral remains unused, although some elderly people occasionally stand in front of it and sing incompletely remembered hymns.
In episode 11, it appears that only Alex Rosewater, CEO of the Paradigm Corporation that runs the city, remembers or observes Christmas.
A holiday commemorating the founding of Paradigm City, "Heaven's Day", is observed on December 25.
Though citizens decorate with generic Christmas decorations, they are ignorant of their original meaning.
Dastun mentions that Rosewater had in his possession fragments of a "Book of Revelation", although neither Dastun nor Roger had heard of it before.
Although the textbook definition of memory is a record stored in the brain of an organism, the citizens of Paradigm City use the term more loosely; can refer to forgotten knowledge, records or artifacts from before The Event, or partial forms of recollection including hallucinations and recurring dreams.
The first season is episodic.
Each episode (referred to as an "Act") relates a separate instance the resurgence of lost "memories" and how the citizens cope with their collective amnesia.
The final episodes introduce elements that come into play during season two, like the discovery of people living outside of Paradigm City, the true nature of the Event, and something obliquely described as "the Power of God wielded by the hand of man".
While the majority of the first season's episodes are self-contained stories, the second season comprises a single serialized story arc.
Alex Rosewater becomes a direct antagonist to Roger, and a mysterious group known as "The Union" is introduced, containing agents of a foreign power working within the City.
The series ends with the awakening of a new megadeus, and the revelation that the world is a simulated reality.
A climactic battle ensues between Big O and Big Fau, after which reality is systematically erased by the new megadeus, an incarnation of Angel, recognised as "Big Venus" by Dorothy.
Roger implores Angel to "let go of the past" regardless of its existential reality, and focus only on the present and the future.
In an isolated control room, the real Angel observes Roger and her past encounters with him on a series of television monitors.
On the control panel lies Metropolis, a book featured prominently since the thirteenth episode, with the cover featuring an illustration of angel wings and gives the author's name as "Angel Rosewater".
Big Venus and Big O physically merge, causing the virtual reality to reset.
A white flash subsides, and the first scenes of the first episode of the series play out.
New versions of Dorothy and Angel watch Roger drive down the street as he delivers again his first speech of the series ("My name is Roger Smith.
I perform a much needed job here in the City of Amnesia"), although he is a little hesitant this time.
The ending title card, "We have come to terms," appears, and the credits roll.
<EOS>
In 1280, King Edward "Longshanks" invades and conquers Scotland following the death of Alexander III of Scotland, who left no heir to the throne.
Young William Wallace witnesses Longshanks' treachery, survives the deaths of his father and brother, and is taken abroad on a pilgrimage throughout Europe by his paternal Uncle Argyle, where he is educated.
Years later, Longshanks grants his noblemen land and privileges in Scotland, including Prima Nocte.
Meanwhile, a grown Wallace returns to Scotland and falls in love with his childhood friend Murron MacClannough, and the two marry in secret.
Wallace rescues Murron from being raped by English soldiers, but as she fights off their second attempt, Murron is captured and publicly executed.
In retribution, Wallace leads his clan to slaughter the English garrison in his hometown and send the occupying garrison at Lanark back to England.
Longshanks orders his son Prince Edward to stop Wallace by any means necessary.
Wallace rebels against the English, and as his legend spreads, hundreds of Scots from the surrounding clans join him.
Wallace leads his army to victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge and then destroys the city of York, killing Longshanks' nephew and sending his severed head to the king.
Wallace seeks the assistance of Robert the Bruce, the son of nobleman Robert the Elder and a contender for the Scottish crown.
Robert is dominated by his father, who wishes to secure the throne for his son by submitting to the English.
Worried by the threat of the rebellion, Longshanks sends his son's wife Isabella of France to try to negotiate with Wallace.
After meeting him in person, Isabella becomes enamored of Wallace.
Warned of the coming invasion by Isabella, Wallace implores the Scottish nobility to take immediate action to counter the threat and take back the country.
Leading the English army himself, Longshanks confronts the Scots at Falkirk where noblemen Lochlan and Mornay, having been bribed by Longshanks, betray Wallace, causing the Scots to lose the battle.
As Wallace charges toward the departing Longshanks on horseback, he is intercepted by one of the king's lancers, who turns out to be Robert the Bruce.
Remorseful, he gets Wallace to safety before the English can capture him.
Wallace kills Lochlan and Mornay for their betrayal, and wages a guerrilla war against the English for the next seven years, assisted by Isabella, with whom he eventually has an affair.
Robert sets up a meeting with Wallace in Edinburgh, but Robert's father has conspired with other nobles to capture and hand over Wallace to the English.
Learning of his treachery, Robert disowns his father.
Isabella exacts revenge on the now terminally ill Longshanks by telling him she is pregnant with Wallace's child.
In London, Wallace is brought before an English magistrate, tried for high treason, and condemned to public torture and beheading.
Even whilst being hanged, drawn and quartered, Wallace refuses to submit to the king.
As cries for mercy come from the watching crowd deeply moved by the Scotsman's valor, the magistrate offers him one final chance, asking him only to utter the word, "Mercy," and be granted a quick death.
Wallace instead shouts, "Freedom.
", and the judge orders his death.
Moments before being decapitated, Wallace sees a vision of Murron in the crowd, smiling at him.
In 1314, Robert, now Scotland's king, leads a Scottish army before a ceremonial line of English troops on the fields of Bannockburn, where he is to formally accept English rule.
As he begins to ride toward the English, he stops and invokes Wallace's memory, imploring his men to fight with him as they did with Wallace.
Robert then leads his army into battle against the stunned English, winning the Scots their freedom.
<EOS>
The site on which the building is constructed was formerly the location of Murray House.
After its brick-by-brick relocation to Stanley, the site was sold by the Government for "only HK$1 billion" in August 1982 amidst growing concern over the future of Hong Kong in the run-up to the transfer of sovereignty.
Once developed, gross floor area was expected to be 100,000 m².
The original project was intended for completion on the auspicious date of 8 August 1988.
However, owing to project delays, groundbreaking took place in March 1985, almost two years late.
It was topped out in 1989, and occupied on 15 June 1990.
The building was initially built by the Hong Kong Branch of the Bank of China; its Garden Road entrance continues to display the name "Bank of China", rather than BOCHK.
The top four and the bottom 19 stories are used by the Bank, while the other floors are leased out.
Ownership has since been transferred to BOCHK, although the Bank of China has leased back several floors for use by its own operations in Hong Kong.
The Government had apparently given preferential treatment to Chinese companies, and was again criticised for the apparent preferential treatment to the BOCHK.
The price paid was half the amount of the 6,250 m² Admiralty II plot, for which the MTR Corporation paid HK$182 billion in cash.
The BOC would make initial payment of $60 million, with the rest payable over 13 years at 6% interest.
The announcement of the sale was also poorly handled, and a dive in business confidence ensued.
The Hang Seng Index fell 80 points, and the HK$ lost 15% of its value the next day.
<EOS>
As Gotham City approaches its bicentennial, Mayor Borg orders district attorney Harvey Dent and police commissioner James Gordon to make the city safer.
Meanwhile, reporter Alexander Knox and photojournalist Vicki Vale begin to investigate rumors of a vigilante nicknamed "Batman" who is targeting the city's criminals.
Mob boss Carl Grissom, who has already been targeted by Dent, discovers his mistress Alicia is involved with his second-in-command Jack Napier.
With the help of corrupt police lieutenant Max Eckhardt, Grissom sets Napier up to be killed in a raid at Axis Chemicals.
However, Grissom's plan is foiled with the arrival of Commissioner Gordon, who wants Napier captured alive.
In the ensuing shootout, Napier kills Eckhardt, but Batman suddenly appears and, in a struggle, Napier is knocked into a vat of chemicals.
Batman escapes, and Napier is presumed dead.
Batman's alter-ego is Bruce Wayne, a billionaire industrialist who, as a child, witnessed his parents' murder at the hands of a psychotic robber.
At a fundraiser at his mansion, Bruce meets and falls for Vale, and the two begin a romantic relationship.
Meanwhile, Napier is revealed to have survived the accident, but left horribly disfigured with chalk white skin, emerald green hair, and a ruby red grin.
Driven insane, Napier calls himself "the Joker", killing Grissom and taking over his criminal empire.
The Joker begins to terrorise Gotham City by lacing hygiene products with "Smilex", a deadly chemical which causes victims to die laughing with the same maniacal grin as the Joker.
Whilst searching for information on Batman, the Joker also falls for Vale.
He lures her to the Gotham Museum of Art, but Batman arrives and rescues her.
They escape in the Batmobile, but are pursued by the Joker's men, whom Batman manages to defeat.
Batman takes Vicki to the Batcave, where he gives her information from his research on Smilex that will allow the city's residents to protect themselves from the toxin.
Furious, the Joker vows to kill Batman.
Bruce visits Vicki at her apartment, prepared to tell her about his alter-ego, but the Joker interrupts their meeting, asking Bruce, "Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight.
" before shooting him.
Bruce, however, survives and escapes, as he had been wearing body armor.
He remembers that the mugger who killed his parents asked the same question, and deduces that Napier was his parents killer.
Vicki suddenly appears in the Batcave, having been let in by Bruce's butler, Alfred Pennyworth.
After telling her that with the Joker terrorising Gotham, he cannot focus on their relationship, Bruce departs as Batman to destroy the Axis plant.
Meanwhile, the Joker lures the citizens of Gotham to a parade with the promise of free money, but while throwing cash at the crowd as promised, also attacks them with Smilex gas released from his giant parade balloons.
Batman arrives and saves Gotham City using the Batwing.
Furious, the Joker kills Bob, his number one thug, then shoots the Batwing using a long barreled gun, causing it to crash.
The Joker kidnaps Vicki and takes her to the top of a cathedral.
Batman, who survived the crash, fends off the Joker's remaining men despite his injuries, and confronts the Joker.
The two struggle, with Joker eventually gaining the upper hand, leaving Batman and Vicki clinging onto an outcropping.
The Joker tries to escape by helicopter, but Batman attaches a heavy granite gargoyle to the Joker's leg with his grappling hook, causing him to lose his grip and fall to his death after it breaks off.
Commissioner Gordon announces that the police have arrested the Joker's men and unveils the Bat-Signal.
Harvey Dent reads a note from Batman, promising that he will defend Gotham whenever crime strikes again.
Vicki is taken to Wayne Manor by Alfred, who tells her that Bruce will be a little late.
She responds by claiming that she is not a bit surprised, as Batman looks at the bat-signal, standing watch over the city.
<EOS>
When Batman and Robin get a tip that Commodore Schmidlapp is in danger aboard his yacht, they launch a rescue mission using the batcopter.
As Batman descends on the bat-ladder to land on the yacht it suddenly vanishes beneath him.
He rises out of the sea with a shark attacking his leg.
After Batman dislodges it with bat-shark repellent, the shark explodes.
Batman and Robin head back to Commissioner Gordon's office, where they deduce that the tip was a set-up by the United Underworld, a gathering of four of the most powerful villains in Gotham City (Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and Catwoman).
The United Underworld equip themselves with a dehydrator that can turn humans into dust (an invention of Schmidlapp, who is unaware he has been kidnapped), a submarine made to resemble a penguin, and their three pirate henchmen (Bluebeard, Morgan and Quetch).
It is revealed the yacht was really a projection.
When The Dynamic Duo return to a buoy concealing a projector, they are trapped on the buoy by a magnet and targeted by torpedoes.
They use a radio-detonator to destroy two of the missiles, and a porpoise sacrifices itself to intercept the last one.
Catwoman, disguised as Soviet journalist "Miss Kitka", helps the group kidnap Bruce Wayne and pretends to be kidnapped with him, as part of a plot to lure Batman and finish him off with another of Penguin's explosive animals (not knowing that Wayne is Batman's alter-ego).
After Wayne escapes captivity, Penguin disguises himself as the Commodore and schemes his way into the Batcave along with five dehydrated henchmen.
This plan fails when the henchmen unexpectedly disappear into antimatter once struck: Penguin mistakenly rehydrated them with toxic heavy water, used to recharge the Batcave's atomic pile.
Ultimately the Duo are unable to prevent the kidnapping of the dehydrated United World Organization's Security Council.
Giving chase in the batboat to retrieve them (and Miss Kitka, presumed by the duo as still captive), Robin uses a sonic charge weapon to disable Penguin's submarine and force it to surface, where a fist fight ensues.
Although Batman and Robin win the fight, Batman is heartbroken to find out that his "true love" Miss Kitka is actually Catwoman when her mask falls off.
Commodore Schmidlapp accidentally breaks the vials containing the powdered Council members, mixing them together.
Batman sets to work, constructing an elaborate filter to separate the mingled dust.
Robin asks him whether it might be in the world's best interests for them to alter the dust samples, so that humans can no longer harm one another.
In response, Batman says that they cannot do so, reminding Robin of the fate of Penguin's henchmen and their tainted rehydration, and can only hope for people in general to learn to live together peacefully on their own.
With the world watching, the Security Council is re-hydrated.
All of the members are restored alive and well, continuing to squabble among themselves and totally oblivious of their surroundings, but each of them now speaks the language and displays the stereotypical mannerisms of a nation other than their own.
Batman quietly expresses his sincere hope to Robin that this "mixing of minds" does more good than it does harm.
The duo quietly leave United World Headquarters by climbing out of the window.
<EOS>
On a snowy Christmas night, Tucker and Esther Cobblepot throw their deformed infant child Oswald into Gotham River, fearing he would become a menace to society after attacking their pet cat.
His crib floats to an abandoned zoo and is found by a flock of penguins who raise him as one of their own.
33 years later, three years after the defeat of the Joker, during the lighting of Gotham City's Christmas tree, a villainous gang of carnival performers stage a riot.
While billionaire Bruce Wayne, as Batman, subdues the criminals, corrupt businessman Max Shreck falls through a trapdoor and is brought to the underground lair of Cobblepot himself, who is now the nefarious kingpin known as The Penguin.
A former sideshow freak, Cobblepot explains his desire to become a respected citizen of Gotham and blackmails Shreck into helping him.
Meanwhile, Shreck's secretary, Selina Kyle, inadvertently discovers her boss's plan to illegally monopolize Gotham's supply of electricity.
To protect his secrets, Shreck pushes her out of his office window.
Falling through several canopies, Kyle miraculously survives but lies unconscious in an alley.
A group of cats swarm around her and she suddenly regains consciousness.
Traumatized, Kyle develops dissociative identity disorder and, after having a mental breakdown and trashing her apartment, she fashions a black vinyl costume and whip, becoming the formidable Catwoman.
Shreck arranges for one of Cobblepot's men to kidnap the Mayor's infant son, allowing Cobblepot to "rescue" him.
As a reward, Cobblepot is given access to the Gotham City Archives, where he learns his real name, and that he is the last surviving member of his family.
Meanwhile, the Mayor, persuaded by Wayne, refuses to give Shreck a construction permit for his power plant.
Cobblepot orders his gang to attack downtown Gotham, ruining the Mayor's reputation and giving Shreck the opportunity to propose Cobblepot as a replacement.
Batman confronts Cobblepot, but Catwoman appears while firebombing Shreck's department store, and Cobblepot escapes.
After a fight in which Batman knocks her off a building, Catwoman survives by landing in a truck full of kitty litter.
While Kyle enters a romantic relationship with Wayne, as Catwoman, she agrees to help Cobblepot with a plan to ruin Batman's reputation by framing him for the abduction of Gotham's "Ice Princess" beauty queen.
While traversing the rooftops to find the Ice Princess, Penguin's goons disassemble the Batmobile and plant a device into the car that will allow Penguin to control it.
Distracted by Catwoman, Batman is unable to stop Cobblepot from attacking the Princess using a swarm of captive bats.
She falls to her death before Batman tries to save her, making everyone believe that Batman pushed her.
When Catwoman rejects Cobblepot's amorous advances, he responds by attacking her with his motorized helicopter umbrella.
As the umbrella takes her up into the sky, Catwoman narrowly cheats death again as she falls into a rooftop greenhouse.
Fleeing from the police, Batman realizes that Cobblepot is remotely controlling the Batmobile, taking it on a rampage through Gotham.
Batman disables the control device, but not before recording the Penguin's mocking insults about how gullible the people of Gotham are.
At a press conference for Cobblepot organized by Shreck, Batman broadcasts the recording, destroying Cobblepot's public image.
Enraged, Cobblepot flees to the sewers and orders his gang to kidnap and drown all of the first born sons of Gotham's citizens.
At a masquerade ball hosted by Shreck, Wayne and Kyle deduce each other's secret identities.
Cobblepot suddenly invades the party, revealing his intention to drown the kidnapped children, including Shreck's son Chip, in sewage water, prompting Shreck to offer himself instead.
Batman defeats the kidnappers, prompting Cobblepot to unleash an army of penguin soldiers to destroy Gotham with missiles.
Piloting the Batboat through the sewers, Batman redirects the penguins to instead fire on Cobblepot's hideout.
Cobblepot attacks Batman in a rage, but ends up falling through the ceiling of his lair and into the toxic water.
Catwoman ambushes Shreck in a vengeful attempt to kill him, but Batman stops her and unmasks himself, as does Catwoman when she rejects Wayne's attempts to reason with her.
Shreck then shoots Wayne before shooting Kyle multiple times until he runs out of bullets, leaving her severely injured, but not mortally wounded.
Putting a taser to his lips, Kyle kisses Shreck while grabbing hold of an exposed power cable, causing a fiery explosion that kills Shreck.
Wayne, who survived, uncovers Shreck's corpse while digging through the rubble in an attempt to find Kyle.
Cobblepot, mortally wounded from his fall, then arises and tries one last time to kill Wayne with his umbrella, but succumbs to his injuries and dies after collapsing onto the floor.
Subsequently, his penguin family carry out a makeshift funeral that culminates with them pushing his corpse into the water.
Afterwards, as Alfred drives Wayne home, Wayne spots a shadow outside resembling Catwoman.
He follows it and instead finds a stray black cat deciding to take it home.
As he leaves, the Bat-Signal lights up in the night sky as Catwoman watches from afar.
<EOS>
In Gotham, one year after the defeat of Two Face and The Riddler in the previous film, Batman and Robin attempt to thwart mr Freeze from robbing diamonds, but he steals one and flees.
In South America, Pamela Isley is working under dr Jason Woodrue, experimenting with the Venom drug.
She witnesses Woodrue use the formula to turn a diminutive convict into a hulking monstrosity dubbed "Bane".
Woodrue and Isley argue over the use of the drug and Woodrue kills her by overturning a shelf of various toxins.
She transforms into the beautiful and seductive Poison Ivy before killing Woodrue with her poisonous kiss.
She finds that Wayne Enterprises funded Woodrue, thus she takes Bane with her to Gotham City.
Meanwhile, Alfred Pennyworth's niece, Barbara Wilson, makes a surprise visit and is invited by Bruce Wayne to stay at Wayne Manor until she goes back to school.
Wayne Enterprises presents a new telescope at a press conference interrupted by Isley.
She proposes a project that could help the environment, but Bruce declines her offer, as it would kill millions of people.
That night, a charity event is held by Wayne Enterprises with special guests, Batman and Robin, and she decides to use her abilities to seduce them.
Freeze crashes the party and steals a diamond from the event.
However, he is captured and sent to a chamber prison in Arkham Asylum, but escapes with the help of Ivy and Bane.
Batman and Robin begin to have crime fighting relationship problems because of Ivy's seductive ability with Robin.
Ivy is then able to contact Robin once more, she kisses him but fails to kill him due to Robin wearing rubber lips.
Robin becomes trapped, but rescued by Batman.
Batgirl shows up and defeats Ivy, and reveals that she is Barbara Wilson and knows the location of the Batcave.
Batman, Robin and Batgirl decide to go after Freeze together.
By the time they get to the lab where Freeze and Bane are, Gotham is completely frozen.
Robin confronts Bane and defeats him, while Batman and Freeze begin to fight each other, with Batman defeating Freeze.
Batgirl and Robin manage to unfreeze Gotham; and Batman shows Freeze a recording of Ivy during her fight with Batgirl.
Freeze learns that Ivy has betrayed him over the death of his wife.
Ivy blamed Batman for Nora's death, but she informs Batgirl that it was her idea.
Freeze is angered by the betrayal and is informed by Batman that his wife is not dead; she is restored in cryogenic slumber and has been moved to Arkham waiting for him to finish his research.
Batman proceeds to ask Freeze for the cure Freeze has created for the first stage of MacGregor's Syndrome, the disease that Freeze's wife is suffering from, for a friend (Alfred) who is dying.
Freeze atones for his misunderstanding by giving him medicine he had developed.
Ivy is shown imprisoned in Arkham and Freeze walks in.
Alfred is eventually healed and everyone agrees to let Barbara stay at Wayne Manor.
<EOS>
In Gotham City one year after the previous film, the crime fighter Batman stops a hostage situation caused by a criminal known as Two-Face, the alter ego of the former district attorney Harvey Dent, but Two-Face escapes and remains at large.
Edward Nygma, a researcher at Wayne Enterprises who idolizes Bruce Wayne, has developed a device that can beam television into a person's brain.
Bruce offers to let Nygma come up with schematics for the device and set up a meeting with his assistant.
However, after Nygma demands an answer from him immediately, Bruce rejects the invention, believing it to be too close to mind manipulation.
After killing his supervisor Fred Stickley, Nygma resigns and seeks retaliation against Bruce for rejecting his invention and begins to send him riddles.
A news report reveals how Harvey Dent became Two-Face: when he was prosecuting a mob boss named Sal Maroni, Maroni threw acid on Dent's face, disfiguring half of it.
Batman tried to save him, but failed.
After the incident, Dent seeks to kill Batman for failing to save him.
Bruce meets Chase Meridian, a psychiatrist who is obsessed with Batman, and invites her to come with him to a circus event.
After a performance from the circus performers, The Flying Graysons, Two-Face arrives and threatens to blow up the circus unless Batman comes forward and surrenders his life to him.
The Flying Graysons attempt to stop Two-Face, but they get killed by as a result.
However, Dick Grayson, the youngest member, survives as he climbs to the roof and throws Two-Face's bomb into a river.
Bruce invites the orphaned Dick to stay at Wayne Manor.
Dick, still troubled by the murder of his family, intends to kill Two-Face and avenge his family.
When he discovers that Bruce is Batman, he demands that Bruce help him find Two-Face so that he can kill him, but Bruce refuses.
Meanwhile, Nygma turns himself into a criminal called the Riddler and forms an alliance with Two-Face.
The two steal capital in order to mass-produce Nygma's brainwave device.
At Nygma's business party, Nygma discovers Bruce's alter ego using the brainwave device.
Two-Face arrives and crashes the party.
He nearly kills Batman, but Dick manages to save him.
Meanwhile, Chase has fallen in love with Bruce, which surpasses her obsession with Batman, but she soon discovers that they are one and the same.
Bruce decides to stop being Batman in order to have a normal life with Chase and to prevent Dick from murdering Two-Face.
Dick angrily runs away while Bruce and Chase have dinner together in the manor.
The Riddler and Two-Face arrive and attack Wayne Manor.
The Riddler destroys the Batcave and kidnaps Chase, while leaving an injured Bruce another riddle.
Using the riddles, Bruce and his butler, Alfred, find out the Riddler's secret identity.
Dick returns and becomes Batman's sidekick, Robin.
Batman and Robin head to Riddler and Two-Face's lair, Claw Island, where they are separated.
Robin encounters Two-Face and nearly kills him.
Realizing that he does not have it in him to murder, Robin spares him.
Two-Face gets the upper hand and captures Robin.
Batman arrives at the lair, where Robin and Chase are held as hostages.
The Riddler gives Batman a chance to save only one hostage.
But instead, Batman destroys the Riddler's brainwave collecting device, causing the Riddler to suffer a mental breakdown.
Batman manages to save Robin and Chase.
Two-Face corners the trio and determines their fate with the flip of a coin, but Batman throws a handful of identical coins in the air, causing Two-Face to stumble and fall to his death.
The Riddler is taken to Arkham Asylum and imprisoned, but he claims he knows who Batman is.
Chase is asked to consult on the case, but Nygma says that he himself is Batman, due to his damaged memories.
Chase meets Bruce outside and tells him that his secret is safe before parting ways.
Bruce resumes his crusade as Batman with Robin as his partner to protect Gotham from crime.
<EOS>
The story recounts the beginning of Bruce Wayne's career as Batman and Jim Gordon's with the Gotham City Police Department.
Bruce Wayne returns home to Gotham City at the age of twenty-five from training abroad in martial arts, man-hunting, and science for the past 12 years, and James Gordon moves to Gotham City with his wife, Barbara, after a transfer from Chicago.
Both are swiftly acquainted with the corruption and violence of Gotham City, with Gordon witnessing his partner Detective Arnold John Flass assaulting a teen for fun.
On a surveillance mission to the seedy East End, a disguised Bruce is propositioned by teenaged prostitute Holly Robinson.
He is reluctantly drawn into a brawl with her violent pimp and is attacked by several prostitutes, including dominatrix Selina Kyle.
Two police officers shoot and take him in their squad car, but a dazed and bleeding Bruce breaks his handcuffs and causes a crash, dragging the police to a safe distance before fleeing.
He reaches Wayne Manor barely alive and sits before his father’s bust, requesting guidance in his war on crime.
A bat crashes through a window and settles on the bust, giving him the inspiration to become a bat.
Gordon soon works to rid corruption from the force, but, on orders from Commissioner Gillian Loeb, several officers attack him, including Flass, who personally threatens Gordon’s pregnant wife.
In revenge, the recovering Gordon tracks Flass down, beats and humiliates him, leaving him naked and handcuffed in the snow.
As Gordon becomes a minor celebrity for several brave acts, Batman strikes for the first time, attacking a group of thieves.
Batman soon works up the ladder, even attacking Flass while he was accepting a drug dealer’s bribe.
After Batman interrupts a dinner party attended by many of Gotham’s corrupt politicians and crime bosses to announce his intention to bring them to justice, including Carmine "The Roman" Falcone, Loeb orders Gordon to bring him in by any means necessary.
As Gordon tries in vain to catch him, Batman attacks Falcone, stripping him naked and tying him up in his bed after dumping his car in the river, further infuriating the mob boss.
Assistant district attorney Harvey Dent becomes Batman’s first ally, while Detective Sarah Essen and Gordon, after Essen suggested Bruce Wayne as a Batman suspect, witness Batman save an old woman from a runaway truck.
Essen holds Batman at gunpoint while Gordon is momentarily dazed, but Batman disarms her and flees to an abandoned building.
Claiming the building has been scheduled for demolition, Loeb orders a bomb dropped on it, forcing Batman into the fortified basement, abandoning his belt as the explosives inside catch fire.
A trigger-happy SWAT team led by Branden is sent in, whom Batman attempts to trap in the basement.
They soon escape and, after tranquillising Branden, Batman dodges as the rest open fire, barely managing to survive after two bullet wounds.
Enraged as the team’s carelessly fired bullets injure several people outside, Batman beats the team into submission and, after using a device to attract the bats of his cave to him, he flees amid the chaos.
After witnessing him in action, Selina Kyle, dons a costume of her own to begin a life of crime.
Gordon has a brief affair with Essen, while Batman intimidates a mob drug dealer for information.
The dealer comes to Gordon to testify against Flass, who is brought up on charges.
Upset with Gordon's exploits, Loeb blackmails Gordon against pressing charges with proof of his affair.
After bringing Barbara with him to interview Bruce Wayne, investigating his connection to Batman, Gordon confesses the affair to her.
Batman sneaks into Falcone’s manor, overhearing a plan against Gordon, but is interrupted when Selina Kyle, hoping to build a reputation after her robberies were pinned on Batman, attacks Falcone and his bodyguards, aided from afar by Batman.
Identifying Falcone’s plan as the morning comes, the uncostumed Bruce leaves to help.
While leaving home, Gordon spots a motorcyclist enter his garage.
Suspicious, Gordon enters to see Johnny Vitti, Falcone’s nephew, and his thugs holding his family hostage.
Gordon decisively shoots the thugs and chases Vitti, who has fled with the baby.
The mysterious motorcyclist, now revealed to the reader as Bruce Wayne, rushes out to chase Vitti.
Gordon blows out Vitti's car tire on a bridge and the two fight hand-to-hand, with Gordon losing his glasses, before Vitti and James Gordon Junior fall over the side.
Bruce leaps over the railing and saves the baby.
Gordon realizes that he is standing before an unmasked Batman, but says that he is "practically blind without [his] glasses," and lets Bruce go.
In the final scenes of the comic, Flass turns on Loeb, supplying Dent with evidence and testimony, and Loeb resigns.
Gordon is promoted to captain and stands on the rooftop waiting to meet Batman to discuss somebody called the Joker, who is plotting to poison the reservoir.
<EOS>
The series begins in the late 2032, seven years after the Second Great Kanto Earthquake has split Tokyo geographically and culturally in two.
During the first episode, disparities in wealth are shown to be more pronounced than in previous periods in post-war Japan.
The main antagonist is Genom, a megacorporation with immense power and global influence.
Its main product are boomers—artificial cybernetic life forms that are usually in the form of humans with most of their body's being a machine; also known as cyberoids.
While Boomers are intended to serve mankind, they become deadly instruments in the hands of ruthless individuals.
The AD Police are tasked to deal with Boomer-related crimes.
One of the series' themes is the inability of the department to deal with threats due to political infighting, red tape, and an insufficient budget.
<EOS>
At the beginning of the series, five dominant civilizations (the Humans, Minbari, Narn, Centauri, and the Vorlons) are presented.
"The Shadows" and their various allies are malevolent species who appear later in the series.
Several dozen less powerful species from the League of Non-Aligned Worlds appear, including the Drazi, Brakiri, Vree, Markab, and pak'ma'ra.
The station's first three predecessors (the original Babylon station, Babylon 2 and Babylon 3) were sabotaged or accidentally destroyed before their completion.
The fourth station, Babylon 4, vanished without a trace twenty-four hours after it became fully operational.
The television series takes its name from the Babylon 5 space station, located in the Epsilon Eridani star system, at the fifth Lagrangian point between the fictional planet Epsilon III and its moon.
Babylon 5 is an O'Neill cylinder five miles long and a half-mile to a mile in diameter.
Living areas accommodate the various alien species, providing differing atmospheres and gravities.
Human visitors to the alien sectors are shown using breathing equipment and other measures to tolerate the conditions.
The five seasons of the series each correspond to one fictional sequential year in the period 2258–2262.
Each season shares its name with an episode that is central to that season's plot.
As the series starts, the Babylon 5 station is welcoming ambassadors from various races in the galaxy.
Earth has just barely survived an accidental war with the much more powerful Minbari, who, despite their superior technology, mysteriously surrendered at the brink of the destruction of the human race during the Battle of the Line.
During 2258, Commander Jeffrey Sinclair is in charge of the station.
Much of the story revolves around his gradual discovery that it was his capture by the Minbari at the Battle of the Line which ended the war against Earth.
Upon capturing Sinclair, the Minbari came to believe that he was the reincarnation of Valen, a great Minbari leader and hero of the last Minbari-Shadow war.
Inferring that others of their species had been and were continuing to be reborn as humans, and in obedience to the edict that Minbari do not kill one another lest they harm the soul, they stopped the war just as Earth's final defenses were on the verge of collapse.
Meanwhile, tensions between the Centauri Republic, which is an empire in decline, and the Narn Regime, a former dominion which rebelled and gained freedom, are increasing.
Ambassador G'Kar of the Narn wishes for his people to strike back at the Centauri for what they did, and Ambassador Londo Mollari of the Centauri wishes for his people to become again the great empire they once were.
As part of these struggles, Mollari makes a deal with a mysterious ally to strike back at the Narn, further heightening tensions.
It is gradually revealed that Ambassador Delenn is a member of the mysterious and powerful Grey Council, the ruling body of the Minbari.
Towards the end of 2258, she begins the transformation into a Minbari-human hybrid, ostensibly to build a bridge between the humans and Minbari.
The year ends with the death of Earth Alliance president Luis Santiago.
The death is officially ruled an accident, but some members of the military, including the staff of Babylon 5, believe it to be an assassination.
At the beginning of 2259, Captain John Sheridan replaces Sinclair as the military governor of the station after Sinclair is reassigned as ambassador to Minbar.
He and the command staff gradually learn that the assassination of President Santiago was arranged by his then-Vice President, Morgan Clark, who has now become president.
Conflict develops between the Babylon 5 command staff and the Psi Corps, an increasingly autocratic organization which oversees and controls the lives of human telepaths.
The Shadows, an ancient and extremely powerful race who have recently emerged from hibernation, are revealed to be the cause of a variety of mysterious and disturbing events, including the attack on the Narn outpost at the end of 2258.
Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari unknowingly enlists their aid through his association with their mysterious human representative mr Morden in the ongoing conflict with the Narn.
The elderly and ailing Centauri emperor, long an advocate of reconciliation with the Narn, unfortunately has insufficient control to prevent others from instigating war against the Narn Regime.
When the emperor dies suddenly during a peace mission to Babylon 5, a number of conspirators, including Ambassador Londo Mollari and Lord Refa, take control of the Centauri government by assassinating their opponents and placing the late emperor's unstable nephew on the throne.
Their first act is to start open aggression against the Narn.
After a full-scale war breaks out, the Centauri with the help of the Shadows through Londo eventually conquer Narn in a brutal attack involving mass drivers, outlawed weapons of mass destruction.
Towards the end of the year, the Clark administration begins to show increasingly totalitarian characteristics, clamping down on dissent and restricting freedom of speech.
The Vorlons are revealed to be the basis of legends about angels on various worlds, including Earth, and are the ancient enemies of the Shadows.
They enlist the aid of Sheridan and the Babylon 5 command staff in the struggle against the Shadows.
The Psi Corps and President Clark, whose government has discovered Shadow vessels buried in Earth's solar system, begin to harness the vessels' advanced technology.
The Clark administration continues to become increasingly xenophobic and totalitarian, and gradually develops an Orwellian government style, including an organization called Night Watch which targets citizens who hold views contrary to those of Clark's regime.
Sheridan and Delenn's "conspiracy of light" works to uncover clues about how to defeat the Shadows.
During a mission near Ganymede, one of the moons of Jupiter, their ship is seen by the Earth Alliance destroyer Agamemnon, but not recognized.
Though they escape and no shots were fired in the encounter, President Clark uses it as an excuse to declare martial law.
This triggers a war of independence on Mars, which had long had a strained political relationship with Earth.
Babylon 5 attempts to avoid conflict with Earth, but in response to civilian bombings on Mars, concerns with Night Watch, and illegal orders meant to oppress their populations, they choose to declare independence from Earth, along with several other outlying Earth Alliance colonies including Orion VII and Proxima III.
In response, the Earth Alliance attempts to retake Babylon 5 by force, but with the aid of the Minbari, who have allied with the station against the growing Shadow threat, the attack is repelled at great cost.
Becoming concerned over the Shadows' growing influence among his people, Centauri ambassador Londo Mollari attempts to sever ties with them.
mr Morden, the Shadows' human representative, tricks him into restoring the partnership by engineering the murder of Mollari's mistress while putting the blame on a rival Centauri House.
Open warfare breaks out between the Shadows and the alliance led by Babylon 5 and the Minbari.
It is learned that genetic manipulation by the Vorlons is the source of telepathy in humans and other races, as it is later discovered that Shadow ships are vulnerable to telepathic attacks.
Displeased at the Vorlons' lack of direct action against the Shadows, Captain John Sheridan browbeats Vorlon ambassador Kosh Naranek into launching an attack against their mutual enemy.
Kosh's deeds lead to his subsequent assassination by the Shadows.
Former station commander Jeffrey Sinclair returns to Babylon 5 to enlist the aid of Captain Sheridan, Delenn, Ivanova and Marcus in stealing the Babylon 4 space station and sending it 1,000 years back in time to use it as a base of operations against the Shadows in the previous Minbari-Shadow war.
Having undergone a similar transformation to the one Delenn had at the end of Season 1, Sinclair transforms into a Minbari and is subsequently revealed to be the actual Valen of Minbari legend, rather than simply a reincarnation.
Meanwhile, as a result of the unstable time travel, Sheridan sees a vision of the downfall of Centauri Prime when it is attacked by Shadow allies after the Shadow war, and he becomes determined to prevent that future.
Sheridan and Delenn begin a romantic relationship, but their lives and the war are interrupted by the sudden reappearance of Sheridan's wife, who was presumed dead after taking part in an archaeological expedition to Z'ha'dum years prior.
She tells Sheridan that the Shadows are not evil, hoping to bring him back with her and recruit him to their cause.
He soon realizes that her mind has been tampered with and corrupted by the Shadows, but accepts her offer to visit Z'ha'dum because he hopes it will save the galaxy sooner and prevent the downfall of Centauri Prime.
He takes with him a pair of nuclear warheads, which he uses to destroy their largest city, and is last seen jumping into a miles-deep pit to escape the explosion.
Shadow vessels appear at the station, but disappear after Sheridan's attack.
However, after they leave, station personnel realize that Garibaldi, who left in a fighter to defend against the vessels, never returned.
In 2261, the Vorlons join the Shadow War, but their tactics become a concern for the alliance when the Vorlons begin destroying entire planets which they deem to have been "influenced" by the Shadows.
Disturbed by this turn of events, Babylon 5 recruits several other powerful and ancient races (the First Ones) to their cause, against both the Shadows and the Vorlons.
Captain John Sheridan returns to the station after escaping from Z'ha'dum and reunites the galaxy against the Shadows, but at a price: barring illness or injury, he has only 20 years left to live.
He is accompanied by a mysterious alien named Lorien who claims to be the first sentient being in the galaxy, and who breathed life into Sheridan at Z'ha'dum.
Once Sheridan returns, he and Delenn formalize their relationship and begin planning to marry, although most of their plans are put on hold due to the ongoing war.
Hours before Sheridan's return, Garibaldi is rescued and returned to the station, in rather dubious circumstances.
Over the course of the next several months, he becomes markedly more paranoid and suspicious of other alien races and of Sheridan than he was before, causing worry among his friends and colleagues.
Centauri Emperor Cartagia forges a relationship with the Shadows.
With the reluctant help of his enemy G'Kar, Londo Mollari engineers the assassination of Cartagia and repudiates his agreement with the Shadows.
In exchange for G'Kar's help, Londo frees the Narn from Centauri occupation.
Londo afterwards kills mr Morden and destroys the Shadow vessels based on the Centauri homeworld, in a successful attempt to save his planet from destruction by the Vorlons.
Aided by the other ancient races, and several younger ones, Sheridan lures both the Vorlons and the Shadows into an immense battle, during which the Vorlons and Shadows reveal that they have been left as guardians of the younger races, but due to philosophical differences, ended up using them as pawns in their endless proxy wars throughout the ages.
The younger races reject their continued interference, and the Vorlons and Shadows, along with the remaining First Ones, agree to depart the galaxy in order to allow the younger races to find their own way.
After the Shadows are defeated, Garibaldi leaves his post as security chief and works on his own as a "provider of information".
He begins working for one William Edgars, a Mars tycoon, who is married to Garibaldi's former love.
While he works ever closer with Edgars, he becomes increasingly aggressive toward Sheridan and eventually leaves Babylon 5.
Minbar is gripped by a brief civil war between the Warrior and Religious castes.
Delenn secretly meets with Neroon of the Warrior caste and convinces him that neither side can be allowed to win.
She tells him that she will undergo a ritual wherein she will be willing to sacrifice herself, but will stop the ritual before she actually dies.
When Neroon sees that she actually intends to go through the entire ritual, he rescues her and sacrifices himself instead, declaring that, although he was born Warrior caste, in his heart he is Religious caste.
As part of the ongoing conflict between Earth and Babylon 5, Garibaldi eventually betrays Sheridan and arranges his capture in order to gain Edgars' trust and learn his plans.
Garibaldi later learns that Edgars had created a virus that is dangerous only to telepaths.
It is then revealed that after Garibaldi was captured the previous year, he was taken to the Psi Corps and re-programmed by Bester to provide information to him at the right time.
Bester releases Garibaldi of his programming, and allows him to remember everything he had done since being kidnapped.
Edgars is killed by Psi Corps operatives.
His wife disappears but is reunited with Garibaldi after the end of the war.
Sheridan is tortured and interrogated by those who hope to break him and turn him into a propaganda tool for Earth's totalitarian government.
Fortunately, Garibaldi is able to help free Sheridan and return him to the campaign to free Earth.
An alliance led by Babylon 5 frees Earth from totalitarian rule by president Clark in a short but bloody war.
This culminates in Clark's suicide and the restoration of democratic government in the Earth Alliance.
Mars is granted full independence, and Sheridan agrees to resign his commission.
The League of Non-Aligned Worlds is dissolved and reformed into the Interstellar Alliance, with Sheridan elected as its first president and continuing his command of the Rangers, who are to act as a galactic equivalent of United Nations peacekeepers.
Londo and G'Kar enter an uneasy alliance to help both their races as well as Sheridan in forming the Interstellar Alliance.
During the final battle to liberate Earth from Clark's regime, Ivanova is critically injured, promised only a few days to live.
Marcus, who had fallen in love with Ivanova, finds the same alien healing device used to revive Garibaldi at the beginning of the second season, and uses it to transfer almost all of his life energy into Ivanova, causing her to live.
This causes her immense emotional anguish, and she chooses to leave Babylon 5 for another posting in EarthForce.
Marcus is placed into indefinite cryonic suspension at her request, pending resuscitation technology.
Sheridan and Delenn complete their marriage ceremony while en route to Babylon 5, where they will head the Interstellar Alliance until the completion of Alliance's permanent headquarters.
In the season finale, the events of 100, 500, 1000, and one million years into the future are shown, depicting Babylon 5's lasting influence throughout history.
Among the events shown are the political aftermath of the 2261 civil war, a subsequent nuclear war on Earth involving a new totalitarian government in 2762, the resulting fall of Earth into a pre-industrial society, the loss and restoration of humanity's knowledge of space travel, and the final evolution of mankind into energy beings similar to the Vorlons, after which Earth's sun goes nova.
In 2262, Earthforce Captain Elizabeth Lochley is appointed to command Babylon 5, which is now also the headquarters of the Interstellar Alliance.
The station grows in its role as a sanctuary for rogue telepaths running from the Psi Corps, resulting in conflict.
G'Kar, former Narn ambassador to Babylon 5, becomes unwillingly a spiritual icon after a book that he wrote while incarcerated during the Narn-Centauri War is published without his knowledge.
The Drakh, former allies of the Shadows who remained in the galaxy, take control of Regent Virini on Centauri Prime through a parasitic creature called a Keeper, then incite a war between the Centauri and the Interstellar Alliance, in order to isolate the Centauri from the Alliance and gain a malleable homeworld for themselves.
Centauri Prime is devastated by Narn and Drazi warships and Londo Mollari becomes emperor, then ends the war.
However, the Drakh blackmail him into accepting a Drakh Keeper, under threat of the complete nuclear destruction of the planet.
Vir Cotto, Mollari's loyal and more moral aide, becomes ambassador to Babylon 5 in his stead.
G'Kar also leaves Babylon 5 to escape his unwanted fame and explore the rim.
Sheridan and Delenn move to a city on Minbar, where the new headquarters of the Interstellar Alliance are located, while celebrating their first year of marriage and the upcoming birth of their son, and mourning the loss of dear friendships.
Garibaldi marries and settles down on Mars, where he and his wife share ownership of a prominent pharmaceutical company.
Most other main characters, including Stephen Franklin and Lyta Alexander, leave Babylon 5 as well.
As shown in flash-forwards earlier in the series, the next several years include the reign of Londo Mollari as Centauri Emperor.
Sixteen years later, Londo sacrifices his life to rescue Sheridan and Delenn from the Drakh, in the hope that they in turn can save Centauri Prime.
To prevent the Drakh from discovering his ruse, he asks G'Kar, now an old friend, to kill him, but Londo's Keeper wakes up and forces him to kill G'Kar in return.
They die at each other's throats, in accordance with Londo's vision many decades earlier, and Vir Cotto succeeds him as emperor, free of Drakh influence.
Three years after Londo's death, Sheridan himself is on the verge of death and takes one last opportunity to gather his old friends together.
Shortly after his farewell party, Sheridan says goodbye to Delenn, though in Minbari fashion they use the word "goodnight" to signify their hope of an eventual reunion.
Sheridan then takes a final trip to the obsolete Babylon 5 station before its decommissioning.
He returns to the site of the final battle between the Vorlons and the Shadows and apparently dies, but is instead claimed by The First One, who invites him to join the other First Ones on a journey beyond the rim of the galaxy.
Babylon 5 station is destroyed in a demolition shortly after Sheridan's departure, its existence no longer necessary as the Alliance has taken over its diplomatic purposes and other trading routes have been established.
This final episode features a cameo by Straczynski as the technician who switches off the lights before Babylon 5 is demolished.
<EOS>
A Bildungsroman relates the growing up or "coming of age" of a sensitive person who goes in search of answers to life's questions with the expectation that these will result from gaining experience of the world.
The genre evolved from folklore tales of a dunce or youngest son going out in the world to seek his fortune.
Usually in the beginning of the story there is an emotional loss which makes the protagonist leave on his journey.
In a Bildungsroman, the goal is maturity, and the protagonist achieves it gradually and with difficulty.
The genre often features a main conflict between the main character and society.
Typically, the values of society are gradually accepted by the protagonist and he/she is ultimately accepted into society — the protagonist's mistakes and disappointments are over.
In some works, the protagonist is able to reach out and help others after having achieved maturity.
There are many variations and subgenres of Bildungsroman that focus on the growth of an individual.
An Entwicklungsroman ("development novel") is a story of general growth rather than self-cultivation.
An Erziehungsroman ("education novel") focuses on training and formal schooling, while a Künstlerroman ("artist novel") is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self.
Furthermore, some memoirs and published journals can be regarded as Bildungsroman although being predominantly factual (an example being The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto "Che" Guevara).
The term is also more loosely used to describe coming-of-age films and related works in other genres.
<EOS>
In a stretch of woods, two hunters are caught in a "raging thunderstorm".
They decide to seek refuge in Willows House, which is supposedly abandoned and haunted.
When they reach Willows House, they find it to be occupied and the current owner repeatedly denies them hospitality.
One of the hunters attempts to force his entry into the house, but a menacing giant (played by Tor Johnson) appears and scares the intruders away.
Inside a secret laboratory in the house, the owner observes a "monster": a giant octopus.
The "monster" is released from its tank and sent after the intruders.
One of the fleeing hunters is killed by the octopus, while the other is captured by the giant man.
Back in the House, the captive is introduced to the owner and the giant.
The owner is a scientist, dr Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi), and the giant is his mute assistant, Lobo (Tor Johnson).
Vornoff explains that he is going to perform an experiment on the unwilling hunter that will either give the captive the strength of twenty men, or kill him.
The man dies on the operating table and the scientist is left visibly disheartened.
In a police station, officer Kelton (Paul Marco) asks to work the case of the monster of Lake Marsh.
His superior Tom Robbins (Harvey Dunn), turns him down and instead asks to see lieutenant Dick Craig (Tony McCoy, producer Donald McCoy's son).
The conversation between Robbins and Craig establishes that there are now 12 missing victims, and the police still has yet to determine what happened to them.
The reporter behind the newspaper reports is Janet Lawton (Loretta King Hadler) who happens to be Craig's fiancée.
Janet forces her way into the office and joins the conversation.
Robbins and Janet argue, and Janet states that she is going to Lake Marsh to personally investigate the place and leaves the station.
In the offices of the newspaper where Janet works, Janet visits the archives of the newspaper, asking the librarian Tillie (Ann Wilner) permission to research Willows House.
Then she leaves the offices.
At the police station, Robbins and Craig have a meeting with an intellectual from Europe, Professor Vladimir Strowski (George Becwar).
He claims that there are significant similarities between the case of the Monster of Lake Marsh and that of the Loch Ness Monster.
He agrees to assist the police in investigating the Marsh, but not at night.
As night falls and another storm begins, Janet drives alone to Lake Marsh.
Due to poor visibility, Janet drives her car off the road and into a ravine.
She leaves the car, and is immediately threatened by a large snake.
As she passes out from fear, Lobo wrestles with the snake to rescue her.
In a brief scene, Lobo caresses and smells the beret of Janet.
Janet wakes up to find herself a prisoner of Vornoff, who uses hypnosis to put her back to sleep.
The following day, Craig and his partner drive to the area around Lake Marsh.
The scene reveals that the area is a swamp.
The partners also discuss the strange weather, and mention that the newspapers could be right about "the atom bomb explosions distorting the atmosphere".
Another bit of dialogue points that Strowski left on his own, missing his scheduled appointment with the police.
The duo eventually discovers Janet's abandoned car and realize she is the 13th missing victim.
They leave the swamp to rush to "a coffee joint about ten miles back".
Meanwhile, Strowski drives a rented car to the swamp.
Through the phone of the coffeehouse, Craig and his partner alert Robbins about Janet's disappearance.
The Captain starts researching her movements and contacts prior to the disappearance.
In Willows House, Janet awakens.
Vornoff and Lobo are there to greet her and offer tea.
Vornoff assures her that Lobo is harmless, but the giant seems fascinated with her and approaches the female captive with questionable intent.
Vornoff resorts to belting his assistant to drive him away, revealing to Janet the violent and despotic nature of her host.
Vornoff offers a brief background explanation for Lobo, mentioning that the giant is just human and that Vornoff found him in the "wilderness of Tibet".
Vornoff abruptly ends the conversation by hypnotically placing Janet back to sleep.
He orders Lobo to transport the captive to Votnoff's private quarters.
Meanwhile, Strowski silently approaches Willows House and enters through the unlocked front door.
While Strowski searches the house, Vornoff arrives to greet him.
They are revealed to be old acquaintances.
Their (unspecified) country of origin is interested in Vornoff's groundbreaking experiments with atomic energy and wants to recruit him.
Vornoff narrates that two decades prior to the events of the film, Vornoff had suggested using experiments with nuclear power which could create superhumans of great strength and size.
In response, he was branded a madman and exiled by his country.
Strowski reveals that he has dreams of conquest in the name of their country, while Vornoff dreams of his creations conquering in his own name.
He has no loyalty to the country which exiled him.
Realizing this, Strowski attacks Vornoff, but Lobo appears to defend Vornoff, and they best Strowski.
By late evening, Craig and his partner return to the swamp and discover Strowski's abandoned car.
The partners part ways in their search of the area, with Craig heading towards Willows House.
Back in the secret laboratory, Vornoff uses a wave of his hand to summon Janet to his current location.
She arrives dressed as a bride, summoned through telepathy.
He has decided to use her as the next subject of his experiments.
Lobo is reluctant to take part in this experiment, and Vornoff uses a whip to re-assert his control over his slave and assistant.
Meanwhile, Craig has entered the house and accidentally discovers the secret passage.
He is himself captured by Vornoff and Lobo.
As the experiment is about to begin, the camera shifts to Lobo, who is visibly distressed.
The viewer is introduced to the inner struggle of the mute giant.
He is torn between his loyalty to Vornoff and his infatuation with Janet.
Taking his decision, Lobo rebels and attacks Vornoff.
After a fight, Lobo knocks Vornoff out, releases Janet, and transports the unconscious Vornoff to the operating table.
The scientist becomes the subject of his own human experiment.
Janet releases Craig, who briefly and ineffectually attempts to stop Lobo.
Craig is once again defeated and knocked out.
This time the experiment works and Vornoff is transformed to an atomic-powered superhuman being.
He and Lobo physically struggle with each other, and this time Vornoff emerges the victor.
Their fight destroys the laboratory and starts a fire.
Vornoff grabs Janet and escapes from the flames.
Robbins and other officers arrive to help Craig.
The police pursue Vornoff through the woods.
There is another thunderstorm, and a lightning strike further destroys Willows House.
With his home and equipment destroyed, a distressed Vornoff abandons Janet and merely attempts to escape.
Craig rolls a rock at him and lands him in the water with the octopus.
The struggles with a nuclear explosion obliterate both combatants, apparently the end result of the chain reaction started at the destroyed laboratory.
The film ends with Robbins commenting that Vornoff "tampered in God's domain".
<EOS>
In a mansion in Xanadu, a vast palatial estate in Florida, the elderly Charles Foster Kane is on his deathbed.
Holding a snow globe, he utters a word, "Rosebud", and dies; the globe slips from his hand and smashes on the floor.
A newsreel obituary tells the life story of Kane, an enormously wealthy newspaper publisher.
Kane's death becomes sensational news around the world, and the newsreel's producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with discovering the meaning of "Rosebud".
Thompson sets out to interview Kane's friends and associates.
He approaches Kane's second wife, Susan Alexander Kane, now an alcoholic who runs her own nightclub, but she refuses to talk to him.
Thompson goes to the private archive of the late banker Walter Parks Thatcher.
Through Thatcher's written memoirs, Thompson learns that Kane's childhood began in poverty in Colorado.
In 1871, after a gold mine was discovered on her property, Kane's mother Mary Kane sends Charles away to live with Thatcher so that he would be properly educated.
While Thatcher and Charles' parents discuss arrangements inside, the young Kane plays happily with a sled in the snow outside his parents' boarding-house and protests being sent to live with Thatcher.
Years later, after gaining full control over his trust fund at the age of 25, Kane enters the newspaper business and embarks on a career of yellow journalism.
He takes control of the New York Inquirer and starts publishing scandalous articles that attack Thatcher's business interests.
After the stock market crash in 1929, Kane is forced to sell controlling interest of his newspaper empire to Thatcher.
Back in the present, Thompson interviews Kane's personal business manager, mr Bernstein.
Bernstein recalls how Kane hired the best journalists available to build the Inquirers circulation.
Kane rose to power by successfully manipulating public opinion regarding the Spanish–American War and marrying Emily Norton, the niece of a President of the United States.
Thompson interviews Kane's estranged best friend, Jedediah Leland, in a retirement home.
Leland recalls how Kane's marriage to Emily disintegrates more and more over the years, and he begins an affair with amateur singer Susan Alexander while he is running for Governor of New York.
Both his wife and his political opponent discover the affair and the public scandal ends his political career.
Kane marries Susan and forces her into a humiliating operatic career for which she has neither the talent nor the ambition.
Back in the present, Susan now consents to an interview with Thompson, and recalls her failed opera career.
Kane finally allows her to abandon her singing career after she attempts suicide.
After years spent dominated by Kane and living in isolation at Xanadu, Susan leaves Kane.
Kane's butler Raymond recounts that, after Susan leaves him, Kane begins violently destroying the contents of her bedroom.
He suddenly calms down when he sees a snow globe and says, "Rosebud".
Back at Xanadu, Kane's belongings are being cataloged or discarded.
Thompson concludes that he is unable to solve the mystery and that the meaning of Kane's last word will forever remain an enigma.
As the film ends, the camera reveals that "Rosebud" is the trade name of the sled on which the eight-year-old Kane was playing on the day that he was taken from his home in Colorado.
Thought to be junk by Xanadu's staff, the sled is burned in a furnace.
<EOS>
The film is set in the Qing Dynasty during the 43rd year (1778) of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.
Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat) is an accomplished Wudang swordsman and Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) is a female warrior and professional body guard.
The death of Mu Bai's closest friend and fiancée to Shu Lien complicate these characters' feelings for one another.
They are reconnected when Mu Bai , after choosing to relinquish the warrior lifestyle, asks Shu Lien to gift his sword "Green Destiny" to their friend Sir Te (Sihung Lung) in Beijing.
Long ago, Mu Bai's master was murdered by Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-pei), a woman who sought to learn Wudang skills.
Shu Lien meets with and stays in the compound of Sir Te where she also makes the acquaintance of Jen Yu who is the daughter of a rich and powerful Governor Yu and is about to get married.
One evening, a masked thief sneaks into Sir Te's estate and steals the sword.
Mu Bai and Shu Lien trace the theft to Governor Yu's compound and learn that Jade Fox has been posing as Jen's governess for many years.
Mu Bai makes the acquaintance of Inspector Tsai (Wang Deming), a police investigator from the provinces, and his daughter May (Li Li), who have come to Peking in pursuit of Fox.
Fox challenges the pair and Sir Te's servant Master Bo (Gao Xi'an) to a showdown that night.
Following a protracted battle, the group is on the verge of defeat when Mu Bai arrives and outmaneuvers Fox.
Before Mu Bai can kill Fox, the masked thief reappears and partners with Fox to fight.
Fox resumes the fight and kills Tsai before fleeing with the thief (who is revealed to be Fox's protégé, Jen).
After seeing Jen fight Mu Bai, Fox realizes Jen had been secretly studying the Wudang manual and has surpassed her in combative skills.
At night, a desert bandit named Lo (Chang Chen) breaks into Jen's bedroom and asks her to leave with him.
A flashback reveals that in the past, when Governor Yu and his family were traveling in the western deserts, Lo and his bandits had raided Jen's caravan and Lo had stolen her comb.
She chased after him, following him to his desert cave seemingly in a quest to get her comb back.
However, the pair soon fell passionately in love.
Lo eventually convinced Jen to return to her family, though not before telling her a legend of a man who jumped off a cliff to make his wishes come true.
Because the man's heart was pure, he did not die.
Lo came to Peking to persuade Jen not to go through with her arranged marriage.
However, Jen refuses to leave with him.
Later, Lo interrupts Jen's wedding procession, begging her to come away with him.
Nearby, Shu Lien and Mu Bai convince Lo to wait for Jen at Mount Wudang, where he will be safe from Jen's family, who are furious with him.
Jen runs away from her husband on the wedding night before the marriage could be consummated.
Disguised in male clothing, she is accosted at an inn by a large group of warriors; armed with the Green Destiny and her own superior combat skills, she emerges victorious.
Jen visits Shu Lien, who tells her that Lo is waiting for her at Mount Wudang.
After an angry dispute, the two women engage in a duel.
Shu Lien is the superior fighter, but Jen wields the Green Destiny: the sword destroys each weapon that Shu Lien wields, until Shu Lien finally manages to defeat Jen with a broken sword.
When Shu Lien shows mercy and lowers the sword, Jen injures Shu Lien's arm.
Mu Bai arrives and pursues Jen into a bamboo forest.
Following a duel where Mu Bai regains possession of the Green Destiny, he decides to throw the sword over a waterfall.
In pursuit, Jen dives into an adjoining river to retrieve the sword and is then rescued by Fox.
Fox puts Jen into a drugged sleep and places her in a cavern; Mu Bai and Shu Lien discover her there.
Fox suddenly reappears and attacks the others with poisoned darts.
Mu Bai blocks the needles with his sword and avenges his master's death by mortally wounding Fox, only to realize that one of the darts hit him in the neck.
Fox dies, confessing that her goal had been to kill Jen because she was furious that Jen had hid the secrets of Wudang's far superior fighting techniques from her.
As Jen exits to gather up an antidote for the poisoned dart, Mu Bai prepares to die.
With his last breaths, he finally confesses his love for Shu Lien.
He dies in her arms as Jen returns, too late to save him.
The Green Destiny is returned to Sir Te.
Jen later goes to Mount Wudang and spends one last night with Lo.
The next morning, Lo finds Jen standing on a balcony overlooking the edge of the mountain.
In an echo of the legend that they spoke about in the desert, she asks him to make a wish.
He complies and wishes for them to be together again, back in the desert.
Jen then lifts herself and gently falls down the side of the mountain.
<EOS>
In 1919, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) enters the University of Cambridge, where he experiences anti-Semitism from the staff, but enjoys participating in the Gilbert and Sullivan club.
He becomes the first person to ever complete the Trinity Great Court Run – running around the college courtyard in the time it takes for the clock to strike 12.
Abrahams achieves an undefeated string of victories in various national running competitions.
Although focused on his running, he falls in love with a leading Gilbert and Sullivan soprano, Sybil (Alice Krige).
Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), born in China of Scottish missionary parents, is in Scotland.
His devout sister Jennie (Cheryl Campbell) disapproves of Liddell's plans to pursue competitive running.
But Liddell sees running as a way of glorifying God before returning to China to work as a missionary.
When they first race against each other, Liddell beats Abrahams.
Abrahams takes it poorly, but Sam Mussabini (Ian Holm), a professional trainer whom he had approached earlier, offers to take him on to improve his technique.
This attracts criticism from the Cambridge college masters (John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson), who allege it is not gentlemanly for an amateur to "play the tradesman" by employing a professional coach.
Abrahams dismisses this concern, interpreting it as cover for anti-Semitic and class-based prejudice.
When Eric Liddell accidentally misses a church prayer meeting because of his running, his sister Jennie upbraids him and accuses him of no longer caring about God.
Eric tells her that though he intends to eventually return to the China mission, he feels divinely inspired when running, and that not to run would be to dishonour God, saying, "I believe that God made me for a purpose.
But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure".
The two athletes, after years of training and racing, are accepted to represent Great Britain in the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
Also accepted are Abrahams' Cambridge friends, Lord Andrew Lindsay (Nigel Havers), Aubrey Montague (Nicholas Farrell), and Henry Stallard (Daniel Gerroll).
While boarding the boat to Paris for the Olympics, Liddell learns the news that the heat for his 100-metre race will be on a Sunday.
He refuses to run the race – despite strong pressure from the Prince of Wales and the British Olympic committee – because his Christian convictions prevent him from running on the Sabbath.
Hope appears when Liddell's teammate Lindsay, having already won a silver medal in the 400 metres hurdles, proposes to yield his place in the 400-metre race on the following Thursday to Liddell, who gratefully agrees.
His religious convictions in the face of national athletic pride make headlines around the world.
Liddell delivers a sermon at the Paris Church of Scotland that Sunday, and quotes from , ending with:  Abrahams is badly beaten by the heavily favoured United States runners in the 200 metre race.
He knows his last chance for a medal will be the 100 metres.
He competes in the race, and wins.
His coach Sam Mussabini is overcome that the years of dedication and training have paid off with an Olympic gold medal.
Now Abrahams can get on with his life and reunite with his girlfriend Sybil, whom he had neglected for the sake of running.
Before Liddell's race, the American coach remarks dismissively to his runners that Liddell has little chance of doing well in his now far longer 400 metre race.
But one of the American runners, Jackson Scholz, hands Liddell a note of support for his convictions.
Liddell defeats the American favourites and wins the gold medal.
The British team returns home triumphant.
As the film ends, onscreen text explains that Abrahams married Sybil, and became the elder statesman of British athletics.
Liddell went on to missionary work in China.
All of Scotland mourned his death in 1945 in Japanese-occupied China.
<EOS>
The story is told through the eyes of narrator James Ballard, named after the author himself, but it centers on the sinister figure of dr Robert Vaughan, a "former TV-scientist, turned nightmare angel of the expressways".
Ballard meets Vaughan after being involved in a car accident himself near London Airport.
Gathering around Vaughan is a group of alienated people, all of them former crash victims, who follow him in his pursuit to re-enact the crashes of celebrities and experience what the narrator calls "a new sexuality, born from a perverse technology".
Vaughan's ultimate fantasy is to die in a head-on collision with movie star Elizabeth Taylor.
<EOS>
Though it is secondary to its hack and slash gameplay, Castle of the Winds has a plot loosely based on Norse mythology, told with setting changes, unique items, and occasional passages of text.
The player begins in a tiny hamlet, near which he/she used to live.
His/her farm has been destroyed and godparents killed.
After clearing out an abandoned mine, the player finds a scrap of parchment that reveals the death of the player's godparents was ordered by an unknown enemy.
The player then returns to the hamlet to find it pillaged, and decides to travel to Bjarnarhaven.
Once in Bjarnarhaven, the player explores the levels beneath a nearby fortress, eventually facing Hrungnir, the Hill Giant Lord, responsible for ordering the player's godparents' death.
Hrungnir carries the Enchanted Amulet of Kings.
Upon activating the amulet, the player is informed of his/her past by his/her dead father, after which the player is transported to the town of Crossroads, and Part I ends.
The game can be imported or started over in Part II.
The town of Crossroads is run by a Jarl who at first does not admit the player, but later (on up to three occasions) provides advice and rewards.
The player then enters the nearby ruined titular Castle of the Winds.
There the player meets his/her deceased grandfather, who instructs him/her to venture into the dungeons below, defeat Surtur, and reclaim his birthright.
Venturing deeper, the player encounters monsters run rampant, a desecrated crypt, a necromancer, and the installation of various special rooms for elementals.
The player eventually meets and defeats the Wolf-Man leader, Bear-Man leader, the four Jotun kings, a Demon Lord, and finally Surtur.
Upon defeating Surtur and escaping the dungeons, the player sits upon the throne, completing the game.
<EOS>
Chrono Trigger takes place in a world familiar to Earth, with eras such as the prehistoric age, in which primitive humans and dinosaurs share the earth; the Middle Ages, replete with knights, monsters, and magic; and the post-apocalyptic future, where destitute humans and sentient robots struggle to survive.
The characters frequently travel through time to obtain allies, gather equipment, and learn information to help them in their quest.
The party also gains access to the End of Time (represented as year ∞), which serves as a hub to travel back to other time periods.
The party eventually acquires a time-machine vehicle known as the Wings of Time, nicknamed the Epoch.
The vehicle is capable of time travel between any time period without first having to travel to the End of Time.
Chrono Trigger's six playable characters (plus one optional character) come from different eras of history.
Chrono Trigger begins in AD 1000 with Crono, Marle and Lucca.
Crono is the silent protagonist, characterized as a fearless young man who wields a katana in battle.
Marle (Princess Nadia) lives in Guardia Castle; though sheltered, at heart she's a princess who enjoys hiding her royal identity.
Lucca is a friend of Crono's and a mechanical genius; her home is filled with laboratory equipment and machinery.
From the era of AD 2300 comes Robo, or Prometheus (designation R-66Y), a robot with near-human personality created to assist humans.
Lying dormant in the future, Robo is found and repaired by Lucca, and joins the group out of gratitude.
The fiercely confident Ayla dwells in 65,000,000 BC.
Unmatched in raw strength, Ayla is the chief of Ioka Village and leads her people in war against a species of humanoid reptiles known as Reptites.
The last two playable characters are Frog and Magus.
Frog originated in AD 600.
He is a former squire once named Glenn, who was turned into an anthropomorphic frog by Magus, who also killed his friend Cyrus.
Chivalrous but mired in regret, Frog dedicates his life to protecting Leene, the queen of Guardia, and avenging Cyrus.
Meanwhile, Guardia in AD 600 is in a state of conflict against the Mystics (known as Fiends in the US/DS port), a race of demons and intelligent animals who wage war against humanity under the leadership of Magus, a powerful sorcerer.
Magus's seclusion conceals a long-lost past; he was formerly known as Janus, the young prince of the Kingdom of Zeal, which was destroyed by Lavos in 12,000 BC.
The incident sent him forward through time, and as he ages, he plots revenge against Lavos and broods over the fate of his sister, Schala.
Lavos, the game's main antagonist who awakens and ravages the world in AD 1999, is an extraterrestrial, parasitic creature that harvests DNA and the Earth's energy for its own growth.
In AD 1000, Crono and Marle watch Lucca and her father demonstrate her new teleporter at the Millennial Fair.
When Marle volunteers to be teleported, her pendant interferes with the device and creates a time portal into which she is drawn.
After Crono and Lucca separately recreate the portal and find themselves in AD 600, they find Marle only to see her vanish before their eyes.
Lucca realizes that this time period's kingdom has mistaken Marle for an ancestor of hers who had been kidnapped, thus putting off the recovery effort for her ancestor and creating a grandfather paradox.
Crono and Lucca, with the help of Frog, restore history to normal by recovering the kidnapped queen.
After the three part ways with Frog and return to the present, Crono is arrested on charges of kidnapping the princess and sentenced to death by the current chancellor of Guardia.
Lucca and Marle help Crono to flee, haphazardly using another time portal to escape their pursuers.
This portal lands them in AD 2300, where they learn that an advanced civilization has been wiped out by a giant creature known as Lavos that appeared in 1999.
The three vow to find a way to prevent the future destruction of their world.
After meeting and repairing Robo, Crono and his friends find Gaspar, an old sage at the End of Time, who helps them acquire magical powers and travel through time by way of several pillars of light.
Their party expands to include Ayla and Frog after they visit the prehistoric era to repair Frog's sword.
They return to AD 600 to challenge Magus, believing him to be the source of Lavos; after the battle, a summoning spell causes a time gate that throws Crono and his friends to the past.
In prehistory, the group battle the Reptites and witness the origin of Lavos.
They learn that Lavos was an alien being that arrived on the planet millions of years in the past, and began to absorb DNA and energy from every living creature before arising and razing the planet's surface in 1999 so that it could spawn a new generation.
In 12,000 BC, Crono and friends find that the Kingdom of Zeal recently discovered Lavos and seeks to drain its power to achieve immortality through the Mammon Machine.
However Zeal's leader, Queen Zeal imprisons Crono and friends.
Though Zeal's daughter Schala frees them, the Prophet, a mysterious figure who has recently begun advising the queen, forces her to banish them from the realm and seal the time gate they used to travel to the Dark Ages.
They return next to AD 2300 to find a time machine called the Wings of Time (or Epoch), which can access any time period without using a time gate.
They travel back to Zeal for the Mammon Machine's activation at the Ocean Palace.
Lavos awakens, disturbed by the Mammon Machine, and the Prophet reveals himself to be Magus and tries to kill the creature.
Crono stands up to Lavos but is vaporized by a powerful blast, after which Lavos destroys the Kingdom of Zeal.
Crono's friends awake in a village and find Magus, who confesses that he used to be prince Janus of Zeal.
In his memories, it is revealed that the disaster at the Ocean Palace scattered the Gurus of Zeal across time and sent him to the Middle Ages.
Janus took the alias of Magus and gained a cult of followers while plotting to summon and kill Lavos in revenge for the death of his sister, Schala, but when Lavos appeared after his battle with Crono and his allies he was cast back to the time of Zeal and presented himself to them as a prophet.
As Crono's friends depart, the Ocean Palace rises into the air as the Black Omen.
The group turns to Gaspar for help, and he gives them a "Chrono Trigger," an egg-shaped device that allows the group to replace Crono just before the moment of death with a Dopple Doll.
Crono and his friends then gather power by helping people across time with Gaspar's instructions.
Their journeys involve defeating the remnants of the Mystics, stopping Robo's maniacal AI creator, addressing Frog's feelings towards Cyrus, locating and charging up the mythical Sun Stone, retrieving the Rainbow Shell, and helping restore a forest destroyed by a desert monster.
The group enters the Black Omen and defeats Queen Zeal, then successfully battles Lavos, saving the future of their world.
If Magus joined the party, he departs to search for Schala.
Crono's mother accidentally enters the time gate at the fair before it closes, prompting Crono, Marle, and Lucca to set out in the Epoch to find her while fireworks light up the night sky.
Alternatively, if the party used the Epoch to break Lavos's outer shell, Marle will help her father hang Nadia's bell at the festival and accidentally get carried away by several balloons.
Crono jumps on to help her, but cannot bring them down to earth.
Hanging on in each other's arms, the pair travel through the cloudy, moonlit sky.
Chrono Trigger DS added two new scenarios to the game.
In the first, Crono and his friends can help a "lost sanctum" of Reptites, who reward powerful items and armor.
The second scenario adds ties to Trigger's sequel, Chrono Cross.
In a New Game +, the group can explore several temporal distortions to combat shadow versions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca, and to fight Dalton, who promises in defeat to raise an army in the town of Porre to destroy the Kingdom of Guardia.
The group can then fight the Dream Devourer, a prototypical form of the Time Devourer—a fusion of Schala and Lavos seen in Chrono Cross.
A version of Magus pleads with Schala to resist; though she recognizes him as her brother, she refuses to be helped and sends him away.
Schala subsequently erases his memories and Magus awakens in a forest, determined to find what he had lost.
<EOS>
The Bene Gesserit still find themselves questioning the Golden Path of humanity set by the God Emperor Leto II.
Now they must survive the Honored Matres, whose reckless conquest of the Old Empire threatens Bene Gesserit survival.
The Sisters must reassess their timeless methods: does ultimate survival go beyond calculated manipulation.
Is there greater purpose to life than consolidating power.
The situation is desperate for the Bene Gesserit as they find themselves the targets of the Honored Matres, whose conquest of the Old Empire is almost complete.
The Matres are seeking to assimilate the technology and developed methods of the Bene Gesserit and exterminate the Sisterhood itself.
Now in command of the Bene Gesserit, Mother Superior Darwi Odrade continues to develop her drastic, secret plan to overcome the Honored Matres.
The Bene Gesserit are also terraforming the planet Chapterhouse to accommodate the all-important sandworms, whose native planet Dune had been destroyed by the Matres.
Sheeana, in charge of the project, expects sandworms to appear soon.
The Honored Matres have also destroyed the entire Bene Tleilax civilization, with Tleilaxu Master Scytale the only one of his kind left alive.
In Bene Gesserit captivity, Scytale possesses the Tleilaxu secret of ghola production, which he has reluctantly traded for the Sisterhood's protection.
The first ghola produced is that of their recently deceased military genius, Miles Teg.
The Bene Gesserit have two other prisoners on Chapterhouse: the latest Duncan Idaho ghola, and former Honored Matre Murbella, whom they have accepted as a novice despite their suspicion that she intends to escape back to the Honored Matres.
Lampadas, a center for Bene Gesserit education, has been destroyed by the Honored Matres.
The planet's Chancellor, Reverend Mother Lucilla, manages to escape carrying the shared-minds of millions of Reverend Mothers.
Lucilla is forced to land on Gammu where she seeks refuge with an underground group of Jews.
The Rabbi gives Lucilla sanctuary, but to save his organization he must deliver her to the Matres.
Before doing so, he reveals Rebecca, a "wild" Reverend Mother who has gained her Other Memory without Bene Gesserit training.
Lucilla shares minds with Rebecca, who promises to take the memories of Lampadas safely back to the Sisterhood.
Lucilla is then "betrayed", and taken before the Great Honored Matre Dama, who tries to persuade her to join the Honored Matres, preserving her life in exchange for Bene Gesserit secrets.
Lucilla refuses, and Dama ultimately kills her.
Back on Chapterhouse, Odrade confronts Duncan and forces him to admit that he is a Mentat, proving that he retains the memories of his many ghola lives.
He does not reveal his mysterious visions of two people.
Meanwhile, Murbella collapses under the pressure of Bene Gesserit training, giving in to "word weapons" that the Bene Gesserit had planted to undermine her earlier Honored Matre identity.
Murbella realizes that she wants to be Bene Gesserit.
Odrade believes that the Bene Gesserit made a mistake in fearing emotion, and that in order to evolve, the Bene Gesserit must learn to accept emotions.
Odrade permits Duncan to watch Murbella undergo the spice agony, making him the first man ever to do so.
Murbella survives the ordeal and becomes a Reverend Mother.
Odrade then confronts Sheeana, discovering that Duncan and Sheeana have been allied together for some time.
Sheeana does not reveal that they have been considering the option of reawakening Teg's memory through Imprinting, nor does Odrade discover that Sheeana has the keys to Duncan's no-ship prison.
Odrade continues molding Scytale, with Sheeana showing him a baby sandworm, the Bene Gesserit's own long term supply of spice, and destroying Scytale's main bargaining card.
Finally, Teg is awakened by Sheeana using imprinting techniques.
Odrade appoints him again as Bashar of the military forces of the Sisterhood for the assault on the Honored Matres.
Odrade next calls a meeting of all the Bene Gesserit, announcing her plan to attack the Honored Matres.
She tells them that this attack will be led by Teg.
She also announces candidates to succeed her as Mother Superior; she will share her memories with Murbella and Sheeana before she leaves.
Odrade then goes to meet the Great Honored Matre.
Under cover of Odrade's diplomacy, the Bene Gesserit forces under Teg attack Gammu with tremendous force.
Teg uses his secret ability to see no-ships to secure control of the system.
Survivors of the attack flee to Junction, and Teg follows them there and carries all with him.
Victory for the Bene Gesserit seems inevitable.
In the midst of this battle, the Jews (including Rebecca with her precious memories) take refuge with the Bene Gesserit fleet.
Logno — chief advisor to Dama — assassinates Dama with poison and assumes control of the Honored Matres.
Her first act surprises Odrade greatly.
Too late, Odrade and Teg realize they have fallen into a trap, and the Honored Matres use a mysterious weapon to turn defeat into victory, as well as capturing Odrade.
Murbella saves as much of the Bene Gesserit force as she can and they begin to withdraw to Chapterhouse.
Odrade, however, had planned for the possible failure of the Bene Gesserit attack and left Murbella instructions for a last desperate gamble.
Murbella pilots a small craft down to the surface, announcing herself as an Honored Matre who, in the confusion, has managed to escape the Bene Gesserit with all their secrets.
She arrives on the planet and is taken to the Great Honored Matre.
Unable to control her anger, Logno attacks but is killed by Murbella.
Awed by her physical prowess, the remaining Honored Matres are forced to accept her as their new leader.
Odrade is also killed in the melee and Murbella shares with Odrade to absorb her newest memories, as they had already shared prior to the battle.
Murbella's ascension to leadership is not accepted as victory by all the Bene Gesserit.
Some flee Chapterhouse, notably Sheeana, who has a vision of her own, and arranges to have some of the new worms that have emerged in the Chapterhouse desert brought aboard the no-ship.
Sheeana is joined by Duncan.
The two escape in the giant no-ship, with Scytale, Teg and the Jews.
Murbella recognizes their plan at the last minute, but is powerless to stop them.
Watching this escape with interest are Daniel and Marty, the observers of whom Duncan had been having visions.
The story ends on a cliffhanger with several questions left unanswered regarding the merging of the Honored Matres and Bene Gesserit, the fates of those on the escaped no-ship (including the role of Scytale, the development of Idaho and Teg, and the role of the Jews), the identity of the god-like characters in the book's final chapter and the ultimate mystery of what chased the Honored Matres back into the Old Empire.
<EOS>
Le Fanu presents the story as part of the casebook of dr Hesselius, whose departures from medical orthodoxy rank him as the first occult doctor in literature.
Laura, the protagonist, narrates, beginning with her childhood in a "picturesque and solitary" castle amid an extensive forest in Styria, where she lives with her father, a wealthy English widower retired from service to the Austrian Empire.
When she was six, Laura had a vision of a beautiful visitor in her bedchamber.
She later claims to have been punctured in her breast, although no wound was found.
Twelve years later, Laura and her father are admiring the sunset in front of the castle when her father tells her of a letter from his friend, General Spielsdorf.
The General was supposed to bring his niece, Bertha Rheinfeldt, to visit the two, but the niece suddenly died under mysterious circumstances.
The General ambiguously concludes that he will discuss the circumstances in detail when they meet later.
Laura, saddened by the loss of a potential friend, longs for a companion.
A carriage accident outside Laura's home unexpectedly brings a girl of Laura's age into the family's care.
Her name is Carmilla.
Both girls instantly recognize the other from the "dream" they both had when they were young.
Carmilla appears injured after her carriage accident, but her mysterious mother informs Laura's father that her journey is urgent and cannot be delayed.
She arranges to leave her daughter with Laura and her father until she can return in three months.
Before she leaves, she sternly notes that her daughter will not disclose any information whatsoever about her family, past, or herself, and that Carmilla is of sound mind.
Laura comments that this information seems needless to say, and her father laughs it off.
Carmilla and Laura grow to be very close friends, but occasionally Carmilla's mood abruptly changes.
She sometimes makes romantic advances towards Laura.
Carmilla refuses to tell anything about herself, despite questioning by Laura.
Her secrecy is not the only mysterious thing about Carmilla; she never joins the household in its prayers, she sleeps much of the day, and she seems to sleepwalk outside at night.
Meanwhile, young women and girls in the nearby towns have begun dying from an unknown malady.
When the funeral procession of one such victim passes by the two girls, Laura joins in the funeral hymn.
Carmilla bursts out in rage and scolds Laura, complaining that the hymn hurts her ears.
When a shipment of restored heirloom paintings arrives, Laura finds a portrait of her ancestor, Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, dated 1698.
The portrait resembles Carmilla exactly, down to the mole on her neck.
Carmilla says she might be descended from the Karnsteins even though the family died out centuries before.
During Carmilla's stay, Laura has nightmares of a large cat-like beast entering her room and biting her on the chest.
The beast then takes the form of a female figure and disappears through the door without opening it.
In another nightmare, Laura hears a voice say, "Your mother warns you to beware of the assassin," and a sudden light reveals Carmilla standing at the foot of her bed, her nightdress drenched in blood.
Laura's health declines, and her father has a doctor examine her.
He finds a small blue spot on her chest and speaks privately with her father, only asking that Laura never be unattended.
Her father then sets out with Laura, in a carriage, for the ruined village of Karnstein, three miles distant.
They leave a message behind asking Carmilla and one of the governesses to follow once the perpetually late-sleeping Carmilla wakes.
En route to Karnstein, Laura and her father encounter General Spielsdorf.
He tells them his own ghastly story.
At a costume ball, Spielsdorf and his niece Bertha had met a young woman named Millarca and her enigmatic mother.
Bertha was immediately taken with Millarca.
The mother convinced the General that she was an old friend of his and asked that Millarca be allowed to stay with them for three weeks while she attended to a secret matter of great importance.
Bertha fell mysteriously ill, suffering the same symptoms as Laura.
After consulting with a specially ordered priestly doctor, the General realized that Bertha was being visited by a vampire.
He hid with a sword and waited until a large black creature crawled onto his niece's bed and to her neck.
He leapt from his hiding place and attacked the beast, which took the form of Millarca.
She fled through the locked door, unharmed.
Bertha died immediately afterward.
Upon arriving at Karnstein, the General asks a woodman where he can find the tomb of Mircalla Karnstein.
The woodman says the tomb was relocated long ago by the hero who vanquished the vampires that haunted the region.
While the General and Laura are alone in the ruined chapel, Carmilla appears.
The General and Carmilla both fly into a rage upon seeing each other, and the General attacks her with an axe.
Carmilla disarms the General and disappears.
The General explains that Carmilla is also Millarca, both anagrams for the original name of the vampire Mircalla, Countess Karnstein.
The party is joined by Baron Vordenburg, the descendant of the hero who rid the area of vampires long ago.
Vordenburg, an authority on vampires, has discovered that his ancestor was romantically involved with the Countess Karnstein before she died and became one of the undead.
Using his forefather's notes, he locates Mircalla's hidden tomb.
An Imperial Commission exhumes the vampire's body.
Immersed in blood, it seems to be breathing faintly, its heart beating, its eyes open.
A stake is driven through its heart, and it gives a corresponding shriek; then the head is struck off.
The body and head are burned to ashes, which are thrown into a river.
Afterwards, Laura's father takes his daughter on a year-long tour through Italy to recover from the trauma and regain her health, which she never fully does.
<EOS>
In 2071, roughly fifty years after an accident with a hyperspace gateway made the Earth almost uninhabitable, humanity has colonized most of the rocky planets and moons of the Solar System.
Amid a rising crime rate, the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) set up a legalized contract system, in which registered bounty hunters (also referred to as "Cowboys") chase criminals and bring them in alive in return for a reward.
The series' protagonists are bounty hunters working from the spaceship Bebop.
The original crew are Spike Spiegel, an exiled former hitman of the criminal Red Dragon Syndicate, and his partner Jet Black, a former ISSP officer.
They are later joined by Faye Valentine, an amnesiac con artist; Edward Wong, an eccentric girl skilled in hacking; and Ein, a genetically-engineered Pembroke Welsh Corgi with human-like intelligence.
Over the course of the series, the team get involved in disastrous mishaps leaving them out of pocket, while often confronting faces and events from their past: these include Jet's reasons for leaving the ISSP, and Faye's past as a young woman from Earth injured in an accident and cryogenically frozen to save her life.
The main story arc focuses on Spike and his deadly rivalry with Vicious, an enforcer for the Red Dragon Syndicate.
Spike and Vicious were once partners and friends, but when Spike began an affair with Vicious' girlfriend Julia and resolved to leave the Syndicate with her, Vicious attempted to have Julia kill Spike.
Julia goes into hiding to protect herself and Spike, while Spike fakes his death to escape the Syndicate.
In the present, Julia comes out of hiding and reunites with Spike, planning to complete their plan.
Vicious, having staged a coup d'état and taken over the Syndicate, sends hitmen after the pair.
Julia is killed, leaving Spike alone.
His heartbreak feeds his desire to kill Vicious once and for all.
Spike leaves the Bebop after saying a final goodbye to Faye and Jet.
Upon infiltrating the syndicate, he finds Vicious on the top floor of the building.
In a final battle, Vicious is killed and Spike severely wounded.
The series ends as Spike descends the main staircase of the building into the rising sun.
He falls to the ground, leaving his ultimate fate ambiguous.
<EOS>
Two young female millworkers in 1873 Maine visit the town's carousel after work.
One of them, Julie Jordan, attracts the attention of the barker, Billy Bigelow ("The Carousel Waltz").
When Julie lets Billy put his arm around her during the ride, mrs Mullin, the widowed owner of the carousel, tells Julie never to return.
Julie and her friend, Carrie Pipperidge, argue with mrs Mullin.
Billy arrives and, seeing that mrs Mullin is jealous, mocks her; he is fired from his job.
Billy, unconcerned, invites Julie to join him for a drink.
As he goes to get his belongings, Carrie presses Julie about her feelings toward him, but Julie is evasive ("You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan").
Carrie has a beau too, fisherman Enoch Snow ("(When I Marry) Mister Snow"), to whom she is newly engaged.
Billy returns for Julie as the departing Carrie warns that staying out late means the loss of Julie's job.
mr Bascombe, owner of the mill, happens by along with a policeman, and offers to escort Julie to her home, but she refuses and is fired.
Left alone, she and Billy talk about what life might be like if they were in love, but neither quite confesses to the growing attraction they feel for each other ("If I Loved You").
Over a month passes, and preparations for the summer clambake are under way ("June Is Bustin' Out All Over").
Julie and Billy, now married, live at Julie's cousin Nettie's spa.
Julie confides in Carrie that Billy, frustrated over being unemployed, hit her.
Carrie has happier news—she is engaged to Enoch, who enters as she discusses him ("(When I Marry) Mister Snow (reprise))".
Billy arrives with his ne'er-do-well whaler friend, Jigger.
The former barker is openly rude to Enoch and Julie, then leaves with Jigger, followed by a distraught Julie.
Enoch tells Carrie that he expects to become rich selling herring and to have a large family, larger perhaps than Carrie is comfortable having ("When the Children Are Asleep").
Jigger and his shipmates, joined by Billy, then sing about life on the sea ("Blow High, Blow Low").
The whaler tries to recruit Billy to help with a robbery, but Billy declines, as the victim—Julie's former boss, mr Bascombe—might have to be killed.
mrs Mullin enters and tries to tempt Billy back to the carousel (and to her).
He would have to abandon Julie; a married barker cannot evoke the same sexual tension as one who is single.
Billy reluctantly mulls it over as Julie arrives and the others leave.
She tells him that she is pregnant, and Billy is overwhelmed with happiness, ending all thoughts of returning to the carousel.
Once alone, Billy imagines the fun he will have with Bill Jr.
—until he realizes that his child might be a girl, and reflects soberly that "you've got to be a father to a girl" ("Soliloquy").
Determined to provide financially for his future child, whatever the means, Billy decides to be Jigger's accomplice.
The whole town leaves for the clambake.
Billy, who had earlier refused to go, agrees to join in, to Julie's delight, as he realizes that being seen at the clambake is integral to his and Jigger's alibi ("Act I Finale").
Everyone reminisces about the huge meal and much fun ("This Was a Real Nice Clambake").
Jigger tries to seduce Carrie; Enoch walks in at the wrong moment, and declares that he is finished with her ("Geraniums In the Winder"), as Jigger jeers ("There's Nothin' So Bad for a Woman").
The girls try to comfort Carrie, but for Julie all that matters is that "he's your feller and you love him" ("What's the Use of Wond'rin'.
").
Julie sees Billy trying to sneak away with Jigger and, trying to stop him, feels the knife hidden in his shirt.
She begs him to give it to her, but he refuses and leaves to commit the robbery.
As they wait, Jigger and Billy gamble with cards.
They stake their shares of the anticipated robbery spoils.
Billy loses: his participation is now pointless.
Unknown to Billy and Jigger, mr Bascombe, the intended victim, has already deposited the mill's money.
The robbery fails: Bascombe pulls a gun on Billy while Jigger escapes.
Billy stabs himself with his knife; Julie arrives just in time for him to say his last words to her and die.
Julie strokes his hair, finally able to tell him that she loved him.
Carrie and Enoch, reunited by the crisis, attempt to console Julie; Nettie arrives and gives Julie the resolve to keep going despite her despair ("You'll Never Walk Alone").
Billy's defiant spirit ("The Highest Judge of All") is taken Up There to see the Starkeeper, a heavenly official.
The Starkeeper tells Billy that the good he did in life was not enough to get into heaven, but so long as there is a person alive who remembers him, he can return for a day to try to do good to redeem himself.
He informs Billy that fifteen years have passed on Earth since the former barker's suicide, and suggests that Billy can get himself into heaven if he helps his daughter, Louise.
He helps Billy look down from heaven to see her (instrumental ballet: "Billy Makes a Journey").
Louise has grown up to be lonely and bitter.
The local children ostracize her because her father was a thief and a wife-beater.
In the dance, a young ruffian, much like her father at that age, flirts with her and abandons her as too young.
The dance concludes, and Billy is anxious to return to Earth and help his daughter.
He steals a star to take with him, as the Starkeeper pretends not to notice.
Outside Julie's cottage, Carrie describes her visit to New York with the now-wealthy Enoch.
Carrie's husband and their many children enter to fetch her—the family must get ready for the high school graduation later that day.
Enoch Jr, the oldest son, remains behind to talk with Louise, as Billy and the Heavenly Friend escorting him enter, invisible to the other characters.
Louise confides in Enoch Jr.
that she plans to run away from home with an acting troupe.
He says that he will stop her by marrying her, but that his father will think her an unsuitable match.
Louise is outraged: each insults the other's father, and Louise orders Enoch Jr.
to go away.
Billy, able to make himself visible at will, reveals himself to the sobbing Louise, pretending to be a friend of her father.
He offers her a gift—the star he stole from heaven.
She refuses it and, frustrated, he slaps her hand.
He makes himself invisible, and Louise tells Julie what happened, stating that the slap miraculously felt like a kiss, not a blow—and Julie understands her perfectly.
Louise retreats to the house, as Julie notices the star that Billy dropped; she picks it up and seems to feel Billy's presence ("If I Loved You (Reprise)").
Billy invisibly attends Louise's graduation, hoping for one last chance to help his daughter and redeem himself.
The beloved town physician, dr Seldon (who resembles the Starkeeper) advises the graduating class not to rely on their parents' success or be held back by their failure (words directed at Louise).
Seldon prompts everyone to sing an old song, "You'll Never Walk Alone".
Billy, still invisible, whispers to Louise, telling her to believe Seldon's words, and when she tentatively reaches out to another girl, she learns she does not have to be an outcast.
Billy goes to Julie, telling her at last that he loved her.
As his widow and daughter join in the singing, Billy is taken to his heavenly reward.
<EOS>
Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood "being of use" as a medical assistant to the director, dr Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks: After a traumatic misadventure with a prostitute as a young man, Wilbur turns his back on sex and love, choosing instead to help women with unwanted pregnancies give birth and then keeping the babies in an orphanage.
He makes a point of maintaining an emotional distance from the orphans, so that they can more easily make the transition into an adoptive family, but when it becomes clear that Homer is going to spend his entire childhood at the orphanage, Wilbur trains the orphan as an obstetrician and then comes to love him like a son.
Wilbur's and Homer's lives are complicated by Wilbur also secretly being an abortionist.
Wilbur came to this work reluctantly, but he is driven by having seen the horrors of back-alley operations.
Homer, upon learning Wilbur's secret, considers it morally wrong.
As a young man, Homer befriends a young couple, Candy Kendall and Wally Worthington, who come to st Cloud's for an abortion.
Homer leaves the orphanage, and returns with them to Ocean View Orchards (Wally's family's orchard) in Heart's Rock, near the Maine coast.
Wally and Homer become best friends and Homer develops a secret love for Candy.
Wally goes off to serve in the Second World War and his plane is shot down over Burma.
He is presumed missing by the military, but Homer and Candy both believe he is dead and move on with their lives, which includes beginning a romantic relationship.
When Candy becomes pregnant, they go back to st Cloud's Orphanage, where their son is born and named Angel.
Subsequently, Wally is found in Burma and returns home, paralyzed from the waist down.
He is still able to have sexual intercourse but is sterile due to an infection caught in Burma.
They lie to the family about Angel's parentage, claiming that Homer decided to adopt him.
Wally and Candy marry shortly afterward, but Candy and Homer maintain a secret affair that lasts some 15 years.
Many years later, teenaged Angel falls in love with Rose.
Rose, the daughter of the head migrant worker at the apple orchard, becomes pregnant by her father, and Homer performs an abortion on her.
Homer decides to return to the orphanage after the death of Wilbur, to work as the new director.
Though he maintains his distaste for abortions, he continues dr Larch's legacy of honoring the choice of his patients, and he dreams of the day when abortions are free, legal, and safe, so he'll no longer feel obliged to offer them.
A subplot follows the character Melony, who grew up alongside Homer in the orphanage.
She was Homer's first girlfriend in a relationship of circumstances.
After Homer leaves the orphanage, so does she in an effort to find him.
She eventually becomes an electrician and takes a female lover, Lorna.
Melony is an extremely stoic woman, who refuses to press charges against a man who brutally broke her nose and arm so that she can later take revenge herself.
She is the catalyst that transforms Homer from his comfortable but not entirely admirable position at the apple orchard to becoming dr Larch's replacement at the orphanage.
<EOS>
Chrono Cross features a diverse cast of 45 party members.
Each character is outfitted with an innate Element affinity and three unique special abilities that are learned over time.
If taken to the world opposite their own, characters react to their counterparts (if available).
Many characters tie in to crucial plot events.
Since it is impossible to obtain all 45 characters in one playthrough, players must replay the game to witness everything.
Through use of the New Game+ feature, players can ultimately obtain all characters on one save file.
Serge, the game's protagonist, is a 17-year-old boy with blue hair who lives in the fishing village of Arni.
One day, he slips into an alternate world in which he drowned ten years before.
Determined to find the truth behind the incident, he follows a predestined course that leads him to save the world.
He is assisted by Kid, a feisty, skilled thief who seeks the mythical Frozen Flame.
Portrayed as willful and tomboyish due to her rough, thieving past, she helps Serge sneak into Viper Manor in order to obtain the Frozen Flame.
Kid vows to find and defeat Lynx, an anthropomorphic panther who burned down her adopted mother's orphanage.
Lynx, a cruel agent of the supercomputer FATE, is bent on finding Serge and using his body as part of a greater plan involving the Frozen Flame.
Lynx travels with Harle, a mysterious, playful girl dressed like a harlequin.
Harle was sent by the Dragon God to shadow Lynx and one day steal the Frozen Flame from Chronopolis, a task she painfully fulfills despite being smitten with Serge.
To accomplish this goal, Harle helps Lynx manipulate the Acacia Dragoons, the powerful militia governing the islands of El Nido.
As the Dragoons maintain order, they contend with Fargo, a former Dragoon turned pirate captain who holds a grudge against their leader, General Viper.
Though tussling with Serge initially, the Acacia Dragoons—whose ranks include the fierce warriors Karsh, Zoah, Marcy, and Glenn—later assist him when the militaristic nation of Porre invades the archipelago.
The invasion brings Norris and Grobyc to the islands, a heartful commander of an elite force and a prototype cyborg soldier, respectively, as they too seek the Frozen Flame.
Chrono Cross begins with Serge located in El Nido, a tropical archipelago inhabited by ancient natives, mainland colonists, and beings called Demi-humans.
Serge slips into an alternate dimension in which he drowned on the beach ten years prior, and meets the thief, "Kid".
As his adventure proceeds from here, Serge is able to recruit a multitude of allies to his cause.
While assisting Kid in a heist Viper Manor to steal the Frozen Flame, he learns that ten years before the present, the universe split into two dimensions—one in which Serge lived, and one in which he perished.
Through Kid's Astral Amulet charm, Serge travels between the dimensions.
At Fort Dragonia the use of a Dragonian artifact called the Dragon Tear, Lynx switches bodies with Serge.
Unaware of the switch, Kid confides in Lynx, who stabs her as the real Serge helplessly watches.
Lynx boasts of his victory and banishes Serge to a strange realm called the Temporal Vortex.
He takes Kid under his wing, brainwashing her to believe the real Serge (in Lynx's body) is her enemy.
Serge escapes with help from Harle, although his new body turns him into a stranger in his own world, with all the allies he had gained up to that point abandoning him due to his new appearance.
Discovering that his new body prevents him from traveling across the dimensions, he sets out to regain his former body and learn more of the universal split that occurred ten years earlier, gaining a new band of allies along the way.
He travels to a forbidden lagoon known as the Dead Sea—a wasteland frozen in time, dotted with futuristic ruins.
At the center, he locates a man named Miguel and presumably Home world's Frozen Flame.
Charged with guarding the Dead Sea by an entity named FATE, Miguel and three visions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca from Chrono Trigger explain that Serge's existence dooms Home world's future to destruction at the hands of Lavos.
To prevent Serge from obtaining the Frozen Flame, FATE destroys the Dead Sea.
Able to return to Another world, Serge allies with the Acacia Dragoons against Porre and locates that dimension's Dragon Tear, allowing him to return to his human form.
He then enters the Sea of Eden, Another world's physical equivalent of the Dead Sea, finding a temporal research facility from the distant future called Chronopolis.
Lynx and Kid are inside; Serge defeats Lynx and the supercomputer FATE, allowing the six Dragons of El Nido to steal the Frozen Flame and retire to Terra Tower, a massive structure raised from the sea floor.
Kid falls into a coma, and Harle bids the party goodbye to fly with the Dragons.
Serge regroups his party and tends to Kid, who remains comatose.
Continuing his adventure, he obtains and cleanses the corrupted Masamune sword from Chrono Trigger.
He then uses the Dragon relics and shards of the Dragon Tears to create the mythic Element Chrono Cross.
The spiritual power of the Masamune later allows him to lift Kid from her coma.
At Terra Tower, the prophet of time, revealed to be Belthasar from Chrono Trigger, visits him with visions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca.
Serge learns that the time research facility Chronopolis created El Nido thousands of years ago after a catastrophic experimental failure drew it to the past.
The introduction of a temporally foreign object in history caused the planet to pull in a counterbalance from a different dimension.
This was Dinopolis, a city of Dragonians—parallel universe descendants of Chrono Trigger's Reptites.
The institutions warred and Chronopolis subjugated the Dragonians.
Humans captured their chief creation—the Dragon God, an entity capable of controlling nature.
Chronopolis divided this entity into six pieces and created an Elements system.
FATE then terraformed an archipelago, erased the memories of most Chronopolis's staff, and sent them to inhabit and populate its new paradise.
Thousands of years later, a panther demon attacked a three-year-old Serge.
His father took him to find assistance at Marbule, but Serge's boat blew off course due to a raging magnetic storm caused by Schala.
Schala, the princess of the Kingdom of Zeal, had long ago accidentally fallen to a place known as the Darkness Beyond Time and began merging with Lavos, the chief antagonist of Chrono Trigger.
Schala's storm nullified Chronopolis's defenses and allowed Serge to contact the Frozen Flame; approaching it healed Serge but corrupted his father.
A circuit in Chronopolis then designated Serge "Arbiter", simultaneously preventing FATE from using the Frozen Flame by extension.
The Dragons were aware of this situation, creating a seventh Dragon under the storm's cover named Harle, who manipulated Lynx to steal the Frozen Flame for the Dragons.
After Serge returned home, FATE sent Lynx to kill Serge, hoping that it would release the Arbiter lock.
Ten years after Serge drowned, the thief Kid—presumably on Belthasar's orders—went back in time to save Serge and split the dimensions.
FATE, locked out of the Frozen Flame again, knew that Serge would one day cross to Another world and prepared to apprehend him.
Lynx switched bodies with Serge to dupe the biological check of Chronopolis on the Frozen Flame.
Belthasar then reveals that these events were part of a plan he had orchestrated named Project Kid.
Serge continues to the top of Terra Tower and defeats the Dragon God.
Continuing to the beach where the split in dimensions had occurred, Serge finds apparitions of Crono, Marle, and Lucca once more.
They reveal that Belthasar's plan was to empower Serge to free Schala from melding with Lavos, lest they evolve into the "Time Devourer", a creature capable of destroying spacetime.
Lucca explains that Kid is Schala's clone, sent to the modern age to take part in Project Kid.
Serge uses a Time Egg—given to him by Belthasar—to enter the Darkness Beyond Time and vanquish the Time Devourer, separating Schala from Lavos and restores the dimensions to one.
Thankful, Schala muses on evolution and the struggle of life and returns Serge to his home, noting that he will forget the entire adventure.
She then seemingly records the experience in her diary, noting she will always be searching for Serge in this life and beyond, signing the entry as Schala "Kid" Zeal, implying that she and kid have merged and became whole again.
A wedding photo of Kid and an obscured male sits on the diary's desk.
Scenes then depict a real-life Kid searching for someone in a modern city, intending to make players entertain the possibility that their own Kid is searching for them.
The ambiguous ending leaves the events of the characters' lives following the game up to interpretation.
Chrono Cross employs story arcs, characters, and themes from , a Satellaview side story to Chrono Trigger released in Japan.
An illustrated text adventure, Radical Dreamers was created to wrap up an unresolved plot line of Chrono Trigger.
Though it borrows from Radical Dreamers in its exposition, Chrono Cross is not a remake of Radical Dreamers, but a larger effort to fulfill that game's purpose; the plots of the games are irreconcilable.
To resolve continuity issues and acknowledge Radical Dreamers, the developers of Chrono Cross suggested the game happened in a parallel dimension.
A notable difference between the two games is that Magus—present in Radical Dreamers as Gil—is absent from Chrono Cross.
Director Masato Kato originally planned for Magus to appear in disguise as Guile, but scrapped the idea due to plot difficulties.
In the DS version of Chrono Trigger, Kato teases the possibility of an amnesiac Magus.
<EOS>
As Dune begins, a longstanding feud exists between the Harkonnens of Giedi Prime and the Atreides of Caladan.
The Baron's intent to exterminate the Atreides line seems close to fruition as Duke Leto Atreides is lured to the desert planet Arrakis on the pretense of taking over the valuable melange operation there.
The Baron has an agent in the Atreides household: Leto's own physician, the trusted Suk doctor Wellington Yueh.
Though Suk Imperial Conditioning supposedly makes the subject incapable of inflicting harm, the Baron's twisted Mentat Piter De Vries notes:  It's assumed that ultimate conditioning cannot be removed without killing the subject.
However, as someone once observed, given the right lever you can move a planet.
We found the lever that moved the doctor.
The Baron has taken Yueh's wife Wanna prisoner, threatening her with interminable torture unless Yueh complies with his demands.
Harkonnen also distracts Leto's Mentat Thufir Hawat from discovering Yueh by guiding Hawat toward another suspect: Leto's Bene Gesserit concubine Lady Jessica.
The Atreides are soon attacked by Harkonnen forces (secretly supplemented by the seemingly unstoppable Imperial Sardaukar) as Yueh disables the protective shields around the Atreides palace on Arrakis.
As instructed, Yueh takes Leto prisoner; however, desiring to slay the Baron, Yueh provides the captive Leto with a fake tooth filled with poisonous gas as a means of simultaneous assassination and suicide.
De Vries kills Yueh but he also dies with Leto in the assassination attempt; however Harkonnen survives.
The Baron then manipulates Hawat into his service, by convincing Hawat that Lady Jessica was the traitor and using Hawat's desire for revenge on Lady Jessica and the Emperor as motivation to assist House Harkonnen.
Leto and Jessica's son Paul Atreides flee into the desert with Jessica, and both are presumed dead.
Paul's prescience helps him determine the identity of Jessica's father, the "maternal grandfather who cannot be named" — the Baron himself.
Over the next two years, Harkonnen learns that his nephews Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha are conspiring against him to usurp his throne; he lets them continue to do so, reasoning that they have to somehow learn to organize a conspiracy.
As punishment for a failed assassination attempt against him, Harkonnen forces Feyd to single-handedly slaughter all the female slaves who serve as Feyd's lovers.
He explains that Feyd has to learn the price of failure.
The Baron's plan to assure Feyd's power is to install him as ruler of Arrakis after a period of tyrannical misrule by Rabban, making Feyd appear to be the savior of the people.
However, a crisis on Arrakis begins when the mysterious Muad'Dib emerges as a leader of the native Fremen tribes against the rule of the Harkonnens.
Eventually, a series of Fremen victories against Beast Rabban threaten to disrupt the trade of the spice.
The Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV decides to intervene himself and arrives on Arrakis along with legions of Sardaukar forces.
Shaddam and the Baron are shocked to learn that Muad'Dib is, of course, a very-much-alive Paul Atreides.
The Imperial forces fall prey to a surprise attack by the Fremen.
Part of the Fremen/Atreides strategy is to wait until a sandstorm shorts out the force field shields of the Harkonnen/Imperial transport ships, disable them with projectile weapons, and then attack with a vast assault force, using sandworms under cover of the severe weather to break the enemy lines.
The Sardaukar and Harkonnen forces are trapped on the planet, astonished at the sandworm mounts and vast numbers of their attackers.
Their past ruthlessness gives them little hope of quarter from the enraged Fremen.
Rabban dies in the initial part of the battle; the Harkonnen army is massacred to the last man and almost all the Imperial Sardaukar are killed.
Baron Harkonnen himself is poisoned with a gom jabbar by Paul's young sister Alia Atreides, his own granddaughter, and dies at the age of 83, with the latter also revealing her direct lineage to him just beforehand.
Paul then kills Feyd in ritual combat.
House Harkonnen's virtual extermination removes it as a galactic power, but Paul's ascension to the Imperial throne in Shaddam's place guarantees that Vladimir's descendants will long reign as the Imperial House Atreides.
Alia had been born with her ancestral memories in the womb, a circumstance the Bene Gesserit refer to as Abomination, because in their experience it is inevitable that the individual will become possessed by the personality of one of their ancestors.
In Children of Dune, Alia falls victim to this prediction when she shares control of her body with the ego-memory of the Baron Harkonnen, and eventually falls under his power.
Alia eventually commits suicide, realizing that Harkonnen's consciousness has surpassed her abilities to contain him.
In the Prelude to Dune prequel series by Brian Herbert and Anderson, it is established that Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is the son and heir of Dmitri Harkonnen and his wife Victoria.
Harkonnen's father had been the head of House Harkonnen and ruled the planet Giedi Prime.
Trained since youth as a possible successor, Vladimir had been eventually chosen over his half-brother Abulurd (namesake of the original).
Unhappy with his brother's doings, Abulurd eventually marries Emmi Rabban and renounces the family name and his rights to the title.
Under the name Abulurd Rabban, he reigns as governor of the secondary Harkonnen planet Lankiveil.
Abulurd and his wife have two sons: Glossu Rabban (later nicknamed "Beast Rabban" after he murders his own father) and Feyd-Rautha; Vladimir later adopts the boys back into House Harkonnen, and Feyd becomes his designated heir.
The Baron's most prominent political rival is Duke Leto Atreides; the Harkonnens and the Atreides have been bitter enemies for millennia, since the Battle of Corrin that ended the Butlerian Jihad.
When Emperor Shaddam IV orchestrates a plot to destroy the "Red Duke" Leto, the Baron eagerly lends his aid.
The young Baron Vladimir is described as an exceedingly handsome man, possessing red hair and a near-perfect physique.
The Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam is instructed by the Sisterhood to collect the genetic material of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (through conception) for their breeding program.
As the Baron's homosexuality is something of an open secret, Mohiam blackmails him into having sexual relations with her and conceives his child.
When that daughter proves genetically undesirable, Mohiam kills her and returns to Harkonnen for a second try; at this point he drugs and viciously rapes her.
She exacts her retribution by infecting him with a rare, incurable disease that later causes his obesity.
Mohiam's second child with the Baron is Jessica.
In , the deteriorating Baron at first walks with the assistance of a cane, then relies on belt-mounted suspensors to retain mobility.
He consults numerous doctors in the expanse of time between the and Dune: House Harkonnen, up to and including his future instrument dr Yueh, all of whom are ultimately no help.
To conceal this debilitation, he pretends that his obesity is due to intentional overindulgence, lest the Landsraad remove him from power.
When he determines that Mohiam inflicted him with the disease, he attempts to coerce her into revealing the cure, but soon discovers that there is none.
The Baron, Duke Leto, and Jessica herself are unaware that Jessica is secretly the Baron's daughter or that he has even fathered one; in the year 10,176, the Baron's grandson Paul is born to Leto and Jessica.
In Hunters of Dune (2006), the continuation of the original series by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, the Baron is resurrected as a ghola (5,029 years after the death of Alia) by the Lost Tleilaxu Uxtal, acting on orders from the Face Dancer Khrone.
Khrone intends to use the Baron ghola to manipulate a ghola of Paul Atreides, named Paolo.
Khrone tries various torture techniques for three years to awaken the 12-year-old Baron's genetic memories; these methods fail due to the Baron's sadomasochistic nature.
Khrone is successful when he imprisons the Baron in a sensory deprivation tank for a prolonged period; the Baron's memories of his former life return.
Ironically, the reincarnated Baron is soon haunted by the voice of Alia in his mind; the source of this inner Alia is never explained.
<EOS>
Saloon owner Kent (Brian Donlevy), the unscrupulous boss of the fictional Western town of Bottleneck, has the town's sheriff, mr Keogh (Joe King), killed when Keogh asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game.
Kent and "Frenchy" (Marlene Dietrich), his girlfriend and the dance hall queen, now have a stranglehold over the local cattle ranchers.
The crooked town's mayor, Hiram Slade (Samuel Hinds), who is in collusion with Kent, appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale (Charles Winninger), as the new sheriff, assuming that he will be easy to control and manipulate.
But what the mayor does not know is that Dimsdale was a deputy under the famous lawman, Tom Destry, and is able to call upon the latter's equally formidable son, Tom Destry, Jr.
(James Stewart), to help him make Bottleneck a lawful, respectable town.
Destry confounds the townsfolk by refusing to strap on a gun in spite of demonstrating that he is an expert marksman.
He still carries out the "letter of the law", as deputy sheriff, and earns their respect.
A final confrontation between Destry and Kent's gang is inevitable, but "Frenchy" is won over by Destry and changes sides.
A final gunfight ensues where Frenchy is killed in the crossfire, and the rule of law wins the day.
<EOS>
The story is told in epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, and ships' log entries, whose narrators are the novel's protagonists, and occasionally supplemented with newspaper clippings relating events not directly witnessed.
The events portrayed in the novel take place chronologically and largely in England and Transylvania during the 1890s and all transpire within the same year between the 3rd of May and the 6th of November.
A short note is located at the end of the final chapter written 7 years after the events outlined in the novel.
The tale begins with Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, visiting Count Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Transylvania, Bukovina, and Moldavia, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer, Mr Peter Hawkins of Exeter.
At first enticed by Dracula's gracious manners, Harker soon realizes that he is Dracula's prisoner.
Wandering the Count's castle against Dracula's admonition, Harker encounters three female vampires, called "the sisters", from whom he is rescued by Dracula.
After the preparations are made, Dracula leaves Transylvania and abandons Harker to the sisters.
Harker barely escapes from the castle with his life.
Not long afterward, a Russian ship, the Demeter, having weighed anchor at Varna, runs aground on the shores of Whitby in the east coast of England.
The captain's log narrates the gradual disappearance of the entire crew, until the captain alone remained, himself bound to the helm to maintain course.
An animal resembling "a large dog" is seen leaping ashore.
The ship's cargo is described as silver sand and 50 boxes of "mould", or earth, from Transylvania.
It is later learned that Dracula successfully purchased multiple estates under the alias 'Count De Ville' throughout London and devised to distribute the 50 boxes to each of them utilizing transportation services as well as moving them himself.
He does this to secure for himself "lairs" and the 50 boxes of earth would be used as his graves which would grant safety and rest during times of feeding and replenishing his strength.
Soon Dracula is indirectly shown to be stalking Lucy Westenra, who is holidaying in Whitby.
As time passes she begins to suffer from episodes of sleepwalking and dementia, as witnessed by her friend Mina Murray, the fiancée of Jonathan Harker.
Lucy receives three marriage proposals from dr John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood (the son of Lord Godalming who later obtains the title himself).
Lucy accepts Holmwood's proposal while turning down Seward and Morris, but all remain friends.
Dracula communicates with Seward's patient Renfield, an insane man who wishes to consume insects, spiders, birds, and rats to absorb their "life force".
Renfield is able to detect Dracula's presence and supplies clues accordingly.
When Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously, Seward invites his old teacher, Abraham Van Helsing, who immediately determines the true cause of Lucy's condition.
He refuses to disclose it but diagnoses her with acute blood-loss.
Helsing prescribes numerous blood transfusions to which dr Seward, Helsing, Quincey and Arthur all contribute over time.
Helsing also prescribes flowers to be placed throughout her room and weaves a necklace of withered Garlic Blossoms for her to wear as well.
She however continues to waste away - appearing to lose blood every night.
While both doctors are absent, Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf; mrs Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright.
Van Helsing attempts to protect her with garlic but fate thwarts him each night, whether Lucy's mother removes the garlic from her room, or Lucy herself does so in her restless sleep.
The doctors have found two small puncture marks about her neck, which dr Seward is at a loss to understand.
After Lucy dies, Helsing places a golden crucifix over her mouth, ostensibly to delay or prevent Lucy's vampiric conversion.
Fate conspires against him again when Helsing finds the crucifix in the possession of one of the servants who stole it off Lucy's corpse.
Following Lucy's death and burial, the newspapers report children being stalked in the night by a "bloofer lady" (ie, "beautiful lady").
Van Helsing, knowing Lucy has become a vampire, confides in Seward, Lord Godalming, and Morris.
The suitors and Van Helsing track her down and, after a confrontation with her, stake her heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic.
Around the same time, Jonathan Harker arrives from Budapest, where Mina marries him after his escape, and he and Mina join the campaign against Dracula.
The vampire hunters stay at dr Seward's residence, holding nightly meetings and providing reports based on each of their various tasks.
Mina discovers that each of their journals and letters collectively contain clues to which they can track him down.
She tasks herself with collecting them, researching newspaper clippings, fitting the most relevant entries into chronological order and typing out copies to distribute to each of the party which they are to study.
Jonathan Harker tracks down the shipments of boxed graves and the estates which Dracula has purchased in order to store them.
Van Helsing conducts research along with dr Seward to analyze the behaviour of their patient Renfield who they learn is directly influenced by Dracula.
They also research historical events, folklore, and superstitions from various cultures to understand Dracula's powers and weaknesses.
Van Helsing also establishes a criminal profile on Dracula in order to better understand his actions and predict his movements.
Arthur Holmwood's fortune assists in funding the entire operation and expenses.
As they learn the various properties Dracula had purchased, the male protagonists team up to raid each property and are several times confronted by Dracula.
As they discover each of the boxed graves scattered throughout London, they pry them open to place and seal wafers of sacramental bread within.
This act renders the boxes of earth completely useless to Dracula as he is unable to open, enter or further transport them.
After Dracula learns of the group's plot against him, he attacks Mina on three occasions, and feeds Mina his own blood to control her.
This curses Mina with vampirism and changes her but does not completely turn her into a vampire.
Van Helsing attempts to bless Mina through prayer and by placing a wafer of sacrament against her forehead, although it burns her upon contact leaving a wretched scar.
Under this curse, Mina oscillates from consciousness to a semi-trance during which she perceives Dracula's surroundings and actions.
Van Helsing is able to use hypnotism at the hour of dawn and put her into this trance to further track his movements.
Mina, afraid of Dracula's link with her, urges the team not to tell her their plans out of fear that Dracula will be listening.
After the protagonists discover and sterilize 49 boxes found throughout his lairs in London, they learn that Dracula has fled with the missing 50th box back to his castle in Transylvania.
They pursue him under the guidance of Mina.
They split up into teams once they reach Europe; Van Helsing and Mina team up to locate the castle of Dracula while the others attempt to ambush the boat Dracula is using to reach his home.
Van Helsing raids the castle and destroys the vampire "sisters".
Upon discovering Dracula being transported by Gypsies, Harker shears Dracula through the throat with a kukri while the mortally wounded Quincey stabs the Count in the heart with a Bowie knife.
Dracula crumbles to dust, and Mina is freed from her curse of vampirism.
The book closes with a note left by Jonathan Harker seven years after the events of the novel, detailing his married life with Mina and the birth of their son, whom they name after all four members of the party, but address as "Quincey".
Quincey is depicted sitting on the knee of Van Helsing as they recount their adventure.
The short story "Dracula's Guest" was posthumously published in 1914, two years after Stoker's death.
It was, according to most contemporary critics, the deleted first (or second) chapter from the original manuscript and the one which gave the volume its name, but which the original publishers deemed unnecessary to the overall story.
"Dracula's Guest" follows an unnamed Englishman traveller as he wanders around Munich before leaving for Transylvania.
It is Walpurgis Night and the young Englishman foolishly leaves his hotel, in spite of the coachman's warnings, and wanders through a dense forest alone.
Along the way, he feels that he is being watched by a tall and thin stranger (possibly Count Dracula).
The short story climaxes in an old graveyard, where the Englishman encounters a sleeping female vampire called Countess Dolingen in a marble tomb with a large iron stake driven into it.
This malevolent and beautiful vampire awakens from her marble bier to conjure a snowstorm before being struck by lightning and returning to her eternal prison.
However, the Englishman's troubles are not quite over, as he is dragged away by an unseen force and rendered unconscious.
He awakens to find a "gigantic" wolf lying on his chest and licking at his throat; however, the wolf merely keeps him warm and protects him until help arrives.
When the Englishman is finally taken back to his hotel, a telegram awaits him from his expectant host Dracula, with a warning about "dangers from snow and wolves and night".
A small section was removed from a draft of the final chapter, in which Dracula's castle falls apart as he dies, hiding the fact that vampires were ever there.
<EOS>
Five years after the events of Maniac Mansion, Purple Tentacle—a mutant monster and lab assistant created by mad scientist dr Fred Edison—drinks toxic sludge from a river behind dr Fred's laboratory.
The sludge causes him to grow a pair of flipper-like arms, develop vastly increased intelligence and a thirst for global domination.
dr Fred plans to resolve the issue by killing Purple Tentacle and his harmless, friendly brother Green Tentacle, but Green Tentacle sends a plea of help to his old friend, the nerd Bernard Bernoulli.
Bernard travels to the Edison family motel with his two housemates, deranged medical student Laverne and roadie Hoagie, and frees the tentacles.
Purple Tentacle escapes to resume his quest to take over the world.
Since Purple Tentacle's plans are flawless and unstoppable, dr Fred decides to use his Chron-o-John time machines to send Bernard, Laverne and Hoagie to the day before to turn off his Sludge-o-Matic machine, thereby preventing Purple Tentacle's exposure to the sludge.
However, because dr Fred used an imitation diamond rather than a real diamond as a power source for the time machine, the Chron-o-Johns breaks down in operation.
Laverne is sent 200 years in the future, where humanity has been enslaved and Purple Tentacle rules the world from the Edison mansion, while Hoagie is dropped 200 years in the past, where the motel is being used by the Founding Fathers as a retreat to write the United States Constitution.
Bernard is returned to the present.
To salvage dr Fred's plan, Bernard must acquire a replacement diamond for the time machine, while Hoagie and Laverne must restore power to their respective Chron-o-John pods by plugging them in.
To overcome the lack of electricity in the past, Hoagie recruits the help of Benjamin Franklin and dr Fred's ancestor, Red Edison, to build a superbattery to power his pod, while Laverne evades capture by the tentacles long enough to run an extension cord to her unit.
The three send small objects back and forth in time through the Chron-o-Johns and make changes to history to help the others complete their tasks.
Eventually, Bernard uses dr Fred's family fortune of royalties from the Maniac Mansion TV series to purchase a real diamond, both Laverne and Hoagie manage to power their Chron-o-Johns, and the three are reunited in the present.
Purple Tentacle arrives, hijacks a Chron-o-John and takes it to the previous day to prevent them from turning off the sludge machine; he is pursued by Green Tentacle in another pod.
With only one Chron-o-John pod left, Bernard, Hoagie and Laverne use it to pursue the tentacles to the previous day, while dr Fred uselessly tries to warn them of using the pod together, referencing the film The Fly.
Upon arriving, the trio exit the pod only to discover that they have been turned into a three-headed monster, their bodies merging into one during the transfer.
Meanwhile, Purple Tentacle has used the time machine to bring countless of versions of himself from different moments in time to the same day to prevent the Sludge-o-Matic from being deactivated.
Bernard and his friends defeat the Purple Tentacles guarding the Sludge-o-Matic, turn off the machine and prevent the whole series of events from ever happening.
Returning to the present, dr Fred discovers that the three have not been turned into a monster at all but have just gotten stuck in the same set of clothes; they are then ordered by dr Fred to get out of his house.
The game ends with the credits rolling over a tentacle-shaped American flag, one of the more significant results of their tampering in history.
<EOS>
Nobita is a young boy who suffers from poor grades and frequent bullying.
In order to improve the life of his descendants, the robotic cat Doraemon is sent back in time by one of those descendants to protect and guide Nobita.
Doraemon has a pocket from which he produces items known as "gadgets", which range from toy and medicines, to technology from the future.
Some of these include the "bamboo-copter", a small head accessory that allows flight and the "Anywhere Door", a door that opens up to any place the user wishes.
Nobita's closest friend is Shizuka Minamoto, who also serves as his romantic interest.
Nobita is usually tormented by the bullying Takeshi Goda (nicknamed "Gian"), and the cunning and arrogant Suneo Honekawa.
A typical story consists of Doraemon using one of his gadgets in order to assist Nobita in various ways, often causing more trouble than he was trying to solve.
<EOS>
Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) is a sexually frustrated housewife who is in therapy with New York City psychiatrist dr Robert Elliott (Michael Caine).
During an appointment, Kate attempts to seduce him, but Elliott rejects her advances.
Kate goes to the Metropolitan Museum where she has an unexpected flirtation with a mysterious stranger.
Kate and the stranger stalk each other through the museum until they finally wind up outside, where Kate joins him in a taxi.
They begin to have sex and continue at his apartment.
Hours later, Kate awakens and decides to discreetly leave while the man, Warren Lockman (Ken Baker), is asleep.
Kate sits at his desk to leave him a note and finds a document indicating that Warren has contracted a sexually transmitted disease.
Mortified, she leaves the apartment.
In her haste, she has left her wedding ring on the nightstand, so she returns to retrieve it.
The elevator doors open on the figure of a tall, blond woman in dark sunglasses wielding a straight razor.
Kate is violently slashed to death in the elevator.
A high-priced call girl, Liz Blake (Nancy Allen), happens upon the body.
She catches a glimpse of the killer, therefore becoming both the prime suspect and the killer's next target.
dr Elliott receives a bizarre message on his answering machine from "Bobbi" (voice of William Finley), a transgender patient.
Bobbi taunts the psychiatrist for breaking off their therapy sessions, apparently because Elliott refuses to sign the necessary papers for Bobbi to get a sex change operation.
Elliott tries to convince dr Levy (David Margulies), the patient's new doctor, that Bobbi is a danger to herself and others.
Police Detective Marino (Dennis Franz) is skeptical about Liz's story, partly because of her profession, so Liz joins forces with Kate's revenge-minded son Peter (Keith Gordon) to find the killer.
Peter, an inventor, uses a series of homemade listening devices and time-lapse cameras to track patients leaving Elliott's office.
They catch Bobbi on camera, and soon Liz is being stalked by a tall blonde in sunglasses.
Several attempts are subsequently made on Liz's life.
One, in the New York City Subway, is thwarted by Peter, who sprays Bobbi with homemade mace.
Liz and Peter scheme to learn Bobbi's real name by getting inside dr Elliott's office.
Liz baits the therapist by stripping to lingerie and coming on to him, distracting him long enough to make a brief exit and leaf through his appointment book.
Peter is watching through the window when a blonde pulls him away.
When Liz returns, a blonde with a razor confronts her; the blonde outside shoots and wounds the blonde inside, the wig falls off, and it is dr Elliott, revealing that he is also Bobbi.
The blonde who shot Bobbi is actually a female police officer, revealing herself to be the blonde who has been trailing Liz.
Elliott is arrested and placed in an insane asylum.
dr Levy explains later to Liz that Elliott wanted to be a woman, but his male side would not allow him to go through with the operation.
Whenever a woman sexually aroused Elliott, Bobbi, representing the unstable, female side of the doctor's personality, became threatened to the point that it finally became murderous.
When dr Levy realised this through his last conversation with Elliott, he called the police on the spot, who then, with his help, did their duty.
In a final sequence, Elliott escapes from the asylum and slashes Liz's throat in a bloody act of vengeance.
She wakes up screaming, Peter rushing to her side, realizing that it was just a dream.
<EOS>
Doom, a science fiction/horror themed video game, has a background which is given in the game's instruction manual; the rest of the story is advanced with short messages displayed between each section of the game (called episodes), the action as the player character progresses through the levels, and some visual cues.
The player takes the role of an unnamed space marine ("Doomguy") who has been punitively posted to Mars after assaulting his commanding officer, who ordered his unit to fire on civilians.
The Martian space marine base acts as security for the Union Aerospace Corporation, a multi-planetary conglomerate, which is performing secret experiments with teleportation by creating gateways between the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.
Mars is considered by space marines to be the dullest assignment imaginable.
This all changes when the UAC experiments go horribly wrong.
Computer systems on Phobos malfunction, Deimos disappears entirely, and "something fragging evil" starts pouring out of the gateway, killing or possessing all UAC personnel.
Responding to a frantic distress call from the overrun scientists, the Martian marine unit is quickly sent by ship from Mars to Phobos to investigate, where the player character is left to guard the perimeter with only a pistol while the rest of the group proceeds inside.
The marine hears assorted radio messages, gunfire, and screams, followed by silence: "Seems your buddies are dead".
The player cannot navigate the ship off of Phobos alone and sees that the only way out is to fight through the Phobos complex.
As the last man standing, the player character's mission is to fight through the entire onslaught of demonic enemies by himself in order to keep them from attacking Earth.
Knee-Deep in the Dead, the first episode and the only one in the shareware version, is set in the high-tech military bases, power plants, computer centers and geological anomalies on Phobos.
It ends with the player character entering the teleporter leading to Deimos, only to be overwhelmed by monsters.
In the second episode, The Shores of Hell, the marine has successfully teleported to Deimos.
He fights his way through installations on Deimos, similar to those on Phobos, but warped and distorted from the demon invasion and interwoven with beastly architecture.
After defeating the titanic Cyberdemon, the marine discovers the truth about the vanished moon: it is floating above Hell.
The third episode, called Inferno, begins after the marine climbs off Deimos to the surface.
The marine fights his way through Hell and defeats the Spider Mastermind that planned the invasion.
Then a hidden doorway back to Earth opens for the hero, who has "proven too tough for Hell to contain".
However, a burning city and a rabbit's head impaled on a stake (named in The Ultimate Doom as the marine's pet rabbit, Daisy) show that the demons have invaded Earth, setting the stage for.
In The Ultimate Doom expansion, in the fourth episode Thy Flesh Consumed, it tells that the marine fought valiantly against the hordes of demons that the Spider Mastermind sent through that hidden doorway but ultimately the forces of Hell prevailed in the invasion of Earth.
The locales of Thy Flesh Consumed are varied, including a mix of high-tech bases and demonic temples, though the atmosphere appears to be Earth.
<EOS>
Diablo II takes place after the end of the previous game, Diablo, in the world of Sanctuary.
In Diablo, an unnamed warrior defeated Diablo and attempted to contain the Lord of Terror's essence within his own body.
Since then, the hero has become corrupted by the demon's spirit, causing demons to enter the world around him and wreak havoc.
A band of adventurers who pass through the Rogue Encampment hear these stories of destruction and attempt to find out the cause of the evil, starting with this corrupted "Dark Wanderer".
As the story develops, the truth behind this corruption is revealed: the soulstones were originally designed to capture the Prime Evils who were banished to the mortal realm after being overthrown by the Lesser Evils.
With the corruption of Diablo's soulstone, the demon is able to control the Dark Wanderer.
The soulstone of another demon, Baal, was united with the mage Tal-Rasha, who volunteered to absorb Baal's spirit in his own body and be imprisoned in a tomb.
As the story progresses, cut scenes show the Dark Wanderer's journey as a drifter named Marius follows him.
The player realizes that the Dark Wanderer's mission is to reunite with the other prime evils, Baal and Mephisto.
The story is divided up into four acts:  In the epilogue, Marius, speaking in a prison cell, indicates he was too weak to enter Hell, and that he fears the stone's effects on him.
He gives the soulstone to his visitor.
The visitor reveals himself to be Baal, the last surviving Prime Evil now in possession of his own soulstone.
He then kills Marius and sets the prison cell on fire.
The story continues in the expansion where Baal attempts to corrupt the mythical Worldstone on Mount Arreat.
Upon returning to the Pandemonium Fortress after defeating Diablo, Tyrael opens a portal to send the adventurers to Arreat.
<EOS>
Twelve years after the events described in Dune (1965), Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides rules as Emperor.
By accepting the role of messiah to the Fremen, Paul had unleashed a jihad which conquered most of the known universe.
While Paul is the most powerful emperor ever known, he is powerless to stop the lethal excesses of the religious juggernaut he has created.
Although 61 billion people have perished, Paul's prescient visions indicate that this is far from the worst possible outcome for humanity.
Motivated by this knowledge, Paul hopes to set humanity on a course that will not inevitably lead to stagnation and destruction, while at the same time acting as ruler of the empire and focal point of the Fremen religion.
The Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, and Tleilaxu enter into a conspiracy to dethrone Paul, and the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam enlists Paul's own consort Princess Irulan, daughter of the deposed Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.
Paul has refused to father a child with Irulan (or even touch her), but his Fremen concubine Chani has also failed to produce an heir, causing tension within his monarchy.
Desperate both to secure her place in the Atreides dynasty and to preserve the Atreides bloodline for the Bene Gesserit breeding program, Irulan has secretly been giving contraceptives to Chani.
Paul is aware of this fact, but has foreseen that the birth of his heir will bring Chani's death, and does not want to lose her.
He sees this in a terrifying vision of a moon that falls from the sky of Dune.
Because of the way oracles interfere with one another's prescience, the Guild Navigator Edric is able to shield the conspiracy from Paul's visions of the future.
The Tleilaxu Face Dancer Scytale gives Paul a gift he cannot resist: a Tleilaxu-grown ghola of the deceased Duncan Idaho, Paul's childhood teacher and friend, now called "Hayt".
The conspirators hope the presence of Hayt will undermine Paul's ability to rule by forcing Paul to question himself and the empire he has created.
Furthermore, Paul's acceptance of the gift weakens his support among the Fremen, who see the Tleilaxu and their tools as unclean.
Chani, taking matters into her own hands, switches to a traditional Fremen fertility diet, preventing Irulan from being able to tamper with her food, and soon becomes pregnant.
Otheym, one of Paul's former Fedaykin death commandos, reveals evidence of a Fremen conspiracy against Paul.
Otheym gives Paul his dwarf Tleilaxu servant Bijaz, who like a recording machine, can remember faces, names, and details.
Paul accepts reluctantly, seeing the strands of a Tleilaxu plot.
As Paul's soldiers attack the conspirators, others set off an atomic weapon called a stone burner, purchased from the Tleilaxu, that destroys the area and blinds Paul.
By tradition, all blind Fremen are abandoned in the desert, but Paul shocks the Fremen and entrenches his godhood by proving he can still see, even without eyes.
His oracular powers have become so developed that he can foresee in his mind everything that happens, as though his eyes still function.
By moving through his life in lockstep with his visions, he can see even the slightest details of the world around him.
The disadvantage of this is his inability to change any part of his destiny, trapping him in a hellish boredom.
The unraveling of the Fremen conspiracy reveals that Korba, a former Fedaykin and now high priest of Paul's church, is among Paul's enemies.
Duncan interrogates Bijaz, but the little man—actually an agent of the Tleilaxu—uses a specific humming intonation that renders Duncan open to implanted commands.
Bijaz programs Duncan to offer Paul a bargain when Chani dies: Chani's rebirth as a ghola, and the hope that Duncan Idaho's memories might be reawakened, in return for Paul sacrificing the throne and going into exile.
Bijaz also implants a compulsion that will force Duncan to attempt to kill Paul, given the appropriate circumstances.
Duncan remains oblivious of the programming.
Eventually, news is brought that Chani has died giving birth.
The grief of his loss is the falling moon that he foresaw in an earlier vision, and Paul stumbles, truly blind now, having removed himself from the prison of his own precise vision.
Paul's reaction to his wife's death triggers the compulsions in the mind of Duncan, who attempts to kill Paul.
Rather than kill his beloved Paul, though, Duncan's ghola body reacts against its own programming and recovers Duncan's full consciousness.
He remains conscious of the Zen-Sunni and Mentat training given to Duncan by the Tleilaxu, but is no longer bound to their programming.
Paul and Chani's newborn twins are "pre-born", like Paul's sister Alia had been, and come into the world fully conscious with Kwisatz Haderach-like access to ancestral memories thanks to a combination of their genes and an in utero exposure to the quantities of spice in Chani's special pregnancy diet.
Scytale offers to revive Chani as a ghola in return for all of Paul's CHOAM holdings.
Paul refuses to submit to the possibility that the Tleilaxu might program Chani in some diabolical way, and Scytale threatens the infants with a knife while he negotiates with Alia.
By successfully escaping the oracular trap and setting the universe on a new path, Paul has been rendered completely blind, yet he is able to kill Scytale with an accurately aimed dagger due to a vision from his son's perspective.
Now prophetically and physically blind, Paul chooses to embrace the Fremen tradition of a blind man walking alone into the desert, winning the fealty of the Fremen for his children, who will inherit his mantle of emperor.
Paul leaves Alia, now romantically involved with Duncan, as regent for the twins, whom he has named Leto and Ghanima.
Duncan notes the irony that Paul and Chani's deaths had enabled them to triumph against their enemies, and that Paul has escaped deification by walking into the desert as a man, while guaranteeing Fremen support for the Atreides line.
<EOS>
Duke Nukem 3D is set on Earth "sometime in the early 21st century".
The levels of Duke Nukem 3D take players outdoors and indoors through rendered street scenes, military bases, deserts, a flooded city, space stations, moon bases, and a Japanese restaurant.
The game contains several humorous references to pop culture.
Some of Duke's lines are drawn from movies such as Aliens, Dirty Harry, Evil Dead II, Full Metal Jacket, Jaws, Pulp Fiction, and They Live; the mutated women saying "Kill me" is a reference to Aliens.
Players will encounter corpses of famous characters such as Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, Snake Plissken, the protagonist of Doom, and a smashed T-800.
In the first episode, players navigate a tunnel in the wall of a prison cell hidden behind a poster, just like in The Shawshank Redemption.
During the second episode, players can see The Monolith (from ) on the moon.
In the bathroom of the first level, 867-5309 is written on a wall.
The game cover itself is a parody of Army of Darkness, with Duke posing as Ash Williams.
There is little story in the game, only a brief text prelude located under "Help" in the Main Menu, and a few cutscenes after the completion of an episode.
The game picks up right after the events of Duke Nukem II, with Duke returning to Earth in his space cruiser.
As Duke descends on Los Angeles in hopes of taking a vacation, his ship is shot down by unknown hostiles.
While sending a distress signal, Duke learns that aliens are attacking Los Angeles and have mutated the LAPD.
With his vacation plans now ruined, Duke hits the "eject" button, and vows to do whatever it takes to stop the alien invasion.
In "Episode One:A.
Meltdown", Duke fights his way through a dystopian Los Angeles.
At a strip club, he is captured by pig-cops, but escapes the alien-controlled penitentiary and tracks down the alien cruiser responsible for the invasion in the San Andreas Fault.
Duke discovers that the aliens were capturing women, and detonates the ship.
Levels in this episode include a movie theater, a Red Light District, a prison, and a nuclear-waste disposal facility.
In "Episode Two: Lunar Apocalypse", Duke journeys to space, where he finds many of the captured women held in various incubators throughout space stations that had been conquered by the aliens.
Duke reaches the alien mothership on the Moon and kills an alien Overlord.
As Duke inspects the ship's computer, it is revealed that the plot to capture women was merely a ruse to distract him.
The aliens have already begun their attack on Earth.
In "Episode Three: Shrapnel City", Duke battles the massive alien resistance through Los Angeles once again, and kills the leader of alien menace: the Cycloid Emperor.
The game ends as Duke promises that after some "R&R", he will be ".
ready for more action.
", as an anonymous woman calls him back to bed.
Levels in this episode include a sushi bar, a movie set, a subway, and a hotel.
The story continues in the Atomic Edition.
In "Episode Four: The Birth", it is revealed that the aliens used a captured woman to give birth to the Alien Queen, a creature which can quickly spawn deadly alien protector drones.
Duke is dispatched back to Los Angeles to fight hordes of aliens, including the protector drones.
Eventually, Duke finds the lair of the Alien Queen, and kills her, thus thwarting the alien plot.
Levels in this episode include a fast-food restaurant ("Duke Burger"), a supermarket, a Disneyland parody called "Babe Land," a police station, the Exxon Valdez, and Area 51.
With the release of 20th Anniversary World Tour, the story progress further.
In "Episode Five: Alien World Order", Duke finds out that the aliens initiated a world-scale invasion, so he sets out to repel their attack on various countries.
Duke proceeds to clear out aliens from Amsterdam (Netherlands), Moscow (Russia), London (England), San Francisco (USA), Paris (France), Giza Pyramid (Egypt), Rome (Italy), with the final showdown with the returning alien threat taking place in Los Angeles, taking the game full circle.
There, he defeats the new "Inferno" Cycloid Emperor, the current alien leader, stopping their threat for good.
<EOS>
United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack Ripper is commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, which houses the Strategic Air Command 843rd Bomb Wing, equipped with B-52 bombers and nuclear bombs.
The 843rd is currently in-flight on airborne alert, two hours from their targets inside Russia.
General Ripper orders his executive officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake of the UK Royal Air Force, to put the base on alert.
Ripper also issues "Wing Attack Plan R" to the patrolling aircraft, one of which is commanded by Major "King" Kong.
All of the aircraft commence an attack flight on Russia and set their radios to allow communications only through the CRM 114 discriminator, which is programmed to accept only communications preceded by a secret three-letter code known only to General Ripper.
Mandrake discovers that no war order has been issued by the Pentagon and tries to stop Ripper, who locks them both in his office.
Ripper tells Mandrake that he believes the Soviets have been using fluoridation of United States water supplies to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of Americans.
Mandrake now realizes that Ripper is insane.
In the War Room at the Pentagon, General Buck Turgidson briefs President Merkin Muffley and other officers about how Plan R enables a senior officer to launch a strike against the Soviets if all superiors have been killed in a first strike on Washington,C.
Turgidson reports that his men are trying every possible three-letter CRM code to issue the stand-down order, but that could take over two days and the planes are due to reach their targets in about an hour.
Muffley orders the Army chief to storm the base and arrest General Ripper.
Turgidson attempts to convince Muffley to let the attack continue, but Muffley refuses to be party to a nuclear first strike.
Instead, he brings Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadeski into the War Room, to telephone Soviet premier Dimitri Kissov on the "hot line".
Muffley warns the Premier of the impending attack and offers to reveal the planes' positions and targets so the Russians can protect themselves.
After a heated discussion in Russian with the Premier, the ambassador informs President Muffley that the Soviet Union has created a doomsday device, which consists of many buried bombs jacketed with "Cobalt-Thorium G" connected to a computer network set to detonate them automatically should any nuclear attack strike the country.
Within two months after detonation, the Cobalt-Thorium G would encircle the earth in a radioactive "doomsday shroud", wiping out all human and animal life, rendering the surface of the earth uninhabitable for 93 years.
The device cannot be dismantled or "untriggered", as it is programmed to explode if any such attempt is made.
When the President's wheelchair-bound scientific advisor, former-Nazi dr Strangelove points out that such a doomsday device would only be an effective deterrent if everyone knew about it, de Sadeski replies that the Russian Premier had planned to reveal its existence to the world the following week.
Meanwhile, United States Army forces arrive at Burpelson, still sealed by Ripper's order, and soon take over the base.
Ripper kills himself, while Mandrake identifies Ripper's CRM code from his desk blotter ("OPE," a variant of both Peace on Earth and Purity of Essence) and relays this code to the Pentagon.
Using the recall code, SAC successfully recalls all of the aircraft except one.
No one in the War Room knows that a surface-to-air missile has ruptured the fuel tank of that plane and destroyed its communications device, making it impossible to recall this particular plane even with the correct recall code.
Muffley discloses the plane's target to help the Soviets find it, but Major Kong, his fuel dwindling, has selected a closer target.
As the plane approaches the new target, the crew is unable to open the damaged bomb bay doors.
Major Kong enters the bomb bay and repairs the broken electric wiring, whereupon the doors open.
With Kong straddling it like a rodeo bull, the bomb falls and detonates.
In the War Room, dr Strangelove recommends that the President gather several hundred thousand people to live in deep mineshafts where the radiation will not penetrate.
He suggests a 10:1 female-to-male ratio for a breeding program to repopulate the Earth when the radiation has subsided.
Turgidson, worried that the Soviets will do the same, warns about a "mineshaft gap".
Just then the doomsday device kicks into operation and the film ends with a montage of nuclear detonations, accompanied by Vera Lynn's WW-II era recording of "We'll Meet Again".
<EOS>
The story is told from the viewpoint of lt Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer), who has been assigned as a war correspondent on the in October 1941.
He meets its captain (Jürgen Prochnow), chief engineer (Klaus Wennemann), and the crew in a raucous French bordello.
Thomsen (Otto Sander), another captain, gives a crude drunken speech to celebrate his Ritterkreuz award, in which he openly mocks not only Winston Churchill but implicitly Adolf Hitler as well.
The next morning, they sail out of the harbour of La Rochelle to a cheering crowd and playing band.
Werner is given a tour of the boat.
As time passes, he observes ideological differences between the new crew members and the hardened veterans, particularly the captain, who is embittered and cynical about the war.
The new men, including Werner, are often mocked by the rest of the crew, who share a tight bond.
After days of boredom, the crew is excited by another U-boat's spotting of an enemy convoy, but they soon locate a British destroyer.
While the captain attempts to sink the destroyer, it sees the sub's periscope, and they are bombarded with depth charges.
They narrowly escape with only light damage.
The next three weeks are spent enduring a relentless storm.
Morale drops after a series of misfortunes, but the crew is cheered temporarily by a chance encounter with Thomsen's boat.
Shortly after the storm ends, the boat encounters a British convoy and quickly launches four torpedoes, sinking two ships.
They are spotted by a destroyer and have to dive below the submarine's rated limit.
During the ensuing depth-charge attack, the chief mechanic, Johann, panics and has to be restrained.
The boat sustains heavy damage, but is eventually able to safely surface in darkness.
An enemy tanker remains afloat and on fire, so they torpedo the ship, only to realize that there are still sailors aboard; they watch in horror as the sailors, some on fire, leap overboard and swim towards them.
Following orders not to take prisoners, the captain gives the command to back the ship away.
The worn-out U-boat crew looks forward to returning home to La Rochelle in time for Christmas, but the ship is ordered to La Spezia, Italy, which means passing through the Strait of Gibraltar—an area heavily defended by the Royal Navy.
The U-boat makes a secret night rendezvous at the harbour of Vigo, in neutral although Axis-friendly Spain, with the SS Weser, an interned German merchant ship that clandestinely provides U-boats with fuel, torpedoes, and other supplies.
The filthy officers seem out of place at the opulent dinner prepared for them, but are warmly greeted by enthusiastic officers eager to hear their exploits.
The captain learns from an envoy of the German consulate that his request for Werner and the chief engineer to be sent back to Germany has been denied.
The crew finishes resupplying and departs for Italy.
As they carefully approach Gibraltar and are just about to dive, they are suddenly attacked by a British fighter plane, wounding the navigator.
The captain orders the boat directly south towards the African coast at full speed.
British ships begin closing in and they are forced to dive; it is later implied that the ships used radar to locate the sub.
When attempting to level off, the boat does not respond and continues to sink until, just before being crushed by the pressure, it lands on a sea shelf, at the depth of 280 metres.
The crew work desperately to make numerous repairs before running out of oxygen.
After over 16 hours, they are able to surface by blowing out their ballast of water, and limp back towards La Rochelle under cover of darkness.
The crew is pale and weary upon reaching La Rochelle on Christmas Eve.
Shortly after the wounded navigator is taken ashore to a waiting ambulance, Allied planes bomb and strafe the facilities, wounding or killing many of the crew.
Ullmann, Johann and the 2nd Watch Officer are killed.
After the raid, Werner leaves the U-boat bunker in which he had taken shelter and finds the captain, badly injured by shrapnel, watching the U-boat sink at the dock.
Just after the boat disappears under the water, the captain collapses and dies.
Werner runs to his body, recoils, and quickly glances around at the destruction, his face frozen with distress.
He then looks down at the captain's body, with tears in his eyes.
<EOS>
Death of a Hero is the story of a young English artist named George Winterbourne who enlists in the army at the beginning of World War The book is narrated by an unnamed first-person narrator who claims to have known and served with the main character.
It is divided into three parts.
The first part details George's family history.
His father, a middle-class man from England's countryside, marries a poor woman who falsely believes she is marrying into a monied family.
After George's birth, his mother has a series of lovers.
George is brought up to be a proper and patriotic member of English society.
He is encouraged to learn his father's insurance business, but fails to do so.
After a disagreement with his parents, he relocates to London to become an artist and live a socialite lifestyle.
The second section of the book deals with George's London life.
He ingrains himself in socialite society and engages a number of trendy philosophies.
After he and his lover, Elizabeth, have a pregnancy scare, they decide to marry.
Although they do not have a child, the marriage endures.
They decide to leave their marriage open.
George takes Elizabeth's close friend as a lover, however, and their marriage begins to fall apart.
Just as the situation is becoming particularly heated, England declares war on Germany.
George decides to enlist.
George trains for the army and is sent to France.
(No particular location in France is mentioned.
The town behind the front where George spends much of his time is referred to as M---.
) He fights on the front for some time.
When he returns home, he finds that he has been so affected by the war that he cannot relate to his friends, including his wife and lover.
The casualty rate among officers is particularly high at the front.
When a number of officers in George's unit are killed, he is promoted.
Upon spending time with the other officers, he finds them to be cynical and utilitarian.
He loses faith in the war quickly.
The story ends with George standing up during a machine-gun barrage.
He is killed.
At the end of the book there is a poem written from the point of view of a veteran comparing World War I to the Trojan War.
<EOS>
Five Michigan State University students — Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), Ash's sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss), their friend Scotty, and his girlfriend Shelly—venture into rural Tennessee to vacation in an isolated cabin for their spring break.
They soon run into trouble, with Scotty nearly colliding with a truck, then barely getting the group to safety when the bridge leading to the cabin starts to collapse.
That night, while Cheryl is sketching an old clock, when she notices it stopping.
She fears a faint, demonic voice outside her window say "Join Us".
After she shrugs it off, her hand becomes possessed, causing her to draw a picture that looks like a book with a deformed, evil face.
Unsure of what happened and what to do, she decides not to mention the incident to the others.
When the trapdoor to the cellar mysteriously flies open during dinner, Ash and Scotty go down to investigate and find the Naturom Demonto, a Sumerian version of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, along with a tape recorder belonging to the archeologist who owned it.
When Scotty plays it, the archeologist's voice recites a series of incantations, resurrecting a mysterious, demonic entity.
Cheryl becomes increasingly hysterical and locks herself in her room.
Later, she hears strange voices and goes outside to investigate.
Meanwhile, Ash gives Linda a silver necklace, which she absolutely loves.
Cheryl is then attacked and raped by demonically possessed trees, but manages to escape.
Unable to convince the others of what happened, she asks Ash to take her into town for the night.
However, Ash soon discovers that the bridge has been destroyed.
Back at the cabin, Ash listens to more of the tape, learning that the only way to kill the entity is to dismember it when it possesses a host.
Cheryl succumbs to the entity and attacks the others, stabbing Linda in the ankle with a pencil before Scotty is able to force her into the cellar.
Shelly becomes possessed as well, forcing Scotty to chop up her body with an axe and bury the remains.
Shaken by the experience, he leaves to find a way back to town.
When Ash goes to check on Linda, he is horrified to find that she has already begun to turn.
A badly-injured Scotty staggers into the cabin and dies of his wounds, having been attacked by the trees.
While Ash tries to figure out what to do, both Linda and Cheryl pretend to be cured, only to quickly revert to their demonic forms.
Ash locks Linda outside, but she returns and tries to stab him before he impales her with a dagger.
He tries to cut up her remains with a chainsaw, but can't bring himself to do so, and ends up burying her instead.
When he reaches for her necklace on the ground, she escapes again trying to kill him.
Ash decapitates her with a shovel, and her headless body bleeds all over Ash's face as it tries to rape him before he escapes.
Back in the cabin, he quickly realizes that Cheryl has forced open the trapdoor.
After wounding her with a shotgun, he heads to the basement for more ammunition.
There, the entity tortures him by dousing him with blood from a pipe, while more blood seeps from the walls and ceilings.
Scotty is revived as a demon and attacks Ash when he goes back upstairs, while Cheryl savagely beats him with a fireplace poker.
Ash gets his hands on the book with Linda's necklace, and throws it into the fireplace.
As the book burns, Scotty and Cheryl begin to gruesomely decompose and their blood sprays all over Ash as he stares in horror and disgust.
After Scotty and Cheryl are dead, Ash hears the voice of the demons telling him "Join Us".
As the voice dies away as well, Ash grabs Linda's necklace in gratitude.
Covered in blood, Ash stumbles outside as the sun begins to rise.
Before he can get in his car to leave, the entity attacks him from behind where he lets out a final scream before the film cuts abruptly to the ending credits.
<EOS>
At a retreat on the English coast, Christine Clay (Pamela Carme), a successful actress, argues passionately with her jealous ex-husband Guy (George Curzon).
Not accepting her Reno divorce as valid, he accuses her of having an affair.
His face twitches violently around his eyes as they argue.
Finally he leaves.
The next morning, Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) happens to be walking along the seaside when Christine's dead body washes ashore.
Tisdall recognizes her, and runs for help.
Two young women arrive just in time to see him racing away from the corpse.
The police quickly decide that he is the only suspect.
Christine was strangled with the belt from a raincoat; Tisdall's raincoat is missing and he says it was recently stolen.
He admits knowing the victim from three years ago when he sold her a story, but they assume the two have been having an affair.
When they learn that she left him money in her will (unknown to him), Tisdall is arrested.
Tisdall is grilled all night by Scotland Yard detectives until he faints.
He is revived by the aid of Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam), daughter of the local police Chief Constable.
Tisdall is assigned an incompetent barrister, and is taken into court for his formal arraignment.
Doubting if his innocence will ever be established, he takes advantage of overcrowding in the courthouse to escape, wearing the barrister's eyeglasses as a disguise.
He gets away by riding on the running board of Erica's Morris car, revealing himself to her after the car runs out of petrol.
He helps push the car to a filling station and pays for petrol, and convinces her to give him a ride.
Though she was initially fearful and unsure about her passenger, Erica eventually becomes convinced of his innocence and elects to help him in any way that she can.
They are eventually spotted together, forcing both to stay on the run from the police.
Tisdall tries to prove his innocence by tracking down the stolen coat: if it still has its belt, the one found next to Christine's body must not be his.
The duo succeed in finding Old Will (Edward Rigby), a sociable china-mender and homeless man who has Tisdall's coat.
But Will was not the thief; he was given the coat by a man with twitchy eyes.
And when Will received the coat, its belt was missing.
Separated from the group, Erica is taken in by the police.
Upon realizing that his daughter has fully allied herself with a murder suspect (in fact, they are in love), her father chooses to resign his position as Chief Constable rather than arrest her for assisting him.
Tisdall sneaks into their house to see her, intending to surrender next, but she mentions that the coat had a box of matches from the Grand Hotel in a pocket.
Tisdall has never been there: perhaps the murderer has a connection to the hotel.
Erica and Will go to the Grand Hotel together, hoping to find him.
In a memorably long, continuous sequence, the camera pans right from their entrance to the hotel and then moves forward from the very back of the hotel ballroom, finally focusing in extreme closeup on the drummer in a dance band performing in blackface.
His face is twitching around the eyes.
He is Guy.
Recognizing Old Will in the audience, and seeing policemen nearby (actually they have followed Old Will in the hopes of finding Tisdall), Guy performs poorly due to fear.
He takes medicine to try to control the twitching, but it makes him very sleepy, and he is berated by the conductor.
Eventually, Guy faints in the middle of a performance, drawing the attention of Erica and the police.
Immediately after being revived and confronted, he confesses his crime and begins laughing hysterically.
Erica then tells her father that she thinks it's time they invited Tisdall to their home for dinner.
<EOS>
In 1988, following a 400% increase in crime, the United States Government has turned Manhattan into a giant maximum-security prison.
A containment wall surrounds the island and routes out of Manhattan have been dismantled or mined, while armed helicopters patrol the rivers.
In 1997, while travelling to a peace summit between the United States, China and the Soviet Union, Air Force One is hijacked by a domestic terrorist posing as a stewardess.
The President is given a tracking bracelet and his briefcase (containing an audiotape describing a powerful new bomb) handcuffed to his wrist.
He makes it to an escape pod, and lands in Manhattan just before Air Force One crashes, killing everyone else aboard.
Police are dispatched to rescue the President.
However, Romero, the right-hand man of the Duke of New York, the top crime boss in the prison, warns them that the Duke has taken the President hostage, and that he will be killed if any further rescue attempts are mounted.
Police Commissioner Bob Hauk offers a deal to "Snake" Plissken, a former Special Forces soldier convicted of attempting to rob the Federal Reserve in Denver: if Snake rescues the President and retrieves the cassette tape, Hauk will arrange a presidential pardon.
To ensure his compliance, Hauk injects him with micro-explosives that will rupture Snake's carotid arteries within 22 hours; if Snake returns with the President and the tape in time, Hauk will neutralize the explosives.
Snake is sent into Manhattan in a stealth glider, landing atop the World Trade Center.
He tracks the President's life-monitor bracelet to a vaudeville theatre, only to find it on the wrist of an insane old man.
He meets "Cabbie," who takes Snake in his armored taxi cab to Harold "Brain" Hellman, an advisor to the Duke based in the New York Public Library, and a former associate of Snake's.
Brain tells Snake that the Duke plans to unify the gangs in a mass exodus across the heavily-guarded Queensboro Bridge, using the President as a human shield and a map Brain has created to avoid the land mines planted on all the remaining bridges.
Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie to lead him to the Duke's compound at Grand Central Station.
He finds the President and tries to free him, but is captured by the Duke's men.
While Snake is forced to fight in a gladiatorial death match with Slag, a prisoner, Brain and Maggie trick Romero into letting them see the President, killing him and fleeing with the President.
As Snake kills Slag, the Duke learns of Brain's treachery and rallies his gang to chase them down.
Snake, Brain, Maggie, and the President race to the World Trade Center in an attempt to use Snake's glider to escape from Mahattan.
After a group of crazies destroy it, the group returns to the street and encounters Cabbie, who offers to take them across the bridge.
When Cabbie reveals that he has the secret tape (having traded it to Romero earlier for his hat), the President demands it, but Snake keeps it.
The Duke pursues the group onto the heavily mined 69th street bridge, setting off mines as he tries to catch up.
With Brain navigating through the minefield, Snake manages to avoid most of the explosives, but the cab finally hits a mine and is blown in half.
Cabbie is killed.
As the remaining escapees flee on foot, Brain is killed when he steps on another mine.
Maggie refuses to leave him, and stands defiantly in the middle of the road, shooting at the Duke's car until he runs her down, killing her.
Snake and the President reach the perimeter wall and the guards raise the President on a rope.
The Duke opens fire on the wall, killing the guards and forcing Snake to dive for cover, but the President grabs a rifle from a guard and shoots the Duke dead while hysterically repeating "You're the Duke.
A number one.
", a phrase he was tortured into repeating while held hostage.
Snake is lifted to safety and the implanted explosives are deactivated with seconds to spare.
As the President prepares for a televised speech to the leaders at the summit meeting, he thanks Snake for saving him.
Snake asks how he feels about the people who died saving his life, but the President only offers halfhearted regret.
As Snake walks away in disgust, Hauk offers Snake a job, which he refuses.
The President's speech commences, and he offers the contents of the cassette; to his embarrassment, the tape is Cabbie's cassette of the swing song "Bandstand Boogie".
As Snake walks away, he intentionally tears the magnetic tape, out of the cassette reel, with the actual message, that was intended to be delivered, by the President.
<EOS>
Dr.
Bill Harford and his wife, Alice, are a young couple living in New York who attend a Christmas party thrown by a wealthy patient, Victor Ziegler.
Bill is reunited with Nick Nightingale, a medical school drop-out who now plays piano professionally.
While a Hungarian man named Sandor Szavost tries to seduce Alice, two young models try to take Bill off.
He is interrupted by a call from his host upstairs, who had been having sex with Mandy, a young woman who overdosed on a speedball.
Mandy recovers with Bill's aid.
The next evening at home, while smoking cannabis, Alice asks him if he had sex with the two girls.
After Bill reassures her, she asks if he is ever jealous of men who are attracted to her.
As the discussion gets heated, he states that he thinks women are more faithful than men.
She rebuts him, telling him of a recent fantasy she had about a naval officer they had encountered on a vacation.
Disturbed by Alice's revelation, Bill is then called by the daughter of a patient who has just died.
After visiting the home, he meets a prostitute named Domino and goes to her apartment.
Alice phones as Domino begins to kiss Bill, after which he calls off the awkward encounter.
Meeting Nick at the jazz club Bill learns that Nick has an engagement where he must play piano blindfolded.
Bill learns that to gain admittance, one needs a costume, a mask, and the password, which Nick had written down.
Bill goes to a costume shop and offers the owner, mr Milich, a generous amount of money to rent a costume.
In the shop, Milich catches his teenage daughter with two Japanese men and expresses outrage at their lack of a sense of decency.
Bill takes a taxi to the country mansion mentioned by Nick.
He gives the password and discovers a sexual ritual is taking place.
A woman warns him he is in terrible danger.
A porter then takes him to the ritual room, where a disguised red-cloaked Master of Ceremonies confronts Bill with a question about a second password.
Bill says he has forgotten it.
The masked woman who had tried to warn Bill intervenes and insists that she will redeem him.
Bill is ushered from the mansion and warned not to tell anyone about what happened there.
Just before dawn, Bill arrives home guilty and confused.
He finds Alice laughing loudly in her sleep and awakens her.
While crying, she tells him of a troubling dream in which she was having sex with the naval officer and many other men, and laughing at the idea of Bill seeing her with them.
The next morning, Bill goes to Nick's hotel, where the desk clerk tells Bill that a bruised and frightened Nick checked out a few hours earlier after returning with two large, dangerous-looking men.
Bill goes to return the costume, but not the mask, which he has misplaced, and learns Milich has sold his daughter into prostitution.
Bill returns to the country mansion in his own car and is met at the gate by a man with a note warning him to cease and desist his inquiries.
After reading a newspaper story about a beauty queen who died of a drug overdose, Bill views the body at the morgue and identifies it as Mandy.
Bill is summoned to Ziegler's house, where he is confronted with the events of the past night and day.
Ziegler was one of those involved with the ritual orgy, and identified Bill and his connection with Nick.
Ziegler claims that he had Bill followed for his own protection, and that the warnings made against Bill by the society are only intended to scare him from speaking about the orgy.
However, he implies the society is capable of acting on their threats.
Bill asks about the death of Mandy, whom Ziegler has identified as the masked woman at the party who'd "sacrificed" herself to prevent Bill's punishment, and about the disappearance of Nick, the piano player.
Ziegler insists that Nick is safely back at his home in Seattle.
Ziegler also says the "punishment" was a charade by the secret society to further frighten Bill, and it had nothing to do with Mandy's death; she was a hooker and addict and had died from another accidental drug overdose.
Bill does not know if Ziegler is telling him the truth about Nick's disappearance or Mandy's death, but he says nothing further.
When he returns home, Bill finds the rented mask on his pillow next to his sleeping wife.
He breaks down in tears and decides to tell Alice the whole truth of the past two days.
The next morning, they go Christmas shopping with their daughter.
Alice muses that they should be grateful they have survived, that she loves him, and there is something they must do as soon as possible.
When Bill asks what it is, she simply says: "Fuck".
<EOS>
De Vere had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour.
On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more.
In 1577 De Vere invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage.
In July 1577 he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572.
As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition.
The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and De Vere lost the entire investment.
In the summer of 1578 De Vere attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia.
The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End.
A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice requested De Vere to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old Elizabeth and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24-year-old Duke of Anjou.
De Vere refused on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen".
In April the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, wrote to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, De Vere, Surrey and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return.
Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England.
De Vere was sympathetic to the proposed marriage, Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it.
This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between De Vere and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall.
It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that De Vere called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men".
The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display.
Whether it was Sidney who next challenged De Vere to a duel or the other way around, De Vere did not take it further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and De Vere's.
Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped.
The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 De Vere wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month De Vere was confined to his chambers, and was not released until early February.
De Vere openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'.
In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized De Vere's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters.
Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 De Vere attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III.
Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, De Vere inclined to Catholicism; after his return from Italy he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after being introduced to a seminary priest, Richard Stephens, by a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell.
But just as quickly, late in 1580 he denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism.
Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and he was detained under house arrest for a short time.
Leicester is credited for having "dislodged De Vere from the pro-French group",e, the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou.
The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind De Vere's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage.
Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless".
The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundell; De Vere immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen.
Arundell refused De Vere's offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza.
Only after being assured they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Council member, did the pair give themselves up.
During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, prove De Vere a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown.
The extensive list to discredit De Vere included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion and pederasty with his English and Italian servants ("buggering a boy that is his cook and many other boys"), habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers and declaring that Elizabeth had a bad singing voice.
Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of De Vere's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November.
None of the three was ever indicted or tried.
In the meantime De Vere was at liberty, and won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January.
His page's speech at the tournament, describing De Vere's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus.
On 14 April 1589 De Vere was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of De Vere's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason.
Arundel later died in prison.
De Vere later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth".
During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584.
In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500.
The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge.
He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly.
According to Henry Howard, De Vere paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it.
De Vere's triumph was short-lived.
On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas".
De Vere was captured and imprisoned in the Tower, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere.
Burghley interceded for him, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until sometime in July.
While De Vere was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house".
De Vere was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581.
De Vere was banished from court until June 1583.
He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton.
At Christmas 1581 De Vere reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions.
In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between De Vere and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet.
De Vere was wounded and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured.
There was another fray between Knyvet's and De Vere's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, where it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight".
In a letter to Burghley three years later De Vere offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter.
On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent De Vere a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored.
Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued.
Another of De Vere's men was slain that month, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord and Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet".
On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, and died the same day.
The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later.
After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, De Vere was reconciled to the Queen and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour.
However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude.
<EOS>
Lee (Bruce Lee), a highly skilled Shaolin martial artist from Hong Kong is approached by Braithwaite, a British intelligence agent investigating suspected crime lord Han (Shih Kien).
Lee is persuaded to attend a high-profile martial arts competition on Han's private island in order to gather evidence that will prove his involvement in drug trafficking and prostitution.
Shortly before his departure, Lee also learns that his sister's killer, O'Hara (Robert Wall), is working as Han's bodyguard on the island.
Also fighting in the competition are indebted gambling addict Roper (John Saxon) and fellow Vietnam war veteran Williams (Jim Kelly).
At the end of the first day, Lee is able to make contact with undercover operative Mei Ling (Betty Chung) and after meeting with her, sneaks deeper into Han's compound looking for evidence.
Soon after, he is discovered by several guards and is forced to defend himself before escaping.
The next morning, Han has the guards publicly killed by chief guard Bolo (Bolo Yeung) for failing him.
After the execution, Lee faces O'Hara in the competition and after an emotional battle ends up killing him.
With the day's fighting over, Han confronts Williams about the identity of the intruder and proceeds to beat him to death when he fails to answer.
Later, Han reveals the scale of his drug operation to Roper in the hope that he will join his organization.
Despite being initially convinced, Roper refuses after learning the fate of Williams.
Lee sneaks out again that night and manages to send a message to Braithwaite, but is finally captured after a protracted battle with the guards.
The next morning Han arranges for Roper to fight Lee, but Roper refuses.
As punishment, he is forced to fight Bolo instead but manages to overpower and kill him after a grueling encounter.
Enraged by the unexpected victory, Han commands his remaining men to kill Lee and Roper.
Facing insurmountable odds, they are soon aided by the island's prisoners, who have been now been freed by Mei Ling.
Lee finally confronts Han in a hidden mirror room and eventually kills him after breaking all the room's mirrors to reveal his location.
Lee returns to the battle which is now over, a bruised and bloodied Roper sits victorious while the military finally arrive to take control of the island.
<EOS>
The film begins with a simplified recap of the events of the first film.
Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda take a romantic vacation to a seemingly abandoned cabin in the woods.
While in the cabin, Ash plays a tape of archaeologist Raymond Knowby, the cabin's previous inhabitant, reciting passages from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (or Book of the Dead), which he has discovered during an archaeological dig.
The recorded incantation unleashes an evil force that kills and later possesses Linda, turning her into a "deadite".
Ash is then forced to decapitate his girlfriend with a shovel and bury her near the cabin.
The film then picks up where the first film left off, where a spirit is seen throwing Ash through the woods.
Ash briefly becomes possessed by the demon, but when day breaks the spirit is gone, and Ash returns to normal.
Ash finds little chance of safety, however, as the bridge leading to the cabin has been destroyed.
Linda's revived head attacks Ash, biting his hand.
Ash brings Linda's severed head to the shed, where her headless body attacks him with a chainsaw.
Ash gains the upper hand and slashes the relentless deadite Linda to death, killing her a second and final time.
Then Ash's possessed right hand tries to kill him, and Ash is forced to sever his hand with his chainsaw.
Ash then attempts to shoot the severed hand hiding in the wall of the cabin.
The hand mocks him and ultimately gets away.
While Ash deals with this force, Knowby's daughter, Annie, and her research partner, Ed Getley, return from the dig with more pages of the Necronomicon in tow, only to find the destroyed bridge.
They enlist the help of locals Jake and Bobby Joe to guide them along an alternate trail to the cabin.
The four of them find an embattled Ash, who is, seemingly, slowly being driven insane by the demon, such as hallucinating that the room comes to life with objects in the room laughing hysterically at him.
The four new arrivals meet Ash at the cabin and listen to a recording of Knowby detailing how his wife Henrietta was possessed by the Evil Force, forcing him to kill her.
They find mrs Knowby, now a deadite, in the cabin's root cellar, and it attacks and possesses Ed; Ash dismembers him with an axe.
Bobby Joe tries to escape but is attacked by the demon trees and dragged to her death.
Annie translates two of the pages before Jake turns on them and throws the pages into the cellar, holding them at gunpoint to force them to go look for Bobby Joe.
Ash is possessed once again and turns on his remaining companions, incapacitating Jake.
Annie retreats to the cabin and accidentally stabs Jake (mistaking him for the demon) and drags him to the cellar door, where he is killed by Henrietta in a gory bloodbath.
Deadite Ash tries to kill Annie, but returns to his normal self when he sees his girlfriend Linda's necklace.
Ash, with Annie's help, modifies the chainsaw and attaches it to his stump, where his right hand had been.
Ash eventually finds the missing pages of the Necronomicon and kills Henrietta, who has turned into a long-necked monster.
After Ash kills Henrietta, Annie chants an incantation that sends the Evil Force back to its origin.
The incantation opens up a whirling temporal vortex/portal which not only draws in the evil force, but nearby trees, Ash's Oldsmobile Delta 88, and Ash himself.
Meanwhile, Ash's severed possessed hand stabs and kills Annie.
Ash and his Oldsmobile land in the year 1300 AD.
He is then confronted by a group of knights who initially mistake him for a deadite, but they are quickly distracted when a real one shows up.
Ash blasts the harpy-like deadite with his shotgun and is hailed as a hero who has come to save the realm, at which point he breaks down and screams in anguish.
<EOS>
On his thirtieth birthday, the chief cashier of a bank, Josef, is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime.
The agents' boss later arrives and holds a mini-tribunal in the room of's neighbor, Fräulein Bürstner.
is not taken away, however, but left "free" and told to await instructions from the Committee of Affairs.
He goes to work, and that night apologizes to Fräulein Bürstner for the intrusion into her room.
At the end of the conversation he suddenly kisses her.
receives a phone call summoning him to court, and the coming Sunday is arranged as the date.
No time is set, but the address is given to him.
The address turns out to be a huge tenement building.
has to explore to find the court, which turns out to be in the attic.
The room is airless, shabby and crowded, and although he has no idea what he is charged with, or what authorizes the process, makes a long speech denigrating the whole process, including the agents who arrested him; during this speech an attendant's wife and a man engage in sexual activities.
then returns home.
later goes to visit the court again, although he has not been summoned, and finds that it is not in session.
He instead talks with the attendant's wife, who attempts to seduce him into taking her away, and who gives him more information about the process and offers to help him.
later goes with the attendant to a higher level of the attic where the shabby and airless offices of the court are housed.
returns home to find Fräulein Montag, a lodger from another room, moving in with Fräulein Bürstner.
He suspects that this is to prevent him from pursuing his affair with the latter woman.
Yet another lodger, Captain Lanz, appears to be in league with Montag.
Later, in a store room at his own bank, discovers the two agents who arrested him being whipped by a flogger for asking for bribes and as a result of complaints made at court.
tries to argue with the flogger, saying that the men need not be whipped, but the flogger cannot be swayed.
The next day he returns to the store room and is shocked to find everything as he had found it the day before, including the whipper and the two agents.
is visited by his uncle, who was's guardian.
The uncle seems distressed by's predicament.
At first sympathetic, he becomes concerned that is underestimating the seriousness of the case.
The uncle introduces to a lawyer, who is attended by Leni, a nurse, whom's uncle suspects is the advocate's mistress.
During the discussion it becomes clear how different this process is from regular legal proceedings: guilt is assumed, the bureaucracy running it is vast with many levels, and everything is secret, from the charge, to the rules of the court, to the authority behind the courts – even the identity of the judges at the higher levels.
The attorney tells him that he can prepare a brief for, but since the charge is unknown and the rules are unknown, it is difficult work.
It also never may be read, but is still very important.
The lawyer says that his most important task is to deal with powerful court officials behind the scenes.
As they talk, the lawyer reveals that the Chief Clerk of the Court has been sitting hidden in the darkness of a corner.
The Chief Clerk emerges to join the conversation, but is called away by Leni, who takes him to the next room, where she offers to help him and seduces him.
They have a sexual encounter.
Afterwards meets his uncle outside, who is angry, claiming that's lack of respect has hurt's case.
visits the lawyer several times.
The lawyer tells him incessantly how dire his situation is and tells many stories of other hopeless clients and of his behind-the-scenes efforts on behalf of these clients, and brags about his many connections.
The brief is never complete.
's work at the bank deteriorates as he is consumed with worry about his case.
is surprised by one of his bank clients, who tells that he is aware that is dealing with a trial.
The client learned of's case from Titorelli, a painter, who has dealings with the court and told the client about's case.
The client advises to go to Titorelli for advice.
Titorelli lives in the attic of a tenement in a suburb on the opposite side of town from the court that visited.
Three teenage girls taunt on the steps and tease him sexually.
Titorelli turns out to be an official painter of portraits for the court (an inherited position), and has a deep understanding of the process.
learns that, to Titorelli's knowledge, not a single defendant has ever been acquitted.
He sets out's options and offers to help with either.
The options are: obtain a provisional verdict of innocence from the lower court, which can be overturned at any time by higher levels of the court, which would lead to re-initiation of the process; or curry favor with the lower judges to keep the process moving at a glacial pace.
Titorelli has leave through a small back door, as the girls are blocking the door through which entered.
To's shock, the door opens into another warren of the court's offices – again shabby and airless.
decides to take control of matters himself and visits his lawyer with the intention of dismissing him.
At the lawyer's office he meets a downtrodden individual, Block, a client who offers some insight from a client's perspective.
Block's case has continued for five years and he has gone from being a successful businessman to being almost bankrupt and is virtually enslaved by his dependence on the lawyer and Leni, with whom he appears to be sexually involved.
The lawyer mocks Block in front of for his dog-like subservience.
This experience further poisons's opinion of his lawyer.
(This chapter was left unfinished by the author)  is asked by the bank to show an Italian client around local places of cultural interest, but the Italian client, short of time, asks to take him only to the cathedral, setting a time to meet there.
When the client does not show up, explores the cathedral, which is empty except for an old woman and a church official.
notices a priest who seems to be preparing to give a sermon from a small second pulpit, and begins to leave, lest it begin and be compelled to stay for its entirety.
Instead of giving a sermon, the priest calls out's name.
approaches the pulpit and the priest berates him for his attitude toward the trial and for seeking help, especially from women.
asks him to come down and the two men walk inside the cathedral.
The priest works for the court as a chaplain and tells a fable (which was published earlier as "Before the Law") that is meant to explain his situation.
and the priest discuss the parable.
The priest tells that the parable is an ancient text of the court, and many generations of court officials have interpreted it differently.
On the eve of's thirty-first birthday, two men arrive at his apartment.
He has been waiting for them, and he offers little resistance – indeed the two men take direction from as they walk through town.
leads them to a quarry where the two men place K's head on a discarded block.
One of the men produces a double-edged butcher knife, and as the two men pass it back and forth between them, the narrator tells us that "K.
knew then precisely, that it would have been his duty to take the knife.
and thrust it into himself".
He does not take the knife.
One of the men holds his shoulder and pulls him up and the other man stabs him in the heart and twists the knife twice.
's last words are: "Like a dog.
".
<EOS>
One day, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect (the most common translation of the German description ungeheur Ungeziefer, literally "monstrous vermin").
He reflects on how dreary life as a traveling salesman is.
As he looks at the wall clock, he notices that he has overslept and missed his train for work.
He ponders the consequences of this delay.
Gregor becomes annoyed at how his boss never accepts excuses or explanations from any of his employees no matter how hard-working they are, displaying an apparent lack of trusting abilities.
Gregor's mother knocks on the door, and he answers her.
She is concerned for Gregor because he is late for work, which is unorthodox for him.
Gregor answers his mother and realizes that his voice has changed, but his answer is short, so his mother does not notice.
His sister, Grete, to whom he is very close, then whispers through the door and begs him to open it.
He tries to get out of bed but is incapable of moving his body.
While trying to move, he finds that his office manager, the chief clerk, has shown up to check on him.
He finally rocks his body to the floor and calls out that he will open the door shortly.
Offended by Gregor's delayed response in opening the door, the clerk warns him of the consequences of missing work.
He adds that Gregor's recent performance has been unsatisfactory.
Gregor disagrees and tells him that he will open the door shortly.
Nobody on the other side of the door has understood a single word he had uttered as Gregor's voice has also transformed, and they conclude that he is seriously ill.
Finally, Gregor manages to unlock and open the door with his mouth.
He apologizes to the office manager for the delay.
Horrified by Gregor's appearance, his mother faints, and the manager bolts out of the apartment.
Gregor tries to catch up with him, but his father drives him back into the bedroom with a cane and a rolled newspaper.
Gregor injures himself squeezing back through the doorway, and his father slams the door shut.
Gregor, exhausted, falls asleep.
Gregor awakens and sees that someone has put milk and bread in his room.
Initially excited, he quickly discovers that he has no taste for milk, once one of his favorites.
He settles himself under a couch.
The next morning, his sister comes in, sees that he has not touched the milk, and replaces it with rotting food scraps, which Gregor happily eats.
This begins a routine in which his sister feeds him and cleans up while he hides under the couch, afraid that his appearance will frighten her.
Gregor spends his time listening through the wall to his family members talking.
They often discuss the difficult financial situation they find themselves in now that Gregor can't provide for them.
Gregor had plans of sending Grete to the conservatory to pursue violin lessons, something everyone else – including Grete – considered a dream.
His incapability of providing for his family, coupled with his speechlessness, reduces his thought process greatly.
Gregor also learns that his mother wants to visit him, but his sister and father will not let her.
Gregor grows more comfortable with his changed body.
He begins climbing the walls and ceiling for amusement.
Discovering Gregor's new pastime, Grete decides to remove some of the furniture to give Gregor more space.
She and her mother begin taking furniture away, but Gregor finds their actions deeply distressing.
He tries to save a picture on the wall of a woman wearing a fur hat, fur scarf, and fur muff.
Gregor's mother sees him hanging on the wall and passes out.
Grete angrily calls out to Gregor – the first time anyone has spoken directly to him since his transformation.
Gregor runs out of the room and into the kitchen.
He encounters his father, who has just returned home from work.
The father throws apples at Gregor, and one of them sinks into a sensitive spot in his back and remains lodged there, paralyzing his movements for a month and damaging him permanently.
Gregor manages to get back into his bedroom but is severely injured.
One evening, the cleaning lady leaves Gregor's door open while three boarders, whom the family has taken on for additional income, lounge about the living room.
Grete has been asked to play the violin for them, and Gregor – who usually takes care to avoid crossing paths with anyone in the flat – creeps out of his bedroom to listen in the midst of his depression and resultant detachment.
The boarders, who initially seemed interested in Grete, grow bored with her performance, but Gregor is transfixed by it.
One of the boarders spots Gregor, and the rest become alarmed.
Gregor's father tries to shove the boarders back into their rooms, but the three men protest and announce that they will move out immediately without paying rent because of the disgusting conditions in the apartment.
Grete, who has by now become tired of taking care of Gregor and is realizing the burden his existence puts on each one in the family, tells her parents they must get rid of Gregor, or they will all be ruined.
Her father agrees, wishing Gregor could understand them and would leave of his own accord.
Gregor does, in fact, understand and slowly moves back to the bedroom.
There, determined to rid his family of his presence, Gregor dies.
Upon discovering Gregor is dead, the family feels a great sense of relief.
The father kicks out the boarders and decides to fire the cleaning lady, who has disposed of Gregor's body.
The family takes a trolley ride out to the countryside, during which they consider their finances.
They decide to move to a smaller apartment to further save money, an act they were unable to carry out in Gregor's presence.
During this short trip, mr and mrs Samsa realize that, in spite of going through hardships which have brought an amount of paleness to her face, Grete appears to have grown up into a pretty and well-figured lady, which leads her parents to think about finding her a husband.
<EOS>
Fahrenheit 451 is set in an unspecified city (likely in the American Midwest) at an unspecified time in the future after the year 1960.
The novel is divided into three parts: "The Hearth and the Salamander", "The Sieve and the Sand", and "Burning Bright".
Guy Montag is a "fireman" employed to burn the possessions of those who read outlawed books.
He is married and has no children.
One fall night while returning from work, he meets his new neighbor, a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan, whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit cause him to question his life and his own perceived happiness.
Montag returns home to find that his wife Mildred has overdosed on sleeping pills, and he calls for medical attention.
Mildred survives with no memory of what happened.
Over the next days, Clarisse faithfully meets Montag as he walks home.
She tells him about how her interests have made her an outcast at school.
Montag looks forward to these meetings, and just as he begins to expect them, Clarisse goes absent.
He senses something is wrong.
In the following days, while at work with the other firemen ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman before the inevitable burning, Montag steals a book before any of his coworkers notice.
The woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing instead to light a match and burn herself alive.
Montag returns home jarred by the woman's suicide.
While getting ready for bed, he hides the stolen book under his pillow.
Still shaken by the night's events, he attempts to make conversation with Mildred, conversation that only causes him to realize how little he knows her and how little they have in common.
Montag asks his wife if she has seen Clarisse recently.
Mildred mutters that she believes Clarisse died after getting struck by a speeding car and that her family has moved away.
Dismayed by her failure to mention this earlier, Montag uneasily tries to fall asleep.
Outside he suspects the presence of "The Hound", an eight-legged robotic dog-like creature that resides in the firehouse and aids the firemen.
Montag awakens ill the next morning and stays home from work.
He relates the story of the burned woman to an apathetic Mildred and mentions perhaps quitting his work.
The possibility of becoming destitute from the loss of income provokes a strong reaction from her, and she says the woman herself was to blame because she had books.
Captain Beatty, Montag's fire chief, personally visits Montag to see how he is doing.
Sensing Montag's concerns, Beatty recounts how books lost their value and where the firemen fit in: over the course of several decades, people embraced new media, sports, and a quickening pace of life.
Books were ruthlessly abridged or degraded to accommodate a short attention span while minority groups protested over the controversial, outdated content perceived to be found in books.
The government took advantage of this, and the firemen were soon hired to burn books in the name of public happiness.
Beatty adds casually that all firemen eventually steal a book out of curiosity; if the book is burned within 24 hours, the fireman and his family will not get in trouble.
After Beatty has left, Montag reveals to Mildred that over the last year he has accumulated a stash of books that he has kept hidden in their air-conditioning duct.
In a panic, Mildred grabs a book and rushes to throw it in their kitchen incinerator; Montag subdues her and tells her that the two of them are going to read the books to see if they have value.
If they do not, he promises the books will be burned, and all will return to normal.
While Montag and Mildred are perusing the stolen books, a sniffing occurs at their front door.
Montag recognizes it as The Hound while Mildred passes it off as a random dog.
They resume their discussion once the sound ceases.
Montag laments Mildred's suicide attempt, the woman who burned herself, and the constant din of bombers flying over their house taking part in a looming war neither he, nor anybody else, knows much about.
He states that maybe the books of the past have messages that can save society from its own destruction.
The conversation is interrupted by a call from Mildred's friend, mrs Bowles, and they set up a date to watch the "parlor walls" (large televisions lining the walls of her living room) that night at Mildred's house.
Montag, meanwhile, concedes that he will need help to understand the books.
Montag remembers an old man named Faber he once met in a park a year ago, an English professor before books were banned.
He telephones Faber with questions about books, and Faber soon hangs up on him.
Undeterred, Montag makes a subway trip to Faber's home along with a rare copy of the Bible, the book he stole at the woman's house.
Montag forces the scared and reluctant Faber into helping him by methodically ripping pages from the Bible.
Faber concedes and gives Montag a homemade ear-piece communicator so he can offer constant guidance.
After Montag returns home, Mildred's friends, mrs Bowles and mrs Phelps, arrive to watch the "parlor walls".
Not interested in this insipid entertainment, Montag turns off the walls and tries to engage the women in meaningful conversation, only to find them indifferent to all but the most trivial aspects of the upcoming war, friends' deaths, their families, and politics.
Montag leaves momentarily and returns with a book of poetry.
This confuses the women and alarms Faber, who is listening remotely.
Montag proceeds to recite the poem Dover Beach, causing mrs Phelps to cry.
At the behest of Faber in the ear-piece, Montag burns the book.
Mildred's friends leave in disgust, while Mildred locks herself in the bathroom and takes more sleeping pills.
In the aftermath of the parlor party, Montag hides his books in his backyard before returning to the firehouse late at night with just the stolen Bible.
He finds Beatty playing cards with the other firemen.
Montag hands Beatty a book to cover for the one he believes Beatty knows he stole the night before, which is unceremoniously tossed into the trash.
Beatty tells Montag that he had a dream in which they fought endlessly by quoting books to each other.
In describing the dream Beatty reveals that, despite his disillusionment, he was once an enthusiastic reader.
A fire alarm sounds, and Beatty picks up the address from the dispatcher system.
They drive in the firetruck recklessly to the destination.
Montag is stunned when the truck arrives at his house.
Beatty orders Montag to destroy his own house, telling him it was Mildred and her friends who reported him.
Montag tries to talk to Mildred as she quickly leaves the house.
She ignores him, gets into a taxi, and vanishes down the street.
Montag obeys the chief, destroying the home piece by piece with a flamethrower.
As soon as he has incinerated the house, Beatty discovers Montag's ear-piece and plans to hunt down Faber.
Montag threatens Beatty with the flamethrower and (after Beatty taunts him) burns his boss alive, and knocks his coworkers unconscious.
As Montag escapes the scene, the firehouse's mechanical dog attacks him, managing to inject his leg with a tranquilizer.
He destroys The Hound with the flamethrower and limps away.
Montag runs through the city streets towards Faber's house.
Faber urges him to make his way to the countryside and contact the exiled book-lovers who live there.
He mentions he will be leaving on an early bus heading to st Louis and that he and Montag can rendezvous there later.
On Faber's television, they watch news reports of another mechanical hound being released, with news helicopters following it to create a public spectacle.
Montag leaves Faber's house.
After an extended manhunt, he escapes by wading into a river and floating downstream.
Montag leaves the river in the countryside, where he meets the exiled drifters, led by a man named Granger.
They have each memorized books for an upcoming time when society is ready to rediscover them.
While learning the philosophy of the exiles, Montag and the group watch helplessly as bombers fly overhead and attack the city with nuclear weapons, completely annihilating it.
While Faber would have left on the early bus, Mildred along with everyone else in the city was surely killed.
Montag and the group are injured and dirtied, but manage to survive the shock wave.
The following morning, Granger teaches Montag and the others about the legendary phoenix and its endless cycle of long life, death in flames, and rebirth.
He adds that the phoenix must have some relationship to mankind, which constantly repeats its mistakes.
Granger emphasizes that man has something the phoenix does not: mankind can remember the mistakes it made before destroying itself and try to not make them again.
Granger then muses that a large factory of mirrors should be built, so that mankind can take a long look at itself.
When the meal is over, the band goes back toward the city, to help rebuild society.
<EOS>
While taking a business trip, architect Max Klein (Jeff Bridges) survives a crash of a flight headed from San Francisco to Houston.
As the plane descends, Max inexplicably becomes at peace when he accepts he is going to die.
The revelation inspires him to comfort many of the fearful passengers, even moving to sit next to Byron Hummel (Daniel Cerny), a young boy flying alone.
The psychological trauma of the experience transforms his personality and he enters an altered state of consciousness, rethinking his life and becoming preoccupied with the eternal meanings and the existential questions of life and death itself.
Max's reaction to this awakening itself questions the reality of what is real and unreal and what his mind perceives as real through his interaction with others and the chance of living again in everyday life.
Immediately after the crash, Max, one of the plane's few survivors, rents a car and drives from the crash site in Bakersfield to Los Angeles, stopping on the way to visit his old high school sweetheart, Alison (Debra Monk), whom he hasn't seen in 20 years.
During their meal at a restaurant Alison notices Max eating a strawberry and inquires about his allergy to them.
Max grins and explains he's "gotten past" his allergic reaction and somehow, confidently finishes it with no problems.
He's tracked down at a hotel room the next morning byBI.
agents who question his odd choice to not contact his wife and family or remain at the crash site with the other survivors.
The airline sends a representative who compensates him with train tickets to go home to San Francisco.
Max declines the tickets, stating adamantly that he wants to fly home and has no fear of air travel anymore.
On the flight he meets dr Bill Perlman (John Turturro), an airline-contracted psychiatrist who offers to counsel Max for post-traumatic stress disorder.
dr Perlman accompanies Max back to his home where his wife Laura (Isabella Rossellini) begins noticing his strange behavior.
Max matter-of-factly tells Nan Gordon (Deirdre O'Connell), the wife of his friend and business partner, that her husband Jeff (John de Lancie) died in the crash.
The media dubs Max "The Good Samaritan" and tries to interview him as Byron comes to publicly thank him for the way he comforted the passengers during the crash, but Max avoids making a statement.
Over time Max becomes distant from Laura and his son Jonah (Spencer Vrooman) because of his preoccupation with his near death experience.
He begins drawing abstract pictures of the crash and his sense of a hole opening in the sky before him.
He comes to think of himself as invulnerable to death causing dr Perlman to become concerned that Max is delusional.
Perlman encourages Max to meet with another survivor, Carla Rodrigo (Rosie Perez), in the hope that the two can help support one another.
Carla, who lost her baby son in the crash, struggles with survivor's guilt, punishing herself for not holding onto him tightly enough when his seat belt on the plane malfunctioned.
Max and Carla bond and develop a close friendship as he helps her to get past her depression and free herself from her guilt.
Max, Laura and Nan meet with attorney Steven Brillstein (Tom Hulce), who encourages Max to exaggerate his testimony in order to increase Nan's compensation settlement offer from the airline.
Max states his discomfort with lying but reluctantly agrees when he considers Nan's financial predicament as a widow.
The unease of lying causes Max to have a panic attack and he runs out of the office to the roof of the building where he climbs onto the ledge.
As Max stands on the ledge, looking down at the streets below, his panic attack subsides and he rejoices in his fearlessness.
Laura follows Max onto the roof and upon finding him, blindly spinning around on the ledge with his overcoat billowing across his face, she believes him to be suicidal.
Eventually Max's increasingly dramatic attempts (culminating with an intentional car crash into a brick wall) at pushing the boundaries between life and death succeed in jolting Carla from her uncertain state.
Afterwards, Carla meets with Laura and the two clarify the misunderstanding that she and Max are past a co-dependency state and are in fact, in love with each other.
Moreover, Carla explains that she regards Max as he sees himself - an angel - and Laura now understands their shared delusion.
However, after Carla reluctantly parts company with Max, he remains aloof in his relationship with his wife and son, struggling to come to terms with his implied immortality.
One night, Brillstein arrives at the Klein home to celebrate the pending settlement offer, and brings a basket with an assortment of fruits.
Max eats one of the strawberries but, unlike at the restaurant, this time he experiences an immediate allergic reaction and suffocates.
As he lies choking, Max goes into a state of vision where he sees various flashbacks and starts toward the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel (in the guise of an aisle in the airplane fuselage) as Laura's voice is overheard repeatedly "calling him back" to the world.
Max accepts the reality of his imminent death when suddenly he's resuscitated by Laura.
He survives and (it's implied) recovers his emotional connection to his family, to the world and to the reality of yet another chance at life.
<EOS>
The first two formants are important in determining the quality of vowels, and are frequently said to correspond to the open/close and front/back dimensions (which have traditionally, though not entirely accurately, been associated with the shape and position of the tongue).
Thus the first formant F has a higher frequency for an open vowel (such as ) and a lower frequency for a close vowel (such as or ); and the second formant F has a higher frequency for a front vowel (such as ) and a lower frequency for a back vowel (such as ).
as can be seen in Fig.
1.
Vowels will almost always have four or more distinguishable formants; sometimes there are more than six.
However, the first two formants are most important in determining vowel quality, and this is often displayed in terms of a plot of the first formant against the second formant, though this is not sufficient to capture some aspects of vowel quality, such as rounding.
An example of how the vowels of a language or dialect may be plotted on a traditional auditory vowel chart and also on a formant plot may be seen in the case of Norwegian.
Many writers have addressed the problem of finding an optimal alignment of the positions of vowels on formant plots with those on the conventional vowel quadrilateral.
The pioneering work of Ladefoged used the Mel scale because this scale was claimed to correspond more closely to the auditory scale of pitch than to the acoustic measure of fundamental frequency expressed in Hertz as in Fig.
1.
Two alternatives to the Mel scale are the Bark scale and the ERB-rate scale.
A comparison of these three scales is shown by Hayward,&nbsp;141, and formant plots based on the Hertz scale and on the Bark scale are compared on&nbsp;153.
Another strategy for improving formant plots that has been widely adopted is to plot on the horizontal axis not the value of F2 but the difference between F1 and F2 for a given vowel.
<EOS>
In the village of Flåklypa, Lom, Gudbrand Valley (En.
Pinchcliffe), the inventor Reodor Felgen (En.
Theodore Rimspoke) lives with his animal friends Ludvig (En.
Lambert) (a nervous, pessimistic and melancholic hedgehog) and Solan (En.
Sonny Duckworth) (a cheerful and optimistic magpie).
Reodor works as a bicycle repairman, though he spends most of his time inventing weird Rube Goldberg-like contraptions.
One day, the trio discover that one of Reodor's former assistants, Rudolf Blodstrupmoen (En.
Rudolph Gore-Slimey), has stolen his design for a race car engine and has become a world champion Formula One driver.
Solan secures funding from Arab oil sheik Ben Redic Fy Fazan (En.
Abdul Ben Bonanza), who happens to be vacationing in Flåklypa, and to enter the race, the trio builds a gigantic racing car: Il Tempo Gigante—a fabulous construction with two extremely big engines (weighing 28 tons alone and making the seismometer in Bergen show 78 Richter when started the first time), a body made out of copper, a spinning radar (that turns out to be useful when Blodstrupmoen starts engaging in smoke warfare during the race) and its own blood bank.
Reodor ends up winning despite Blodstrupmoen's attempts at sabotage.
<EOS>
The film follows the adventures of a group of friends through the eyes of Charles, a good-natured but socially awkward man living in London, who becomes smitten with Carrie, an American whom Charles keeps meeting at four weddings and a funeral.
The first wedding is that of Angus and Laura, at which Charles is the best man.
Charles and his single friends wonder whether they will ever get married.
Charles meets Carrie and spends the night with her.
Carrie pretends that, now they have slept together, they will have to get married, to which Charles endeavours to respond before realising she is joking.
Carrie observes that they may have missed an opportunity and then returns to America.
The second wedding is that of Bernard and Lydia, a couple who became romantically involved at the previous wedding.
Charles encounters Carrie again, but she introduces him to her fiancé, Sir Hamish Banks, a wealthy politician.
At the reception, Charles finds himself seated with several ex-girlfriends who relate embarrassing stories about his inability to be discreet and afterwards bumps into Henrietta, known among Charles' friends as "Duckface", with whom he had a particularly difficult relationship.
Charles retreats to an empty hotel suite, seeing Carrie and Hamish leave in a taxicab, only to be trapped in a cupboard after the newlyweds stumble into the room to have sex.
After Charles awkwardly exits the room, Henrietta confronts him about his habit of "serial monogamy", telling him he is afraid of letting anyone get too close to him.
Charles then runs into Carrie, and they end up spending another night together.
A month later, Charles receives an invitation to Carrie's wedding.
While shopping for a present, he coincidentally encounters Carrie and ends up helping her select her wedding dress.
Carrie lists her more than thirty sexual partners.
Charles later awkwardly tries confessing his love to her and hinting that he would like to have a relationship with her, to no avail.
The third wedding is that of Carrie and Hamish.
Charles attends, depressed at the prospect of Carrie marrying Hamish.
At the reception, Gareth instructs his friends to seek potential mates; Fiona's brother, Tom, stumbles through an attempt to connect with a woman until she reveals that she is the minister's wife, while Charles's flatmate, Scarlett, strikes up a conversation with an American named Chester.
As Charles watches Carrie and Hamish dance, Fiona deduces his feelings about Carrie.
When Charles asks why Fiona is not married, she confesses that she has loved Charles since they first met years earlier.
Charles is appreciative and empathetic but does not requite her love.
During the groom's toast, Gareth dies of a heart attack.
At Gareth's funeral, his partner Matthew recites the poem "Funeral Blues" by Auden, commemorating his relationship with Gareth.
Charles and Tom discuss whether hoping to find your "one true love" is just a futile effort and ponder that, while their clique have always viewed themselves as proud to be single, Gareth and Matthew were a "married" couple all the while.
The fourth wedding is ten months later.
Charles has decided to marry Henrietta.
However, shortly before the ceremony, Carrie arrives, revealing to Charles that she and Hamish are separated.
Charles has a crisis of confidence, which he reveals to his deaf brother David and Matthew.
When the vicar asks whether anyone knows a reason why the couple should not marry, David, who was reading the vicar's lips, asks Charles to translate for him, and says in sign language that he suspects the groom loves someone else.
The vicar asks whether Charles does love someone else, and Charles replies, "I do".
Henrietta punches Charles and the wedding is halted.
Carrie visits Charles to apologise for attending the wedding.
Charles confesses that, while standing at the altar, he realised that for the first time in his life he totally and utterly loved one person, "and it wasn't the person standing next to me in the veil".
Charles makes a proposal of lifelong commitment without marriage to Carrie, who accepts.
Henrietta marries an officer in the Grenadier Guards; David marries his girlfriend Serena; Scarlett marries Chester; Tom marries his distant cousin Deirdre (whom he met, for the second time in 25 years, at Charles's wedding); Matthew finds a new partner; Fiona marries Prince Charles; and Charles and Carrie have a young son.
<EOS>
In 2065, Earth is infested by alien life forms known as Phantoms.
By physical contact Phantoms consume the Gaia spirit of living beings, killing them instantly, though a minor contact may only result in an infection.
The surviving humans live in "barrier cities", areas protected by an energy shield that prevents Phantoms from entering, and are engaged in an ongoing struggle to free the planet.
After being infected by a Phantom during one of her experiments, Aki Ross (Ming-Na) and her mentor, Doctor Sid (Donald Sutherland), uncover a means of defeating the Phantoms by gathering eight spirit signatures that, when joined, can negate the Phantoms.
Aki is searching for the sixth spirit in the ruins of New York City when she is cornered by Phantoms but is rescued by Gray Edwards (Alec Baldwin) and his squad "Deep Eyes", consisting of Ryan Whittaker (Ving Rhames), Neil Fleming (Steve Buscemi) and Jane Proudfoot (Peri Gilpin).
It is revealed that Gray was once romantically involved with Aki.
Upon returning to her barrier city, Aki joins Sid and appears before the leadership council along with General Hein (James Woods), who is determined to use the powerful Zeus space cannon to destroy the Phantoms.
Aki is concerned the cannon will damage Earth's Gaia (a spirit representing its ecosystem) and delays the use of it by revealing that she has been infected and the collected spirit signatures are keeping her infection stable, convincing the council that there may be another way to defeat the Phantoms.
However, this revelation leads Hein to incorrectly conclude that she is being controlled by the Phantoms.
Aki and the Deep Eyes squad succeed in finding the seventh spirit as Aki's infection begins to worsen and she slips into unconsciousness.
Her dream reveals to her that the Phantoms are the spirits of dead aliens brought to Earth on a fragment of their destroyed planet.
Sid uses the seventh spirit to bring Aki's infection back under control, reviving her.
To scare the council into giving him clearance to fire the Zeus cannon, Hein lowers part of the barrier shield protecting the city.
Though Hein intended that only a few Phantoms enter, his plan goes awry and legions of Phantoms invade the entire city.
Aki, Sid and the Deep Eyes attempt to reach Aki's spaceship, their means of escape, but Ryan, Neil and Jane are killed by Phantoms.
Hein escapes and boards the Zeus space-station where he finally receives authorisation to fire the cannon.
Sid finds the eighth spirit at the crater site of the alien asteroid's impact on Earth.
He lowers a shielded vehicle, with Aki and Gray aboard, into the crater to locate the final spirit.
Just before they can reach it, Hein fires the Zeus cannon into the crater, not only destroying the eighth spirit but also revealing the Phantom Gaia.
Aki has a vision of the Phantom home planet, where she is able to receive the eighth spirit from the alien particles in herself.
When Aki awakens, she and Gray combine it with the other seven.
Hein continues to fire the Zeus cannon despite overheating warnings and unintentionally destroys the cannon and himself.
Gray sacrifices himself as a medium needed to physically transmit the completed spirit into the alien Gaia.
The Earth's Gaia is returned to normal as the Phantoms ascend into space, finally at peace.
Aki is pulled from the crater holding Gray's body, and is seen looking into the newly liberated world.
<EOS>
The series is set in the fictitious late 19th-century Western town of Four Feather Falls, Kansas, and features the adventures of its sheriff, Tex Tucker.
In the first episode, Grandpa Twink relates the story of how it all began to grandson, Little Jake.
Tex is riding up from the valley and comes across a lost and hungry Indian boy, Makooya and saves him.
Tex is given four magic feathers by the boy's grandfather, chief Kalamakooya, as a reward for saving his grandson.
Two of the feathers allow his guns to swivel and fire automatically (often while Tex's hands are raised), and the other two allow his horse, Rocky, and his dog, Dusty, to speak.
As Tex, his horse, and dog are very thirsty, Kalamakooya also makes a waterfall where there had been no water before, and so when the town was built it was named after Tex's feathers and the waterfall.
The characters of the town are Grandpa Twink, who does little but rest in a chair; his grandson Little Jake, the only child in town; Ma Jones, who runs the town store; Doc Haggerty; Slim Jim, the bartender of the Denison saloon; Marvin Jackson, the bank manager; and Dan Morse, the telegraphist.
Other characters appeared from time to time for only one episode, often just visiting town.
The villains included Pedro, who was introduced in the first show and Fernando, who first appeared in the second episode as a sidekick and someone Pedro could blame when things went wrong, as they always did.
Big Ben was another villain who appeared from time to time, as did Red Scalp, a renegade Indian.
Other villains only appeared in single episodes.
<EOS>
Two girls, Agnes and Elin, attend school in the small town of Åmål in Sweden.
Elin is outgoing and popular but finds her life unsatisfying and dull.
Agnes, by contrast, has no real friends and is constantly depressed.
Agnes is in love with Elin but cannot find any way to express it.
Agnes' parents worry about their daughter's reclusive life and try to be reassuring.
Her mother decides, against Agnes' will, to throw a 16th birthday party for her.
Agnes is afraid no one will come.
Viktoria, a girl in a wheelchair, shows up and Agnes shouts at her in front of her parents, telling her they are friends only because no one else will talk to them.
Agnes, overcome with anger and depression, goes to her room and cries into her pillow shouting that she wishes she were dead, while her father tries to soothe her.
Viktoria leaves and Agnes' family eats the food made for the party.
Elin arrives at Agnes' house, mainly as an excuse to avoid going to another party, where there will be a boy (Johan, played by Mathias Rust) she wants to avoid.
Elin's older sister, Jessica, who comes with her, dares her to kiss Agnes, who is rumoured to be a lesbian.
Elin fulfills the dare and then runs out with Jessica, only to soon feel guilty for having humiliated Agnes.
After becoming drunk at the other party, Elin gets sick and throws up.
Johan tries to help her and ends up professing his love to her.
Elin leaves Johan and the party, only to return to Agnes' house to apologize for how she acted earlier.
In doing so, Elin stops Agnes from cutting herself.
She even manages to persuade Agnes to return with her to the other party.
On the way, Elin shares her real feelings about being trapped in Åmål.
She asks Agnes about being a lesbian and believes that their problems could be solved by leaving Åmål and going to Stockholm.
On impulse, Elin persuades Agnes to hitchhike to Stockholm, which is a five-hour journey by car.
They find a driver who agrees to take them, believing them to be sisters who are visiting their grandmother.
While sitting in the back seat, they have their first real kiss.
The driver sees them and, shocked at the behaviour of the two 'sisters', orders them to leave the car.
Elin discovers that she is attracted to Agnes but is afraid to admit it.
She proceeds to ignore Agnes and refuses to talk to her.
Elin's sister Jessica sees that she is in love and pushes her to figure out who it is.
To cover the fact that she is in love with Agnes, Elin lies, pretending to be in love with Johan, and loses her virginity during a short-lived relationship with him.
Elin eventually admits her feelings, when, after a climactic scene in a school bathroom, they are forced to 'out' their relationship to the school.
The film ends with Elin and Agnes sitting in Elin's bedroom drinking chocolate milk.
Elin explains that she often adds too much chocolate until her milk is nearly black.
She must fill another glass with milk and mix it and that her sister Jessica often gets mad that she finishes the chocolate.
Elin has the last word saying "It makes a lot of chocolate milk.
But that doesn't matter".
<EOS>
On the soon-to-be demolished stage of the Weismann Theatre, a reunion is being held to honor the Weismann's "Follies" shows past, and the beautiful chorus girls who performed there every year between the two world wars.
The once resplendent theatre is now little but planks and scaffolding (Prologue/Overture).
As the ghosts of the young showgirls slowly drift through the theatre, a majordomo enters with his entourage of waiters and waitresses.
They pass through the spectral showgirls without seeing them.
Sally Durant Plummer, "blond, petite, sweet-faced" and at 49 "still remarkably like the girl she was thirty years ago", a former Weismann girl is the first guest to arrive; her ghostly youthful counterpart moves towards her.
Phyllis Rogers Stone, a stylish and elegant woman, also arrives with her husband Ben, a renowned philanthropist and politician.
As their younger counterparts approach them, Phyllis comments to Ben about their past.
He feigns disinterest; there is an underlying tension in their relationship.
As more guests arrive, Sally’s husband, Buddy, enters.
He is a salesman, in his early 50s, appealing and lively, whose smiles cover inner disappointment.
Finally, Weismann enters to greet his guests.
Roscoe, the old master of ceremonies, introduces the former showgirls ("Beautiful Girls").
Former Weismann performers at the reunion include Max and Stella Deems, who lost their radio jobs and became store owners in Miami; Solange La Fitte, a coquette, who is vibrant and flirtatious even at 66; Hattie Walker, who has outlived five younger husbands; Vincent and Vanessa, former dancers who now own an Arthur Murray franchise; Heidi Schiller, for whom Franz Lehár once wrote a waltz (or was it Oscar Straus.
Facts never interest her; what matters is the song.
); and Carlotta Campion, a film star who has embraced life and benefited from every experience.
As the guests reminisce, the stories of Ben, Phyllis, Buddy and Sally unfold.
Phyllis and Sally were roommates while in the Follies, and Ben and Buddy were best friends at school in New York.
When Sally sees Ben, her former lover, she greets him self-consciously ("Don't Look at Me").
Buddy and Phyllis join their spouses and the foursome reminisces about the old days of their courtship and the theatre, their memories vividly coming to life in the apparitions of their young counterparts ("Waiting For The Girls Upstairs").
Each of the four is shaken at the realization of how life has changed them.
Elsewhere, Willy Wheeler (portly, in his sixties) cartwheels for a photographer.
Emily and Theodore Whitman, ex-vaudevillians in their seventies, perform an old routine ("The Rain on the Roof").
Solange proves she is still fashionable at what she claims is 66 ("Ah, Paris.
"), and Hattie Walker performs her old showstopping number ("Broadway Baby").
Buddy warns Phyllis that Sally is still in love with Ben, and she is shaken by how the past threatens to repeat itself.
Sally is awed by Ben’s apparently glamorous life, but Ben wonders if he made the right choices and considers how things might have been ("The Road You Didn't Take").
Sally tells Ben how her days have been spent with Buddy, trying to convince him (and herself) ("In Buddy’s Eyes").
But it is clear that Sally is still in love with Ben – even though their affair ended badly when Ben decided to marry Phyllis.
She shakes loose from the memory and begins to dance with Ben, who is touched by the memory of the Sally he once cast aside.
Phyllis interrupts this tender moment and has a biting encounter with Sally.
Before she has a chance to really let loose, they are both called on to participate in another performance – Stella Deems and the ex-chorines line up to perform an old number ("Who's That Woman.
"), as they are mirrored by their younger selves.
Afterward, Phyllis and Ben angrily discuss their lives and relationship, which has become numb and emotionless.
Sally is bitter and has never been happy with Buddy, although he has always adored her.
She accuses him of having affairs while he is on the road, and he admits he has a steady girlfriend, Margie, in another town, but always returns home.
Carlotta amuses a throng of admirers with a tale of how her dramatic solo was cut from the Follies because the audience found it humorous, transforming it as she sings it into a toast to her own hard-won survival ("I'm Still Here").
Ben confides to Sally that his life is empty.
She yearns for him to hold her, but young Sally slips between them and the three move together ("Too Many Mornings").
Ben, caught in the passion of memories, kisses Sally as Buddy watches from the shadows.
Sally thinks this is a sign that the two will finally get married, and Ben is about to protest until Sally interrupts him with a kiss and runs off to gather her things, thinking that the two will leave together.
Buddy leaves the shadows furious, and fantasizes about the girl he should have married, Margie, who loves him and makes him feel like "a somebody", but bitterly concludes he does not love her back ("The Right Girl").
He tells Sally that he's done, but she is lost in a fantasy world, and tells him that Ben has asked her to marry him.
Buddy tells her she must be either crazy or drunk, but he's already supported Sally through rehab clinics and mental hospitals and cannot take any more.
Ben drunkenly propositions Carlotta, with whom he once had a fling, but she has a young lover and coolly turns him down.
Heidi Schiller, joined by her younger counterpart, performs "One More Kiss", her aged voice a stark contrast to the sparkling coloratura of her younger self.
Phyllis kisses a waiter and confesses to him that she had always wanted a son.
She then tells Ben that their marriage can't continue the way it has been.
Ben replies by saying that he wants a divorce, and Phyllis assumes the request is due to his love for Sally.
Ben denies this, but still wants Phyllis out.
Angry and hurt, Phyllis considers whether to grant his request ("Could I Leave You.
").
Phyllis begins wondering at her younger self, who worked so hard to become the socialite that Ben needed.
Ben yells at his younger self for not appreciating all the work that Phyllis did.
Both Buddys enter to confront the Bens about how they stole Sally.
Sally and her younger self enter and Ben firmly tells Sally that he never loved her.
All the voices begin speaking and yelling at each other.
Suddenly, at the peak of madness and confusion, the couples are engulfed by their follies, which transform the rundown theatre into a fantastical "Loveland", an extravaganza even more grand and opulent than the gaudiest Weismann confection: "the place where lovers are always young and beautiful, and everyone lives only for love".
Sally, Phyllis, Ben and Buddy show their "real and emotional lives" in "a sort of group nervous breakdown".
What follows is a series of musical numbers performed by the principal characters, each exploring their biggest desires.
The two younger couples sing in counterpoint of their hopes for the future ("You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through").
Buddy then appears, dressed in "plaid baggy pants, garish jacket and a shiny derby hat", and performs a high-energy vaudeville routine depicting how he is caught between his love for Sally and Margie's love for him.
("The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues").
Sally appears next, dressed as a torch singer, singing of her passion for Ben from the past- and her obsession with him now ("Losing My Mind").
In a jazzy dance number, accompanied by a squadron of chorus boys, Phyllis reflects on the two sides of her personality, one naive and passionate and the other jaded and sophisticated and her desire to combine them ("The Story of Lucy and Jessie").
Resplendent in top hat and tails, Ben begins to offer his devil-may-care philosophy ("Live, Laugh, Love"), but stumbles and anxiously calls to the conductor for the lyrics, as he frantically tries to keep going.
Ben becomes frenzied, while the dancing ensemble continues as if nothing was wrong.
Amidst a deafening discord, Ben screams at all the figures from his past and collapses as he cries out for Phyllis.
"Loveland" has dissolved back into the reality of the crumbling and half-demolished theatre; dawn is approaching.
Ben admits to Phyllis his admiration for her, and Phyllis shushes him and helps Ben regain his dignity before they leave.
After exiting, Buddy escorts the emotionally devastated Sally back to their hotel with the promise to work things out later.
Their ghostly younger selves appear, watching them go.
The younger Ben and Buddy softly call to their "girls upstairs", and the Follies end.
<EOS>
The series focuses on the exploits and misadventures of short-fused hotelier Basil Fawlty and his acerbic wife Sybil, as well as their employees, porter and waiter Manuel, maid Polly, and, in the second series, chef Terry.
The episodes typically revolve around Basil's efforts to succeed in "raising the tone" of his hotel and his increasing frustration at the numerous complications and mistakes, both his own and those of others, which prevent him from doing so.
Much of the humor comes from Basil's overly aggressive manner, engaging in angry but witty arguments with guests, staff and, in particular, Sybil whom he addresses (in a faux-romantic way) with insults such as "that golfing puff adder", "my little piranha fish" and "my little nest of vipers".
Despite this, he frequently feels intimidated, she being able to stop him in his tracks at any time, usually with a short, sharp cry of "Basil.
" At the end of some episodes, Basil succeeds in annoying (or at least bemusing) the guests and frequently gets his comeuppance.
Basil occasionally longs for a touch of class, sometimes by playing recordings of classical music.
In one episode he is playing music by Brahms when Sybil remarks, after pestering him asking to do different tasks: "You could have them both done by now if you hadn't spend the whole morning skulking in there listening to that racket".
Basil replies, with exasperation, "Racket.
That's Brahms.
Brahms' Third Racket.
"  The plots occasionally are intricate and always farcical, involving coincidences, misunderstandings, cross-purposes and meetings both missed and accidental.
The innuendo of the bedroom farce is sometimes present (often to the disgust of the socially conservative Basil) but it is his eccentricity, not his lust, that drives the plots.
The events test to the breaking point what little patience Basil has, sometimes causing him to have a near breakdown by the end of the episode.
The guests at the hotel typically are comic foils to Basil's anger and outbursts.
Each episode's one-shot guest characters provide a different characteristic that he cannot stand, among them being promiscuous, working class or foreign.
Requests both reasonable and impossible test his temper.
Even the afflicted seem to annoy him.
For example, the episode "Communication Problems" revolving around the havoc caused by the frequent misunderstandings between the staff and the hard-of-hearing mrs Richards.
By the end, Basil faints just at the mention of her name.
This episode is typical of the show's careful weaving of humorous situations through comedy cross-talk.
The show also uses mild black humour at times, notably when Basil is forced to hide a dead body and in Basil's comments about Sybil ("Did you ever see that film, How to Murder Your Wife.
Awfully good.
I saw it six times".
) and to the guests ("May I suggest that you consider moving to a hotel closer to the sea.
Or preferably in it".
).
Basil's physical outbursts are primarily directed at the waiter Manuel, an emotional but largely innocent Spaniard whose confused English vocabulary causes him to make elementary mistakes.
At times, Basil beats Manuel with a frying pan and smacks his forehead with a spoon.
The violence towards Manuel caused rare negative criticism of the show.
Sybil, on the other hand, is always condescending toward Manuel, excusing his behavior to guests with "He's from Barcelona".
Basil often displays blatant snobbishness as he attempts to climb the social ladder, frequently expressing disdain for the "riff-raff", "cretins" and "yobbos" that he believes to regularly populate his hotel.
His desperation is readily apparent as he makes increasingly hopeless maneuvers and painful faux pas in trying to curry favor with those he perceives as having superior social status.
Yet, he finds himself forced to serve those individuals that are "beneath" him.
As such, Basil's efforts tend to be counter-productive, with guests leaving the hotel in disgust and his marriage (and sanity) stretching to breaking point.
<EOS>
During the Vietnam War, a group of newS.
Marine Corps recruits arrive at Parris Island, South Carolina, for basic training.
After having their heads shaved, they meet Senior Drill Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, who employs forceful methods to turn the recruits into hardened, combat-ready Marines.
Among the recruits are privates "Joker", "Cowboy", and the overweight, bumbling Leonard Lawrence, who earns the nickname "Gomer Pyle" after incurring Hartman's wrath.
Unresponsive to Hartman's discipline, Pyle is eventually paired with Joker.
Pyle improves with Joker's help, but his progress halts when Hartman discovers a contraband jelly doughnut in Pyle's foot locker.
Believing the recruits have failed to improve Pyle, Hartman adopts a collective punishment policy: every mistake Pyle makes will earn punishment for the rest of the platoon, with Pyle being spared.
In retaliation for Pyle's failures, the platoon hazes him with a blanket party, restraining him in his bunk while beating him with bars of soap wrapped in towels.
After this incident, Pyle reinvents himself as a model Marine.
This impresses Hartman but worries Joker, who recognizes signs of mental breakdown in Pyle, such as him talking to his M14 rifle.
Following their graduation, the recruits receive their Military Occupational Specialty assignments; Joker is assigned to Basic Military Journalism, while most of the others (including Cowboy and Pyle) are assigned to Infantry.
During the platoon's final night on Parris Island, Joker discovers Pyle in the bathroom, loading his rifle with live ammunition.
Joker attempts to calm Pyle, who executes drill commands and loudly recites the Rifleman's Creed.
The noise awakens the platoon as well as Hartman, who confronts Pyle and orders him to surrender the rifle.
Pyle shoots Hartman dead, then kills himself.
In January 1968, Joker, now a corporal, is a war correspondent in South Vietnam for Stars and Stripes with Private First Class Rafterman, a combat photographer.
Rafterman wants to go into combat, as Joker claims he has done.
At the Marine base, Joker is mocked for his lack of the thousand-yard stare, indicating his lack of war experience.
They are interrupted by the start of the Tet Offensive as the North Vietnamese Army attempts to overrun the base, but are rebuffed.
The following day, the journalism staff is briefed about enemy attacks throughout South Vietnam.
Joker is sent to Phu Bai, accompanied by Rafterman.
They meet the Lusthog Squad, where Cowboy is now a sergeant.
Joker accompanies the squad during the Battle of Huế, where platoon commander "Touchdown" is killed by the enemy.
After the Marines declare the area secure, a team of American news journalists and reporters enters Huế and interviews various Marines about their experiences in Vietnam and their opinions about the war.
During patrol, Crazy Earl, the squad leader, is killed by a booby trap, leaving Cowboy in command.
The squad becomes lost and Cowboy orders Eightball to scout the area.
A Viet Cong sniper wounds Eightball and the squad medic, Doc Jay, is also wounded while attempting to save him, against orders.
Cowboy learns that tank support is unavailable and orders the team to prepare for withdrawal.
The squad's machine gunner, Animal Mother, disobeys Cowboy and attempts to save his teammates.
He discovers there is only one sniper, but Doc Jay and Eightball are killed when Doc Jay attempts to indicate the sniper's location.
While maneuvering toward the sniper, Cowboy is shot and killed.
Animal Mother assumes command of the squad and leads an attack on the sniper.
Joker discovers the sniper, a teenage girl, and attempts to shoot her, but his rifle jams and alerts her to his presence.
Rafterman shoots the sniper, mortally wounding her.
As the squad converges, the sniper begs for death, prompting an argument about whether or not to kill her.
Animal Mother decides to allow a mercy killing only if Joker performs it.
After some hesitation, Joker shoots her.
The Marines congratulate him on his kill as Joker stares into the distance, displaying the thousand-yard stare.
The Marines march toward their camp, singing the "Mickey Mouse March".
Joker states that despite being "in a world of shit", he is glad to be alive and no longer afraid.
<EOS>
Farmer Giles (Ægidius Ahenobarbus Julius Agricola de Hammo, "Giles Bronze-beard Julius Farmer of Ham") is not a hero.
He is fat and red-bearded and enjoys a slow, comfortable life.
But a rather deaf and short-sighted giant blunders on to his land, and Giles manages to ward him away with a blunderbuss shot in his general direction.
The people of the village cheer: Farmer Giles has become a hero.
His reputation spreads across the kingdom, and he is rewarded by the King with a sword named Caudimordax ("Tailbiter")—which turns out to be a powerful weapon against dragons.
The giant, on returning home, relates to his friends that there are no more knights in the Middle Kingdom, just stinging flies—actually the scrap metal shot from the blunderbuss—and this entices a dragon, Chrysophylax Dives, to investigate the area.
The terrified neighbours all expect the accidental hero Farmer Giles to deal with him.
The story parodies the great dragon-slaying traditions.
The knights sent by the King to pursue the dragon are useless fops, more intent on "precedence and etiquette" than on the huge dragon footprints littering the landscape.
The only part of a 'dragon' they know is the annual celebratory dragon-tail cake.
Giles by contrast clearly recognises the danger, and resents being sent along to face it.
But hapless farmers can be forced to become heroes, and Giles shrewdly makes the best of the situation.
It has been suggested that the Middle Kingdom is based on early Mercia, and that Giles's break-away realm (the Little Kingdom) is based on Frithuwald's Surrey.
<EOS>
Mr.
Tako, head of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, is frustrated with the television shows his company is sponsoring and wants something to boost his ratings.
When a doctor tells Tako about a giant monster he discovered on the small Faro Island, Tako believes that it would be a brilliant idea to use the monster to gain publicity.
Tako immediately sends two men, Sakurai and Kinsaburo, to find and bring back the monster.
Meanwhile, the American submarine Seahawk gets caught in an iceberg.
The iceberg collapses, unleashing Godzilla (who, in the Japanese version, had been trapped within since 1955), who then destroys the submarine and a nearby military base.
On Faro Island, a giant octopus attacks the native village.
The mysterious Faro monster, revealed to be King Kong, arrives and defeats the octopus.
Kong then drinks some red berry juice that immediately puts him to sleep.
Sakurai and Kinsaburo place Kong on a large raft and begin to transport him back to Japan.
mr Tako arrives on the ship transporting Kong, but a JSDF ship stops them and orders them to return Kong to Faro Island.
Meanwhile, Godzilla arrives in Japan and begins terrorizing the countryside.
Kong wakes up and breaks free from the raft.
Reaching the mainland, Kong engages Godzilla in a brief battle but retreats after Godzilla nearly burns him alive.
The JSDF digs a large pit laden with explosives and lures Godzilla into it, but Godzilla is unharmed.
They next string up a barrier of power lines around the city filled with 1,000,000 volts of electricity (50,000 volts were tried in the first film but failed to turn the monster back), which prove effective against Godzilla.
Kong then approaches Tokyo and tears through the power lines, feeding off the electricity which seems to make him stronger.
Kong then enters Tokyo and captures Fumiko, Sakurai's sister.
The JSDF launches capsules full of the Faro Island berry juice and put Kong to sleep.
The JSDF then decides to transport Kong via balloons to Godzilla, in hopes that they will kill each other.
The next morning, Kong is dropped next to Godzilla at the summit of Mt.
Fuji and the two engage in a final battle.
Godzilla initially has the advantage and nearly kills King Kong, but Kong regains his strength after absorbing electricity from a nearby lightning cloud.
The monsters continue their fight and, after tearing through Atami Castle, fall off a cliff together into the Pacific Ocean.
After an underwater battle, only King Kong resurfaces and begins to swim towards his island home.
There is no sign of Godzilla, but the JSDF speculates that it's possible that he survived.
The JSDF decides not to pursue Kong but, rather, let him return home.
<EOS>
After Yata (Toru Ibuki) is lost at sea, his brother Ryota (Toru Watanabe) steals a yacht with his two friends and a bank robber, the crew runs afoul of the giant lobster Ebirah, and washes up on the shore of an island, where a terrorist organization manufactures heavy water for their purposes, as well as a chemical that keeps Ebirah at bay.
The organization, known as the Red Bamboo, has enslaved natives from Infant Island to help them, but the natives hope to awaken Mothra (now a full-grown moth metamorphosed from the larva that appeared in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster) to rescue them.
In their efforts to avoid capture, Ryota and his friends, aided by a beautiful native girl, stumble across Godzilla sleeping within a cliffside cavern.
The group devises a plan to defeat the Red Bamboo and escape from the island.
In the process, they wake Godzilla using a makeshift lightning rod.
Godzilla fights Ebirah, but the giant crustacean escapes.
Godzilla is then attacked by Daikondoro, a giant condor, and a squadron of Red Bamboo fighter jets, but destroys them.
The humans retrieve the missing Yata, free the enslaved natives and Godzilla begins to destroy the base.
Godzilla smashes a tower that has a self-destruct button that makes the island unstable.
Godzilla fights Ebirah and defeats it, ripping off both Ebirah's claws and causing it to retreat into the sea.
The natives summon Mothra to save everyone, however, Godzilla challenges Mothra when she gets to the island.
Mothra manages to push Godzilla away and carry the people off.
Godzilla escapes the island just before it explodes.
<EOS>
A team of scientists are trying to perfect a weather-controlling system.
Their efforts are hampered by the arrival of a nosy reporter and by the sudden presence of 2-meter tall giant praying mantises.
The first test of the weather control system goes awry when the remote control for a radioactive balloon is jammed by an unexplained signal coming from the center of the island.
The balloon detonates prematurely, creating a radioactive storm that causes the giant mantises to grow to enormous sizes.
Investigating the mantises, which are named Kamacuras (Gimantis in the English-dubbed version), the scientists find the monstrous insects digging an egg out from under a pile of earth.
The egg hatches, revealing a baby Godzilla.
The scientists realize that the baby's telepathic cries for help were the cause of the interference that ruined their experiment.
Shortly afterwards, Godzilla arrives on the island in response to the infant's cries, demolishing the scientist's base while rushing to defend the baby.
Godzilla kills two of the Kamacuras during the battle while one manages to fly away to safety, Godzilla then adopts the baby.
The baby Godzilla, named Minilla, quickly grows to about half the size of the adult Godzilla and Godzilla instructs it on the important monster skills of roaring and using its atomic ray.
At first, Minilla has difficulty producing anything more than atomic smoke rings, but Godzilla discovers that stressful conditions (ie.
stomping on its tail) or motivation produces a true radioactive blast.
Minilla comes to the aid of Reiko when she is attacked by a Kamacuras, but inadvertently awakens Kumonga (Spiga in the English-dubbed version), a giant spider that was sleeping in a valley.
Kumonga attacks the caves where the scientists are hiding and Minilla stumbles into the fray.
Kumonga traps Minilla and the final Kamacuras with his webbing, but as Kumonga begins to feed on the deceased Kamacuras, Godzilla arrives to save the day.
Godzilla saves Minilla and they work together to defeat Kumonga by using their atomic rays on the giant spider.
Hoping to keep the monsters from interfering in their attempt to escape the island, the scientists finally use their perfected weather altering device on the island and the once tropical island becomes buried in snow and ice.
As the scientists are saved by an American submarine, Godzilla and Minilla begin to hibernate as they wait for the island to become tropical again.
<EOS>
At the close of the 20th century, all of the Earth's kaiju have been collected by the United Nations Science Committee and confined in an area known as Monsterland, located in the Ogasawara island chain.
A special control center is constructed underneath the island to ensure that the monsters stay secure and to serve as a research facility to study them.
When communications with Monsterland are suddenly and mysteriously severed, and all of the monsters begin attacking world capitals, dr Yoshida of the UNSC orders Captain Yamabe and the crew of his spaceship, Moonlight SY-3, to investigate Ogasawara.
There, they discover that the scientists, led by dr Otani, have become mind-controlled slaves of a feminine alien race identifying themselves as the Kilaaks, who reveal that they are in control of the monsters.
Their leader demands that the human race surrender, or face total annihilation.
Godzilla attacks New York City, Rodan invades Moscow, Mothra (a larva offspring) lays waste to Beijing, Gorosaurus (wrongly identified as Baragon.
who might have dug the tunnel the former emerges from) destroys Paris, and Manda attacks London.
These attacks were set in to motion to draw attention away from Japan, so that the aliens can establish an underground stronghold near Mt.
Fuji in Japan.
The Kilaaks then turn their next major attack on to Tokyo and, without serious opposition, become arrogant in their aims, until the UNSC discover that the Kilaaks have switched to broadcasting the control signals from their base under the Moon's surface.
In a desperate battle, the crew of the SY-3 destroys the Kilaak's lunar outpost and returns the alien control system to Earth.
With all of the monsters under the control of the UNSC, the Kilaaks unleash their hidden weapon, King Ghidorah.
The three-headed space monster is dispatched to protect the alien stronghold at Mt.
Fuji, and battles Godzilla, Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, and Kumonga (Manda, Baragon and an unnamed Varan are also present but do not take part in the battle).
While seemingly invincible, King Ghidorah is eventually overpowered by the combined strength of the Earth monsters and is killed.
Refusing to admit defeat, the Kilaaks produce their trump card, a burning monster they call the Fire Dragon, which begins to torch cities and destroys the control center on Ogasawara.
Suddenly, Godzilla attacks and destroys the Kilaak's underground base, revealing that the Earth's monsters instinctively know who their enemies are.
Captain Yamabe then pursues the Fire Dragon in the SY-3, and narrowly achieves victory for the human race.
The Fire Dragon is revealed to be a flaming Kilaak saucer and is destroyed.
Godzilla and the other monsters eventually return to Monsterland to live in peace.
<EOS>
In the year 1973, the most recent underground nuclear test, set off near the Aleutians, sends shockwaves as far south as Monster Island, disturbing the monsters, causing Anguirus to fall into a fault opened up by the consequential earthquakes and Rodan to fly off, while Godzilla decides to stay put.
For years, Seatopia, an undersea civilization, has been heavily affected by this nuclear testing conducted by the surface nations of the world.
Upset by these tests, the Seatopians plan to unleash their civilization's beetle-like god, Megalon, to destroy the surface world out of vengeance.
On the surface, an inventor named Goro Ibuki, his nephew Rokuro and their friend Hiroshi Jinkawa are off on an outing near a lake when Seatopia makes itself known to the Earth by drying up the lake the trio was relaxing nearby and using it as a base of operation.
As they return home they are ambushed by agents of Seatopia who are trying to steal Jet Jaguar, a humanoid robot under construction by the trio of inventors.
However the Agents' first attempt is botched and they are forced to flee to safety.
Some time later, Jet Jaguar is completed but the trio of inventors are knocked unconscious by the returning Seatopian agents.
The agents' plan is to use Jet Jaguar to guide and direct Megalon to destroy whatever city Seatopia commands.
Goro and Rokuro are sent to be killed, while Hiroshi is taken hostage.
Megalon is finally released to the surface while Jet Jaguar is put under the control of the Seatopians and is used to guide Megalon to attack Tokyo with the Japan Self Defense Forces failing to defeat the monster.
Eventually, the trio of heroes manage to escape their situation with the Seatopians and reunite to devise a plan to send Jet Jaguar to get Godzilla's help using Jet Jaguar's secondary control system.
After uniting with Japan's Defense Force, Goro manages to regain control of Jet Jaguar and sends the robot to Monster Island to bring Godzilla to fight Megalon.
Without a guide to control its actions, Megalon flails around relentlessly and aimlessly fighting with the Defense Force and destroying the outskirts of Tokyo.
The Seatopians learn of Jet Jaguar's turn and thus send out a distress call to the Nebula M aliens (from the previous film) to send Gigan to assist them.
As Godzilla journeys to fight Megalon, Jet Jaguar programs into a safeguard mode and grows to gigantic proportions to face Megalon itself until Godzilla arrives.
The battle is roughly at a standstill between robot and monster, until Gigan arrives and both Megalon and Gigan double team Jet Jaguar.
Godzilla finally arrives to assist Jet Jaguar and the odds become evened.
After a long and brutal fight, Gigan and Megalon both retreat and Godzilla and Jet Jaguar shake hands on a job well done.
Godzilla returns to Monster Island, and Jet Jaguar returns to its previous, human-sized state and reunites with its inventors.
<EOS>
In the aftermath of Godzilla's attack on Tokyo and later imprisonment at Mt.
Mihara, the monster's cells are delivered to the Saradia Institute of Technology and Science, where they are to be merged with genetically modified plants in the hope of transforming Saradia's deserts into fertile land and ending the country's economic dependence on oil wells.
dr Genshiro Shiragami and his daughter, Erika, are enlisted to aid with the project.
However, a terrorist bombing destroys the institute's laboratory, ruining the cells and killing Erika.
Five years later, Shiragami has returned to Japan and merged some of Erika's cells with those of a rose in an attempt to preserve her soul.
Scientist Kazuhito Kirishima and Lieutenant Goro Gondo of the JSDF are using the Godzilla cells they collected to create "Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria", hoping it can serve as a weapon against Godzilla should he return.
They attempt to recruit Shiragami to aid them, but are rebuffed.
International tensions increase over the Godzilla cells, as they are coveted by both the Saradia Institute of Technology and Science and the American Bio-Major organization.
An explosion from Mt.
Mihara causes tremors across the area, including Shiragami's home, badly damaging the roses.
Shiragami agrees to join the JSDF's effort and is given access to the Godzilla cells, which he secretly merges with one of the roses.
A night later, rival Bio-Major and Saradian agents break into Shiragami's lab, but are attacked by a large plant-like creature which later escapes to Lake Ashino and is named "Biollante" by Shiragami.
Bio-Major agents plant explosives around Mt.
Mihara and issue an ultimatum to the Diet of Japan, warning that the explosives will be detonated and thus free Godzilla if the cells aren't handed over.
Kirishima and Gondo attempt to trade, but Saradian agent SSS9 thwarts the attempt and escapes with the cells.
The explosives go off, and Godzilla escapes.
It attempts to reach the nearest power plant to replenish its supply of nuclear energy, but Biollante calls out to it.
Godzilla arrives at the lake to engage Biollante in a vicious battle, and emerges as the victor.
Godzilla proceeds toward the power plant at Tsuruga, but psychic Miki Saegusa uses her powers to divert it toward Osaka instead.
A team led by Gondo meet Godzilla at the central district and fire rockets infused with the anti-nuclear bacteria into his body.
Gondo is killed in the process, and an unaffected Godzilla leaves the city.
Kirishima recovers the cells and returns them to the JSDF.
Shiragami theorizes that if Godzilla's body temperature is increased, the bacteria should work against it.
The JSDF erects microwave-emitting plates during an artificial thunderstorm, hitting Godzilla with lightning and heating up its body temperature during a battle in the mountains outside Osaka.
Godzilla is only moderately affected, but Biollante arrives to engage him in battle once again.
The fight ends after Godzilla fires his atomic heat ray inside Biollante's mouth.
An exhausted Godzilla collapses on the beach, and Biollante disintegrates into the sky, forming an image of Erika amongst the stars.
Shiragami, watching the scene, is killed by SSS9.
Kirishima chases the assassin and, after a brief scuffle, SSS9 is killed by a microwave-emitting plate.
Godzilla reawakens and leaves for the ocean.
<EOS>
Continuing after the end of the previous film, Interpol agents, led by Inspector Kusaka, search for the pieces of Mechagodzilla at the bottom of the Okinawan Sea.
Using the submarine, Akatsuki, they hope to gather information on the robot's builders, the alien Simeons.
The Akatsuki is suddenly attacked by a giant aquatic dinosaur called Titanosaurus, and the crew vanishes.
Interpol starts an investigation into the incident.
With the help of marine biologist Akira Ichinose, they trace Titanosaurus to a reclusive, mad scientist named Shinzô Mafune, who wants to destroy all mankind.
While Ichinose is visiting his old home in the seaside forest of Manazuru, they meet Mafune's lone daughter, Katsura.
She tells them that not only is her father dead, but she burned all of the notes about the giant dinosaur (at her father's request).
Unknownst to them, Mafune is still alive and well.
He is visited by his friend Tsuda, who is an aide to the simian alien leader Mugal.
He is leading the project to quickly rebuild Mechagodzilla.
Mugal offers their services to Mafune, so that his Titanosaurus and their Mechagodzilla 2 will be the ultimate weapons.
They hope to wipe out mankind and rebuild the world for themselves.
But things are complicated for both factions when Ichinose falls in love with Katsura and unwittingly gives her Interpol's information against Titanosaurus, the new Mechagodzilla and the aliens.
It's also discovered that Katsura is actually a cyborg, due to undergoing surgery, and Mugal still has uses for her.
Meanwhile, Mafune is desperate to unleash Titanosaurus without the aliens' permission, so he releases it on Yokosuka one night.
By then, Interpol discovers that supersonic waves are Titanosaurus' weakness.
They have a supersonic wave oscillator ready, but Katsura sabotages the machine before they can use it.
Fortunately, Godzilla arrives to fight off Titanosaurus.
Later, when Ichinose visits Katsura, he is captured by the aliens.
Tied up, Ichinose can only watch as Mafune and the aliens unleash Mechagodzilla 2 and Titanosaurus on Tokyo, while Interpol struggles to repair their sonic wave machine and the Japanese armed forces struggle to keep the two monsters at bay.
Katsura, while being controlled by Mugal, ignores Ichinose and controls both the dinosaur and the robot as they destroy the city.
Godzilla comes to the rescue, although it is outmatched by the two titans.
While Interpol distracts Titanosaurus with the supersonic wave oscillator, Godzilla is able to focus on attacking Mechagodzilla 2.
Interpol agents infiltrate the aliens' hideout, rescue Ichinose, and kill Mafune and many of the aliens.
The remaining aliens attempt to escape in their ships, but Godzilla shoots them down.
Katsura, while being embraced by Ichinose, shoots herself to destroy Mechagodzilla 2's controls (which had been implanted in her body by the aliens).
This helps Godzilla destroy the robot.
Godzilla, with the help of the oscillator, defeats Titanosaurus, and heads back to sea.
<EOS>
In 1992, science fiction writer Kenichiro Terasawa (Kosuke Toyohara) is writing a book about Godzilla and learns of a group of Japanese soldiers stationed on Lagos Island during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign.
In February 1944, while threatened by American soldiers, the Japanese soldiers were saved by a mysterious dinosaur.
He theorizes that the dinosaur was subsequently mutated into Godzilla in 1954 after a hydrogen bomb test on the island.
Yasuaki Shindo (Yoshio Tsuchiya), a wealthy businessman who commanded the Japanese soldiers on Lagos Island, confirms that the dinosaur did indeed exist.
Meanwhile, a UFO lands on Mount Fuji.
When the Japanese army investigates, they are greeted by Wilson (Chuck Wilson), Grenchko (Richard Berger), Emmy Kano (Anna Nakagawa) and an android, M-11 (Robert Scott Field).
The visitors, known as the "Futurians", explain that they are humans from the year 2204, where Godzilla has completely destroyed Japan.
The Futurians plan to travel back in time to 1944 to remove the dinosaur from Lagos Island before the island is destroyed, thus preventing the mutation of the creature into Godzilla.
As proof of their story, Emmy presents a copy of Terasawa's book, which has not yet been completed in the present.
The Futurians, Terasawa, Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka), and Professor Mazaki (Katsuhiko Sasaki), board a time shuttle and travel back to 1944 to Lagos Island.
There, as American forces land and engage the Japanese forces commanded by Shindo, the dinosaur attacks and kills the American soldiers.
The American navy then bombs the dinosaur from the sea and it is gravely wounded.
After Shindo and his men leave the island, M-11 teleports the dinosaur from Lagos Island to a place in the Bering Strait.
Before returning to 1992, the Futurians leave three small creatures called Dorats on Lagos Island, which are exposed to radiation from the hydrogen bomb test in 1954.
The creatures merge to become King Ghidorah, which then appears in present day Japan.
After returning to 1992, the Futurians use King Ghidorah to subjugate Japan.
They issue an ultimatum, but Japan refuses to surrender.
Feeling sympathy for the Japanese people, Emmy reveals to Terasawa the truth behind the Futurians' mission: in the future, Japan is an economic superpower that has surpassed the United States, Russia, and China.
The Futurians traveled back in time in order to change history and prevent Japan's future economic dominance by creating King Ghidorah and using it to destroy present day Japan.
At the same time, they also planned to erase Godzilla from history so it wouldn't pose a threat to their plans.
After M-11 brings Emmy back to the UFO, she reprograms the android so it will help her.
With M-11 and Terasawa's aid, Emmy sabotages the UFO's control over King Ghidorah.
At the same time, Shindo plans to use his nuclear submarine to recreate Godzilla.
On route to the Bering Strait, Shindo's submarine is destroyed by an already mutated Godzilla, who absorbs its radiation and becomes even larger and more powerful.
Terasawa discovers that a Russian nuclear submarine sank in the Bering Strait in the 1970s.
The Russian submarine released enough radiation to mutate the dinosaur into Godzilla, effectively setting in motion the events of The Return of Godzilla onwards.
Godzilla arrives in Japan and is met by King Ghidorah.
They fight at equal strength, each immune to the other's attacks.
Godzilla eventually ends the battle by blasting off Ghidorah's middle head.
Before the final blow, Godzilla destroys the UFO, killing Wilson and Grenchko.
Godzilla then turns its attention on Tokyo, destroying the metropolis and killing Shindo.
Emmy travels to the future with M-11 and then returns to the present day with Mecha-King Ghidorah, a cybernetic version of King Ghidorah.
The cybernetic Ghidorah blasts Godzilla with energy beams, which proves useless.
Godzilla then counters by relentlessly blasting Ghidorah with its atomic ray, almost decapitating Ghidorah.
Ghidorah survives but then Godzilla prevails, knocking Ghidorah down.
Emmy carries off Godzilla and drops it and Ghidorah into the ocean.
Emmy then returns to the future but not before informing Terasawa that she is his descendant.
<EOS>
In 1993, an asteroid lands in the Ogasawara Trench and awakens Godzilla.
The next day, explorer Takuya Fujito is detained after stealing an ancient artifact.
Later, a representative of the Japanese Prime Minister offers to have Takuya's charges dropped if he explores Infant Island with his ex-wife, Masako Tezuka and Kenji Ando, the secretary of the rapacious Marutomo company.
After the trio arrives on the island, they find a cave containing a depiction of two giant insects in battle.
Further exploration leads them to a giant egg and a pair of diminutive humanoids called Cosmos, who identify the egg as belonging to Mothra.
The Cosmos tell of an ancient civilization that tried to control the Earth's climate, thus provoking the earth into creating Battra, which became uncontrollable, and started to harm the very planet that created it.
Mothra, another earth protector, fought an apocalyptic battle with Battra, who eventually lost.
The Cosmos explain how the asteroid uncovered Mothra's egg, and may have awoken Battra, who is still embittered over humanity's interference in the Earth's natural order.
The Marutomo company sends a freighter to Infant Island to pick up the egg, ostensibly to protect it.
As they are sailing, Godzilla surfaces and heads toward the newly hatched Mothra.
Battra soon appears and joins the fight, allowing Mothra to retreat.
The battle between Godzilla and Battra is eventually taken underwater, where the force of the battle causes a giant crack in the ocean's floor that swallows the two.
Masako and Takuya later discover Ando's true intentions when he kidnaps the Cosmos and takes them to Marutomo headquarters, where the CEO intends to use them for publicity purposes.
Mothra enters Tokyo in an attempt to rescue the Cosmos, but is attacked by the JSDF.
The wounded Mothra heads for the Diet building and starts building a cocoon around herself.
Meanwhile, Godzilla surfaces from Mount Fuji.
Both Mothra and Battra attain their adult forms and converge at Yokohama Cosmo World.
Godzilla interrupts the battle and brutally attacks Mothra, nearly killing her.
Battra arrives and defends Mothra, and the two moths decide to join forces against Godzilla.
Eventually, Mothra and Battra overwhelm Godzilla and carry it over the ocean.
Godzilla bites Battra's neck and fires its atomic breath into the wound, killing him.
A tired Mothra drops Godzilla and the lifeless Battra into the water below, sealing Godzilla below the surface by creating a mystical glyph with scales from her wings.
The next morning, the Cosmos explain that Battra had been waiting many years to destroy an even larger asteroid that would threaten the earth in 1999.
Mothra had promised she would stop the future collision if Battra were to die, and she and the Cosmos leave Earth as the humans bid farewell.
<EOS>
When the Japanese freighter Eiko-maru is destroyed near Odo Island, another ship – the Bingo-maru – is sent to investigate, only to meet the same fate with few survivors.
A fishing boat from Odo is also destroyed, with one survivor.
Fishing catches mysteriously drop to zero, blamed by an elder on the ancient sea creature known as "Godzilla".
Reporters arrive on Odo Island to further investigate.
A villager tells one of the reporters that "something large is going crazy down there" ruining the fishing.
That evening, a ritual dance to appease Godzilla is held during which the reporter learns that the locals used to sacrifice young girls.
That night, a large storm strikes the island, destroying the reporters' helicopter, and an unseen force destroys 17 homes, kills nine people and 20 of the villagers' livestock.
Odo residents travel to Tokyo to demand disaster relief.
The villagers' and reporters' evidence describes damage consistent with something large crushing the village.
The government sends paleontologist Kyohei Yamane to lead an investigation to the island, where giant radioactive footprints and a trilobite are discovered.
The village alarm bell is rung and Yamane and the villagers rush to see the monster, retreating after seeing that it is a giant dinosaur, which then roars, and returns to the ocean.
Yamane presents his findings in Tokyo, estimating that Godzilla is tall and is evolved from an ancient sea creature becoming a terrestrial animal.
He concludes that Godzilla has been disturbed from its deep underwater natural habitat by underwater hydrogen bomb testing.
Debate ensues about notifying the public about the danger of the monster.
Meanwhile, 17 ships are lost at sea.
Ten frigates are dispatched to attempt to kill the monster using depth charges.
The mission disappoints Yamane who wants Godzilla to be studied.
Godzilla survives the attack and appears off-shore.
Officials appeal to Yamane for ideas to kill the monster, but Yamane tells them that Godzilla is unkillable, having survived H-bomb testing, and must be studied.
Yamane's daughter, Emiko, decides to break off her arranged engagement to Yamane's colleague, Daisuke Serizawa, because of her love for Hideto Ogata, a salvage ship captain.
When a reporter arrives and asks to interview Serizawa, Emiko escorts the reporter to Serizawa's lab.
After Serizawa refuses to divulge his current work to the reporter, he gives Emiko a demonstration of his recent project on the condition she must keep it a secret.
The demonstration horrifies her and she leaves without breaking off the engagement.
Shortly after she returns home, the sound of Godzilla's footsteps approaching is heard.
Godzilla surfaces from Tokyo Bay and enters the city, scattering residents from its path.
A passing commuter train collides with the monster, who then destroys the train.
After further destruction, Godzilla returns to the ocean.
After consulting with international experts, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces construct a tall, 50,000 volt electrified fence along the coast and deploy forces to stop and kill Godzilla.
Yamane returns home, dismayed that there is no plan to study Godzilla for its resistance to radiation, where Emiko and Ogata await hoping to get his consent for them to wed.
When Ogata disagrees with Yamane, Yamane tells him to leave.
Godzilla resurfaces and breaks through to Tokyo, unleashing a more destructive rampage across the city.
The Tokyo Tower and the National Diet Building are destroyed and there is a large loss of life.
Distraught by the devastation, Emiko tells Ogata about Serizawa's research, a weapon called the "Oxygen Destroyer", which disintegrates oxygen atoms and the organisms die of a rotting asphyxiation.
Emiko and Ogata go to Serizawa to convince him to use the Oxygen Destroyer but he initially refuses.
After watching a program displaying the nation's current tragedy, Serizawa finally accepts Emiko and Ogata's pleas.
A navy ship takes Ogata and Serizawa to plant the device in Tokyo Bay.
After finding Godzilla, Serizawa unloads the device and cuts off his air support, taking the secrets of the Oxygen Destroyer to his death.
The mission proves to be a success and Godzilla is destroyed but many mourn Serizawa's death.
Yamane reveals his belief that if nuclear weapons testing continues, another Godzilla may rise in the future.
<EOS>
After a volcanic eruption on Daikoku Island, the Yahata-Maru Japanese fishing vessel is caught in strong currents off its shores.
As the boat drifts into shore, the island begins to erupt, and a giant monster lifts itself out of the volcano.
A few days later, reporter Goro Maki is sailing in the area and finds the vessel intact but deserted.
As he explores the vessel, he finds all the crew dead except for one young man called Hiroshi Okumura, who has been badly wounded.
Suddenly a giant Shockirus sea louse attacks him but he is saved by Okumura.
In Tokyo, Okumura realizes by looking at pictures that the monster he saw was a new Godzilla.
Maki writes an article about the account, but the news of Godzilla's return is kept secret and his article is withheld.
Maki visits Professor Hayashida, whose parents were lost in the 1954 Godzilla attack.
Hayashida describes Godzilla as a living, invincible nuclear weapon able to cause mass destruction.
At Hayashida's laboratory, Maki meets Okumura's sister, Naoko, and informs her that her brother is alive and at the police hospital.
A Soviet submarine is destroyed in the Pacific.
The Soviets believe the attack was perpetrated by the Americans, and a diplomatic crisis ensues, which threatens to escalate into nuclear war.
The Japanese intervene and reveal that Godzilla was behind the attacks.
The Japanese cabinet meets to discuss Japan's defence.
A new weapon is revealed, the Super X, a specially-armored flying fortress that will defend the capital.
The Japanese military is put on alert.
Godzilla attacks the Ihama nuclear power plant.
While Godzilla is feeding off the reactor, he is distracted by a flock of birds and leaves the facility.
Hayashida believes that Godzilla was distracted instinctively by a homing signal from the birds.
Hayashida, together with geologist Minami, propose to the Japanese Cabinet, that Godzilla could be lured back to Mt.
Mihara on Ōshima Island by a similar signal, and a volcanic eruption could be started, capturing Godzilla.
Prime Minister Mitamura meets with Soviet and American envoys and declares that nuclear weapons will not be used on Godzilla, even if it were to attack the Japanese mainland.
Meanwhile, the Soviets have their own plans to counter the threat posed by Godzilla, and a Soviet control ship disguised as a freighter in Tokyo Harbor prepares to launch a nuclear missile from one of their orbiting satellites should Godzilla attack.
Godzilla is sighted at dawn in Tokyo Bay heading towards Tokyo, causing mass evacuations.
The Japanese Air Self Defense Force attacks Godzilla but it fails to stop his advance on the city.
He soon emerges and makes short work of the JSDF stationed there.
The battle causes damage to the Soviet ship and starts a missile launch count-down.
The captain dies as he attempts to stop the missile from launching.
Godzilla proceeds towards Tokyo's business district, wreaking havoc along the way.
There, it is confronted by four laser-armed trucks and the Super Because Godzilla's heart is similar to a nuclear reactor, the cadmium shells that are fired into his mouth by the Super X seal and slow down his heart, knocking him unconscious.
The count-down ends and the Soviet missile is launched.
The Americans intervene and fire a counter-missile at the Soviet missile.
Hayashida and Okumura are extracted from Tokyo via helicopter and taken to Mt.
Mihara to set up the homing device before the two missiles collide above Tokyo.
The two missiles collide, producing an electrical storm and an EMP, which revives Godzilla once more and temporarily disables the Super  Godzilla and the Super X battle through the streets.
He finally destroys the Super X and continues its rampage, until Hayashida uses the homing device to distract it.
Godzilla leaves Tokyo and swims across the Japanese sea, following the homing device to Mt.
Mihara.
There, Godzilla follows the device and falls into the mouth of the volcano.
Okumura activates detonators at the volcano, creating a controlled eruption that traps Godzilla inside.
<EOS>
Harriet Vane returns with trepidation to Shrewsbury College, Oxford to attend the Gaudy dinner.
Expecting hostility because of her notoriety, she is surprised to be welcomed warmly by the dons, and rediscovers her old love of the academic life.
Some time later the Dean of Shrewsbury writes to ask for help.
There has been an outbreak of anonymous letters, vandalism and threats, apparently from someone within the college, and a scandal is feared.
Harriet, herself a victim of poison-pen letters since her trial, reluctantly agrees to help, and spends much of the next few months in residence at the college, ostensibly to do research on Sheridan Le Fanu and to assist a don with her book.
As she wrestles with the case, trying to narrow down the list of suspects and avert a major scandal, Harriet is forced to examine her ambivalent feelings about love and marriage, along with her attraction to academia as an intellectual (and emotional) refuge.
Her personal dilemma becomes entangled with darkly hinted suspicions and prejudices raised by the crimes at the college, which appear to have been committed by a sexually frustrated female don.
Harriet is forced to re-examine her relationship with Wimsey in the light of what she has discovered about herself.
Wimsey eventually arrives in Oxford to help her, and she gains a new perspective on him from those who know him, including his nephew, an undergraduate at the university.
The attacks build to a crisis, and the college community of students, dons and servants is almost torn apart by suspicion and fear.
There is an attempt to drive a vulnerable student to suicide and a physical assault on Harriet that almost kills her.
The perpetrator is finally unmasked by Wimsey as one of the college servants, revealed to be the widow of a disgraced academic at a northern university.
Her husband's academic fraud had been exposed by an examiner, destroying his career and driving him to suicide.
The examiner has since moved to Shrewsbury College, and the campaign has been the widow's revenge against intellectual women who move outside what she sees as their "proper" domestic sphere.
At the end of the book, Harriet Vane finally accepts Wimsey's proposal of marriage.
(Their wedding and honeymoon—interrupted by another murder mystery—are depicted in Busman's Honeymoon).
<EOS>
A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world in which seasons last for years and end unpredictably.
Nearly three centuries before the events of the first novel (see backstory), the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros were united under the Targaryen dynasty by Aegon I and his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys, with Aegon Targaryen becoming the first king of the whole of the continent of Westeros, save for the southerly Dorne.
At the beginning of A Game of Thrones, 15 peaceful summer years have passed since the rebellion led by Robert Baratheon deposed and killed the last Targaryen king, Aerys II, and proclaimed Robert king of the Seven Kingdoms.
The principal story chronicles the power struggle for the Iron Throne between the great Houses of Westeros following the death of King Robert in A Game of Thrones.
Robert's heir apparent, the 13-year old Joffrey, is immediately proclaimed king through the machinations of his mother, Cersei Lannister.
When Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, King Robert's "Hand" (chief advisor), discovers that Joffrey and his siblings are the product of incest between Cersei and her twin brother Jaime, Eddard is executed for treason.
In response, Robert's brothers Stannis and Renly both lay separate claims to the throne.
During this period of instability, two of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros attempt to become independent from the Iron Throne: Ned Stark's eldest son Robb is proclaimed King in the North, while Balon Greyjoy desires to recover the sovereignty of his region, the Iron Islands.
The so-called "War of the Five Kings" is in full progress by the middle of the second book, A Clash of Kings.
The second story takes place in the far north of Westeros, where an 8,000-year-old wall of ice defends the Seven Kingdoms from the Others.
The Wall's sentinels, the Sworn Brotherhood of the Night's Watch, also protect the realm from the incursions of the "Wildlings" or "Free Folk", who are humans living north of the Wall.
The Night's Watch story is told primarily through the point of view of Jon Snow, the bastard son of Eddard Stark.
Jon follows the footsteps of his uncle Benjen Stark and joins the Watch at a young age, rising quickly through the ranks.
In the third volume, A Storm of Swords, the Night's Watch storyline becomes increasingly entangled with the War of the Five Kings.
The third story follows Daenerys Targaryen, daughter of the last Targaryen king of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.
Daenerys' story takes place on the continent of Essos, which is located directly east of Westeros across the Narrow Sea.
Daenerys' storyline is isolated from the others until A Dance with Dragons.
On Essos, Daenerys is married off by her elder brother Viserys Targaryen to a powerful warlord but slowly becomes an independent and intelligent ruler in her own right.
Her rise to power is aided by the historic birth of three dragons, hatched from eggs given to her as wedding gifts.
The three dragons soon become not only a symbol of her bloodline, but devastating weapons of war.
<EOS>
In the distant future, Mankind has colonized space, with clusters of space colonies at each of the five Earth-Moon Lagrange points.
Down on the Earth, the nations have come together to form the United Earth Sphere Alliance.
This Alliance oppresses the colonies with its vast military might.
The colonies wishing to be free, join together in a movement headed by the pacifist Heero Yuy.
In the year After Colony 175, Yuy is shot dead by an assassin, forcing the colonies to search for other paths to peace.
The assassination prompts five disaffected scientists from the Organization of the Zodiac, more commonly referred to as OZ, to turn rogue upon the completion of the mobile suit prototype Tallgeese.
The story of Gundam Wing begins in the year After Colony 195, with the start of "Operation Meteor": the scientists' plan for revenge against OZ.
The operation involves five teenage boys, who have each been chosen and trained by each of the five scientists, then sent to Earth independently in extremely advanced mobile suits (one designed by each of the scientists) known as "Gundams" (called such because they are constructed from a rare and astonishingly durable material called Gundanium alloy, which can only be created in outer space).
Each Gundam is sent from a different colony, and the pilots are initially unaware of each other's existence.
The series focuses primarily on the five Gundam pilots: Heero Yuy (an alias, not to be confused with the martyred pacifist), Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner and Chang Wufei.
Their mission is to use their Gundams to attack OZ directly, in order to rid the Alliance of its weapons and free the colonies from its oppressive rule.
The series also focuses on Relena Peacecraft, heir to the pacifist Sanc Kingdom, who starts off as a seemingly ordinary girl until she gets caught up in the conflict between OZ and the Gundams, becoming an important political ally to the Gundam pilots (particularly Heero) in the process.
<EOS>
Leto II Atreides, the God Emperor, has ruled the universe as a tyrant for 3,500 years after becoming a hybrid of human and giant sandworm in Children of Dune.
The death of all other sandworms, and his control of the remaining supply of the all-important drug melange, has allowed him to keep civilization under his complete command.
Leto has been physically transformed into a worm, retaining only his human face and arms, and though he is now seemingly immortal and invulnerable to harm, he is prone to instinct-driven bouts of violence when provoked to anger.
As a result, his rule is one of religious awe and despotic fear.
Leto has disbanded the Landsraad to all but a few Great Houses; the remaining powers defer to his authority, although they individually conspire against him in secret.
The Fremen have long since lost their identity and military power, and have been replaced as the Imperial army by the Fish Speakers, an all-female army who obey Leto without question.
He has rendered the human population into a state of trans-galactic stagnation; space travel is non-existent to most people in his Empire, which he has deliberately kept to near-medieval level of technological sophistication.
All of this he has done in accordance with a prophecy divined through precognition that will establish an enforced peace preventing humanity from destroying itself through aggressive behavior.
The desert planet Arrakis has been terraformed into a lush forested biosphere, except for a single section of desert retained by Leto for his Citadel.
A string of Duncan Idaho gholas have served Leto over the millennia, and Leto has also fostered the bloodline of his twin sister Ghanima.
Her descendant Moneo is Leto's majordomo and closest confidante, while Moneo's daughter Siona has become the leader of an Arrakis-based rebellion against Leto.
She steals a set of secret records from his archives, not realizing that he has allowed it.
Leto intends to breed Siona with the latest Duncan ghola, but is aware that the ghola, moved by his own morality, may try to assassinate him before this can occur.
The Ixians send a new ambassador named Hwi Noree to serve Leto, and though he realizes that she has been specifically designed and trained to ensnare him, he cannot resist falling in love with her.
She agrees to marry him.
Leto tests Siona by taking her out to the middle of the desert.
After improperly using her stillsuit to preserve moisture, dehydration forces her to accept Leto's offer of spice essence from his body to replenish her.
Awakened to Leto's prophecy, known as the Golden Path, the experience convinces Siona of the importance of the Golden Path.
She remains dedicated to Leto's destruction, and an errant rainstorm demonstrates for her his mortal vulnerability to water.
Siona and Idaho overcome a searing mutual hatred of each other to plan an assassination.
As Leto's wedding procession to Tuono Village moves across a high bridge over a river, Siona orders one of her Fish Speakers to destroy the support beams with a lasgun.
The bridge collapses and Leto's entourage, including Hwi, plunge to their deaths into the river below.
Leto's body rends apart in the water; the sandtrout which are part of his body encyst the water and scurry off, while the worm portion burns and disintegrates on the shore.
A dying Leto reveals his secret breeding program among the Atreides to produce a human who is invisible to prescient vision.
Siona is the finished result, and she and her descendants will retain this ability.
He explains that humanity is now free to scatter throughout the universe, never again to face complete destruction.
After revealing the location of his secret spice hoard, Leto dies, leaving Duncan and Siona to face the task of managing the empire.
<EOS>
In 1604 Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth.
Fawkes was described by the Jesuit priest and former school friend Oswald Tesimond as "pleasant of approach and cheerful of manner, opposed to quarrels and strife&nbsp;.
loyal to his friends".
Tesimond also claimed Fawkes was "a man highly skilled in matters of war", and that it was this mixture of piety and professionalism which endeared him to his fellow conspirators.
The author Antonia Fraser describes Fawkes as "a tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, a flowing moustache in the tradition of the time, and a bushy reddish-brown beard", and that he was "a man of action&nbsp;.
capable of intelligent argument as well as physical endurance, somewhat to the surprise of his enemies".
The first meeting of the five central conspirators took place on Sunday 20 May 1604, at an inn called the Duck and Drake, in the fashionable Strand district of London.
Catesby had already proposed at an earlier meeting with Thomas Wintour and John Wright to kill the King and his government by blowing up "the Parliament House with gunpowder".
Wintour, who at first objected to the plan, was convinced by Catesby to travel to the continent to seek help.
Wintour met with the Constable of Castile, the exiled Welsh spy Hugh Owen, and Sir William Stanley, who said that Catesby would receive no support from Spain.
Owen did, however, introduce Wintour to Fawkes, who had by then been away from England for many years, and thus was largely unknown in the country.
Wintour and Fawkes were contemporaries; each was militant, and had first-hand experience of the unwillingness of the Spaniards to help.
Wintour told Fawkes of their plan to "doe some whatt in Ingland if the pece with Spaine healped us nott", and thus in April 1604 the two men returned to England.
Wintour's news did not surprise Catesby; despite positive noises from the Spanish authorities, he feared that "the deeds would nott answere".
One of the conspirators, Thomas Percy, was promoted in June 1604, gaining access to a house in London that belonged to John Whynniard, Keeper of the King's Wardrobe.
Fawkes was installed as a caretaker and began using the pseudonym John Johnson, servant to Percy.
The contemporaneous account of the prosecution (taken from Thomas Wintour's confession) claimed that the conspirators attempted to dig a tunnel from beneath Whynniard's house to Parliament, although this story may have been a government fabrication; no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found; Fawkes himself did not admit the existence of such a scheme until his fifth interrogation, but even then he could not locate the tunnel.
If the story is true, however, by December 1604 the conspirators were busy tunnelling from their rented house to the House of Lords.
They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above.
Fawkes was sent out to investigate, and returned with the news that the tenant's widow was clearing out a nearby undercroft, directly beneath the House of Lords.
The plotters purchased the lease to the room, which also belonged to John Whynniard.
Unused and filthy, it was considered an ideal hiding place for the gunpowder the plotters planned to store.
According to Fawkes, 20&nbsp;barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16&nbsp;more on 20 July.
On 28 July however, the ever-present threat of the plague delayed the opening of Parliament until Tuesday, 5 November.
In an attempt to gain foreign support, in May 1605 Fawkes travelled overseas and informed Hugh Owen of the plotters' plan.
At some point during this trip his name made its way into the files of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who employed a network of spies across Europe.
One of these spies, Captain William Turner, may have been responsible.
Although the information he provided to Salisbury usually amounted to no more than a vague pattern of invasion reports, and included nothing which regarded the Gunpowder Plot, on 21 April he told how Fawkes was to be brought by Tesimond to England.
Fawkes was a well-known Flemish mercenary, and would be introduced to "Mr Catesby" and "honourable friends of the nobility and others who would have arms and horses in readiness".
Turner's report did not, however, mention Fawkes's pseudonym in England, John Johnson, and did not reach Cecil until late in November, well after the plot had been discovered.
It is uncertain when Fawkes returned to England, but he was back in London by late August 1605, when he and Wintour discovered that the gunpowder stored in the undercroft had decayed.
More gunpowder was brought into the room, along with firewood to conceal it.
Fawkes's final role in the plot was settled during a series of meetings in October.
He was to light the fuse and then escape across the Thames.
Simultaneously, a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of Princess Elizabeth.
Acts of regicide were frowned upon, and Fawkes would therefore head to the continent, where he would explain to the Catholic powers his holy duty to kill the King and his retinue.
A few of the conspirators were concerned about fellow Catholics who would be present at Parliament during the opening.
On the evening of 26 October, Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter warning him to stay away, and to "retyre youre self into yowre contee whence yow maye expect the event in safti for&nbsp;.
they shall receyve a terrible blowe this parleament".
Despite quickly becoming aware of the letterinformed by one of Monteagle's servantsthe conspirators resolved to continue with their plans, as it appeared that it "was clearly thought to be a hoax".
Fawkes checked the undercroft on 30 October, and reported that nothing had been disturbed.
Monteagle's suspicions had been aroused, however, and the letter was shown to King James.
The King ordered Sir Thomas Knyvet to conduct a search of the cellars underneath Parliament, which he did in the early hours of 5 November.
Fawkes had taken up his station late on the previous night, armed with a slow match and a watch given to him by Percy "becaus he should knowe howe the time went away".
He was found leaving the cellar, shortly after midnight, and arrested.
Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal.
Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson and was first interrogated by members of the King's Privy chamber, where he remained defiant.
When asked by one of the lords what he was doing in possession of so much gunpowder, Fawkes answered that his intention was "to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains".
He identified himself as a 36-year-old Catholic from Netherdale in Yorkshire, and gave his father's name as Thomas and his mother's as Edith Jackson.
Wounds on his body noted by his questioners he explained as the effects of pleurisy.
Fawkes admitted his intention to blow up the House of Lords, and expressed regret at his failure to do so.
His steadfast manner earned him the admiration of King James, who described Fawkes as possessing "a Roman resolution".
James's admiration did not, however, prevent him from ordering on 6 November that "John Johnson" be tortured, to reveal the names of his co-conspirators.
He directed that the torture be light at first, referring to the use of manacles, but more severe if necessary, authorising the use of the rack: "the gentler Tortures are to be first used unto him et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur [and so by degrees proceeding to the worst]".
Fawkes was transferred to the Tower of London.
The King composed a list of questions to be put to "Johnson", such as "as to what he is, For I can never yet hear of any man that knows him", "When and where he learned to speak French.
", and "If he was a Papist, who brought him up in it.
" The room in which Fawkes was interrogated subsequently became known as the Guy Fawkes Room.
Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, supervised the torture and obtained Fawkes's confession.
He searched his prisoner, and found a letter, addressed to Guy Fawkes.
To Waad's surprise, "Johnson" remained silent, revealing nothing about the plot or its authors.
On the night of 6 November he spoke with Waad, who reported to Salisbury "He [Johnson] told us that since he undertook this action he did every day pray to God he might perform that which might be for the advancement of the Catholic Faith and saving his own soul".
According to Waad, Fawkes managed to rest through the night, despite his being warned that he would be interrogated until "I had gotton the inwards secret of his thoughts and all his complices".
His composure was broken at some point during the following day.
The observer Sir Edward Hoby remarked "Since Johnson's being in the Tower, he beginneth to speak English".
Fawkes revealed his true identity on 7 November, and told his interrogators that there were five people involved in the plot to kill the King.
He began to reveal their names on 8 November, and told how they intended to place Princess Elizabeth on the throne.
His third confession, on 9 November, implicated Francis Tresham.
Following the Ridolfi plot of 1571 prisoners were made to dictate their confessions, before copying and signing them, if they still could.
Although it is uncertain if he was tortured on the rack, Fawkes's scrawled signature bears testament to the suffering he endured at the hands of his interrogators.
The trial of eight of the plotters began on Monday 27 January 1606.
Fawkes shared the barge from the Tower to Westminster Hall with seven of his co-conspirators.
They were kept in the Star Chamber before being taken to Westminster Hall, where they were displayed on a purpose-built scaffold.
The King and his close family, watching in secret, were among the spectators as the Lords Commissioners read out the list of charges.
Fawkes was identified as Guido Fawkes, "otherwise called Guido Johnson".
He pleaded not guilty, despite his apparent acceptance of guilt from the moment he was captured.
The outcome was never in doubt.
The jury found all the defendants guilty, and the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham found them guilty of high treason.
The Attorney General Sir Edward Coke told the court that each of the condemned would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground.
They were to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both".
Their genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and their bowels and hearts removed.
They would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of their bodies displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air".
Fawkes's and Tresham's testimony regarding the Spanish treason was read aloud, as well as confessions related specifically to the Gunpowder Plot.
The last piece of evidence offered was a conversation between Fawkes and Wintour, who had been kept in adjacent cells.
The two men apparently thought they had been speaking in private, but their conversation was intercepted by a government spy.
When the prisoners were allowed to speak, Fawkes explained his not guilty plea as ignorance of certain aspects of the indictment.
On 31 January 1606, Fawkes and three others&nbsp;– Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, and Robert Keyes&nbsp;– were dragged (ie.
drawn) from the Tower on wattled hurdles to the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, opposite the building they had attempted to destroy.
His fellow plotters were then hanged and quartered.
Fawkes was the last to stand on the scaffold.
He asked for forgiveness of the King and state, while keeping up his "crosses and idle ceremonies" (Catholic practices).
Weakened by torture and aided by the hangman, Fawkes began to climb the ladder to the noose, but either through jumping to his death or climbing too high so the rope was incorrectly set, he managed to avoid the agony of the latter part of his execution by breaking his neck.
His lifeless body was nevertheless quartered and, as was the custom, his body parts were then distributed to "the four corners of the kingdom", to be displayed as a warning to other would-be traitors.
<EOS>
Gone with the Wind takes place in the southern United States in the state of Georgia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877).
The novel unfolds against the backdrop of rebellion wherein seven southern states initially, Georgia among them, have declared their secession from the United States (the "Union") and formed the Confederate States of America (the "Confederacy"), after Abraham Lincoln was elected president.
The Union refuses to accept secession and no compromise is found as war approaches.
The novel opens in April 1861 at "Tara," a plantation owned by Gerald O'Hara, an Irish immigrant who has become a successful planter, and his wife, Ellen Robillard O'Hara, from a coastal aristocratic family of French descent.
Their 16-year-old daughter, Scarlett, is not beautiful, but men seldom realized it once they were caught up in her charm.
It was the day before the men were called to war, Fort Sumter having been fired on two days earlier.
There are brief but vivid descriptions of the South as it began and grew, with backgrounds of the main characters: the stylish and highbrow French, the gentlemanly English, the forced-to-flee and looked-down-upon Irish.
Scarlett learns that one of her many beaux, Ashley Wilkes, will soon be engaged to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton.
She is heart-stricken.
The next day at the Wilkeses' barbecue at Twelve Oaks, Scarlett tells Ashley she loves him, and he admits he cares for her.
However, he knows he would not be happy if married to her because of their personality differences.
She loses her temper at him, and he silently takes it.
Rhett Butler, who has a reputation as a rogue, had been alone in the library when Ashley and Scarlett entered and felt it wiser to stay unseen during the argument.
Rhett applauds Scarlett for the "unladylike" spirit she displayed with Ashley.
Infuriated and humiliated, she tells Rhett, "You aren't fit to wipe his boots.
"  After rejoining the other party guests, she learns that war has been declared and the men are going to enlist.
Seeking revenge, Scarlett accepts a marriage proposal from Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton.
They marry two weeks later.
Charles dies of pneumonia following the measles two months after the war begins.
As a young widow, Scarlet gives birth to her first child, Wade Hampton Hamilton, named after his father's general.
She is bound by custom to wear black and avoid conversation with young men.
Scarlett feels restricted by these conventions and bitterly misses her life as a young, unmarried woman.
Aunt Pittypat is living with Melanie in Atlanta and invites Scarlett to stay with them.
In Atlanta, Scarlett's spirits revive, and she is busy with hospital work and sewing circles for the Confederate Army.
Scarlett encounters Rhett Butler again at a benefit dance, where he is dressed like a dandy.
Although Rhett believes the war is a lost cause, he is blockade running for profit.
The men must bid for a dance with a lady, and Rhett bids "one hundred fifty dollars-in gold" for a dance with Scarlett.
They waltz to the tune of "When This Cruel War is Over," and Scarlett sings the words.
Others at the dance were shocked that Rhett would bid for a widow and that she would accept the dance while still wearing black (or widow's weeds).
Melanie defends her, arguing she is supporting the cause for which Melanie's husband, Ashley, is fighting.
At Christmas (1863), Ashley is granted a furlough from the army.
Melanie becomes pregnant with their first child.
The war is going badly for the Confederacy.
By September 1864 Atlanta is besieged from three sides.
The city becomes desperate and hundreds of wounded Confederate soldiers pour in.
Melanie goes into labor with only the inexperienced Scarlett to assist, as all the doctors are attending the soldiers.
Prissy, a young slave, cries out in despair and fear, "De Yankees is comin.
" In the chaos, Scarlett, left to fend for herself, cries for the comfort and safety of her mother and Tara.
The tattered Confederate States Army sets flame to Atlanta and abandons it to the Union Army.
Melanie gives birth to a boy, Beau, with Scarlett's assistance.
Scarlett then finds Rhett and begs him to take herself, Wade, Melanie, Beau, and Prissy to Tara.
Rhett laughs at the idea but steals an emaciated horse and a small wagon, and they follow the retreating army out of Atlanta.
Part way to Tara, Rhett has a change of heart and abandons Scarlett to enlist in the army (he later recounts that when they learned he had attended West Point, they put him in the artillery, which may have saved his life).
Scarlett then makes her way to Tara, where she is welcomed on the steps by her father, Gerald.
Things have drastically changed: Scarlett's mother is dead, her father has lost his mind with grief, her sisters are sick with typhoid fever, the field slaves left after Emancipation, the Yankees have burned all the cotton, and there is no food in the house.
Scarlett avows that she and her family will survive and never be hungry again.
The long tiring struggle for survival begins that has Scarlett working in the fields.
There are hungry people to feed and little food.
There is the ever-present threat of the Yankees who steal and burn.
At one point, a Yankee soldier trespasses on Tara, and it is implied that he would steal from the house and possibly rape Scarlett and Melanie.
Scarlett kills him with Charles's pistol, and sees that Melanie had also prepared to fight him with a sword.
A long post-war succession of Confederate soldiers returning home stop at Tara to find food and rest.
Eventually Ashley returns from the war, with his idealistic view of the world shattered.
Life at Tara slowly begins to recover when new taxes are levied on the plantation.
Scarlett knows only one man with enough money to help her: Rhett Butler.
She looks for him in Atlanta only to learn he is in jail.
Rhett refuses to give money to Scarlett, and leaving the jailhouse in fury, she runs into Frank Kennedy, who runs a store in Atlanta and is betrothed to Scarlett's sister, Suellen.
Realizing Frank also has money, Scarlett hatches a plot and tells Frank that Suellen will not marry him.
Frank succumbs to Scarlett's charms and he marries her two weeks later knowing he has done "something romantic and exciting for the first time in his life".
Always wanting her to be happy and radiant, Frank gives Scarlett the money to pay the taxes.
While Frank has a cold and is pampered by Aunt Pittypat, Scarlett goes over the accounts at Frank's store and finds that many owe him money.
Scarlett is now terrified about the taxes and decides money, a lot of it, is needed.
She takes control of the store, and her business practices leave many Atlantans resentful of her.
With a loan from Rhett she buys a sawmill and runs it herself, all scandalous conduct.
To Frank's relief, Scarlett learns she is pregnant, which curtails her "unladylike" activities for a while.
She convinces Ashley to come to Atlanta and manages the mill, all the while still in love with him.
At Melanie's urging, Ashley takes the job.
Melanie becomes the center of Atlanta society, and Scarlett gives birth to Ella Lorena: "Ella for her grandmother Ellen, and Lorena because it was the most fashionable name of the day for girls".
Georgia is under martial law, and life has taken on a new and more frightening tone.
For protection, Scarlett keeps Frank's pistol tucked in the upholstery of the buggy.
Her trips alone to and from the mill take her past a shantytown where criminal elements live.
While on her way home one evening, she is accosted by two men who try to rob her, but she escapes with the help of Big Sam, the former Negro foreman from Tara.
Attempting to avenge his wife, Frank and the Ku Klux Klan raid the shantytown whereupon Frank is shot dead.
Scarlett is a widow again.
To keep the raiders from being arrested, Rhett puts on a charade.
He walks into the Wilkeses' home with Hugh Elsing and Ashley, singing and pretending to be drunk.
Yankee officers outside question Rhett, and he says he and the other men had been at Belle Watling's brothel that evening, a story Belle later confirms to the officers.
The men are indebted to Rhett, and his Scallawag reputation among them improves a notch, but the men's wives, except Melanie, are livid at owing their husbands' lives to Belle Watling.
Frank Kennedy lies in a casket in the quiet stillness of the parlor in Aunt Pittypat's home.
Scarlett is remorseful.
She is swigging brandy from Aunt Pitty's swoon bottle when Rhett comes to call.
She tells him tearfully, "I'm afraid I'll die and go to hell".
He says, "Maybe there isn't a hell".
Before she can cry any further, he asks her to marry him, saying, "I always intended having you, one way or another".
She says she doesn't love him and doesn't want to be married again.
However, he kisses her passionately, and in the heat of the moment she agrees to marry him.
One year later, Scarlett and Rhett announce their engagement, which becomes the talk of the town.
mr and mrs Butler honeymoon in New Orleans, spending lavishly.
Upon returning to Atlanta, they stay in the bridal suite at the National Hotel while their new home on Peachtree Street is being built.
Scarlett chooses a modern Swiss chalet style home like the one she saw in Harper's Weekly, with red wallpaper, thick red carpet, and black walnut furniture.
Rhett describes it as an "architectural horror".
Shortly after they move into their new home, the sardonic jabs between them turn into full-blown quarrels.
Scarlett wonders why Rhett married her.
Then "with real hate in her eyes", she tells Rhett she will have a baby, which she does not want.
Wade is seven years old in 1869 when his half-sister, Eugenie Victoria, named after two queens, is born.
She has blue eyes like Gerald O'Hara, and Melanie nicknames her, "Bonnie Blue," in reference to the Bonnie Blue Flag of the Confederacy.
When Scarlett is feeling well again, she makes a trip to the mill and talks to Ashley, who is alone in the office.
In their conversation, she comes away believing Ashley still loves her and is jealous of her intimate relations with Rhett, which excites her.
She returns home and tells Rhett she does not want more children.
From then on, they sleep separately, and when Bonnie is two years old, she sleeps in a little bed beside Rhett (with the light on all night because she is afraid of the dark).
Rhett turns his attention toward Bonnie, dotes on her, spoils her, and worries about her reputation when she is older.
Melanie is giving a surprise birthday party for Ashley.
Scarlett goes to the mill to keep Ashley there until party time, a rare opportunity for her to see him alone.
When she sees him, she feels "sixteen again, a little breathless and excited".
Ashley tells her how pretty she looks, and they reminisce about the days when they were young and talk about their lives now.
Suddenly Scarlett's eyes fill with tears, and Ashley holds her head against his chest.
Ashley sees his sister, India Wilkes, standing in the doorway.
Before the party has even begun, a rumor of an affair between Ashley and Scarlett spreads, and Rhett and Melanie hear it.
Melanie refuses to accept any criticism of her sister-in-law, and India Wilkes is banished from the Wilkeses' home for it, causing a rift in the family.
Rhett, more drunk than Scarlett has ever seen him, returns home from the party long after Scarlett.
His eyes are bloodshot, and his mood is dark and violent.
He enjoins Scarlett to drink with him.
Not wanting him to know she is fearful of him, she throws back a drink and gets up from her chair to go back to her bedroom.
He stops her and pins her shoulders to the wall.
She tells him he is jealous of Ashley, and Rhett accuses her of "crying for the moon" over Ashley.
He tells her they could have been happy together saying, "for I loved you and I know you".
He then takes her in his arms and carries her up the stairs to her bedroom, where it is strongly implied that he rapes her—or, possibly, that they have consensual sex following the argument.
Next morning Rhett leaves for Charleston and New Orleans with Bonnie.
Scarlett finds herself missing him, but she is still unsure if Rhett loves her, having said it while drunk.
She learns she is pregnant with her fourth child.
When Rhett returns, Scarlett waits for him at the top of the stairs.
She wonders if Rhett will kiss her, but to her irritation, he does not.
He says she looks pale.
She says it's because she is pregnant.
He sarcastically asks if the father is Ashley.
She calls Rhett a cad and tells him no woman would want his baby.
He says, "Cheer up, maybe you'll have a miscarriage".
She lunges at him, but he dodges, and she tumbles backwards down the stairs.
She is seriously ill for the first time in her life, having lost her child and broken her ribs.
Rhett is remorseful, believing he has killed her.
Sobbing and drunk, he buries his head in Melanie's lap and confesses he had been a jealous cad.
Scarlett, who is thin and pale, goes to Tara, taking Wade and Ella with her, to regain her strength and vitality from "the green cotton fields of home".
When she returns healthy to Atlanta, she sells the mills to Ashley.
She finds Rhett's attitude has noticeably changed.
He is sober, kinder, polite—and seemingly disinterested.
Though she misses the old Rhett at times, Scarlett is content to leave well enough alone.
Bonnie is four years old in 1873.
Spirited and willful, she has her father wrapped around her finger and giving into her every demand.
Even Scarlett is jealous of the attention Bonnie gets.
Rhett rides his horse around town with Bonnie in front of him, but Mammy insists it is not fitting for a girl to ride a horse with her dress flying up.
Rhett heeds her words and buys Bonnie a Shetland pony, whom she names "Mr.
Butler," and teaches her to ride sidesaddle.
Then Rhett pays a boy named Wash twenty-five cents to teach mr Butler to jump over wood bars.
When mr Butler is able to get his fat legs over a one-foot bar, Rhett puts Bonnie on the pony, and soon mr Butler is leaping bars and Aunt Melly's rose bushes.
Wearing her blue velvet riding habit with a red feather in her black hat, Bonnie pleads with her father to raise the bar to one and a half feet.
He gives in, warning her not to come crying if she falls.
Bonnie yells to her mother, "Watch me take this one.
" The pony gallops towards the wood bar, but trips over it.
Bonnie breaks her neck in the fall, and dies.
In the dark days and months following Bonnie's death, Rhett is often drunk and disheveled, while Scarlett, though deeply bereaved also, seems to hold up under the strain.
With the untimely death of Melanie Wilkes a short time later, Rhett decides he only wants the calm dignity of the genial South he once knew in his youth and leaves Atlanta to find it.
Meanwhile, Scarlett dreams of love that has eluded her for so long.
However, she still has Tara and knows she can win Rhett back, because "tomorrow is another day".
<EOS>
The former cast of the once-popular television space-adventure series Galaxy Quest spend most of their days attending fan conventions and promotional stunts.
Though Jason Nesmith (Allen), who played the commander of the NSEA Protector, thrives with the attention, the other cast members—Alexander Dane (Rickman) as the ship's alien science officer, Fred Kwan (Shalhoub) as the chief engineer, Gwen DeMarco (Weaver) as the computer officer, and Tommy Webber (Mitchell) as a precocious child pilot—all resent these events.
During one event, Nesmith is approached by Mathesar (Colantoni) and others calling themselves "Thermians" and request his assistance, which he agrees to, thinking this is a planned and paying fan event.
Later at that same convention, Nesmith becomes despondent after overhearing attendees speaking of him as a laughing stock by fans and his fellow actors, and he loses his temper with an avid fan, Brandon (Long).
After Nesmith spends the night drinking heavily, the Thermians arrive to pick up a hungover Nesmith in the limo he had requested.
Unaware that they are truly octopoidal aliens, using technology to appear human, the barely conscious Nesmith is oblivious to his limo being beamed aboard the Thermian's spaceship.
Aboard their ship in deep space, Nesmith goes through the motions of commanding the ship and asks to be returned home.
When they send him back to Earth via a transporter, Nesmith realizes that it is all real.
He races to meet his cast, accidentally bumping into Brandon and misplacing a Thermian communicator Mathasar gave him with Brandon's fan-made replica.
Nesmith eagerly relates his experience to the crew, who think he is drunk again.
When another Thermian appears and request the entire crew's help, Nesmith manages to convince them, along with their handler Guy Fleegman (Rockwell), an actor who played a unnamed security officer on one episode before being killed off, to come along.
They are all transported to a perfect reproduction of the NSEA Protector in deep space, and are shocked by the reality of the situation.
Mathesar begs the crew to command the Protector, as Nesmith's previous actions (namely, attacking the opposing ship) have enraged Sarris (Sachs), a reptilian humanoid that seeks to wipe out the Thermians.
While they were able to recreate the ship from the broadcast episodes, the Thermians have no idea how to pilot it.
The crew hesitantly take the controls, and despite their ineptitude, the Thermians cheer them on.
After the second encounter with Sarris' ship, they barely evade his attack by flying through a minefield, severely damaging the ship.
The humans take a shuttle to a nearby planet to find a replacement beryllium sphere as a new power source.
They manage to secure the sphere after a run-in with the hostile alien species on the planet.
Once back aboard the Protector, they find that Sarris and his soldiers have captured the ship.
Sarris interrogates the humans, discovering they are only actors, and recognizes that the Thermians have no concept of fiction, believing the show to have been real.
Sarris sets the Protector to self-destruct and departs, leaving a few sacrificial soldiers to guard the humans.
Nesmith and Dane use a gambit from the show to engineer their escape, and then Nesmith orders his fellow cast members to help rescue the other Thermians, finish repairs to the Protector, and prepare to engage Sarris in combat.
Nesmith and DeMarco then set off into the bowels of the ship to stop the self-destruct sequence, using help from Brandon and his group of friends via the swapped communication device.
Along the way, they encounter Omega 13, a plot device introduced in the final episode but never used; Brandon notes it could either destroy all matter in the universe or rewind time by 13 seconds, "enough time to undo one mistake".
Having finally accepted their roles on the ship and gained confidence in themselves, Nesmith and his crew use the minefield as a weapon against Sarris' ship, destroying it.
They prepare to head to Earth when Sarris, who has transported over at the last moment, starts killing the crew.
A desperate Nesmith activates the Omega 13, which reverses time far enough for him to knock out Sarris.
They near a wormhole to return the humans home via the command module, and Nesmith assures Mathesar he has the ability to command the Protector along with the other Thermians.
The humans, along with Laliari (Pyle), a Thermian that has fallen in love with Kwan, return home.
Guided in by fireworks set by Brandon and his friends, the command module makes a crash landing near a fan convention and comes to a stop after bursting through one wall, which the audience takes as part of the show.
As the crew exits the module, Sarris wakes up and tries to fire on them, but Nesmith reacts faster, and disintegrates Sarris with a phaser-like weapon.
The crowd believes this to also be part of the show erupts into cheers.
The buzz from the event leads Galaxy Quest to be revived as a new series, starring the same cast along with Fleegman and Laliari.
<EOS>
The film begins with a narrator, called The Scientist (Bela Lugosi), making cryptic comments about humanity.
He first comments that humanity's constant search for the unknown, results in startling things coming to light.
But most of these "new" discoveries are actually quite old, to which he refers to as "the signs of the ages".
Later, the scene turns to the streets of a city, with the narrator commenting that each human has his/her own thoughts, ideas, and personality.
He makes further comments on human life, while sounds accompany some comments.
The cries of a newborn baby are followed by the sirens of an ambulance.
One is a sign that a new life has begun, the other that a life has ended.
This last comment starts the narrative of the film.
The life which has ended is that of a transvestite named Patrick/Patricia, who has committed suicide.
A scene opens with his/her corpse in a small room.
Within the room is an unidentified man who opens the door to a physician, a photographer, and the police.
A suicide note explains the reasons behind the suicide.
Patrick/Patricia had been arrested four times for cross-dressing in public, and had spent time in prison.
Since he/she would continue wearing women's clothing, subsequent arrests and imprisonment were only a matter of time.
So he/she ended his/her own life and wishes to be buried with his/her women's clothing.
"Let my body rest in death forever, in the things I cannot wear in life".
Inspector Warren is puzzled and wants to know more about cross-dressing.
So he seeks the office of dr Alton, who narrates for him the story of Glen/Glenda.
Glen is shown studying women's clothes in a shop window.
dr Alton points out that men's clothes are dull and restrictive, whereas women can adorn themselves with attractive and comfortable clothing.
The narrative explains that Glen is a transvestite, but not a homosexual.
He hides his cross-dressing from his fiancée, Barbara, fearing that she will reject him.
Alton narrates that Glen is torn between the idea of being honest with Barbara before their wedding, or waiting until after.
The narrative shifts briefly from Glen's story to how society reacts to sex change operations.
A conversation between two "average joes", concludes that society should be more "lenient" when it comes to people with tranvestite tendencies.
The story returns to Glen, who confides in a transvestite friend of his, John, whose wife left him after catching him wearing her clothes.
Later, a scene opens with Glenda walking the city streets at night.
He/she returns home in obvious anguish, when the sound of thunder causes him/her to collapse to the floor.
The Scientist cryptically comments "Beware.
Beware.
Beware of the big, green dragon that sits on your doorstep.
He eats little boys, puppy dog tails, and big, fat snails.
Take care.
Beware.
" This serves as the introduction to an extended dream sequence.
The dream opens with Barbara anguished at seeing Glenda.
Then Barbara is depicted trapped under a tree, while the room around is in a chaotic state.
Glenda fails to lift the tree and rescue Barbara.
Glenda is replaced by Glen, who completes the task with ease.
The dream then depicts Glen and Barbara getting married.
The priest seems normal but the best man is a stereotypical devil, smiling ominously, suggesting that this marriage is damned.
The dream shifts to the Scientist, who seems to speak to the unseen dragon, asking it what it eats.
The voice of a little girl provides the answers in an apparently mocking tone.
The dreams continues with a strange series of vignettes.
A woman is whipped by a shirtless man in a BDSM-themed vignette.
Several women "flirt and partially disrobe" for an unseen audience.
A woman tears apart her dress in a dramatic manner, then starts a coy striptease.
The whipped woman from an earlier vignette appears alone in an autoerotic session.
Her pleasure is interrupted by another woman who forcibly binds and gags her.
Another woman has a similar autoerotic session and then falls asleep.
As she sleeps, a predatory male approaches and rapes her, with the victim seeming partially willing by the end of it.
Throughout these vignettes, the faces of Glen and the Scientist appear.
They seem to be silently reacting to the various images.
The dream returns to Glen, who is haunted by sounds of mocking voices and howling winds.
He is soon confronted by two spectral figures.
A blackboard appears, with messages recording what the Scientist or the mocking voices said in previous scenes.
A large number of spectres appear, all gazing at him with disapproval, as if serving as the jury of public opinion on his perceived deviance.
The mocking voices return.
The Devil and the various spectres menacingly approach Glen.
Then the Devil departs, Glen turns into Glenda, and the spectres retreat.
A victorious Glenda sees Barbara and approaches her, but she turns into a mocking Devil.
Barbara starts appearing and disappearing, always evading Glenda's embrace.
Then she starts  mocking her lover.
The Devil and spectres also shift to mocking Glenda.
The dream sequence ends.
Glen/Glenda wakes and stares at his/her mirror reflection.
He/she decides to tell Barbara the truth.
She initially reacts with distress, but ultimately decides to stay with him.
She offers him/her an angora sweater as a sign of acceptance.
The scene effectively concludes their story.
Back in dr Alton's office, he starts another narrative.
This one concerns another tranvestite, called Alan/Ann.
He was born a boy, but his mother wanted a girl and raised him as such.
His/Her father did not care either way.
He/She was an outsider as a schoolboy, trying to be one of the girls and consequently rejected by schoolmates of both sexes.
As a teenager, he/she self-identified as a woman.
He/she was conscripted in World War II, maintaining a secret life throughout his/her military service.
He/she first heard of sex change operations during the War while recovering from combat wounds in a hospital.
He/she eventually did have a sex change operation, enduring the associated pains to fulfill his/her dreams.
The World War II veteran becomes a "lovely young lady".
Following a brief epilogue, the film ends.
<EOS>
The conspirators' principal aim was to kill King James, but many other important targets would also be present at the State Opening, including the monarch's nearest relatives and members of the Privy Council.
The senior judges of the English legal system, most of the Protestant aristocracy, and the bishops of the Church of England would all have attended in their capacity as members of the House of Lords, along with the members of the House of Commons.
Another important objective was the kidnapping of the King's daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth.
Housed at Coombe Abbey near Coventry, the Princess lived only ten miles north of Warwick—convenient for the plotters, most of whom lived in the Midlands.
Once the King and his Parliament were dead, the plotters intended to install Elizabeth on the English throne as a titular Queen.
The fate of Princes Henry and Charles would be improvised; their role in state ceremonies was, as yet, uncertain.
The plotters planned to use Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, as Elizabeth's Protector, but most likely never informed him of this.
Robert Catesby (1573–1605), a man of "ancient, historic and distinguished lineage", was the inspiration behind the plot.
He was described by contemporaries as "a good-looking man, about six feet tall, athletic and a good swordsman".
Along with several other conspirators, he took part in the Earl of Essex's rebellion in 1601, during which he was wounded and captured.
Queen Elizabeth allowed him to escape with his life after fining him 4,000&nbsp;marks (equivalent to more than £6&nbsp;million in 2008), after which he sold his estate in Chastleton.
In 1603 Catesby helped to organise a mission to the new king of Spain, Philip III, urging Philip to launch an invasion attempt on England, which they assured him would be well supported, particularly by the English Catholics.
Thomas Wintour (1571–1606) was chosen as the emissary, but the Spanish king, although sympathetic to the plight of Catholics in England, was intent on making peace with James.
Wintour had also attempted to convince the Spanish envoy Don Juan de Tassis that "3,000 Catholics" were ready and waiting to support such an invasion.
Concern was voiced by Pope Clement VIII that using violence to achieve a restoration of Catholic power in England would result in the destruction of those that remained.
According to contemporary accounts, in February 1604 Catesby invited Thomas Wintour to his house in Lambeth, where they discussed Catesby's plan to re-establish Catholicism in England by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament.
Wintour was known as a competent scholar, able to speak several languages, and he had fought with the English army in the Netherlands.
His uncle, Francis Ingleby, had been executed for being a Catholic priest in 1586, and Wintour later converted to Catholicism.
Also present at the meeting was John Wright, a devout Catholic said to be one of the best swordsmen of his day, and a man who had taken part with Catesby in the Earl of Essex's rebellion three years earlier.
Despite his reservations over the possible repercussions should the attempt fail, Wintour agreed to join the conspiracy, perhaps persuaded by Catesby's rhetoric: "Let us give the attempt and where it faileth, pass no further".
Wintour travelled to Flanders to enquire about Spanish support.
While there he sought out Guy Fawkes (1570–1606), a committed Catholic who had served as a soldier in the Southern Netherlands under the command of William Stanley, and who in 1603 was recommended for a captaincy.
Accompanied by John Wright's brother Christopher, Fawkes had also been a member of the 1603 delegation to the Spanish court pleading for an invasion of England.
Wintour told Fawkes that "some good frends of his wished his company in Ingland", and that certain gentlemen "were uppon a resolution to doe some whatt in Ingland if the pece with Spain healped us nott".
The two men returned to England late in April 1604, telling Catesby that Spanish support was unlikely.
Thomas Percy, Catesby's friend and John Wright's brother-in-law, was introduced to the plot several weeks later.
Percy had found employment with his kinsman the Earl of Northumberland, and by 1596 was his agent for the family's northern estates.
About 1600–1601 he served with his patron in the Low Countries.
At some point during Northumberland's command in the Low Countries, Percy became his agent in his communications with James.
Percy was reputedly a "serious" character who had converted to the Catholic faith.
His early years were, according to a Catholic source, marked by a tendency to rely on "his sword and personal courage".
Northumberland, although not a Catholic himself, planned to build a strong relationship with James in order to better the prospects of English Catholics, and to reduce the family disgrace caused by his separation from his wife Martha Wright, a favourite of Elizabeth.
Thomas Percy's meetings with James seemed to go well.
Percy returned with promises of support for the Catholics, and Northumberland believed that James would go so far as to allow Mass in private houses, so as not to cause public offence.
Percy, keen to improve his standing, went further, claiming that the future King would guarantee the safety of English Catholics.
The first meeting between the five conspirators took place on 20&nbsp;May 1604, probably at the Duck and Drake Inn, just off the Strand, Thomas Wintour's usual residence when staying in London.
Catesby, Thomas Wintour, and John Wright were in attendance, joined by Guy Fawkes and Thomas Percy.
Alone in a private room, the five plotters swore an oath of secrecy on a prayer book.
By coincidence, and ignorant of the plot, Father John Gerard (a friend of Catesby's) was celebrating Mass in another room, and the five men subsequently received the Eucharist.
Following their oath, the plotters left London and returned to their homes.
The adjournment of Parliament gave them, they thought, until February 1605 to finalise their plans.
On 9&nbsp;June, Percy's patron, the Earl of Northumberland, appointed him to the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, a mounted troop of 50&nbsp;bodyguards to the King.
This role gave Percy reason to seek a base in London, and a small property near the Prince's Chamber owned by Henry Ferrers, a tenant of John Whynniard, was chosen.
Percy arranged for the use of the house through Northumberland's agents, Dudley Carleton and John Hippisley.
Fawkes, using the pseudonym "John Johnson", took charge of the building, posing as Percy's servant.
The building was occupied by Scottish commissioners appointed by the King to consider his plans for the unification of England and Scotland, so the plotters hired Catesby's lodgings in Lambeth, on the opposite bank of the Thames, from where their stored gunpowder and other supplies could be conveniently rowed across each night.
Meanwhile, King James continued with his policies against the Catholics, and Parliament pushed through anti-Catholic legislation, until its adjournment on 7&nbsp;July.
The conspirators returned to London in October 1604, when Robert Keyes, a "desperate man, ruined and indebted", was admitted to the group.
His responsibility was to take charge of Catesby's house in Lambeth, where the gunpowder and other supplies were to be stored.
Keyes's family had notable connections; his wife's employer was the Catholic Lord Mordaunt.
Tall, with a red beard, he was seen as trustworthy and, like Fawkes, capable of looking after himself.
In December Catesby recruited his servant, Thomas Bates, into the plot, after the latter accidentally became aware of it.
It was announced on 24&nbsp;December that the re-opening of Parliament would be delayed.
Concern over the plague meant that rather than sitting in February, as the plotters had originally planned for, Parliament would not sit again until 3&nbsp;October 1605.
The contemporaneous account of the prosecution claimed that during this delay the conspirators were digging a tunnel beneath Parliament.
This may have been a government fabrication, as no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found.
The account of a tunnel comes directly from Thomas Wintour's confession, and Guy Fawkes did not admit the existence of such a scheme until his fifth interrogation.
Logistically, digging a tunnel would have proved extremely difficult, especially as none of the conspirators had any experience of mining.
If the story is true, by 6&nbsp;December the Scottish commissioners had finished their work, and the conspirators were busy tunnelling from their rented house to the House of Lords.
They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above.
The noise turned out to be the then-tenant's widow, who was clearing out the undercroft directly beneath the House of Lords—the room where the plotters eventually stored the gunpowder.
By the time the plotters reconvened at the start of the old style new year on Lady Day, 25&nbsp;March, three more had been admitted to their ranks; Robert Wintour, John Grant, and Christopher Wright.
The additions of Wintour and Wright were obvious choices.
Along with a small fortune, Robert Wintour inherited Huddington Court (a known refuge for priests) near Worcester, and was reputedly a generous and well-liked man.
A devout Catholic, he married Gertrude Talbot, who was from a family of recusants.
Christopher Wright (1568–1605), John's brother, had also taken part in the Earl of Essex's revolt and had moved his family to Twigmore in Lincolnshire, then known as something of a haven for priests.
John Grant was married to Wintour's sister, Dorothy, and was lord of the manor of Norbrook near Stratford-upon-Avon.
Reputed to be an intelligent, thoughtful man, he sheltered Catholics at his home at Snitterfield, and was another who had been involved in the Essex revolt of 1601.
In addition, 25&nbsp;March was the day on which the plotters purchased the lease to the undercroft they had supposedly tunnelled near to, owned by John Whynniard.
The Palace of Westminster in the early 17th century was a warren of buildings clustered around the medieval chambers, chapels, and halls of the former royal palace that housed both Parliament and the various royal law courts.
The old palace was easily accessible; merchants, lawyers, and others lived and worked in the lodgings, shops, and taverns within its precincts.
Whynniard's building was along a right-angle to the House of Lords, alongside a passageway called Parliament Place, which itself led to Parliament Stairs and the River Thames.
Undercrofts were common features at the time, used to house a variety of materials including food and firewood.
Whynniard's undercroft, on the ground floor, was directly beneath the first-floor House of Lords, and may once have been part of the palace's medieval kitchen.
Unused and filthy, its location was ideal for what the group planned to do.
In the second week of June Catesby met in London the principal Jesuit in England, Father Henry Garnet, and asked him about the morality of entering into an undertaking which might involve the destruction of the innocent, together with the guilty.
Garnet answered that such actions could often be excused, but according to his own account later admonished Catesby during a second meeting in July in Essex, showing him a letter from the pope which forbade rebellion.
Soon after, the Jesuit priest Oswald Tesimond told Garnet he had taken Catesby's confession, in the course of which he had learnt of the plot.
Garnet and Catesby met for a third time on 24&nbsp;July 1605, at the house of the wealthy catholic Anne Vaux in Enfield Chase.
Garnet decided that Tesimond's account had been given under the seal of the confessional, and that canon law therefore forbade him to repeat what he had heard.
Without acknowledging that he was aware of the precise nature of the plot, Garnet attempted to dissuade Catesby from his course, to no avail.
Garnet wrote to a colleague in Rome, Claudio Acquaviva, expressing his concerns about open rebellion in England.
He also told Acquaviva that "there is a risk that some private endeavour may commit treason or use force against the King", and urged the pope to issue a public brief against the use of force.
According to Fawkes, 20&nbsp;barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16&nbsp;more on 20&nbsp;July.
The supply of gunpowder was theoretically controlled by the government, but it was easily obtained from illicit sources.
On 28&nbsp;July, the ever-present threat of the plague again delayed the opening of Parliament, this time until Tuesday 5&nbsp;November.
Fawkes left the country for a short time.
The King, meanwhile, spent much of the summer away from the city, hunting.
He stayed wherever was convenient, including on occasion at the houses of prominent Catholics.
Garnet, convinced that the threat of an uprising had receded, travelled the country on a pilgrimage.
It is uncertain when Fawkes returned to England, but he was back in London by late August, when he and Wintour discovered that the gunpowder stored in the undercroft had decayed.
More gunpowder was brought into the room, along with firewood to conceal it.
The final three conspirators were recruited in late 1605.
At Michaelmas, Catesby persuaded the staunchly Catholic Ambrose Rookwood to rent Clopton House near Stratford-upon-Avon.
Rookwood was a young man with recusant connections, whose stable of horses at Coldham Hall in Stanningfield, Suffolk was an important factor in his enlistment.
His parents, Robert Rookwood and Dorothea Drury, were wealthy landowners, and had educated their son at a Jesuit school near Calais.
Everard Digby was a young man who was generally well liked, and lived at Gayhurst House in Buckinghamshire.
He had been knighted by the King in April 1603, and was converted to Catholicism by Gerard.
Digby and his wife, Mary Mulshaw, had accompanied the priest on his pilgrimage, and the two men were reportedly close friends.
Digby was asked by Catesby to rent Coughton Court near Alcester.
Digby also promised £1,500 after Percy failed to pay the rent due for the properties he had taken in Westminster.
Finally, on 14&nbsp;October Catesby invited Francis Tresham into the conspiracy.
Tresham was the son of the Catholic Thomas Tresham, and a cousin to Robert Catesby—the two had been raised together.
He was also the heir to his father's large fortune, which had been depleted by recusant fines, expensive tastes, and by Francis and Catesby's involvement in the Essex revolt.
Catesby and Tresham met at the home of Tresham's brother-in-law and cousin, Lord Stourton.
In his confession, Tresham claimed that he had asked Catesby if the plot would damn their souls, to which Catesby had replied it would not, and that the plight of England's Catholics required that it be done.
Catesby also apparently asked for £2,000, and the use of Rushton Hall in Northamptonshire.
Tresham declined both offers (although he did give £100 to Thomas Wintour), and told his interrogators that he had moved his family from Rushton to London in advance of the plot; hardly the actions of a guilty man, he claimed.
The details of the plot were finalised in October, in a series of taverns across London and Daventry.
Fawkes would be left to light the fuse and then escape across the Thames, while simultaneously a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of Princess Elizabeth.
Fawkes would leave for the continent, to explain events in England to the European Catholic powers.
The wives of those involved and Anne Vaux (a friend of Garnet who often shielded priests at her home) became increasingly concerned by what they suspected was about to happen.
Several of the conspirators expressed worries about the safety of fellow Catholics who would be present in Parliament on the day of the planned explosion.
Percy was concerned for his patron, Northumberland, and the young Earl of Arundel's name was brought up; Catesby suggested that a minor wound might keep him from the chamber on that day.
The Lords Vaux, Montague, Monteagle, and Stourton were also mentioned.
Keyes suggested warning Lord Mordaunt, his wife's employer, to derision from Catesby.
On Saturday 26&nbsp;October, Monteagle (Tresham's brother-in-law) received an anonymous letter while at his house in Hoxton.
Having broken the seal, he handed the letter to a servant who read it aloud:  Uncertain of the letter's meaning, Monteagle promptly rode to Whitehall and handed it to Cecil (then Earl of Salisbury).
Salisbury informed the Earl of Worcester, considered to have recusant sympathies, and the suspected papist Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, but kept news of the plot from the King, who was busy hunting in Cambridgeshire and not expected back for several days.
Monteagle's servant, Thomas Ward, had family connections with the Wright brothers, and sent a message to Catesby about the betrayal.
Catesby, who had been due to go hunting with the King, suspected that Tresham was responsible for the letter, and with Thomas Wintour confronted the recently recruited conspirator.
Tresham managed to convince the pair that he had not written the letter, but urged them to abandon the plot.
Salisbury was already aware of certain stirrings before he received the letter, but did not yet know the exact nature of the plot, or who exactly was involved.
He therefore elected to wait, to see how events unfolded.
The letter was shown to the King on Friday 1 November following his arrival back in London.
Upon reading it, James immediately seized upon the word "blow" and felt that it hinted at "some strategem of fire and powder", perhaps an explosion exceeding in violence the one that killed his father, Lord Darnley, at Kirk o' Field in 1567.
Keen not to seem too intriguing, and wanting to allow the King to take the credit for unveiling the conspiracy, Salisbury feigned ignorance.
The following day members of the Privy Council visited the King at the Palace of Whitehall and informed him that, based on the information that Salisbury had given them a week earlier, on Monday the Lord Chamberlain Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk would undertake a search of the Houses of Parliament, "both above and below".
On Sunday 3&nbsp;November Percy, Catesby and Wintour had a final meeting, where Percy told his colleagues that they should "abide the uttermost triall", and reminded them of their ship waiting at anchor on the Thames.
By 4&nbsp;November Digby was ensconced with a "hunting party" at Dunchurch, ready to abduct Princess Elizabeth.
The same day, Percy visited the Earl of Northumberland—who was uninvolved in the conspiracy—to see if he could discern what rumours surrounded the letter to Monteagle.
Percy returned to London and assured Wintour, John Wright, and Robert Keyes that they had nothing to be concerned about, and returned to his lodgings on Gray's Inn Road.
That same evening Catesby, likely accompanied by John Wright and Bates, set off for the Midlands.
Fawkes visited Keyes, and was given a pocket watch left by Percy, to time the fuse, and an hour later Rookwood received several engraved swords from a local cutler.
Although two accounts of the number of searches and their timing exist, according to the King's version, the first search of the buildings in and around Parliament was made on Monday 4&nbsp;November—as the plotters were busy making their final preparations—by Suffolk, Monteagle, and John Whynniard.
They found a large pile of firewood in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords, accompanied by what they presumed to be a serving man (Fawkes), who told them that the firewood belonged to his master, Thomas Percy.
They left to report their findings, at which time Fawkes also left the building.
The mention of Percy's name aroused further suspicion as he was already known to the authorities as a Catholic agitator.
The King insisted that a more thorough search be undertaken.
Late that night, the search party, headed by Thomas Knyvet, returned to the undercroft.
They again found Fawkes, dressed in a cloak and hat, and wearing boots and spurs.
He was arrested, whereupon he gave his name as John Johnson.
He was carrying a lantern now held in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and a search of his person revealed a pocket watch, several slow matches and touchwood.
36 barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of faggots and coal.
Fawkes was taken to the King early on the morning of 5&nbsp;November.
As news of "John Johnson's" arrest spread among the plotters still in London, most fled northwest, along Watling Street.
Christopher Wright and Thomas Percy left together.
Rookwood left soon after, and managed to cover 30&nbsp;miles in two hours on one horse.
He overtook Keyes, who had set off earlier, then Wright and Percy at Little Brickhill, before catching Catesby, John Wright, and Bates on the same road.
Reunited, the group continued northwest to Dunchurch, using horses provided by Digby.
Keyes went to Mordaunt's house at Drayton.
Meanwhile, Thomas Wintour stayed in London, and even went to Westminster to see what was happening.
When he realised the plot had been uncovered, he took his horse and made for his sister's house at Norbrook, before continuing to Huddington Court.
The group of six conspirators stopped at Ashby St Ledgers at about 6&nbsp;pm, where they met Robert Wintour and updated him on their situation.
They then continued on to Dunchurch, and met with Digby.
Catesby convinced him that despite the plot's failure, an armed struggle was still a real possibility.
He announced to Digby's "hunting party" that the King and Salisbury were dead, before the fugitives moved west to Warwick.
In London, news of the plot was spreading, and the authorities set extra guards on the city gates, closed the ports, and protected the house of the Spanish Ambassador, which was surrounded by an angry mob.
An arrest warrant was issued against Thomas Percy, and his patron, the Earl of Northumberland, was placed under house arrest.
In "John Johnson's" initial interrogation he revealed nothing other than the name of his mother, and that he was from Yorkshire.
A letter to Guy Fawkes was discovered on his person, but he claimed that name was one of his aliases.
Far from denying his intentions, "Johnson" stated that it had been his purpose to destroy the King and Parliament.
Nevertheless, he maintained his composure and insisted that he had acted alone.
His unwillingness to yield so impressed the King that he described him as possessing "a Roman resolution".
On 6 November, the Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Popham (a man with a deep-seated hatred of Catholics) questioned Rookwood's servants.
By the evening he had learned the names of several of those involved in the conspiracy: Catesby, Rookwood, Keyes, Wynter , John and Christopher Wright, and Grant.
"Johnson" meanwhile persisted with his story, and along with the gunpowder he was found with, was moved to the Tower of London, where the King had decided that "Johnson" would be tortured.
The use of torture was forbidden, except by royal prerogative or a body such as the Privy Council or Star Chamber.
In a letter of 6&nbsp;November James wrote: "The gentler tortours [tortures] are to be first used unto him, et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur [and thus by steps extended to greater ones], and so God speed your good work".
"Johnson" may have been placed in manacles and hung from the wall, but he was almost certainly subjected to the horrors of the rack.
On 7&nbsp;November his resolve was broken; he confessed late that day, and again over the following two days.
On 6&nbsp;November, with Fawkes maintaining his silence, the fugitives raided Warwick Castle for supplies and continued to Norbrook to collect weapons.
From there they continued their journey to Huddington.
Bates left the group and travelled to Coughton Court to deliver a letter from Catesby, to Father Garnet and the other priests, informing them of what had transpired, and asking for their help in raising an army.
Garnet replied by begging Catesby and his followers to stop their "wicked actions", before himself fleeing.
Several priests set out for Warwick, worried about the fate of their colleagues.
They were caught, and then imprisoned in London.
Catesby and the others arrived at Huddington early in the afternoon, and were met by Thomas Wintour.
They received practically no support or sympathy from those they met, including family members, who were terrified at the prospect of being associated with treason.
They continued on to Holbeche House on the border of Staffordshire, the home of Stephen Littleton, a member of their ever-decreasing band of followers.
Tired and desperate, they spread out some of the now-soaked gunpowder in front of the fire, to dry out.
Although gunpowder does not explode unless physically contained, a spark from the fire landed on the powder and the resultant flames engulfed Catesby, Rookwood, Grant, and a man named Morgan (a member of the hunting party).
Thomas Wintour and Littleton, on their way from Huddington to Holbeche House, were told by a messenger that Catesby had died.
At that point, Littleton left, but Thomas arrived at the house to find Catesby alive, albeit scorched.
John Grant was not so lucky, and had been blinded by the fire.
Digby, Robert Wintour and his half-brother John, and Thomas Bates, had all left.
Of the plotters, only the singed figures of Catesby and Grant, and the Wright brothers, Rookwood, and Percy, remained.
The fugitives resolved to stay in the house and wait for the arrival of the King's men.
Richard Walsh (Sheriff of Worcestershire) and his company of 200&nbsp;men besieged Holbeche House on the morning of 8&nbsp;November.
Thomas Wintour was hit in the shoulder while crossing the courtyard.
John Wright was shot, followed by his brother, and then Rookwood.
Catesby and Percy were reportedly killed by a single lucky shot.
The attackers rushed the property, and stripped the dead or dying defenders of their clothing.
Grant, Morgan, Rookwood, and Wintour were arrested.
<EOS>
Harold Chasen (Bud Cort) is a young man obsessed with death.
He stages elaborate fake suicides, attends funerals and drives a hearse, all to the chagrin of his socialite mother (Vivian Pickles).
At another stranger's funeral service, Harold meets Maude (Ruth Gordon), a 79-year-old woman who shares Harold's hobby of attending funerals.
He is entranced by her quirky outlook on life, which is bright and excessively carefree in contrast with his morbidity.
The pair form a bond and Maude slowly shows Harold the pleasures of art and music (including how to play banjo), and teaches him how to "[make] the most of his time on earth".
Meanwhile, Harold's mother is determined, against Harold's wishes, to find him a wife.
One by one, Harold frightens and horrifies each of his appointed dates, by appearing to commit gruesome acts such as self-immolation, self-mutilation and seppuku.
As they become closer, their friendship soon blossoms into a romance and Harold announces that he will marry Maude, resulting in disgusted outbursts from his family, psychiatrist, and priest.
Maude's 80th birthday arrives and Harold throws a surprise party for her.
As the couple dance, Maude tells Harold that she "couldn't imagine a lovelier farewell".
Confused, he questions Maude as to her meaning and she reveals that she has taken an overdose of sleeping pills and will be dead by morning.
She restates her firm belief that eighty is the proper age to die.
Harold rushes Maude to the hospital, where she is treated unsuccessfully and dies.
In the final sequence, Harold's car is seen going off a seaside cliff but after the crash, the final shot reveals Harold standing calmly atop the cliff, holding his banjo.
After gazing down at the wreckage, he dances away, picking out on his banjo Cat Stevens' "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out".
<EOS>
On 20 July 1944, a group of German army officers led by Claus von Stauffenberg and including some of the highest-ranked members of the German armed forces attempted to assassinate Hitler, but failed to do so.
The next day, Himmler formed a special commission that arrested over 5,000 suspected and known opponents of the regime.
Hitler ordered brutal reprisals that resulted in the execution of more than 4,900 people.
Though Himmler was embarrassed by his failure to uncover the plot, it led to an increase in his powers and authority.
General Friedrich Fromm, commander-in-chief of the Reserve (or Replacement) Army (Ersatzheer) and Stauffenberg's immediate superior, was one of those implicated in the conspiracy.
Hitler removed Fromm from his post and named Himmler as his successor.
Since the Reserve Army consisted of two million men, Himmler hoped to draw on these reserves to fill posts within the Waffen-SS.
He appointed Hans Jüttner, director of the SS Leadership Main Office, as his deputy, and began to fill top Reserve Army posts with SS men.
By November 1944 Himmler had merged the army officer recruitment department with that of the Waffen-SS and had successfully lobbied for an increase in the quotas for recruits to the SS.
By this time, Hitler had appointed Himmler as Minister of the Interior and Plenipotentiary General for Administration (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung).
In August 1944 Hitler authorised him to restructure the organisation and administration of the Waffen-SS, the army, and the police services.
As head of the Reserve Army, Himmler was now responsible for prisoners of war.
He was also in charge of the Wehrmacht penal system, and controlled the development of Wehrmacht armaments until January 1945.
<EOS>
The series centers on the Taylor family, which consists of Tim (Tim Allen), his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) and their three children: the oldest child, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), the middle child, Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and youngest child, Mark (Taran Noah Smith).
The Taylors live in suburban Detroit, and have a neighbor named Wilson (Earl Hindman) who is often the go-to guy for solving the Taylors' problems.
Tim is a stereotypical American male, who loves power tools, cars and sports.
In particular, he is an avid fan of local Detroit teams.
In numerous instances Tim wears Lions, Pistons, Red Wings, and Tigers clothing, and many plots revolve around the teams.
He is a former salesman for the fictional Binford Tool company, and is very much a cocky, overambitious, accident-prone know-it-all.
Witty but flippant, Tim jokes around a lot, even at inappropriate times, much to the dismay of his wife.
However, Tim can sometimes be serious when necessary.
Jill, Tim's wife, is loving and sophisticated, but not exempt from dumb moves herself.
In later seasons she returns to college to study psychology.
Family life is boisterous for the Taylors with the two oldest children, Brad and Randy, tormenting the much younger Mark, all while continually testing and pestering each other.
Such play happened especially throughout the first three seasons, and was revisited only occasionally until Jonathan Taylor Thomas left at the beginning of the eighth season.
During the show's final season, Brad and Mark became much closer due to Randy's absence.
Brad, popular and athletic, was often the moving factor, who engaged before thinking, a tendency which regularly landed him in trouble.
Randy, a year younger, was the comedian of the pack, known for his quick-thinking, wisecracks, and smart mouth.
He had more common sense than Brad but was not immune to trouble.
Mark was somewhat of a mama's boy, though later in the series (in the seventh season) he grew into a teenage outcast who dressed in black clothing.
Meanwhile, Brad became interested in cars like his father and took up soccer.
Randy joined the school drama club, and later the school newspaper; in the eighth season, he left for Costa Rica.
In early seasons, Wilson was always seen standing on the other side of Tim's backyard fence as the two engaged in conversation, usually with Wilson offering sage advice as Tim grappled with his problems.
In later seasons, a running joke developed in which more and more creative means were used to prevent Wilson's face below the eyes from ever being seen by the audience.
Also in later seasons, Wilson's full name was revealed to be Wilson Wilson, Jr.
Each episode includes Tim's own Binford-sponsored home improvement show, called Tool Time, a "meta-program," or show-within-a-show.
In hosting this show, Tim is joined by his friend and mild-mannered assistant Al Borland (Richard Karn), and a "Tool Time girl" — first Lisa (Pamela Anderson) and later Heidi (Debbe Dunning) — whose main duty is to introduce the pair at the beginning of the show with the line "Does everybody know what time it is.
" The Tool Time girl also assists Tim and Al during the show by bringing them tools.
Although revealed to be an excellent salesman and TV personality, Tim is spectacularly accident prone as a handyman, often causing massive disasters on and off the set, to the consternation of his co-workers and family.
Many Tool Time viewers assume that the accidents on the show are done on purpose, to demonstrate the consequences of using tools improperly.
Many of Tim's accidents are caused by his devices being used in an unorthodox or overpowered manner, designed to illustrate his mantra "More power.
".
This popular catchphrase would not be uttered after Home Improvement's seventh season, until Tim's last line in the series finale.
Tool Time was conceived as a parody of the PBS home-improvement show This Old House.
Tim and Al are caricatures of the two principal cast members of This Old House, host Bob Vila and master carpenter Norm Abram.
Al Borland has a beard and always wears plaid shirts when taping an episode, reflecting Norm Abram's appearance on This Old House.
Bob Vila appeared as a guest star on several episodes of Home Improvement, while Tim Allen and Pamela Anderson both appeared on Bob Vila's show Home Again.
The Tool Time theme music, an early 1960s-style saxophone-dominated instrumental rock tune, was sometimes used as the closing theme music for Home Improvement, especially when behind the credits were running the blooper scenes that took place during the taping of a Tool Time segment.
<EOS>
Aboard the Nellie, anchored in the River Thames near Gravesend, England, Charles Marlow tells his fellow sailors about the events that led to his appointment as captain of a river steamboat for an ivory trading company.
As a child, Marlow had been fascinated by "the blank spaces" on maps, particularly by the biggest, which by the time he had grown up was no longer blank but turned into "a place of darkness" (Conrad 10).
Yet there remained a big river, "resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the land" (Conrad 10).
The image of this river on the map fascinated Marlow "as a snake would a bird" (Conrad 10).
Feeling as though "instead of going to the centre of a continent I were about to set off for the centre of the earth", Marlow takes passage on a French steamer bound for the African coast and then into the interior (Conrad 18).
After more than thirty days the ship anchors off the seat of the government near the mouth of the big river.
Marlow, still some two hundred miles to go, now takes passage on a little sea-going steamer captained by a Swede.
He departs some thirty miles up the river where his Company's station is.
Work on the railway is going on, involving removal of rocks with explosives.
Marlow enters a narrow ravine to stroll in the shade under the trees, and finds himself in "the gloomy circle of some Inferno": the place is full of diseased Africans who worked on the railroad and now await their deaths, their sickened bodies already as thin as air (Conrad 24-25).
Marlow witnesses the scene "horror-struck" (Conrad 26).
Marlow has to wait for ten days in the Company's Outer Station, where he sleeps in a hut.
At this station, which strikes Marlow as a scene of devastation, he meets the Company's impeccably dressed chief accountant who tells him of a mr Kurtz, who is in charge of a very important trading-post, and a widely respected, first-class agent, a "'very remarkable person'" who "'Sends in as much ivory as all the others put together'" (Conrad 28).
The agent predicts that Kurtz will go very far: "'He will be a somebody in the Administration before long.
They, above—the Council in Europe, you know—mean him to be'" (Conrad 29).
Marlow departs with a caravan of sixty men to travel on foot some two hundred miles into the wilderness to the Central Station, where the steamboat that he is to captain is based.
On the fifteenth day of his march, he arrives at the station, which has some twenty employees, and is shocked to learn from a fellow European that his steamboat had been wrecked in a mysterious accident two days earlier.
He meets the General Manager, who informs him that he could wait no longer for Marlow to arrive, because the up-river stations had to be relieved, and rumors had one important station in jeopardy because its chief, the exceptional mr Kurtz, was ill.
"Hang Kurtz", Marlow thinks irritated (Conrad 34).
He fishes his boat out of the river and is occupied with its repair for some months, during which a sudden fire destroys a grass shed full of materials used to trade with the natives.
While one of the natives is tortured for allegedly causing the fire, Marlow is invited in the room of the station's brick-maker, a man who spent a year waiting for material to make bricks.
Marlow gets the impression the man wants to pump him, and is curious to know what kind of information he is after.
Hanging on the wall is "a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman draped and blindfolded carrying a lighted torch" (Conrad 39).
Marlow is fascinated with the sinister effect of the torchlight upon the woman's face, and is informed that mr Kurtz made the painting in the station a year ago.
The brick-maker calls Kurtz "'a prodigy'" and "'an emissary of pity, and science, and progress'", and feels Kurtz represents the "'higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose'" needed for the cause Europe entrusts the Company with (Conrad 39).
The man predicts Kurtz will rise in the hierarchy within two years and then makes the connection to Marlow: "'The same people who sent him specially also recommended you'" (Conrad 39-40).
Marlow is frustrated by the months it takes to perform the necessary repairs, made all the slower by the lack of proper tools and replacement parts at the station.
During this time, he learns that Kurtz is far from admired, but more or less resented (mostly by the manager).
Once underway, the journey up-river to Kurtz's station takes two months to the day.
The steamboat stops briefly near an abandoned hut on the riverbank, where Marlow finds a pile of wood and a note indicating that the wood is for them and that they should proceed quickly but with caution as they near the Inner Station.
The journey pauses for the night about eight miles below the Inner Station.
In the morning the crew awakens to find that the boat is enveloped by a thick white fog.
From the riverbank they hear a very loud cry, followed by a discordant clamour.
A few hours later, as safe navigation becomes increasingly difficult, the steamboat is attacked with a barrage of small arrows from the forest.
The helmsman is impaled by a spear and falls at Marlow's feet.
Marlow sounds the steam whistle repeatedly, frightening the attackers and causing the shower of arrows to cease.
Marlow and a pilgrim watch the helmsman die.
In a flash forward, Marlow notes that the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs had commissioned Kurtz to write a report, which he did eloquently.
A handwritten postscript, apparently added later by Kurtz, reads "Exterminate all the brutes.
" (Conrad 83).
At Kurtz's station Marlow sees a man on the riverbank waving his arm, urging them to land.
The pilgrims, heavily armed, escort the manager on to the shore to retrieve mr Kurtz.
The man from the bank boards the steamboat, and turns out to be a Russian wanderer who had happened to stray into Kurtz's camp.
He explains that he had left the wood and the note at the abandoned hut.
Through conversation Marlow discovers just how wanton Kurtz can be; how the natives worship him; and how very ill he has been of late.
The Russian admires Kurtz for his intellect and his insights into love, life, and justice, and suggests that he is a poet.
He tells of how Kurtz opened his mind, and seems to admire him even for his power—and for his willingness to use it.
Marlow, on the other hand, suggests that Kurtz has gone mad.
From the steamboat, Marlow observes the station in detail and is surprised to see near the station house a row of posts topped with the severed heads of natives.
Around the corner of the house, the manager appears with the pilgrims, bearing a gaunt and ghost-like Kurtz on an improvised stretcher.
The area fills with natives, apparently ready for battle, but Kurtz shouts something from the stretcher, and the natives retreat into the forest.
The pilgrims carry Kurtz to the steamer and lay him in one of the cabins, where he and the manager have a private conversation.
Marlow watches a beautiful native woman walk in measured steps along the shore and stop next to the steamer.
When the manager exits the cabin he pulls Marlow aside and tells him that Kurtz has harmed the Company's business in the region, that his methods are "unsound".
Later, the Russian reveals that Kurtz believes the Company wants to remove him from the station and kill him, and Marlow confirms that hangings had been discussed.
After midnight, Marlow discovers that Kurtz has left his cabin on the steamer and returned to shore.
He goes ashore and finds a very weak Kurtz crawling his way back to the station house, though not too weak to call to the natives for help.
Marlow threatens to harm Kurtz if he raises an alarm, but Kurtz only laments that he had not accomplished more in the region.
The next day they prepare for their journey back down the river.
The natives, including the ornately dressed woman, once again assemble on shore and begin to shout unintelligibly.
Noticing the pilgrims readying their rifles, Marlow sounds the steam whistle repeatedly to scatter the crowd of natives.
Only the woman remains unmoved, with outstretched arms.
The pilgrims open fire as the current carries them swiftly downstream.
Kurtz's health worsens on the return trip, and Marlow himself becomes increasingly ill.
The steamboat breaks down and, while it is stopped for repairs, Kurtz gives Marlow a packet of papers, including his commissioned report and a photograph, telling him to keep them away from the manager.
When Marlow next speaks with him, Kurtz is near death; as he dies, Marlow hears him weakly whisper: "The horror.
The horror.
" (Conrad 116).
A short while later, the "manager's boy" announces to the rest of the crew, in a scathing tone, "Mistah Kurtz—he dead" (Conrad 117).
The next day Marlow pays little attention to the pilgrims as they bury "something" in a muddy hole (Conrad 117).
He falls very ill, himself near death.
Upon his return to Europe, Marlow is embittered and contemptuous of the "civilised" world.
Many callers come to retrieve the papers Kurtz had entrusted to him, but Marlow withholds them or offers papers he knows they have no interest in.
He then gives Kurtz's report to a journalist, for publication if he sees fit.
Finally Marlow is left with some personal letters and a photograph of Kurtz's fiancée, whom Kurtz referred to as "My Intended" (Conrad 79).
When Marlow visits her, she is dressed in black and still deep in mourning, although it has been more than a year since Kurtz's death.
She presses Marlow for information, asking him to repeat Kurtz's final words, which in fact are "The horror.
The horror.
" Uncomfortable, Marlow lies and tells her that Kurtz's final word was her name.
<EOS>
Three brothers (D'Sparil, Korax, and Eidolon), known as the Serpent Riders, have used their powerful magic to possess seven kings of Parthoris into mindless puppets and corrupt their armies.
The Sidhe elves resist the Serpent Riders' magic.
The Serpent Riders thus declared the Sidhe as heretics and waged war against them.
The Sidhe are forced to take a drastic measure to sever the natural power of the kings destroying them and their armies, but at the cost of weakening the elves' power, giving the Serpent riders an advantage to slay the elders.
While the Sidhe retreat, one elf (revealed to be named Corvus in Heretic II) sets off on a quest of vengeance against the weakest of the three Serpent Riders, D'Sparil.
He travels through the "City of the Damned", the ruined capital of the Sidhe (its real name is revealed to be Silverspring in Heretic II), then past Hell's Maw and finally the Dome of D'Sparil.
The player must first fight through the undead hordes infesting the location where the elders performed their ritual.
At its end is the gateway to Hell's Maw, guarded by the Iron Liches.
After defeating them, the player must seal the portal and so prevent further infestation, but after he enters the portal guarded by the Maulotaurs, he finds himself inside D'Sparil's dome.
After killing D'Sparil, Corvus ends up on a perilous journey with little hope of returning home.
<EOS>
Following the tale of D'Sparil's defeat in Heretic, Hexen takes place in another realm, Cronos, which is besieged by the second of the three Serpent Riders, Korax.
Three heroes set out to destroy Korax.
The player assumes the role of one such hero.
Throughout the course of his quest, he travels through elemental dungeons, a wilderness region, a mountainside seminary, a large castle, and finally a necropolis.
<EOS>
Thyrion is a world that was enslaved by the Serpent Riders.
The two previous games in the series documented the liberation of two other worlds, along with the death of their Serpent Rider overlords.
Now, the oldest and most powerful of the three Serpent Rider brothers, Eidolon, must be defeated to free Thyrion.
Eidolon is supported by his four generals, themselves a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
To confront each general, the player has to travel to four different continents, each possessing a distinct theme (Medieval European for Blackmarsh, Mesoamerican for Mazaera, Ancient Egyptian for Thysis, and Greco-Roman for Septimus).
Then, finally, the player returns to Blackmarsh in order to confront Eidolon himself inside of his own dominion Cathedral.
<EOS>
After Corvus returns from his banishment, he finds that a mysterious plague has swept the land of Parthoris, taking the sanity of those it does not kill.
Corvus, the protagonist of the first game, is forced to flee his hometown of Silverspring after the infected attack him, but not before he is infected himself.
The effects of the disease are held at bay in Corvus’ case because he holds one of the Tomes of Power, but he still must find a cure before he succumbs.
His quest leads him through the city and swamps to a jungle palace, then through a desert canyon and insect hive, followed by a dark network of mines and finally to a castle on a high mountain where he finds an ancient Seraph named Morcalavin.
Morcalavin is trying to reach immortality using the seven Tomes of Power, but he uses a false tome, as Corvus has one of them.
This has caused Morcalavin to go insane and create the plague.
During a battle between Corvus and Morcalavin, Corvus switches the false tome for his real one, curing Morcalavin’s insanity and ending the plague.
<EOS>
Fifteen hundred years have passed since the 3,500-year reign of the God Emperor Leto II Atreides ended with his assassination; humanity is firmly on the Golden Path, Leto's plan to save humanity from destruction.
By crushing the aspirations of humans for over three thousand years, Leto caused the Scattering, an explosion of humanity into the rest of the universe upon his death.
Now, some of those who went out into the universe are coming back, bent on conquest.
Only the Bene Gesserit perceive the Golden Path and are therefore faced with a choice: keep to their traditional role of hidden manipulators who quietly ease tensions and guide human progress while struggling for their own survival, or embrace the Golden Path and push humanity onward into a new future where humans are free from the threat of extinction.
Much has changed in the millennium and a half since the death of the God Emperor.
Sandworms have reappeared on Arrakis (now called Rakis) and renewed the flow of the all-important spice melange to the galaxy.
With Leto's death, a very complex economic system built on spice collapsed, resulting in trillions leaving known space in a great Scattering.
A new civilization has risen, with three dominant powers: the Ixians, whose no-ships are capable of piloting between the stars and are invisible to outside detection; the Bene Tleilax, who have learned to manufacture spice in their axlotl tanks and have created a new breed of Face Dancers; and the Bene Gesserit, a matriarchal order of subtle political manipulators who possess superhuman abilities.
However, people from the Scattering are returning with their own peculiar powers.
The most powerful of these forces are the Honored Matres, a violent society of women bred and trained for combat and the sexual control of men.
On Rakis, a girl called Sheeana has been discovered who can control the giant worms.
The Bene Gesserit intends to use a Tleilaxu-provided Duncan Idaho ghola to gain control of this sandrider, and the religious forces of humanity who they know will ultimately worship her.
The Tleilaxu have altered the ghola to bring its physical reflexes up to modern standards.
The Bene Gesserit leader, Mother Superior Taraza, brings Miles Teg to guard the new Idaho.
Taraza also sends Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade to take command of the Bene Gesserit keep on Rakis.
Odrade is a loose cannon; she does not obey normal Bene Gesserit prohibitions about love, and is also Teg's biological daughter.
Bene Gesserit Imprinter Lucilla is also sent by Taraza to bind Idaho's loyalty to the Sisterhood with her sexual talents.
However, Lucilla must deal with Reverend Mother Schwangyu, head of the ghola project but also the leader of a faction within the Bene Gesserit who feel the gholas are a danger.
Above the planet Gammu, Taraza is captured and held hostage by the Honored Matres aboard an Ixian no-ship.
The Honored Matres insist Taraza invite Teg to the ship, hoping to gain control of the ghola project.
Teg manages to turn the tables on the Matres, and rescues the Mother Superior and her party.
An attack is then made on Sheeana on Rakis, which is prevented by the intervention of the Bene Gesserit.
Odrade starts training Sheeana as a Bene Gesserit.
At about the same time an attempt is made on the life of Idaho, but Teg is able to defeat it.
Teg flees with Duncan and Lucilla into the countryside.
In an ancient Harkonnen no-globe, Teg proceeds to awaken Idaho's original memories, but does so before Lucilla can imprint Duncan and thus tie him to the Sisterhood.
In the meantime, Taraza has been searching for Teg and his party, and finally establishes contact.
During the operation, however, Teg and his companions are ambushed.
Teg is captured while Lucilla and Duncan escape.
Teg is tortured by a T-Probe, but under pressure discovers new abilities; one of them is to speed up his physical and mental reactions, which enables him to escape.
At the same time, Idaho is ambushed and taken hostage.
Taraza arranges a meeting with the Tleilaxu Master Waff, who is soon forced to tell her what he knows about the Honored Matres.
When pressed on the issue of Idaho, he also admits that the Bene Tleilax have conditioned their own agenda into him.
As the meeting draws to a close, Taraza accidentally divines that Waff is a Zensunni, giving the Bene Gesserit a lever to understand their ancient competitor.
She and Odrade meet Waff again on Rakis.
He tries to assassinate Taraza but Odrade convinces him that the Sisterhood shares the religious beliefs of the Bene Tleilax.
Taraza offers full alliance with them against the onslaught of forces out of the Scattering.
This agreement causes consternation among the Bene Gesserit, but Odrade realizes that Taraza's plan is to destroy Rakis.
By destroying the planet, the Bene Gesserit would be dependent on the Tleilaxu for the spice, ensuring an alliance.
Lucilla arrives at a Bene Gesserit safe house to discover it has been taken over by a young Honored Matre named Murbella, who has partially subdued Idaho.
After being defeated in a quick bout of personal combat, Murbella assumes that Lucilla is the Great Honored Matre, and allows Lucilla and Burzmali to watch through the window of a locked room while she completes the sexual enslavement of the ghola.
However, hidden Tleilaxu conditioning kicks in, and Duncan responds with an equal technique, one that overwhelms Murbella.
Stunned and exhausted, Murbella dimly realizes that the man is the ghola they had been warned to search for, and unlocks the door to the room to gain Lucilla's assistance in killing him.
But Lucilla says, "We will kill no one.
This ghola goes to Rakis".
The Honored Matres attack Rakis, killing Taraza.
Odrade becomes temporary leader of the Bene Gesserit before escaping with Sheeana into the desert on a worm.
Teg also goes to a supposed safe house, only to discover the Honored Matres.
He unleashes himself upon the complex, before capturing a no-ship and locating Duncan and Lucilla.
They and the captured Murbella are taken to Rakis with him.
When they arrive, Teg finds Odrade and Sheeana and their giant worm.
He loads them all up in his no-ship, finally leading his troops out on a last suicidal defense of Rakis, designed to attract the rage of the Honored Matres.
The Honored Matres attack Rakis, destroying the planet and the sandworms except for the one the Bene Gesserit escape with.
They intend to drown the worm in a mixture of water and spice, turning it into sandtrout which will turn the secret Bene Gesserit planet Chapterhouse into another Dune.
<EOS>
The dominant clique at Westerburg High School in Sherwood, Ohio, consists of three wealthy and beautiful girls named Heather: the leader, Heather Chandler, the quiet, bookish and bulimic Heather Duke, and the weak-willed cheerleader Heather McNamara.
Though they are the most popular students, the Heathers are both feared and hated.
They recently invited 17-year-old Veronica Sawyer to join their group, by association making her a very popular girl as well.
But, Veronica has had enough of their behavior and longs to return to her old life and her nerdy friends.
At school, a rebellious outsider named Jason "JD".
Dean pulls a gun on school bullies Kurt Kelly and Ram Sweeney and fires blanks at them.
Veronica finds herself fascinated by him.
When Veronica embarrasses Heather Chandler at a frat party by refusing sex and then vomiting, Heather vows to destroy her reputation.
Later,D.
shows up at Veronica's house and they end up having sex after an impromptu game of strip croquet.
Veronica tellsD.
she wants to make Heather puke her guts out.
The next morning, Veronica andD.
break into Heather's houseD.
serves Heather a liquid he claims is a hangover cure but is actually drain cleaner, killing her as she falls through a glass coffee table.
Although initially shaken by their act,D.
regains his composure and urges Veronica to forge a suicide note in Heather's handwriting.
The school and community look on Heather's apparent suicide as a tragic decision made by a popular but troubled teenager.
Several days later, Kurt and Ram spread a rumor about Veronica giving them oral sex.
To get even,D.
proposes that Veronica lure them into the woods with the promise to "make the rumors true", then shoot them with what he promises are nonfatal "Ich lüge" ("I'm lying" in German) bullets that only break the skin but do no real damage.
Afterwards they would humiliate Kurt and Ram by writing a fake suicide note explaining that the two were secret lovers, and planting gay paraphernalia alongside their unconscious bodies.
At the rendezvous in the woods,D.
shoots Ram but Veronica misses Kurt, who runs away.
Seeing Ram dead on the ground, Veronica realizes that the bullets are realD.
chases Kurt back towards Veronica, who panics and shoots him deadD.
plants the paraphernalia and suicide note beside the boys.
At their funeral, the boys are made into martyrs against homophobia.
Due toD.
's betrayal and increasingly murderous behavior, Veronica breaks up with him, but he says he knows she'll come backD.
then shows Heather Duke old photographs of her and Martha "Dumptruck" Dunnstock when the two girls were friends.
Since Martha is an obese and very unpopular student, Heather Duke doesn't want the photos to be seenD.
says he will give her the negatives of the photos if she does him "a favor"D.
then persuades Heather Duke to step into Heather Chandler's former role, which Heather Duke gladly embraces.
Duke begins wearing the red scrunchie that had belonged to Heather Chandler, and starts acting as badly as Chandler had acted.
Once Heather Duke establishes herself as the school's alpha female,D.
tells her to start a petition to get the band Big Fun to play at the school pep rally.
In return, he gives her the negatives.
The fake suicides prompt an epidemic of similar attempts.
Martha pins a suicide note to her chest and walks into traffic.
She survives but is badly injured and is mocked for trying to "act popular".
That night, Heather McNamara calls a popular radio show while Veronica and Heather Duke are listening and says she feels like she is cursed, and begins to cry.
The next day, Heather Duke tells the entire school about Heather McNamara's radio call.
Heather McNamara, humiliated, attempts to take her life by overdosing on pills, but is rescued by Veronica.
Veronica and Heather Duke have a fight in which Heather reveals that the petition wasD.
's ideaD.
then attempts to rekindle his romance with Veronica, but she rejects him, angeringD.
When Veronica returns home she finds thatD.
has left her threatening notes implying that he will murder her and frame it as a suicide.
That night,D.
climbs into Veronica's room with a revolver, but finds Veronica has hanged herself.
Thinking she's dead, he reveals his plan to bomb the school during a pep rally.
He reveals that the petition he had been circulating via Heather Duke was actually a mass suicide note.
Almost everyone has signed, so the mass murder would appear to outsiders to be a mass suicide instead.
Unbeknownst toD, Veronica faked the hanging by rigging herself with a harness around her waist.
Now clued in toD.
's mass-murder plot, she confronts him in the boiler room below the gym where he is rigging timed explosives.
After a brief struggle, Veronica shoots him.
AsD.
collapses, he stabs the timer and it stops.
Veronica walks outside to find the severely injuredD.
with the bomb strapped to his chest, which he detonates as Veronica looks on.
The blast singes Veronica and lights her cigarette.
As the students rush outside to find out what happened, Veronica confronts Heather Duke.
Veronica relieves Heather of the red scrunchie, saying "Heather, my love, there's a new sheriff in town".
She then approaches Martha, now in a scooter due to her injuries, and invites her to watch a movie.
<EOS>
After Margaret Thatcher's resignation, the ruling Conservative Party is about to elect a new leader.
Francis Urquhart (Ian Richardson), an MP and the Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons, introduces viewers to the contestants, from which Henry "Hal" Collingridge (David Lyon) emerges victorious.
Urquhart is secretly contemptuous of the well-meaning but weak Collingridge, but expects a promotion to a senior position in the Cabinet.
After the general election, which the party wins by a reduced majority, Urquhart submits his suggestions for a cabinet reshuffle that includes his desired promotion.
However, Collingridge – citing Harold Macmillan's political demise after the 1962 Night of the Long Knives – effects no changes at all.
Urquhart resolves to oust Collingridge, with encouragement from his wife, Elizabeth (Diane Fletcher).
At the same time, with Elizabeth's blessing, Urquhart begins an affair with Mattie Storin (Susannah Harker), a junior political reporter at a Conservative-leaning tabloid newspaper called The Chronicle.
The affair allows Urquhart to manipulate Mattie and indirectly skew her coverage of the Conservative leadership contest in his favour.
Mattie has an apparent Electra complex; she finds appeal in Urquhart's much older age and later refers to him as "Daddy".
Another unwitting pawn is Roger O'Neill (Miles Anderson), the party's cocaine-addicted public relations consultant.
Urquhart blackmails O'Neill into leaking information on budget cuts that humiliates Collingridge during the Prime Minister's Questions.
Later, he blames party chairman Lord "Teddy" Billsborough (Nicholas Selby) for leaking an internal poll showing a drop in Tory numbers, leading Collingridge to sack him.
As Collingridge's image suffers, Urquhart encourages ultraconservative Foreign Secretary Patrick Woolton (Malcolm Tierney) and Chronicle owner Benjamin Landless to support his removal.
Urquhart also poses as Collingridge's alcoholic brother, Charles, to trade shares in a chemical company about to benefit from advance information confidential to the government.
Consequently, Collingridge becomes falsely accused of insider trading and is forced to resign.
In the ensuing leadership race, Urquhart initially feigns unwillingness to stand before announcing his candidacy.
With the help of his underling, Tim Stamper (Colin Jeavons), Urquhart goes about making sure his competitors drop out of the race: Health Secretary Peter MacKenzie (Christopher Owen) accidentally runs his car over a disabled protester at a demonstration staged by Urquhart and is forced by the public outcry to withdraw, while Education Secretary Harold Earle (Kenneth Gilbert) is blackmailed into withdrawing when Urquhart anonymously sends pictures of him in the company of a rent boy whom Earle had paid for sex.
The first ballot leaves Urquhart to face Woolton and Michael Samuels, the moderate Environment Secretary supported by Billsborough.
Urquhart eliminates Woolton by a prolonged scheme: at the party conference, he pressures O'Neill into persuading his personal assistant and lover, Penny Guy (Alphonsia Emmanuel), to have a one-night stand with Woolton in his suite, which Urquhart records via a bugged ministerial red box.
When the tape is sent to Woolton, he is led to assume that Samuels is behind the scheme and backs Urquhart in the contest.
Urquhart also receives support from Collingridge, who is unaware of Urquhart's role in his own downfall.
Samuels is forced out of the running when the tabloids reveal that he backed leftist causes as a student at University of Cambridge.
Stumbling across contradictions in the allegations against Collingridge and his brother, Mattie begins to dig deeper.
On Urquhart's orders, O'Neill arranges for her car and flat to be vandalised in a show of intimidation.
However, O'Neill becomes increasingly uneasy with what he is being asked to do, and his cocaine addiction adds to his instability.
Urquhart mixes O'Neill's cocaine with rat poison, causing him to kill himself when taking the cocaine in a motorway lavatory.
Though initially blind to the truth of matters thanks to her relations with Urquhart, Mattie eventually deduces that Urquhart is responsible for O'Neill's death and is behind the unfortunate downfalls of Collingridge and all of Urquhart's rivals.
Mattie looks for Urquhart at the point when it seems his victory is certain.
She eventually finds him on the roof garden of the Houses of Parliament, where she confronts him.
He admits to O'Neill's murder and everything else he has done.
He then asks whether he can trust Mattie, and, though she answers in the affirmative, he does not believe her and throws her off the roof onto a van parked below.
An unseen person picks up Mattie's tape recorder, which she had been using to secretly record her conversations with Urquhart.
The series ends with Urquhart defeating Samuels in the second leadership ballot and being driven to Buckingham Palace to be invited to form a government by Elizabeth II.
<EOS>
The story is presented in the form of a letter from camp written by a seven-year-old Seymour Glass (the main character of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish").
In this respect, the plot is identical to Salinger's previous unpublished story "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls," written eighteen years earlier in 1947.
In the course of requesting a veritable library of reading matter from home, Seymour predicts his brother's success as a writer as well as his own death and condemns the ironic "twist" endings in the stories of Anatole France, twist endings being an early Salinger device.
<EOS>
The story begins in fictional st Petersburg, Missouri (based on the actual town of Hannibal, Missouri), on the shore of the Mississippi River "forty to fifty years ago" (the novel having been published in 1884).
Huckleberry "Huck" Finn (the protagonist and first-person narrator) and his friend, Thomas "Tom" Sawyer, have each come into a considerable sum of money as a result of their earlier adventures (detailed in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer).
Huck explains how he is placed under the guardianship of the Widow Douglas, who, together with her stringent sister, Miss Watson, are attempting to "sivilize" him and teach him religion.
Finding civilized life confining, his spirits are raised somewhat when Tom Sawyer helps him to escape one night past Miss Watson's slave Jim, to meet up with Tom's gang of self-proclaimed "robbers".
Just as the gang's activities begin to bore Huck, he is suddenly interrupted by the reappearance of his shiftless father, "Pap", an abusive alcoholic.
Knowing that Pap would only spend the money on alcohol, Huck is successful in preventing Pap from acquiring his fortune; however, Pap kidnaps Huck and leaves town with him.
Pap forcibly moves Huck to his isolated cabin in the woods along the Illinois shoreline.
Because of Pap's drunken violence and imprisonment of Huck inside the cabin, Huck, during one of his father's absences, elaborately fakes his own death, escapes from the cabin, and sets off down river.
He settles comfortably, on Jackson's Island.
Here, Huck reunites with Jim, Miss Watson's slave.
Jim has also run away after he overheard Miss Watson planning to sell him "down the river" to presumably more brutal owners.
Jim plans to make his way to the town of Cairo in Illinois, a free state, so that he can later buy the rest of his enslaved family's freedom.
At first, Huck is conflicted about the sin and crime of supporting a runaway slave, but as the two talk in depth and bond over their mutually held superstitions, Huck emotionally connects with Jim, who increasingly becomes Huck's close friend and guardian.
After heavy flooding on the river, the two find a raft (which they keep) as well as an entire house floating on the river.
Entering the house to seek loot, Jim finds the naked body of a dead man lying on the floor, shot in the back.
He prevents Huck from viewing the corpse.
To find out the latest news in town, Huck dresses as a girl and enters the house of Judith Loftus, a woman new to the area.
Huck learns from her about the news of his own supposed murder; Pap was initially blamed, but since Jim ran away he is also a suspect and a reward for Jim's capture has initiated a manhunt.
mrs Loftus becomes increasingly suspicious that Huck is a boy, finally proving it by a series of tests.
Once he is exposed, she nevertheless allows him to leave her home without commotion, not realizing that he is the allegedly murdered boy they have just been discussing.
Huck returns to Jim to tell him the news and that a search party is coming to Jackson's Island that very night.
The two hastily load up the raft and depart.
After a while, Huck and Jim come across a grounded steamship.
Searching it, they stumble upon two thieves discussing murdering a third, but they flee before being noticed.
They are later separated in a fog, making Jim intensely anxious, and when they reunite, Huck tricks Jim into thinking he dreamed the entire incident.
Jim is not deceived for long, and is deeply hurt that his friend should have teased him so mercilessly.
Huck becomes remorseful and apologizes to Jim, though his conscience troubles him about humbling himself to a black man.
Travelling onward, Huck and Jim's raft is struck by a passing steamship, again separating the two.
Huck is given shelter on the Kentucky side of the river by the Grangerfords, an "aristocratic" family.
He befriends Buck Grangerford, a boy about his age, and learns that the Grangerfords are engaged in a 30-year blood feud against another family, the Shepherdsons.
The Grangerfords and Shepherdsons go to the same church, which ironically preaches brotherly love.
The vendetta finally comes to a head when Buck's older sister elopes with a member of the Shepherdson clan.
In the resulting conflict, all the Grangerford males from this branch of the family are shot and killed, including Buck, whose horrific murder Huck witnesses.
He is immensely relieved to be reunited with Jim, who has since recovered and repaired the raft.
Near the Arkansas-Missouri-Tennessee border, Jim and Huck take two on-the-run grifters aboard the raft.
The younger man, who is about thirty, introduces himself as the long-lost son of an English duke (the Duke of Bridgewater).
The older one, about seventy, then trumps this outrageous claim by alleging that he himself is the Lost Dauphin, the son of Louis XVI and rightful King of France.
The "duke" and "king" soon become permanent passengers on Jim and Huck's raft, committing a series of confidence schemes upon unsuspecting locals all along their journey.
To divert suspicions from the public away from Jim, they pose him as recaptured slave runaway, but later paint him up entirely blue and call him the "Sick Arab" so that he can move about the raft without bindings.
On one occasion, the swindlers advertise a three-night engagement of a play called "The Royal Nonesuch".
The play turns out to be only a couple of minutes' worth of an absurd, bawdy sham.
On the afternoon of the first performance, a drunk called Boggs is shot dead by a gentleman named Colonel Sherburn; a lynch mob forms to retaliate against Sherburn; and Sherburn, surrounded at his home, disperses the mob by making a defiant speech describing how true lynching should be done.
By the third night of "The Royal Nonesuch", the townspeople prepare for their revenge on the duke and king for their money-making scam, but the two cleverly skip town together with Huck and Jim just before the performance begins.
In the next town, the two swindlers then impersonate brothers of Peter Wilks, a recently deceased man of property.
To match accounts of Wilks's brothers, the king attempts an English accent and the duke pretends to be a deaf-mute, while starting to collect Wilks's inheritance.
Huck decides that Wilks's three orphaned nieces, who treat Huck with kindness, do not deserve to be cheated thus and so he tries to retrieve for them the stolen inheritance.
In a desperate moment, Huck is forced to hide the money in Wilks's coffin, which is abruptly buried the next morning.
The arrival of two new men who seem to be the real brothers throws everything into confusion, so that the townspeople decide to dig up the coffin in order to determine which are the true brothers, but, with everyone else distracted, Huck leaves for the raft, hoping to never see the duke and king again.
Suddenly, though, the two villains return, much to Huck's despair.
When Huck is finally able to get away a second time, he finds to his horror that the swindlers have sold Jim away to a family that intends to return him to his proper owner for the reward.
Defying his conscience and accepting the negative religious consequences he expects for his actions—"All right, then, I'll go to hell.
"—Huck resolves to free Jim once and for all.
Huck learns that Jim is being held at the plantation of Silas and Sally Phelps.
The family's nephew, Tom, is expected for a visit at the same time as Huck's arrival, so Huck is mistaken for Tom and welcomed into their home.
He plays along, hoping to find Jim's location and free him; in a surprising plot twist, it is revealed that the expected nephew is in fact Tom Sawyer.
When Huck intercepts the real Tom Sawyer on the road and tells him everything, Tom decides to join Huck's scheme, pretending to be his own younger half-brother, Sid, while Huck continues pretending to be Tom.
In the meantime, Jim has told the family about the two grifters and the new plan for "The Royal Nonesuch", and so the townspeople capture the duke and king, who are then tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.
Rather than simply sneaking Jim out of the shed where he is being held, Tom develops an elaborate plan to free him, involving secret messages, a hidden tunnel, snakes in a shed, a rope ladder sent in Jim's food, and other elements from adventure books he has read, including an anonymous note to the Phelps warning them of the whole scheme.
During the actual escape and resulting pursuit, Tom is shot in the leg, while Jim remains by his side, risking recapture rather than completing his escape alone.
Although a local doctor admires Jim's decency, he has Jim arrested in his sleep and returned to the Phelps.
After this, events quickly resolve themselves.
Tom's Aunt Polly arrives and reveals Huck and Tom's true identities to the Phelps family.
Jim is revealed to be a free man: Miss Watson died two months earlier and freed Jim in her will, but Tom (who already knew this) chose not to reveal this information to Huck so that he could come up with an artful rescue plan for Jim.
Jim tells Huck that Huck's father (Pap Finn) has been dead for some time (he was the dead man they found earlier in the floating house), and so Huck may now return safely to st Petersburg.
Huck declares that he is quite glad to be done writing his story, and despite Sally's plans to adopt and civilize him, he intends to flee west to Indian Territory.
<EOS>
Ivanhoe is the story of one of the remaining Saxon noble families at a time when the nobility in England was overwhelmingly Norman.
It follows the Saxon protagonist, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who is out of favour with his father for his allegiance to the Norman king Richard the Lionheart.
The story is set in 1194, after the failure of the Third Crusade, when many of the Crusaders were still returning to their homes in Europe.
King Richard, who had been captured by Leopold of Austria on his return journey to England, was believed to still be in captivity.
The legendary Robin Hood, initially under the name of Locksley, is also a character in the story, as are his "merry men".
The character that Scott gave to Robin Hood in Ivanhoe helped shape the modern notion of this figure as a cheery noble outlaw.
Other major characters include Ivanhoe's intractable father, Cedric, one of the few remaining Saxon lords; various Knights Templar, most notable of whom is Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Ivanhoe's main rival; a number of clergymen; the loyal serfs: Gurth the swineherd and the jester Wamba, whose observations punctuate much of the action; and the Jewish moneylender, Isaac of York, who is equally passionate about his people and his beautiful daughter, Rebecca.
The book was written and published during a period of increasing struggle for the emancipation of the Jews in England, and there are frequent references to injustices against them.
Protagonist Wilfred of Ivanhoe is disinherited by his father Cedric of Rotherwood for supporting the Norman King Richard and for falling in love with the Lady Rowena, Cedric's ward and a descendant of the Saxon Kings of England, after Cedric planned to marry her to the powerful Lord Athelstane, a pretender to the Crown of England through his descent from the last Saxon King, Harold Godwinson.
Ivanhoe accompanies King Richard on the Crusades, where he is said to have played a notable role in the Siege of Acre; and tends to Louis of Thuringia, who suffers from malaria.
The book opens with a scene of Norman knights and prelates seeking the hospitality of Cedric.
They are guided there by a pilgrim, known at that time as a palmer, (one who carried blessed palms leaves such as those that were scattered at the feet of Jesus Christ by residents of Jerusalem when he entered seated on an donkey's colt on the Sunday before his arrest, trial and crucifixion; hence the name Palm Sunday).
Also returning from the Holy Land that same night, Isaac of York, a Jewish moneylender, seeks refuge at Rotherwood.
Following the night's meal, the palmer observes one of the Normans, the Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert, issue orders to his Saracen soldiers to capture Isaac.
The palmer then assists in Isaac's escape from Rotherwood, with the additional aid of the swineherd Gurth.
Isaac of York offers to repay his debt to the palmer with a suit of armour and a war horse to participate in the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle, on his inference that the palmer was secretly a knight.
The palmer is taken by surprise; but accepts the offer.
The story then moves to the scene of the tournament, presided over by Prince John.
Other characters in attendance are Cedric, Athelstane, Lady Rowena, Isaac of York, his daughter Rebecca, Robin of Locksley and his men, Prince John's advisor Waldemar Fitzurse, and numerous Norman knights.
On the first day of the tournament, a bout of individual jousting, a mysterious knight, identifying himself only as "Desdichado" (described in the book as Spanish for the "Disinherited", though actually meaning "Unfortunate"), defeats some of the best Norman competitors, including Bois-Guilbert, Maurice de Bracy (a leader of a group of "Free Companions"), and the baron Reginald Front-de-Boeuf.
The masked knight declines to reveal himself despite Prince John's request, but is nevertheless declared the champion of the day and is permitted to choose the Queen of the Tournament.
He bestows this honour upon the Lady Rowena.
On the second day, at a melee, Desdichado is the leader of one party, opposed by his former adversaries.
Desdichado's side is soon hard pressed and he himself beset by multiple foes, until rescued by a knight nicknamed 'Le Noir Faineant' ("the Black Sluggard"), who thereafter departs in secret.
When forced to unmask himself to receive his coronet (the sign of championship), Desdichado is identified as Wilfred of Ivanhoe, returned from the Crusades.
This causes much consternation to Prince John and his court who now fear the imminent return of King Richard.
Because he is severely wounded in the competition, Ivanhoe is taken into the care of Rebecca, the daughter of Isaac, who is a skilled healer.
She convinces her father to take him with them to York, where he can be best treated.
The story then glosses the conclusion of the tournament including feats of archery by Locksley.
In the forests between Ashby and York, the Lady Rowena, Cedric and Athelstane acquire Isaac, Rebecca and the wounded Ivanhoe, who have been abandoned by their servants for fear of bandits.
En route, the party is captured by de Bracy and his companions and taken to Torquilstone, the castle of Front-de-Boeuf.
The swineherd Gurth, who had served Ivanhoe as squire at the tournament and who was recaptured by Cedric when Ivanhoe was identified, manages to escape.
The Black Knight, having taken refuge for the night in the hut of a local friar, the Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst, volunteers his assistance on learning about the captives from Robin of Locksley.
They then besiege the Castle of Torquilstone with Robin's own men, including the friar and assorted Saxon yeomen.
At Torquilstone, de Bracy expresses his love for the Lady Rowena, but is refused.
Brian de Bois-Guilbert tries to seduce Rebecca, and is rebuffed.
Front-de-Boeuf tries to wring a hefty ransom from Isaac of York; but Isaac refuses to pay unless his daughter is freed.
When the besiegers deliver a note to yield up the captives, their Norman captors demand a priest to administer the Final Sacrament to Cedric; whereupon Cedric's jester Wamba slips in disguised as a priest, and takes the place of Cedric, who then escapes and brings important information to the besiegers on the strength of the garrison and its layout.
The besiegers then storm the castle.
The castle is set aflame during the assault by Ulrica, the daughter of the original lord of the castle, Lord Torquilstone, as revenge for her father's death.
Front-de-Boeuf is killed in the fire while de Bracy surrenders to the Black Knight, who identifies himself as King Richard and releases de Bracy.
Bois-Guilbert escapes with Rebecca while Isaac is rescued by the Clerk of Copmanhurst.
The Lady Rowena is saved by Cedric, while the still-wounded Ivanhoe is rescued from the burning castle by King Richard.
In the fighting, Athelstane is wounded and presumed dead while attempting to rescue Rebecca, whom he mistakes for Rowena.
Following the battle, Locksley plays host to King Richard.
Word is also conveyed by de Bracy to Prince John of the King's return and the fall of Torquilstone.
In the meantime, Bois-Guilbert rushes with his captive to the nearest Templar Preceptory, where Lucas de Beaumanoir, the Grand-Master of the Templars, takes umbrage at Bois-Guilbert's infatuation, and subjects Rebecca to a trial for witchcraft.
At Bois-Guilbert's secret request, she claims the right to trial by combat; and Bois-Guilbert, who had hoped for the position, is devastated when the Grand-Master orders him to fight against Rebecca's champion.
Rebecca then writes to her father to procure a champion for her.
Cedric organises Athelstane's funeral at Coningsburgh, in the midst of which the Black Knight arrives with a companion.
Cedric, who had not been present at Locksley's carousal, is ill-disposed towards the knight upon learning his true identity; but Richard calms Cedric and reconciles him with his son.
During this conversation, Athelstane emerges – not dead, but laid in his coffin alive by monks desirous of the funeral money.
Over Cedric's renewed protests, Athelstane pledges his homage to the Norman King Richard and urges Cedric to marry Rowena to Ivanhoe; to which Cedric finally agrees.
Soon after this reconciliation, Ivanhoe receives word from Isaac beseeching him to fight on Rebecca's behalf.
Accordingly, Ivanhoe overcomes Bois-Guilbert but does not kill him, and the Templar dies of internal causes which is pronounced by the Grand Master as the judgement of God and proof of Rebecca's innocence.
Fearing further persecution, Rebecca and her father leave England for Granada.
Before leaving, Rebecca comes to bid Rowena a fond farewell.
Finally, Ivanhoe and Rowena marry and live a long and happy life together, though the final paragraphs of the book note that Ivanhoe's military service ended with the death of King Richard.
<EOS>
Starting with the words "Once Upon a Time," the Narrator introduces four characters who each have a wish: Cinderella, the daughter of a wealthy man who has been reduced by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters into becoming their skivvy, wishes to attend the King's festival; Jack, a simple poor boy, wishes that his cow, Milky White, would give milk; and a Baker and his Wife wish they could have a child.
While Little Red Ridinghood wishes for bread from the Baker to take to her grandmother's house, which they reluctantly give, Jack's weary mother, who wishes for gold, nags him into selling the cow, and Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters Florinda and Lucinda tease her about wanting to attend the King's festival.
The Baker's neighbor, an ugly old witch, reveals that the source of the couple's infertility is a curse she placed on the Baker's line after catching the Baker's father in her garden stealing vegetables, including six "magic" beans.
In addition to the curse, the Witch took the Baker's father's newborn child Rapunzel.
She explains the curse will be lifted if the Baker and his Wife can find the four ingredients that the Witch needs for a certain potion; "the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold," all before the chime of midnight in three days' time.
All begin their journeys into the woods&nbsp;&mdash; Jack goes to the market to sell his beloved pet Milky White, Cinderella's family goes to the Festival while Cinderella goes to her mother's grave to ask for guidance, Little Red goes to her grandmother's house, and the Baker, refusing his wife's help, goes to find the ingredients ("Prologue").
Cinderella visits her mother's grave and receives a beautiful gown and golden slippers from her mother's spirit ("Cinderella at the Grave").
Jack encounters a Mysterious Man who mocks him for trying to sell his cow for more than a "sack of beans" and then vanishes.
Little Red Ridinghood meets a hungry Wolf who convinces her to take a detour on her way to Granny's ("Hello, Little Girl").
The Baker sees Little Red Ridinghood in the woods, and when the Witch appears, screaming at him to get the red cape, he is so frightened that he forgets the ingredients he needs.
Luckily his wife, who followed him into the forest, reminds him.
They are squabbling over her presence when they come across Jack with Milky White.
Not having the money necessary to buy the cow, they convince Jack that the beans the Baker has found in his father's old hunting jacket are magic and buy the cow for five of them.
Jack bids a tearful goodbye to his cow ("I Guess This Is Goodbye"), and the Baker orders his wife to return to the village with the cow.
He has qualms about being so dishonest, but his wife reasons that the chance to have a child justifies their trickery ("Maybe They're Magic").
The Witch has raised Rapunzel as her own daughter, keeping her locked away from the world in a tall tower in the middle of the woods, accessible only by climbing Rapunzel's long, golden hair ("Our Little World").
However, on this day a handsome prince spies the beautiful Rapunzel and resolves to climb the tower himself.
In another part of the wood, the Baker has tracked down Little Red Ridinghood.
Following the Witch's advice, he attempts to simply steal the red cape, but her ensuing temper tantrum guilts him into returning it.
When Little Red Ridinghood arrives at her grandmother's house, she is swallowed by the Wolf.
The Baker, in pursuit of the cape, slays the Wolf, pulling Little Red Ridinghood and her grandmother from the beast's innards.
Little Red Riding hood rewards him with the red cape, reflecting on her new experiences ("I Know Things Now").
Meanwhile, Jack's mother angrily tosses the beans aside, which end up growing into an enormous stalk overnight, and sends her son to bed without supper.
As Cinderella flees the Festival, pursued by another handsome prince and his steward, the Wife helps her hide and quizzes Cinderella about the ball.
Cinderella explains that it was a nice ball ("A Very Nice Prince") but seems fairly ambivalent about the experience.
As a giant beanstalk begins to sprout from the ground next to Jack's cottage, the Baker's Wife spots Cinderella's pure gold slippers.
She tries to chase after Cinderella but inadvertently allows Milky White to run off, leaving the Baker's Wife without the slippers or the cow.
The characters each state morals and credos as the first midnight chimes ("First Midnight") and they continue their journeys through the woods.
The next morning, Jack describes his thrilling adventure after he returns from climbing the beanstalk and finding a castle of two married giants, whom he robbed unnoticed ("Giants in the Sky").
He gives the Baker five gold pieces he stole from the giants to buy back his cow.
When the Baker hesitates, Jack climbs back up the beanstalk to find more.
The Mysterious Man emerges and taunts the Baker, stealing the money.
The Baker's Wife confesses she has lost the cow, and she and the Baker split up to look for it.
Cinderella's Prince and Rapunzel's Prince, who are brothers, meet and compare the misery of their newfound and unobtainable loves ("Agony").
The Baker's Wife, who is eavesdropping, takes note when Rapunzel's prince mentions that he is in love with a girl in a tower with hair "as yellow as corn".
The Baker's Wife fools Rapunzel into letting down her hair by telling her that she is her prince and pulls out a piece of it.
Meanwhile, The Mysterious Man gives Milky White back to the Baker.
The Baker's Wife and Cinderella meet again, and the Baker's Wife makes a desperate grab for her shoes, almost succeeding before Cinderella flees.
The Baker and his wife reunite, now with three of the four items.
The Baker admits that they will have to work together to fulfill the quest ("It Takes Two").
Jack arrives with a hen that lays golden eggs and attempts to buy Milky White back, but the cow suddenly keels over dead as midnight chimes.
Again, the characters exchange morals ("Second Midnight").
The Witch discovers that the Prince has been visiting Rapunzel and begs Rapunzel to stay with her so she can protect her from the outside world ("Stay with Me").
When Rapunzel refuses, the Witch angrily cuts off Rapunzel's hair and banishes her to a desert.
The Mysterious Man gives the Baker the money to buy another cow.
Jack encounters Little Red Ridinghood, who is now sporting a wolf skin cape and a knife for protection, and tries to impress her by telling her about the kingdom of the Giant.
When she refuses to believe him, he is goaded into returning once again to the Giant's home to steal a magic harp.
Cinderella, returning from the last night of the festival, describes how the Prince had spread pitch on the stairs to prevent her from escaping.
Caught between wanting to escape and wanting to stay, she eventually resolves to let the Prince decide, leaving him one of her slippers as a clue to her identity ("On the Steps of the Palace").
The Baker's Wife frantically tries to convince her to give up her other shoe, offering her the sixth magic bean in exchange for it.
Cinderella throws the bean aside, but trades shoes with the Baker's Wife and flees, while unbeknownst to anyone a second beanstalk starts to grow.
The Baker arrives with another cow; they now have all four items.
The Prince's Steward grabs the slipper from the Baker's Wife, and they are fighting over it when a great crash is heard and Jack's mother runs in to report that a Giant seeking revenge from Jack for stealing his magic harp has fallen from the first beanstalk when Jack chopped it and is dead in her backyard.
The Prince, more concerned with finding Cinderella, waves her off and departs with one of the slippers, giving the other to the Baker and his wife.
Jack, to the relief of his mother, returns with the magic harp.
The Witch discovers that the new cow is not pure white; it is covered with flour.
However, the Witch is able to bring Milky White back to life and instructs the Baker and his Wife to feed the items to her.
Jack tries to milk her, but no milk comes.
The Baker's Wife admits that the hair is Rapunzel's, and the Witch furiously explains that the magic will not work because the Witch has already touched Rapunzel's hair, which is also why she had asked the Baker and his Wife to get the objects for her: she's not allowed to touch any of the objects.
The Mysterious Man tells the Baker to feed the hair-like corn silk to the cow.
Now Milky White gives milk which is the potion.
The Witch reveals that the Mysterious Man is the Baker's father.
The Witch drinks the potion, and suddenly the Mysterious Man falls dead, his reparation complete, the curse is broken, and the Witch is transformed into a beautiful young woman, reversing the effects of the curse of ugliness by which she was punished by her mother, because the Baker's father stole the beans from her, regaining her youth and beauty.
Cinderella's Prince searches for the girl whose foot fits the slipper; the stepsisters try but can only get it on by cutting off parts of their feet ("Careful My Toe").
Cinderella appears, her foot fits the slipper, and she becomes the Prince's bride.
Rapunzel has borne twins in the desert where her Prince finds her.
The Witch attempts to curse the couple, only to find that though she gained her youth and beauty, her powers have been lost.
At Cinderella's wedding to the Prince, Florinda and Lucinda are blinded by birds as they try to win Cinderella's favor.
Everyone but the Witch and the stepsisters congratulate themselves on being able to live happily "Ever After," though they fail to notice another beanstalk growing sky-high.
The Narrator introduces the action again: "Once Upon a Time.
Later".
All the characters seem happy but are still wishing: The Baker and his Wife have their precious baby boy, but wish for more room and bicker over the Baker's unwillingness to hold his child; Jack and his mother are rich and well-fed, but Jack misses his kingdom in the sky; Cinderella is living with her Prince Charming in the Palace, but is getting bored ("So Happy").
Suddenly, everyone is knocked over by a loud crash, and enormous footprints from a Giant have destroyed the Witch's garden, sparing only a few beans.
The Baker and his Wife decide that they must tell the Royal Family, and the Baker travels to the palace.
His news is ignored by the Prince's Steward, and also by Jack's Mother when he stops at her house to ask for Jack's aid.
When he returns home, Little Red Ridinghood arrives on her way to Granny's: her house has been destroyed and her mother is missing.
The Baker and his Wife decide to escort her.
Meanwhile, Jack decides that he must slay the Giant and Cinderella learns from her bird friends that her mother's grave was disturbed and decides to investigate, dressed in her old clothes.
Once again, everyone heads Into the Woods, but this time the mood is somber and the birds have stopped singing ("Into the Woods" Reprise).
While everyone else is drawn back into the woods, Rapunzel has fled there in a hysterical fit, her treatment at the hands of the Witch having driven her into madness.
Her Prince has followed her, but when he encounters his brother they each confess they have another reason for their presence in the woods.
They have grown bored and frustrated with their marriages and now lust after two beautiful women asleep in the woods - Snow White and Sleeping Beauty ("Agony" Reprise).
The Baker, his Wife, and Little Red Ridinghood get lost in the woods and find Cinderella's family and the Steward, who reveal that the castle was set upon by the Giant.
The Witch arrives as well, bringing news that the Giant has destroyed the village and the Baker's house.
Suddenly, thunderous footsteps are heard and the Giant appears.
To the shock of all, this Giant is a woman who has come from the second beanstalk and is the widow of the Giant that Jack killed by chopping down the beanstalk.
Her booming voice proclaims that she wants Jack's blood in revenge.
To satisfy the Giantess, the group realizes they must give her someone, but are unable to decide on whom until they realize that the Narrator is still commenting on the actions from the sidelines.
Everyone offers her the narrator as a sacrifice, but he convinces them how lost they would be without him.
Nevertheless, the Witch throws him into the Giantess's arms and he is killed upon being dropped.
Jack's mother finds the group and aggressively defends her son, angering the Giantess, and the Steward clubs Jack's mother to quiet her, inadvertently killing her.
As the Giantess leaves to search for Jack, Rapunzel runs into her path and is trampled, to the horror of the Witch and her Prince ("Witch's Lament").
The Royal Family continue on their way, fleeing to a hidden Kingdom despite the Baker's pleas for them to stay and fight the Giant.
The Witch declares she will find Jack and sacrifice him to the Giant, and the Baker and his Wife decide they must find him first and split up to search.
The Baker's Wife meets Cinderella's Prince, and he easily seduces the Wife ("Any Moment").
Meanwhile, the Baker discovers Cinderella at her mother's destroyed grave and convinces her to join their group for safety.
The Prince, satisfied, leaves the Baker's Wife with a few platitudes, and she realizes her error and decides to return to her happy life with the Baker and their son ("Moments in the Woods").
However, she has lost her way, stumbles into the path of the Giant, and is consequently killed by a falling tree.
The Baker, Little Red, and Cinderella await the return of the Baker's Wife when the Witch drags in Jack, whom she found weeping over the Baker's Wife's body.
The Baker, grief-stricken when he learns of his wife's death, unwittingly agrees to give Jack to the Giantess, causing an argument.
The characters first blame each other for their predicament, until finally they all decide to blame the Witch for growing the beans in the first place ("Your Fault").
Disgusted and fed up, the Witch curses and scolds them for their inability to accept their own individual responsibility and throws away the rest of her magic beans, reactivating her mother's curse and making her vanish ("Last Midnight").
The grieving Baker flees, but is visited by his father's spirit who convinces him to face his responsibilities ("No More").
The Baker returns and helps plan killing the Giantess, using Cinderella's bird friends to peck out the Giant's eyes at an area smeared with pitch, where Jack and the Baker can finally deliver a fatal blow.
Cinderella stays behind to protect the Baker's child and when her Prince passes by, he nearly fails to recognize her.
She confronts him, having learned of his infidelity from her birds and he explains his feelings of unfulfillment and his reasons for seducing another woman.
She asks him to go, and he sorrowfully leaves.
Little Red returns with the news that her grandmother has been killed by the Giantess.
Meanwhile, the Baker tells Jack that his mother is dead.
Jack vows to kill the steward in revenge until the Baker convinces him that killing the steward will not benefit anyone.
Cinderella comforts Little Red and tries to answer her qualms that killing the Giant makes them no better than she is, while the Baker explains to Jack that everyone is responsible for the choices they make, good or bad ("No One Is Alone").
The four remaining characters slay the Giant and the deceased characters now including the Royal Family (who have lost their way and starved to death in the woods) and the Princes (who have their new paramours, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, on their arms) return to share one last set of morals with the audience.
The survivors resolve to band together and rebuild.
The spirit of the Baker's Wife appears to comfort her mourning husband advising her husband to tell their child their story.
The Baker begins to tell the story using the same words as the narrator did at the beginning of the play as the Witch appears with the final moral: "Careful the things you say, Children Will Listen".
All join in on a last reprise of the title song, surmising that we all must venture into the Woods while remembering the choices we've made and learning from each endeavor we come across ("Finale").
As the characters conclude the song singing, "Into the woods, and out of the woods and happily ever after", Cinderella closes the show with one last "I wish.
".
<EOS>
Joe Bonham, a young American soldier serving in World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell.
He gradually realizes that he has lost his arms, legs, and all of his face (including his eyes, ears, teeth, and tongue), but that his mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body.
Joe attempts suicide by suffocation, but finds that he had been given a tracheotomy that he can neither remove nor control.
At first Joe wishes to die, but later decides that he desires to be placed in a glass box and toured around the country in order to show others the true horrors of war.
Joe successfully communicates these desires with military officials by banging his head on his pillow in Morse code.
However, he realizes that the military will not grant his wishes, as it is "against regulations".
It is implied that he will live the rest of his natural life in his condition.
As Joe drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend, and reflects upon the myths and realities of war.
<EOS>
In New York Harbor, filmmaker Carl Denham, famous for making wildlife films in remote and exotic locations, charters Captain Englehorn's ship Venture for his new project, but is unable to secure an actress for a female role he has reluctantly added to the script.
Due to set sail that night, Denham searches the streets of New York for a suitable woman.
He meets penniless Ann Darrow and convinces her to join him for what he proposes as the adventure of a lifetime.
The Venture quickly gets underway and, during the voyage, the surly first mate, Jack Driscoll, gradually falls in love with Ann.
After weeks of secrecy, Denham finally tells Englehorn and Driscoll that their destination is Skull Island, an uncharted land shown on a map in Denham's possession.
Denham also cryptically alludes to some monstrous creature rumored to dwell on the island, a legendary entity known only as "Kong".
When they find the island and anchor offshore, they see a native village, separated from the rest of the island by an enormous ancient stone wall.
A landing party, including the filming crew and Ann, witnesses a group of natives preparing to sacrifice a young maiden as the "bride of Kong".
The intruders are spotted and the native chief angrily stops the ceremony.
When he sees the blonde Ann, he offers to trade six of his tribal women for the "golden woman".
They rebuff him and return to the Venture.
That night, a band of natives kidnap Ann from the ship and lead her through a huge wooden gate in the wall.
Tied to an altar, she is offered to Kong, who turns out to be an enormous gorilla-like ape.
Kong carries her off into the jungle as the Venture crew, alerted to Ann's abduction, arrive.
They open the gate and Denham, Driscoll and some volunteers enter the jungle in hopes of rescuing Ann.
They soon discover that Kong is far from the only giant prehistoric creature on the island when they are charged by a Stegosaurus, which they manage to kill.
After constructing a raft in order to cross a swamp, a Brontosaurus capsizes their supplies, killing several of the men.
Fleeing through the jungle, they soon encounter Kong, who tries to stop them from crossing a ravine by shaking them off a fallen tree that bridges it.
Only Driscoll and Denham, on opposite sides, survive.
A Tyrannosaurus threatens Ann, but Kong kills it after a colossal battle.
Driscoll continues to shadow Kong and Ann while Denham returns to the village for more ammunition.
Upon arriving in Kong's lair in a mountain cave, Ann is menaced by a snake-like Elasmosaurus, which Kong wrestles and kills.
While Kong is distracted killing a Pteranodon that tried to fly away with Ann, Driscoll reaches her and they climb down a vine dangling from a cliff ledge.
When Kong notices and starts pulling them back up, they let go and fall unharmed into the water below.
They run through the jungle and back to the village, where Denham, Englehorn and the surviving crewmen are waiting.
Kong, following, breaks open the gate and murderously rampages through the village.
On shore, Denham, now determined to bring Kong back alive, knocks him unconscious with a gas bomb.
Chained and shackled, Kong is presented to a Broadway theatre audience as "Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World".
Ann and Jack are brought on stage to join him, followed by an invited group of press photographers.
Kong, believing that the ensuing flash photography is an attack, breaks loose as the audience flees in terror.
Ann is whisked away to a hotel room on a high floor, but Kong, scaling the building, soon finds her.
Carrying her in his hand, he rampages through the city.
He wrecks a crowded elevated train and ultimately climbs up the Empire State Building.
At its top, he is met by four military airplanes.
Kong sets Ann down and battles the planes, managing to down one of them, but he finally succumbs to their gunfire and falls to his death.
Ann and Jack are reunited.
Denham arrives and pushes through a crowd surrounding Kong's body in the street.
When a policeman remarks that the planes got him, Denham tells him, "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes.
It was Beauty killed the Beast".
<EOS>
The game is set in Angel Land, which is a fantasy world with a Greek mythology theme.
The backstory of Kid Icarus is described in the instruction booklet: before the events of the game, Earth was ruled by Palutena: Goddess of Light and Medusa: Goddess of Darkness.
Palutena bestowed the people with light to make them happy.
Medusa hated the humans, dried up their crop, and turned them to stone.
Enraged by this, Palutena transformed Medusa into a monster and banished her to the Underworld.
Out of revenge, Medusa conspired with the monsters of the Underworld to take over Palutena's residence the Palace in the Sky.
She launched a surprise attack, and stole the three sacred treasures — the Mirror Shield, the Light Arrows and the Wings of Pegasus — which deprived Palutena's army of its power.
After her soldiers had been turned to stone by Medusa, Palutena was defeated in battle and imprisoned deep inside the Palace in the Sky.
With her last power, she sent a bow and arrow to the young angel Pit.
He escapes from his prison in the Underworld and sets out to save Palutena and Angel Land.
Throughout the course of the story, Pit retrieves the three sacred treasures from the fortress gatekeepers at their respectful fortresses in the Underworld, the Overworld, and the Skyworld.
Afterward, he equips himself with the treasures and storms the sky temple where he defeats Medusa and rescues Palutena.
The game has multiple endings: depending on the player's performance, Palutena either presents Pit with headgear, or transforms him into a full-grown angel.
<EOS>
Icehenge is set in three distinct time periods.
The first part is the diary of an engineer caught up in a failed Martian political revolution in 2248.
The middle part is narrated by an archaeologist on the project, three centuries later, that finds the engineer's diary; at the same time, a mysterious monument is found at the north pole of Pluto.
In the final part, the archaeologist's great-grandson investigates the possibility that the diary and the monument were both planted by a wealthy recluse who lives in Saturn orbit.
<EOS>
Brian Cohen is born in a stable next door to the one in which Jesus is born, which initially confuses the three wise men who come to praise the future King of the Jews.
Brian grows up an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea.
While attending Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Brian becomes infatuated with an attractive young rebel, Judith.
His desire for her and hatred for the Romans lead him to join the "People's Front of Judea", one of many fractious and bickering independence movements, who spend more time fighting each other than the Romans.
After several misadventures, and escaping from Pontius Pilate, Brian winds up in a line-up of would-be mystics and prophets who harangue the passing crowd in a plaza.
Forced to come up with something plausible in order to blend in and keep the guards off his back, Brian repeats some of what he had heard Jesus say, and quickly attracts a small but intrigued audience.
Once the guards have left, Brian tries to put the episode behind him, but he has unintentionally inspired a movement.
He grows frantic when he finds that some people have started to follow him around, with even the slightest unusual occurrence being hailed as a miracle.
Their responses grow in fervor and intensity, making it harder and harder for him to get away from them, yet because of the mob's excitement over the 'miracles' they discover, they ultimately end up completely ignoring Brian himself.
Judith is the only one that doesn't leave; Brian and Judith then spend the night together.
In the morning, Brian, completely naked, opens the curtains to discover an enormous crowd outside his mother's house which proclaims him to be the Messiah.
Brian's mother protests, telling the crowd that "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy" and, "There's no Messiah in here.
There's a mess, all right, but no Messiah".
All of her attempts at dispersing the crowd are rebuffed.
Furthermore, once Brian addresses them, he also finds that he is unable to change their minds.
His followers are completely committed to their beliefs in and of Brian's divinity.
They immediately seize upon everything he says and does as points of doctrine.
The hapless Brian is unable to escape his unwanted 'disciples'; even his his mother's house is surrounded by an enormous, enraptured crowd.
They fling their afflicted bodies at him, demanding miracle cures and divine secrets.
After sneaking out the back, Brian is then finally captured and scheduled to be crucified.
Meanwhile, yet another a huge crowd has assembled outside the palace.
Pontious Pilate (together with the visiting Biggus Dickus) tries to quell the feeling of revolution by granting them the choice of one person to be pardoned.
The crowd, however, shouts out names containing the letter "r", mocking Pilate's rhotacistic speech impediment.
Eventually, Judith appears in the crowd and calls for the release of Brian, which the crowd echoes since the name also contains an "r".
Pilate agrees to "welease Bwian".
His order is eventually relayed to the guards, but in a scene that parodies the climax of the film Spartacus, various crucified people all claim to be "Brian of Nazareth" and the wrong man is released.
Various other opportunities for a reprieve for Brian are denied as, one by one, his "allies" (including Judith and his mother) step forward to explain why they are leaving the "noble freedom fighter" hanging in the hot sun.
Hope is renewed when a crack suicide squad from the "Judean People's Front" (not to be confused with the People's Front of Judea) come charging towards the Romans, but rather than fighting to release Brian or the other prisoners, they commit mass suicide as a political protest.
Condemned to a long and painful death, Brian finds his spirits lifted by his fellow sufferers, who break into song with "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".
<EOS>
A man (Davos Hanich) is a prisoner in the aftermath of World War III in post-apocalyptic Paris where survivors live underground in the Palais de Chaillot galleries.
Scientists research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods "to call past and future to the rescue of the present".
They have difficulty finding subjects who can mentally withstand the shock of time travel.
The scientists eventually settle upon the prisoner; his key to the past is a vague but obsessive memory from his pre-war childhood of a woman (Hélène Chatelain) he had seen on the observation platform ("the jetty") at Orly Airport shortly before witnessing a startling incident there.
He had not understood exactly what happened but knew he had seen a man die.
After several attempts, he reaches the pre-war period.
He meets the woman from his memory, and they develop a romantic relationship.
After his successful passages to the past, the experimenters attempt to send him into the far future.
In a brief meeting with the technologically advanced people of the future, he is given a power unit sufficient to regenerate his own destroyed society.
Upon his return, with his mission accomplished, he discerns that he is to be executed by his jailers.
He is contacted by the people of the future, who offer to help him escape to their time permanently; but he asks instead to be returned to the pre-war time of his childhood, hoping to find the woman again.
He is returned to the past, placed on the jetty at the airport, and it occurs to him that the child version of himself is probably also there at the same time.
But he is more concerned with locating the woman and he quickly spots her.
However, as he rushes to her, he notices an agent of his jailers who has followed him and realizes the agent is about to kill him.
In his final moments, he comes to understand that the incident he witnessed as a child, which has haunted him ever since, was his own death.
<EOS>
In this story, an artist, named Niggle, lives in a society that does not much value art.
Working only to please himself, he paints a canvas of a great Tree with a forest in the distance.
He invests each and every leaf of his tree with obsessive attention to detail, making every leaf uniquely beautiful.
Niggle ends up discarding all his other artworks, or tacks them onto the main canvas, which becomes a single vast embodiment of his vision.
However, there are many mundane chores and duties that prevent Niggle from giving his work the attention it deserves, so it remains incomplete and is not fully realised.
At the back of his head, Niggle knows that he has a great trip looming, and he must pack and prepare his bags.
Also, Niggle's next door neighbour, a gardener named Parish, frequently drops by asking for various forms of help.
Parish is lame and has a sick wife and genuinely needs help – Niggle, having a good heart, always takes time out to help but often reluctantly as he would rather work on his painting.
And Niggle has other pressing work duties that require his attention.
Then Niggle himself catches a chill doing errands for Parish in the rain.
Eventually, Niggle is forced to take his trip, and cannot get out of it.
He has not prepared, and as a result ends up in a kind of institution, in which he must perform menial labour each day.
In time, he is paroled from the institution, and he is sent to a place 'for a little gentle treatment'.
But he discovers that the new country he is sent to is in fact the country of the Tree and Forest of his great painting, now long abandoned and all but destroyed (except for the one perfect leaf of the title which is placed in the local museum) in the home to which he cannot return – but the Tree here and now in this place is the true realisation of his vision, not the flawed and incomplete form of his painting.
Niggle is reunited with his old neighbour, Parish, who now proves his worth as a gardener, and together they make the Tree and Forest even more beautiful.
Finally, Niggle journeys farther and deeper into the Forest, and beyond into the great mountains that he only faintly glimpsed in his painting.
Long after both Niggle and Parish have taken their journeys, the lovely field that they built together becomes a place for many travellers to visit before their final voyage into the Mountains, and it earns the name "Niggle's Parish".
<EOS>
Based on a dispensationalist interpretation of prophecies in the Biblical books of Revelation, Daniel, Isaiah and Ezekiel, Left Behind tells the story of the end times (set in the contemporary era), in which true believers in Christ have been "raptured", (taken instantly to heaven) leaving the world shattered and chaotic.
As people scramble for answers, an obscure Romanian politician named Nicolae Jetty Carpathia rises to become secretary-general of the United Nations, promising to restore peace and stability to all nations.
What most of the world does not realize is that Carpathia is actually the Antichrist foretold of in the Bible.
Coming to grips with the truth and becoming born-again Christians, airline pilot Rayford Steele, his daughter Chloe, their pastor Bruce Barnes, and young journalist Cameron "Buck" Williams begin their quest as the Tribulation Force to help save the lost and prepare for the coming Tribulation, in which God will rain down judgment on the world for seven years.
<EOS>
Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is a young Italian-American man who is trying to move up in the local New York Mafia but is hampered by his feeling of responsibility towards his reckless younger friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), a small-time gambler who owes money to many loan sharks.
Charlie works for his uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova), the local caporegime, mostly collecting debts.
He is also having a secret affair with Johnny Boy's cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson), who has epilepsy and is ostracized because of her condition—especially by Charlie's uncle.
Charlie's uncle, a dignified man who takes his role as caporegime seriously, also wants Charlie not to be such close friends with Johnny, saying "Honorable men go with honorable men".
Charlie is torn between his devout Catholicism and his Mafia ambitions.
As the film progresses, Johnny becomes increasingly self-destructive and disrespectful of his creditors.
Failing to receive redemption in the church, Charlie seeks it through sacrificing himself on Johnny's behalf.
At a bar, a local loan shark named Michael (Richard Romanus) comes looking for Johnny to "pay up", but to his surprise, Johnny insults him.
Michael lunges at Johnny, who retaliates by pulling a gun on him.
After a tense standoff, Michael walks away, and Charlie convinces Johnny that they should leave town for a brief period.
Teresa insists on coming with them.
Charlie borrows a car and they drive off, escaping the neighborhood without incident.
But then a car that had been following them suddenly pulls up alongside, Michael at the wheel and his henchman, Jimmy Shorts (Martin Scorsese), in the backseat.
Jimmy fires several shots at Charlie's car, hitting Johnny in the neck and Charlie in the hand, causing Charlie to crash the car.
The film ends with an ambulance and police arriving at the scene, and paramedics take them away.
<EOS>
The plot of the novel has two distinct movements: the events at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, and the move to Silicon Valley and the "Oop.
" project.
The novel begins in Redmond as the characters are working on different projects at Microsoft's main campus.
Life at the campus feels like a feudalistic society, with Bill Gates as the lord, and the employees the serfs.
The majority of the main characters—Daniel (the narrator), Susan, Todd, Bug, Michael, and Abe—are living together in a "geek house", and their lives are dedicated to their projects and the company.
Daniel's foundations are shaken when his father, a longtime employee of IBM, is laid off.
The lifespan of a Microsoft coder weighs heavily on Daniel's mind.
The second movement of the novel begins when the characters are offered jobs in Silicon Valley working on a project for Michael, who has by then left Redmond.
All of the housemates—some immediately, some after thought—decide to move to the Valley.
The characters' lives change drastically once they leave the limited sphere of the Microsoft campus and enter the world of "One-Point-Oh".
They begin to work on a project called "Oop.
" (a reference to object-oriented programming).
Oop.
is a Lego-like design program, allowing dynamic creation of many objects, bearing a resemblance to 2009's Minecraft.
(Coupland appears on the rear cover of the novel's hardcover versions photographed in Denmark's Legoland Billund, holding a Lego 777.
)  One of the undercurrents of the plot is Daniel and his family's relationship to Jed, Daniel's younger brother who died in a boating accident while they were children.
<EOS>
ainy night in Edwardian London, opera patrons are waiting under the arches of Covent Garden for cabs.
Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl, runs into a young man called Freddy.
She admonishes him for spilling her bunches of violets in the mud, but she cheers up after selling one to an older gentleman.
She then flies into an angry outburst when a man copying down her speech is pointed out to her.
The man explains that he studies phonetics and can identify anyone's origin by their accent.
He laments Eliza's dreadful speech, asking why so many English people don't speak properly and explaining his theory that this is what truly separates social classes, rather than looks or money ("Why Can't the English.
").
He declares that in six months he could turn Eliza into a lady by teaching her to speak properly.
The older gentleman introduces himself as Colonel Pickering, a linguist who has studied Indian dialects.
The phoneticist introduces himself as Henry Higgins, and, as they both have always wanted to meet each other, Higgins invites Pickering to stay at his home in London.
He distractedly throws his change into Eliza's basket, and she and her friends wonder what it would be like to live a comfortable, proper life ("Wouldn't It Be Loverly.
").
Plot.
Eliza's father, Alfred Doolittle, and his drinking companions, Harry and Jamie, all dustmen, stop by the next morning.
He is searching for money for a drink, and Eliza shares her profits with him ("With a Little Bit of Luck").
Pickering and Higgins are discussing vowels at Higgins's home when mrs Pearce, the housekeeper, informs Higgins that a young woman with a ghastly accent has come to see him.
It is Eliza, who has come to take speech lessons so she can get a job as an assistant in a florist's shop.
Pickering wagers that Higgins cannot make good on his claim and volunteers to pay for Eliza's lessons.
An intensive makeover of Eliza's speech, manners and dress begins in preparation for her appearance at the Embassy Ball.
Higgins sees himself as a kindhearted, patient man who cannot get along with women ("I'm an Ordinary Man").
To others he appears self-absorbed and misogynistic.
Alfred Doolittle is informed that his daughter has been taken in by Professor Higgins, and considers that he might be able to make a little money from the situation ("With a Little Bit of Luck" [Reprise]).
Doolittle arrives at Higgins's house the next morning, claiming that Higgins is compromising Eliza's virtue.
Higgins is impressed by the man's natural gift for language and brazen lack of moral values.
He and Doolittle agree that Eliza can continue to take lessons and live at Higgins's house if Higgins gives Doolittle five pounds for a spree.
Higgins flippantly recommends Doolittle to an American millionaire who has written to Higgins seeking a lecturer on moral values.
Meanwhile, Eliza endures speech tutoring, endlessly repeating phrases like "In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen” (initially, the only "h" she aspirates is in "hever") and "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" (to practice the "long a" phoneme).
Frustrated, she dreams of different ways to kill Higgins, from sickness to drowning to a firing squad ("Just You Wait").
The servants lament the hard "work" Higgins does ("The Servants' Chorus").
Just as they give up, Eliza suddenly recites "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" in perfect upper-class style.
Higgins, Eliza, and Pickering happily dance around Higgins's study ("The Rain in Spain").
Thereafter she speaks with impeccable received pronunciation.
mrs Pearce, the housekeeper, insists that Eliza go to bed; she declares she is too excited to sleep ("I Could Have Danced All Night").
For her first public tryout, Higgins takes Eliza to his mother's box at Ascot Racecourse ("Ascot Gavotte").
Henry's mother reluctantly agrees to help Eliza make conversation, following Henry's advice that Eliza should stick to two subjects: the weather and everybody's health.
Eliza makes a good impression at first with her polite manners but later shocks everyone with her vulgar Cockney attitudes and slang.
She does, however, capture the heart of Freddy Eynsford-Hill, the young man she ran into in the opening scene.
Freddy calls on Eliza that evening, but she refuses to see him.
He declares that he will wait for her as long as necessary in the street outside Higgins's house ("On the Street Where You Live").
Eliza's final test requires her to pass as a lady at the Embassy Ball, and after weeks of preparation, she is ready.
All the ladies and gentlemen at the ball admire her, and the Queen of Transylvania invites her to dance with her son, the prince ("Embassy Waltz").
Eliza then dances with Higgins.
A rival and former student of Higgins, a Hungarian phonetician named Zoltan Karpathy, is employed by the hostess to discover Eliza's origins through her speech.
Though Pickering and his mother caution him not to, Higgins allows Karpathy to dance with Eliza.
The event is revealed to have been a success, with Zoltan Karpathy having concluded that Eliza is "not only Hungarian, but of royal blood.
She is a princess.
" After the ball, Pickering flatters Higgins on his triumph, and Higgins expresses his pleasure that the experiment is now over ("You Did It").
The episode leaves Eliza feeling used and abandoned.
Higgins completely ignores Eliza until he mislays his slippers.
He asks her where they are, and she lashes out at him, leaving the clueless professor mystified by her ingratitude.
When Eliza decides to leave Higgins, he insults her in frustration and storms off.
Eliza cries as she prepares to leave ("Just You Wait" [Reprise]).
She finds Freddy still waiting outside ("On the Street Where You Live" [Reprise]).
He begins to tell her how much he loves her, but she cuts him off, telling him that she has heard enough words; if he really loves her, he should show it ("Show Me").
She and Freddy return to Covent Garden, where her friends do not recognize her with her newly refined bearing ("The Flower Market/Wouldn't It Be Loverly.
" [Reprise]).
By chance, her father is there as well, dressed in a fine suit.
He explains that he received a surprise bequest of four thousand pounds a year from the American millionaire, which has raised him to middle-class respectability, and now must marry Eliza's "stepmother", the woman he has been living with for many years.
Eliza sees that she no longer belongs in Covent Garden, and she and Freddy depart.
Doolittle and his friends have one last spree before the wedding ("Get Me to the Church on Time").
Higgins awakens the next morning to find that, without Eliza, he has tea instead of coffee, and cannot find his own files.
He wonders why she left after the triumph at the ball and concludes that men (especially himself) are far superior to women ("A Hymn to Him").
Pickering, becoming annoyed with Higgins, leaves to stay with his friend at the Home Office.
Higgins seeks his mother's advice and finds Eliza having tea with her.
Higgins's mother leaves Higgins and Eliza together.
Eliza explains that Higgins has always treated her as a flower girl, but she learned to be a lady because Pickering treated her as one.
Higgins claims he treated her the same way that Pickering did because both Higgins and Pickering treat all women alike.
Eliza accuses him of wanting her only to fetch and carry for him, saying that she will marry Freddy because he loves her.
She declares she no longer needs Higgins, saying she was foolish to think she did ("Without You").
Higgins is struck by Eliza's spirit and independence and wants her to stay with him, but she tells him that he will not see her again.
As Higgins walks home, he realizes he's grown attached to Eliza ("I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face").
He cannot bring himself to confess that he loves her, and insists to himself that if she marries Freddy and then comes back to him, he will not accept her.
But he finds it difficult to imagine being alone again.
He reviews the recording he made of the morning Eliza first came to him for lessons.
He hears his own harsh words: "She's so deliciously low.
So horribly dirty.
" Then the phonograph turns off, and a real voice speaks in a Cockney accent: "I washed me face an' 'ands before I come, I did".
It is Eliza, standing in the doorway, tentatively returning to him.
The musical ends on an ambiguous moment of possible reconciliation between teacher and pupil, as Higgins slouches and asks, "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers.
".
<EOS>
The three and a half minute sketch is set in the fictional Green Midget Café in Bromley.
An argument develops between the waitress, who recites a menu in which nearly every item contains Spam (among them, "Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, garnished with truffle pâté, brandy and a fried egg on top and Spam"), and Mrs Bun, who does not like Spam.
She asks for an item with the Spam removed, much to the amazement of her Spam-loving husband.
The waitress responds to this request with disgust.
At several points, a group of Vikings in the restaurant interrupts conversation by loudly singing "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spammity Spam, Wonderful Spam".
The irate waitress orders them to shut up, but they resume singing more loudly.
A Hungarian tourist comes to the counter, trying to order by using a wholly inaccurate Hungarian/English phrasebook (a reference to a previous sketch).
He is rapidly escorted away by a police constable.
The sketch abruptly cuts to a historian in a television studio talking about the Vikings.
As he goes on, he inserts the word 'spam' into everything he says (".
and Spam selecting a Spam particular Spam item from the Spam menu, would Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam.
".
), and the backdrop is raised to reveal the restaurant set behind.
The historian joins the Vikings, mr and mrs Bun are lifted by wires out of the scene, and the singing continues.
<EOS>
John Cleese enters the pet shop to register a complaint about the dead Norwegian Blue parrot just as the shopkeeper is preparing to close the establishment for lunch.
Despite being told that the bird is deceased and that it had been nailed to its perch, the proprietor insists that it is "pining for the fjords" or simply "stunned".
As the exasperated Cleese attempts to wake up the parrot, the shopkeeper tries to make the bird move by hitting the cage, and Cleese erupts into a rage after banging "Polly Parrot" on the counter.
After listing off several euphemisms for death ("is no more", "has ceased to be", "bereft of life, it rests in peace", and "this is an ex-parrot") he is told to go to the pet shop run by the shopkeeper's brother in Bolton for a refund.
That proves difficult, however, as the proprietor of that store (who is really the shopkeeper, save for a fake moustache) claims this is Ipswich, whereas the railway station attendant (Terry Jones) claims he is in fact in Bolton after all.
Confronting the shopkeeper's "brother" for lying, the shopkeeper claims he was playing a prank on Cleese by sending him to Ipswich, which was a palindrome for Bolton; Cleese points out that the shopkeeper was wrong because a palindrome for Bolton would have been "Notlob".
Just as Cleese has decided that "this is getting too silly", Graham Chapman's no-nonsense Colonel bursts in and orders the sketch stopped.
<EOS>
This is a recurring sketch always predicated on an unrelated sketch in which one character mentions that they "didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition.
", often in irritation at being questioned by another.
The first appearance of the Spanish Inquisition occurs in a drawing room set in "Jarrow, 1912".
A mill worker (Graham Chapman) enters the room and tells a woman sitting on a couch knitting (Carol Cleveland) that "one of the cross beams has gone out askew on the treadle".
When she says she doesn't know what he's talking about, the mill worker gets defensive and says, "I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.
" Then the Inquisition — consisting of Cardinal Ximénez (Michael Palin) and his assistants, Cardinal Biggles (Terry Jones) (who resembles his namesake Biggles wearing a leather aviator's helmet and goggles) and Cardinal Fang (Terry Gilliam) — burst into the room to the sound of a jarring musical sting.
Ximénez shouts, with a particular and high-pitched emphasis on the first word: "NO-body expects the Spanish Inquisition.
"  After entering, Ximénez begins listing their weapons ("fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency"), but interrupts himself as he keeps forgetting to mention additional weapons and has to begin his list over again.
After several attempts, Ximénez states that he'll come in again, and herds the Inquisition back off the set.
The straight man mill worker repeats the cue line, the Inquisition bursts back in (complete with jarring chord), and the introduction is tried anew.
But Ximénez fails again and tries to get Cardinal Biggles to do the introduction, but Biggles is also unsuccessful.
Ximénez decides to forget the introduction and has Cardinal Fang read out charges of heresy against the woman.
The woman pleads innocent, and the cardinals respond with laughter (as an on-screen caption reads "DIABOLICAL LAUGHTER") and threats (as the on-screen caption changes to "DIABOLICAL ACTING").
Ximénez intends to torture the woman with "the rack", but Cardinal Biggles instead produces a dish-drying rack.
This rack is tied to the woman as Biggles pretends to turn a lever, but it has no effect whatsoever.
The Inquisition returns in a later sketch as an older woman (Marjorie Wilde) shares photographs with another woman (Cleveland), who rips them up as they are handed to her.
When the older woman presents a photo of the Spanish Inquisition hiding behind the house, the other woman says, "I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.
" The three cardinals then reappear and take the older woman away to a dungeon.
Biggles tries to torture the woman by poking her repeatedly with soft cushions.
When this fails, Ximénez orders Fang to get "the comfy chair", which is brought out and the woman placed in it.
Ximénez states that she must stay in the chair "until lunch time with only a cup of coffee at 11", and begins to shout at her to confess - only to have Biggles break down and confess.
This frustrates Ximénez, but he can't complain about it, since he's distracted by a cartoon character from the next scene  At the end of the show, in the "Court Charades" sketch, a judge (Jones) who is also a defendant in an obscenity trial at the Old Bailey is casually sentenced by another judge (Chapman) to be burned at the stake.
The convicted judge responds, "Blimey, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.
" The whole court rises and looks expectantly at the witness entrance door, only for nothing to happen.
As the closing credits of the episode begin, the Inquisitors race out of a house and hop on a double-decker bus to the Old Bailey, all to the tune of "Devil's Galop".
As the Inquisitors ride in the bus, they comment worriedly that they are running out credits (which are seen on screen) and are panicked that the sketch will soon end.
The bus reaches the courthouse and the cardinals charge up the steps of the Old Bailey.
When they finally burst into the courtroom, Ximénez shouts, "NO-body expects the Span-", but is interrupted as the words "THE END" appear on-screen - to which Ximénez concludes, "Oh, bugger".
In the Monty Python Live (Mostly) stage show the sketch ends when Ximénez orders Biggles to "torture" the victim (who is sitting in the comfy chair) by giving her a glass of cold milk from the fridge.
When Biggles opens the door, the Man in the Fridge (Eric Idle) emerges and begins singing the "Galaxy Song" to the victim, while the Inquisition exit through the fridge.
<EOS>
In 932D, King Arthur and his squire, Patsy, travel throughout England searching for men to join the Knights of the Round Table.
Arthur stops at a castle, where the guards ask how Arthur found the coconut halves Patsy uses to simulate the sound of horses galloping.
Arthur leaves after his encounter becomes a discussion about African and European swallows.
Arthur encounters the Black Knight, who will not let them pass.
A sword fight ensues with Arthur gaining the upper hand, but the Black Knight continues fighting despite having his arms and legs severed.
The battle is declared a draw.
The villagers of a small town come to Sir Bedevere the Wise claiming they have captured a witch.
Bedevere puts the woman through a test, and she is revealed to be a witch because she weighs the same as a duck.
Arthur knights Bedevere as a member of his Round Table, and is joined by Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
The knights reach Camelot, but following a song-and-dance cutaway, Arthur decides not to enter, because 'tis a silly place".
The group encounters God, who instructs them to seek the Holy Grail.
Their first stop is a French-controlled castle.
One of the soldiers tells the knights that they have a grail, then taunts them with ridiculous insults.
After a failed invasion of the castle with the French soldiers throwing animals at them, the knights try sneaking into the castle in a Trojan Rabbit, but forget to hide inside it.
The rabbit is catapulted at them and crushes one of the knights' servants.
Arthur decides the group should split up to seek the grail.
A modern-day historian, describing the Arthurian legends, is abruptly killed by a knight on horseback, triggering a police investigation.
The knights encounter various perils.
Arthur and Bedevere attempt to satisfy the strange requests of the dreaded Knights who say Ni.
Sir Robin avoids a fight with the Three-Headed Giant by running away while the heads are arguing.
Sir Galahad is led by a grail-shaped beacon to Castle Anthrax, populated by women who wish to perform sexual favours for him, but to Galahad's chagrin, he is rescued by Lancelot.
Sir Lancelot finds a note tied to an arrow, and after reading it assaults a wedding party at Swamp Castle, believing them to be holding a lady against her will.
He discovers that an effeminate prince sent the note.
The knights regroup and are joined by Sirs Gawain, Ector, and Bors, and a group of monks led by Brother Maynard.
They encounter Tim the Enchanter, who points them to caves where the location of the grail is written.
To enter the caves, the group must defeat the Rabbit of Caerbannog.
After the rabbit kills Gawain, Ector and Bors during a failed attack, Brother Maynard provides the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, which Arthur uses to kill the rabbit.
The knights enter the cave and find an inscription written by Joseph of Arimathea, which states that the Grail can be found in the "Castle of Aaaaargh".
The group is attacked by the Legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh, which devours Brother Maynard.
Arthur and his knights escape when the beast's animator suffers a heart attack.
The group travels to the Bridge of Death, where each knight must answer three questions from the bridge-keeper before proceeding.
Lancelot easily answers his questions and crosses the bridge.
Robin is confounded by difficult questions while Galahad gives a wrong answer to an easy question, and both are hurled into a chasm.
Arthur answers the bridge-keeper's question with another question, and the bridge-keeper is thrown into the chasm for not knowing the answer.
Lancelot is separated from Arthur and Bedevere, then arrested by the police investigating the historian's murder.
Arthur and Bedevere travel to the Castle Aaargh, which they find occupied by the French forces that drove them off earlier.
The knights amass a large army and prepare to storm the castle, but just as they begin to charge, the modern police arrive.
Arthur and Bedevere are arrested, and one of the officers covers the lens with his hand as the film breaks in the projector.
<EOS>
In 1982, young Gracie Hart steps into playground fight to beat up a bully threatening a boy she likes.
She goes to help her friend, but he feels humiliated being rescued "by a girl", and she promptly punches him in the nose and leaves to sulk alone.
Years later, Gracie is now a Special Agent for FBI.
During a sting operation against Russian mobsters, she disobeys her superior's orders to save the mob boss from choking, causing one of the other agents to be shot.
She is demoted to a desk job as punishment.
Some time later, the agency learns of a bomb threat at the upcoming 75th annual Miss United States beauty pageant in San Antonio, Texas by the notorious domestic terrorist known as "The Citizen".
Gracie's partner Eric Matthews is put in charge to stop the threat, but he leans more on Gracie's suggestions for how to proceed, and takes credit for them when they produce promising leads, angering her.
One of Gracie's suggestions is to plant an agent undercover at the event.
Eric determines that most of the other male agents on his team would be too immature and chauvinistic, and suggests Gracie take on that role.
Without knowing who they can trust at the pageant, the agents soon realize the only way this would work would be to have Gracie participate in the show itself, replacing the Miss New Jersey winner who was just discovered as having been in an apparently pornographic movie in the past.
Beauty pageant coach Victor Melling, whose reputation was ruined after his last contestant criticized his methods, teaches the tomboyish Gracie how to dress, walk, and act like a contestant.
Though initially appalled by the "antifeminist" pageant, she comes to appreciate Victor's methods.
Gracie is entered as "Gracie Lou Freebush", representing her home state of New Jersey.
Though she is scorned by most of the other contestants, Gracie becomes friends with Miss Rhode Island, Cheryl Frasier.
As the competition begins, Gracie impresses the judges with her glass harp skills and self-defense techniques in the talent competition.
Several suspects emerge during the investigation, including the current competition director and former pageant winner Kathy Morningside, her assistant Frank Tobin, the veteran MC Stan Fields, and Cheryl who had a history of being a radical animal rights activist.
Gracie accompanies Cheryl and other contestants as they spend a night partying, where Gracie tries to dig into Cheryl's past, but inadvertently learns from the others that Kathy's past as a pageant contestant is suspect, including how she won after the leading contestant suddenly came down with food poisoning.
Gracie comes to believe Kathy is "The Citizen".
However, when she reports this to Eric the next day, she learns that "The Citizen" had been arrested on an unrelated charge, and because there is no further threat, their supervisor has pulled the mission.
Gracie convinces Eric that she still suspects something is wrong, and he returns to help her continue the investigation against orders.
In the final round, Gracie is stunned when she is awarded the 1st Runner Up prize.
Cheryl is named Miss United States, but as she goes to accept the tiara, Gracie recognizes that Frank, who is actually Kathy's son, impersonated "The Citizen" in making the original bomb threat.
Suspecting foul play, she stops the crowning ceremony in time, as the tiara contained an explosive.
As Kathy and Frank are arrested, Gracie determines that the two wanted to kill the pageant winner on stage as revenge for Kathy's termination from the competition.
As the event closes down and Gracie and Eric prepare to return to headquarters with a newfound interest in each other, the other contestants name Gracie as "Miss Congeniality".
<EOS>
Ishmael travels in December from Manhattan Island to New Bedford with plans to sign up for a whaling voyage.
The inn where he arrives is so crowded, he must share a bed with the tattooed Polynesian Queequeg, a harpooneer whose father was king of the (fictional) island of Rokovoko.
The next morning, Ishmael and Queequeg attend Father Mapple's sermon on Jonah, then head for Nantucket.
Ishmael signs up with the Quaker ship-owners Bildad and Peleg for a voyage on their whaler Pequod.
Peleg describes Captain Ahab: "He's a grand, ungodly, god-like man" who nevertheless "has his humanities".
They hire Queequeg the following morning.
A man named Elijah prophesies a dire fate should Ishmael and Queequeg join Ahab.
While provisions are loaded, shadowy figures board the ship.
On a cold Christmas Day, the Pequod leaves the harbor.
Ishmael discusses cetology (the zoological classification and natural history of the whale), and describes the crew members.
The chief mate is 30-year-old Starbuck, a Nantucket Quaker with a realist mentality, whose harpooneer is Queequeg; second mate is Stubb, from Cape Cod, happy-go-lucky and cheerful, whose harpooneer is Tashtego, a proud, pure-blooded Indian from Gay Head, and the third mate is Flask, from Martha's Vineyard, short, stout, whose harpooneer is Daggoo, a tall African, now a resident of Nantucket.
When Ahab finally appears on the quarterdeck, he announces he is out for revenge on the white whale which took one leg from the knee down and left him with a prosthesis fashioned from a whale's jawbone.
Ahab will give the first man to sight Moby Dick a doubloon, a gold coin, which he nails to the mast.
Starbuck objects that he has not come for vengeance but for profit.
Ahab's purpose exercises a mysterious spell on Ishmael: "Ahab's quenchless feud seemed mine".
Instead of rounding Cape Horn, Ahab heads for the equatorial Pacific Ocean via southern Africa.
One afternoon, as Ishmael and Queequeg are weaving a mat — "its warp seemed necessity, his hand free will, and Queequeg's sword chance" — Tashtego sights a sperm whale.
Immediately, five hidden figures appear whom Ahab has brought as his own boat crew.
Their leader, Fedallah, a Parsee, is Ahab's harpooneer.
The pursuit is unsuccessful.
Southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, the Pequod makes the first of nine sea-encounters, or "gams", with other ships: Ahab hails the Goney (Albatross) to ask whether they have seen the White Whale, but the trumpet through which her captain tries to speak falls into the sea before he can answer.
Ishmael explains that because of Ahab's absorption with Moby Dick, he sails on without the customary "gam", which defines as a "social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships", in which the two captains remain on one ship and the chief mates on the other.
In the second gam off the Cape of Good Hope, with the Town-Ho, a Nantucket whaler, the concealed story of a "judgment of God" is revealed, but only to the crew: a defiant sailor who struck an oppressive officer is flogged, and when that officer led the chase for Moby Dick, he fell from the boat and was killed by the whale.
Ishmael digresses on pictures of whales, brit (microscopic sea creatures on which whales feed), squid and&nbsp;— after four boats lowered in vain because Daggoo mistook a giant squid for the white whale&nbsp;— whale-lines.
The next day, in the Indian Ocean, Stubb kills a sperm whale, and that night Fleece, the Pequods black cook, prepares him a rare whale steak.
Fleece delivers a sermon to the sharks that fight each other to feast on the whale's carcass, tied to the ship, saying that their nature is to be voracious, but they must overcome it.
The whale is prepared, beheaded, and barrels of oil are tried out.
Standing at the head of the whale, Ahab begs it to speak of the depths of the sea.
The Pequod next encounters the Jeroboam, which not only lost its chief mate to Moby Dick, but also is now plagued by an epidemic.
The whale carcass still lies in the water.
Queequeg mounts it, tied to Ishmael's belt by a monkey-rope as if they were Siamese twins.
Stubb and Flask kill a right whale whose head is fastened to a yardarm opposite the sperm whale's head.
Ishmael compares the two heads in a philosophical way: the right whale is Lockean, stoic, and the sperm whale as Kantean, platonic.
Tashtego cuts into the head of the sperm whale and retrieves buckets of oil.
He falls into the head, and the head falls off the yardarm into the sea.
Queequeg dives after him and frees his mate with his sword.
The Pequod next gams with the Jungfrau from Bremen.
Both ships sight whales simultaneously, with the Pequod winning the contest.
The three harpooneers dart their harpoons, and Flask delivers the mortal strike with a lance.
The carcass sinks, and Queequeg barely manages to escape.
The Pequods next gam is with the French whaler Bouton de Rose, whose crew is ignorant of the ambergris in the gut of the diseased whale in their possession.
Stubb talks them out of it, but Ahab orders him away.
Days later, an encounter with a harpooned whale prompts Pip, a little black cabin-boy from Alabama, to jump out of his whale boat.
The whale must be cut loose, because the line has Pip so entangled in it.
Furious, Stubb orders Pip to stay in the whale boat, but Pip later jumps again, and is left alone in the immense sea and has gone insane by the time he is picked up.
Cooled sperm oil congeals and must be squeezed back into liquid state; blubber is boiled in the try-pots on deck; the warm oil is decanted into casks, and then stowed in the ship.
After the operation, the decks are scrubbed.
The coin hammered to the main mast shows three Andes summits, one with a flame, one with a tower, and one a crowing cock.
Ahab stops to look at the doubloon and interprets the coin as signs of his firmness, volcanic energy, and victory; Starbuck takes the high peaks as evidence of the Trinity; Stubb focuses on the zodiacal arch over the mountains; and Flask sees nothing of any symbolic value at all.
The Manxman mutters in front of the mast, and Pip declines the verb "look".
The Pequod next gams with the Samuel Enderby of London, captained by Boomer, a down-to-earth fellow who lost his right arm to Moby Dick.
Nevertheless, he carries no ill will toward the whale, which he regards not as malicious, but as awkward.
Ahab puts an end to the gam by rushing back to his ship.
The narrator now discusses the subjects of 1) whalers supply; 2) a glen in Tranque in the Arsacides islands full of carved whale bones, fossil whales, whale skeleton measurements; 3) the chance that the magnitude of the whale will diminish and that the leviathan might perish.
Leaving the Samuel Enderby, Ahab wrenches his ivory leg and orders the carpenter to fashion him another.
Starbuck informs Ahab of oil leakage in the hold.
Reluctantly, Ahab orders the harpooneers to inspect the casks.
Queequeg, sweating all day below decks, develops a chill and soon is almost mortally feverish.
The carpenter makes a coffin for Queequeg, who fears an ordinary burial at sea.
Queequeg tries it for size, with Pip sobbing and beating his tambourine, standing by and calling himself a coward while he praises Queequeg for his gameness.
Yet Queequeg suddenly rallies, briefly convalesces, and leaps up, back in good health.
Henceforth, he uses his coffin for a spare seachest, which is later caulked and pitched to replace the Pequods life buoy.
The Pequod sails northeast toward Formosa and into the Pacific Ocean.
Ahab, with one nostril, smells the musk from the Bashee isles, and with the other, the salt of the waters where Moby Dick swims.
Ahab goes to Perth, the blacksmith, with bag of racehorse shoenail stubs to be forged into the shank of a special harpoon, and with his razors for Perth to melt and fashion into a harpoon barb.
Ahab tempers the barb in blood from Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo.
The Pequod gams next with the Bachelor, a Nantucket ship heading home full of sperm oil.
Every now and then, the Pequod lowers for whales with success.
On one of those nights in the whaleboat, Fedallah prophesies that neither hearse nor coffin can be Ahab's, that before he dies, Ahab must see two hearses — one not made by mortal hands and the other made of American wood — that Fedallah will precede his captain in death, and finally that only hemp can kill Ahab.
As the Pequod approaches the Equator, Ahab scolds his quadrant for telling him only where he is and not where he will be.
He dashes it to the deck.
That evening, an impressive typhoon attacks the ship.
Lightning strikes the mast, setting the doubloon and Ahab's harpoon aglow.
Ahab delivers a speech on the spirit of fire, seeing the lightning as a portent of Moby Dick.
Starbuck sees the lightning as a warning, and feels tempted to shoot the sleeping Ahab with a musket.
Next morning, when he finds that the lightning disoriented the compass, Ahab makes a new one out of a lance, a maul, and a sailmaker's needle.
He orders the log be heaved, but the weathered line snaps, leaving the ship with no way to fix its location.
The Pequod is now heading southeast toward Moby Dick.
A man falls overboard from the mast.
The life buoy is thrown, but both sink.
Now Queequeg proposes that his superfluous coffin be used as a new life buoy.
Starbuck orders the carpenter take care it is lidded and caulked.
Next morning, the ship meets in another truncated gam with the Rachel, commanded by Captain Gardiner from Nantucket.
The Rachel is seeking survivors from one of her whaleboats which had gone after Moby Dick.
Among the missing is Gardiner's young son.
Ahab refuses to join the search.
Twenty-four hours a day, Ahab now stands and walks the deck, while Fedallah shadows him.
Suddenly, a sea hawk grabs Ahab's slouched hat and flies off with it.
Next, the Pequod, in a ninth and final gam, meets the Delight, badly damaged and with five of her crew left dead by Moby Dick.
Her captain shouts that the harpoon which can kill the white whale has yet to be forged, but Ahab flourishes his special lance and once more orders the ship forward.
Ahab shares a moment of contemplation with Starbuck.
Ahab speaks about his wife and child, calls himself a fool for spending 40 years on whaling, and claims he can see his own child in Starbuck's eye.
Starbuck tries to persuade Ahab to return to Nantucket to meet both their families, but Ahab simply crosses the deck and stands near Fedallah.
On the first day of the chase, Ahab smells the whale, climbs the mast, and sights Moby Dick.
He claims the doubloon for himself, and orders all boats to lower except for Starbuck's.
The whale bites Ahab's boat in two, tosses the captain out of it, and scatters the crew.
On the second day of the chase, Ahab leaves Starbuck in charge of the Pequod.
Moby Dick smashes the three boats that seek him into splinters and tangles their lines.
Ahab is rescued, but his ivory leg and Fedallah are lost.
Starbuck begs Ahab to desist, but Ahab vows to slay the white whale, even if he would have to dive through the globe itself to get his revenge.
On the third day of the chase, Ahab sights Moby Dick at noon, and sharks appear, as well.
Ahab lowers his boat for a final time, leaving Starbuck again on board.
Moby Dick breaches and destroys two boats.
Fedallah's corpse, still entangled in the fouled lines, is lashed to the whale's back, so Moby Dick turns out to be the hearse Fedallah prophesied.
"Possessed by all the fallen angels", Ahab plants his harpoon in the whale's flank.
Moby Dick smites the whaleboat, tossing its men into the sea.
Only Ishmael is unable to return to the boat.
He is left behind in the sea, and so is the only crewman of the Pequod to survive the final encounter.
The whale now fatally attacks the Pequod.
Ahab then realizes that the destroyed ship is the hearse made of American wood in Fedallah's prophesy.
The whale returns to Ahab, who stabs at him again.
The line loops around Ahab's neck, and as the stricken whale swims away, the captain is drawn with him out of sight.
Queequeg's coffin comes to the surface, the only thing to escape the vortex when Pequod sank.
For an entire day, Ishmael floats on it, and then the Rachel, still looking for its lost seamen, rescues him.
<EOS>
Megatokyo's story begins when Piro and Largo fly to Tokyo after an incident at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
Piro has the proper paperwork; Largo must beat the ninja Junpei at a video game to enter.
After a spending spree, the pair are stranded without enough money to buy plane tickets home, forcing them to live with Tsubasa, a Japanese friend of Piro's.
When Tsubasa suddenly departs for America to seek his "first true love", the protagonists are forced out of the apartment.
Tsubasa leaves Ping, a robot girl PlayStation 2 accessory, in their care.
This leads to old friends of Piro and Largo showing up later.
The two are shadow operatives for video game companies, Ed (Sony) and Dom (SEGA).
At one point, Piro, confronted with girl troubles, visits the local bookstore to "research"—look in the vast shelves of shoujo manga for a solution to his problem.
A spunky schoolgirl, Sonoda Yuki, and her friends, Asako and Mami, see him sitting amidst piles of read manga, and ask him what he is doing.
Piro, flustered, runs away, accidentally leaving behind his bookbag and sketchbook.
After their eviction, Piro begins work at "Megagamers", a store specializing in anime, manga, and video games.
His employer allows him and Largo to live in the apartment above the store.
Largo is mistaken for the new English teacher at a local school, where he takes on the alias "Great Teacher Largo" and instructs his students in L33t, video games, and about computers.
Yuki's father, Inspector Sonada Masamichi of the "Tokyo Police Cataclysm Division" (TPCD) hires Largo after Largo manipulates Ping into stopping a rampaging monster, the drunken turtle Gameru.
As Largo is working at the local high school, Piro encounters Yuki again while working at Megagamers, when she returns his bookbag and sketchbook, scribbled all over with comments about his drawings.
She then, to his consternation, asks if he would give her drawing lessons.
Piro, flustered, agrees, and promptly forgets about them.
Earlier in the story, Piro had seen Nanasawa Kimiko at an Anna Miller's restaurant, where she is a waitress, after Tsubasa brought him and Largo there.
Later on, Piro encounters Kimiko outside a train station, where she is worrying aloud that she will miss an audition because she has forgotten her money and railcard.
Piro hands her his own railcard and walks off before she can refuse his offer.
This event causes Kimiko to develop an idealized vision of her benefactor, an image which is shattered the next time they meet.
Despite this, she gradually develops feelings for Piro, though she is too shy to admit them.
Later on in the story, Kimiko's outburst on a radio talk show causes her to suddenly rise to idol status.
Angered by the hosts' derisive comments about fanboys, she comes to the defense of her audience, immediately and unintentionally securing their obsessive adoration.
Later, her new horde of fanboys find out where she works and flock to the restaurant, obsessively trying to get pictures up her skirt.
Piro works undercover as a busboy to get rid of all cameras.
The scene eventually builds to a climax, in which Kimiko shouts at the fanboys and lifts her skirt in defiance, and they take photographs.
Piro, provoked by her outburst into actively defending her, threatens the fanboy crowd, and collects all of their memory cards with the photos.
On the way back from the restaurant, Kimiko is suffering from the aftermath of the scene and lashes out at Piro on the subway, which causes him to walk off.
Meanwhile, Largo develops a relationship with Hayasaka Erika, Piro's coworker at Megagamers.
She and Kimiko share a house.
As with Piro and Kimiko, Largo and Erika meet by coincidence early in the story.
Later, it is revealed that Erika is a former pop idol, who caused a big scene then disappeared from the public eye after her fiancé left her.
When she is rediscovered by her fans, Largo helps thwart a fanboy horde, but not well enough to escape being dismissed by the TPCD for it.
He then offers to help Erika to deal with her "vulnerabilities in the digital plane".
Erika insists on protecting herself, so Largo instructs her in computer-building.
This leads into a little more relationship than Largo can handle, partly because he insists all computer building be done in the nude or as close to it as possible, to avoid static electrical discharge ruining components, and partly because his behavior, crude though it may appear, impresses Erika in many ways.
The enigmatic Tohya Miho frequently meddles in the lives of the protagonists.
Miho knows Piro and Largo from the Endgames MMORPG previous to Megatokyo's plot.
She abused a hidden statistic in the game to gain control of nearly all of the game's player characters, but was ultimately defeated by Piro and Largo.
In the comic, Miho becomes close friends with Ping, influencing Ping's relationship with Piro and pitting Ping against Largo in video game battles.
Miho is also involved in Erika's backstory; Miho manipulated Erika's fans after Erika's disappearance.
This effort ended badly, leaving Miho hospitalized, and the TPCD cleaning up the aftermath.
Most of the exact details of what happened are left to the readers' imagination, as are her current motivations and ultimate goal.
Miho and many of the events surrounding her involve a club in Harajuku, the Cave of Evil (CoE).
After getting yelled at for retaining her waitress job, Kimiko quits her voice acting job and goes home to find Erika assembling a new computer in her undergarments.
Not long after Erika tells Kimiko to strip, Piro comes by, who she tells to get undressed as well.
While Erika and Piro talk about her, Kimiko, who hid when Piro showed up, runs out of the apartment.
Kimiko runs into Ping, who wanted to talk to Piro about why, after an explosion at school, she had started to cry uncontrollably.
They encounter Largo at the store, who explains what went wrong, although no one knows what he means until Piro comes in and translates.
Ping is relieved to know that she won't shut down and Kimiko hugs Piro and apologizes for her actions.
Largo leaves for Erika's apartment after she calls looking for help.
That night, while Piro and Kimiko fall asleep watching TV, Erika, who finished the computer with Largo's help, tries to seduce Largo, but it freaks him out and he runs out for home.
The next morning, after Kimiko departs, Piro finds out she quit her voice acting job and tries to find her.
Kimiko and Miho are in the same diner, to which Ed has sent an attack robot (Kill-Bot) against Miho, since she has disrupted his attempts to destroy Ping.
Miho is in the diner trying to contact Piro, Kimiko is talking with Erika.
Dom is also there to talk with Kimiko.
After rescuing both herself and Kimiko from the Kill-Bot and chaos at the diner, the two talk about things.
Miho talks to Piro on her phone, argues with him, and then Piro and Kimiko have a conversation about that as the two females are leaving the area.
Dom follows and tries to coerce Kimiko into joining SEGA for protection from fans, but she refuses.
Drained, she has Miho finish talking to Piro on the phone.
Piro then encounters a group who found Kimiko's cell phone and other belongings after she and Miho escaped the diner.
The group wants to help Piro get together with Kimiko, partially due to feeling bad for trying to snap a picture up Kimiko's skirt.
Piro and the group set out for a press conference Kimiko is going to for the voice acting project, Sight.
Besides all of the other fans going to the event, a planned zombie outbreak occurs in the area.
Miho, who helped Kimiko get ready for the event and accompanied her to it, later calls the zombies off for unexplained reasons through an unexplained mechanism.
Largo and Yuki, who has since been revealed along the way to be a magical girl like her mother Meimi (likewise revealed), steal a Rent-a-Zilla to fight the zombie outbreak.
Largo leaves Yuki to help Piro get to Kimiko.
Unfortunately, the Rent-a-Zilla gets bitten by zombies and turns into one itself, resulting in the TPCD capturing it.
Yuki protects it from the TPCD, teleports it out of the area, and adopts it as a pet in a miniaturized form, all much to her father's chagrin.
After the event, Erika, Largo, Kimiko and Piro are reunited, and they talk a bit with Miho, who has shown up again after storming out following an argument with Kenji earlier.
Miho declines an offer to eat with the group and wanders off thinking about games and Largo and Piro.
She is shown walking amongst the zombies and then in Ed's gun-sights, and in the center of an attack by a number of Ed's Kill-Bots.
During the next nine days, Piro and Kimiko have made up and Kimiko returned to both of her jobs, with them seeing little of each other.
Largo and Erika are shown to likewise be involved but more often, including going to dinner with the Sonoda family, as the inspector's brother was Erika's fiancé.
Kimiko is attempting to get Piro working as an artist on Sight, which unbeknownst to them is now being funded by Dom.
Ping is concerned about the whereabouts of Miho, who hasn't been seen during the time, but Piro is still upset about all that has happened and somewhat evasively refuses direct assistance.
Ping and Junko, another one of Largo's students, who used to be a friend of Miho, work towards finding Miho.
Yuki and Kobayashi Yutaka then also become involved with the attempt because of this.
That night, Piro and Kimiko discuss Miho and Endgames, which Yuki overhears, they unaware she is there.
This leads Yuki to appropriate Piro's powerless laptop and leave, believing him to still be in love with Miho and that the device might hold clues to finding her.
Kimiko and Piro work on his portfolio for Sight and then they say goodnight and leave.
He returns to his apartment, but Kimiko goes to the CoE club using a pass Miho gave her long ago in the beginning.
Once at the club, Dom mockingly advises her, Yuki unknowingly whisps past her, and she unexpectedly meets up with an old friend Komugiko.
During all this, Piro has left his apartment after looking at his sketchbook and a drawing of Miho.
His current location is unknown.
Aside from Kimiko, concurrent overlapping events have led to almost every main character converging upon the club for various reasons involving Miho, or in support of others involved.
Ed, attempting to destroy Ping, fights with Largo, as the staff of the club have maneuvered Ed and Ping into the protective radius of ex-Idol Erika.
Yuki and Yutaka get Piro's laptop powered on, she reads the old chat logs between Piro and Miho, and follows instructions from her to him.
Going to a "hidden-in-plain-sight" hospital room, she finds Miho alive and well, although seemingly in a weakened state.
During a heated argument and Miho's goading, Yuki then forcibly moves Miho to the club.
Shortly after the arrival of the two in the center of everyone, the bulk of the denizens go into trance-like states while others are fighting or confused about what to do next.
Miho appears to be collapsing.
Upon instructions from Erika, Largo finds then uses his Largo-Phone and the club's sound system to knock out power in the immediate area of the club.
During this event, Piro has gone to visit Miho at the "hospital" room, where he discovers that she is missing.
Following the blackout, Largo, Erika, and Miho board a train, where Miho decides to return home.
However, a large crowd has blocked her path home, apparently waiting for someone's return.
The next morning, Piro has been brought to jail, where he has been interrogated by police about Miho's disappearance.
He is able to leave jail by paying a suspiciously set low bail of about $100 US, which is obtained through a 10,000 yen bill that has been shaped into an origami 'zilla and left in the cell.
Piro walks back home, where he finds Miho sleeping on a beanbag in the apartment.
Piro and Miho then work out some of the confusion between them, which reveals several background events.
She explains the Analogue Support Facility as a sort of safehouse, where she was able to come and go when she wanted.
Since Ping in her extreme attempt to find Miho had posted tons of pictures, videos, and information on the internet, people are now using that to "build a 'real' me", as Miho explains it.
During the process, at one point Kimiko calls from the studio, updating Piro on his artwork and telling him some of how last night she and others found Miho and how crazy it was.
Largo and Erika, who are riding on the roof of a train in the Miyagi prefecture also call during the conversation.
After a short conversation with both Largo and Erika on the phone, and a bit more conversation with Miho, Piro instructs her to stay in the apartment until they can figure out what to do.
Junko and Ping are shown leaving for school, with Junko seeming taking Ed's shotguns from last night with her.
After receiving a phone call from Yutaka, whom Masamichi initially disapproves of, Yuki, who has not changed clothing from the events of the previous chapter, leaves her house, grabs him, and takes him to a rooftop, where they try to explain things after Yutaka was being questioned by Asako and Mami.
She goes over everything, even why she referred to herself as a "monster", which Yuki's friends previously overheard and misunderstood.
Realizing that Miho is the cause of this mess, Yutaka indirectly vows revenge, but Yuki stops him.
Yutaka goes anyway and meets his brother in front of Megagamers, who has tracked Miho to the store since the previous night.
Yutaka's brother is a member of a group of Nanasawa fans who plan to intervene and remind Piro who his true love is to get rid of Miho.
However, Dom's van is blocking the store's entrance.
Though Yuki protests against intervention to the group, Dom, who is unknown to them, performs his own method of intervention anyways and forces Piro to choose between Nanasawa and Miho.
It is currently unknown if Dom knows who Miho is, but Miho, in a disguise, overhears the conversation and forces Piro to briefly wear a hat.
At the same time, Yuki, deciding that she can wait no longer, steals Dom's van and guns, and rushes into the store with Yutaka in tow.
Seeing this, Miho grabs Piro and rushes upstairs, discarding the hat in the process.
Yuki subsequently collides with the hat and a presumed explosion occurs, stalling Yuki and Yutaka.
Miho and Piro don cosplay outfits as a disguise, escape, and make their way to the local bath house.
Just before Yuki grabs Yutaka again, Dom, now trapped under a pile of rubble, expresses his condolences to Yutaka, to which he does not understand.
The pair quickly follow Miho and Piro and await for them to leave the bath house.
<EOS>
Set in a fictional universe in the year 2079 (Universal Century year 0079 according to the Gundam Calendar), the Principality of Zeon has declared independence from the Earth Federation, and subsequently launched a war of independence called the One Year War.
The conflict has directly affected every continent on Earth, also nearly every space colony and lunar settlement.
Zeon, though smaller, has the tactical upper hand through their use of a new type of humanoid weapons called mobile suits.
After half of all humanity perishes in the conflict, the war settled into a bitter stalemate lasting over 8 months.
The story begins with a newly deployed Federation warship, the White Base, arriving at the secret research base located at the Side 7 colony to pick up the Federation's newest weapon.
However, they are closely followed by Zeon forces.
A Zeon reconnaissance team member disobeys mission orders and attacks the colony, killing most of the Federation crew and civilians in the process.
Out of desperation, citizen boy Amuro Ray accidentally finds the Federation's new arsenal—the RX-78 Gundam, and neutralizes the situation.
Scrambling everything they can, the White Base sets out with her newly formed crew of civilian recruits and refugees in her journey to survive.
On their journey, the White Base members often encounter the Zeon Lieutenant Commander Char Aznable.
Although Char antagonizes Amuro in battle, he takes advantage of their position as Federation members to have them kill members from Zeon's Zabi family as part of his revenge scheme.
Amuro also meets ensign Lalah Sune with whom he falls in love, but accidentally kills when facing Char.
When the Federation Forces invade the Fortress of A Baoa Qu to defeat the Zeon forces, Amuro engages on a final one-on-one duel against Char due to their shared hatred for Lalah's death.
Having realized he forgot his true enemy, Char stops fighting to kill the last surviving Zabi member, Kycilia Zabi.
Amuro then reunites with his comrades as the war reaches its end.
<EOS>
In 1757, Moonfleet is a small village near the sea in the south of England.
It gets its name from a formerly prominent local family, the Mohunes, whose coat of arms includes a symbol shaped like a capital 'Y'.
John Trenchard is an orphan who lives with his aunt, Miss Arnold.
Other notable residents are the sexton Mr Ratsey, who is friendly to John; Parson Glennie, the local clergyman who also teaches in the village school; Elzevir Block, the landlord of the local inn, called the Mohune Arms but nicknamed the Why Not.
because of its sign with the Mohune 'Y'; and Mr Maskew, the unpopular local magistrate and his beautiful daughter, Grace.
Village legend tells of the notorious Colonel John "Blackbeard" Mohune who is buried in the family crypt under the church.
He is reputed to have stolen a diamond from King Charles I and hidden it.
His ghost is said to wander at night looking for it and the mysterious lights in the churchyard are attributed to his activities.
As the main part of the story opens, Block's youthful son, David, has just been killed by Maskew during a raid by the Maskew and other authorities on a smuggling boat.
One night a bad storm hits the village and there is a flood.
While attending the Sunday service at church, John hears strange sounds from the crypt below.
He thinks it is the sound of the coffins of the Mohune family.
The next day, he finds Elzevir and Ratsey against the south wall of the church.
They claim to be checking for damage from the storm, but John suspects they are searching for Blackbeard's ghost.
Later John finds a large sinkhole has opened in the ground by a grave.
He follows the passage and finds himself in the crypt with coffins on shelves and casks on the floor.
He realises his friends are smugglers and this is their hiding place.
He has to hide behind a coffin when he hears Ratsey and Elzevir coming.
When they leave, they fill in the hole, inadvertently trapping him.
John finds a locket in a coffin which holds a piece of paper with verses from the Bible.
John eventually passes out after drinking too much of the wine while trying to quench his thirst, having not eaten or drunk for days.
Later he wakes up in the Why Not.
inn - he has been rescued by Elzevir and Ratsey.
When he is better, he returns to his aunt's house, but she, suspecting him of drunken behaviour, throws him out.
Fortunately, Elzevir takes him in.
But when Block's lease on the Why Not.
comes up for renewal, Maskew bids against him in the auction and wins.
Block must leave the inn and Moonfleet but plans one last smuggling venture.
John feels honour-bound to go with him, and sadly, says goodbye to Grace Maskew, whom he loves and has been seeing in secret, and gets his mother's prayer book as a good luck charm.
The excisemen and Maskew are aware of the planned smuggling run but do not know exactly where it will occur.
During the landing Maskew appears and is caught by the smugglers.
Elzevir is bent on vengeance for his son by killing Maskew, and while the rest land the cargo and leave, he and John keep watch over Maskew.
Just as Block prepares to shoot Maskew the excisemen attack.
They wound John and unintentionally kill Maskew.
Block carries John away to safety and they hide in some old quarries.
While there, John inadvertently finds out that the verses from Blackbeard's locket contain a code that will reveal the location of his famous diamond.
Once John's wound heals, he and Block decide to recover the diamond from Carisbrooke Castle.
After a suspenseful scene in the well where the jewel is hidden, they succeed in escaping to Holland where they try to sell it to a Jewish diamond merchant named Crispin Aldobrand.
The merchant cheats them, claiming the diamond is fake.
Elzevir falls for the deceit and angrily throws the diamond out of the window.
John, however, knows they have been duped, and suggests they try to recover the diamond through burglary.
The attempt fails and, they are arrested and sentenced to prison.
John curses the merchant for his lies.
John and Elzevir go to prison for life.
Eventually they are separated.
Then, unexpectedly, ten years later, their paths cross again.
They are being transported, and board a ship.
A storm blows up, and by a strong coincidence, the ship is wrecked upon Moonfleet beach.
While trying to reach the beach Elzevir helps John to safety, but is himself dragged under by the surf and drowned.
John arrives where he originally started, in the Why Not.
, and is reunited with Ratsey.
He is also reunited with Grace.
She is now a rich young lady, having inherited her father's money.
However, she is still in love with John.
John tells her about the diamond and his life in prison.
He regrets having lost everything, but she says, rich or not, she loves him.
Then Parson Glennie visits and reveals he had received a letter from Aldobrand.
The merchant, suffering a guilty conscience and in an attempt to make amends, had bequeathed the worth of the diamond to John.
John gives the money to the village, and new almshouses are built, and the school and the church renovated.
John marries Grace and becomes Lord of the Manor and Justice of the Peace.
They have three children, including their first-born son, Elzevir.
They grow up and the sons go away to "serve King George on sea and land" and their daughter, too it seems, has married away.
But John and Grace themselves do not leave their beloved Moonfleet ever again.
A feature of the narrative is a continuing reference to the boardgame of backgammon which is played by the patrons of the Why Not.
on an antique board which bears a Latin inscription Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima jactura arte corrigenda est (translated in the book as As in life, so in a game of hazard, skill will make something of the worst of throws).
<EOS>
In 1958 Japan, university professor Tatsuo Kusakabe and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei, move into an old house to be closer to the hospital where the girls' mother, Yasuko, is recovering from a long-term illness.
Satsuki and Mei find that the house is inhabited by tiny animated dust creatures called susuwatari –- small, dark, dust-like house spirits seen when moving from light to dark places.
When the girls become comfortable in their new house and laugh with their father, the soot spirits leave the house to drift away on the wind.
It is implied that they are going to find another empty house –- their natural habitat.
One day, Mei sees two white, rabbit-like ears in the grass and follows the ears under the house.
She discovers two small spirits who lead her through a briar patch and into the hollow of a large camphor tree.
She meets and befriends a larger version of the same kind of spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars that she interprets as "Totoro".
She falls asleep atop the large totoro, but when Satsuki finds her, she is on the ground in a dense briar clearing.
Despite her many attempts, Mei is unable to show her family Totoro's tree.
Her father comforts her by telling her that this is the "keeper of the forest," and that Totoro will reveal himself when he wants to.
One rainy night, the girls are waiting for their father's bus and grow worried when he doesn't arrive on the bus they expect him on.
As they wait, Mei eventually falls asleep on Satsuki's back and Totoro appears beside them, allowing Satsuki to see him for the first time.
He only has a leaf on his head for protection against the rain, so Satsuki offers him the umbrella she had taken along for her father.
Totoro is delighted at both the shelter and the sounds made upon it by falling raindrops.
In return, he gives her a bundle of nuts and seeds.
A bus-shaped giant cat halts at the stop, and Totoro boards it, taking the umbrella.
Shortly after, their father's bus arrives.
The girls plant the seeds.
A few days later, they awaken at midnight to find Totoro and his two miniature colleagues engaged in a ceremonial dance around the planted nuts and seeds.
The girls join in, whereupon the seeds sprout, and then grow and combine into an enormous tree.
Totoro takes his colleagues and the girls for a ride on a magical flying top.
In the morning, the tree is gone, but the seeds have indeed sprouted; it is left unclear whether or not the girls were dreaming.
The girls find out that a planned visit by Yasuko has to be postponed because of a setback in her treatment.
Satsuki, disappointed and worried, tells Mei the bad news, which Mei doesn't take well.
This leads into an argument between the two, ending in Satsuki angrily yelling at Mei and stomping off.
Mei decides to walk to the hospital to bring some fresh corn to her mother.
Mei's disappearance prompts Satsuki and the neighbors to search for her.
Eventually, Satsuki returns in desperation to the camphor tree and pleads for Totoro's help.
Delighted to be of assistance, he summons the Catbus, which carries her to where the lost Mei sits.
Having rescued her, the Catbus then whisks her and Satsuki over the countryside to see their mother in the hospital.
The girls perch in a tree outside of the hospital, overhearing a conversation between their parents and discovering that she has been kept in hospital by a minor cold, but is otherwise doing well.
They secretly leave the ear of corn on the windowsill, where it is discovered by the parents, and return home on the Catbus.
When the Catbus departs, it disappears from the girls' sight.
In the end credits, Mei and Satsuki's mother returns home, and the sisters play with other children, with Totoro and his friends as unseen observers.
<EOS>
A dark-haired woman is the sole survivor of a car accident on Mulholland Drive, a winding road high in the Hollywood Hills.
Injured and in shock, she makes her way down into Los Angeles and sneaks into an apartment.
Later that morning, an aspiring actress named Betty Elms arrives at the apartment, which is normally occupied by her aunt.
Betty is startled to find the woman, who has amnesia and assumes the name "Rita" after seeing a poster for the film Gilda starring Rita Hayworth.
To help the woman remember her identity, Betty looks in Rita's purse, where she finds a large amount of money and an unusual blue key.
At a diner called Winkie's, a man tells his companion about a nightmare in which he dreamt there was a horrible figure behind the diner.
When they investigate, the figure appears, causing the man with the nightmare to collapse in fright.
Elsewhere, director Adam Kesher has his film commandeered by mobsters, who insist that he cast an unknown actress named Camilla Rhodes as the lead in his film.
Kesher resists, but after being thrown out of his house when he finds his wife cheating on him, he learns that his bank has closed his line of credit and he is broke.
He agrees to meet a mysterious figure called The Cowboy, who urges him to cast Camilla Rhodes for his own good.
Later, a bungling hit man attempts to steal a book full of phone numbers and leaves three people dead.
While trying to learn more about Rita's accident, Betty and Rita go to Winkie's and are served by a waitress named Diane, which causes Rita to remember the name "Diane Selwyn".
They find Diane Selwyn in the phone book and call her, but she does not answer.
Betty goes to an audition, where her performance is highly praised.
A casting agent takes her to a soundstage where a film called The Sylvia North Story, directed by Kesher, is being cast.
When Camilla Rhodes auditions, Kesher capitulates to casting her.
Betty locks eyes with Adam, but she flees before she can meet him, saying that she is late to meet a friend.
Betty and Rita go to Diane Selwyn's apartment and break in when no one answers the door.
In the bedroom they find the body of a woman who has been dead for several days.
Terrified, they return to their apartment, where Rita disguises herself with a blonde wig.
She and Betty have sex that night.
At 2m, Rita insists that they go to a theater called Club Silencio.
The emcee explains in several languages that everything is an illusion; Rebekah Del Rio comes on stage and begins singing the Roy Orbison song "Crying" in Spanish, then collapses, while her vocals continue – the performance was a recording.
Betty finds a blue box in her purse that matches Rita's key.
Upon returning to the apartment, Rita retrieves the key and finds that Betty has disappeared.
Rita unlocks the box, and it falls to the floor with a thump.
Diane Selwyn wakes up in her bed in the same apartment that Betty and Rita investigated.
She looks exactly like Betty, but is a failed actress driven into a deep depression by her failed affair with Camilla Rhodes, who looks exactly like Rita.
On Camilla's invitation, Diane attends a party at Adam's house on Mulholland Drive.
At dinner, Diane states that she came to Hollywood when her aunt died, and met Camilla at an audition for The Sylvia North Story.
Another woman kisses Camilla, and they turn and smile at Diane.
Adam and Camilla prepare to make an important announcement, and dissolve into laughter and then kiss while Diane watches, crying.
In her apartment, Diane finds a blue key on her coffee table—a key that the hit man had told her she would find when he had finished killing Camilla for her.
Distraught, she is terrorized by hallucinations.
She runs screaming to her bed, where she shoots herself.
A woman at the club whispers "Silencio".
<EOS>
Although most of the gameplay reflects a distinctly fantasy genre, the overarching plot of the first nine games has something of a science fiction background.
The series is set in a fictional galaxy as part of an alternative universe, where planets are overseen by a powerful race of space travelers known as Ancients.
In each of the games, a party of characters fights monsters and completes quests on one of these planets, until they eventually become involved in the affairs of the Ancients.
Van Caneghem has stated in interview that the Might and Magic setting is inspired by his love for both science fiction and fantasy.
He cites The Twilight Zone and the Star Trek episode For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky as having inspired Might and Magic lore.
The first five games in the series concern the renegade guardian of the planet Terra, named Sheltem, who becomes irrevocably corrupted, developing a penchant for throwing planets into their suns.
Sheltem establishes himself on a series of flat worlds known as nacelles (which are implied to be giant spaceships) and Corak, a second guardian and creation of the Ancients, with the assistance of the player characters, pursues him across the Void.
Eventually both Corak and Sheltem are destroyed in a climactic battle on the nacelle of Xeen.
The sixth, seventh and eighth games take place on Enroth, a single planet partially ruled by the Ironfist dynasty, and chronicle the events and aftermath of an invasion by the Kreegan (colloquially referred to as Devils), the demonlike arch-enemies of the Ancients.
It is also revealed that the destruction wrought by the Ancients' wars with the Kreegan is the reason why the worlds of Might & Magic exist as medieval fantasy settings despite once being seeded with futuristic technology – the worlds have been 'cut off' from the Ancients and descended into barbarism.
The first through third games in the Heroes of Might and Magic series traces the fortunes of the Ironfists in more detail.
None of the science fiction elements appear in the Heroes series besides the appearance of Kreegan characters in Heroes of Might and Magic III.
The Ubisoft release Might & Magic X: Legacy departs from this continuity and is set in the world of Ashan.
Ashan is a high fantasy setting with no place for science fiction elements in its lore.
<EOS>
The eponymous theatre troupe is rehearsing the title song with hopes of finding success through being picked up for a syndicated television show.
Heidi (a hippopotamus), the star of the show, is insulted by pornographic director Trevor (a rat) and complains to her boss and lover, Bletch (a walrus), who is actually in an adulterous relationship with Samantha (a cat).
Meanwhile, Robert (a hedgehog), the newest member of the team, arrives at the theatre and immediately falls in love with another newcomer, Lucille (a poodle).
Samantha confronts Heidi, insults her, and reveals her relationship with Bletch.
Robert confesses his love to Lucille, and the two become engaged.
Sid (an elephant) receives a visit from his ex-wife Sandy (a chicken) with his alleged son Seymour (an improbable-looking elephant/chicken hybrid).
Sandy informs him she will be preparing a paternity case against him.
At the toilet, the second most important star of the show, Harry (a hare), is suffering from a mystery disease.
Meanwhile, drug-addicted knife thrower Wynyard (a frog) tells Robert his story of Vietnam, and convinces Robert to give him $50 to buy drugs from Trevor.
After seeing Trevor's latest porno film, Bletch decides they need a new porn star, and Trevor chooses Lucille; he drugs her and tries to rape her as an audition but is caught by Robert.
When he walks in on the scene Robert thinks that Lucille was drinking and throwing herself at Trevor, and tells her he never wants to see her again.
After a good beginning – the Feebles sign with a TV chain to appear in a prime-time television show – Bletch confesses to Heidi that he actually hates her and wants to give the main role to Samantha.
After trying unsuccessfully to attempt suicide, Heidi goes on a shooting spree and kills many of the cast.
t Heidi runs to Bletch after being insulted by Trevor.
Bletch is having sex with Samantha, but hides the tryst.
Although Bletch is physically disgusted by Heidi, he insincerely comforts her since he needs her talent on the show.
Sub-plots.
Later Samantha insults Heidi, claiming Bletch really wants Samantha.
Distraught, Heidi drowns her sorrows in an entire chocolate cake, as she reminisces about her past romance with Bletch in a black-and-white flashback to her days as a lounge singer.
Belching caused by the cake causes Heidi to lay waste to the set during the rehearsal of a feature number; Sebastian (a fox) then lambasts her.
Heidi rushes to Bletch for emotional affirmation, but he is unable to spare her the sight of Samantha performing oral sex on him.
Heidi locks herself in her room and refuses to perform, but relents after Bletch has make-up sex with her.
Heidi's performance helps secure the Feebles a syndicated series.
Shortly afterwards, Heidi attempts to seduce Bletch in his office, but Bletch completely disowns her since Samantha is now to be the star of the show.
Unfortunately, Bletch is unaware of Heidi's extremely fragile mental state.
Robert shows up for his first day as a cast member, and is accosted byW.
(a fly), who tries to corrupt Robert into informing on the cast.
Arthur (a worm) rescues Robert and shows him around, where Robert sees Lucille for the first time.
Although he is romantically terrified of her at first, he later summons up enough courage to ask her out and they fall in love.
Later Trevor drugs Lucille to manipulate her into performing in his pornographic films.
Robert walks in on the drugging, but misinterprets it as Lucille's decision, and disowns her for being a drunk.
They make up later after Robert saves her from Heidi's crazed gun rampage, and they eventually get married and have two children.
Dennis (an aardvark) is shown peeping on Harry in a threesome with two female rabbits.
Harry feels physically ill after this episode and is accosted byW, who assumes he has a sexually transmittable disease (STD) and wants to publish the scandal.
dr Quack (a duck) diagnoses Harry with "The Big One"W.
publishes the scandal in a local tabloid – to the dismay of Bletch, who presumably wants to avoid negative press on the cast.
Trevor luresW.
into the bathroom, where Bletch tears his wings off and flushesW.
down the toilet.
After vomiting all over the stage in the live performance, Harry finally learns that he only has 'bunny pox'.
Unfortunately, while rejoicing in the news that "The Big One" will not cause his death, Harry's head is blown apart by a gunshot during Heidi's rampage.
Trevor is shooting a porn film in the basement with the Masked Masochist (a weta) and Madam Bovine (a cow).
They are interrupted by Robert, who mistakes the scene for torture and tries to save Bovine, who in turn accidentally crushes the Masked Masochist, suffocating him.
Trevor later replaces him with Dennis (who has a snout resembling male genitalia) to perform 'nasal sex' on Bovine.
Trevor is approached by a sniveling Wynyard looking for his fix, but the drugs have not yet been delivered.
Bletch is later shown on a golf course consummating a deal with Cedric (a warthog).
However, after testing on Dennis, the drugs provided by Cedric turn out to be household borax, infuriating Bletch.
Cedric's agent Louie (a dog) is literally liquefied after being force-fed some of the borax by Bletch's henchmen.
Bletch and his cronies venture to the docklands to fight Cedric and his crab-crewmen.
Bletch's side prevails after killing Cedric and the crabs, maneuvering past a huge spider, and driving through the insides of Cedric's boss mr Big (a whale).
However, the spider eats the head of Barry (a bulldog).
When the drugs finally arrive at the theatre, Wynyard is finally able to get his fix, which puts him into a stupor.
While the cast performs an opera number, Sebastian lambasts Robert for not failing his part as an extra on the stage.
As punishment, he assigns Robert the task of replacing Wynyard's assistant, who has just been killed by Wynyard's knife throwing while going through drug withdrawal.
Wynyard guilt-trips Robert into giving him money for drugs, after telling him a horror story about his time in Vietnam (shown as a flashback parodying The Deer Hunter).
He eventually gets his fix from Trevor and injects himself into a deep slumber.
The acts gradually disintegrate – Heidi nearly destroys the set by botching a swing, Abi the Indian mystic (a humanoid) incapacitates himself by contorting himself into a ball, and Sid's tribble-like pets are crushed by a barrel.
Seeing his show in shambles, Sebastian tries to convince Bletch to feature his personal performance, the sexually explicit number 'Sodomy' (which he claims to have done before).
This is summarily rejected by Bletch, who physically throws Sebastian out of his office who curses Bletch for his inaction.
Sebastian later decides to use the number anyway when the situation gets worse and performs it in front of the silent and unamused live audience, much to Bletch's horror (who then schemes to have him eliminated when he gets the chance).
Sandy accuses Sid of being the father of their chicken-elephant child, to his dismay and denial.
During the live show, Sandy again accosts Sid on stage with the paternity suit, declaring she wants everyone to know.
During a later tragic crossfire scene, Sid braves the crazed Heidi's automatic fire to save his son.
His heroism costs the elephant two bloody knee wounds, and he accidentally crushes Sandy's shot-off head (when she demanded the crazed Heidi to shoot Sid, but was shot by Heidi instead) after it squawks out one final invective.
While the live show is proceeding elsewhere, Heidi attempts suicide by hanging, but her weight breaks the chandelier from the ceiling and she falls through the floor.
She makes her way to Bletch's machine gun and tries to kill herself, but at the last moment, Samantha shows up and taunts her.
Heidi, fed up with the cat's taunting and meddling with her life, drops all thoughts of suicide and responds by killing Samantha with the gun.
Meanwhile, Wynyard, in a drugged stupor, tries to kill Robert before accidentally killing himself with his own knife (and the cheering audience not knowing it is real).
Sebastian does his "Sodomy" number before getting injured by a prop, while Heidi rampages over the entire set on a killing spree (even shooting down any cameras near her).
She finally finds Bletch and pumps many rounds into him as well.
Bletch lies to Heidi about loving her having regret for all his actions, which distracts and brings her back to her senses and into dropping her gun and defenses before he then orders Trevor to kill her.
Trevor fires at Heidi and grazes her shoulder, but he then prepares to deal the finishing shot.
However, Robert swings in just in the nick of time to kick Trevor, giving Heidi the chance to get her gun back first and shreds the rat.
Heidi then literally blows Bletch's brain out when he tries to escape.
Realizing that she killed her love and ruined her career, she gives up her gun (promising to turn herself over to the authorities) and sadly sings "Garden of Love", leading into the epilogue and the credits.
The epilogue reveals the fates of only six survivors: Sid gets extensive repair on his kneecaps after being shot by Heidi and works in an orchard as a struggling horticulturist with Seymour.
Arthur received an OBE for his lifelong service at the theater and retires to the country.
Sebastian recovers from his injuries and achieved worldwide fame for his best seller The Feeble Variety Massacre: One Man's Act of Heroism.
and is negotiating film rights.
Robert, now an award-winning fashion photographer for a women's magazine, and Lucille are married with two children.
Finally, Heidi, whose spree resulted in her imprisonment in a women's penitentiary for ten years (implying that, although released in 1989, the film's events occurred in the 1970s), has been rehabilitated under the community and now works under a new identity on the check-out counter of a large supermarket.
<EOS>
The documentary follows the lives of an Inuk, Nanook, and his family as they travel, search for food, and trade in the Ungava Peninsula of northern Quebec, Canada.
Nanook; his wife, Nyla; and their family are introduced as fearless heroes who endure rigors "no other race" could survive.
The audience sees Nanook, often with his family, hunt a walrus, build an igloo, go about his day, and perform other tasks.
<EOS>
Mickey Knox and his wife Mallory stop at a roadside café in the New Mexico desert.
A group of rednecks arrive and one begins sexually harassing Mallory.
She briefly encourages him before beating him to a pulp.
Mickey and Mallory then murder all but one of the diner's patrons, culminating in a morbid game of Eeny, meeny, miny, moe to decide who lives and dies.
After executing the waitress Mabel, the couple ensures that the only survivor remembers their names before they embrace and declare their undying love.
Mickey and Mallory camp out in the desert, and Mallory reminisces about when they first met.
A flashback (done in the style of a TV sitcom, including a laughtrack) shows Mickey as a deliveryman who came to the house where Mallory lived with her sexually abusive father, her neglectful mother, and her younger brother, Kevin.
Mickey and Mallory fall in love instantly and leave together, as Mickey steals a car that belongs to Mallory's father.
Soon Mickey is arrested and imprisoned for auto theft, but he subsequently escapes from a prison work farm during a tornado and returns to Mallory's house.
The two kill Mallory's parents, but spare Kevin, and go on the road together and get "married" on the side of a bridge, celebrating by taking a hostage.
Furious with Mickey's notion that they have a threesome, Mallory drives to a nearby gas station, where she flirts with the mechanic.
They begin to have sex on the hood of a car, but Mallory kills him when he recognizes her as a wanted killer.
During this time, Mickey rapes the hostage.
The pair continue their killing spree, ultimately claiming fifty-two victims in New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada.
Pursuing them is Detective Jack Scagnetti, who became obsessed with mass murderers after witnessing his mother being shot and killed by Charles Whitman when he was eight.
Beneath his heroic facade, he is a violent psychopath, once strangling a prostitute to death.
The killers are also followed by self-serving tabloid journalist Wayne Gale.
Gale profiles Mickey and Mallory on his show, American Maniacs, soon elevating them to cult hero status.
Mickey and Mallory become lost in the desert and encounter Warren Red Cloud, a Navajo Indian, and his young grandson.
After the two fall asleep, the Navajo, hoping to expel the demon he perceives in Mickey, begins chanting beside the fire, invoking nightmares in Mickey about his abusive parents.
Mickey wakes up in a rage and fatally shoots Red Cloud before he realizes what he is doing.
It is the first time Mallory and Mickey feel guilty for a murder.
Fleeing from the scene through the desert, they stray onto a field of rattlesnakes and are both bitten.
They drive to a drugstore to find snakebite antidote, but the pharmacist sets off the silent alarm before Mickey kills him.
Soon police cars arrive and Mallory is captured and subsequently beaten by the police.
A gunfight breaks out between Mickey and the others.
Scagnetti arrives and tells Mickey that unless he surrenders, he will cut off Mallory's breasts.
Mickey gives up his guns, but attacks Scagnetti with a knife.
The police taser him and the scene ends with Mickey and Mallory being beaten by a group of vengeful policemen as a Japanese news crew fronted by a female reporter films the action.
The story picks up one year later: the homicidal couple have been imprisoned, and are due to be moved to a mental hospital after being declared insane.
Scagnetti arrives at the prison and encounters Warden Dwight McClusky, with whom he plans to murder the two criminals.
McClusky will arrange for Scagnetti to be the driver for the Knoxes' transfer.
Alone with the pair, Scagnetti will murder them, then claim that they tried to escape.
Meanwhile, Gale has persuaded Mickey to agree to a live interview that will air immediately after the Super Bowl.
Mallory is held in solitary confinement elsewhere in the prison, awaiting her transport to the mental hospital.
During the interview, Mickey gives a speech about how murder provides enlightenment and declares himself a "natural born killer".
His words inspire the other inmates (who are watching the interview on TV in the recreation room) and incite them to riot.
McClusky, upon learning of the riot, orders the interview terminated despite Gale's vehement protests.
Mickey is left alone with Gale, the film crew and several guards.
Using a lengthy joke as a diversion, Mickey overpowers a guard and grabs his shotgun.
He kills most of the guards with it and takes the survivors hostage, leading them through the prison riot.
Gale follows, giving a live television report as people are beaten and killed around him.
Scagnetti enters Mallory's cell and attempts to seduce her.
Mallory, feigning to reciprocate at first, rebuffs his efforts, smashing his face against the wall and breaking his nose, before two guards subdue her, and Scagnetti sprays her face with tear gas in revenge.
Still live on national television, Mickey arrives at Mallory's cell, where he kills all the guards and engages in a Mexican standoff with Scagnetti, eventually feigning a concession.
Mallory then approaches Scagnetti from behind and slashes his throat with a shank.
To Scagnetti's horror, Mickey tells him that he was out of shotgun shells during the standoff.
Mallory then picks up Scagnetti's gun and kills him.
Mickey and Mallory continue to escape through the riot torn prison, with Gale's entire TV crew getting killed.
Gale himself snaps, succumbing to Stockholm syndrome as well as indulging in his own longtime fascination for murder, and begins to shoot at the guards with a pistol that he has taken from one of the dead guards, but gets so frenzied that Mickey prefers to disarm him.
After being rescued by a mysterious prisoner named Owen Traft, the trio of Mickey, Mallory, and Gale run into McClusky and a heavily armed posse of guards.
The trio takes cover in a blood-splattered shower room.
McClusky threatens to storm the shower room; Mickey, in turn, threatens to kill both Gale and a guard on live TV, and the prisoners walk out the front door, to McClusky's utter dismay, as he helplessly threatens to hunt them down.
McClusky and his guards are then quickly massacred by hordes of inmates.
Mickey and Mallory steal a van and kill the last guard; Owen's fate is unknown.
Escaping to a rural location, they give a final interview to Gale, whose ear they have seemingly removed (implied, but as a camera track reveals), before they tell him he must die also.
He attempts various arguments to change their minds, finally appealing to their trademark practice of leaving one survivor; Mickey informs him they are leaving a witness to tell the tale, his camera.
Gale accepts his fate and extends his arms as if on a cross as they shoot him dead while his unattended camera continues to roll.
The couple is shown several years later, in an RV, with Mickey driving and a pregnant Mallory watching their two children play.
<EOS>
Every night, all human dreams are played out in Nightopia and Nightmare, the two parts of the dream world.
In Nightopia, distinct aspects of dreamers' personalities are represented by luminous coloured spheres known as "Ideya".
The evil ruler of Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked, is stealing this dream energy from sleeping visitors in order to gather power and take control of Nightopia and eventually the real world.
To achieve this, he creates five beings called "Nightmaren": jester-like, flight-capable beings, which include Jackle, Clawz, Gulpo, Gillwing and Puffy as well as many minor maren.
He also creates two "Level One" Nightmaren: Nights and Reala.
However, Nights rebels against Wizeman's plans, and is punished by being imprisoned inside an Ideya palace, a gazebo-like container for dreamers' Ideya.
One day, Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair, two teenagers from the city of Twin Seeds, go through failures.
Elliot is a basketball player who enjoys a game with his friends.
He is challenged by a group of older school students and suffers a humiliating defeat on the court.
Claris is a talented singer and her ambition is to perform on stage.
She auditions for a part in the events commemorating the centenary of the city of Twin Seeds.
Standing in front of the judges, she is overcome by stage fright and does not perform well, which causes her to lose all hopes of getting the role.
When they go to sleep that night, both Elliot and Claris suffer nightmares that replay the events.
They escape into Nightopia and find that they both possess the rare Red Ideya of Courage, the only type that Wizeman cannot steal.
Once in Nightopia, they discover and release Nights, who tells them about dreams and Wizeman and his plans; the three begin a journey to stop Wizeman and restore peace to Nightopia.
When they defeat Wizeman and Reala, peace is returned to Nightopia and the world of Nightmare is suppressed.
The next day, back in Twin Seeds, a centenary ceremony begins.
Elliot is seen walking through the parade until he has a vision of Nights looking at him through a billboard.
Realizing that Claris is performing in a hall, Elliot runs through the crowd and sees Claris on stage in front of a large audience, singing well.
The two look at each other, and are transitioned to a spring valley in Nightopia, which leaves ambiguity as to whether what they achieved was real or just a dream.
<EOS>
Osama bin Laden held Hazmi and Mihdhar in high respect, with their experience fighting during the 1990s in Bosnia and elsewhere.
Al-Qaeda later referred to Hazmi as Mihdhar's "Second-in-command".
When Bin Laden committed to the "planes operation" plot in spring 1999, he personally selected Hazmi and Mihdhar to be involved in the plot as pilot hijackers.
In addition to Hazmi and Mihdhar, two Yemenis were selected for a southeast Asia component of the plot, which was later scrapped for being too difficult to coordinate with the operations in the United States.
Known as Rabi'ah al-Makki during the preparations, Hazmi had been so eager to participate in operations within the United States, he already had a US visa when Bin Laden selected him.
Hazmi obtained a B-1/B-2 tourist visa on April 3, 1999 from the US consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, using a new passport he acquired a few weeks earlier.
Hazmi's passport did have indicators of Al-Qaeda association, but immigration inspectors were not trained to look for those.
In the autumn of 1999, these four attended the Mes Aynak training camp in Afghanistan, which provided advanced training.
Hazmi went with the two Yemenis, Tawfiq bin Attash (Khallad) and Abu Bara al Yemeni, to Karachi, Pakistan where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the plot's coordinator, instructed him on western culture, travel, as well as taught some basic English phrases.
Mihdhar did not go with him to Karachi, but instead left for Yemen.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed then sent Hazmi and the other men to Malaysia for a meeting.
Before leaving for Malaysia, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed doctored Hazmi's Saudi passport in order to conceal his travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and make it appear that Hazmi had come to Malaysia from Saudi Arabia via Dubai.
After the attacks, the Associated Press would re-publish a "bizarre" story by the Cody Enterprise that quoted witnesses stating that Nawaf entered the United States during the autumn of 1999, crossing along the Canada–US border as one of two men delivering skylights to the local high school in Cody, Wyoming.
Leaving the city 45 minutes later with the remaining cardboard boxes, the men allegedly asked "how to get to Florida".
Based on information uncovered by the FBI in the 1998 United States embassy bombings case, the National Security Agency (NSA) began tracking the communications of Mihdhar's father-in-law Ahmad Muhammad Ali al-Hada, who was facilitating al-Qaeda communications, in 1999.
Authorities also became aware of Hazmi, as a friend and associate of Mihdhar.
Saudi Intelligence was also aware that Hazmi was associated with Al-Qaeda, and associated with the 1998 African embassy bombings and attempts to smuggle arms into the kingdom in 1997.
He also said that he revealed this to the CIA, saying "What we told them was these people were on our watch list from previous activities of al-Qaeda" The CIA strongly denies having received any such warning.
In late 1999 the NSA informed the CIA of an upcoming meeting in Malaysia, which Hada mentioned would involve "Khalid", "Nawaf", and "Salem".
On January 5, Hazmi arrived in Kuala Lumpur, where he met up with Mihdhar, Attash, and Abu Bara.
The group was in Malaysia to meet with Hambali for the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit, during which key details of the attacks may have been arranged.
At this time, there was an East Asia component to the September 11 attacks plot, but Bin Laden later canceled it for being too difficult to coordinate with operations in the United States.
Ramzi bin al-Shibh was also at the summit, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed possibly attended the summit.
In Malaysia, the group stayed with Yazid Sufaat, a local member of Jemaah Islamiyah, who provided accommodations at request of Hambali.
Both Mihdhar and Hazmi were secretly photographed at the meeting by Malaysian authorities, who provided surveillance at the request of the CIA.
Malaysian authorities reported that Mihdhar spoke at length with Tawfiq bin Attash, one of the Yemenis, and others who were later involved in the USS Cole bombing.
Hazmi and Mihdhar also met with Fahd al-Quso, who was later involved in the USS Cole bombing.
After the meeting, Mihdhar and Hazmi traveled to Bangkok in Thailand on January 8, and left a week later on January 15 to travel to the United States.
<EOS>
In 2015, fifteen years after a global cataclysm known as the Second Impact, teenager Shinji Ikari is summoned to the futuristic city of Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo Ikari, the director of the special paramilitary force NERV.
Shinji witnesses the United Nations forces battling an Angel: one of a race of giant monstrous beings whose awakening was foretold by the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Because of the Angels' near-impenetrable force-fields, NERV's giant Evangelion bio-machines, synchronized to the nervous systems of their pilots and possessing their own force-fields, are the only weapons capable of keeping the Angels from annihilating humanity.
NERV officer Misato Katsuragi escorts Shinji into the NERV complex beneath the city, where his father pressures him into piloting the Evangelion Unit-01 against the Angel.
Without training, Shinji is quickly overwhelmed in the battle, causing the Evangelion to go berserk and savagely kill the Angel on its own.
Following hospitalization, Shinji moves in with Misato and begins settling into life in Tokyo-3.
In his second battle, Shinji destroys an Angel but runs away after the battle, distraught.
Misato confronts Shinji and he decides to remain a pilot.
Evangelion Unit-00 is repaired and Shinji tries to befriend its pilot, a mysterious, and socially isolated teenage girl named Rei Ayanami.
With Rei's help, Shinji defeats another Angel.
Ritsuko Akagi, NERV's chief scientist, reveals that the Second Impact was not caused by a meteor strike as officially reported, but instead resulted when the first Angel to arrive on Earth, codenamed Adam, exploded in the Antarctic.
The pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, teenage girl Asuka Langley Soryu, moves in with Misato and Shinji and joins her fellow pilots in defeating the next Angels.
Shinji's schoolfriend Toji Suzuhara is selected for Unit-03, but during his first test synchronization with the Evangelion, Unit-03 is hijacked by an Angel.
When Shinji refuses to destroy the rogue unit, his control over Unit-01 is cut off and supplanted by a prototype autopilot system known as the "Dummy Plug" system, and his Evangelion rips apart Unit-03 crushing Toji's cockpit.
Shinji is devastated and quits piloting the Evangelion, but is forced to return to destroy an Angel that has defeated both Asuka and Rei.
Asuka loses her self-confidence following her defeat, and spirals into a deep depression.
This is worsened by her next fight, against an Angel which attacks her mind.
In the next battle, Rei self-destructs Unit-00 and dies to save Shinji's life.
Misato and Shinji later visit the hospital where they find Rei alive but claiming she is "the third Rei".
Misato forces Ritsuko to reveal the dark secrets of NERV, the Evangelion graveyard and the Dummy Plug system which operates using clones of Rei.
Asuka is reduced to a catatonic state by her depression, and Kaworu Nagisa replaces her as pilot of Unit-02.
Kaworu, who initially befriends Shinji, is revealed to be the final Angel.
Kaworu fights Shinji, then realizes that he must die if humanity is to thrive and asks Shinji to kill him.
Despite his initial hesitation, Shinji kills Kaworu.
Soon after this act, NERV and SEELE trigger the forced evolution of humanity, termed the "Human Instrumentality Project", in which the souls of all mankind are merged into one through Rei.
Shinji's soul grapples with the reason for his existence and reaches an epiphany that he needs others to thrive, enabling him to destroy the wall of negative emotions that torment him.
This allows him to be reunited with all of the main characters, who congratulate him.
<EOS>
Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City, Japan.
Once a talented computer hacker, Case was caught stealing from his employer.
As punishment for his theft, Case's central nervous system was damaged with a mycotoxin, leaving him unable to access the global computer network in cyberspace, a virtual reality dataspace called the "matrix".
Case is unemployable, suicidal, and apparently at the top of the hit list of a drug lord named Wage.
Case is saved by Molly Millions, an augmented "street samurai" and mercenary for a shadowy ex-military officer named Armitage, who offers to cure Case in exchange for his services as a hacker.
Case jumps at the chance to regain his life as a "console cowboy," but neither Case nor Molly knows what Armitage is really planning.
Case's nervous system is repaired using new technology that Armitage offers the clinic as payment, but he soon learns from Armitage that sacs of the poison that first crippled him have been placed in his blood vessels as well.
Armitage promises Case that if he completes his work in time, the sacs will be removed; otherwise they will dissolve, disabling him again.
He also has Case's pancreas replaced and new tissue grafted into his liver, leaving Case incapable of metabolizing cocaine or amphetamines and apparently ending his drug addiction.
Case develops a close personal relationship with Molly, who suggests that he begin looking into Armitage's background.
Meanwhile, Armitage assigns them their first job: they must steal a ROM module that contains the saved consciousness of one of Case's mentors, legendary cyber-cowboy McCoy Pauley, nicknamed "Dixie Flatline".
Armitage needs Pauley's hacking expertise, and the ROM construct is stored in the corporate headquarters of media conglomerate Sense/Net.
A street gang named the "Panther Moderns" is hired to create a simulated terrorist attack on Sense/Net.
The diversion allows Molly to penetrate the building and steal Dixie's ROM with Case unlocking the computer safeguards on the way in and out from within the matrix.
Case and Molly continue to investigate Armitage, discovering his former identity of Colonel Willis Corto.
Corto was a member of "Operation Screaming Fist," which planned on infiltrating and disrupting Soviet computer systems from ultralight aircraft dropped over Russia.
The Russian military had learned of the idea and installed defenses to render the attack impossible, but the military went ahead with Screaming Fist, with a new secret purpose of testing these Russian defenses.
As the Operation team attacked a Soviet computer center, EMP weapons shut down their computers and flight systems, and Corto and his men were targeted by Soviet laser defenses.
He and a few survivors commandeered a Soviet military helicopter and escaped over the heavily guarded Finnish border.
Everyone was killed except Corto, who was seriously wounded and heavily mutilated by Finnish defense forces attacking the helicopter as it landed.
After some months in the hospital, Corto was visited by a Government military official and then medically rebuilt to be able to provide what he came to realize was fake testimony, designed to mislead the public and protect the military officers who had covered up knowledge of the EMP weapons.
After the trials, Corto snapped, killing the Government official who had contacted him and then disappearing into the criminal underworld.
In Istanbul, the team recruits Peter Riviera, an artist, thief, and drug addict who is able to project detailed holographic illusions with the aid of sophisticated cybernetic implants.
Although Riviera is a sociopath, Armitage coerces him into joining the team.
The trail leads Case and Molly to Wintermute, a powerful artificial intelligence created by the Tessier-Ashpool family.
The Tessier-Ashpools spend most of their inactive time in cryonic preservation in a labyrinthine mansion known as Villa Straylight, located at one end of Freeside, a cylindrical space habitat at L5, which functions primarily as a Las Vegas-style space resort for the wealthy.
Wintermute's nature is finally revealed—it is one-half of a super-AI entity planned by the family, although its exact purpose is unknown.
The Turing Law Code governing AIs bans the construction of such entities; to get around this, it had to be built as two separate AIs.
Wintermute (housed in a computer mainframe in Berne, Switzerland) was programmed by the Tessier-Ashpools with a need to merge with its other half, Neuromancer (whose physical mainframe is installed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
Unable to achieve this merger on its own, Wintermute recruited Armitage and his team to help complete the goal.
Case is tasked with entering cyberspace to pierce the Turing-imposed software barriers using a powerful icebreaker program.
At the same time, Riviera is to obtain the password to the Turing lock from Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool, an unfrozen daughter clone and the current CEO of the family's corporation, Tessier-Ashpool SA.
Wintermute believes Riviera will pose an irresistible temptation to her, and that she will give him the password.
The password must be spoken into an ornate computer terminal located in Villa Straylight, and entered simultaneously as Case pierces the software barriers in cyberspace—otherwise the Turing lock will remain intact.
Armitage's team attracts the attention of the Turing Police, whose job is to prevent AIs from exceeding their built-in limitations.
As Molly and Riviera gain entrance to Villa Straylight, three officers arrest Case and take him into custody; Wintermute manipulates the orbital casino's security and maintenance systems and kills the officers, allowing Case to escape.
The Armitage personality starts to disintegrate and revert to the Corto personality as he relives Screaming Fist.
It is revealed that in the past, Wintermute had originally contacted Corto through a bedside computer during his convalescence, eventually convincing Corto that he was Armitage.
Wintermute used him to persuade Case and Molly to help it merge with its twin AI, Neuromancer.
Finally, Armitage becomes the shattered Corto again, but his newfound personality is short-lived, as he is killed when Wintermute ejects him through an airlock into space.
Inside Villa Straylight, Riviera meets Lady 3Jane and tries to stop the mission, helping Lady 3Jane and Hideo, her ninja bodyguard, to capture Molly.
Worried about Molly and operating under orders from Wintermute, Case tracks her down with help from Maelcum, his Rastafarian pilot.
Neuromancer attempts to trap Case within a cyber-construct where he finds the consciousness of Linda Lee, his girlfriend from Chiba City, who was murdered by one of Case's underworld contacts.
Case manages to escape after Maelcum gives him an overdose of a drug that can bypass his augmented liver and pancreas.
Then, with Wintermute guiding them, Case goes with Maelcum to confront Lady 3Jane, Riviera, and Hideo.
Riviera tries to kill Case, but Lady 3Jane is sympathetic towards Case and Molly, and Hideo protects him.
Riviera blinds Hideo with a concentrated laser pulse from his projector implant, but flees when he learns that the ninja is just as adept without his sight.
Molly then explains to Case that Riviera is doomed anyway, as he has been fatally poisoned by his drugs, which she had spiked.
With Lady 3Jane in possession of the password, the team makes it to the computer terminal.
Case enters cyberspace to guide the icebreaker to penetrate its target; Lady 3Jane is induced to give up her password, and the lock is opened.
Wintermute unites with Neuromancer, fusing into a superconsciousness.
The poison in Case's bloodstream is washed out, and he and Molly are profusely paid for their efforts, while Pauley's ROM construct is apparently erased, at his own request.
In the epilogue, Molly leaves Case.
Case finds a new girlfriend, resumes his hacking work, and spends his earnings from the mission replacing his internal organs so that he can continue his previous drug use.
Wintermute/Neuromancer contacts him, saying that it has become "the sum total of the works, the whole show," and has begun looking for other AIs like itself.
Scanning old recorded transmissions from the 1970s, the super-AI finds an AI transmitting from the Alpha Centauri star system.
In the matrix, Case hears inhuman laughter, a trait associated with Pauley during Case's work with his ROM construct, thus suggesting that Pauley was not erased after all, but instead worked out a side deal with Wintermute/Neuromancer to be freed from the construct so he could exist in the matrix.
In the end, while logged into the matrix, Case catches a glimpse of himself, his dead girlfriend Linda Lee, and Neuromancer.
The implication of the sighting is that Neuromancer created a copy of Case's consciousness when it previously tried to trap him.
The copy of Case's consciousness now exists with that of Linda's, in the matrix, where they are together forever.
<EOS>
The action takes place in two periods — World War II and the late 1990s, during the Internet boom and Asian financial crisis.
In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, a young United States Navy code breaker and mathematical genius, is assigned to the newly formed joint British and American Detachment 2702.
This ultra-secret unit's role is to hide the fact that Allied intelligence has cracked the German Enigma code.
The detachment stages events, often behind enemy lines, that provide alternative explanations for the Allied intelligence successes.
United States Marine sergeant Bobby Shaftoe, a veteran of China and Guadalcanal, serves in unit 2702, carrying out Waterhouse's plans.
At the same time, Japanese soldiers, including mining engineer Goto Dengo, an old friend of Shaftoe's, are assigned to build a mysterious bunker in the mountains in the Philippines as part of what turns out to be a literal suicide mission.
Circa 1997, Randy Waterhouse (Lawrence's grandson) joins his old role-playing game companion Avi Halaby in a new startup, providing Pinoy-grams (inexpensive, non-real-time video messages) to migrant Filipinos via new fiber-optic cables.
The Epiphyte Corporation uses this income stream to fund the creation of a data haven in the nearby fictional Sultanate of Kinakuta.
Vietnam veteran Doug Shaftoe, the son of Bobby Shaftoe, and his daughter Amy do the undersea surveying for the cables and engineering work on the haven is overseen by Goto Furudenendu, heir-apparent to Goto Engineering.
Complications arise as figures from the past reappear seeking gold or revenge.
<EOS>
Three convicts, Ulysses Everett McGill, Pete Hogwallop, and Delmar O'Donnell escape from a chain gang and set out to retrieve a supposed treasure Everett buried before the area is flooded to make a lake.
The three get a lift from a blind man driving a handcar on a railway.
He tells them, among other prophecies, that they will find a fortune but not the one they seek.
The trio make their way to the house of Wash, Pete's cousin.
They sleep in the barn, but Wash reports them to Sheriff Cooley, who, along with his men, torches the barn.
Wash's son helps them escape.
They pick up Tommy Johnson, a young black man, who claims he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play guitar.
In need of money, the four stop at a radio broadcast tower where they record a song as The Soggy Bottom Boys.
That night, the trio part ways with Tommy after their car is discovered by the police.
Unbeknownst to them, the recording becomes a major hit.
Near a river, the group hears singing.
They see three women washing clothes and singing.
The women drug them with corn whiskey and they lose consciousness.
Upon waking, Delmar finds Pete's clothes lying next to him, empty except for a toad.
Delmar is convinced the women were Sirens and transformed Pete into the toad.
Later, one-eyed Bible salesman Big Dan Teague invites them for a picnic lunch, then mugs them and kills the toad.
Everett and Delmar arrive in Everett's home town.
Everett confronts his wife Penny, who changed her last name and told his daughters he was dead.
He gets into a fight with Vernon Waldrip, her new "suitor".
They later see Pete working on a chain gang.
Later that night, they sneak into Pete's holding cell and free him.
As it turns out, the women had dragged Pete away and turned him in to the authorities.
Under torture, Pete gave away the treasure's location to the police.
Everett then confesses that there is no treasure.
He made it up to convince the guys he was chained with to escape with him.
Pete is enraged at Everett, because he had two weeks left on his original sentence, and must serve fifty more years for the escape.
The trio stumble upon a Ku Klux Klan rally, who are planning to hang Tommy.
The trio disguise themselves as Klansmen and attempt to rescue Tommy.
However, Big Dan, a Klan member, reveals their identities.
Chaos ensues, and the Grand Wizard reveals himself as Homer Stokes, a candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election.
The trio rush Tommy away and cut the supports of a large burning cross, leaving it to fall on Big Dan.
Everett convinces Pete, Delmar and Tommy to help him win his wife back.
They sneak into a Stokes campaign gala dinner she is attending, disguised as musicians.
The group begins a performance of their radio hit.
The crowd recognizes the song and goes wild.
Homer recognizes them as the group who humiliated his mob.
When he demands the group be arrested and reveals his white supremacist views, the crowd runs him out of town on a rail.
Pappy O'Daniel, the incumbent candidate, seizes the opportunity, endorses the Soggy Bottom Boys and grants them full pardons.
Penny agrees to marry Everett with the condition that he find her original ring.
The next morning, the group sets out to retrieve the ring, which is at a cabin in the valley, which Everett earlier claimed was the location of his treasure.
The police, having learned of the place from Pete, arrest the group.
Dismissing their claims of receiving pardons, Sheriff Cooley orders them hanged.
Just as Everett prays to God, the valley is flooded and they are saved.
Tommy finds the ring in a desk that floats by, and they return to town.
However, when Everett presents the ring to Penny, she tells him that it is not hers and insists that he find it, even though she does not remember where she left it.
<EOS>
The series features the exploits and mishaps of irascible pensioner Victor Meldrew, who after being forced to retire from his job as a security guard, finds himself at war with the world and everything in it.
Meldrew, cursed with misfortune and always complaining, is married to long-suffering wife Margaret, who is often left exasperated by his many misfortunes.
Amongst other witnesses to Victor's wrath are tactless family friend Jean Warboys, and next-door couple Patrick (Victor's nemesis) and Pippa Trench.
Patrick often discovers Victor in inexplicably bizarre or compromising situations, leading him to believe that he is insane.
The Meldrews' neighbour on the other side, overly cheery charity worker Nick Swainey, also adds to Victor's frustration.
Although set in a traditional suburban setting, the show subverts this genre with a strong overtone of black comedy.
Series One's "The Valley of Fear" is an episode which caused controversy, when Victor finds a frozen cat in his freezer.
Writer David Renwick also combined farce with elements of tragedy.
For example, in the final episode, Victor is killed by a hit-and-run driver, and although there is no explicit reference that Victor and Margaret had children, the episode "Timeless Time" contained a reference to someone named Stuart; the strong implication being that they once had a son who had died as a child.
A number of episodes were also experimental in that they took place entirely in one setting.
Such episodes include: Victor, Margaret and Mrs Warboys stuck in a traffic jam; Victor and Margaret in bed suffering insomnia; Victor left alone in the house waiting to see if he has to take part in jury service; Victor and Margaret having a long wait in their solicitor's waiting room; and Victor and Margaret trying to cope during a power cut on the hottest night of the year.
Despite Margaret's frequent exasperation with her husband's antics, the series shows that the couple have a deep affection for one another.
This is demonstrated several times throughout the series.
<EOS>
The story begins in Otaku no Video 1982, where the main character is an everyman character, Ken Kubo, living with his girlfriend Yoshiko and as a member of his college's tennis team, until introduced by his former friend Tanaka to a club of enthusiasts: a female illustrator, an information geek, a martial artist, and a weapons collector.
Kubo soon joins them; and when Yoshiko abandons him, makes the wish to become the supreme enthusiast, under the name of "Otaking".
Kubo's quest continues in More Otaku no Video 1985, set three years later, in which he creates his model kits, opens shops, and builds a factory in China.
Later, he loses his fortune when one of his rivals (now married to Yoshiko) takes control of his enterprise; but Kubo and Tanaka, with hard-working artist Misuzu, gradually take over the anime industry with a 'magical girl' show, "Misty May".
At the peak of their ambitions, Ken and Tanaka create Otakuland in 1999: the equivalent of Disneyland for otaku (the story suggests Otakuland to be located in the same city of Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, as the original Tokyo Disneyland)  Many years later, Ken and Tanaka return to Otakuland in a post-apocalyptic submerged Japan and find its central structure, a giant robot, converted into a functional spaceship piloted by their old friends.
Miraculously rejuvenated, they fly into space in search of "The Planet of Otaku".
<EOS>
Original Sin is set in the late 19th century Cuba during the Spanish rule, and flashes back and forth from the scene of a woman awaiting her execution by garrote while telling her story to a priest, to the actual events of that story.
Luis Vargas (Antonio Banderas) sends for American Julia Russell (Angelina Jolie) from Delaware,SA.
to sail to his country Cuba to be his mail-order bride.
Julia alights from the ship, looking nothing like the photos she's sent prior to her voyage.
Julia explains she wants more than a man who is only interested in a pretty face and that's why she has been deceptive - substituting a plain-looking woman's photo in place of her own picture.
Luis also admits to a deception; he has been misleading her into believing that he is a poor clerk in a coffee export house, instead of being the rich owner of that coffee export house.
On hearing this, Julia says that they both have something in common and that is that both are not to be trusted.
But they assure each other that they would make efforts in understanding and trusting each other in life.
Luis and Julia wed in the church within hours of her setting foot in Cuba.
Luis falls passionately in love with his new wife.
They passionately make love.
Meanwhile, Julia's sister Emily has been trying to contact her, worried about her after such a long trip to a strange land.
She sends an emotional letter to Julia asking about her welfare.
Luis forces Julia to write back, fearing that if Julia continues to ignore Emily's letters, Emily will assume something terrible has befallen her sister and she might send the authorities to check on her welfare.
Holding off as long as possible, Julia finally pens a letter to her sister.
In order to assure that his wife has everything she wants, Luis adds Julia to his business and personal bank accounts, giving her free rein to spend as she pleases.
Luis discovers that Julia has run off with nearly all of his fortune and then teams up with a detective, Walter Downs (Thomas Jane), hired by Emily to find her real sister Julia.
Walter arrived from Wilmington and tells Luis that he would like to see Julia on the coming Sunday.
Luis informs Julia about this and she gets upset.
Emily arrives in Cuba and meets Luis and shows the letter Julia wrote to her.
She informs Luis that he believes Julia to be an impostor and that her sister Julia may be dead and that the impostor may be working with someone.
The two set out together looking for her.
Luis finds Julia and discovers she is actually working with Walter and that he and Luis are staying at the same hotel.
Luis believes she loves him and lies to Walter, but, when confronted, a fight breaks out and Luis shoots Walter.
Julia coldly tells Luis to go and buy them tickets home, but the minute he leaves, Walter gets to his feet; he had loaded the gun with blanks.
Julia appears to love Luis, but, Walter has too much control over her, so, she continues to work for him as she and Luis run off to live in secret with the supposedly dead Walter in pursuit.
Walter turns out to be Julia (Bonny's) old lover and partner Billy.
Luis throws away his promising future and opens himself to living a lie with Julia.
One night, Luis follows Julia/Bonny and discovers Walter/ Billy is alive and that the two are still working together; she is apparently going to poison her husband that very night.
He returns home and waits for her and when she arrives, he reveals that he knows about the plan, confesses his love for her once more and swallows the poisoned drink Though she tries hard to stop him.
Julia flees with the dying Luis, with Walter close behind.
They run into him at a train station; Walter is furious that Julia has betrayed him.
As Walter holds a knife to her throat, Luis shoots and wounds him, with Julia finishing him off by shooting.
Back in the mise en scene, Julia finishes her story and asks the priest to pray with her.
The next morning the guards come to her cell to take her to her execution, only to find the priest kneeling in her clothing.
In Morocco, Julia is watching a card game.
She walks around the table occupied by gamblers - including Luis - and thanks them for allowing her to watch.
As Julia signals Luis about the other players' cards, he begins telling them the story of how they got there.
<EOS>
The film opens to two muscle-bound men dressed in loincloths approaching a crypt.
They open the doors, revealing a coffin.
They remove the lid and exit the crypt, then the inhabitant of the coffin (Criswell) sits up to deliver an opening narration.
This narration mostly matches the prologue of Night of the Ghouls (1959), with one minor variation and an additional line.
The phrase "world between the living and the dead" of the original is changed to "void between.
".
There is also a new line at the end: "A night with the ghouls, the ghouls reborn, from the innermost depths of the world.
" The opening credits feature the image of "an immobile young woman clad in gold".
The image was probably inspired by a memorable scene of Goldfinger (1964).
Following the credits, the camera shifts to a lone Chevrolet Corvair driving down a California desert road.
Its passengers Bob (William Bates) and Shirley (Pat Barrington) are arguing over the decision to use this night to search for a cemetery.
Bob is a horror writer who hopes that the scene of a cemetery at night will bring him inspiration.
The conversation ends when Bob accidentally drives the car off the road and over a cliff.
The next scene opens to a nocturnal image of a fog-shrouded cemetery.
The lonely figure of the Emperor (Criswell) walks towards a marble altar, sits, and then summons his "Princess of the Night", the Black Ghoul (Fawn Silver), who appears and bows before him.
The Emperor warns that if the night's entertainment fails to please him, he will banish the souls of the entertainers to eternal damnation, indicating that he is an all-powerful demonic being.
As the full moon appears, the Black Ghoul summons the first dancer of the night, a Native American woman (Bunny Glaser).
The Black Ghoul explains that this woman loved flames, and that both she and her lovers died in flames.
The woman dances and strips before the flames of the cemetery.
The Black Ghoul then introduces the second dancer of the night, a street walker in life.
While the woman dances, Bob and Shirley make their way to the cemetery and start observing the dance from a distance.
Shirley suspects that they are observing a college initiation, though Bob seriously doubts her theory.
The Emperor himself summons the third dancer, a woman who worshiped gold above else.
The Golden Girl (Pat Barrington) dances in her turn, and the Emperor instructs his loin-clothed servants to reward her with gold.
The supposed reward is soon revealed to be a punishment, as the servants place her in a cauldron with liquid gold.
What emerges from the cauldron is a golden statue of the living woman who entered.
The servants transport the immobile statue to a nearby crypt.
At this point, a werewolf (John Andrews) and mummy (Louis Ojena) appear and seize the intruding young couple.
They are brought before the Emperor who decides to postpone deciding their fate.
The intruders are tied up, side by side, and allowed to continue watching the dances.
The Black Ghoul next introduces the fourth dancer, a "Cat Woman" (Texas Starr).
She is depicted as a woman dressed in a leopard costume, which exposes her chest area.
As she dances, a servant follows her around and thrashes her with a bullwhip.
Offering a sadomasochistic show for the spectators.
The Emperor next calls for a Slave Girl (Nadejda Dobrev) to be whipped for his amusement.
The slave wears a tunic and is chained to a wall.
Following her torture session, the Slave Girl breaks free and becomes the fifth dancer of the night.
Later, the Black Ghoul exhibits a fascination with Shirley and scratches a mark on her.
She draws a knife and seems about to kill Shirley, when the Emperor decides it is not yet time for the intruders to properly join them.
The female ghoul reluctantly obeys.
The Emperor is puzzled when a human skull appears instead of the next dancer.
The Black Ghoul explains it is the symbol of the sixth dancer, who loved bullfighting and matadors.
She used to dance over their demise, and now it's time to dance over her own.
The dancer of apparent Spanish/Mexican heritage (Stephanie Jones) appears to perform.
The Emperor and Ghoul briefly discuss the past of the dancer, who came to them on the Day of the Dead.
The seventh dancer appears dressed in Polynesian garments.
The Black Ghoul describes her as a worshiper of snakes, smoke, and flames.
A rattlesnake is depicted along with her dance.
The camera shifts to the mummy and the werewolf.
The mummy voices his dislike of snakes and recalls the death of Cleopatra.
He informs his companion that ancient Egypt had many snakes and they were the stuff of nightmares.
The Emperor next expresses his boredom and demands "unusual" entertainment, while the Black Ghoul notes that the night is almost over.
She reminds her superior that they will be gone at the first sight of the morning sun.
They proceed to argue over the fate of Shirley.
The argument ends with the introduction of the eighth dancer (Barbara Nordin), a woman who murdered her husband on their wedding night.
She dances with the skeleton of her spouse.
The argument over Shirley then resumes, as the Ghoul claims her for her own.
The Emperor feels the need to assert his own authority over the Black Ghoul.
The ninth dancer (Dene Starnes) was a zombie in life and remains zombie-like in death.
The tenth and final dancer (Rene De Beau) is introduced as one who died for feathers, fur, and fluff.
She starts her dance in clothing matching this style.
When the final dance ends, the Emperor finally offers Shirley to the Ghoul.
The Ghoul briefly dances herself as she prepares to claim her prize.
But dawn arrives and with it sunlight.
The Emperor and all his undead are reduced to bones.
The final scene has Bob and Shirley waking up at the scene of the accident, surrounded by paramedics, suggesting it was all a dream.
Criswell appears in his coffin to offer parting words to the audience.
<EOS>
Electrostatic plotters used a dry toner transfer process similar to that in many photocopiers.
They were faster than pen plotters and were available in large formats, suitable for reproducing engineering drawings.
The quality of image was often not as good as contemporary pen plotters.
Electrostatic plotters were made in both flat-bed and drum types.
Cutting plotters use knives to cut into a piece of material (such as paper, mylar or vinyl) that is lying on the flat surface area of the plotter.
It is achieved because the cutting plotter is connected to a computer, which is equipped with specialized cutting design or drawing computer software programs.
Those computer software programs are responsible for sending the necessary cutting dimensions or designs in order to command the cutting knife to produce the correct project cutting needs.
In recent years the use of cutting plotters (generally called die-cut machines) has become popular with home enthusiasts of paper crafts such as cardmaking and scrapbooking.
Such tools allow desired card shapes to be cut out very precisely, and repeated perfectly identically.
<EOS>
The film begins with a voiceover describing the trench warfare situation of World War I up to 1916.
In a château, General Georges Broulard (Adolphe Menjou), a member of the French General Staff, asks his subordinate, the ambitious General Mireau (George Macready), to send his division on a suicide mission to take a well-defended German position called the "Anthill".
Mireau initially refuses, citing the impossibility of success and the danger to his beloved soldiers, but when Broulard mentions a potential promotion, Mireau quickly convinces himself the attack will succeed.
Mireau proceeds to walk through the trenches, asking several soldiers, "Ready to kill more Germans.
" He throws a disturbed private (Fred Bell) out of the regiment for showing signs of shell shock, which Mireau considers simple cowardice.
Mireau leaves the detailed planning of the attack to the 701st Regiment’s Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), despite Dax's protests that the only result of the attack will be to weaken the French Army with heavy losses for no benefit.
During a nighttime scouting mission prior to the attack, a drunken lieutenant named Roget (Wayne Morris) sends one of his two men ahead as a scout.
Overcome by fear while waiting for the scout's return, he lobs a grenade and retreats.
The other soldier—Corporal Paris (Ralph Meeker)—finds the body of the scout, killed by the grenade.
Having safely returned, he confronts Roget, but Roget denies any wrongdoing, and falsifies his report to Colonel Dax.
The next morning, the attack on the Anthill proceeds.
Dax leads the first wave of soldiers over the top into no man's land under heavy fire, but the attack is a failure.
None of the men reach the German trenches, and B Company refuse to leave their own trench after sustaining heavy casualties.
Mireau, enraged, orders his artillery to open fire on them to force them onto the battlefield.
The artillery commander refuses to fire on his own men without written confirmation of the order.
Meanwhile, Dax returns to the trenches, and tries to rally B Company to join the battle, but as he climbs out of the trench, the body of a dead French soldier knocks him down.
To deflect blame for the failure, Mireau decides to court martial 100 of the soldiers for cowardice.
Broulard convinces him to reduce the number to three, one from each company.
Corporal Paris is chosen because his commanding officer, Roget, wishes to keep him from testifying about his actions in the scouting mission.
Private Ferol (Timothy Carey) is picked by his commanding officer because he is a "social undesirable".
The last man, Private Arnaud (Joe Turkel), is chosen randomly by lot, despite having been cited for bravery twice previously.
Dax, who was a criminal defense lawyer in civilian life, volunteers to defend the men at their court-martial.
The trial, however, is a farce.
Dax protests the lack of a stenographic record, the lack of a formal written indictment, and the court's refusal to admit evidence that would support acquittal.
In his closing statement, Dax challenges the court's authenticity, and requests mercy, saying, "Gentlemen of the court, to find these men guilty would be a crime to haunt each of you till the day you die".
Nonetheless, the three men are sentenced to death.
Captain Rousseau (John Stein), the artillery commander who had earlier refused Mireau's order to fire on his own men, arrives to tell Dax about the incident.
Dax confronts Broulard as he is attending a ball with sworn statements by the witnesses attesting to Mireau's order to shell his own trenches, and tries to blackmail the General Staff into sparing his men.
Broulard takes the statements but brusquely dismisses Dax.
The next morning, the three condemned men are led out into a courtyard, among soldiers from all three companies and senior officers.
Arnaud, injured during a desperate outburst in prison, is carried out on a stretcher and tied to the execution post.
A sobbing Ferol is blindfolded.
Paris is offered a blindfold by Roget, but refuses.
Roget, whom Dax has forced to lead the executions, meekly apologizes to Paris for what he has done, eliciting an ambiguous response.
All three men are then shot and killed by the firing squad.
Following the execution, Broulard has breakfast with the gloating Mireau.
Dax enters, invited by Broulard.
Broulard then reveals that Mireau will be investigated for the order to fire on his own men.
Mireau leaves angrily, protesting that he has been made a scapegoat.
Broulard then blithely offers Mireau's command to Dax, assuming that Dax's attempts to stop the executions were a ploy to gain Mireau's job.
Discovering that Dax is in fact sincere, Broulard angrily rebukes him for his idealism while a disgusted Dax calls Broulard a "degenerate, sadistic old man".
After the execution, some of Dax's soldiers are raucously partying at an inn.
Their mood shifts as they listen to a captive German girl (Christiane Harlan, later Kubrick) sing a sentimental folk song.
They are unaware that orders have come for them to return to the front.
Dax lets the men enjoy a few minutes while his face hardens as he returns to his quarters.
<EOS>
The story begins in a future world where global temperatures have risen so high that in most of the world it is unsafe to be outside without special cooling gear during daylight hours.
In a desperate bid to preserve humanity and ease population burdens on Earth, the UN has initiated a "draft" for colonizing the nearby planets, where conditions are so horrific and primitive that the unwilling colonists have fallen prey to a form of escapism involving the use of an illegal drug (CAN-D) in concert with "layouts".
Layouts are physical props intended to simulate a sort of alternate reality where life is easier than either the grim existence of the colonists in their marginal off-world colonies, or even Earth, where global warming has progressed to the point that Antarctica is prime vacation resort territory.
The illegal drug CAN-D allows people to "share" their experience of the "Perky Pat" (the name of the main female character in the simulated world) layouts.
This "sharing" has caused a pseudo-religious cult or series of cults to grow up around the layouts and the use of the drug.
Up to the point where the novel begins, New York City-based Perky Pat (orP) Layouts, Inc, has held a monopoly on this product, as well as on the illegal trade in the drug CAN-D which makes the shared hallucinations possible.
The novel opens shortly after Barney Mayerson,P.
Layouts' top precog, has received a "draft notice" from the UN for involuntary resettlement as a colonist on Mars.
Mayerson is sleeping with his assistant, Roni Fugate, but remains conflicted about the divorce, which he himself initiated, from his first wife Emily, a ceramic pot artist.
Meanwhile, Emily's second husband tries to sell her pot designs toP.
Layouts as possible accessories for the Perky Pat virtual worlds—but Barney, recognizing them as Emily's, rejects them out of spite.
Meanwhile, the UN rescues Palmer Eldritch's ship from a crash on Pluto.
Leo Bulero, head ofP.
Layouts and an "evolved" human (meaning someone who has undergone expensive genetic treatments by a German "doctor" which are supposed to push the client "forward" on an evolutionary scale, and which result in gross physical, as well as mental, modifications), hears rumors that Eldritch discovered an alien hallucinogen in the Prox system with similar properties to CAN-D, and that he plans to market it as "Chew-Z," with UN approval, on off-world colonies.
However CHEW-Z does not require the prop of the external layouts and seems to have certain undefined qualities that make the use of CHEW-Z even more addictive than CAN-D has been.
This would effectively destroyP.
Layouts.
Bulero tries to contact Eldritch but he is quarantined at a UN hospital.
Both Mayerson and Fugate have precognitions of reports that Bulero is going to be responsible for murdering Eldritch.
Meanwhile, Emily and her second husband sell her pottery designs to Eldritch and use the payment to undergo evolution therapy.
Unfortunately, Emily begins to devolve rather than evolve.
This devolution results in a loss of creativity and she finds herself recreating older, less sophisticated designs from earlier work, without realizing it.
Under the guise of a reporter, Bulero travels to Eldritch's estate on the Moon, where Eldritch holds a press conference.
Bulero is kidnapped and forced to take Chew-Z intravenously.
He enters a psychic netherworld over which both he and Eldritch seemingly have some control.
After wrangling about business with Eldritch, Bulero travels to what appears to be Earth at some time in the not-too-distant future.
Evolved humans identify him as a ghost and show him a monument to himself commemorating his role in the death of Eldritch, an "enemy of the Sol System".
Bulero returns to Earth and fires Mayerson because Mayerson was afraid to travel to the Moon to rescue him.
Mayerson, in despair, accepts his UN conscription to Mars but Bulero recruits him as a double agent.
Mayerson is to inject himself with a toxin after taking Chew-Z in a plot to deceive the UN into thinking Chew-Z is harmful and cause them to ban it.
On Mars, Mayerson buys some Chew-Z from Eldritch, who appears in holographic form.
Mayerson tries to hallucinate a world where he is still with Emily but finds that he does not control his apparent hallucination.
Like Bulero, he finds himself in the future.
Mayerson arrives in New York two years hence where he speaks with Bulero, Fugate and his future self about the death of Palmer Eldritch.
He also encounters several manifestations of Eldritch, identifiable by their robotic right hand, artificial eyes, and steel teeth.
Eldritch offers to help Mayerson become whatever he wants, but is so controlling of the CHEW-Z alternate reality that Mayerson ultimately decides he'd rather be dead than continue to be manipulated by Eldritch.
When a despairing Mayerson chooses death, he finds himself apparently forced into Eldritch's body right at the point in the timeline where Bulero is ready to shoot a torpedo at Eldritch's ship.
It appears that Eldritch's plan is to preserve his own life essence housed in Mayerson's body while allowing Mayerson himself to die in Eldritch's place.
Eldritch, meanwhile, intends to live on in Mayerson's form and enjoy the simple if arduous life of a Martian colonist.
Mayerson, stuck in Eldritch's body and mistaken for him, is indeed nearly killed by Bulero in the near future, but before the fatal shot can be fired he is awakened from his Chew-Z trance in the present by Bulero, who has just arrived on Mars.
Bulero is willing to take Mayerson back to Earth but refuses to after learning that Mayerson did not inject himself with the toxin.
Mayerson is now confident that Bulero will kill Eldritch, so the sacrifice of taking the toxin in order to ruin Eldritch's business is unnecessary; but he does not try to convince Bulero of this.
Later, Mayerson discusses his experience with a neo-Christian colonist and they conclude that either Eldritch became a god in the Prox system or some god-like being has taken his place.
Mayerson is convinced some aspect of Eldritch is still inside him, and that as long as he refuses to take Chew-Z again, it is Eldritch who will actually be killed by Bulero in the near future; Mayerson is half-resigned, half-hopeful about taking on the life of a Martian colonist without reprieve.
Mayerson considers the possibility of Eldritch being what humans have always thought of as a god, but inimical, or perhaps merely an inferior aspect of a bigger and better sort of god.
The novel has an ambiguous ending, with Bulero heading back toward Earth, and apparent proliferation of Eldritch's cyborg bodily 'stigmata', which may mean that Bulero is still trapped in Eldritch's hallucinatory domain, or that Chew-Z is becoming increasingly popular among Terrans and Martian colonists.
<EOS>
Ragle Gumm believes that he lives in the year 1959 in a quiet American suburb.
His unusual profession consists of repeatedly winning the cash prize in a local newspaper competition called, "Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next.
".
Gumm's 1959 has some differences from ours: the Tucker car is in production, AM/FM radios are scarce to non-existent and Marilyn Monroe is a complete unknown.
As the novel opens, strange things begin to happen to Gumm.
A soft-drink stand disappears, replaced by a small slip of paper with the words "SOFT-DRINK STAND" printed on it in block letters.
Intriguing little pieces of the real 1959 turn up: a magazine article on Marilyn Monroe, a telephone book with non-operational exchanges listed and radios hidden away in someone else's house.
People with no apparent connection to Gumm, including military pilots using aircraft transceivers, refer to him by name.
Few other characters notice these or experience similar anomalies; the sole exception is Gumm's supposed brother-in-law, Victor "Vic" Nielson, in whom he confides.
A neighborhood woman, mrs Keitelbein, invites him to a Civil Defense class where he sees a model of a futuristic underground military factory.
He has the unshakeable feeling he's been inside that building many times before.
Confusion gradually mounts for Gumm.
His neighbor Bill Black knows far more about these events than he admits, and, observing this, begins worrying: "Suppose Ragle [Gumm] is becoming sane again.
" In fact, Gumm does become sane, and the deception surrounding him (erected to protect and exploit him) begins to unravel.
Gumm tries to escape the town and is turned back by kafkaesque obstructions.
He sees a magazine with himself on the cover, in a military uniform, at the factory depicted in the model.
He tries a second time to escape, this time with Vic, and succeeds.
He learns that his idyllic town is a constructed reality designed to protect him from the frightening fact that he lives on a then-future Earth (circa 1998) that is at war against Lunar colonists who are fighting for a permanent Lunar settlement, politically independent from Earth.
Gumm has a unique ability to predict where the colonists' nuclear strikes will be aimed.
Previously Gumm did this work for the military, but then he defected to the colonists' side and planned to secretly emigrate to the Moon.
But before this could happen he began retreating into a fantasy world based largely upon the relatively idyllic surroundings of his extreme youth.
He was no longer able to shoulder his responsibility as Earth's lone protector from Lunar-launched nuclear offensives.
The fake town was thereby created within Gumm's mind to accommodate and rationalise his dementia so that he could continue predicting nuclear strikes in the guise of submitting entries to a harmless newspaper contest and without the ethical qualms involved with being on the "wrong" side of a civil war.
When Gumm finally remembers his true personal history, he decides to emigrate to the Moon after all because he feels that exploration and migration, as basic human impulses, should never be denied to people by any national or planetary government.
Vic rejects this belief, referring to the colonists essentially as aggressors and terrorists, and returns to the simulated town- which has lost its raison d'etre because of Gumm's escape from its environs.
The book ends with some hope for peace, because the Lunar colonists are more willing to negotiate than Earth's "One Happy World" regime has been telling its citizens.
<EOS>
The novel is set in the year 1992, by which humanity has colonized the Moon and psychic powers are common.
The protagonist, Joe Chip, is a debt-ridden technician working for Runciter Associates, a "prudence organization" which employs "inertials", people with the ability to negate the powers of telepaths and "precogs", to enforce privacy of clients.
The company is run by Glenn Runciter, assisted by his deceased wife Ella, who is kept in a state of "half-life", a form of cryonic suspension that allows the deceased limited consciousness and ability to communicate.
While consulting with Ella, Runciter discovers that her consciousness is being invaded by another half-lifer, Jory Miller.
When business magnate Stanton Mick hires Runciter Associates to secure his lunar facilities from alleged psychic intrusion, Runciter assembles a team of 11 of his best inertials, including Pat Conley, a mysterious girl with the unique psychic ability to undo events by changing the past who has just been hired by the company.
Runciter and Chip travel with the group to Mick's Moon base, where they discover that the assignment is a trap, presumably set by the company's main adversary, Ray Hollis, who leads an organization of psychics.
A bomb blast apparently kills Runciter without significantly harming the others.
They rush back to Earth to place him into half-life, but they cannot establish contact with him and his body is set to be buried.
From the moment of the explosion, the group begins to experience strange shifts in reality.
Many objects they come into contact with are much older than they should be, some of them being older types of the same object, and they gradually find themselves moving into the past, eventually anchoring in 1939.
At the same time, they find themselves surrounded by "manifestations" of Runciter, for example as his face appears on their money.
Furthermore, members of the group one by one begin to feel tired and cold, then quickly wither away and die.
Chip attempts to make sense of what is happening, and discovers two contradictory messages from Runciter, one stating that he is alive and they are dead, and another claiming to have been recorded by him while he was still alive; the latter message advertises Ubik, a product which can be used to temporarily reverse deterioration.
He deduces that they may have all died in the blast, now linked together in half-life, and unsuccessfully tries to get hold of Ubik.
After receiving another message, Chip accuses Conley of working for Hollis and causing the deterioration with her ability, and while he himself is withering away, she confirms this.
As she leaves him to die, he is saved by Runciter, who sprays him with Ubik and tells him that the group is indeed in half-life and he himself is alive and trying to help them, though he does not know where Ubik comes from.
As Runciter disappears, Jory Miller reveals himself to Chip, telling him that he, not Conley, has killed off now the entire group, as he "consumes" half-lifers to sustain himself, and that the entire reality they are experiencing is created and maintained by him, except the reversal to 1939.
However, Chip is temporarily protected from being consumed through the effect of Ubik, and leaves Jory.
As he at last begins to deteriorate again, he meets Ella, who saves him by granting him a life-long supply of Ubik, and instructs him to stay half-alive to assist Runciter after she herself reincarnates.
Ubik is claimed to have been developed by her and several other half-lifers as a defense against Jory.
Each chapter is introduced by a commercial advertising Ubik as a different product serving a specific use.
The last chapter is introduced by Ubik claiming that it has created and directed the universe, and that its real name is unknown and unspoken.
In the short chapter, Runciter, who is in the "living" world mourning the loss of his best employees, finds himself with coins showing Chip's face, and feels that this is "just the beginning".
<EOS>
In this alternate history, the corrupt United States president Ferris Fremont (FFF for 666, ‘F’ being the 6th letter in the alphabet) becomes Chief Executive in the late 1960s following Lyndon Johnson's administration.
The character is best described as an amalgam of Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon, who abrogates civil liberties and human rights through positing a conspiracy theory centered on a (presumably) fictitious subversive organization known as "Aramchek".
In addition to this, he is associated with a right-wing populist movement called "Friends of the American People" (FAPers).
The President's paranoia and opportunism lead to the establishment of a real resistance movement that is organized through narrow-beam radio transmissions from a mysterious alien near-Earth satellite by a superintelligent, extraterrestrial, but less than omnipotent being (or network) named VALIS.
Like its successor VALIS, this novel is autobiographical.
Dick himself is a major character, though fictitious protagonist Nicholas Brady serves as a vehicle for Dick's alleged gnostic theophany on February 11, 1974.
In addition, Silvia Sadassa is a character who claims that Ferris Fremont is actually a communist covert agent recruited by Sadassa's mother when Fremont was still a teenager.
As with VALIS, Radio Free Albemuth deals with Dick's highly personal style of Christianity (or Gnosticism).
It further examines the moral and ethical repercussions of informing on trusted friends for the authorities.
Also prominent is Dick's dislike of the Republican Party, satirizing Nixon's America as a Stalinist or neo-fascist police state.
Fremont eventually captures and imprisons Dick and Brady after the latter attempts to produce and distribute a record that contains subliminal messages of revolt against the current dictatorship.
Brady and Silvia are executed, and Dick narrates the concluding passage about his life in a concentration camp, where his supposedly latest work is actually penned by a ghost writer and regime-approved hack.
Suddenly, however, he hears music blaring from a transistor radio which contains the same subliminal message.
He and his friends, it turns out, were just a decoy set up by VALIS to detour the government from stopping a much more popular A-List band from releasing a similar record with a better-established recording company.
As Dick realizes this and hears youngsters repeating the lyrics, he realizes that salvation may lie within the hearts and minds of the next generation.
<EOS>
As he entered st Peter's Square to address an audience on 13 May 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca, an expert Turkish gunman who was a member of the militant fascist group Grey Wolves.
The assassin used a Browning 9&nbsp;mm semi-automatic pistol, shooting the pope in the abdomen and perforating his colon and small intestine multiple times.
John Paul II was rushed into the Vatican complex and then to the Gemelli Hospital.
On the way to the hospital, he lost consciousness.
Even though the two bullets missed his mesenteric artery and abdominal aorta, he lost nearly three-quarters of his blood.
He underwent five hours of surgery to treat his wounds.
Surgeons performed a colostomy, temporarily rerouting the upper part of the large intestine to let the damaged lower part heal.
When he briefly regained consciousness before being operated on, he instructed the doctors not to remove his Brown Scapular during the operation.
One of the few people allowed in to see him at the Gemelli Clinic was one of his closest friends philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, who arrived on Saturday 16 May and kept him company while he recovered from emergency surgery.
The pope later stated that Our Lady of Fátima helped keep him alive throughout his ordeal.
Could I forget that the event in st Peter's Square took place on the day and at the hour when the first appearance of the Mother of Christ to the poor little peasants has been remembered for over sixty years at Fátima, Portugal.
For in everything that happened to me on that very day, I felt that extraordinary motherly protection and care, which turned out to be stronger than the deadly bullet.
Ağca was caught and restrained by a nun and other bystanders until police arrived.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Two days after Christmas in 1983, John Paul II visited Ağca in prison.
John Paul II and Ağca spoke privately for about twenty minutes.
John Paul II said, "What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me.
I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust".
Numerous other theories were advanced to explain the assassination attempt, some of them controversial.
One such theory, advanced by Michael Ledeen and heavily pushed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency at the time of the assassination but never substantiated by evidence, was that the Soviet Union was behind the attempt on John Paul II's life in retaliation for the pope's support of Solidarity, the Catholic, pro-democratic Polish workers' movement.
This theory was supported by the 2006 Mitrokhin Commission, set up by Silvio Berlusconi and headed by Forza Italia senator Paolo Guzzanti, which alleged that Communist Bulgarian security departments were utilised to prevent the Soviet Union's role from being uncovered, and concluded that Soviet military intelligence (Glavnoje Razvedyvatel'noje Upravlenije), not the KGB, were responsible.
Russian Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman Boris Labusov called the accusation "absurd".
The pope declared during a May 2002 visit to Bulgaria that the country's Soviet-bloc-era leadership had nothing to do with the assassination attempt.
However, his secretary, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, alleged in his book A Life with Karol, that the pope was convinced privately that the former Soviet Union was behind the attack.
It was later discovered that many of John Paul II's aides had foreign-government attachments; Bulgaria and Russia disputed the Italian commission's conclusions, pointing out that the pope had publicly denied the Bulgarian connection.
A second assassination attempt was made on 12 May 1982, just a day before the anniversary of the first attempt on his life, in Fátima, Portugal when a man tried to stab John Paul II with a bayonet.
He was stopped by security guards.
Stanisław Dziwisz later said that John Paul II had been injured during the attempt but managed to hide a non-life-threatening wound.
The assailant, a traditionalist Catholic Spanish priest named Juan María Fernández y Krohn, had been ordained as a priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of the Society of Saint Pius X and was opposed to the changes made by the Second Vatican Council, claiming that the pope was an agent of Communist Moscow and of the Marxist Eastern Bloc.
Fernández y Krohn subsequently left the priesthood and served three years of a six-year sentence.
The ex-priest was treated for mental illness and then expelled from Portugal to become a solicitor in Belgium.
The Al-Qaeda-funded Bojinka plot planned to kill John Paul II during a visit to the Philippines during World Youth Day 1995 celebrations.
On 15 January 1995 a suicide bomber was planning to dress as a priest and detonate a bomb when the pope passed in his motorcade on his way to the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City.
The assassination was supposed to divert attention from the next phase of the operation.
However, a chemical fire inadvertently started by the cell alerted police to their whereabouts, and all were arrested a week before the pope's visit, and confessed to the plot.
In 2009 John Koehler, a journalist and former army intelligence officer, published Spies in the Vatican: The Soviet Union's Cold War Against the Catholic Church.
Mining mostly East German and Polish secret police archives, Koehler says the assassination attempts were "KGB-backed" and gives details.
During John Paul II's papacy there were many clerics within the Vatican who on nomination, declined to be ordained, and then mysteriously left the church.
There is wide speculation that they were, in reality, KGB agents.
<EOS>
During a lunchtime tryst in Phoenix, Arizona, a real estate secretary named Marion Crane discusses with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, how they cannot afford to get married because of Sam's debts.
After lunch, Marion returns to work, where a client drops off a $40,000 cash payment on a property.
Her boss asks her to deposit the money in the bank, and she asks if she can take the rest of the afternoon off.
Returning home, she begins to pack for an unplanned trip, deciding to steal the money and give it to Sam in Fairvale, California.
She is seen by her boss on her way out of town, which makes her nervous.
During the trip, she pulls over on the side of the road and falls asleep, only to be awakened by a state patrol officer.
He is suspicious about her nervous behavior but allows her to drive on.
Shaken by the encounter, Marion stops at an automobile dealership and trades in her Ford Mainline, with its Arizona license plates, for a Ford Custom 300 that has California tags.
Her transaction is all for naught—the highway patrolman sees her at the car dealership and witnesses her purchase of the newer car.
Driving on, Marion encounters a sudden rainstorm and decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel; the proprietor, Norman Bates, invites her to a light dinner after she checks in.
She accepts, but then hears an argument between Norman and his mother about bringing a woman into her house.
They eat in the motel parlor, where he tells her about his hobby of taxidermy and his life with his mother, who is mentally ill and forbids him to have a life outside of her.
Returning to her room, Marion decides to go back to Phoenix to return the stolen money.
She prepares to take a shower, unaware that Norman is spying on her.
As she is showering, a shadowy female figure suddenly comes in and stabs her to death with a chef's knife.
Norman discovers the murder and meticulously cleans up the crime scene, putting Marion's corpse and her possessions—including the embezzled money—into the trunk of her car and sinking it in the swamps near the motel.
A week later, Marion's sister Lila arrives in Fairvale and confronts Sam about the whereabouts of her sister.
A private investigator named Arbogast approaches them and confirms that Marion is wanted for stealing the $40,000 from her employer.
He eventually comes across the Bates Motel, where Norman's behavior arouses his suspicions.
After hearing that Marion had met with Norman's mother, he asks to speak with her, but Norman refuses.
Arbogast calls Lila and Sam, informing them of what he has discovered and saying he intends to speak with Norman's mother.
He goes to the Bates' home in search of her; as he reaches the top of the stairs, mrs Bates suddenly appears from the bedroom and murders him.
When Lila and Sam do not hear from Arbogast, they go to the local sheriff, who informs them that mrs Bates has been dead for ten years; she had killed herself and her lover.
Concerned, Lila and Sam make their way to the motel.
Norman takes his unwilling mother from her room, telling her he needs to hide her for a while in the fruit cellar.
At the motel, Lila and Sam meet Norman.
Sam distracts him by striking up a conversation while Lila sneaks up to the house.
When Norman eventually realizes what they want, he knocks Sam out and rushes to the house.
Lila sees Norman approaching and attempts to hide by going down steps that lead to a cellar.
There she finds mrs Bates sitting in a chair.
Lila turns her around and discovers that she is in fact a mummified corpse.
Lila screams as a figure comes running into the cellar: Norman, holding a chef's knife and wearing his mother's clothes and a wig.
Before Norman can attack Lila, Sam, having regained consciousness, subdues him.
At the local courthouse, a psychiatrist explains that Norman had murdered mrs Bates and her lover ten years prior out of jealousy.
Before, they had been living an isolated life together after his father's death, until she met this new man.
Unable to bear the guilt, he exhumed her corpse and began to treat it as if she were still alive.
In order to preserve that illusion, he recreated his mother in his own mind as an alternate personality, often dressing in her clothes and talking to himself in her voice.
This "Mother" personality is just as jealous and possessive as the real mrs Bates had been: whenever Norman feels attracted to another woman, "Mother" flies into a rage and kills the woman.
As "Mother", Norman had killed two missing girls prior to Marion, as well as Arbogast.
The psychiatrist then says the "Mother" personality has taken permanent hold of Norman's mind.
While Norman sits in a holding cell, mrs Bates' voice is heard protesting that the murders were Norman's doing and that she "wouldn't even harm a fly".
Meanwhile, Marion's car is pulled out of the swamp.
<EOS>
The novel opens with Mrs Bennet trying to persuade Mr Bennet to visit an eligible bachelor, Mr Bingley, who has arrived in the neighborhood.
After some verbal sparring with Mr Bennet baiting his wife, it transpires that this visit has taken place at Netherfield (Mr Bingley's rented house).
The visit is followed by an invitation to a ball at the local assembly rooms that the whole neighborhood will attend.
At the ball, Mr Bingley is open and cheerful, popular with all the guests, and appears to be very attracted to the beautiful Miss Bennet.
His friend, Mr Darcy, is reputed to be twice as wealthy; however, he is haughty and aloof.
He declines to dance with Elizabeth suggesting that she is not pretty enough to tempt him.
She finds this amusing and jokes about the statement with her friends.
Miss Jane Bennet also attracts the attention of Mr Bingley's sister Caroline, who invites her to visit.
Jane visits Miss Bingley and is caught in a rain shower on the way, catching a serious cold.
Elizabeth, out of genuine concern for her sister's well being, visits her sister there.
This is the point at which Darcy begins to see the attraction of Elizabeth, and Miss Bingley is shown to be jealous of Elizabeth since she wants to marry Darcy herself.
Mr Collins, a cousin of Mr Bennet and heir to the Longbourn estate, visits the Bennet family.
He is a pompous and obsequious clergyman because he expects each of the Bennet girls to wish to marry him due to his inheritance.
He plans to propose to Elizabeth over Jane as he is led to believe Jane is taken.
Elizabeth and her family meet the dashing and charming Mr Wickham who singles out Elizabeth and tells her a story of the hardship that Mr Darcy has caused him by depriving him of a living (position as clergyman in a prosperous parish with good revenue that once granted, is for life) promised to him by Mr Darcy's late father.
Elizabeth's dislike of Mr Darcy is confirmed.
At a ball at which Mr Wickham is not present, Elizabeth dances with Mr Darcy rather against her will.
Other than Jane and Elizabeth, all the members of the Bennet family show their lack of decorum.
Mrs Bennet states loudly that she expects Jane and Bingley to become engaged and each member of the family exposes the whole to ridicule.
The following morning, Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth.
She rejects him to the fury of her mother and the relief of her father.
They receive news that the Bingleys are leaving for London, and that Mr Collins has proposed to Charlotte Lucas, a sensible lady and Elizabeth's friend.
She is slightly older and is grateful to receive a proposal that will guarantee her a home.
Elizabeth is aghast at such pragmatism in matters of love.
Jane goes to visit her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner at an unfashionable address in London.
Miss Bingley clearly does not want to continue the friendship and Jane is upset though very composed.
In the spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte and Mr Collins in Kent.
Elizabeth and her hosts are frequently invited to Rosings Park, the imposing home of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Lady Catherine is Mr Darcy's aunt and extremely wealthy.
She expects Mr Darcy to marry her daughter.
Mr Darcy and his cousin, Colonel FitzWilliam, visit Lady Catherine.
Colonel FitzWilliam tells Elizabeth how Mr Darcy managed to save a friend from a bad match by convincing the friend of the lady's indifference.
Elizabeth is horrified at Darcy's involvement in an affair which has caused her sister so much pain.
Mr Darcy, however, has fallen in love with Elizabeth and proposes to her.
She rejects him, stating that she could not love a man who has caused her sister such unhappiness, and accuses him of treating Mr Wickham unjustly.
Mr Darcy accuses her family of wanting propriety and suggests he has been kinder to Bingley than himself.
Both are furious and they part barely speaking.
The following morning, Mr Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter that explains that his treatment of Mr Wickham was caused by the fact that Mr Wickham refused the Living and was compensated economically, but then proceeded to waste all the money and then, impoverished, demanded the Living again with threats.
After being refused, he tried to elope with Darcy's 15-year-old sister Georgiana for her great dowry, as Colonel FitzWilliam could also attest.
He also claimed that he believed that Miss Bennet who, despite her amiability, is actually a bit reserved, did not love Mr Bingley.
Darcy apologises for hurting Jane and Elizabeth begins to rejudge Mr Darcy on a clearer basis.
Some months later, Elizabeth and her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner visit Darcy's estate in Derbyshire, Pemberley.
While there Elizabeth hears an account of him from the housekeeper as being kind and generous.
When Mr Darcy returns unexpectedly, he is overwhelmingly kind and civil and invites Elizabeth and the Gardiner's to meet his sister and go fishing.
Elizabeth is surprised and delighted by the kindness to herself and her aunt and uncle.
However, she suddenly has news from Longbourne that her sister Lydia had eloped with Mr Wickham.
She tells Mr Darcy immediately and departs in haste, believing she will never see him again as Lydia's disgrace would ruin the family's good name.
After an agonizing wait, Mr Wickham is persuaded to marry Lydia with only the payment of debts required.
With some degree of decency restored, Lydia visits Elizabeth and tells her that Mr Darcy was at the wedding.
Mrs Gardiner informs Elizabeth that it is Mr Darcy who has made the match and hints that he may have a motive for doing so.
At this point, Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy return to Netherfield.
Bingley proposes to Jane and is accepted, much to the delight of all.
Lady Catherine visits Elizabeth under the impression that she is going to marry Mr Darcy, Elizabeth refuses to deny this claim and Lady Catherine leaves outraged by her perceived insolence.
Darcy and Elizabeth go for a walk together and they become engaged.
Elizabeth then has to convince her father that she is not marrying for money, and it is only after she speaks about Mr Darcy's true worth that he is happy about the wedding.
<EOS>
In Muromachi Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a demon.
The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills it before it reaches the village, but its corruption curses his arm in the battle.
The curse gives him superhuman strength in the injured arm, but is fatal.
The villagers discover that the demon was once a boar god, Nago, corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body.
The village's wise woman tells Ashitaka that he may find a cure in the western lands Nago came from.
Heading west, Ashitaka meets Jiko-bō, a wandering monk, who tells Ashitaka he may find help from the Great Forest Spirit, a Kirin-like creature by day and a giant "nightwalker" by night.
Nearby, men herd oxen to Irontown, led by Lady Eboshi, when they are attacked by a wolf pack led by the wolf goddess Moro.
Riding one of the wolves is San, a human girl.
Later, Ashitaka discovers two injured Irontown men, and sees San and her wolf pack; he greets them, but they leave.
He carries the injured men through the forest, where he encounters many kodama, and glimpses the Forest Spirit.
In Irontown, Ashitaka learns Eboshi has built the town by clear-cutting forests to claim ironsand and produce iron, leading to conflict with the forest gods.
The town is a refuge for social outcasts, including former brothel workers and lepers, whom Eboshi employs to manufacture firearms to defend against the gods; Nago was turned into a demon by one of Eboshi's guns.
Eboshi also explains that San, self-dubbed Princess Mononoke, was raised by the wolves as one of their own and resents humankind.
San infiltrates Irontown to kill Eboshi, but Ashitaka intervenes, knocking them both unconscious.
As he leaves, he is fatally shot by a villager, but the curse allows him to continue carrying San and only collapse much later.
San awakens and almost kills the dying Ashitaka, but hesitates when he tells her that she is beautiful.
She takes him to the forest, and decides to trust him after the Forest Spirit saves his life.
A boar clan led by the blind boar god Okkoto attacks Irontown to save the forest.
Eboshi prepares for battle and sets out to kill the Forest Spirit under Jiko-bō's supervision, who is working for the government.
Eboshi intends to give the god's head to the Emperor of Japan in return for protection from local daimyō; according to legend, the Forest Spirit's head grants immortality.
In battle, the boar clan is annihilated and Okkoto is corrupted by gunshot wounds.
Jiko-bō's men disguise themselves in boar skins and trick the rampaging Okkoto into leading them to the Forest Spirit.
San tries to stop Okkoto, but is swept up in his demonic corruption.
Moro intervenes and Ashitaka dives into the corruption to save San.
However, Ashitaka's infection is accelerated, and San is also cursed by the corruption.
The Forest Spirit kills Okkoto and Moro, and during its nightwalker transformation, Eboshi decapitates it.
It bleeds ooze that instantly kills life as it searches for its head, which Jiko-bō has stolen.
The forest and its kodama begin to die, and Moro uses her last moment to bite off Eboshi's right arm.
Ashitaka follows Jiko-bō to Irontown after bandaging Eboshi and convincing San to accompany him.
Ashitaka and San are able to retrieve the head and return it to the Forest Spirit.
Restored, the Forest Spirit cures them of the curse and heals the land.
Though close, San decides to stay in the forest; Ashitaka will help rebuild Irontown, but tells San he will visit her.
Eboshi vows to build a better town, as the forest begins to grow.
<EOS>
Shade's poem digressively describes many aspects of his life.
Canto 1 includes his early encounters with death and glimpses of what he takes to be the supernatural.
Canto 2 is about his family and the apparent suicide of his daughter, Hazel Shade.
Canto 3 focuses on Shade's search for knowledge about an afterlife, culminating in a "faint hope" in higher powers "playing a game of worlds" as indicated by apparent coincidences.
Canto 4 offers details on Shade's daily life and creative process, as well as thoughts on his poetry, which he finds to be a means of somehow understanding the universe.
In Kinbote's editorial contributions he tells three stories intermixed with each other.
One is his own story, notably including what he thinks of as his friendship with Shade.
After Shade was murdered, Kinbote acquired the manuscript, including some variants, and has taken it upon himself to oversee the poem's publication, telling readers that it lacks only line 1000.
Kinbote's second story deals with King Charles II, "The Beloved," the deposed king of Zembla.
King Charles escaped imprisonment by Soviet-backed revolutionaries, making use of a secret passage and brave adherents in disguise.
Kinbote repeatedly claims that he inspired Shade to write the poem by recounting King Charles's escape to him and that possible allusions to the king, and to Zembla, appear in Shade's poem, especially in rejected drafts.
However, no explicit reference to King Charles is to be found in the poem.
Kinbote's third story is that of Gradus, an assassin dispatched by the new rulers of Zembla to kill the exiled King Charles.
Gradus makes his way from Zembla through Europe and America to New Wye, suffering comic mishaps.
In the last note, to the missing line 1000, Kinbote narrates how Gradus killed Shade by mistake.
The reader soon realizes that Kinbote is King Charles, living incognito—or, though Kinbote builds an elaborate picture of Zembla complete with samples of a constructed language, that he is insane and that his identification with King Charles is a delusion, as perhaps all of Zembla is.
Nabokov said in an interview that Kinbote committed suicide after finishing the book.
The critic Michael Wood has stated, "This is authorial trespassing, and we don't have to pay attention to it," but Brian Boyd has argued that internal evidence points to Kinbote's suicide.
One of Kinbote's annotations to Shade's poem (corresponding to line 493) addresses the subject of suicide at some length.
<EOS>
Preacher tells the story of Jesse Custer, a preacher in the small Texas town of Annville.
Custer is accidentally possessed by the supernatural creature named Genesis, the infant product of the unauthorized, unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon.
The incident flattens Custer's church and kills his entire congregation.
Genesis has no sense of individual will, but since it is composed of both pure goodness and pure evil, its power might rival that of God Himself, making Jesse Custer, bonded to Genesis, potentially the most powerful being in the universe.
Driven by a strong sense of right and wrong, Custer journeys across the United States attempting to literally find God, who abandoned Heaven the moment Genesis was born.
He also begins to discover the truth about his new powers.
They allow him, when he wills it, to command the obedience of those who hear and comprehend his words.
He is joined by his old girlfriend Tulip O'Hare, as well as a hard-drinking Irish vampire named Cassidy.
During the course of their journeys, the three encounter enemies and obstacles both sacred and profane, including The Saint of Killers, an invincible, quick-drawing, perfect-aiming, come-lately Angel of Death answering only to "He who sits on the throne"; a disfigured suicide attempt survivor turned rock-star named Arseface; a serial-killer called the 'Reaver-Cleaver'; The Grail, a secret organization controlling the governments of the world and protecting the bloodline of Jesus; Herr Starr, ostensible Allfather of the Grail, a megalomaniac with a penchant for prostitutes, who wishes to use Custer for his own ends; several fallen angels; and Jesse's own redneck 'family' — particularly his nasty Cajun grandmother, her mighty bodyguard Jody, and the 'animal-loving'C.
<EOS>
Quake II takes place in a science fiction environment.
In the single-player game, the player assumes the role of a Marine named Bitterman taking part in "Operation Alien Overlord", a desperate attempt to prevent an alien invasion of Earth by launching a counterattack against the home planet of the hostile Strogg civilization.
Most of the other soldiers are captured or killed as soon as they approach the planned landing zone.
Bitterman survives only because another Marine's personal capsule collided with his upon launch, causing him to crash far short of the landing zone.
It falls upon Bitterman to penetrate the Strogg capital city alone and assassinate the Strogg leader, the Makron.
<EOS>
In the single-player game, the player takes the role of the protagonist known as Ranger who was sent into a portal in order to stop an enemy code-named "Quake".
The government had been experimenting with teleportation technology and developed a working prototype called a "Slipgate"; the mysterious Quake compromised the Slipgate by connecting it with its own teleportation system, using it to send death squads to the "Human" dimension in order to test the martial capabilities of humanity.
The sole surviving protagonist in "Operation Counterstrike" is Ranger, who must advance, starting each of the four episodes from an overrun human military base, before fighting his way into other dimensions, reaching them via the Slipgate or their otherworld equivalent.
After passing through the Slipgate, Ranger's main objective is to collect four magic runes from four dimensions of Quake; these are the key to stopping the enemy later discovered as Shub-Niggurath and ending the invasion of Earth.
The single-player campaign consists of 30 separate levels, or "maps", divided into four episodes (with a total of 26 regular maps and four secret ones), as well as a hub level to select a difficulty setting and episode, and the game's final boss level.
Each episode represents individual dimensions that the player can access through magical portals (as opposed to the technological Slipgate) that are discovered over the course of the game.
The various realms consist of a number of gothic, medieval, and lava-filled caves and dungeons, with a recurring theme of hellish and satanic imagery reminiscent of Doom (such as pentagrams and images of demons on the walls).
The latter is inspired by several dark fantasy influences, most notably that of Lovecraft.
Dimensional Shamblers appear as enemies, the "Spawn" enemies are called "Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua" in the manual, the boss of the first episode is named Chthon, and the final boss is named Shub-Niggurath (though actually resembling a Dark Young).
Some levels have Lovecraftian names, such as the Vaults of Zin and The Nameless City.
In addition, six levels exclusively designed for multiplayer deathmatch are also included.
Originally, the game was supposed to include more Lovecraftian bosses, but this concept was scrapped due to time constraints.
<EOS>
A criminologist narrates the tale of the newly engaged couple Brad Majors and Janet Weiss who find themselves lost and with a flat tire on a cold and rainy late November evening, somewhere near Denton, Ohio.
Seeking a telephone, the couple walk to a nearby castle where they discover a group of strange and outlandish people who are holding an Annual Transylvanian Convention.
They are soon swept into the world of dr Frank Furter, a self-proclaimed "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania".
The ensemble of convention attendees also includes servants Riff Raff, his sister Magenta, and a groupie named Columbia.
In his lab, Frank claims to have discovered the "secret to life itself".
His creation, Rocky, is brought to life.
The ensuing celebration is soon interrupted by Eddie (an ex-delivery boy, both Frank and Columbia's ex-lover, as well as partial brain donor to Rocky) who rides out of a deep freeze on a motorcycle.
Eddie then proceeds to seduce Columbia, get the Transylvanians dancing and singing and intrigue Brad and Janet.
When Rocky starts dancing and enjoying Eddie's performance, however, a jealous Frank kills him with a pickaxe.
Columbia screams in horror, devastated by Eddie's death.
Frank justifies killing Eddie as a "mercy killing" to Rocky and they depart to the bridal suite.
Brad and Janet are shown to separate bedrooms, where each is visited and seduced by Frank, who poses as Brad (when visiting Janet) and then as Janet (when visiting Brad).
Janet, upset and emotional, wanders off to look for Brad, who she discovers, via a television monitor, is in bed with Frank.
She then discovers Rocky, cowering in his birth tank, hiding from Riff Raff, who has been tormenting him.
While tending to his wounds, Janet becomes intimate with Rocky, as Magenta and Columbia watch from their bedroom monitor.
After discovering that his creation is missing, Frank returns to the lab with Brad and Riff Raff, where Frank learns that an intruder has entered the building.
Brad and Janet's old high school science teacher, dr Everett Scott, has come looking for his nephew, Eddie.
Frank suspects that dr Scott investigates UFOs for the government.
Upon learning of Brad and Janet's connection to dr Scott, Frank suspects them of working for him.
Frank, dr Scott, Brad, and Riff Raff then discover Janet and Rocky together under the sheets in Rocky's birth tank, upsetting Frank and Brad.
Magenta interrupts the reunion by sounding a massive gong and stating that dinner is prepared.
Rocky and the guests share an uncomfortable dinner, which they soon realize has been prepared from Eddie's mutilated remains.
Janet runs screaming into Rocky's arms, provoking Frank to chase her through the halls.
Janet, Brad, dr Scott, Rocky, and Columbia all meet in Frank's lab, where Frank captures them with the Medusa Transducer, transforming them into nude statues.
After dressing them in cabaret costume, Frank "unfreezes" them, and they perform a live cabaret floor show, complete with an RKO tower and a swimming pool, with Frank as the leader.
Riff Raff and Magenta interrupt the performance, revealing themselves and Frank to be aliens from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania.
They stage a coup and announce a plan to return to their home planet.
In the process, they kill Columbia and Frank, who has "failed his mission".
An enraged Rocky, impervious to Riff Raff's laser gun, gathers Frank in his arms, climbs to the top of the tower, and plunges to his death in the pool below.
Riff Raff and Magenta release Brad, Janet, and dr Scott, then depart by lifting off in the castle itself.
The survivors are then left crawling in the dirt, and the narrator concludes that the human race is equivalent to insects crawling on the planet's surface, "lost in time, and lost in space.
and meaning".
<EOS>
In a brief scene in 1964, an aging, overweight Italian American, Jake LaMotta, practices a comedy routine.
In 1941, LaMotta is in a major boxing match against Jimmy Reeves, where he received his first loss.
Jake's brother Joey LaMotta discusses a potential shot for the middleweight title with one of his Mafia connections, Salvy Batts.
Some time thereafter, Jake spots a 16-year-old girl named Vikki at an open-air swimming pool in his Bronx neighborhood.
He eventually pursues a relationship with her, even though he is already married.
In 1943, Jake defeats Sugar Ray Robinson, and has a rematch three weeks later.
Despite the fact that Jake dominates Robinson during the bout, the judges surprisingly rule in favor of Robinson and Joey feels Robinson won only because he was enlisting into theS.
Army the following week.
By 1945, Jake marries Vikki.
Jake constantly worries about Vikki having feelings for other men, particularly when she makes an off-hand comment about Tony Janiro, Jake's opponent in his next fight.
His jealousy is evident when he brutally defeats Janiro in front of the local Mob boss, Tommy Como, and Vikki.
As Joey discusses the victory with journalists at the Copacabana, he is distracted by seeing Vikki approach a table with Salvy and his crew.
Joey speaks with Vikki, who says she is giving up on his brother.
Blaming Salvy, Joey viciously attacks him in a fight that spills outside of the club.
Como later orders them to apologize, and has Joey tell Jake that if he wants a chance at the championship title, which Como controls, he will have to take a dive first.
In a match against Billy Fox, after briefly pummeling his opponent, Jake does not even bother to put up a fight.
He is suspended shortly thereafter from the board on suspicion of throwing the fight, though he realizes the error of his judgment when it is too late.
He is eventually reinstated, and in 1949, wins the middleweight championship title against Marcel Cerdan.
A year later, Jake asks Joey if he fought with Salvy at the Copacabana because of Vikki.
Jake then asks if Joey had an affair with her; Joey refuses to answer, insults Jake, and leaves.
Jake directly asks Vikki about the affair, and when she hides from him in the bathroom, he breaks down the door, prompting her to sarcastically state that she had sex with the entire neighborhood (including his brother, Salvy, and Tommy Como).
Jake angrily walks to Joey's house, with Vikki following him, and assaults Joey in front of his wife and children.
After defending his championship belt in a grueling fifteen-round bout against Laurent Dauthuille in 1950, he makes a call to his brother after the fight, but when Joey assumes Salvy is on the other end and starts insulting and cursing at him, Jake says nothing and hangs up.
Estranged from Joey, Jake's career begins to decline slowly and he eventually loses his title to Sugar Ray Robinson in their final encounter in 1951.
By 1956, Jake and his family have moved to Miami.
After he stays out all night at his new nightclub there, Vikki tells him she wants a divorce (which she has been planning since his retirement) as well as full custody of their kids.
She also threatens to call the cops if he comes anywhere near them.
He is later arrested for introducing under-age girls to men in his club.
He tries and fails to bribe his way out of his criminal case using the jewels from his championship belt instead of selling the belt itself.
In 1957 he goes to jail where he pounds the walls, sorrowfully questioning his misfortune and crying in despair.
Upon returning to New York City in 1958, he happens upon his estranged brother Joey, who forgives him but is elusive.
Returning to the opening scene in 1964, Jake refers to the "I coulda been a contender" scene from the 1954 film On the Waterfront starring Marlon Brando, complaining that his brother should have been there for him but is also keen enough to give himself some slack.
After a stagehand informs him that the auditorium where he is about to perform is crowded, Jake starts to chant "I'm the boss" while shadowboxing.
<EOS>
The main setting of the series is the eponymous mining spaceship Red Dwarf, which is long, tall, and wide and is operated by the Jupiter Mining Corporation.
In the first episode set sometime in the late 22nd century, an on-board radiation leak of cadmium II kills everyone except for lowest-ranking technician Dave Lister, who is in suspended animation at the time, and his pregnant cat, Frankenstein, who is safe in the cargo hold.
Following the accident, the ship's computer Holly keeps Lister in stasis until the radiation levels return to normal – a process that takes three million years.
Lister therefore emerges as the last human being in the universe – but not alone on-board the ship.
His former bunkmate and immediate superior Arnold Judas Rimmer is resurrected by Holly as a hologram to keep Lister sane.
At the same time, a creature known only as Cat is the last member on board of Felis sapiens, a race of humanoid felines that evolved in the ship's hold from Lister's cat, Frankenstein, and her kittens during the 3 million years that Lister was in stasis.
The main dramatic thrust of the early series is Lister's desire to return home to Earth, although the crew's ownership of an unlimited time-space travel drive in series seven was to later negate this intention.
As their journey begins, the not-so-intrepid crew encounters such phenomena as time distortions, faster-than-light travel, mutant diseases and strange lifeforms that had developed in the intervening millions of years.
During the second series, the group encounter the service mechanoid Kryten, rescuing him from a long-since crashed vessel.
Initially, Kryten only appeared in one episode of series two, but by the beginning of series three he had become a regular character.
At the end of series five, Red Dwarf itself is stolen by persons unknown, forcing the crew to travel in the smaller Starbug craft for two series, with the side-effect that they lose contact with Holly.
In series seven, Rimmer departs the crew to take up the role of his alter ego from a parallel universe, Ace Rimmer, whose name has become a long-standing legend and a legacy passed down from dimension to dimension.
Shortly afterwards, the crew encounters a parallel version of themselves from a universe in which Kristine Kochanski, Lister's long-term love interest, had been put into stasis at the time of the leak and so became the last remaining human.
A complicated series of events leaves Kochanski stranded in the series' main universe, where she is forced to join the crew.
At the end of series seven, we learn that Kryten's service nanobots, which had abandoned him years earlier, were behind the theft of the Red Dwarf at the end of series five.
At the beginning of the eighth series, Kryten's nanobots reconstruct the Red Dwarf, which they had broken down into its constituent atoms.
In the process, the entire crew of the ship – including a pre-accident Rimmer – are resurrected, but the Starbug crew find themselves sentenced to two years in the ship's brig (at first, for crashing a Starbug and bringing onboard Kryten and Cat as stowaways, but later for using information from the confidential files).
The series ends with a metal-eating virus loose on Red Dwarf.
The entire resurrected crew evacuates save the original dwarfers.
In the cliffhanger ending, Rimmer is left stranded alone to face Death (and promptly knees him in the groin and flees).
Nine years later, the four are once more the only beings on the ship.
Rimmer is again a hologram, Holly is offline, and Lister is mourning Kochanski, lost to him out of an airlock some time previously.
A chance to get back to Earth through a dimension warp presents itself; although it is not quite what it appears to be, it gives Lister new hope when he learns that Kochanski is still alive after all.
The tenth series sees Lister still travelling with Rimmer, Kryten and Cat in Red Dwarf, in hopes of eventually locating Kochanski above getting back to Earth.
<EOS>
The novel opens in 2850 AD on Earth.
Louis Gridley Wu is celebrating his 200th birthday.
Despite his age, Louis is in perfect physical condition (because of a regimen of boosterspice) but is bored.
He has experienced life thoroughly, and is thinking of taking a trip to and beyond the reaches of Known Space, all alone in a spaceship for a year or more.
He is confronted by Nessus, a Pierson's Puppeteer, and offered one of three open positions on an exploration voyage beyond Known Space.
Speaker-to-Animals (Speaker), who is a Kzin, and Teela Brown, a young human woman, also join the voyage.
They first travel to the Puppeteer home world, where they learn that the expedition's goal is to explore Ringworld, an artificial ring about one million miles (1,600,000 km) wide and approximately the diameter of Earth's orbit (which makes it about 600,000,000 miles or 950,000,000 km in circumference), encircling a sunlike star.
It rotates, providing artificial gravity that is 992% as strong as Earth's gravity through the action of centrifugal force.
The Ringworld has a habitable, flat inner surface equivalent in area to approximately three million Earth-sized planets.
Night is provided by an inner ring of shadow squares which are connected to each other by thin, ultra-strong wire (shadow-square wire).
None of the crew's attempts at contacting the Ringworld succeed, and their ship, the Lying Bastard, is disabled by the Ringworld's automated meteoroid-defense system.
The severely damaged vessel collides with a strand of shadow-square wire and crash-lands on the Ringworld near a huge mountain.
The ship's defenses keep the crew compartment and many of the ship's systems intact, including the faster-than-light drive (hyperdrive), but the normal drive is destroyed, leaving them unable to launch back into space to use the hyperdrive.
The team now has to set out to find a way to get back into space, as well as fulfilling their original mission – learning more about the Ringworld.
Using their flycycles (similar to antigravity motorcycles), they try to reach the rim of the ring, where they hope to find some technology that will help them.
It will take them months to cross the vast distance.
When Teela develops "Plateau trance" (a kind of highway hypnosis) from becoming too absorbed in watching the vast landscape ahead, they find themselves forced to land.
On the ground, they encounter apparently human Ringworld natives.
The natives, who are living primitively in the crumbling ruins of a once advanced city, think that the crew are the Engineers of the Ring, whom they revere as gods.
The crew is attacked when they commit what the natives consider blasphemy (the misuse of certain technologies).
They continue their journey during which Nessus is forced to reveal some Puppeteer secrets: they have performed indirect breeding experiments on both humans (breeding for luck) and kzin (breeding for less aggressiveness).
The resulting hostility forces Nessus to abandon the other three and follow them at a safe distance.
They encounter a city and, in a floating building, they find a map of the Ringworld and videos of its past civilization.
In a giant storm, caused by air escaping through a hole in the Ring floor due to meteoroid impact, Teela is blown away in an unknown direction.
While Louis and Speaker search for her in a ruined city, their flycycles are caught by an automatic police station designed to catch traffic offenders.
They are trapped in a prison in the basement of the police station.
Nessus arrives, entering the station to help his team.
In the station they meet Halrloprillalar Hotrufan ("Prill"), a former crew member of a spaceship used for trade between the Ringworld and other inhabited worlds.
Her ship was stranded on the Ringworld when the landing mechanism failed.
She relates what she learned of the downfall of the Ringworld's civilization: A mold that breaks down superconductors was introduced by a visiting spaceship.
Without its superconductive technology, civilization fell.
Teela reaches the police station, accompanied by her new lover, a native "hero" called Seeker who helped her survive.
Based on his studies of an ancient Ringworld map, Louis devises a plan to escape.
The four explorers, with Seeker and Prill, use the floating police station as a vehicle to travel back to the explorers' crashed ship.
Teela and Seeker choose to remain on Ringworld.
The remaining explorers and Prill collect one end of the shadow-square wire that was dislodged when the ship crashed, dragging the wire behind them as they travel.
Reaching the wreck, Louis threads the wire through the ship and uses it to tether the ship to the police station.
Still in the station, he then continues to pull the wire onward, up to the summit of "Fist-of-God", the enormous mountain near their crash site.
The massive mountain had not appeared on a map of the original Ringworld, leading Louis to conclude that it was in fact the result of a meteoroid impact with the underside of the ring, which pushed the "mountain" up from the ring floor and broke through.
The top of the mountain, above the edge of the ring's atmosphere, is therefore a passage to the underside of the Ringworld and freedom.
Louis drives the police station over the edge of the crater.
The Ringworld spins very quickly, so once the police station and ship are free of the ring, their speed is enough to get them back to open space in a reasonable time.
The crew can then use the ship's hyperdrive to get home.
The book concludes with Louis and Speaker discussing returning to the Ringworld.
<EOS>
On a training journey in the Bayankala Mountain Range in the Qinghai Province of China, Ranma Saotome and his father Genma fall into the cursed springs at.
When someone falls into a cursed spring, they take the physical form of whatever drowned there hundreds or thousands of years ago whenever they come into contact with cold water.
The curse will revert when exposed to hot water until their next cold water exposure.
Genma falls into the spring of a drowned panda while Ranma falls into the spring of a drowned girl.
Upon returning to Japan, the pair settle in Nerima, Tokyo at the dojo of Genma's old friend Soun Tendo, a fellow practitioner of or "Anything-Goes School" of martial arts which Genma passed on to Ranma.
Genma and Soun agreed years ago that their children would marry and carry on the Tendo Dojo.
Soun has three teenaged daughters: the polite and easygoing Kasumi, the greedy and indifferent Nabiki and the short-tempered, martial arts practicing Akane.
Akane, who is Ranma's age, is appointed for bridal duty by her sisters with the reasoning that Akane dislikes men and since Ranma is only a man half of the time, they are perfect together.
Both Ranma and Akane refuse the engagement initially, having not been consulted on the decision, but they are generally treated as betrothed and end up helping or saving each other on some occasions.
They are frequently found in each other's company and are constantly arguing in their trademark awkward love-hate manner that is a franchise focus.
Ranma goes to school with Akane at , where he meets his recurring opponent Tatewaki Kuno, the conceited kendo team captain who aggressively pursues Akane, but also falls in love with Ranma's female form without ever discovering his curse (despite most other characters knowing it).
Nerima serves as a backdrop for more martial arts mayhem with the introduction of Ranma's regular rivals, such as the eternally lost Ryoga Hibiki who traveled halfway across Japan getting from the front of his house to the back, where Ranma spent three days waiting for him.
Ryoga, seeking revenge on Ranma, followed him to Jusenkyo where he ultimately falls into the Spring of Drown Piglet.
Now when splashed with cold water he takes the form of a little black pig.
Not knowing this, Akane takes the piglet as a pet and names it P-chan, but Ranma knows and hates him for keeping this secret and taking advantage of the situation.
Another rival is the nearsighted Mousse, who also falls into a cursed spring and becomes a duck when he gets wet, and finally, there is Ranma's impish grandmaster, Happosai, who spends his time stealing the underwear of schoolgirls.
Ranma's prospective paramours include the martial arts rhythmic gymnastics champion Kodachi Kuno, and his second fiancée and childhood friend Ukyo Kuonji the okonomiyaki vendor, along with the Chinese Amazon Shampoo, supported by her great-grandmother Cologne.
As the series progresses, the school becomes more eccentric with the return of the demented, Hawaii-obsessed Principal Kuno and the placement of the power-leeching alternating child/adult Hinako Ninomiya as Ranma's English teacher.
Ranma's indecision to choose his true love causes chaos in his romantic and school life.
<EOS>
After an asteroid falls in Northeast Italy in 2077, creating a major disaster, the government of Earth sets up the Spaceguard system as an early warning of arrivals from deep space.
The "Rama" of the title is an alien starship, initially mistaken for an asteroid categorised as "31/439".
It is detected by astronomers in the year 2131 while it is still outside the orbit of Jupiter.
Its speed (100,000&nbsp;km/h) and the angle of its trajectory clearly indicate it is not on a long orbit around the sun, but comes from interstellar space.
The astronomers' interest is further piqued when they realise the asteroid has an extremely rapid rotation period of 4 minutes and is exceptionally large.
It is named Rama after the Hindu god, and an unmanned space probe dubbed Sita is launched from the Mars moon Phobos to intercept and photograph it.
The resulting images reveal that Rama is a perfect cylinder, in diameter and long, and completely featureless, making this humankind's first encounter with an alien spacecraft.
The manned solar survey vessel Endeavour is sent to study Rama, as it is the only ship close enough to do so in the brief period Rama will spend in our solar system.
Endeavour manages to rendezvous with Rama one month after it first comes to Earth's attention, when the alien ship is already inside Venus' orbit.
The 20+ crew, led by Commander Bill Norton, enters Rama through a dual safety system consisting of two sets of triple airlocks, six in all, and explores the vast 16-km wide by 50-km long cylindrical world of its interior, but the nature and purpose of the starship and its creators remain enigmatic throughout the book.
The astronauts discover that Rama is hollow, and that its inner surfaces hold vast "cities" of geometric structures that resemble buildings and are separated by streets with shallow trenches.
A mammoth band of water, dubbed the Cylindrical Sea, stretches around Rama's central circumference.
Massive cones, which the astronauts theorise are part of Rama's propulsion system, stand at its 'southern' end.
They also find that Rama's atmosphere is breathable.
One of the crew members, Jimmy Pak, who has experience with low gravity skybikes, volunteers to ride a smuggled skybike along Rama's axis to the far end, otherwise inaccessible due to the cylindrical sea and the 500-m high cliff on the opposite shore.
A few hours later, Jimmy reaches the massive metal cones on the southern end of Rama, and detects a strange magnetic field coming from the cones.
He takes some photos of the area and the strange plateau on the southern end of Rama's landmass.
As he leaves the area, the electrical charge in its atmosphere increases, resulting in lightning.
A discharge hits his skybike, causing him to crash on the isolated southern continent.
When Pak wakes up, he sees a crab-like creature picking up his skybike and chopping it into pieces.
He cannot decide whether it is a robot or a biological alien, and keeps his distance while radioing for help.
As Pak waits, Norton sends a rescue party across the cylindrical sea, using a small, improvised craft, constructed earlier for exploration of the sea's central island.
Pak sees the crab-like creature dump the skybike's remains into the sea.
The creature then walks towards but ultimately ignores him.
Pak explores the surrounding fields while waiting for the rescue party to arrive on the southern cliffs of the cylindrical sea.
Amongst the strange geometric structures, he sees an alien flower growing through a cracked tile in the otherwise sterile environment, and decides to take it as both a curiosity and for scientific research.
Pak jumps off the 500 m cliff, his descent slowed by the low gravity and using his shirt as a parachute, and is quickly rescued by the waiting boat.
As they ride back, tidal waves form in the cylindrical sea, created by the movements of Rama itself as it makes course corrections.
When the crew arrives at base, they see a variety of odd creatures inspecting their camp.
When one is found damaged and apparently lifeless, the team's doctor/biologist Surgeon-Commander Laura Ernst inspects it, and discovers it to be a hybrid biological entity and robot—eventually termed a "biot".
It, and by assumption the others, are powered by natural internal batteries (much like those of terrestrial electric eels) and possess some intelligence.
They are believed to be the drones of Rama's still-absent builders.
The members of the Rama Committee and the United Planets, both based on the moon, have been monitoring events inside Rama and giving feedback.
The Hermian colonists have concluded that Rama is a potential threat and send a rocket-mounted nuclear bomb to destroy it should it prove to pose a threat, but lt Boris Rodrigo uses a pair of wire cutters to defuse the bomb and its control.
As Rama approaches perihelion, the biots jump into the cylindrical sea, where they are destroyed (or recycled) by aquatic biots ('sharks') and reabsorbed into the mineral-laden water.
On their final expedition, some crew members decide to visit the city christened "London" (as it is closest to Rama's "northern" end, the point of their entry), where they use a laser to cut open one of the "buildings" to see what it houses.
They discover transparent pedestals containing holograms of various artefacts, which they theorise are used by the Ramans as templates for creating tools and other objects.
The most amazing of these appears to be a uniform with bandoliers, straps and pockets that suggests the size and shape of the Ramans.
As the crew photographs some of the holograms, the six gigantic striplights that illuminate Rama's interior start to dim, prompting the explorers to leave and re-board Endeavour.
With Endeavour a safe distance away, Rama reaches perihelion and utilizes the Sun's gravitational field, and its mysterious "space drive", to perform a slingshot manoeuvre which flings it out of the solar system and towards an unknown destination in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The book was meant to stand alone, although its final sentence suggests otherwise:  Clarke denied that this sentence was a hint that the story might be continued.
In his foreword to the book's sequel, he stated that it was just a good way to end the first book, and that he added it during a final revision.
<EOS>
Outside of Goffs, California, in the Mojave Desert, a policeman pulls over a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu driven by dr Frank Parnell (Fox Harris).
The policeman opens the trunk, sees a blinding flash of white light, and is instantly vaporized, leaving only his boots behind.
Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez), a young punk rocker living in Los Angeles, is fired from his boring job as a supermarket stock clerk.
His girlfriend leaves him for his best friend.
Depressed and broke, Otto is wandering the streets when a man named Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) drives up and offers him $25 to drive a car out of the neighborhood.
Otto follows Bud in the car to the "Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation" (a small automobile repossession agency), where he learns that the car he drove was being repossessed.
He refuses to join Bud as a repossession agent, or "repo man", and goes to his parents' house.
He learns that his burned-out, pot-smoking, ex-hippie parents (Jonathan Hugger, Sharon Gregg) have donated the money they promised him for finishing school to a crooked televangelist.
He decides to take the repo job.
Otto soon learns that, as Bud had told him, "the life of a repo man is always intense".
He enjoys the fast living, drug use, car chases, hot-wiring cars, and good pay.
His old life is boring by comparison.
After repossessing a flashy red Cadillac, Otto sees a girl named Leila (Olivia Barash) running down the street.
He gives her a ride to her workplace, the United Fruitcake Outlet ("UFO".
), where they have sex in the backseat.
On the way, Leila shows Otto pictures of aliens that she says are in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu.
She claims that they are dead but still dangerous because of the radiation that they emit.
Meanwhile, Helping Hand and its repo rivals are offered a $20,000 bounty notice for the Malibu.
Most assume that the car is drug-related, because the bounty is so far above the actual value of the car.
Parnell finally arrives inA, but he is unable to meet up with his waiting UFO compatriots because of a team of government agents led by a woman with a metal hand.
When he pulls into a gas station, the Rodriguez brothers (competitors of Helping Hand) take the car.
They stop for sodas because the car's trunk is so hot.
While they are out of the car, a trio of Otto's punk friends, who are on a crime spree (what they call "doing crimes"), steal the Malibu.
After they visit a night club, Parnell appears and tricks the punks into opening the trunk, killing one of them and scaring the other two away, allowing him to take the car back.
Later, he picks up Otto and drives aimlessly, talking about how a brilliant scientist friend gave himself a lobotomy to deal with his work, then reveals his friend drives a Chevy Malibu before collapsing and dying from radiation exposure.
Otto takes the car back to Helping Hand and leaves it in the lot.
The car is stolen from the lot, and a chase ensues with all the characters involved.
By this time, the car is glowing bright green.
Eventually, the car reappears at the Helping Hand lot with Bud behind the wheel, however he ends up being shot and leaves the car; the various groups trying to acquire the car soon show up - government agents, the UFO scientists, and even the televangelist Otto's parents gave his college funds to.
However, anyone who now approaches it bursts into flames, even those in flame-retardant suits.
Only Miller, an eccentric mechanic who works at Helping Hand, is able to approach and enter the car.
He slides behind the wheel, apparently impervious to the radiation.
He beckons Otto into the Malibu, and Otto accepts eagerly, dismissing Leila's confession of love (at which point she calls him a "shithead" and says "I'm glad I tortured you".
).
After he settles into the passenger seat, the Malibu lifts straight up into the air.
The film closes with the car zooming through the air around downtown LA and then off into the stars.
<EOS>
A team of special operatives, known as the HUNT (High-risk United Nations Task-force) is sent to San Nicolas Island to investigate deadly cult activity taking place in an ancient monastery.
Their boat, the only way back, is destroyed by patrols, and the team soon learns that the cult plans to systematically destroy nearby Los Angeles.
The operatives, now unable to return whence they came, are then left to fight their way into the monastery on the island, and eventually put a stop to the cult's activities.
During its early stages of development, Rise of the Triad was initially meant to serve as the sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, titled Wolfenstein 3D II: Rise of the Triad.
The presence of the Walther PP pistol, the MP 40 submachine gun, the Bazooka, and the outfits worn by the enemies allude to Nazi Germany and imply the original aforementioned intent for the development of ROTT.
<EOS>
In the year 1943, World War II is in full swing.
Assigned to the Office of Secret Actions (OSA) from the military, US Army Ranger "BJ".
Blazkowicz and British operative Agent One are sent into Egypt to investigate increasing activity of the Nazi SS Paranormal Division.
The duo find themselves witness to the SS blundering and releasing an ancient curse around the dig site, resurrecting scores of zombies from their slumber.
Pushing through the mummies and Nazis,J and Agent One are led to an airfield and a location to follow.
As they tail the SS, the two are shot down near Austria and captured by the Nazis.
Agent One and Blazkowicz are carted away and imprisoned in Castle Wolfenstein, a remote, medieval castle that serves as a stronghold, prison, and research station.
During their incarceration, Agent One is tortured for information and dies from electrocution exposureJ, however, manages to escape Castle Wolfenstein's dungeon and fights his way out of the castle, using a cable car to leave the area and meet up with Kessler, a member of the German resistance in a nearby village.
Meanwhile, the SS Paranormal Division, under Oberführer Helga von Bulow, has long since moved from Egypt and has been excavating the catacombs and crypts of an ancient church within the village itself in search of the resting place of a "Dark Knight".
The Division's sloppy precautions have led to the release of an ancient curse and the awakening of hordes of undead creatures, this time including Saxon knights.
The majority of the SS finally realize the dangers and seal off the entrance into the catacombs, leaving many soldiers trapped insideJ.
descends regardless and fights both Nazis and undead until he arrives at the ancient house of worship, the Defiled Church, where Nazi scientist Professor Zemph is conducting a 'life essence extraction' on the corpse of a Dark Knight, which, thanks to some Nazi technology, succeeds.
Shortly beforeJ.
's arrival, Zemph tries to talk the impatient Helga von Bulow out of retrieving an ancient Thulian artifact, the "Dagger of Warding" from a nearby altar in an isolated area of the church, but she shoots him and proceeds.
This final blunder awakens another monster, Olaric, which kills and dismembers her.
Blazkowicz, after a heated battle against spirits and demon attacks, defeats Olaric, and then is airlifted out with Zemph's notes and the dagger.
With the lead with Helga seeming to have come to a close, the OSA begins to shift its focus to one of Germany's leading scientific researchers and Head of the SS Special Projects Division, Oberführer Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse.
Their investigation leads the OSA to realizing that Deathshead is preparing to launch an attack on London.
He intends to use a V-2 rocket fitted with an experimental biological warhead, launching it from his base near Katamarunde in the Baltics.
Due to the stealthy nature in which the OSA needs to act, Blazkowicz is parachuted some distance from the missile base and separated from his equipment.
After collecting his gear, he smuggles himself into a supply truck bound for the base.
Once inside, Blazkowicz destroys the V-2 on its launchpad and fights his way out of the facility towards an airbase filled with experimental jet aircraft.
There, he commandeers a "Kobra" rocket-plane and flies to safety in Malta.
Eager to know more about Deathshead and his secret projects, the OSA sends Blazkowicz to the bombed-out city of Kugelstadt, where he is assisted by members of the German Kreisau Circle resistance group in breaking into a ruined factory and exfiltrating a defecting scientist.
It is there he discovers the blueprints for the Reich's latest weapon, the Venom Gun, an electrically operated hand-held minigun.
He also procures the weapon itself.
Blazkowicz eventually breaks into Deathshead's underground research complex, the Secret Weapons Facility.
There he encounters the horrific fruits of Deathshead's labors: creatures, malformed, and twisted through surgery and mechanical implants.
The creatures escape from their containments and go on a rampage.
Blazkowicz fights his way through the facility, only to see Deathshead escape the chaos by U-Boat, and learns of his destination by interrogating a captured German officer.
Blazkowicz, with his newly found information, is then parachuted into Norway, close to Deathshead's mysterious "X-Labs".
After breaking into the facility, which has been overrun by the twisted creatures he encountered in Kugelstadt (dubbed 'Lopers'), Blazkowicz retrieves Deathshead's journal, its content directly linking Deathshead's research to the rest of the SS Paranormal's occult activity.
He then confronts several new prototype creatures called Übersoldaten (super soldiers), towering monstrosities coated in armor, powered by hydraulic legs and carrying powerful weapons.
Finally catching up with Deathshead, Blazkowicz comes face to face with a completed and fully armored Übersoldat, and kills the researchers who have developed it.
After the Übersoldat is destroyed, Deathshead shouts over the speakers in frustration and astonishment before escaping in a Kobra rocket-plane and disappears for the rest of the game.
After studying the documents captured by Blazkowicz, the OSA has become aware of a scheme codenamed 'Operation: Resurrection', a plan to resurrect Heinrich I, a legendary and powerful Saxon warlock-king from 943 AD.
Despite the skepticism of senior Allied commanders, the OSA parachutes Blazkowicz back near Castle Wolfenstein, at the Bramburg Dam, where he fights his way until he arrives at the village town of Paderborn.
After assassinating all the senior officers of the SS Paranormal Division present there for the resurrection, Blazkowicz fights his way through Chateau Schufstaffel and into the grounds beyond.
After fighting two more Übersoldaten, Blazkowicz enters an excavation site near Castle Wolfenstein.
Inside the excavation site, Blazkowicz fights Nazi guards and prototype Übersoldaten, and makes his way to a boarded-up entrance to Castle Wolfenstein's underground crypts.
There, he finds that the ruined and decaying sections of the castle has become infested with undead creatures, which are attacking the castle's desperate garrison.
After fighting his way through the underworkings of the castle, Blazkowicz arrives too late at the site of a dark ceremony to prevent the resurrection of Heinrich At the ceremony, SS psychic and Oberführerin Marianna Blavatsky conjures up dark spirits, which transform three of Deathshead's Übersoldaten into Dark Knights, Heinrich's lieutenants.
She ultimately raises Heinrich I, who "thanks" her by turning her into his undead slave.
In a climactic battle, Blazkowicz, after exhausting most of his arsenal, destroys the three Dark Knights, the undead Marianna Blavatsky, and eventually Heinrich In the distance, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler watches in horror, remarking afterwards "This American.
he has ruined everything" as he leaves for Berlin to face an expectant Hitler.
Back in the OSA, Operation Resurrection is closed and Blazkowicz is off on some "R&R" — shooting Nazis.
<EOS>
Red Faction takes place on Mars around the year 2075.
Earth’s minerals are being depleted and humans need more of them to survive.
The vast Ultor Corporation runs the mining operation on Mars.
The living conditions are deplorable, human rights for the miners are few, and a disease called "The Plague" is running rampant throughout the colony with no known antidote available—predominantly within the confines of the mine complex.
Parker, a downtrodden miner, came to Mars to make a new start in his life—taken in by the promises and advantages Ultor has to offer in the mines of Mars.
After a routine day in the mine with the typical aggression toward miners and cramped living conditions and poor nutrition, he witnesses the spark that starts a rebellion when a security guard abuses a miner at the end of his shift and heartlessly kills him.
Parker takes up arms, with the help of Hendrix, a rebellious Ultor security technician who guides Parker through the complex.
Hendrix tries to get Parker to join up with a group of miners who are about to steal a supply shuttle and escape the complex, but Parker arrives too late.
The shuttle takes off, and is destroyed by missiles moments later.
Parker traverses through the Ultor complex, eliminating any resistance Ultor throws at him, and even (with the help of Orion, a high-ranking Red Faction member) kidnapping a high-ranking Ultor administrator, Gryphon, for Eos, leader of the Red Faction.
Parker learns from Gryphon about dr Capek, who created "The Plague".
Capek has been experimenting with nanotechnology, and the Plague is a side-effect of injections at the miners' annual medical checkup.
Hendrix directs Parker to Capek's secret underground laboratory, where he and Eos meet up and take down Capek.
As Capek dies, he tells Eos there is a cure for the Plague but refuses to tell her how to make it and bluntly states "Hope you all Die.
" With Capek dead the lab's self-destruction sequence initiates, Eos stays behind to find the files on the cure while Parker continues to the Communications center.
After sending a distress call to the Earth Defense Force, Parker destroys the missile defense system, so that he can stow away on a shuttle to an Ultor space station in Martian orbit to deactivate a laser defense system without getting shot down.
After destroying the space station, Parker lands back on Mars via an escape pod, Ultor brings out its reserve of mercenaries to help them in their fight against the miners.
Hendrix tells Parker that the mercenaries have orders to destroy the mining complex, covering up any proof of Ultor's wrongdoing, Hendrix is killed soon after this by the mercenaries.
After fighting his way through the mercenary base, Parker confronts Masako, the mercenary leader.
After he kills Masako, Parker sees that Eos is tied up and sitting on the floor next to the bomb, which has been set to explode.
After deactivating it, the Earth Defense Force arrives just in time to save Parker and Eos from a fighter aircraft.
Eos tells Parker that an antidote for the Plague has been made and it is being given to any sick miners.
She also tells him she is leaving Mars, and that Parker should enjoy his new status as a hero.
<EOS>
The main characteristics that define soap operas are "an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations".
Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place, or focus on a large extended family.
The storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters.
"Soap narratives, like those of film melodramas, are marked by what Steve Neale has described as 'chance happenings, coincidences, missed meetings, sudden conversions, last-minute rescues and revelations, deus ex machina endings.
'" These elements may be found across the gamut of soap operas, from EastEnders to Dallas.
Due to the prominence of English-language television, most soap-operas are completely English (or in the case of a foreign soap opera, dubbed into English).
However, several South African soap operas started incorporating a multi-language format, the most prominent being 7de Laan, which incorporates Afrikaans, English, Zulu and several other Bantu languages which make up the 11 Official Languages of South Africa (the subtitles are always in English).
In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, the characters are frequently attractive, seductive, glamorous and wealthy.
Soap operas from the United Kingdom and Australia tend to focus on more everyday characters and situations, and are frequently set in working class environments.
Many of the soaps produced in those two countries explore social realist storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown or financial problems.
Both UK and Australian soap operas feature comedic elements, often affectionate comic stereotypes such as the gossip or the grumpy old man, presented as a comic foil to the emotional turmoil that surrounds them.
This diverges from US soap operas where such comedy is rare.
UK soap operas frequently make a claim to presenting "reality" or purport to have a "realistic" style.
UK soap operas also frequently foreground their geographic location as a key defining feature of the show while depicting and capitalising on the exotic appeal of the stereotypes connected to the location.
As examples, EastEnders focuses on the tough and grim life in London's east end, while Coronation Street invokes Manchester and its characters exhibit the stereotypical characteristic of "Northern straight talking".
Romance, secret relationships, extramarital affairs, and genuine hate have been the basis for many soap opera storylines.
In US daytime serials, the most popular soap opera characters, and the most popular storylines, often involved a romance of the sort presented in paperback romance novels.
Soap opera storylines sometimes weave intricate, convoluted and sometimes confusing tales of characters who have affairs, meet mysterious strangers and fall in love, and who commit adultery, all of which keeps audiences hooked on the unfolding story.
Crimes such as kidnapping, rape, and even murder may go unpunished if the perpetrator is to be retained in the ongoing story.
Australian and UK soap operas also feature a significant proportion of romance storylines.
In Russia, most popular serials explore the "romantic quality" of criminal and/or oligarch life.
In soap opera storylines, previously unknown children, siblings and twins (including the evil variety) of established characters often emerge to upset and reinvigorate the set of relationships examined by the series.
Unexpected calamities disrupt weddings, childbirths, and other major life events with unusual frequency.
As in comic books – another popular form of linear storytelling pioneered in the US during the 20th century – a character's death is not guaranteed to be permanent.
On The Bold and the Beautiful, Taylor Forrester (Hunter Tylo) was shown to flatline and have a funeral.
When Tylo reprised the character in 2005, a retcon explained that Taylor had actually gone into a coma.
Stunts and complex physical action are largely absent, especially from daytime serials.
Such story events often take place off screen and are referred to in dialogue instead of being shown.
This is because stunts or action scenes are difficult to adequately depict visually without complex action, multiple takes, and post production editing.
When episodes were broadcast live, post production work was impossible.
Though all serials have long switched to being taped, extensive post production work and multiple takes, while possible, are not feasible due to the tight taping schedules and low budgets.
<EOS>
In the first episode, Starfleet Commander Benjamin Sisko arrives (along with his young son, Jake) at Deep Space Nine, a space station formerly run by the Cardassians during their oppressive occupation of Bajor, a planet which the space station orbits.
He is assigned to run the station jointly with the newly liberated Bajorans as they recover from the Cardassian occupation, to help pave the way for Bajor's entry into the Federation.
Sisko and Jadzia Dax stumble upon the first stable wormhole ever found and discover that it is inhabited by beings who are not bound by normal space and time.
To the strongly religious people of Bajor, the wormhole aliens are their gods (the Prophets) and the wormhole itself is the long-prophesied Celestial Temple, where they reside.
Sisko himself is hailed as the Emissary of the Prophets, through whom the Prophets primarily act.
This provides the basis for a long-lasting story arc.
Sisko initially considers his role as a religious icon with open discomfort and skepticism, referring to the Prophets simply as "wormhole aliens" and striving to keep his role as commander of the station distinct from any religious obligations that the Bajorans try to place on him.
Later, he becomes more accepting of his role and, by the end of the series, he openly embraces it.
The political and religious implications of this on the Bajorans and its spiritual leaders (most notably, Winn Adami) also provide a central arc that lasts until the end of the series.
The station crew early on has to contend with a human resistance group known as the Maquis.
Rooted in the events of The Next Generation episode "", in which Native American settlers refuse to leave when their colony world is given to Cardassia as part of a treaty, the Maquis is an example for the show’s exploration of darker themes: its members are Federation citizens who take up arms against Cardassia in defense of their homes, and some—such as Calvin Hudson, a long-time friend of Sisko's, and Michael Eddington, who defects while serving aboard the station—are Starfleet officers.
The show’s sharp departure from traditional Star Trek themes can be seen in episodes such as "", in which Eddington complains to Sisko, "Everybody should want to be in the Federation.
Nobody leaves paradise.
In some ways, you’re even worse than the Borg.
At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation.
You assimilate people and they don’t even know it".
The Maquis also allows DS9 to subvert some longstanding Star Trek icons: Thomas Riker, a duplicate of Enterprise-D first officer Commander William Riker (also played by Jonathan Frakes; character first appeared in ST:TNGs "" episode), is revealed in the episode "" to be a member of the Maquis who gains access to the station's crew and facilities by impersonating the Enterprise's Riker.
The second-season episode, "" marks the first mention of the Dominion, a ruthless empire in the Gamma Quadrant, though they are not fully introduced until the second-season finale, "The Jem'Hadar".
It is led by "the Founders", a race of shape-shifting Changelings, the same species as station security chief Odo.
They were once persecuted by non-shape-shifters (whom they call "Solids") and they seek to impose "order" upon any who could potentially harm them, which includes nearly all Solids.
The Founders have created or genetically modified races to serve them: the Vorta, sly and subversive diplomats, and the Jem’Hadar, their fearless shock troops.
These races worship the Founders as gods.
At the start of DS9’s third season (""), with the threat of a Dominion attack looming from the other side of the wormhole, Commander Sisko returns from Starfleet Headquarters on Earth with the USS Defiant, a prototype starship that was originally built to fight the Borg.
It remains stationed at Deep Space Nine until season seven, providing an avenue for plot lines away from the station.
With the third season, writers from the now completed Next Generation began to write regularly for DS9.
The Dominion forms an uneasy alliance with the Cardassians in the fifth-season episodes "In Purgatory's Shadow" and "By Inferno's Light" and goes to war with the other major powers of the Alpha Quadrant in the season finale "".
Throughout the series, loyalties and alliances change repeatedly: pacts with the Cardassians are made, broken, and remade; a short war with the Klingons flares up and is settled, and the formerly neutral Romulans ally themselves with the Federation.
This last alliance is made in an attempt to turn the war around, but comes as a result of criminal and duplicitous acts on Sisko and resident Cardassian Garak's part, thus providing an example of the moral ambiguity prevalent in DS9 in comparison to the other Star Trek series.
Another example of DS9’s darker nature is the introduction of Section 31, a secret organization dedicated to preserving the Federation way of life at any cost.
This shadow group, introduced in "", justifies its unlawful, unilateral tactics by claiming that it is essential to the continued existence of the Federation.
Section 31 repeatedly states that if you inquire into the matter with the Federation, they will deny Section 31's existence.
Section 31 features prominently in several episodes of the Dominion War arc, especially as it is revealed that it attempted a genocide of the Founders.
In DS9, the Ferengi are no longer an enemy of the Federation, but rather an economic power whose political neutrality is, for the most part, respected.
A number of episodes explore their capitalistic nature, while others delve into the race’s sexist social norms.
Unlike their depiction in Star Trek: The Next Generation, where they were generally portrayed simply as sexist buffoons for comedic purposes, in DS9 they received a more complex depiction, with the female partner (Ishka) of the Grand Nagus leading a women's rights rebellion on the Ferengi homeworld, and Rom, Quark's brother, leading a strike against unfair working conditions in Quark's bar.
Also, Jake Sisko's best friend, Nog, has to deal with Starfleet's more liberal attitudes towards women while Jake learns to deal with his friend's cultural background in a respectful manner rather than risk the loss of their friendship.
Nog later decides to join Starfleet, the first Ferengi to do so.
Several episodes of DS9 explore the theme of the Mirror Universe, first touched upon in the episode "".
In the second-season episode "", the DS9 crew first becomes aware of this alternate universe when Kira and dr Bashir experience operational difficulties while traveling through the Wormhole and wind up back on the station in the Mirror Universe dominated by the Klingon–Cardassian alliance.
They discover that it is not DS9 to which they have returned but Terok Nor.
Bajor is not friendly and there is no Federation here.
"Terrans", as they are called in this universe, are ruthless barbarians according to the Intendant (Kira's mirror self) – the Terran Empire occupied Bajor for decades much as Cardassia had in the normal universe.
The Klingon–Cardassian alliance eventually formed and Bajor was freed from Terran occupation, later enslaving Terrans as ore miners on the orbiting space station Terok Nor.
Enslaved as they are, the Terran workers liberate themselves and form a resistance movement, as seen in several other DS9 episodes ("", "", "", "The Emperor's New Cloak").
<EOS>
In the year 2293, retired Captain James Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Pavel Chekov attend the maiden voyage of the Federation starship USS Enterprise-B, under the command of the unseasoned Capt.
John Harriman.
During the voyage, Enterprise is pressed into a rescue mission to save two El-Aurian ships from a strange energy ribbon.
Enterprise is able to save some of the refugees before their ships are destroyed, but the starship becomes trapped in the ribbon.
Kirk goes to deflector control to alter the deflector dish, allowing Enterprise to escape, but the trailing end of the ribbon rakes across Enterprises hull, exposing the section Kirk is in to space; he is presumed dead.
In 2371, the crew of the USS Enterprise-D celebrate the promotion of Worf to Lieutenant Commander.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard receives a message that his brother and nephew were killed in a fire, meaning the storied Picard family line will end with him.
Enterprise receives a distress call from an observatory in orbit of the star Amargosa, where they rescue the El-Aurian dr Tolian Soran.
The android Data and engineer Geordi La Forge discover a compound called trilithium in a hidden room of the observatory.
Soran appears, knocks La Forge unconscious, and launches a trilithium solar probe at Amargosa.
The probe causes the star to implode, sending a shock wave toward the observatory.
Soran and La Forge are transported away by a Klingon Bird of Prey belonging to the treacherous , who had stolen the trilithium for Soran in exchange for the designs for a trilithium weapon.
Data is rescued just before the station is destroyed by the shock wave.
Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), Enterprises bartender, tells Captain Jean-Luc Picard more about Soran; they were among the El-Aurians rescued by the Enterprise-B in 2293.
Guinan explains that Soran is obsessed with reentering the "Nexus", an extra-dimensional realm where time has no meaning and anyone can experience whatever they desire.
Picard and Data determine that Soran, unable to fly a ship into the ribbon due to the uncertainty that the ship will survive long enough to ensure his success, is instead altering the path of the ribbon by destroying stars, and that he will attempt to re-enter the Nexus on Veridian III by destroying its sun—and, by extension, a heavily populated planet in the system.
Upon entering the Veridian system, Enterprise makes contact with the Duras Bird of Prey.
Picard offers himself to the sisters in exchange for La Forge, but insists that he be transported to Soran's location first.
La Forge is returned to Enterprise, but he inadvertently reveals Enterprises shield frequency, allowing the Duras sisters to inflict crippling damage on Enterprise.
Enterprise destroys the Bird of Prey, but has sustained irreversible damage to its warp core.
Commander William Riker orders an evacuation to the forward saucer section of the ship which separates from the star drive.
The shock wave from the star drive's destruction sends the saucer crashing to the surface of Veridian III.
Picard fails to talk Soran out of his plan and is too late to stop him from launching his missile.
The collapse of the Veridian star alters the course of the Nexus ribbon as predicted, and it sweeps Picard and Soran away while the shock wave from the star obliterates everything in the system.
In the Nexus, Picard finds himself surrounded by the family he never had, including a wife and children, but realizes it is an illusion.
He is confronted by an "echo" of Guinan.
After being told that he may leave whenever he chooses and go wherever and whenever he wishes, Guinan sends him to meet Kirk, also safe in the Nexus.
Though Kirk is at first reluctant to leave, Picard convinces Kirk to return to Picard's present and stop Soran by assuring him that it will fulfill his desire to make a difference.
Leaving the Nexus, the two arrive on Veridian III minutes before Soran launches the missile.
Kirk distracts Soran long enough for Picard to lock the missile in place, causing it to explode on the launchpad and kill Soran.
Kirk is fatally injured by a fall during the encounter; as he dies, Picard assures him that he made a difference.
Picard buries Kirk before a shuttle arrives to transport him to the wreckage of the Enterprise saucer.
Three Federation starships enter orbit to retrieve Enterprise's survivors.
<EOS>
Captain Jean-Luc Picard wakes from a nightmare in which he relived his assimilation by the cybernetic Borg six years earlier (shown in the television episode "").
Starfleet informs him of a new Borg attack against The Federation, but believing him to be a liability, orders the USS Enterprise-E to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone.
Intercepting the overwhelmed fleet's audio communications, Picard disobeys orders and heads the Enterprise for Earth, where a single, damaged Borg Cube destroys opposing Starfleet vessels.
The Enterprise arrives in time to save the crew of the USS Defiant, commanded by Worf.
Picard takes command of the fleet and, after hearing Borg communications in his mind, orders it to concentrate its firepower on a seemingly non-vital section of the Borg ship.
The Cube is destroyed but manages to launch a smaller sphere ship towards the planet before disintegrating.
The Borg sphere generates and enters a temporal vortex.
As the Enterprise is enveloped in the vortex, the crew briefly glimpses an Earth populated entirely by Borg.
Picard realizes that the Borg have used time travel to change history, and orders the Enterprise to follow.
The Enterprise arrives in the past, on April 4, 2063, the day before humanity's first encounter with alien life after Zefram Cochrane's historic warp flight.
The Borg sphere fires on the planet; the Enterprise crew then destroy the sphere and, realizing that the Borg were trying to prevent first contact, especially during the time Earth was recovering after World War 3, send an away team to the Montana missile complex where Cochrane is building his ship, the Phoenix, to look for survivors.
Cochrane's assistant, Lily Sloane, opens fire on them but was overcome with radiation poisoning and taken to the Enterprise by dr Crusher.
Picard rushes back to the Enterprise with Data after hearing Borg voices in his head and leaves Commander William Riker on Earth to make sure the Phoenixs flight proceeds as planned.
The Enterprise crew sees Cochrane as a legend, but the real man is reluctant to assume his historical role.
When Picard returns to the Enterprise, he discovers that survivors from the Borg sphere have invaded the Enterprise, and begin to assimilate its crew and modify the ship, planning to use it to attack and conquer Earth.
Picard and a team attempt to reach engineering to disable the Borg with corrosive coolant used in the warp core.
The assault failed and Data is captured, and meets the queen of the Borg Collective, who gains his trust by giving part of him human skin.
A frightened Sloane seizes the captain but he gains her trust, and they escape the Borg-infested area of the ship by using the holodeck.
Picard, Worf, and the ship's navigator, Lieutenant Hawk, stop the Borg from calling reinforcements with the deflector dish, but Hawk is assimilated.
As the Borg continue to assimilate, Worf suggests destroying the ship, but Picard angrily calls him a coward and vows to continue the fight.
Sloane confronts the captain and, reminding him of Moby-Dicks Captain Ahab, makes him realize his own irrational behavior.
Picard activates the ship's self-destruct mechanism, orders the crew to abandon ship, and then apologizes to Worf.
While the crew heads to escape pods, Picard remains aboard to rescue Data.
As Cochrane, Riker, and engineer Geordi La Forge prepare to activate the warp drive on the Phoenix, Picard confronts the Borg Queen and discovers she has grafted human skin onto Data, giving him an array of new sensations.
She has presented this modification as a gift to the android, hoping to obtain his encryption codes to the Enterprise computer.
Although Picard offers himself in Data's place, the android refuses to leave.
He deactivates the self-destruct sequence and fires torpedoes at the Phoenix, but they miss and the Queen realizes Data has betrayed her.
Data ruptures a coolant tank, and the corrosive substance fatally dissolves the Borg's biological components.
Cochrane completes his warp flight, and that night, April 5, 2063, the crew watches as Vulcans, attracted by the Phoenix warp flight, land and greet Cochrane.
Having repaired history, the Enterprise crew returns to the 24th century.
<EOS>
In the year 2285, Admiral James Kirk oversees a simulator session of Captain Spock's trainees.
In the simulation, Lieutenant Saavik commands the starship on a rescue mission to save the crew of the damaged ship Kobayashi Maru.
When the Enterprise enters the Klingon Neutral Zone to reach the ship it is attacked by Klingon cruisers and critically damaged.
The simulation is a no-win scenario designed to test the character of Starfleet officers.
Later, dr McCoy joins Kirk on his birthday; seeing Kirk in low spirits, the doctor advises Kirk to get a new command and not grow old behind a desk.
Meanwhile, the USS Reliant is on a mission to search for a lifeless planet for testing of the Genesis Device, a technology designed to reorganize matter to create habitable worlds for colonization.
Reliant officers Commander Pavel Chekov and Captain Clark Terrell beam down to the surface of a possible candidate planet, which they believe to be Ceti Alpha VI; once there, they are captured by genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh.
15 years prior (see "Space Seed"), the Enterprise discovered Khan's ship adrift in space; Kirk exiled Khan and his fellow supermen to Ceti Alpha V after they attempted to take over the Enterprise.
After they were marooned, Ceti Alpha VI exploded, shifting the orbit of Ceti Alpha V and destroying its ecosystem.
Khan blames Kirk for the death of his wife and plans revenge.
He implants Chekov and Terrell with indigenous creatures that enter the ears of their victims and render them susceptible to mind control, and uses the officers to capture the Reliant.
Learning of Genesis, Khan attacks space station Regula I where the device is being developed by Kirk's former lover, dr Carol Marcus, and their son, David.
The Enterprise embarks on a three-week training voyage.
Kirk assumes command after the ship receives a distress call from Regula En route, the Enterprise is ambushed and crippled by the Reliant, leading to the deaths and injuries of many trainees.
Khan hails the Enterprise and offers to spare Kirk's crew if they relinquish all material related to Genesis.
Kirk stalls for time and uses the Reliant's prefix code to remotely lower its shields, allowing the Enterprise to counter-attack.
Khan is forced to retreat and effect repairs, while the Enterprise limps to Regula Kirk, McCoy, and Saavik beam to the station and find Terrell and Chekov alive, along with slaughtered members of Marcus's team.
They soon find Carol and David hiding deep inside the planetoid of Regula.
Khan, having used Terrell and Chekov as spies, orders them to kill Kirk; Terrell resists the eel's influence and kills himself while Chekov collapses as the eel leaves his body.
Khan then transports Genesis aboard the Reliant.
Though Khan believes his foe stranded on Regula I, Kirk and Spock use a coded message to arrange a rendezvous.
Kirk directs the Enterprise into the nearby Mutara Nebula; static discharges inside the nebula render shields useless and compromise targeting systems, making the Enterprise and the Reliant evenly matched.
Spock notes however that Khan's tactics are two-dimensional, indicating inexperience in space combat, which Kirk then exploits to critically disable the Reliant.
Mortally wounded, Khan activates Genesis, which will reorganize all matter in the nebula, including the Enterprise.
Though Kirk's crew detects the activation of Genesis and attempts to move out of range, they will not be able to escape the nebula in time due to the ship's damaged warp drive.
Spock goes to the engine room to restore the warp drive.
When McCoy tries to prevent Spock's entry, as exposure to the high levels of radiation would be fatal, Spock incapacitates the doctor with a Vulcan nerve pinch and performs a mind meld, telling him to "remember".
Spock successfully restores power to the warp drive and the Enterprise escapes the explosion, though at the cost of Spock's life.
The explosion of Genesis causes the gas in the nebula to reform into a new planet, capable of sustaining life.
After being alerted by McCoy, Kirk arrives in the engine room and discovers Spock dying of radiation poisoning.
The two share a meaningful exchange in which Spock urges Kirk not to grieve, as his decision to sacrifice his own life to save those of the ship's crew is a logical one, before succumbing to his injuries.
A space burial is held in the Enterprise torpedo room and Spock's coffin is shot into orbit around the new planet.
The crew leaves to pick up the Reliant marooned crew from Ceti Alpha Spock's coffin, having soft-landed, rests on the Genesis planet's surface.
<EOS>
In the pilot episode, , departs the Deep Space Nine space station on a mission into the treacherous Badlands.
They are searching for a missing ship piloted by a team of Maquis rebels, which Voyager's security officer, the Vulcan lt Tuvok, has secretly infiltrated.
While in the Badlands, Voyager is enveloped by a powerful energy wave that kills several of its crew, damages the ship, and strands it in the galaxy's Delta Quadrant, more than 70,000 light-years from Earth.
There, Voyager finds the Maquis ship, and eventually the two crews reluctantly agree to join forces to survive their journey home.
Chakotay, leader of the Maquis group, becomes Voyager's first officer.
B'Elanna Torres, a half-human/half-Klingon Maquis, becomes chief engineer.
Tom Paris, whom Janeway released from a Federation prison to help find the Maquis ship, is made Voyager's helm officer.
Due to the deaths of the ship's entire medical staff, the Doctor, an emergency medical hologram designed only for short-term use, is employed as the ship's full-time chief medical officer.
Delta Quadrant natives Neelix, a Talaxian scavenger, and Kes, a young Ocampa, are welcomed aboard as the ship's chef/morale officer and the doctor's medical assistant, respectively.
Due to its great distance from Federation space, the Delta Quadrant is unexplored by Starfleet, and Voyager is truly going where no man has gone before.
As they set out on their projected 75-year journey home, the crew passes through regions belonging to various species: the barbaric and belligerent Kazon; the organ-harvesting, disease-ravaged Vidiians; the nomadic hunter race the Hirogen; the fearsome Species 8472 from fluidic space; and most notably the Borg, whose home is the Delta Quadrant, so that Voyager has to move through large areas of Borg-controlled space in later seasons.
They also encounter perilous natural phenomena, a nebulous area called the Nekrit Expanse (, third season), a large area of empty space called the Void (, fifth season), wormholes, dangerous nebulae, and other anomalies.
However, Voyager does not always deal with the unknown.
It is the third Star Trek series to feature Q, an omnipotent alien&mdash;and the second on a recurring basis, as Q made only one appearance on.
Starfleet Command learns of Voyager's survival when the crew discovers an ancient interstellar communications network, claimed by the Hirogen, into which they can tap.
This relay network is later disabled, but due to the efforts of Earth-based Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, Starfleet eventually establishes regular contact in the season-six episode "", using a communications array and micro-wormhole technology.
In the first two episodes of the show's fourth season, Kes leaves the ship in the wake of an extreme transformation of her mental abilities, while Seven of Nine (known colloquially as Seven), a Borg drone who was assimilated as a six-year-old human girl, is liberated from the collective and joins the Voyager crew.
As the series progresses, Seven begins to regain her humanity with the ongoing help of Captain Janeway, who shows her that emotions, friendship, love, and caring are more important than the sterile "perfection" the Borg espouse.
The Doctor also becomes more human-like, due in part to a mobile holo-emitter the crew obtains in the third season which allows the Doctor to leave the confines of sickbay.
He discovers his love of music and art, which he demonstrates in the episode.
In the sixth season, the crew discovers a group of adolescent aliens assimilated by the Borg, but prematurely released from their maturation chambers due to a malfunction on their Borg cube.
As he did with Seven of Nine, the Doctor rehumanizes the children; , three of them eventually find a new adoptive home while the fourth, , chooses to stay aboard Voyager.
Life for the Voyager crew evolves during their long journey.
Traitors and are uncovered in the early months (); loyal crew members are lost late in the journey; and other wayward Starfleet officers are integrated into the crew.
In the second season, the first child is born aboard the ship to Ensign Samantha Wildman; as she grows up, Naomi Wildman becomes great friends with her godfather, Neelix, and develops an unexpected and close relationship with Seven of Nine.
Early in the seventh season, Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres marry after a long courtship, and Torres gives birth to their child, , in the series finale.
Late in the seventh season, the crew finds a colony of Talaxians on a makeshift settlement in an asteroid field, and Neelix chooses to bid Voyager farewell and live once again among his people.
Over the course of the series, the Voyager crew finds various ways to reduce their 75-year journey by five decades: shortcuts, in the episodes and ; technology boosts, in episodes , "Dark Frontier", , and "Hope and Fear"; subspace corridors in ; and a mind-powered push from a powerful former shipmate in.
Also, the crew is not able to use other trip-shortening opportunities, as seen in the episodes , "Future's End", , and.
A final effort, involving the use of a Borg transwarp conduit, reduces the 70,000-light-year journey to just seven years in the series finale.
<EOS>
Because of primogeniture, when Mr Henry Dashwood dies, his house, Norland Park, passes directly to his son John, the child of his first wife.
His second wife, Mrs Dashwood, and their daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, inherit only a small income.
On his deathbed, Mr Dashwood extracts a promise from his son, to take care of his half-sisters.
John's greedy wife, Fanny, soon persuades him to renege on the promise.
John and Fanny immediately move in as the new owners of Norland, while the Dashwood women are treated as unwelcome guests.
Mrs Dashwood seeks somewhere else to live.
In the meantime, Fanny's brother, Edward Ferrars visits Norland and soon forms an attachment with Elinor.
Fanny disapproves of the match and offends Mrs Dashwood with the implication that Elinor is motivated by money.
Mrs Dashwood moves her family to Barton Cottage in Devonshire, near the home of her cousin, Sir John Middleton.
Their new home is modest but they are warmly received by Sir John and welcomed into local society—meeting his wife, Lady Middleton, his mother-in-law, Mrs Jennings and his friend, Colonel Brandon.
Colonel Brandon is attracted to Marianne, and Mrs Jennings teases them about it.
Marianne is not pleased as she considers the thirty-five-year-old Colonel Brandon an old bachelor, incapable of falling in love or inspiring love in anyone else.
Marianne, out for a walk, gets caught in the rain, slips and sprains her ankle.
The dashing John Willoughby sees the accident and assists her.
Marianne quickly comes to admire his good looks and outspoken views on poetry, music, art and love.
His attentions lead Elinor and Mrs Dashwood to suspect that the couple are secretly engaged.
Elinor cautions Marianne against her unguarded conduct, but Marianne refuses to check her emotions.
Abruptly, Mr Willoughby informs the Dashwoods that his aunt, upon whom he is financially dependent, is sending him to London on business, indefinitely.
Marianne is distraught and abandons herself to her sorrow.
Edward Ferrars pays a short visit to Barton Cottage but seems unhappy.
Elinor fears that he no longer has feelings for her, but will not show her heartache.
After Edward departs, Anne and Lucy Steele, the vulgar cousins of Lady Middleton, come to stay at Barton Park.
Lucy informs Elinor in confidence of her secret four-year engagement to Edward Ferrars that started when he was studying with her uncle, and she displays proof.
Elinor realises that Lucy's visit and revelations are the result of Lucy's jealousy and cunning calculation, and understands Edward's recent behavior towards her.
She acquits Edward of blame and pities him for being held to a loveless engagement by his sense of honour.
Elinor and Marianne accompany Mrs Jennings to London.
On arriving, Marianne rashly writes several personal letters to Willoughby, which go unanswered.
When they meet at a dance, Mr Willoughby greets Marianne reluctantly and coldly, to her extreme distress.
Soon Marianne receives a curt letter enclosing their former correspondence and love tokens, including a lock of her hair and informing her of his engagement to a young lady with a large fortune.
Marianne is devastated.
After Elinor has read the letter, Marianne tells her that she and Willoughby were never engaged, but she loved him and thought that he loved her.
Colonel Brandon visits the sisters and reveals to Elinor that Willoughby's aunt disinherited him after she learned that he had seduced Brandon's fifteen-year-old ward, Miss Williams, then abandoned her when she became pregnant.
This is why he chose to marry for money rather than love.
Brandon was in love with Miss Williams' mother as a young man, when she was his father's ward, but she was forced into an unhappy marriage to Brandon's brother that ended in scandal and divorce; Marianne strongly reminds him of her.
The Steele sisters come to London as guests of Mrs Jennings and after a brief acquaintance they are asked to stay at John and Fanny Dashwood's London house.
Lucy sees the invitation as a personal compliment, rather than what it is, a slight to Elinor and Marianne who should have received such invitation first.
Too talkative, Anne Steele betrays Lucy's secret.
As a result, the Misses Steele are turned out of the house, and Edward is ordered to break off the engagement on pain of disinheritance.
Edward refuses to comply and is immediately disinherited in favour of his brother, gaining respect for his conduct, and sympathy from Elinor and Marianne.
Colonel Brandon shows his admiration by offering Edward the living of Delaford parsonage.
Mrs Jennings takes Elinor and Marianne to the country to visit her second daughter.
In her misery over Willoughby's marriage, Marianne becomes dangerously ill.
Willoughby arrives to repent and reveals to Elinor that his love for Marianne was genuine.
He elicits Elinor's pity because his choice has made him unhappy, but she is disgusted by the callous way in which he talks of Miss Williams and of his own wife.
He also reveals that his aunt forgave him after his marriage, meaning that if he had married Marianne he would have had both money and love.
When Marianne recovers, Elinor tells her of Willoughby's visit.
Marianne realises that she could never have been happy with Willoughby's immoral and expansive nature.
She values Elinor's conduct in her similar situation and resolves to model herself after Elinor's courage and good sense.
Edward arrives and reveals that, after his disinheritance, Lucy jilted him in favour of his now wealthy brother, Robert.
Edward and Elinor soon marry, and later Marianne marries Colonel Brandon, having gradually come to love him.
<EOS>
In Minato, Tokyo, a middle-school student named Usagi Tsukino befriends Luna, a talking black cat that gives her a magical brooch enabling her to become Sailor Moon: a pretty soldier destined to save Earth from the forces of evil.
Luna and Usagi assemble a team of fellow Sailor Soldiers to find their princess and the Silver Crystal.
They encounter the studious Ami Mizuno, who awakens as Sailor Mercury; Rei Hino, a local shrine maiden who awakens as Sailor Mars; Makoto Kino, a tall transfer student who awakens as Sailor Jupiter; and Minako Aino, a young aspiring idol who awakens as Sailor Venus, accompanied by her talking feline companion Artemis.
Additionally, they encounter Mamoru Chiba, a high-school student who assists them on occasion as Tuxedo Mask.
In the first arc, the group battles the Dark Kingdom.
Led by Queen Beryl, a team of generals—the —attempt to find the Silver Crystal to free an imprisoned, evil entity called Queen Metaria.
Usagi and her team discover that in their previous lives they were members of the ancient moon kingdom called Silver Millennium.
The Dark Kingdom waged war against them, resulting in the destruction of the moon kingdom.
Its ruler Queen Serenity later sent her daughter Princess Serenity, her protectors the Sailor Soldiers, their feline advisers Luna and Artemis, and the princess's true love Prince Endymion into the future to be reborn through the power of the Silver Crystal.
The team recognize Usagi as the reincarnated Serenity and Mamoru as Endymion.
The Soldiers kill the Four Kings, who turn out to have been Endymion's guardians who defected in their past lives.
In a final confrontation with the Dark Kingdom, Minako kills Queen Beryl; she and the other Soldiers then sacrifice their lives in an attempt to destroy Queen Metaria.
Using the Silver Crystal, Usagi succeeds in killing Metaria and resurrects her friends.
At the beginning of the second arc, Usagi and Mamoru's daughter Chibiusa arrives from the future to find the Silver Crystal.
As a result, the Soldiers encounter Wiseman and his Black Moon Clan, who are pursuing her.
Chibiusa takes the Soldiers to the future city Crystal Tokyo, where her parents rule as Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion.
During their journey they meet Sailor Pluto, guardian of the Time-Space Door.
Sailor Pluto stops the Clan's ruler Prince Demand from destroying the spacetime continuum, leading to her death.
Chibiusa later awakens as a Soldier—Sailor Chibi Moon—and helps Usagi kill Wiseman's true form, Death Phantom.
The third arc revolves around a group of lifeforms called the Death Busters, created by Professor Soichi Tomoe, who seek to transport the entity Pharaoh 90 to Earth to merge with the planet.
Tomoe's daughter Hotaru is possessed by the entity Mistress 9, who must open the dimensional gateway through which Pharaoh 90 must travel.
Auto-racer Haruka Tenoh and violinist Michiru Kaioh appear as Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, who guard the outer rim of the Solar System from external threats.
Physics student Setsuna Meioh, Sailor Pluto's reincarnation, joins the protagonists.
Usagi obtains the Holy Grail, transforms into Super Sailor Moon, and attempts to use the power of the Grail and the Silver Crystal to destroy Pharaoh 90.
This causes Hotaru to awaken as Sailor Saturn, whom Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna initially perceive as a threat.
As the harbinger of death, Hotaru uses her power of destruction to sever Pharaoh 90 from the Earth and instructs Setsuna to use her power over time-space to close the dimensional gateway.
In the fourth arc, Usagi and her friends enter high school and fight against the Dead Moon Circus, led by Queen Nehelenia, the self-proclaimed "rightful ruler" of both Silver Millennium and Earth.
Nehelenia invades Elysion, which hosts the Earth's Golden Kingdom, capturing its High Priest Helios and instructs her followers to steal the Silver Crystal.
As Prince Endymion, Mamoru is revealed to be the owner of the Golden Crystal—the sacred stone of the Golden Kingdom.
Mamoru and the Soldiers combine their powers with those of the Holy Grail, enabling Usagi to transform into Eternal Sailor Moon and kill Nehelenia.
Four of Nehelenia's henchmen, the Amazoness Quartet, are revealed to be Sailor Soldiers called the Sailor Quartet, who are destined to become Chibiusa's guardians in the future; they had been awakened prematurely and corrupted by Nehelenia.
In the final arc, Usagi and her friends are drawn into a battle against Shadow Galactica, a group of false Sailor Soldiers.
Their leader Sailor Galaxia plans to steal the Sailor Crystals of true Soldiers to take over the galaxy and kill an evil lifeform known as Chaos.
After killing Mamoru and most of the Sailor Soldiers, Sailor Galaxia steals their Sailor Crystals.
Usagi travels to the Galaxy Cauldron to defeat Galaxia and revive her teammates.
Joining Usagi are the Sailor Starlights who come from the planet Kinmoku, their ruler Princess Kakyuu and the infant Sailor Chibichibi who comes from the distant future.
Later, Chibiusa and the Sailor Quartet join Usagi and company.
After numerous battles and the death of Galaxia, Sailor Chibichibi reveals her true form as Sailor Cosmos.
Usagi then destroys Chaos with the Silver Crystal.
Mamoru and the Sailor Soldiers are revived and return to Earth with Usagi.
The series ends with Usagi and Mamoru's wedding six years later.
<EOS>
The series focuses on Lain Iwakura, an adolescent middle school girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to the Wired, a global communications network which is similar to the Internet.
Lain lives with her middle-class family, which consists of her inexpressive older sister Mika, her emotionally distant mother, and her computer-obsessed father; while Lain herself is somewhat awkward, introverted, and socially isolated from most of her school peers.
But the status-quo of her life becomes upturned by a series of bizarre incidents that start to take place after she learns that girls from her school have received an e-mail from a dead student, Chisa Yomoda, and she pulls out her old computer in order to check for the same message.
Lain finds Chisa telling her that she is not dead, but has merely "abandoned her physical body and flesh" and is alive deep within the virtual reality-world of the Wired itself, where she has found the almighty and divine "God".
From this point, Lain is caught up in a series of cryptic and surreal events that see her delving deeper into the mystery of the network in a narrative that explores themes of consciousness, perception, and the nature of reality.
The "Wired" is a virtual reality-world that contains and supports the very sum of all human communication and networks, created with the telegraph, televisions, and telephone services, and expanded with the Internet, cyberspace, and subsequent networks.
The series assumes that the Wired could be linked to a system that enables unconscious communication between people and machines without physical interface.
The storyline introduces such a system with the Schumann resonances, a property of the Earth's magnetic field that theoretically allows for unhindered long distance communications.
If such a link were created, the network would become equivalent to Reality as the general consensus of all perceptions and knowledge.
The increasingly thin invisible line between what is real and what is virtual/digital begins to slowly shatter.
Masami Eiri is introduced as the project director on Protocol Seven (the next-generation Internet protocol in the series' time-frame) for major computer company Tachibana General Laboratories.
He had secretly included code of his very own creation to give himself absolute control of the Wired through the wireless system described above.
He then "uploaded" his own brain, conscience, consciousness, memory, feelings, emotions – his very self – into the Wired and "died" a few days after, leaving only his physical, living body behind.
These details are unveiled around the middle of the series, but this is the point where the story of Serial Experiments Lain begins.
Masami later explains that Lain is the artifact by which the wall between the virtual and material worlds is to fall, and that he needs her to get to the Wired and "abandon the flesh", as he did, to achieve his plan.
The series sees him trying to convince her through interventions, using the promise of unconditional love, romantic seduction and charm, and even, when all else fails, threats and force.
In the meantime, the anime follows a complex game of hide-and-seek between the "Knights of the Eastern Calculus", hackers whom Masami claims are "believers that enable him to be a God in the Wired", and Tachibana General Laboratories, who try to regain control of Protocol Seven.
In the end, the viewer sees Lain realizing, after much introspection, that she has absolute control over everyone's mind and over reality itself.
Her dialogue with different versions of herself shows how she feels shunned from the material world, and how she is afraid to live in the Wired, where she has the possibilities and responsibilities of an almighty goddess.
The last scenes feature her erasing everything connected to herself from everyone's memories.
She is last seen, unchanged, encountering her oldest and closest friend Alice once again, who is now married.
Lain promises herself that she and Alice will surely meet again anytime as Lain can literally go and be anywhere she desires between both worlds.
<EOS>
In the late 1990s, an elderly World War II veteran and his family visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy, France.
The veteran walks around the cemetery and, upon seeing one specific gravestone, collapses to his knees, overwhelmed by emotion.
On the morning of June 6, 1944, the beginning of the Normandy Invasion, American soldiers prepare to land on Omaha Beach.
They suffer heavily from their struggle against German infantry, machine gun nests, and artillery fire.
Captain John Miller, a company commander of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, survives the initial landing and assembles a group of his Rangers to penetrate the German defenses, leading to a breakout from the beach.
After the battle, the body of a dead soldier lying face down on the beach, with "S.
Ryan" inscribed on the back of his uniform, is shown.
Meanwhile, in Washington,C, at theS.
War Department, General George Marshall is informed that three of the four brothers of the Ryan family were killed in action and that their mother is to receive all three telegrams on the same day.
He learns that the fourth son, Private First Class James Francis Ryan, is a paratrooper and is missing in action somewhere in Normandy.
Marshall, after reading Abraham Lincoln's Bixby letter, orders that Ryan must be found and sent home immediately.
Three days after D-Day, Miller receives orders to find Ryan and bring him back from the front.
He assembles six men from his company—T/Sgt.
Mike Horvath, Privates First Class Richard Reiben and Adrian Caparzo, Privates Stanley Mellish and Danny Jackson, medic Irwin Wade—and T/5 Timothy Upham, a cartographer who speaks French and German, loaned from the 29th Infantry Division.
Miller and his men move out to Neuville; there, they meet a squad from the 101st Airborne Division.
Caparzo dies after being shot by a sniper.
Eventually, they locate a Private James Ryan, but soon learn that he is not their man.
They find a member of Ryan's regiment who informs them that his drop zone was at Vierville and that his and Ryan's companies had the same rally point.
Once they reach it, Miller meets a friend of Ryan's, who reveals that Ryan is defending a strategically important bridge over the Merderet River in the fictional town of Ramelle.
On the way to Ramelle, Miller decides to neutralize a German machine gun position, despite the misgivings of his men.
Wade is fatally wounded in the ensuing skirmish, but Miller, at Upham's urging, declines to execute a surviving German, nicknamed "Steamboat Willie", and sets him free on condition that he give himself up as a prisoner of war to the first Allied unit he encounters.
No longer confident in Miller's leadership, Reiben declares his intention to desert the squad and the mission, prompting a confrontation with Horvath.
The argument heats up until Miller defuses the situation by disclosing his background in civilian life, about which the squad had earlier set up a betting pool.
Reiben then reluctantly decides to stay.
Upon arrival at Ramelle, Miller and the squad come upon a small group of paratroopers, one of whom is Ryan.
Ryan is told of his brothers' deaths, the mission to bring him home, and that two men had been lost in the quest to find him.
He is distressed at the loss of his brothers, but does not consider it fair to go home, asking Miller to tell his mother that he intends to stay "with the only brothers [he has] left".
Miller decides to take command and defend the bridge with what little manpower and resources are available.
Using his own men and the accompanying paratroopers, Miller forms ambush positions throughout the ruined town for the tanks and infantry utilizing Molotov cocktails, detonation cords, and "sticky bombs" made from socks filled with Composition  Elements of the 2nd SS Panzer Division arrive with infantry and armor.
Although they inflict heavy casualties on the Germans, most of the paratroopers, along with Jackson, Mellish, and Horvath, are killed.
While attempting to blow the bridge, Miller is shot and mortally wounded by Steamboat Willie, who has rejoined the Germans.
Just before a Tiger tank reaches the bridge, an American P-51 Mustang flies overhead and destroys the tank, followed by American armored units which rout the remaining Germans.
Upham surprises a group of German soldiers as they attempt to retreat.
Steamboat Willie, raises his hands in surrender, believing that Upham will accept because of their earlier encounter.
Having witnessed Captain Miller being shot by Steamboat Willie, Upham shoots him and lets the other surviving Germans flee.
Reiben and Ryan are with Miller as he dies and says his last words, "James.
earn this.
Earn it".
It is revealed that the veteran who is visiting the Normandy Memorial is Ryan, and the grave he is standing at is Miller's.
The elderly Ryan asks his wife to confirm that he has led a good life, that he is a "good man" and thus worthy of the sacrifice of Miller and the others.
His wife replies, "You are".
Ryan then stands at attention and delivers a salute toward Miller's grave.
<EOS>
Egyptologist and linguist Daniel Jackson, PhD.
is invited by Catherine Langford to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs on cover stones that her father had unearthed in Giza, Egypt in 1928.
Jackson is taken to aS.
Air Force installation, and told the project is classified information by its commander Special Operations Colonel Jack O'Neil.
Jackson determines that the hieroglyphs refer to a "stargate" which uses constellations as spatial coordinates.
On this revelation, Jackson is shown that the base has this Stargate, also discovered by Langford's father.
They use Jackson's coordinates to align the Stargate's metal ring with markings along its outside, and once all seven are locked in, a wormhole opens, connecting the Stargate with a distant planet.
Jackson joins O'Neil and other soldiers as they pass through the wormhole, though expresses concern at a nuclear bomb they brought as a last resort.
On the arid desert planet, they find themselves in a pyramid-like structure.
Jackson locates the Stargate and its controls, but lacks the coordinates to return home.
O'Neil orders some men to stay behind to guard the Stargate.
Nearby, they discover a tribe of humans working to mine a strange mineral from the planet.
Jackson is able to communicate with them as they speak a variation of Ancient Egyptian, and finds the tribe sees them as emissaries of their god Ra (Jaye Davidson).
The tribe's chieftain Kasuf presents Jackson with his daughter Sha'uri as a gift, and though Jackson initially refuses her, he becomes romantically attached to her.
O'Neil befriends the teenaged boy Skaara and his friends, in part because Skaara reminds him of his long-deceased son.
Through hidden markings and discussions with the tribe, Jackson learns that Ra is an alien being who had come to Earth during the Ancient Egyptian period, looking to possess human bodies to extend his own life.
Ra enslaved these humans and brought some to this planet through the Stargate to mine the mineral that is used in the alien technology.
The humans on Earth revolted, overthrew Ra's overseers, and buried the Stargate to prevent its use.
Ra forbade the humans in the tribe from becoming literate, fearing another revolt.
During this investigation, Jackson comes across a cartouche containing six of the seven symbols for the Stargate, but the seventh has been broken off.
That night, Ra's ship lands atop the pyramid structure, and O'Neil's men there are captured or killed by Ra's soldiers.
When Jackson, O'Neil, and the other men return, they end up in a firefight against Ra's soldiers.
Jackson is killed and the others captured.
Ra places Jackson's body in a sarcophagus-like device that regenerates him.
Ra then explains to Jackson that he has found the nuclear bomb the humans brought and has used his alien technology to increase its explosive power a hundred-fold, and threatens to send it back through the Stargate.
Ra orders the human tribe to watch as he prepares to execute Jackson and the others to demonstrate his power, but Skaara and his friends create a diversion that allows Jackson, O'Neil, and the others to escape.
They flee to nearby caves to hide from Ra.
Skaara and his friends celebrate, and Skaara draws out a sign of victory in the sand, which Jackson recognizes as the final symbol.
O'Neil and his men aid Skaara in overthrowing the remaining overseers, and then launch an attack on Ra.
Ra sends out fighter ships against the humans while he orders his ship to take off.
The humans outside are forced to surrender to the fighter ships' pilots when they run out of ammo, but the rest of the tribe, having finally learned of their false gods, rebel against the pilots and overthrow them.
Sha'uri is killed, but Jackson takes her body and sneaks aboard Ra's ship, using a teleportation system, leaving O'Neil to fight Ra's lead soldier.
After Jackson places Sha'uri in the regeneration device.
Ra discovers them, but O'Neil activates the teleportation system, killing Ra's lead soldier, and allowing Jackson and Sha'uri to escape.
O'Neil realizes that Ra had rigged the bomb to prevent him from disarming it.
O'Neil and Jackson decide to use the teleportation system to transport the bomb to Ra's ship.
The ensuing blast destroys the ship in space.
With the humans freed, the remaining team prepares to return to Earth, but Jackson tells O'Neil he plans to stay behind with Sha'uri and the others.
O'Neil acknowledges Jackson's request and, with the others, enters the Stargate to return home.
The director's cut had several scenes which were cut from the theatrical release.
The first such scene took place immediately after the excavation of the Stargate in 1928 and showed petrified Horus guards near the cover stones; the producers had tried to introduce the idea that beings had attempted to come through the Stargate after its burial, but they cut the scene for time concerns.
<EOS>
The story begins with an ordinary teenager, called Simon, who hears his dog, "Chippy", up in the loft of his house.
Seeking to investigate, Simon finds that the dog had discovered a spellbook titled "Ye Olde Spellbooke" in an old chest; both the dog and the book had turned up sometime before the story from an unknown location.
Simon throws the book onto the floor in contempt, not believing in magic, only for a portal to open above it as a result.
Chippy quickly goes through the portal and Simon follows, ending up in another world.
After escaping from some goblins who intended to eat Simon, he quickly discovers a house in a village belonging to a wizard called Calypso, along with a letter from him.
Through it, Simon learns he was brought to this world to save Calypso from the evil sorcerer, Sordid.
Instructed to become a wizard, Simon is told to seek out wizards in the local tavern, and complete tasks with them.
Helping them to acquire a staff, and paying a subscription fee, he then performs tasks for various people, recovering the spell book he lost, as well as locating Sordid's tower.
Gaining entry with a potion that shrinks him, he quickly winds up in the tower's garden and finds a mushroom that restores his size.
Searching the tower, Simon helps to send some demons back, and uses a teleporter to take him to the Fiery Pits of Rondor, so as to destroy Sordid's wand.
Although Simon transforms him into stone, Sordid is revived the moment his wand is destroyed.
Surviving an attempt on his life, Simon quickly outwits him, defeats him, and is sent back to his world.
Although he assumes he had a dream, a portal opens in his bedroom, and a large gloved hand appears, taking him back through it.
<EOS>
Starship Troopers takes place in the midst of an interstellar war between the Terran Federation of Earth and the Arachnids of Klendathu.
It is narrated as a series of flashbacks by space marine Johnny Rico, a member of the "Mobile Infantry".
This is one of just a few Heinlein novels set out in this fashion.
The novel opens with Rico aboard the space corvette Rodger Young (named after Medal of Honor recipient Rodger Wilton Young), serving with the platoon known as "Rasczak's Roughnecks" (named after the platoon leader, Lieutenant Rasczak); about to embark on a raid against a colony inhabited by "Skinnies" (allies of the Arachnids).
Rico himself is a 'cap [capsule] trooper' in the Terran Federation's Mobile Infantry.
The raid itself is relatively brief: the Roughnecks land on the planet, destroy their targets, and retreat, suffering two casualties in the process (one, Dizzy Flores, dies during the return to orbit).
The story then flashes back to Rico's graduation from high school, where the reader sees his close relationship with his best friend Carl and their decision to sign up for Federal Service together over the objections of Rico's father.
This is the only chapter that describes Rico's civilian life, and most of it is spent on the monologues of two people: retired Lieutenant Colonel Jean Dubois, Rico's school instructor in "History and Moral Philosophy"; and Fleet Sergeant Ho, a disabled recruiter for the armed forces.
Dubois elucidates the book's moral position in matters of war; whereas Fleet Sergeant Ho's monologues examine the nature of military service, and his anti-military tirades seem primarily in contrast with Dubois.
Later it becomes apparent that his attitude and display of truncated limbs are intended to scare off unmotivated applicants.
Interspersed throughout the book are other flashbacks to Rico's History and Moral Philosophy course, which reveal that the rights of a full Citizen (to vote and hold public office) must be earned through voluntary Federal service.
Those who do not perform this Service retain the rights of free speech, assembly, etc, but cannot vote or hold public office.
This structure arose ad hoc after the collapse of the "20th century Western democracies", brought on by social failures at home (among which appear to be poor handling of juvenile delinquency) and military defeat by the Chinese Hegemony overseas.
In the next section of the novel, Rico begins training at Camp Arthur Currie on the Canadian prairie.
Five chapters are spent exploring Rico's experience there, under the tutelage of career Ship's Sergeant Charles Zim.
Fewer than ten percent of the recruits finish basic training; the rest resign, are expelled, or die in training.
One of the chapters displays Ted Hendrick, a fellow recruit and constant complainer, who is flogged and expelled for striking a superior officer (Sergeant Zim) during a simulated combat exercise.
Zim does not offer this information to his superior, but Hendrick does.
Another recruit, a deserter who murdered a baby girl while AWOL, is hanged by his battalion after his arrest by civilian police.
Rico himself is flogged for negligent handling of his equipment during a simulated nuclear weapons drill.
Despite this punishment and his own earlier doubts about his fitness to serve, Rico eventually graduates and is assigned to a unit in the Fleet.
During Rico's training, the "Bug War" has changed from border incidents to a full-scale war, and Rico finds himself taking part in combat operations.
The war "officially" starts with an Arachnid attack that annihilates the city of Buenos Aires (which kills Rico's mother).
Rico briefly describes the Terran Federation's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Klendathu, during which his first unit and ship are destroyed.
Following Klendathu, the Terran Federation is reduced to hit-and-run raids similar to that described at the beginning of the novel.
This part of the book describes the daily routine of military life, as well as the relationship between officers and non-commissioned officers (personified in this case by Lieutenant Rasczak and Sergeant Jelal).
Eventually, Rico becomes a career soldier, and one of his fellow troopers recommends him to Officer Candidate School, where he undergoes a second course of training.
En route from the Roughnecks to OCS, Sergeant Rico encounters his estranged father, now Corporal Rico, in transit, and reconciles with him.
Sergeant Rico is commissioned a temporary third lieutenant for his final test: a posting to a combat unit.
Under the tutelage of his company commander, Captain Blackstone, and with the aid of his platoon sergeant, Zim (reassigned from Camp Arthur Currie), Rico commands a platoon during 'Operation Royalty': a raid to capture members of the Bugs' 'brain caste' and 'queens', and graduates as a second lieutenant.
The final chapter serves as a coda, depicting Rico aboard the Rodger Young as the commander of Rico's Roughnecks (previously Rasczak's Roughnecks), preparing to invade Klendathu, with his father as senior NCO.
<EOS>
In 1944 in the Republic of Salò, the Fascist-occupied portion of Italy, four wealthy men of power, the Duke, the Bishop, the Magistrate and the President, agree to marry each other's daughters as the first step in a debauched ritual.
They recruit four teenage boys to act as guards (dressed with uniforms of Decima Flottiglia MAS) and four young soldiers (called "studs", "cockmongers" or "fuckers"), who are chosen because of their big penises.
They then kidnap nine young men and nine young women and take them to a palace near Marzabotto.
Accompanying them are four middle-aged prostitutes, also collaborators, who recount arousing stories for the men, who sadistically exploit their victims.
During the many days at the palace, the four men devise increasingly abhorrent tortures and humiliations for their own pleasure.
During breakfast, the daughters enter the dining hall naked to serve food.
One of the studs trips and rapes a daughter in front of the crowd, which laughs at her cries of pain.
Intrigued, the President moons several slaves before prompting the stud to perform anal sex on him and the Duke sings 'Sul Ponte di perati' and everybody sings also.
A girl who tries to escape is slain and a middle-aged prostitute continues with her story.
Two victims are forced to marry.
The ceremony is interrupted when the Duke fondles several victims and prostitutes.
At the end, the bride and groom are forced to fondle each other and the men rape them to stop them from having sex with each other.
During this, the Magistrate engages with the Duke in three-way intercourse.
Another day, the victims are forced to act like dogs.
When one of the victims, Lamberto, refuses, the Magistrate whips him and tortures the President's daughter by tricking her into eating food containing nails.
Non-penetrative sex gives way to coprophagia.
As Signora Maggi tells her story, the President notices that one of the studs has an erection and fondles him.
Another stud uses a female victim's hand to masturbate himself.
Signora Maggi relates how she killed her mother, and Renata cries, remembering the murder of her own mother.
The Duke, sexually excited at the sound of her cries, begins verbally abusing her.
The Duke orders the guards and studs to undress her.
During this, she begs God for death, and the Duke punishes her by defecating and forcing her to eat his feces.
The President leaves to masturbate.
Later, the other victims are presented with a meal of human feces.
During a search for the victim with the most beautiful buttocks, Franco is picked and promised death in the future.
Later, there is a black mass-like wedding between the studs and the men of power.
The men angrily order the children to laugh, but they are too grief-stricken to do so.
The Pianist and Signora Vaccari tell jokes to make the victims laugh.
The wedding ceremony ensues with each man of power exchanging rings with a stud.
After the wedding, the Bishop is sodomized by his stud.
The Bishop then leaves to examine the captives in their rooms, where they start systematically betraying each other: Claudio reveals that Graziella is hiding a photograph, Graziella reveals that Eva and Antiniska are having a secret sexual affair, and Ezio, a collaborator and the black servant are shot dead after being found having sex, but not before Ezio makes a defiant socialist salute.
Victim Umberto Chessari is appointed to replace Ezio.
Toward the end, the remaining victims are called out to determine which of them will be punished.
Graziella is spared due to her betrayal of Eva, and Rino is spared due to his submissive relationship with the Duke.
Those who are called are given a blue ribbon and sentenced to a painful death.
The victims huddle together and cry and pray in the bathroom.
They are then tortured and murdered through methods such as branding, hanging, scalping, burning, and having their tongues and eyes cut out, as each libertine takes his turn to watch as voyeur.
The soldiers shake hands and bid farewell, and the Pianist commits suicide due to her grief.
The film's final shot is of two young soldiers, who had witnessed and collaborated in all the atrocities, dancing a simple waltz together.
<EOS>
Set in the year 2199, an alien race known as the "Gamilas" ("Gamilons" in the English Star Blazers dub) unleash radioactive meteorite bombs on Earth, rendering the planet's surface uninhabitable.
Humanity has retreated into deep underground cities, but the radioactivity is slowly affecting them as well, with humanity's extinction estimated in one year.
Earth's space fleet is hopelessly outclassed by the Gamilas and all seems lost until a message capsule from a mysterious crashed spaceship is retrieved on Mars.
The capsule yields blueprints for a faster-than-light engine and an offering of help from Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
She says that her planet has a device, the Cosmo-Cleaner D (Cosmo DNA), which can cleanse Earth of its radiation damage.
The inhabitants of Earth secretly build a massive spaceship inside the ruins of the gigantic Japanese battleship Yamato which lies exposed at the former bottom of the ocean location where she was sunk in World War II.
This becomes the "Space Battleship Yamato" for which the story is titled.
Using Starsha's blueprints, they equip the new ship with a space warp drive, called the "wave motion engine", and a new, incredibly powerful weapon at the bow called the "Wave Motion Gun".
The is capable of converting the vacuum of space into tachyon energy, as well as functioning like a normal rocket engine, and providing essentially infinite power to the ship, it enables the Yamato to "ride" the wave of tachyons and travel faster than light.
The , also called the Dimensional Wave Motion Explosive Compression Emitter, is the "trump card" of the Yamato that functions by connecting the Wave Motion Engine to the enormous firing gate at the ship's bow, enabling the tachyon energy power of the engine to be fired in a stream directly forwards.
Enormously powerful, it can vaporize a fleet of enemy ships—or a small continent (as seen in the first season, fifth episode)—with one shot; however, it takes a brief but critical period to charge before firing.
In the English Star Blazers dub, the ship is noted as being the historical Yamato, but is then renamed the Argo (after the ship of Jason and the Argonauts).
A crew of 114 departs for Iscandar in the Yamato to retrieve the radiation-removing device and return to Earth within the one-year deadline.
Along the way, they discover the motives of their blue-skinned adversaries: the planet Gamilas, sister planet to Iscandar, is dying; and its leader, Lord Desslar ("Desslok" in the Star Blazers dub), is trying to irradiate Earth enough for his people to move there, at the expense of the "barbarians" he considers humanity to be.
The first season contained 26 episodes, following the Yamatos voyage out of the Milky Way Galaxy and back again.
A continuing story, it features the declining health of Yamatos Captain Okita (Avatar in the Star Blazers dub), and the transformation of the brash young orphan Susumu Kodai (Derek Wildstar) into a mature officer, as well as his budding romance with female crewmember Yuki Mori (Nova Forrester).
The foreign edits tend to play up the individual characters, while the Japanese original is often more focused on the ship itself.
In a speech at the 1995 Anime Expo, series episode director Noboru Ishiguro said low ratings and high production expenses forced producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki to trim down the episode count from the original 39 episodes to only 26.
The 13 episodes would have introduced Captain Harlock as a new series character.
The series was condensed into a 130-minute-long movie by combining elements from a few key episodes of the first season.
Additional animation was created for the movie (such as the scenes on Iscandar) or recycled from the series' test footage (such as the opening sequence).
The movie, which was released in Japan on August 6, 1977, was edited down further and dubbed into English in 1978; entitled Space Cruiser Yamato or simply Space Cruiser, it was only given a limited theatrical release in Europe & Latin America, where it was called Patrulha Estelar (Star Patrol, in Brazilian Portuguese) or Astronave Intrepido (Starship Intrepid, in Spanish), though it was later released on video in most countries.
<EOS>
According to Geoffrey O'Brien, "whether or not commercially distributed 'snuff' movies actually exist, the possibility of such movies is implicit in the stock B-movie motif of the mad artist killing his models, as in A Bucket of Blood [1959], Color Me Blood Red [1965], or Decoy for Terror [1967]" also known as Playgirl Killer.
Michael Powell's film Peeping Tom (1960) featured a filmmaker who committed murders and used the acts as the content of his documentary films, although no real murders are seen in the film.
The concept of "snuff films" being made for profit became more widely known with the commercial film Snuff (1976).
This low-budget exploitation horror film, originally entitled Slaughter, was directed by Michael and Roberta Findlay.
In an interview decades later, Roberta Findlay said the film's distributor Allan Shackleton had read about snuff films being imported from South America and retitled Slaughter to Snuff, to exploit the idea; he also added a new ending that depicted an actress being murdered on a film set.
The promotion of Snuff on its second release suggested it featured the murder of an actress: "The film that could only be made in South America.
where life is CHEAP", but that was false advertising.
Shackleton put out false newspaper clippings that reported a citizens group's crusading against the film and hired people to act as protesters to picket screenings.
In the wake of Snuff, numerous films explored the idea of snuff films, or used them as a plot device.
They include:.
<EOS>
Set in the year 2072, the protagonist—a nameless hacker—is caught while attempting to access files concerning Citadel Station, a space station owned by the fictional TriOptimum Corporation.
The hacker is taken to Citadel Station and brought before Edward Diego, a TriOptimum executive.
Diego offers to drop all charges against the hacker in exchange for a confidential hacking of SHODAN, the artificial intelligence that controls the station.
Diego secretly plans to steal an experimental mutagenic virus being tested on Citadel Station, and to sell it on the black market as a biological weapon.
To entice cooperation, Diego promises the hacker a valuable military grade neural implant.
After hacking SHODAN, removing the AI's ethical constraints, and handing control over to Diego, the protagonist undergoes surgery to implant the promised neural interface.
Following the operation, the hacker is put into a six-month healing coma.
The game begins as the protagonist awakens from his coma, and finds that SHODAN has commandeered the station.
All robots aboard have been reprogrammed for hostility, and the crew have been either mutated, transformed into cyborgs, or killed.
Rebecca Lansing, a TriOptimum counter-terrorism consultant, contacts the player and claims that Citadel Station's mining laser is being powered up to attack Earth.
SHODAN's plan is to destroy all major cities on the planet, in a bid to become a kind of god.
Rebecca says that a certain crew member knows how to deactivate the laser, and promises to destroy the records of the hacker's incriminating exchange with Diego if the strike is stopped.
With information gleaned from log discs, the hacker destroys the laser by firing it into Citadel Station's own shields.
Foiled by the hacker's work, SHODAN prepares to seed Earth with a mutagenic virus—the same one responsible for turning the station's crew into mutants.
The hacker, while attempting to jettison the chambers used to cultivate the virus, confronts and defeats Diego, who has been transformed into a powerful cyborg by SHODAN.
Next, SHODAN begins an attempt to upload itself into Earth's computer networks.
Following Rebecca's advice, the hacker prevents the download's completion by destroying the four antennas that SHODAN is using to send data.
Soon after, Rebecca contacts the hacker, and says that she has convinced TriOptimum to authorize the station's destruction; she provides him with details on how to do this.
After obtaining the necessary codes, the hacker initiates the station's self-destruct sequence and flees to the escape pod bay.
There, the hacker defeats Diego a second time, then attempts to disembark.
However, SHODAN prevents the pod from launching; it seeks to keep the player aboard the station, while the bridge—which contains SHODAN—is jettisoned to a safe distance.
Rebecca tells the hacker that he can still escape if he reaches the bridge; SHODAN then intercepts and jams the transmission.
After defeating Diego for the third time and killing him for good, the hacker makes it to the bridge as it is released from the main station, which soon detonates.
He is then contacted by a technician who managed to circumvent SHODAN's jamming signal.
The technician informs him that SHODAN can only be defeated in cyberspace, due to the powerful shields that protect its mainframe computers.
Using a terminal near the mainframe, the hacker enters cyberspace and destroys SHODAN.
After his rescue, the hacker is offered a job at TriOptimum, but he declines in favor of continuing his life as a hacker.
<EOS>
In the original version of the tale, Todd is a barber who dispatches his victims by pulling a lever as they sit in his barber chair.
His victims fall backward down a revolving trapdoor into the basement of his shop, generally causing them to break their necks or skulls.
In case they are alive, Todd goes to the basement and "polishes them off" (slitting their throats with his straight razor).
In some adaptations, the murdering process is reversed, with Todd slitting his customers' throats before dispatching them into the basement through the revolving trapdoor.
After Todd has robbed his dead victims of their goods, mrs Lovett, his partner in crime (in some later versions, his friend and/or lover), assists him in disposing of the bodies by baking their flesh into meat pies and selling them to the unsuspecting customers of her pie shop.
Todd's barber shop is situated at 186 Fleet Street, London, next to st Dunstan's church, and is connected to mrs Lovett's pie shop in nearby Bell Yard by means of an underground passage.
In most versions of the story, he and mrs Lovett hire an unwitting orphan boy, Tobias Ragg, to serve the pies to customers.
<EOS>
The story primarily concerns the difficult relationship between two women, Helen Francine Peters (referred to as Francine throughout the series) and Katina Marie ("Katchoo") Choovanski, and their friend David Qin.
Francine considers Katchoo her best friend; Katchoo is in love with Francine.
David is in love with Katchoo (a relationship which Katchoo herself is deeply conflicted over).
The love triangle (which later expands into a love rectangle with the introduction of Casey Bullock, who marries Francine's ex-boyfriend Freddie Femmur and later divorces him, in order to pursue both David and Katchoo) alternates with the mystery and intrigue regarding Katchoo's past as an underage lesbian hooker and the Parker Crime Syndicate.
Run by David's lesbian sister Darcy, the "Parker Girls" work for the shadowy 'Big Six' organization, an international crime syndicate with influence over the world of politics.
"Parker Girls" are highly trained women used by organized crime to control, manipulate, spy upon, and ultimately kill men and women in positions of power and authority, for the Big Six.
SiP, as it is commonly known, began as a three-issue mini-series published by Antarctic Press in 1993, which focused entirely on the relationship between the three main characters and Francine's unfaithful boyfriend.
This is now known as "Volume 1".
Thirteen issues were published under Moore's own "Abstract Studio" imprint, and these make up "Volume 2".
This is where the "thriller" plot was introduced.
The series moved to Image Comics' Homage imprint for the start of "Volume 3", but after eight issues moved back to Abstract Studio, where it continued with the same numbering.
Volume 3 concluded at issue #90, released June 6, 2007.
<EOS>
First we learn of Stuart's birth to a family in New York City and how the family adapts, socially and structurally, to having such a small son.
He has an adventure in which he also gets caught in a window-blind while exercising; Snowbell, the family cat, then places Stuart's hat and cane outside a rathole, panicking the family.
He was accidentally released by his brother George.
Then two chapters describe Stuart's participation in a model sailboat race in Central Park.
A bird named Margalo is adopted by the Little family, and Stuart protects her from Snowbell, their malevolent cat.
The bird repays her kindness by saving Stuart when he is trapped in a garbage can and shipped out for disposal at sea.
Margalo flees when she is warned that one of Snowbell's friends intends to eat her, and Stuart strikes out to find her.
A friendly dentist, who is also the owner of the boat Stuart had raced in Central Park, gives him use of a gasoline-powered model car, and Stuart departs to see the country.
He works for a while as a substitute teacher and comes to the town of Ames Crossing, where he meets a girl named Harriet Ames who is no taller than he is.
They go on one date, but it doesn't work because the boat was found broken.
As the book ends, he has not yet found Margalo, but feels confident he will do so.
<EOS>
The film opens with the disclosure by morgue examiners that a beautiful woman has literally died of fright.
The plot reveals how she reached the fatal stage of terror.
The woman is married to the son of a doctor, the proprietor of a private sanatorium, where she is under unwilling treatment.
Both the son and the doctor indicate they want the marriage dissolved.
Arriving at the scene is a mysterious personage (Bela Lugosi) identified as the doctor's cousin who had been a stage magician in Europe.
He is accompanied by a threatening dwarf (Angelo Rossitto).
After it is apparent that the wife is terrified of the foreigners, it is disclosed that she is the former wife and stage partner of a Paris magician known as René, who was believed to have been shot by the Nazis.
Attempts to draw a confession that she had betrayed her magician husband and had collaborated with the Nazis led to the use of a device employing a death mask of the supposedly dead patriot, which literally frightens her to death.
Although the young newspaperman hero and his sweetheart guess the answer to the story, they allow the diagnosis "scared to death" to stand.
<EOS>
Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and her paraplegic brother, Franklin (Paul Partain), travel with three friends, Jerry (Allen Danziger), Kirk (William Vail), and Pam (Teri McMinn), to visit the grave of the Hardestys' grandfather to investigate reports of vandalism and grave robbing.
Afterwards, they decide to visit the old Hardesty family homestead.
Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) who talks about his family who worked at the old slaughterhouse.
He borrows Franklin's pocket-knife and cuts himself, then takes a Polaroid picture of the others and demands money for it.
When they refuse to pay, he burns the photo and slashes Franklin's arm with a straight razor.
The group forces him out of the van and drive on.
They stop at a gas station to refuel, but the proprietor (Jim Siedow) tells them that the pumps are empty.
They continue toward the homestead, intending to return to the gas station once it has received a fuel delivery.
When they arrive, Franklin tells Kirk and Pam about a local swimming-hole and the couple head off to find it.
They find the swimming-hole dried up but hear a generator running in the distance.
They stumble upon a nearby house.
Kirk calls out, asking for gas, while Pam waits on a swing in the yard.
After Kirk receives no answer, he enters through the unlocked door, whereupon Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) appears and kills him with a hammer.
Pam enters soon after and trips into a room filled with furniture made from human bones.
She attempts to flee, but Leatherface catches her and impales her on a meathook, making her watch as he butchers Kirk with a chainsaw.
Jerry heads out to look for Pam and Kirk at sunset.
He finds the couple's blanket outside the nearby house.
He investigates and finds Pam, still alive, inside a freezer.
Before he can react, Leatherface kills him and stuffs Pam back into the freezer.
With darkness falling, Sally and Franklin set out to find their friends.
As they near the neighboring house and call out, Leatherface lunges from the darkness and kills Franklin with a chainsaw.
Sally runs toward the house and finds the desiccated remains of an elderly couple in an upstairs room.
She escapes from Leatherface by jumping through a second-floor window and flees to the gas station.
Leatherface disappears into the night.
The proprietor calms her with offers of help but then ties her up, gags her and forces her into his truck.
He drives to the house, arriving at the same time as the hitchhiker, now revealed as Leatherface's brother.
When the pair bring Sally inside, the hitchhiker recognizes her and taunts her.
The men torment the bound and gagged Sally while Leatherface, now dressed as a woman, serves dinner.
Leatherface and the hitchhiker bring Grandpa (John Dugan), one of the desiccated bodies seen earlier, down from upstairs.
He is revealed to be alive when he sucks blood from a cut in Sally's finger.
During the night, they decide that Grandpa, the best killer in the old slaughterhouse, should kill Sally.
He tries to hit her with a hammer but is too weak.
In the ensuing confusion, she breaks free, leaps through a window, and flees to the road.
Leatherface and the hitchhiker give chase, but the latter is run over and killed by a passing semi-trailer truck.
Armed with his chainsaw, Leatherface attacks the truck when the driver stops to help; the driver knocks down Leatherface with a pipe wrench, causing the chainsaw to cut his leg.
The driver flees, and Sally escapes in the back of a passing pickup truck as Leatherface dances maniacally in the road with his chainsaw.
<EOS>
On September 11, 1991 in Los Angeles, slacker Jeff "the Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is assaulted in his home by two hired goons (Mark Pellegrino and Philip Moon) who demand money that the wife of a Jeffrey Lebowski owes to a porn magnate and loanshark named Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara).
The two soon realize they have attacked the wrong Jeffrey Lebowski and leave, but not before one of them urinates on the Dude's rug.
The Dude meets his bowling friends, the timid Donny (Steve Buscemi) and the temperamental Vietnam War veteran Walter Sobchak (John Goodman).
Encouraged by Walter, the Dude approaches the other Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston), the eponymous "Big Lebowski", a cantankerous elderly wheelchair-using millionaire, to seek compensation for his ruined rug.
Though his request is promptly refused, The Dude craftily steals one of Lebowski's expensive rugs by telling Brandt (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Lebowski's sycophantic assistant, that his boss told him to take any rug in the house.
The Dude subsequently meets Bunny (Tara Reid), Lebowski's young trophy wife.
Days later, Lebowski contacts the Dude stating that Bunny has been kidnapped.
Lebowski wants the Dude to deliver a briefcase containing a million-dollar ransom and see if he can recognize the culprits.
Later, a different pair of thugs appear in the Dude's apartment, knock him unconscious, and take Lebowski's rug.
When Bunny's kidnappers call to arrange delivery of the ransom, Walter suggests they give the kidnappers a fake ransom instead, namely a briefcase filled with dirty underwear.
The kidnappers grab the fake ransom and leave.
Later that night, the Dude's car is stolen, with the real ransom money briefcase still inside.
Jeffrey Lebowski's adult daughter Maude (Julianne Moore) contacts the Dude and reveals she took the rug, explaining that Bunny is one of Jackie Treehorn's porn stars.
She reckons that Bunny "kidnapped" herself and asks the Dude to recover the ransom which her father illegally withdrew from the family's foundation.
Lebowski is angry that the Dude failed to deliver the ransom money and shows him a severed green-painted toe, allegedly belonging to Bunny and delivered by the kidnappers.
Later, a gang of German nihilist musicians (Peter Stormare, Torsten Voges, and Flea) invade the Dude's apartment and threaten him, identifying themselves as the kidnappers.
Maude says the German nihilists are actually Bunny's friends.
The Dude's car is found by the police without the ransom money, and he reclaims it.
Later, while cruising around in the car, The Dude finds the homework assignment of a high school student named Larry inside.
Taking this to mean that Larry was the one who stole the car, Walter and The Dude go to his house, believing Larry has also stolen the money.
When Larry refuses to respond to Walter and the Dude's threats, Walter wrecks a new sports car parked outside which they assume Larry bought with the money.
However, a neighbor rushes outside, reveals himself as having just bought the car and angrily wrecks The Dude's car in revenge, thinking it to be Walter's.
The Dude is forcibly brought before Treehorn, who asks about the whereabouts of Bunny and says he wants the money she owes him.
He drugs the Dude's White Russian cocktail, causing The Dude to have a dream sequence involving Maude and bowling.
The Dude awakens in police custody, where he is verbally and physically assaulted by the Malibu police chief.
During the cab ride home, the Dude gets thrown out after he asks the cab driver to simply change the radio station.
A red sports car zooms past and the viewer sees that Bunny is driving, with all her toes intact.
The Dude finds his bungalow completely trashed and is greeted by Maude, who seduces him.
He figures that Treehorn drugged him so that his goons could look for the ransom money at the Dude's home.
After Maude has sex with him, she says she hopes to conceive a child; the Dude is about to protest the idea of being a father but Maude tells him that he doesn't have to have a hand in the child's upbringing.
Maude also explains that her father has no money: her mother was the wealthy one and she left her money exclusively to the family charity.
The Dude later tells Walter that he now understands the whole story: when Lebowski—who apparently hated his wife—heard that Bunny was kidnapped, he withdrew money from the foundation, kept it for himself, and gave the Dude a briefcase without any money in it, saying that it contained a million dollar ransom.
The kidnapping was also a ruse: when Bunny took an unannounced trip, her friends (the nihilists) faked a kidnapping to be able to extort money from Lebowski.
Walter and the Dude confront the Big Lebowski, who refuses to admit responsibility, but is thrown out of his wheelchair by Walter, who believes that he's faking his paralysis.
The affair apparently over, the Dude and his bowling teammates return to the bowling alley.
When they leave, they are confronted in the parking lot by the nihilists who have set the Dude's car on fire.
They, once again, demand the ransom money.
After hearing what the Dude and Walter know, the nihilists try to rob them anyway.
Walter violently overcomes all three, biting the ear off one of them.
However, in the excitement, Donny suffers a fatal heart attack.
Walter and the Dude go to the beach to scatter Donny's ashes.
Walter turns an informal eulogy into a tribute to the Vietnam War.
After accidentally covering the Dude with Donny's ashes, and after a brief argument, Walter hugs him and says, "Come on, Dude.
Fuck it, man.
Let's go bowling".
At the bowling alley, the story's cowboy narrator (Sam Elliott) tells the viewer that Maude is pregnant with a "little Lebowski" and expresses his hope that the Dude and Walter will win the bowling tournament.
<EOS>
A group of rogueS.
Force Recon Marines, led by disenchanted Brigadier General Frank Hummel (Ed Harris) and his second-in-command Major Tom Baxter (David Morse), storm a heavily guarded Naval Weapons depot where they seize a stockpile of deadly VX gas–armed M55 rockets; Hummel loses one of his own men in the process when one of the VX canisters ruptures.
The next day, Hummel and his men seize control of Alcatraz Island and take eighty-one tourists hostage.
Hummel threatens to launch the rockets against San Francisco unless theS government pays $100 million from a military slush fund, which he will distribute to his men and the families of Recon Marines who died on clandestine missions under his command but whose deaths were not compensated.
The Pentagon and FBI develop a plan to retake the island with aS.
Navy SEAL team led by Commander Anderson (Michael Biehn), enlisting the FBI's top chemical weapons specialist, dr Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage).
Goodspeed's confidence, already shaky as he is a "lab rat" with minimal combat training and experience, is further tested when his fiancée Carla (Vanessa Marcil) reveals she is pregnant.
FBI director James Womack (John Spencer) is forced to turn to federal prisoner John Mason (Sean Connery), a 60-year-old British national who has been imprisoned without charges for three decades.
Mason is the only Alcatraz inmate ever to escape the island, doing so in 1963 through uncharted underground tunnels.
While in custody at the Fairmont Hotel, Mason flees.
He hijacks a Hummer H1 and Goodspeed pursues in a commandeered Ferrari F355, resulting in a chase through the streets.
Mason seeks out his estranged daughter Jade (Claire Forlani); Goodspeed arrives with a team to re-arrest Mason, revealing to Jade that he is aiding the FBI.
Goodspeed, Mason, and the SEALs infiltrate Alcatraz.
However, Hummel's rogue Marines, who have set a device that warns them of intruders, are alerted to their presence and ambush them in a shower room.
All the SEALs, including Anderson, are killed, leaving only Mason and Goodspeed alive.
Mason sees his chance to escape custody and disarms Goodspeed, but Goodspeed convinces him to help defuse the rockets after the Marines use explosive devices to flush them out.
Mason and Goodspeed eliminate several teams of Marines and disable 12 of the 15 rockets by removing their guidance chips.
Hummel threatens to execute a hostage if they do not surrender and return the guidance chips.
Mason destroys the chips, then surrenders to Hummel, trying to reason with him as well as buy Goodspeed some time.
Though Goodspeed disables another rocket, the rogue Marines capture him.
With the incursion team lost, the military initiates their backup plan: an airstrike by F/A-18s with thermite plasma, which will neutralize the poison gas but kill everyone on the island.
Mason and Goodspeed escape, and Mason explains why he was held prisoner: he was a British SAS Captain who stole a microfilm containing details of the United States' most closely guarded secrets, refusing to give it up when captured because he knew he would be killed if he did.
When the deadline for the transfer of the ransom arrives, Hummel and his men fire one of the operational rockets.
During the launch of the rocket, Hummel changes the coordinates and diverts the rocket away from its original target.
The warhead instead detonates at sea.
Hummel then reveals that the mission is over and it was all a very elaborate bluff, as he never had any intention of taking innocent lives.
When confronted by two of his men, Captains Frye (Gregory Sporleder) and Darrow (Tony Todd), Hummel orders them to exit Alcatraz with a few hostages and the remaining rocket to cover their retreat, while he will assume blame.
Realizing they will not be paid their $1 million apiece, Frye and Darrow mutiny against Hummel and Baxter, killing the latter and mortally wounding the former.
Darrow and Frye proceed with the plan to fire on San Francisco.
While Mason deals with the remaining Marines, Goodspeed seeks out the last rocket, which Hummel reveals the location of with his dying breath.
As the jets approach, Goodspeed kills both Darrow and Frye, before disarming the rocket.
He signals the jets that the threat is over but not before one jet releases a bomb on the island.
Though no hostages are injured, Goodspeed is thrown into the sea by the blast before Mason rescues him.
Goodspeed tells Mason that Womack tore up his pardon, then informs his superiors that Mason was killed in the bomb explosion.
Mason gives Goodspeed a note that holds the location of the microfilm and the two part ways.
Some time later, Goodspeed and Carla recover the microfilm containing a half-century of state secrets, including who actually killed John Kennedy.
<EOS>
Thousands of years before the events of the novel, the Dark Lord Sauron had forged the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power and corrupt those who wore them: the leaders of Men, Elves and Dwarves.
Sauron was defeated by an alliance of Elves and Men led by Gil-galad and Elendil, respectively.
Isildur, son of Elendil, cut the One Ring from Sauron's finger, causing Sauron to lose his physical form.
Isildur claimed the Ring as an heirloom for his line, but when he was later ambushed and killed by the Orcs, the Ring was lost in the River Anduin at Gladden Fields.
Over two thousand years later, the Ring was found by one of the river-folk called Déagol.
His friend Sméagol fell under the Ring's influence and strangled Déagol to acquire it.
Sméagol was banished and hid under the Misty Mountains.
The Ring gave him long life and changed him over hundreds of years into a twisted, corrupted creature called Gollum.
Gollum lost the Ring, his "precious", and as told in The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins found it.
Meanwhile, Sauron assumed a new form and took back his old realm of Mordor.
When Gollum set out in search of the Ring, he was captured and tortured by Sauron.
Sauron learned from Gollum that "Baggins" of the Shire had taken the Ring.
Gollum was set loose.
Sauron, who needed the Ring to regain his full power, sent forth his powerful servants, the Nazgûl, to seize it.
The story begins in the Shire, where the hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits the Ring from Bilbo Baggins, his cousin and guardian.
Neither hobbit is aware of the Ring's nature, but Gandalf the Grey, a wizard and an old friend of Bilbo, suspects it to be Sauron's Ring.
After Gandalf confirms his suspicions, he tells Frodo the history of the Ring and counsels him to take the Ring away from the Shire.
Frodo leaves the Shire, in the company of his gardener and friend, Samwise ("Sam") Gamgee, and two cousins, Meriadoc Brandybuck, called Merry, and Peregrin Took, called Pippin.
They are nearly caught by the Black Riders while in the Shire, but they shake off pursuit by cutting through the Old Forest.
There, they are aided by Tom Bombadil, a strange and merry fellow who lives with his wife Goldberry in the forest.
Surprisingly, the Ring has no power over him.
The Hobbits leave the Old Forest and reach the town of Bree, where Gandalf is expected to meet them.
Instead, they meet a Ranger named Strider, whom Gandalf had mentioned in a letter.
Strider persuades the hobbits to take him on as their guide and protector.
Together, they leave Bree after another close escape from the Black Riders.
On the hill of Weathertop, they are again attacked by the Black Riders, who wound Frodo with a cursed blade.
Strider fights off the Black Riders with fire and leads the hobbits towards the Elven refuge of Rivendell.
Frodo falls deathly sick from the wound.
The Black Riders nearly overtake Frodo at the Ford of Bruinen, but flood waters summoned by Elrond, master of Rivendell, rise up and overwhelm them.
Frodo recovers in Rivendell under the care of Elrond.
The Council of Elrond speaks of the history of Sauron and the Ring.
Strider is revealed to be Aragorn, the heir of Isildur.
Gandalf reveals that Sauron has corrupted Saruman, chief of the wizards.
The Council decides that the Ring must be destroyed, but that can only be done by sending it to the Fire of Mount Doom in Mordor, where it was forged.
Frodo takes this task upon himself.
Elrond, with the advice of Gandalf, chooses companions for him.
The Company of the Ring are nine in number: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, and the Man Boromir, son of the Ruling Steward Denethor of the land of Gondor.
After a failed attempt to cross the Misty Mountains through the Redhorn Pass across the flank of Caradhras, the Company are forced to try a dangerous path through the Mines of Moria.
They are attacked by the Watcher in the Water before the doors of Moria.
Inside Moria, they learn of the fate of Balin and his colony of Dwarves.
After surviving an attack, they are pursued by Orcs and by an ancient demon called a Balrog.
Gandalf faces the Balrog, and both of them fall into the abyss.
The others escape and find refuge in the Elven forest of Lothlórien, where they are counselled by Galadriel and Celeborn.
With boats and gifts from Galadriel, the Company travel down the River Anduin to the hill of Amon Hen.
Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo, but Frodo puts on the Ring and disappears.
The Company is scattered in the panic to find Frodo, and they are attacked by Orcs.
Frodo chooses to go alone to Mordor.
Sam guesses Frodo's mind, and goes with him.
Orcs sent by Saruman and Sauron kill Boromir and take Merry and Pippin.
Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas debate amongst themselves which pair of hobbits to follow.
They decide to follow the Orcs bearing Merry and Pippin to Saruman.
In the kingdom of Rohan, the Orcs are slain by a company of the Rohirrim.
Merry and Pippin escape into Fangorn Forest, where they are befriended by Treebeard, the oldest of the tree-like Ents.
Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas track the hobbits to Fangorn.
There they unexpectedly meet Gandalf.
Gandalf explains that he slew the Balrog; darkness took him, but he was sent back (to Middle-earth).
He is clothed in white and is now "Gandalf the White", for he has taken Saruman's place as the chief of the wizards.
Gandalf assures his friends that Merry and Pippin are safe.
Together they ride to Edoras, capital of Rohan.
Gandalf frees Théoden, King of Rohan, from the influence of Saruman's spy Gríma Wormtongue.
Théoden musters his fighting strength and rides with his men to the ancient fortress of Helm's Deep, while Gandalf departs to seek help from Treebeard.
Meanwhile, the Ents, roused by Merry and Pippin from their peaceful ways, attack Isengard, Saruman's stronghold, and trap the wizard in the tower of Orthanc.
Gandalf convinces Treebeard to send an army of Huorns to Théoden's aid.
Gandalf brings an army of Rohirrim to Helm's Deep, and they defeat the Orcs, who flee into the waiting shadow of the trees.
Gandalf visits Saruman, offering him a chance to turn away from evil.
When Saruman refuses to listen, Gandalf strips him of his rank and most of his powers.
Pippin picks up a palantír, a seeing-stone that Saruman used to speak with Sauron and through which Saruman was ensnared, and is seen by Sauron.
Gandalf rides for Minas Tirith, chief city of Gondor, taking Pippin with him.
Frodo and Sam capture Gollum, who had been following them from Moria.
They force him to guide them to Mordor.
They find that the Black Gate of Mordor is too well guarded, so instead they travel to a secret way Gollum knows.
On the way, they encounter Faramir, who, unlike his brother Boromir, resists the temptation to seize the Ring.
He provides Frodo and Sam with food.
Gollum — who is torn between his loyalty to Frodo and his desire for the Ring — betrays Frodo by leading him to the great spider Shelob in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol.
Frodo falls when pierced by Shelob's sting.
But with the help of Galadriel's gifts, Sam fights off the spider.
Believing Frodo to be dead, Sam takes the Ring in the hope of finishing the quest alone.
Orcs find Frodo, and from their words Sam becomes aware that Frodo is yet alive.
The Orcs take Frodo's body, and Sam chases after them, entering Mordor alone.
Sauron sends a great army against Gondor.
Gandalf arrives at Minas Tirith to warn Denethor of the attack, while Théoden leads the Rohirrim to the aid of Gondor.
Minas Tirith is besieged.
Denethor is deceived by Sauron and falls into despair.
He burns himself alive on a pyre, nearly taking his son Faramir with him.
Aragorn, accompanied by Legolas, Gimli and the Rangers of the North, takes the Paths of the Dead in the hopes of bringing the Dead to his aid, for the Dead Men of Dunharrow are bound by a curse by which they are given no rest until they fulfil their oath to fight for the King of Gondor.
With the coming of Aragorn, the Army of the Dead fulfil their oath and strike terror into the Corsairs of Umbar invading southern Gondor.
Aragorn defeats the Corsairs and takes their ships, which he uses to bring the men of southern Gondor up the Anduin, coming just in time to the aid of Minas Tirith.
Éowyn, Théoden's niece whom he loves as a daughter, slays the Lord of the Nazgûl with help from Merry.
Théoden is slain and Éowyn and Merry are injured.
Together Gondor and Rohan defeat Sauron's army in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Meanwhile, Sam rescues Frodo from the tower of Cirith Ungol.
They set out across Mordor.
Aragorn leads an army of men from Gondor and Rohan to march on the Black Gate of Mordor, so as to distract Sauron from his true danger.
His army is vastly outnumbered by the great might of Sauron.
Frodo and Sam reach the edge of the Cracks of Doom, but Frodo cannot resist the Ring any longer.
Frodo claims the Ring for himself and puts it on his finger.
Gollum suddenly reappears, having caught up with the hobbits.
He struggles with Frodo and bites off Frodo's finger with the Ring on it.
Celebrating wildly, Gollum loses his footing and falls into the Fire, taking the Ring with him.
The Ring is destroyed, and Sauron loses his power forever.
The Nazgûl perish, and Sauron's armies are thrown into such disarray that Aragorn's forces emerge victorious.
Aragorn is crowned Elessar, King of Arnor and Gondor, and weds Arwen, daughter of Elrond.
The four hobbits make their way back to the Shire, only to find out that the Shire has been enslaved by bad men.
The hobbits raise a rebellion and overthrow the men, who turn out to be led by Saruman.
Frodo does not allow the hobbits to kill Saruman, but Gríma turns on Saruman and kills him in front of Bag End (Frodo's hobbit-hole).
He is slain in turn by hobbit archers, and the War of the Ring comes to its true end on Frodo's very doorstep.
Merry and Pippin are celebrated as heroes.
Sam marries Rosie Cotton and uses his gifts from Galadriel to help heal the Shire.
But Frodo is still wounded in body and spirit, having borne the Ring for so long.
A few years later, in the company of Bilbo and Gandalf, Frodo sails from the Grey Havens west over the Sea to the Undying Lands to find peace.
In the appendices, Sam gives his daughter Elanor the Red Book of Westmarch, which contains the story of Bilbo's adventures and the War of the Ring as told by the hobbits.
Sam is then said to have crossed west over the Sea himself, the last of the Ring-bearers.
<EOS>
The book's protagonist is an English scientist and gentleman inventor living in Richmond, Surrey, in Victorian England, and identified by a narrator simply as the Time Traveller.
The narrator recounts the Traveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension, and his demonstration of a tabletop model machine for travelling through it.
He reveals that he has built a machine capable of carrying a person through time, and returns at dinner the following week to recount a remarkable tale, becoming the new narrator.
In the new narrative, the Time Traveller tests his device with a journey that takes him toD.
802,701, where he meets the Eloi, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults.
They live in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating buildings, doing no work and having a frugivorous diet.
His efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their lack of curiosity or discipline, and he speculates that they are a peaceful, communist society, the result of humanity conquering nature with technology, and subsequently evolving to adapt to an environment in which strength and intellect are no longer advantageous to survival.
Returning to the site where he arrived, the Time Traveller is shocked to find his time machine missing, and eventually concludes that it has been dragged by some unknown party into a nearby structure with heavy doors, locked from the inside, which resembles a Sphinx.
Luckily, he had removed the machine's levers before leaving it (the time machine being unable to travel through time without them).
Later in the dark, he is approached menacingly by the Morlocks, ape-like troglodytes who live in darkness underground and surface only at night.
Within their dwellings he discovers the machinery and industry that makes the above-ground paradise possible.
He alters his theory, speculating that the human race has evolved into two species: the leisured classes have become the ineffectual Eloi, and the downtrodden working classes have become the brutal light-fearing Morlocks.
Deducing that the Morlocks have taken his time machine, he explores the Morlock tunnels, learning that due to a lack of any other means of sustenance, they feed on the Eloi.
His revised analysis is that their relationship is not one of lords and servants, but of livestock and ranchers.
The Time Traveller theorizes that intelligence is the result of and response to danger; with no real challenges facing the Eloi, they have lost the spirit, intelligence, and physical fitness of humanity at its peak.
Meanwhile, he saves an Eloi named Weena from drowning as none of the other Eloi take any notice of her plight, and they develop an innocently affectionate relationship over the course of several days.
He takes Weena with him on an expedition to a distant structure that turns out to be the remains of a museum, where he finds a fresh supply of matches and fashions a crude weapon against Morlocks, whom he must fight to get back his machine.
He plans to take Weena back to his own time.
Because the long and tiring journey back to Weena's home is too much for them, they stop in the forest, and they are then overcome by Morlocks in the night, and Weena faints.
The Traveller escapes when a small fire he had left behind them to distract the Morlocks catches up to them as a forest fire; Weena and the pursuing Morlocks are lost in the fire, and the Time Traveler is devastated over his loss.
The Morlocks open the Sphinx and use the time machine as bait to capture the Traveller, not understanding that he will use it to escape.
He reattaches the levers before he travels further ahead to roughly 30 million years from his own time.
There he sees some of the last living things on a dying Earth: menacing reddish crab-like creatures slowly wandering the blood-red beaches chasing enormous butterflies in a world covered in simple lichenous vegetation.
He continues to make short jumps through time, seeing Earth's rotation gradually cease and the sun grow larger, redder, and dimmer, and the world falling silent and freezing as the last degenerate living things die out.
Overwhelmed, he goes back to the machine and returns to Victorian time, arriving at his laboratory just three hours after he originally left.
Interrupting dinner, he relates his adventures to his disbelieving visitors, producing as evidence two strange white flowers Weena had put in his pocket.
The original narrator then takes over and relates that he returned to the Time Traveller's house the next day, finding him preparing for another journey.
After promising to return in a short period of time, the narrator reveals that after 3 years of waiting, the Time Traveller has never returned.
<EOS>
In the 1960s Benjamin Braddock, aged twenty-one, has earned his bachelor's degree from Williams College and has returned home to a party celebrating his graduation at his parents' house in Pasadena, California.
Benjamin, visibly uncomfortable as his parents deliver accolades and neighborhood friends ask him about his future plans, evades those who try to congratulate him.
mrs Robinson, the neglected wife of his father's law partner, insists that he drive her home.
Benjamin is coerced inside to have a drink and mrs Robinson attempts to seduce him.
She invites him up to her daughter Elaine's room to see her portrait and then enters the room naked, making it clear that she is available to him.
Benjamin initially rebuffs her but a few days later after his scuba demonstration on his birthday, he clumsily organizes a tryst at the Taft hotel.
Benjamin spends the remainder of the summer drifting around in the pool by day, purposefully neglecting to select a graduate school, and seeing mrs Robinson at the hotel by night.
He discovers that he and mrs Robinson have nothing to talk about.
However, after Benjamin pesters her one evening, mrs Robinson reveals that she entered into a loveless marriage when she accidentally became pregnant with Elaine.
Both mr Robinson and Benjamin’s parents encourage him to call on Elaine although mrs Robinson makes her disapproval clear.
Benjamin takes Elaine on a date but tries to sabotage it by ignoring her, driving recklessly and taking her to a strip club.
After Elaine runs out of the strip club in tears Benjamin has a change of heart, realizes how rude he was to her, and discovers that Elaine is someone with whom he is comfortable.
In search of a late-night drink they visit the Taft hotel but when the staff greet Benjamin as "Mr.
Gladstone" (the name he uses during his rendezvous with mrs Robinson) Elaine correctly guesses that he has been having an affair with a married woman and accepts his assurances that the affair is now over.
To preempt a furious mrs Robinson, who threatens to tell Elaine her version of their affair, Benjamin tells Elaine that the married woman was her mother.
Elaine is distraught and returns to Berkeley.
Benjamin pursues her there and tries to talk to her.
She reveals that her mother's story is that he raped her while she was drunk, and refuses to believe that it was in fact mrs Robinson who seduced Benjamin.
After much discussion over several days, Benjamin begins to talk her around.
After discovering the affair mr Robinson arrives at Berkeley and confronts Benjamin at his rooming house, not knowing whether he can prosecute him but he thinks he can, and threatens to put him behind bars if he sees his daughter again.
mr Robinson then forces Elaine to drop out of college and takes her away to marry Carl, a classmate with whom she had briefly been involved.
Returning to Pasadena in search of Elaine, Benjamin breaks into the Robinson home but encounters mrs Robinson.
She tells him he will not be able to stop the wedding and then calls the police claiming that her house is being burgled.
Benjamin visits Carl’s fraternity brothers who tell him that the wedding is in Santa Barbara, California that very morning.
He rushes to the church and arrives just as Elaine is married.
He bangs on the glass at the back of the church and screams out "Elaine.
" repeatedly.
After a brief hesitation, Elaine screams out "Ben.
" and starts to run toward him.
A brawl ensues as guests try to stop Elaine and Benjamin from leaving together.
Elaine manages to break free from her mother, who then slaps her.
Benjamin manages to keep the guests at bay by using a large cross and jamming it into the doors of the church.
Both he and Elaine then run into the street to flag down a passing bus and take the back seat, elated at their victory.
As the bus drives away, they smile, then stop, looking uncertain.
<EOS>
On Saturday, March 24, 1984, five students report at 7:00&nbsp;am.
for all-day detention at Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois.
While not complete strangers, each of them comes from a different clique, and they seem to have nothing in common: the beautiful and pampered Claire Standish, the state champion wrestler Andrew Clark, the bookish Brian Johnson, the reclusive outcast Allison Reynolds, and the rebellious delinquent John Bender.
They gather in the high school library, where assistant principal Richard Vernon instructs them not to speak, move from their seats, or sleep until they are released at 4:00&nbsp;pm.
He assigns them a 1,000-word essay, in which each must describe "who you think you are".
He then leaves, returning only occasionally to check on them.
Bender, who has a particularly antagonistic relationship with Vernon, ignores the rules and frequently riles up the other students, teasing Brian and Andrew and harassing Claire.
Allison is initially quiet, except for an occasional random outburst.
Over the course of the day, Vernon gives Bender several weekends' worth of additional detention and even locks him in a storage closet, but he escapes and returns to the library.
The students pass the hours by talking, arguing, and, at one point, smoking marijuana that Bender retrieves from his locker.
Gradually, they open up to each other and reveal their deepest personal secrets: Allison is a compulsive liar; Andrew cannot easily think for himself; Bender comes from an abusive household; Brian was planning to kill himself with a flare gun due to a bad grade; and Claire is a virgin who feels constant pressure from her friends.
They also discover that they all have strained relationships with their parents: Allison's parents ignore her due to their own problems; Andrew's father constantly criticizes his efforts at wrestling and pushes him as hard as possible; Bender's father verbally and physically abuses him; Brian's overbearing parents put immense pressure on him to earn high grades; and Claire's parents use her to get back at each other during frequent arguments.
The students realize that, even with their differences, they face similar pressures and complications in their lives.
Despite their differences in social status, the group begins to form friendships (and even romantic relationships) as the day progresses.
Claire gives Allison a makeover, to reveal just how pretty she really is, which sparks romantic interest in Andrew.
Claire decides to break her "pristine" virgin appearance by kissing Bender in the closet and giving him a hickey.
Although they suspect that the relationships will end with the end of their detention, their mutual experiences will change the way they look at their peers afterwards.
As the detention nears its end, the group requests that Brian complete the essay for everyone and John returns to the storage closet to fool Vernon into thinking he has not left.
Brian writes the essay and leaves it in the library for Vernon to read after they leave.
As the students part ways outside the school, Allison and Andrew kiss, as do Claire and Bender.
Allison rips Andrew's state champion patch from his letterman jacket to keep, and Claire gives Bender one of her diamond earrings, which he attaches to his earlobe.
Vernon reads the essay (read by Brian in voice-over), in which Brian states that Vernon has already judged who they are, using simple definitions and stereotypes.
One by one, the five students' voices add, "But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal".
Brian signs the letter as "The Breakfast Club".
Bender raises his fist in triumph as he walks across the school football field toward home.
<EOS>
Based on the ideas in the book Future Shock by Alvin Toffler, the novel shows a dystopian early 21st century America dominated by computer networks, and is considered by some critics to be an early ancestor of the "cyberpunk" genre.
The hero, Nick Haflinger, is a runaway from Tarnover, a government program intended to find, educate and indoctrinate highly gifted children to further the interests of the state in a future where quantitative analysis backed by the tacit threat of coercion has replaced overt military and economic power as the deciding factor in international competition.
In parallel with this, the government has become a de facto oligarchy whose beneficiaries are members of organised crime.
Nick's talent extends to programming the network using only a touch tone telephone.
One of his handlers at Tarnover explains that this is like a classical pianist being able to play entire sonatas and concertos from memory.
However Nick also has some personality flaws, amounting almost to a deathwish.
These become manifest in exhibitions of his abilities, revealing his identity to his pursuers.
The background to the story includes a massive earthquake laying waste to the San Francisco Bay Area in California.
Millions die and millions more are left to live on government handouts.
The subsequent economic depression, coupled with the rootlessness enabled by access to online data and strong social pressure to be flexible (the results of corporations wanting highly mobile workforces without strong local ties), results in a fragmentation of society along religious, ethnic and a variety of class markers, what Toffler calls "subcults", including what would in 2010 be described as "gangs".
The equitable distribution of data access and data privacy is a prominent theme in the book; characters who have access to information which is nominally secret enjoy demonstrable economic advantages over others lacking access to such data.
In the novel, data privacy is reserved for corporate entities and individuals who may then conceal wrongdoing; by contrast, normal citizens do not enjoy significant privacy.
The world described in the book is dystopian, with laissez-faire economics portrayed as leading inevitably to disaster as greed trumps long-term planning.
The educational system is dysfunctional, with teachers unable to perform their jobs due to strictures.
The only 'functional' educational system seen in the book is portrayed as an enclave, the tightly-controlled Tarnover school.
Communities are either walled enclaves of privilege or largely lawless areas entirely lacking protection from corrupt civil authorities.
Infrastructure has been allowed to crumble, and characters who reside within 'paid avoidance zones' receive compensation from the government in lieu of actual services.
The novel is set in the weeks following Nick's recapture after several years on the run, alternating between moral arguments with his interrogator, who is trying to discover why the program's star pupil had absconded, and flashbacks of his career.
The interrogator is Paul Freeman, a graduate of another secret installation known as "Electric Skillet", which focuses on weapons and defence strategy.
Although he had initially felt at home at Tarnover, Nick eventually becomes aware of experiments in genetic engineering being performed there.
These produce monstrous deformed children who are disposed of when they are no longer needed for study.
At this point Nick becomes determined to escape.
He studies data processing, steals a personal ID code intended for privileged individuals who wish to live their lives without surveillance, and goes on the run.
He uses the stolen computer access code to cover his data trails and create new identities for himself, easily adopting entire new personas.
One is the pastor of a popular church, another is a successful computer consultant.
In this last role, calling himself Sandy Locke, he becomes the lover of Ina Grierson, a top executive at Ground to Space Industries, a powerful "hypercorp" known to all as G2S.
Intending to use the computer facilities at G2S to ensure that his stolen code is still valid, he signs on as a "systems rationalizer" with the company.
This brings him into contact with Ina's daughter, Kate, who attracts him despite her plain appearance and simple lifestyle.
At the age of 22, Nick's age when he left Tarnover, Kate is a perpetual student at "UMKC".
She is perceptive enough to penetrate Nick's adopted persona, deeply disturbing him even though she fascinates him.
He visits her at home, helping her to clean out some of her possessions, and meeting her tame cougar, Bagheera.
Bagheera is the product of her late father's genetic research into intelligence.
He died shortly after abandoning the research because the government was using it to produce animals for military uses.
The 21st-century lifestyle produces a symptom called "overload" in many people, and most, including Nick, take tranquilizers to some degree.
However Nick collapses completely when told that a representative from Tarnover is coming to meet him at G2S.
He returns to Kate and confesses that he is not what he seems, asking for her help.
She conducts him to one of the "paid avoidance areas" in California, where people are paid to do without the full panoply of modern technology, as an alternative to spending billions to rebuild infrastructure after the earthquake.
After Nick risks exposure yet again in one of these places, they move to the least known one, a town called Precipice.
Precipice turns out to be a Utopian community of a few thousand people.
The nearest comparison would be an agrarian, cottage industry community designed by William Morris.
Precipice is also the home of "Hearing Aid", an anonymous telephone confession service accessible to anyone in the country.
Hearing Aid is also known as the "Ten Nines", after the phone number used to call it: 999-999-9999.
People call the service, a human operator answers, and they simply talk while the operator listens.
Some rant, others seek sympathy, still others commit suicide while on the phone.
Hearing Aid's promise is that nobody else, not even the government, will hear the call.
The only response Hearing Aid gives to a caller is "Only I heard that, I hope it helped".
Nick and Kate settle into the community.
The inhabitants include intelligent dogs that escaped from the projects that Kate's father worked on.
These act as companions, guards, nannies, and even lie detectors, using their sense of smell.
Nick rewrites the "computer tapeworm" that prevents the calls to Hearing Aid being monitored.
While at G2S he became aware of massive backups of data being performed, clearly in anticipation of a major network outage.
The Hearing Aid worm is designed to scramble network traffic if attacked, but Nick realises that it could be destroyed if the authorities were prepared for the effects and ready to recover from them.
His new worm, which he calls a "phage", cannot be removed without dismantling the entire network.
Possibly encouraged by the government, local gangs and tribes raid Precipice, burning down Nick and Kate's house before being overwhelmed by the dogs.
Nick, suffering another overload, blames Kate for the incident, since she, following Hearing Aid policy, cut off a call from someone attempting to warn Precipice.
He hits her, and then, filled with remorse, leaves the town.
He finally reveals his location to the authorities when, encountering one of the "Roman circus" operations which broadcast live fights and other bloody exhibitions to the country, he responds to an "all comers" challenge by the father of the leader of one of the gangs, and cripples him in front of a nationwide audience.
At Tarnover, Paul Freeman takes charge of the interrogation.
He was the representative whom Nick, as Sandy Locke, was supposed to meet at G2S.
Freeman, a tall gaunt African-American, gradually comes to realise that he has more sympathy with Nick's views than his employer's, and eventually absconds himself, giving Nick computer access so that Nick can make his own escape.
The precipitating event in this case is Kate's abduction by government agents, who bring her to Tarnover for further questioning and to threaten Nick.
With the code he gets from Freeman, he sets up an identity as an Army major, with Kate as his prisoner.
Once clear of Tarnover, they disappear together.
This time around, Nick has another plan, and rather than running and hiding, he and Kate spend a number of months travelling the country, aided by an "invisible college" of academics who are allies or former residents of Precipice.
He creates a new "worm" which is designed to destroy all secrecy.
(Brunner invented the term "worm" for this program, as a self-replicating program that propagates across a computer network – the term "worm" was later adopted by computer researchers as the name for this type of program)  The worm is eventually activated, and the details of all the government's dark secrets (clandestine genetic experimentation that produces crippled children, bribes and kickbacks from corporations, concealed crimes of high public officials) now become accessible from anywhere on the network – in fact, those most affected by a particular crime of a government official are emailed the full details.
In place of the old system, Nick has designed the worm to enforce a kind of utilitarian socialism, with people's worth being defined by their roles in society, not their connections in high places.
In effect, the network becomes the entire government and financial system, policing income for illegal money, freezing the accounts of criminals, while making sure money (or credit) flows to places where people are in need.
This will only happen fully if the results of a plebiscite, again conducted over the network, allow it.
In a final atavistic attempt at revenge, the government orders a nuclear strike by a single aircraft from a local Air Force base.
Warned by Hearing Aid, Nick is able to penetrate the military computers and manufacture a counter-order to stop the plane just before it reaches the town.
The book ends optimistically, with there being no more privileged hiding of information, no more secret conspiracies of the rich and powerful.
<EOS>
The Shining mainly takes place in the fictional Overlook Hotel, an isolated, haunted resort located in the Colorado Rockies.
The history of the hotel, which is described in backstory by several characters, includes the deaths of some of its guests and of former winter caretaker Delbert Grady, who succumbed to cabin fever and killed his family and himself.
The plot centers on Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy Torrance, and their 5-year-old son Danny Torrance, who move into the hotel after Jack accepts the position as winter caretaker.
Jack is characterized as an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic with anger issues troubled by past binges that, prior to the story, had caused him to accidentally break Danny's arm and lose his position as a teacher.
Jack hopes that the hotel's seclusion will help him reconnect with his family and give him the motivation needed to work on a play.
Danny, unknown to his parents, possesses telepathic abilities referred to as "the shining" that enable him to read minds and experience premonitions.
Dick Hallorann, the chef at the Overlook, also possesses similar abilities to Danny's and helps to explain them to him, giving Hallorann and Danny a special connection.
As the Torrances settle in at the Overlook, Danny sees ghosts and frightening visions.
Although Danny is close to his parents, he does not tell either of them about his visions because he senses that the care-taking job is important to his father and the family's future.
Wendy considers leaving Jack at the Overlook to finish the job by himself; Danny refuses, thinking his father will be happier if they stayed.
However, Danny soon realizes that his presence in the hotel makes the supernatural activity more powerful, turning echoes of past tragedies into dangerous threats.
Apparitions take form and the garden's topiary animals come to life.
The Overlook has difficulty possessing Danny, so it begins to possess Jack by frustrating his need and desire to work.
Jack starts to develop cabin fever and becomes increasingly unstable.
One day, after a fight with Wendy, Jack finds the hotel's bar fully stocked with alcohol despite being previously empty, and witnesses a party at which he meets the ghost of a bartender named Lloyd.
As he gets drunk, the hotel urges Jack to kill his wife and son.
He initially resists, but the increasing influence of the hotel proves too great.
He becomes a monster under the control of the hotel, succumbing to his dark side.
Wendy and Danny get the better of Jack, locking him into the walk-in pantry, but the ghost of Delbert Grady releases him after he makes Jack promise to bring him Danny and to kill Wendy.
Jack attacks Wendy with one of the hotel's roque mallets, but she escapes to the caretaker's suite and locks herself in the bathroom.
Jack attempts to break the door with the mallet, but Wendy slashes his hand with a razor blade to deter him.
Meanwhile, Hallorann receives a psychic distress call from Danny while working at a winter resort in Florida.
Hallorann rushes back to the Overlook, only to be attacked by the topiary animals and severely injured by Jack.
As Jack pursues Danny through the Overlook, he briefly gains control of himself only long enough for Danny to run away.
The hotel takes control of Jack again, causing him to violently batter his own face and skull with the mallet so Danny can no longer recognize him.
Remembering that Jack has neglected to relieve the pressure on the hotel's unstable boiler, Danny informs him that it is about to explode.
As Danny, Wendy, and Hallorann flee, Jack rushes to the basement attempting to vent the boiler but is too late to prevent it from exploding and destroying the Overlook.
Fighting off a last attempt by the hotel to possess him, Hallorann guides Danny and Wendy to safety.
The book's epilogue is set during the next summer.
Hallorann, who has taken a chef's job at a resort in Maine, comforts Danny over the loss of his father as Wendy recuperates from the injuries Jack inflicted on her.
<EOS>
Travis Bickle, a 26-year-old honorably dischargedS.
Marine, is a lonely, depressed young man living on his own in New York City.
He becomes a taxi driver to cope with his chronic insomnia, driving passengers every night around the city's boroughs.
He also spends time in seedy porn theaters and keeps a diary.
Travis becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign volunteer for Senator and presidential candidate Charles Palantine.
After watching her interact with fellow worker Tom through her window, Travis enters to volunteer as a pretext to talk to her, and takes her out for coffee.
On a later date, he takes her to see a Swedish sex education film, which offends her, and she goes home alone.
His attempts at reconciliation by sending flowers are rebuffed, so he berates her at the campaign office, before being kicked out by Tom.
Travis confides in fellow taxi driver Wizard about his thoughts, which are beginning to turn violent, but Wizard assures him that he will be fine, leaving Travis to his own destructive path.
Travis is disgusted by the sleaze, dysfunction, and prostitution that he witnesses throughout the city, and attempts to find an outlet for his frustrations by beginning a program of intense physical training.
A fellow taxi driver refers Travis to illegal gun dealer Easy Andy, from whom he buys a number of handguns.
At home, Travis practices drawing his weapons and constructs a sleeve gun to hide and then quickly deploy a gun from his sleeve.
One night, Travis enters a convenience store moments before an attempted armed robbery and he shoots and kills the robber.
The shop owner takes responsibility for the shooting, taking Travis' handgun.
Earlier, child prostitute Iris had entered Travis's cab, attempting to escape her pimp Matthew "Sport" Higgins.
Sport dragged Iris from the cab and threw Travis a crumpled twenty-dollar bill, which continually reminds him of her and the corruption that surrounds him.
Some time later, Travis hires Iris, but instead of having sex with her, attempts to dissuade her from continuing in prostitution.
He fails to completely turn her from her course, but she does agree to meet with him for breakfast the next day.
Travis leaves a letter to Iris at his apartment saying he will soon be dead, with money for her to return home.
After shaving his head into a mohawk, Travis attends a public rally, where he plans to assassinate Senator Palantine, but Secret Service agents notice him with his hand in his coat and chase him.
He flees and later goes to the East Village to invade Sport's brothel.
A violent gunfight ensues and Travis kills Sport, a bouncer, and a mafioso.
Travis is severely injured with multiple gunshot wounds.
Iris witnesses the fight and is hysterical with fear, pleading with Travis to stop the killing.
After the gunfight, Travis attempts suicide, but has run out of ammunition and resigns himself to lying on a sofa until police arrive.
When they do, he places his index finger against his temple gesturing the act of shooting himself.
Travis, having recovered from his wounds and returning to work, praised by favorable press reports for hitting the bad guys, receives a letter from Iris's father thanking him for saving her life and revealing that she has returned home to Pittsburgh, where she is going to school.
Later, he also reconciles with Betsy when dropping her off at home in his cab.
As she tries to pay her fare, Travis simply smiles at her, turns off the meter and drives off.
<EOS>
FBI trainee Clarice Starling is pulled from her training at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia by Jack Crawford of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit.
He assigns her to interview Hannibal Lecter, a former psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer, whose insight might prove useful in the pursuit of a serial killer nicknamed "Buffalo Bill", who skins his female victims' corpses.
Starling travels to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where she is led by Frederick Chilton to Lecter's solitary quarters.
Although initially pleasant and courteous, Lecter grows impatient with Starling's attempts at "dissecting" him and rebuffs her.
As she is leaving, one of the prisoners flicks semen at her.
Lecter, who considers this act "unspeakably ugly", calls Starling back and tells her to seek out an old patient of his.
This leads her to a storage shed where she discovers a man's severed head with a sphinx moth lodged in its throat.
She returns to Lecter, who tells her that the man is linked to Buffalo Bill.
He offers to profile Buffalo Bill on the condition that he be transferred away from Chilton, whom he detests.
Buffalo Bill abducts aS.
Senator's daughter, Catherine Martin.
Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Lecter a fake deal promising a prison transfer if he provides information that helps them find Buffalo Bill and rescue Catherine.
Instead, Lecter demands a quid pro quo from Starling, offering clues about Buffalo Bill in exchange for personal information.
Starling tells Lecter about the murder of her father when she was ten years old.
Chilton secretly records the conversation and reveals Starling's deceit before offering Lecter a deal of Chilton's own making.
Lecter agrees and is flown to Memphis, Tennessee, where he verbally torments Senator Ruth Martin and gives her misleading information on Buffalo Bill, including the name "Louis Friend".
Starling notices that "Louis Friend" is an anagram of "iron sulfide"&nbsp;— fool's gold.
She visits Lecter, who is now being held in a cage-like cell in a Tennessee courthouse, and asks for the truth.
Lecter tells her that all the information she needs is contained in the case file.
Rather than give her the real name, he insists that they continue their quid pro quo and she recounts a traumatic childhood incident where she was awakened by the sound of spring lambs being slaughtered on a relative's farm in Montana.
Starling admits that she still sometimes wakes thinking she can hear lambs screaming, and Lecter speculates that she is motivated to save Catherine in the hope that it will end the nightmares.
Lecter gives her back the case files on Buffalo Bill after their conversation is interrupted by Chilton and the police, who escort her from the building.
Later that evening, Lecter kills his guards, escapes from his cell and disappears.
Starling analyzes Lecter's annotations to the case files and realizes that Buffalo Bill knew his first victim personally.
Starling travels to the victim's hometown and discovers that Buffalo Bill was a tailor, with dresses and dress patterns identical to the patches of skin removed from each of his victims.
She telephones Crawford to inform him that Buffalo Bill is trying to fashion a "woman suit" of real skin, but Crawford is already en route to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes with hospital archives and finding a man named Jame Gumb, who once applied unsuccessfully for a sex-change operation.
Starling continues interviewing friends of Buffalo Bill's first victim in Ohio while Crawford leads anBI.
tactical team to Gumb's address in Illinois.
The house in Illinois is empty, and Starling is led to the house of "Jack Gordon", who she realizes is actually Jame Gumb, again by finding a sphinx moth.
She pursues him into his multi-room basement, where she discovers that Catherine is still alive, but trapped in a dry well.
After turning off the basement lights, Gumb stalks Starling in the dark with night-vision goggles, but gives his position away when he cocks his revolver.
Starling reacts just in time and fires all of her rounds at Gumb, killing him.
Sometime later, at her FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives a phone call from Lecter, who is at an airport in Bimini.
He assures her that he does not plan to pursue her and asks her to return the favor, which she says she cannot do.
Lecter then hangs up the phone, saying that he is "having an old friend for dinner", and starts following a newly arrived Chilton before disappearing into the crowd.
<EOS>
Trinity, an infamous hacker, is cornered by police in an abandoned hotel.
She overpowers them with superhuman abilities, but a group of sinister superhuman black-suited Agents lead the police in a rooftop pursuit.
She answers a ringing public telephone and vanishes.
Thomas Anderson is a computer programmer living a double life under the hacker alias "Neo".
He believes something is wrong with the world and is puzzled by repeated online encounters with the cryptic phrase "the Matrix".
Trinity contacts him, saying that a man named Morpheus can explain its meaning; however, the Agents, led by Agent Smith, apprehend Neo at his office.
Undeterred, Neo meets Morpheus, who offers him a choice between a red pill that will allow him to learn the truth about the Matrix, and a blue pill that will return him to his old life.
Swallowing the red pill, Neo's reality disintegrates and he awakens, naked and weak, in a liquid-filled pod, one of countless people connected by cables to an elaborate electrical system.
He is rescued and brought aboard Morpheus's hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzar.
Morpheus explains that, in the 21st century, intelligent machines waged a war against the humans that created them.
When humans blocked the machines' access to solar energy, the machines began to harvest the humans' bioelectricity for power.
The Matrix is a shared simulation of the world as it was in 1999 in which the minds of the harvested humans are trapped and pacified; Neo has lived in it since birth.
Morpheus and his crew belong to a group of rebels who hack into the Matrix and "unplug" enslaved humans, recruiting them as rebels.
The rebels' understanding of the simulated reality allows them to bend its physical laws, granting them superhuman abilities.
Morpheus warns Neo that fatal injuries within the Matrix also kill one's physical body, and that the Agents are powerful sentient programs that eliminate threats to the system.
Neo's skill during virtual combat training lends credence to Morpheus's belief that Neo is "the One", a man prophesied to lead the insurrection of enslaved humans against the machines.
The group enters the Matrix to visit the Oracle, a prophet who predicted the emergence of the One.
She implies that Neo is not the One, and warns Neo that he will soon have to choose between his life and the life of Morpheus.
Before they can leave the Matrix, the group is ambushed by Agents and tactical police.
Morpheus allows himself to be captured so that Neo and the crew can escape.
However, their getaway is hindered by Cypher, a crew member who betrayed Morpheus to Agent Smith in exchange for a comfortable life within the Matrix.
Cypher disconnects and murders several crew members as they lie defenseless in the real world.
He prepares to disconnect Neo and Trinity as well, but is interruptively killed by Tank, a crewman whom he had left for dead.
In the Matrix, the Agents interrogate Morpheus in an attempt to learn his access codes to the mainframe computer in Zion, the rebel humans' last refuge in the real world.
Tank proposes killing Morpheus to prevent this, but Neo, who believes that he is not the One, resolves to return to the Matrix to rescue Morpheus, and Trinity insists on accompanying him.
They succeed in rescuing Morpheus, and in doing so Neo gains confidence in his abilities, performing feats on par with those of the Agents.
Morpheus and Trinity exit the Matrix, but Smith thwarts Neo's escape.
Neo locates an exit in an apartment, but is fatally shot by Smith.
In the real world, machines attack the Nebuchadnezzar, while Trinity whispers to Neo that the Oracle told her that she would fall in love with the One.
She kisses Neo, and he revives, this time with the power to perceive and control the Matrix.
He effortlessly destroys Smith and leaves the Matrix in time for the ship's electromagnetic pulse weapon to disable the attacking sentinels.
Some time later, Neo makes a telephone call in the Matrix, promising the machines that he will show their prisoners "a world where anything is possible".
He hangs up and flies into the sky.
<EOS>
The A-Team is a naturally episodic show, with few overarching stories, except the characters' continuing motivation to clear their names, with few references to events in past episodes and a recognizable and steady episode structure.
In describing the ratings drop that occurred during the show's fourth season, reviewer Gold Burt points to this structure as being a leading cause for the decreased popularity "because the same basic plot had been used over and over again for the past four seasons with the same predictable outcome".
Similarly, reporter Adrian Lee called the plots "stunningly simple" in a 2006 article for The Express (UK newspaper), citing such recurring elements "as BA's fear of flying, and outlandish finales when the team fashioned weapons from household items".
The show became emblematic of this kind of "fit-for-TV warfare" due to its depiction of high-octane combat scenes, with lethal weapons, wherein the participants (with the notable exception of General Fulbright) are never killed and rarely seriously injured (see also On-screen violence section).
As the television ratings of The A-Team fell dramatically during the fourth season, the format was changed for the show's final season in 1986–87 in a bid to win back viewers.
After years on the run from the authorities, the A-Team is finally apprehended by the military.
General Hunt Stockwell, a mysterious CIA operative played by Robert Vaughn, propositions them to work for him, whereupon he will arrange for their pardons upon successful completion of several suicide missions.
In order to do so, the A-Team must first escape from their captivity.
With the help of a new character, Frankie "Dishpan Man" Santana, Stockwell fakes their deaths before a military firing squad.
The new status of the A-Team, no longer working for themselves, remained for the duration of the fifth season while Eddie Velez and Robert Vaughn received star billing along with the principal cast.
The missions that the team had to perform in season five were somewhat reminiscent of , and based more around political espionage than beating local thugs, also usually taking place in foreign countries, including successfully overthrowing an island dictator, the rescue of a scientist from East Germany, and recovering top secret Star Wars defense information from Soviet hands.
These changes proved unsuccessful with viewers, however, and ratings continued to decline.
Only 13 episodes aired in the fifth season.
In what was supposed to be the final episode, "The Grey Team" (although "Without Reservations" was broadcast on NBC as the last first-run episode in March 1987), Hannibal, after being misled by Stockwell one time too many, tells him that the team will no longer work for him.
At the end, the team discusses what they were going to do if they get their pardon, and it is implied that they would continue doing what they were doing as the A-Team.
The character of Howling Mad Murdock can be seen in the final scene wearing a T-shirt that says, "fini".
During the Vietnam War, the A-Team were members of the 5th Special Forces Group (see episode "West Coast Turnaround").
In episode "Bad Time on the Border", Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith, portrayed by George Peppard, indicated that the A-Team were "ex-Green Berets".
During the Vietnam War, the A-Team's commanding officer, Colonel Morrison, gave them orders to rob the Bank of Hanoi to help bring the war to an end.
They succeeded in their mission, but on their return to base four days after the end of the war, they discovered that Morrison had been killed by the Viet Cong, and that his headquarters had been burned to the ground.
This meant that the proof that the A-Team members were acting under orders had been destroyed.
They were arrested, and imprisoned at Fort Bragg, from which they quickly escaped before standing trial.
The origin of the A-Team is directly linked to the Vietnam War, during which the team formed.
The show's introduction in the first four seasons mentions this, accompanied by images of soldiers coming out of a helicopter in an area resembling a forest or jungle.
Besides this, The A-Team would occasionally feature an episode in which the team came across an old ally or enemy from those war days.
For example, the first season's final episode "A Nice Place To Visit" revolved around the team traveling to a small town to honor a fallen comrade and end up avenging his death, and in season two's "Recipe For Heavy Bread", a chance encounter leads the team to meet both the POW cook who helped them during the war, and the American officer who sold his unit out.
An article in the New Statesman (UK) published shortly after the premiere of The A-Team in the United Kingdom, also pointed out The A-Team's connection to the Vietnam War, characterizing it as the representation of the idealization of the Vietnam War, and an example of the war slowly becoming accepted and assimilated into American culture.
One of the team's primary antagonists, Col.
Roderick Decker (Lance LeGault), had his past linked back to the Vietnam War, in which he and Hannibal had come to fisticuffs in "the DOOM Club" (Da Nang Open Officers' Mess).
At other times, members of the team would refer back to a certain tactic used during the War, which would be relevant to the team's present predicament.
Often, Hannibal would refer to such a tactic, after which the other members of the team would complain about its failure during the War.
This was also used to refer to some of Face's past accomplishments in scamming items for the team, such as in the first-season episode "Holiday In The Hills", in which Murdock fondly remembers Face being able to secure a '53 Cadillac while in the Vietnam jungle.
The team's ties to the Vietnam War were referenced again in the fourth-season finale, "The Sound of Thunder", in which the team is introduced to Tia (Tia Carrere), a war orphan and daughter of fourth season antagonist General Fulbright.
Returning to Vietnam, Fulbright is shot in the back and gives his last words as he dies.
The 2006 documentary Bring Back The A-Team joked that the scene lasted seven and a half minutes, but his death actually took a little over a minute.
His murderer, a Vietnamese colonel, is killed in retaliation.
Tia then returns with the team to the United States (see also: casting).
This episode is notable for having one of the show's few truly serious dramatic moments, with each team member privately reminiscing on their war experiences, intercut with news footage from the war with Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction playing in the background.
The show's ties to the Vietnam War are fully dealt with in the opening arc of the fifth season, dubbed "The Court-Martial (Part 1–3)", in which the team is finally court-martialed for the robbery of the bank of Hanoi.
The character of Roderick Decker makes a return on the witness stand, and various newly introduced characters from the A-Team's past also make appearances.
The team, after a string of setbacks, decides to plead guilty to the crime and they are sentenced to be executed.
They escape this fate and come to work for a General Hunt Stockwell, leading into the remainder of the fifth season.
<EOS>
As a teenager, Mort has a personality and temperament that makes him unsuited to the family farming business.
Mort's father Lezek takes him to a local hiring fair in the hope that Mort will land an apprenticeship; not only would this provide a job for his son, but it would also make his son's propensity for thinking into someone else's problem.
Just before the last stroke of midnight, Death arrives and takes Mort on as an apprentice (though his father thinks he has been apprenticed to an undertaker).
Death takes Mort to his domain, where he meets Death's elderly manservant Albert, and his adopted daughter Ysabell.
Mort later accompanies Death as he travels to collect the soul of a king, who is due to be assassinated by the scheming Duke of Sto Helit.
After Mort unsuccessfully tries to prevent the assassination, Death warns him that all deaths are predetermined, and that he cannot interfere with fate.
Later on, Death assigns Mort to collect the soul of Princess Keli, daughter of the murdered king, but he instead kills the assassin the Duke had sent after her.
Keli lives, but finds that the rest of the world no longer acknowledges her existence.
She subsequently employs the wizard Igneous Cutwell, who is able to see her, to make her existence clear to the public.
Mort eventually discovers that his actions have created an alternate reality in which Keli lives, but he also learns that it is being overridden by the original reality and will eventually cease to exist, killing Keli.
While consulting Cutwell, Mort sees a picture of Unseen University's founder, Alberto Malich, noting that he bears a resemblance to Albert.
Mort and Ysabell travel into the Stack, a library in Death's domain that holds the biographies of everyone who has ever lived, in order to investigate Albert, eventually discovering that he is indeed Malich.
They further learn that Malich had feared monsters waiting for him in the afterlife, and performed a reversed version of the Rite of AshkEnte in the hope of keeping Death away from him.
However, the spell backfired and sent him to Death's side, where he has remained in order to put off his demise.
During this time, Death, yearning to relish what being human is like, travels to Ankh-Morpork to indulge in new experiences, including getting drunk, dancing, gambling and finding a job.
Mort in turn starts to become more like Death, adopting his mannerisms and aspects of his personality, while his own is slowly overridden.
Death's absence forces Mort to collect the next two souls, who are both located on separate parts of the Disc, and due to die on the same night that the alternate reality will be destroyed.
Before he and Ysabell leave to collect the souls, Mort uses the part of Death within him to force Albert to provide a spell that will slow down the alternate reality's destruction.
After Mort and Ysabell leave, Albert returns to Unseen University, under the identity of Malich.
His eagerness to live on the Disc is reinvigorated during this time, and he has the wizards perform the right of AshkEnte in the hope of finally escaping Death's grasp.
The ritual summons both Death and the part of Death that had been taking Mort over, restoring him to normal.
Unaware of Albert's treachery, Death takes him back into his service, the Librarian preventing the wizard's escape.
Mort and Ysabell travel to Keli's palace, where the princess and Cutwell have organised a hasty coronation ceremony in the hope that Keli can be crowned queen before the alternate reality is destroyed.
With the reality now too small for Albert's spell, Mort and Ysabell save Keli and Cutwell from being destroyed with the alternate reality.
They return to Death's domain to find a furious Death waiting for them, the latter having learned of Mort's actions from Albert.
Death dismisses Mort and attempts to take the souls of Keli and Cutwell, but Mort challenges him to a duel for them.
Though Death eventually wins the duel, he spares Mort's life and sends him back to the Disc.
Death convinces the gods to change the original reality so that Keli rules in place of the Duke, who was inadvertently killed during Death and Mort's duel.
Mort and Ysabell – who have fallen in love over the course of the story – get married, and are made Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit by Keli, while Cutwell is made the Master of the Queen's Bedchamber.
Death attends Mort and Ysabell's reception, where he warns Mort that he will have to make sure that the original Duke's destiny is fulfilled, and presents him with the alternate reality he created, now shrunk to the size of a large pearl, before the two part on amicable terms.
<EOS>
SHIELD.
scrambles to repair the damage Daisy did to the base, while Coulson, who sustained a leg injury, resolves to defeat Hive and save Daisy.
Fitz, Simmons and Lincoln determine that the effect of Hive's infection will prevent those Inhumans he controls from being sedated.
Realizing Alisha would be a powerful asset to Hive, Coulson, May and Lincoln visit her, only to find she has already been infected and has gone with Hive, leaving duplicates to attack them.
After the duplicates are killed, Coulson orders Lincoln to stay out of the field until they have a cure for Hive's infection.
Hive and Daisy approach James, revealing they know he has another Kree artifact connected to the orb, which Hive describes as the only thing that can destroy him.
They induce his Terrigenesis, giving him the ability to explosively charge objects (in a similar manner to an Extremis combustion), and Hive enthrals him, learning he buried the companion artifact beneath his home.
Daisy's use of her seismokinetic powers to unearth the artefact attract the attention of SHIELD, and Coulson and May arrive to find the Inhumans already gone, along with the artefact.
The hut is destroyed by a bomb, but Coulson protects himself and May with an energy shield projected from his robotic hand.
Meanwhile, Fitz, Simmons and Mack decide to seek out Holden Radcliffe, who was in charge of Transia's work against invasive organisms, before he was fired for his transhumanist beliefs.
While continuing to discuss how to proceed with their relationship, Fitz and Simmons infiltrate a transhumanist social club to find Radcliffe, under the guise of geneticists wanting to sell him eye prosthetic technology based on those used for Project Deathlok.
Upon meeting Radcliffe they reveal their true intentions and ask for his help to devise a cure for Hive's infection, but they are interrupted by the arrival of Hive and his Inhuman allies.
Alisha abducts Radcliffe, while Daisy subdues Fitz with her powers and warns him of her vision of an agent's death, wantingHIELD.
to stop trying to combat Hive, and avoid that future from coming to pass.
Mack narrowly escapes James, and Hive approaches Simmons, speaking to her as Will, using his memories, only for her to shoot him and escape, after deriding him for trying to be someone he murdered.
The three agents reconvene at a hotel, where Fitz and Simmons finally consummate their relationship.
Under Coulson's direction, Talbot and the ATCU use information Malick provided before his death to neutralize what is left of Hydra, with the exception of the forces commanded by Hive.
In an end tag, Hive brings Daisy, Radcliffe, Alisha, and James (who has chosen the moniker 'Hellfire') to a town he bought with Malick's money.
Seeking to make Earth 'the home Inhumans deserve', he reveals his intention to recreate the original Kree experiments and convert the entire human race into Inhumans, with Radcliffe's help.
<EOS>
Robert Scott Carey (Grant Williams), known as "Scott," is a businessman who is on vacation with his wife Louise (Randy Stuart) on his brother Charlie's boat off the California coast.
When Louise goes below deck for beer, a large, strange cloud on the horizon passes over the craft, leaving a reflective mist on Scott's bare skin.
The couple are puzzled by the phenomenon, which disappears as quickly as it had shown up.
However, one morning six months later, Scott, notices that his shirt and slacks seem to be too big, but blames it on the laundry service.
Louise thinks Scott is just losing a few pounds.
As this trend continues, he believes he is shrinking and sees his physician, dr Bramson (William Schallert).
Despite Scott measuring two inches shorter than the height to which he has been accustomed since his teenaged years, the doctor dismisses the discrepancy as past error and reassures him that he is in perfect health and that "people just don't get shorter".
Louise becomes concerned when Scott points out that she no longer needs to stand on tiptoe to kiss him.
Finally, there is x-ray proof that Scott is getting smaller.
His doctor refers him to the prominent laboratory, the California Medical Research Institute, and after nearly three weeks of sophisticated tests, Scott and his team of new doctors learn that the mist to which he was exposed was radioactive.
This, combined with an accidental exposure to a large amount of common insecticide four months later, has set off a chain reaction that has rearranged Scott's molecular structure, causing his cells to shrink.
Afterward, Scott tells Louise in light of his predicament, she is free to leave him.
Louise promises to stand by her marriage vows; however, during the conversation, Scott's wedding ring falls off his finger.
Scott continues to shrink proportionately.
His story hits the headlines, and he becomes a national curiosity.
The media and others camp out on his lawn, and Louise requests an unlisted number to end the constant ringing of the phone.
He can no longer drive a car and has to give up his job working for his brother, Charlie (Paul Langton), who encourages him to make some money off his story by selling it to the national press.
He begins keeping a journal, to be published as a record of his experiences.
As things continue, Scott feels humiliated and expresses his shame by lashing out at Louise, who is reduced to tears of despair.
Then, it seems, an antidote is found for Scott's affliction: it arrests his shrinking when he is tall and weighs.
However, he is told that he will never return to his former size unless a cure is found.
He tries to accept the situation, but in a moment of extreme self-loathing, he runs out of the house, his first time being outside since he sold his story.
At a neighborhood coffee shop, he meets and becomes friends with a female midget named Clarice (April Kent), who is slightly shorter than him.
She is appearing in a carnival sideshow in town and persuades him that life is not all bad being their size.
Inspired, he begins to work on his book again.
Two weeks later, during one of Scott's conversations with his new small friend, he suddenly notices he has become shorter than her, meaning the antidote has stopped working.
Exasperated, he runs back home, ending his brief friendship with Clarice.
After becoming small enough to fit inside a dollhouse, Scott becomes more tyrannical with Louise, simultaneously wanting courage to end what he calls his "wretched existence" and hoping that his doctors can save him.
He is attacked by his own cat one day while Louise is away on an errand, and winds up accidentally trapped in the basement of his home.
Returning to find a bloody scrap of Scott's clothing, Louise tearfully assumes the cat ate him, and his undignified death is announced to the world.
Assuming she is now a widow, Louise prepares to move.
Meanwhile, Scott goes through the odyssey of navigating his basement, which for him at his current size is a cavernous, inhospitable world.
Most of his time is spent battling a voracious spider, his own hunger, and the fear that he may eventually shrink down to nothing.
When the water heater bursts, Charlie and Louise come down to investigate; by now, however, Scott is so small that they cannot hear his screams for help.
Louise moves out of the house.
Scott ultimately kills the spider with a straight pin and collapses in exhaustion.
Awakening, he finds he is now so small he can escape the basement by walking through the squares of a window screen.
Scott accepts his fate and is resigned to the adventure of seeing what awaits him in even smaller realms.
He knows he will eventually shrink to atomic size; but, no matter how small he becomes, he concludes he will still matter in the universe because, to God, "there is no zero".
This thought gives him comfort, and he no longer fears the future.
<EOS>
Barbra (Judith O'Dea) and Johnny Blair (Russell Streiner) drive to rural Pennsylvania for an annual visit to their father's grave.
Barbra is attacked by a strange man (Bill Hinzman) walking in the cemetery.
Johnny tries to rescue his sister, but the man throws him against a gravestone; Johnny strikes his head on the stone and is killed.
After a mishap with the car, Barbara escapes on foot, with the stranger in pursuit, and later arrives at a farmhouse, where she discovers a woman's mangled corpse.
Fleeing from the house, she is confronted by strange menacing figures like the man in the graveyard.
Ben (Duane Jones) takes her into the house, driving the "monsters" away and sealing the doors and windows.
Throughout the night, Barbra slowly descends into a stupor of shock and insanity.
Ben and Barbra are unaware that the farmhouse has a cellar, housing an angry married couple Harry (Karl Hardman) and Helen Cooper (Marilyn Eastman), along with their daughter Karen (Kyra Schon).
They sought refuge after a group of the same monsters overturned their car.
Tom (Keith Wayne) and Judy (Judith Ridley), a teenage couple, arrived after hearing an emergency broadcast about a series of brutal murders.
Karen has fallen seriously ill after being bitten by one of the monsters.
They ventured upstairs when Ben turns on a radio, while Barbra awakens from her stupor.
Harry demands that everyone hide in the cellar, but Ben deems it a "deathtrap" and continues upstairs, to barricade the house with Tom's help.
Radio reports explain that a wave of mass murder is sweeping across the eastern United States.
Ben finds a television, and they watch an emergency broadcaster (Charles Craig) report that the recently deceased have become reanimated and are consuming the flesh of the living.
Experts, scientists, and the United States military fail to discover the cause, though one scientist suspects radioactive contamination from a space probe.
It returned from Venus, and was deliberately exploded in the Earth's atmosphere when the radiation was detected.
Ben plans to obtain medical care for Karen when the reports listed local rescue centers offering refuge and safety.
Ben and Tom refuel Ben's truck while Harry hurls molotov cocktails from an upper window at the ghouls.
Judy follows him, fearing Tom's safety.
Tom accidentally spills gasoline on the truck setting it ablaze.
Tom and Judy try to drive the truck away from the pump, but Judy is unable to free herself from its door, and the truck explodes, killing them both; the zombies promptly eat the charred remains.
Ben returns to the house, but is locked out by Harry.
Eventually forcing his way back in, Ben beats Harry, angered by his cowardice, while the zombies feed on the remains of Tom and Judy.
A news report reveals that, only a gunshot or heavy blow to the head can stop them, aside from setting the "reactivated bodies" on fire.
It also reported that posses of armed men are patrolling the countryside to restore order.
The lights go out moments later, and the zombies break through the barricades.
Harry grabs Ben's rifle and threatens to shoot him.
In the chaos the two fight and Ben manages to wrestle the gun away and shoots Harry.
Harry stumbles into the cellar and collapses next to Karen, mortally wounded.
She has also died from her illness.
The ghouls try to pull Helen and Barbra through the windows, but Helen frees herself.
She returns to the refuge of the cellar to see Karen is reanimated and eating Harry's corpse.
Helen is frozen in shock, and Karen stabs her to death with a masonry trowel.
Barbra, seeing Johnny among the zombies, is carried away by the horde and devoured.
As the zombies overrun the house, Ben seals himself inside the cellar, where Harry and Helen are reanimating, and he is forced to shoot them.
Ben is awakened by the posse's gunfire outside the next morning.
He ventures upstairs.
A member of the posse mistakes him for one of the ghouls and shoots him through the forehead.
The film ends with a photo montage of Ben as his body is thrown into the posse's bonfire, laid next to the original zombie from the cemetery.
<EOS>
Dr.
James Mortimer asks Sherlock Holmes to investigate the death of his friend, Sir Charles Baskerville.
Sir Charles was found dead on the grounds of his Devonshire estate, Baskerville Hall, and Mortimer now fears for Sir Charles's nephew and sole heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, who is the new master of Baskerville Hall.
The death was attributed to a heart attack, but Mortimer is suspicious, because Sir Charles died with an expression of horror on his face, and Mortimer noticed "the footprints of a gigantic hound" nearby.
The Baskerville family has supposedly been under a curse since the era of the English Civil War, when ancestor Hugo Baskerville allegedly offered his soul to the devil for help in abducting a woman and was reportedly killed by a giant spectral hound.
Sir Charles believed in the curse and was apparently fleeing from something in fright when he died.
Intrigued, Holmes meets with Sir Henry, newly arrived from Canada.
Sir Henry has received an anonymous note, cut and pasted from newsprint, warning him away from the Baskerville moors, and one of his new boots is inexplicably missing from his London hotel room.
The Baskerville family is discussed: Sir Charles was the eldest of three brothers; the youngest, black sheep Rodger, is believed to have died childless in South America, while Sir Henry is the only child of the middle brother.
Sir Henry plans to move into Baskerville Hall, despite the ominous warning message.
Holmes and dr Watson follow him from Holmes's Baker Street apartment back to his hotel and notice a bearded man following him in a cab; they pursue the man, but he escapes.
Mortimer tells them that mr Barrymore, the butler at Baskerville Hall, has a beard like the one on the stranger.
Sir Henry's boot reappears, but an older one vanishes.
Holmes sends for the cab driver who shuttled the bearded man after Sir Henry, and is both astounded and amused to learn that the stranger had made a point of giving his name as 'Sherlock Holmes' to the cabbie.
Holmes, now even more interested in the Baskerville affair but held up with other cases, dispatches Watson to accompany Sir Henry to Baskerville Hall with instructions to send him frequent reports about the house, grounds, and neighbors.
Upon arrival at the grand but austere Baskerville estate, Watson and Sir Henry learn that an escaped murderer named Selden is believed to be in the area.
Barrymore and his wife, who also works at Baskerville Hall, wish to leave the estate soon.
Watson hears a woman crying in the night; it is obvious to him that it was mrs Barrymore, but her husband denies it.
Watson has no proof that Barrymore was in Devon on the day of the chase in London.
He meets a brother and sister who live nearby: mr Stapleton, a naturalist, and the beautiful Miss Stapleton.
When an animalistic sound is heard, Stapleton is quick to dismiss it as unrelated to the legendary hound.
When her brother is out of earshot, Mrs Stapleton mistakes Watson for Sir Henry and warns him to leave.
Sir Henry and she later meet and quickly fall in love, arousing Stapleton's anger; he later apologizes and invites Sir Henry to dine with him a few days later.
Barrymore arouses further suspicion when Watson and Sir Henry catch him at night with a candle in an empty room.
Barrymore refuses to answer their questions, but mrs Barrymore confesses that Selden is her brother, and her husband is signalling that they have left supplies for him.
Watson and Sir Henry pursue Selden on the moor, but he eludes them, while Watson notices another man on a nearby tor.
After an agreement is reached to allow Selden to flee the country, Barrymore reveals the contents of an incompletely burnt letter asking Sir Charles to be at the gate at the time of his death.
It was signed with the initialsL.
; on Mortimer's advice, Watson questions a Laura Lyons, who admits to writing the letter in hopes that Sir Charles would help finance her divorce, but says she did not keep the appointment.
Watson tracks the second man he saw in the area and discovers it to be Holmes, investigating independently in hopes of a faster resolution.
Holmes reveals further information: Stapleton is actually married to the supposed Miss Stapleton, and he promised marriage to Laura Lyons to get her cooperation.
They hear a scream and discover the body of Selden, dead from a fall.
They initially mistake him for Sir Henry, whose old clothes he was wearing.
At Baskerville Hall, Holmes notices a resemblance between Stapleton and a portrait of Hugo Baskerville.
He realises that Stapleton could be an unknown Baskerville family member, seeking to claim the Baskerville wealth by eliminating his relatives.
Accompanied by Inspector Lestrade, whom Holmes has summoned, Holmes and Watson travel to the Stapleton home, where Sir Henry is dining.
They rescue him from a hound that Stapleton releases while Sir Henry is walking home across the moor.
Shooting the animal dead in the struggle, Sherlock reveals that it was a perfectly mortal dog - a mix of bloodhound and mastiff, painted with phosphorus to give it a hellish appearance.
They find Miss Stapleton bound and gagged inside the house, while Stapleton apparently dies in an attempt to reach his hideout in a nearby mire.
They also find Sir Henry's boot, which was used to give the hound Sir Henry's scent.
Weeks later, Holmes provides Watson with additional details about the case.
Stapleton was in fact Rodger Baskerville's son, also named Rodger.
His now-widow is a South American woman, the former Beryl Garcia.
He supported himself through crime for many years, before learning that he could inherit a fortune by murdering his uncle and cousin.
Stapleton had taken Sir Henry's old boot because the new, unworn boot lacked his scent.
The hound had pursued Selden to his death because of the scent on Sir Henry's old clothes.
mrs Stapleton had disavowed her husband's plot, so he had imprisoned her to prevent her from interfering.
The story ends with Holmes and Watson leaving to see the opera Les Huguenots starring Jean de Reszke.
<EOS>
Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting a party for Thorin and his band of dwarves, who sing of reclaiming the Lonely Mountain and its vast treasure from the dragon Smaug.
When the music ends, Gandalf unveils a map showing a secret door into the Mountain and proposes that the dumbfounded Bilbo serve as the expedition's "burglar".
The dwarves ridicule the idea, but Bilbo, indignant, joins despite himself.
The group travels into the wild, where Gandalf saves the company from trolls and leads them to Rivendell, where Elrond reveals more secrets from the map.
Passing over the Misty Mountains, they are caught by goblins and driven deep underground.
Although Gandalf rescues them, Bilbo gets separated from the others as they flee the goblins.
Lost in the goblin tunnels, he stumbles across a mysterious ring and then encounters Gollum, who engages him in a game of riddles.
As a reward for solving all riddles Gollum will show him the path out of the tunnels, but if Bilbo fails, his life will be forfeit.
With the help of the ring, which confers invisibility, Bilbo escapes and rejoins the dwarves, improving his reputation with them.
The goblins and Wargs give chase, but the company are saved by eagles before resting in the house of Beorn.
The company enters the black forest of Mirkwood without Gandalf.
In Mirkwood, Bilbo first saves the dwarves from giant spiders and then from the dungeons of the Wood-elves.
Nearing the Lonely Mountain, the travellers are welcomed by the human inhabitants of Lake-town, who hope the dwarves will fulfil prophecies of Smaug's demise.
The expedition travels to the Lonely Mountain and finds the secret door; Bilbo scouts the dragon's lair, stealing a great cup and learning of a weakness in Smaug's armour.
The enraged dragon, deducing that Lake-town has aided the intruder, sets out to destroy the town.
A thrush had overheard Bilbo's report of Smaug's vulnerability and reports it to Lake-town defender Bard.
His arrow finds the chink and slays the dragon.
When the dwarves take possession of the mountain, Bilbo finds the Arkenstone, an heirloom of Thorin's dynasty, and hides it away.
The Wood-elves and Lake-men besiege the mountain and request compensation for their aid, reparations for Lake-town's destruction, and settlement of old claims on the treasure.
Thorin refuses and, having summoned his kin from the Iron Hills, reinforces his position.
Bilbo tries to ransom the Arkenstone to head off a war, but Thorin is intransigent.
He banishes Bilbo, and battle seems inevitable.
Gandalf reappears to warn all of an approaching army of goblins and Wargs.
The dwarves, men and elves band together, but only with the timely arrival of the eagles and Beorn do they win the climactic Battle of Five Armies.
Thorin is fatally wounded and reconciles with Bilbo before he dies.
Bilbo accepts only a small portion of his share of the treasure, having no want or need for more, but still returns home a very wealthy hobbit.
<EOS>
In 1989, logger Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse wrapped in plastic on the bank of a river outside the town of Twin Peaks, Washington.
When Sheriff Harry Truman, his deputies, and dr Will Hayward arrive, the body is identified as homecoming queen Laura Palmer.
A badly injured second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is discovered in a fugue state.
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate.
Cooper's initial examination of Laura's body reveals a tiny typed letter "R" inserted under her fingernail.
Cooper informs the community that Laura's death matches the signature of a killer who murdered another girl in southwestern Washington the previous year, and that evidence indicates the killer lives in Twin Peaks.
The authorities discover that Laura has been living a double life.
She was cheating on her boyfriend, football captain Bobby Briggs, with biker James Hurley, and prostituting herself with the help of truck driver Leo Johnson and drug dealer Jacques Renault.
Laura was also addicted to cocaine, which she obtained by coercing Bobby into doing business with Jacques.
Laura's father, attorney Leland Palmer, suffers a nervous breakdown.
Her best friend, Donna Hayward, begins a relationship with James.
With the help of Laura's cousin Maddy Ferguson, Donna and James discover that Laura's psychiatrist, dr Lawrence Jacoby, was obsessed with Laura, but he is proven innocent of the murder.
Hotelier Ben Horne, the richest man in Twin Peaks, plans to destroy the town's lumber mill along with its owner Josie Packard, and murder his lover and Josie's sister-in-law, Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie), so that he can purchase the land at a reduced price and complete a development project.
Horne's sultry, troubled daughter, Audrey, becomes infatuated with Cooper and spies for clues in an effort to gain his affections.
Cooper has a dream in which he is approached by a one-armed otherworldly being who calls himself Mike.
Mike says that Laura's murderer is a similar entity, Killer Bob, a feral, denim-clad man with long gray hair.
Cooper finds himself decades older with Laura and a dwarf in a red business suit, who engages in coded dialogue with Cooper.
The next morning, Cooper tells Truman that, if he can decipher the dream, he will know who killed Laura.
Cooper and the sheriff's department find the one-armed man from Cooper's dream, a traveling shoe salesman named Phillip Gerard.
Gerard knows a Bob, the veterinarian who treats Renault's pet bird.
Cooper interprets these events to mean that Renault is the murderer and, with Truman's help, tracks Renault to One-Eyed Jack's, a brothel owned by Horne across the border in Canada.
He lures Renault back ontoS.
soil to arrest him, but Renault tries to escape and is shot and hospitalized.
Leland, learning that Renault has been arrested, sneaks into the hospital and murders him.
The same night, Horne orders Leo to burn down the lumber mill with Catherine trapped inside and has Leo gunned down by Hank Jennings to ensure Leo's silence.
Cooper returns to his room following Jacques's arrest and is shot by a masked gunman.
Lying hurt in his room, Cooper has a vision in which a giant appears and reveals three clues: "There is a man in a smiling bag"; "The owls are not what they seem"; and "Without chemicals, he points".
He takes Cooper's gold ring and explains that when Cooper understands the three premonitions, his ring will be returned.
Leo Johnson survives his shooting but is brain-damaged.
Catherine Martell disappears, presumed to have perished in the mill fire.
Leland Palmer, whose hair has turned white overnight, is rejuvenated by Renault's murder and returns to work.
Phillip Gerard is the host for Mike, a demonic "inhabiting spirit" who used to retain the services of Bob, a lesser demonic entity, to help him kill humans.
Mike reveals that Bob has been possessing someone in town for decades, but he does not tell Cooper whom Bob has possessed.
Donna takes on Laura's old route for the Meals on Wheels program in the hopes of finding more clues to Laura's murder.
She befriends a young man named Harold Smith who is in possession of a second diary that Laura kept.
She and Maddy attempt to steal it from him, but Harold catches them in the act, loses all faith in humanity, and hangs himself in his orchid greenhouse.
The officers take possession of Laura's secret diary, and learn that Bob, a friend of her father's, raped her repeatedly as a child and that she began using drugs to cope.
Cooper believes that the killer is Ben Horne, but Leland is revealed to be Bob when he brutally kills Maddy.
Cooper doubts Horne's guilt, so he gathers all of his suspects in the belief that he will receive a sign to help him identify the killer.
The Giant appears and confirms that Leland is Bob's host and Laura's and Maddy's killer.
Bob assumes total control over Leland's body and confesses to a series of murders, before forcing Leland to commit suicide.
Leland, as he dies, free of Bob's influence, tells Cooper that Bob has possessed him ever since molesting him as a child.
He begs for forgiveness, sees a vision of Laura welcoming him into the afterlife, and dies in Cooper's arms.
The lawmen question whether Leland was truly possessed or mentally ill, and considers the possibility that Bob might still stalk the community of Twin Peaks in search of a new host.
Cooper is set to leave Twin Peaks when he is framed for drug trafficking by the criminal Jean Renault and is suspended from the FBI.
Renault holds Cooper responsible for the death of his brother, Jacques.
Jean Renault is killed in a shootout with police, and Cooper is cleared of all charges.
Windom Earle, Cooper's former mentor and FBI partner, comes to Twin Peaks seeking revenge because Cooper had an affair with Earle's wife, Caroline, while she had been under his protection as a witness to a federal crime.
Earle went mad, killed Caroline, and stabbed Cooper.
He was committed to a mental institution but escaped, hiding out in the woods near Twin Peaks.
He plays a twisted game of chess with Cooper in which someone dies each time he captures an opponent's piece.
Cooper tries to discover the origin and whereabouts of Bob, and learns more about the mysteries of the dark woods surrounding Twin Peaks.
He learns of the existence of the White Lodge and the Black Lodge, two extra-dimensional realms whose gateways reside somewhere in the woods.
Cooper learns that Bob, the Giant, and the Man From Another Place all come from one of the two lodges.
Meanwhile, Bob restlessly seeks another host.
Josie Packard dies mysteriously during Truman and Cooper's attempt to apprehend her for shooting Cooper.
At the moment of her death, Bob briefly appears to Cooper, drawn by her fear.
Cooper falls in love with a new girl in town, Annie Blackburn.
When Annie wins the Miss Twin Peaks contest, Earle kidnaps her and takes her to the Black Lodge entrance in Glastonbury Grove.
Cooper realizes that Earle's real reason for being in Twin Peaks is to gain entrance into the Black Lodge and harness its power for himself, and that his chess game has been an elaborate decoy.
With clues from Deputy Andy and the Log Lady, Cooper discovers the entrance to the Lodge, which turns out to be the red-curtained room from his dream.
He is greeted by the Man From Another Place, the giant, and the spirit of Laura Palmer, who each give Cooper coded prophecies about his future and demonstrate the properties of the Black Lodge, which defies the laws of time and space.
Searching for Annie and Earle, Cooper encounters doppelgängers of various dead people, including Maddy Ferguson and Leland Palmer, who taunt him with strange denials, warnings, and falsehoods.
The doppelgängers eventually lead Cooper to Earle, who demands that Cooper give up his soul in exchange for Annie's life.
Cooper agrees and Earle stabs him.
Seconds later, Killer Bob appears and reverses time in the Lodge.
Bob tells Cooper that Earle cannot ask for his soul and then kills Earle and takes his soul.
Bob then turns on Cooper, who experiences fear for the first time in the Lodge.
Cooper flees, pursued by Bob and a doppelgänger of himself.
Some time after entering the Lodge, Cooper and Annie reappear in the woods.
They are discovered by Sheriff Truman, who has been waiting for them since he saw Cooper disappear.
Annie is bloodied and hospitalized, but Cooper's injuries are minor enough that Doctor Hayward is able to treat them in Cooper's room at the Great Northern Hotel.
Upon waking, Cooper asks about Annie's condition, and then states he needs to brush his teeth.
When Cooper enters the bathroom and looks into the mirror, his reflection is Bob, revealing that he is Cooper's doppelgänger from the Black Lodge.
He then rams his head into the mirror and, while laughing maniacally, repeatedly mocks his earlier question about Annie's condition.
<EOS>
In 1984 Los Angeles, a cyborg assassin known as a Terminator arrives from 2029 and steals guns and clothes.
Shortly afterwards, Kyle Reese, a human soldier from 2029, arrives.
He steals clothes and evades the police.
The Terminator begins systematically killing women named Sarah Connor, whose addresses he finds in the telephone directory.
He tracks the third Sarah Connor to a nightclub, but Kyle rescues her.
The two steal a car and escape with the Terminator pursuing them in a police car.
As they hide in a parking lot, Kyle explains to Sarah that an artificial intelligence defense network, known as Skynet, will become self-aware in the near future and initiate a nuclear holocaust.
Sarah's future son John will rally the survivors and lead a resistance movement against Skynet and its army of machines.
With the Resistance on the verge of victory, Skynet sent a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah before John is born, to prevent the formation of the Resistance.
The Terminator is an efficient killing machine with a powerful metal endoskeleton and an external layer of living tissue that makes it appear human.
Kyle and Sarah are apprehended by the police after another encounter with the Terminator.
Criminal psychologist dr Silberman concludes that Kyle is paranoid and delusional.
The Terminator repairs his body and attacks the police station, killing many police officers in his attempt to locate Sarah.
Kyle and Sarah escape, steal another car and take refuge in a motel, where they assemble pipe bombs and plan their next move.
Kyle admits that he has been in love with Sarah since John gave him a photograph of her, and they have sex.
The Terminator discovers their location, and they attempt to escape in a pickup truck.
In the ensuing chase, Kyle is wounded by gunfire while throwing pipe bombs at the Terminator.
Enraged‚ Sarah knocks the Terminator off his motorcycle but loses control of the truck, which flips over.
The Terminator hijacks a tank truck and attempts to run down Sarah, but Kyle slides a pipe bomb onto the tanker, causing an explosion that burns the flesh from the Terminator's endoskeleton.
It pursues them to a factory, where Kyle activates machinery to confuse the Terminator.
He jams his final pipe bomb into the Terminator's abdomen, blowing the Terminator apart, injuring Sarah, and killing Kyle.
The damaged Terminator reactivates and grabs Sarah.
She breaks free and lures it into a hydraulic press, crushing it.
Months later, a pregnant Sarah is traveling through Mexico, recording audio tapes to pass on to her unborn son, John.
She debates whether to tell him that Kyle is his father.
At a gas station, a boy takes a Polaroid photograph of her which she purchases—the same photograph that John will eventually give to Kyle.
<EOS>
Successful sea captain James McKay (Gregory Peck) travels to the American West to join his fiancée Patricia (Carroll Baker) at the enormous ranch owned by her father, Henry Terrill (Charles Bickford), referred to by all as "The Major".
Terrill has been feuding with Rufus Hannassey (Burl Ives), the patriarch of a poorer, less refined ranching clan, over water rights in the arid grazing lands of the high plains.
Patricia's friend, schoolteacher Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons), owns the "Big Muddy", a large ranch itself, with a source of water that is vital to both Hannassey and Terrill in times of drought.
Julie allows all to water their cattle and refuses to sell or lease the Big Muddy to either side, so as to keep the fragile peace.
McKay brings a pair of dueling pistols to the Major as a gift.
But he repeatedly refuses to be provoked into proving his manhood; he tells the Major that his father died in a meaningless duel.
He does nothing when Hannassey's trouble-making son Buck (Chuck Connors) and his shiftless companions harass him.
He also declines an invitation by Terrill's foreman, Steve Leech (Charlton Heston), to ride an unbroken horse named "Old Thunder".
Consequently, everyone, including Patricia, considers him a coward.
When the Major and his men ride to the Hannassey ranch in retribution for Buck's harassment of a Terrill guest, McKay declines to participate.
Buck makes his escape from Terrill's men while others in his posse are punished and beaten senseless.
Alone at Terrill's ranch except for ranch hand Ramon (Alfonso Bedoya), McKay then breaks Old Thunder, after being thrown out of the saddle numerous times.
He swears Ramon, the only witness, to secrecy.
Terrill hosts a Grand Gala to formally announce Patricia's upcoming wedding.
A ruffled and grizzled Hannassey, armed with a shotgun, spoils the festive mood when he confronts Terrill in front of all his guests over the brutal beating of his men.
He threatens to start a range war over Terrill's steadfast practice of denying water to Hannassey's cattle.
McKay rides out to the Big Muddy and persuades Julie to sell him the land, promising to continue her policy of unrestricted access to the river.
A search party, led by Leech, spends two days looking for McKay, believing he has become lost.
McKay explains that he was never in danger, but Leech calls him a liar.
Again refusing to be goaded into a fight, McKay sees that both Patricia and her father are disappointed; they agree to reconsider their engagement.
Early the next morning, before anybody else is up, McKay seeks out Leech to settle their quarrel.
They fight, without witnesses, to an exhausted draw.
McKay quietly asks Leech exactly what they proved by fighting.
Leech has a new understanding and respect of McKay.
Julie tells her friend Patricia that McKay bought the Big Muddy for her.
Patricia is excited because her father will be so pleased with her wedding gift.
Once she learns McKay plans to give Hannassey access to his water, however, Patricia leaves, understanding their engagement is over.
Acting on Terrill's orders, Leech and his men chase Hannassey's cattle away from the Big Muddy.
Hannassey, in retaliation, kidnaps Julie and uses her as bait to lure Terrill into an ambush in the narrow canyon leading to Hannassey's homestead.
Buck tries to force himself on Julie, but his father stops him.
Buck, furious, tries to strangle his father, but is overpowered.
His father states, "One day I know I'm going to have to kill you".
McKay finds out about Julie and rides to the Hannassey place, where he shows Hannassey the deed to Big Muddy and promises him equal access to the water.
Hannassey says he intends to fight Terrill anyway, whereupon McKay tells him that it is plain that this is just a personal vendetta between two old men.
When it becomes obvious that McKay and Julie have feelings for each other, Buck attacks McKay.
They fight, but Hannassey steps in when Buck draws his gun on the unarmed McKay and insists on a fair, formal duel.
After walking apart ten paces, Buck fires before the signal, grazing McKay's forehead.
Hannassey is furious.
McKay slowly takes aim, but Buck drops to the ground in terror and crawls behind a wagon wheel.
McKay fires into the dirt, ending the duel, and Hannassey spits on Buck in disgust.
McKay and Julie are about to leave when Buck grabs a gun, forcing Hannassey to shoot his son dead.
Terrill insists on riding into Blanco Canyon for a final confrontation.
Leech and the rest of his men initially refuse to accompany him, but after Terrill rides out alone, Leech joins him, followed by the rest of the outfit.
They are quickly pinned down.
Hannassey, acknowledgeing the truth of McKay's accusation, orders his men to stop shooting and challenges Terrill to a one-on-one showdown.
Terrill promptly agrees.
Armed with rifles, the two old men advance and kill one another.
McKay and Julie ride off to start a new life together.
<EOS>
Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson), a neophyte foreign correspondent for an Australian network, arrives in Jakarta on assignment.
He meets the close-knit members of the foreign correspondent community including journalists from the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand, diplomatic personnel, and a Chinese-Australian dwarf of high intelligence and moral seriousness, Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt).
Hamilton is initially unsuccessful because his predecessor, tired of life in Indonesia, had departed without introducing Hamilton to his contacts.
He receives limited sympathy from the journalist community, which competes for scraps of information from Sukarno's (Mike Emperio) government, the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), and the conservative Muslim military.
However, Kwan takes a liking to Hamilton and arranges interviews for him with key political figures.
Kwan introduces Hamilton to Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver), a beautiful young assistant at the British embassy.
Kwan and Bryant are close friends, and he subtly manipulates her encounters with Hamilton.
After resisting Hamilton because she's returning to the United Kingdom, Bryant falls in love with him.
Discovering that the Communist Chinese are arming the PKI, Bryant passes this information to Hamilton to save his life, but he wants to cover the Communist rebellion that will occur when the arms shipment reaches Jakarta.
Shocked, Kwan and Bryant withdraw their friendship from Hamilton, and he is left with the American journalist Pete Curtis (Michael Murphy), and his own assistant and driver Kumar (Bembol Roco), who is secretly PKI.
Kumar, however, remains loyal to Hamilton and tries to open his eyes to all that is going on.
Kwan, outraged by Sukarno's failure to meet the needs of most Indonesians, decides to hang a sign saying "Sukarno feed your people" from the Hotel Indonesia expressing his outrage but is thrown from the window by security men, and dies in Hamilton's arms.
His death is also witnessed by Jill.
Still in search of "the big story", Hamilton visits the Presidential palace after the army generals have taken over and unleashed executions, after they learned of the Communist shipment.
Struck down by an Army officer, Hamilton suffers a detached retina.
Resting alone in Kwan's bungalow, Hamilton recalls a passage from the Bhagavad Gita ("all is clouded by desire") which Billy told him.
Kumar visits him and tells him about the failed coup attempt.
Risking permanent damage to his eye, a heavily bandaged Hamilton implores Kumar to drive him to the airport, where he boards the last plane out of Jakarta and is reunited with Bryant.
<EOS>
A deadly virus released in 1996 wipes out almost all of humanity, forcing remaining survivors to live underground.
A group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is believed to be behind the release of the virus.
In 2035, James Cole (Willis) is a prisoner living in a subterranean compound beneath the ruins of Philadelphia.
Cole is selected for a mission, where he is trained and sent back in time to locate the original virus in order to help scientists develop a cure.
Meanwhile, Cole is troubled by recurring dreams involving a foot chase and an airport shooting.
Cole arrives in Baltimore in 1990, not 1996 as planned.
He is arrested, then hospitalized in a mental hospital on the diagnosis of dr Kathryn Railly (Stowe).
There he encounters Jeffrey Goines (Pitt), a mental patient with fanatical views.
After an escape attempt, Cole is sedated and locked in a cell, but he disappears moments later, and wakes up back in his own time.
Cole is interrogated by the scientists, who play a distorted voicemail message which asserts the association of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys with the virus.
He is also shown photos of numerous people suspected of being involved, including Goines.
The scientists offer Cole a second chance to complete his mission and send him back in time.
He arrives at a battlefield of World War I where he is shot in the leg, and then he is suddenly transported to 1996.
In 1996, Railly gives a lecture about the Cassandra complex to a group of scientists.
At the post-lecture book signing, dr Peters (Morse) points out to Railly that apocalypse alarmists represent the sane vision, while humanity's gradual destruction of the environment is the real lunacy.
Cole arrives at the venue after seeing flyers publicizing it, and when Railly departs, he kidnaps her and forces her to take him to Philadelphia.
They learn that Goines is the founder of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, and set out in search of him.
When they confront him, however, Goines denies any involvement with the group and says that in 1990 Cole originated the idea of wiping out humanity with a virus stolen from Goines' virologist father (Plummer).
Cole convinces himself that he is insane, but Railly confronts him with evidence of his time travel.
They decide to spend their remaining time together in the Florida Keys before the onset of the plague.
On their way to the airport, they learn that the Army of the Twelve Monkeys was not the source of the epidemic; the group's major act of protest is releasing animals from a zoo and placing Goines' father in an animal cage.
At the airport, Cole leaves a last message telling the scientists that in following the Army of the Twelve Monkeys they are on the wrong track, and that he will not return.
He is soon confronted by Jose (Seda), an acquaintance from his own time, who gives Cole a handgun and ambiguously instructs him to follow orders.
At the same time, Railly spots dr Peters, and recognizes him from a newspaper photograph as an assistant at Goines' father's virology lab.
Peters is about to embark on a tour of several cities that match the locations and sequence of the viral outbreaks.
Cole forces his way through a security checkpoint in pursuit of Peters.
After drawing the gun he was given, Cole is fatally shot by police.
As Cole lies dying in Railly's arms, she makes eye contact with a small boy—the young James Cole witnessing the scene of his own death, which will replay in his dreams for years to come.
Peters, aboard the plane with the virus, sits down next to Jones (Florence), one of the scientists from the future.
<EOS>
At a fairground in rural Northern Ireland, Provisional IRA volunteer Fergus (Stephen Rea) and a unit of other IRA members, including a woman named Jude (Miranda Richardson) and led by Maguire (Adrian Dunbar), kidnap Jody (Forest Whitaker), a black British soldier, after Jude lures him to a secluded area with the promise of sex.
The IRA demands the release of jailed IRA members, threatening to execute Jody in three days if their demands are not met.
Fergus is tasked to guard Jody and develops a bond with the prisoner, much to the chagrin of the other IRA men.
During this time, Jody tells Fergus the story of the Scorpion and the Frog.
Jody persuades Fergus to promise to seek out his girlfriend Dil (Jaye Davidson) in London should Jody be killed.
The deadline set by Jody's captors passes and with none of the IRA's demands being met, Jody is to be executed.
When Fergus takes him into the woods to carry out the sentence, Jody makes a break for it.
Fergus cannot bring himself to shoot the fleeing Jody in the back, but Jody is accidentally run over and killed by a British Saracen armoured personnel carrier as they move in to assault the IRA safe-house.
With his IRA companions seemingly dead after the attack, Fergus flees to London, where he takes a job as a day labourer, using the alias "Jimmy".
A few months later, Fergus finds Dil at a hair salon.
Later they talk in a bar, where he sees her singing "The Crying Game".
Fergus suffers from guilt about Jody's death and sees him in his dreams bowling a cricket ball to him.
He pursues Dil, protecting her from an obsessive suitor and falling in love with her.
Later, when he is about to make love to her in her apartment, he discovers that she is transgender.
His initial reaction is of revulsion.
Rushing to the bathroom to throw up, he accidentally hits Dil in the face.
A few days later, he leaves her a note and the two make up.
Despite everything, Fergus is still attracted to Dil.
Around the same time, Jude unexpectedly reappears in Fergus' apartment.
She tells him that the IRA tried and convicted him in absentia, and she forces him to agree to help with a new mission to aid in assassinating a judge.
She also mentions that she knows about Fergus and Dil, warning him that the IRA will kill her if Fergus does not co-operate.
Fergus, unable to overcome his feelings for Dil, continues to woo her.
To shield her from possible retribution, he gives her a haircut and menswear as a disguise.
The night before the IRA mission is to be carried out, Dil gets heavily drunk and Fergus escorts her to her apartment, where she asks him to stay with her.
Fergus complies, then admits he had an indirect hand in Jody's death.
Dil, drunk, appears not to understand, but in the morning, before Fergus wakes up, Dil ties him to the bed.
She unwittingly prevents Fergus from joining the other IRA members and completing the planned assassination.
Holding Fergus at gunpoint, Dil forces him to tell her that he loves her and will never leave her.
She unties him, saying that, even if he is lying, it is nice to hear his words.
Dil then breaks down in tears.
Meanwhile, Jude and Maguire gun the judge down, but Maguire is shot dead by one of the bodyguards.
A vengeful Jude enters Dil's flat with a gun, seeking to kill Fergus for missing the assassination.
Dil takes several shots at Jude, hitting her, whilst stating that she is aware that Jude was complicit in Jody's death and that Jude used her sexuality to trick him.
Dil finally kills Jude with a shot in the neck.
She then points the gun at Fergus but lowers her hand, saying that she cannot kill him, because Jody will not allow her to.
Fergus prevents Dil from shooting herself and tells her to hide out in the club for a while.
When she is gone, he wipes her fingerprints off the gun (replacing them with his own), and allows himself to be arrested in her place.
A few months later, Dil visits Fergus in prison where he is serving six years.
After discussing his post-release plans, she asks why he took the fall for her, and he responds, "As a man once said, it's in my nature".
He then tells her the story of the Scorpion and the Frog.
<EOS>
Dr.
Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist in Philadelphia, returns home one night with his wife, Anna, after having been honored for his work.
Anna tells Crowe that everything is second to his work, and that she believes he is truly gifted.
A young man then appears in their bathroom, and accuses Crowe of failing him.
Crowe recognizes him as Vincent Grey, a former patient whom he treated as a child for hallucinations.
Vincent shoots his former doctor before killing himself.
The next fall, Crowe begins working with another patient, nine-year-old Cole Sear, whose case is similar to Vincent's.
Crowe becomes dedicated to the boy, though he is haunted by doubts over his ability to help him after his failure with Vincent.
Meanwhile, he and his wife seldom, if ever, speak or do anything together.
Crowe feels he must help Cole in order to rectify his failure to help Vincent and reconcile with his wife.
Cole's mother, Lynn worries about his social stamina, especially after seeing signs of physical abuse.
Cole eventually confides his secret to Crowe: he sees ghosts, who walk around like the living unaware they are dead.
At first, Crowe thinks Cole is delusional and considers dropping his case.
Remembering Vincent, the psychologist listens to an audiotape from a session with Vincent when he was a child.
On the tape, when Crowe leaves the room, Vincent begins crying.
Turning up the volume, Crowe hears a weeping man begging for help in Spanish, and now believes that Cole is telling the truth and that Vincent may have had the same ability.
He suggests to Cole that he should try to find a purpose for his gift by communicating with the ghosts and perhaps aid them with their unfinished business.
At first, Cole is unwilling since the ghosts terrify and sometimes even threaten him, but he finally decides to attempt helping.
Cole talks to one of the ghosts, a young girl named Kyra who recently died after a chronic illness.
He goes with Crowe to her funeral reception at her home, where Kyra directs him to a box holding a videotape, which he then gives to her father.
The tape shows Kyra's mother poisoning her daughter's food.
By proving she was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, Cole has saved Kyra's younger sister, the mother's next victim.
Learning to live with the ghosts he sees, Cole begins to fit in at school and is cast as the lead in the school play, which Crowe attends.
The doctor and patient depart on positive terms and Cole suggests to Crowe that he should try speaking to Anna while she is asleep.
Later, while stuck in traffic, Cole confesses his secret to his mother, saying that someone died in an accident ahead of their traffic and he knows because the person is next to him.
Although his mother at first does not believe him, Cole proves his ability to her by talking about how his grandmother visits him.
He describes how his grandmother saw his mother in a dance performance, even though Lynn thought her mother was not there.
He further relays the answer to a question his mother privately asked at her mother's grave.
When Cole says that his grandmother feels proud of Lynn, his mother tearfully accepts the truth and they hug each other.
Crowe returns home, where he finds his wife asleep with their wedding video playing.
While still asleep, Anna asks her husband why he left her, and drops Crowe's wedding ring, which he suddenly discovers he has not been wearing.
He remembers what Cole said about ghosts and realizes that he was actually killed by Vincent and was unknowingly dead the entire time he was working with Cole.
Because of Cole's efforts, Crowe's unfinished business – rectifying his failure to understand and help Vincent – is finally complete.
Crowe fulfills the second reason he returned: to tell his wife she was never second, and that he loves her.
His goal complete, he is free to leave the world of the living.
<EOS>
In 1947 Portland, Maine, banker Andy Dufresne is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, and is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at the Shawshank State Penitentiary.
Andy is befriended by contraband smuggler, Ellis "Red" Redding, an inmate serving a life sentence.
Red procures a rock hammer and later a large poster of Rita Hayworth for Andy.
Working in the prison laundry, Andy is regularly assaulted by "the Sisters" and their leader, Bogs.
In 1949, Andy overhears the captain of the guards, Byron Hadley, complaining about being taxed on an inheritance, and offers to help him legally shelter the money.
After an assault by the Sisters nearly kills Andy, Hadley beats Bogs severely.
Bogs is then transferred to another prison.
Warden Samuel Norton meets Andy and reassigns him to the prison library to assist elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen.
Andy's new job is a pretext for him to begin managing financial matters for the prison employees.
As time passes, the Warden begins using Andy to handle matters for a variety of people, including guards from other prisons and the warden himself.
Andy begins writing weekly letters asking the state government for funds to improve the decaying library.
In 1954, Brooks is paroled, but cannot adjust to the outside world after fifty years in prison, and commits suicide by hanging himself.
Andy receives a library donation that includes a recording of The Marriage of Figaro.
He plays an excerpt over the public address system, resulting in him receiving solitary confinement.
After his release from solitary, Andy explains that hope is what gets him through his time, a concept that Red dismisses.
In 1963, Norton begins exploiting prison labor for public works, profiting by undercutting skilled labor costs and receiving bribes.
He has Andy launder the money using the alias Randall Stephens.
In 1965, Tommy Williams is incarcerated for burglary.
He is befriended by Andy and Red, and Andy helps him pass his GED exam.
In 1966, Tommy reveals to Red and Andy that an inmate at another prison claimed responsibility for the murders for which Andy was convicted.
Andy approaches Norton with this information, but he refuses to listen and sends Andy back to solitary confinement when he mentions the money laundering.
Norton has Hadley murder Tommy under the guise of an escape attempt.
Andy declines to continue the laundering, but relents after Norton threatens to burn the library, remove Andy's protection from the guards, and move him to worse conditions.
Andy is released from solitary confinement after two months, and tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican coastal town.
Red feels Andy is being unrealistic, but promises Andy that if he is ever released, he will visit a specific hayfield near Buxton, Maine, and retrieve a package Andy buried there.
He worries about Andy's well-being, especially when he learns Andy asked another inmate to supply him with of rope.
The next day at roll call, the guards find Andy's cell empty.
An irate Norton throws a rock at the poster of Raquel Welch hanging on the cell wall, revealing a tunnel that Andy dug with his rock hammer over the last 19 years.
The previous night, Andy escaped through the tunnel and prison sewage pipe, using the rope to bring with him Norton's suit, shoes, and the ledger containing details of the money laundering.
While guards search for him, Andy poses as Randall Stephens and visits several banks to withdraw the laundered money, then mails the ledger and evidence of the corruption and murders at Shawshank to a local newspaper.
FBI agents arrive at Shawshank and take Hadley into custody, while Norton commits suicide by shooting himself to avoid his arrest.
After serving forty years, Red is finally paroled.
He struggles to adapt to life outside prison and fears he never will.
Remembering his promise to Andy, he visits Buxton and finds a cache containing money and a letter asking him to come to Zihuatanejo.
Red violates his parole and travels to Fort Hancock, Texas to cross the border to Mexico, admitting he finally feels hope.
On a beach in Zihuatanejo he finds Andy, and the two friends are happily reunited.
<EOS>
The story is presented as a first-person narrative using an unreliable narrator.
He is a condemned man at the outset of the story.
The narrator tells us that from an early age he has loved animals.
He and his wife have many pets, including a large, beautiful black cat (as described by the narrator) named Pluto.
This cat is especially fond of the narrator and vice versa.
Their mutual friendship lasts for several years, until the narrator becomes an alcoholic.
One night, after coming home completely intoxicated, he believes the cat to be avoiding him.
When he tries to seize it, the panicked cat bites the narrator, and in a fit of rage, he seizes the animal, pulls a pen-knife from his pocket, and deliberately gouges out the cat's eye.
From that moment onward, the cat flees in terror at his master's approach.
At first, the narrator is remorseful and regrets his cruelty.
"But this feeling soon gave place to irritation.
And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of perverseness".
He takes the cat out in the garden one morning and ties a noose around its neck, hanging it from a tree where it dies.
That very night, his house mysteriously catches fire, forcing the narrator, his wife and their servant to flee the premises.
The next day, the narrator returns to the ruins of his home to find, imprinted on the single wall that survived the fire, the apparition of a gigantic cat, with a rope around the animal's neck.
At first, this image deeply disturbs the narrator, but gradually he determines a logical explanation for it, that someone outside had cut the cat from the tree and thrown the dead creature into the bedroom to wake him during the fire.
The narrator begins to miss Pluto, feeling guilty.
Some time later, he finds a similar cat in a tavern.
It is the same size and color as the original and is even missing an eye.
The only difference is a large white patch on the animal's chest.
The narrator takes it home, but soon begins to loathe, even fear the creature.
After a time, the white patch of fur begins to take shape and, to the narrator, forms the shape of the gallows.
This terrifies and angers him more, and he avoids the cat whenever possible.
Then, one day when the narrator and his wife are visiting the cellar in their new home, the cat gets under its master's feet and nearly trips him down the stairs.
Enraged, the man grabs an axe and tries to kill the cat but is stopped by his wife- whom, out of fury, he kills instead.
To conceal her body he removes bricks from a protrusion in the wall, places her body there, and repairs the hole.
A few days later, when the police show up at the house to investigate the wife's disappearance, they find nothing and the narrator goes free.
The cat, which he intended to kill as well, has also gone missing.
This grants him the freedom to sleep, even with the burden of murder.
On the last day of the investigation, the narrator accompanies the police into the cellar.
They still find nothing significant.
Then, completely confident in his own safety, the narrator comments on the sturdiness of the building and raps upon the wall he had built around his wife's body.
A loud, inhuman wailing sound fills the room.
The alarmed police tear down the wall and find the wife's corpse, and on its rotting head, to the utter horror of the narrator, is the screeching black cat.
As he words it: "I had walled the monster up within the tomb.
".
<EOS>
The Terrorist focuses on a 19-year-old woman named Malli, who joined a terrorist organization at a very young age after her brother was killed in the cause.
She eventually volunteers herself to become a suicide bomber in an assassination mission.
As the plot moves forward, she discovers the importance of human life, after realizing she is pregnant.
This causes Malli to question her determination to complete the mission.
<EOS>
The narrator inexplicably finds himself in a grim and joyless city, the "grey town", which is either Hell or Purgatory depending on how long one stays there.
He eventually finds a bus for those who desire an excursion to some other place (and which eventually turns out to be the foothills of Heaven).
He enters the bus and converses with his fellow passengers as they travel.
When the bus reaches its destination, the passengers on the bus — including the narrator — are gradually revealed to be ghosts.
Although the country is the most beautiful they have ever seen, every feature of the landscape (including streams of water and blades of grass) is unyieldingly solid compared to themselves: it causes them immense pain to walk on the grass, and even a single leaf is far too heavy for any to lift.
Shining figures, men and women whom they have known on Earth, come to meet them, and to urge them to repent and enter Heaven proper.
They promise that as the ghosts travel onward and upward, they will become more solid and thus feel less and less discomfort.
These figures, called "spirits" to distinguish them from the ghosts, offer to assist them in the journey toward the mountains and the sunrise.
Almost all of the ghosts choose to return instead to the grey town, giving various reasons and excuses.
Much of the interest of the book lies in the recognition it awakens of the plausibility and familiarity, along with the thinness and self-deception, of the excuses that the ghosts refuse to abandon, even though to do so would bring them to "reality" and "joy forevermore".
An artist refuses, arguing that he must preserve the reputation of his school of painting; a bitter cynic predicts that Heaven is a trick; a bully ("Big Man") is offended that people he believes beneath him are there; a nagging wife is angry that she will not be allowed to dominate her husband in Heaven.
One man corrupted on Earth by lust, which takes the form of an ugly lizard, permits an angel to kill the lizard and is saved.
The narrator is met by the writer George MacDonald, whom he hails as his mentor, just as Dante did when encountering Virgil in the Divine Comedy; and MacDonald becomes the narrator's guide in his journey, just as Virgil became Dante's.
MacDonald explains that it is possible for a soul to choose to remain in Heaven despite having been in the grey town; for such souls, the goodness of Heaven will work backwards into their lives, turning even their worst sorrows into joy, and changing their experience on Earth to an extension of Heaven.
Conversely, the evil of Hell works so that if a soul remains in, or returns to, the grey town, even its happiness on Earth will lose its meaning, and its experience on Earth would have been Hell.
Few of the ghosts realize that the grey town is, in fact, Hell.
Indeed, it is not that much different from the life they led on Earth: joyless, friendless and uncomfortable.
It just goes on forever, and gets worse and worse, with some characters whispering their fear of the "night" that is eventually to come.
According to MacDonald, while it is possible to leave Hell and enter Heaven, doing so implies turning away (repentance); or as depicted by Lewis, embracing ultimate and unceasing joy itself.
In answer to the narrator's question, MacDonald confirms that what is going on is a dream.
The use of chess imagery as well as the correspondence of dream elements to elements in the narrator's waking life is reminiscent of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
The narrator discovers that the vast grey town and its ghostly inhabitants are minuscule to the point of being invisible compared with the immensity of Heaven and reality.
This is illustrated in the encounter of the blessed woman and her husband: she is surrounded by gleaming attendants while he shrinks down to invisibility as he uses a collared tragedian&nbsp;— representative of his self-punishing emotional blackmail of others&nbsp;— to speak for him.
Toward the end, the narrator expresses the terror and agony of remaining a ghost in the advent of full daybreak in Heaven, comparing the weight of sunlight to having large blocks fall on one's body (at this point falling books awaken him).
This parallels that of the man with his dream of judgment day in the House of the Interpreter of The Pilgrim's Progress.
The book ends with the narrator awakening from his dream of Heaven into the unpleasant reality of wartime Britain, in conscious imitation of The Pilgrim's Progress, the last sentence of the "First Part" of which is: "So I awoke, and behold, it was a Dream".
<EOS>
The Screwtape Letters comprises 31 letters written by a senior demon named Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood (named after a star in Revelation), a younger and less experienced demon, charged with guiding a man (called "the patient") toward "Our Father Below" (Devil / Satan) from "the Enemy" (God).
After the second letter, the Patient converts to Christianity, and Wormwood is chastised for allowing this.
A striking contrast is formed between Wormwood and Screwtape during the rest of the book, wherein Wormwood is depicted through Screwtape's letters as anxious to tempt his patient into extravagantly wicked and deplorable sins, often recklessly, while Screwtape takes a more subtle stance, as in Letter XII wherein he remarks: ".
&nbsp;the safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts".
In Letter VIII, Screwtape explains to his protégé the different purposes that God and the devils have for the human race: "We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons".
With this end in mind, Screwtape urges Wormwood in Letter VI to promote passivity and irresponsibility in the Patient: "(God) wants men to be concerned with what they do; our business is to keep them thinking about what will happen to them".
With his own views on theology, Lewis goes on to describe and discuss sex, love, pride, gluttony, and war in successive letters.
Lewis, an Oxford and Cambridge scholar himself, suggests in his work that even intellectuals are not impervious to the influence of such demons, especially during complacent acceptance of the "Historical Point of View" (Letter XXVII).
In Letter XXII, after several attempts to find a licentious woman for the Patient "to promote a useful marriage", and after Screwtape's receiving a painful punishment for having divulged to Wormwood God's genuine love for humanity (which Wormwood informed the Infernal authorities about), Screwtape notes that the Patient has fallen in love with a Christian girl and through her and her family a very Christian way of life.
Toward the end of this letter, in his anger Screwtape becomes a large centipede, mimicking a similar transformation in Book X of Paradise Lost, wherein the demons are changed into snakes.
Later in the correspondence, it is revealed that the young man may be placed in harm's way by his possibly Civil defense duties (it is stated in an earlier letter that he is eligible for military service, but it is never actually confirmed that he was indeed called up).
While Wormwood is delighted at this and by the war in general, Screwtape admonishes Wormwood to keep the Patient safe, in hopes that they can compromise his faith over a long lifetime.
In the last letter, the Patient has been killed during a World War II air raid and has gone to Heaven, and for his ultimate failure Wormwood is doomed to suffer the consumption of his spiritual essence by the other demons, especially by Screwtape himself.
Screwtape responds to Wormwood's final letter that he may expect as little assistance as Screwtape would expect from Wormwood were their situations reversed ("My love for you and your love for me are as alike as two peas&nbsp;.
The only difference is that I am the stronger".
), mimicking the situation where Wormwood himself informed on his uncle to the Infernal Police for Infernal Heresy (making a religiously positive remark that would offend Satan).
<EOS>
The unnamed narrator is brought to trial before sinister judges of the Spanish Inquisition.
Poe provides no explanation of why he is there or of the charges on which he is being tried.
Before him are seven tall white candles on a table, and, as they burn down, his hopes of survival also diminish.
He is condemned to death, whereupon he faints and later awakens to find himself in a totally dark room.
At first the prisoner thinks that he is locked in a tomb, but then he discovers that he is in a cell.
He decides to explore the cell by placing a scrap of his robe against the wall so that he can count the paces around the room, but he faints before he can measure the whole perimeter.
When he reawakens, he discovers food and water nearby.
He tries to measure the cell again, and finds that the perimeter measures one hundred steps.
While crossing the room, he trips on the hem of his robe and falls, his chin landing at the edge of a deep pit.
He realizes that had he not tripped, he would have fallen into this pit.
After losing consciousness again, the narrator discovers that the prison is slightly illuminated and that he is strapped to a wooden frame on his back, facing the ceiling.
Above him is a picture of Father Time, with a razor-sharp pendulum measuring "one foot from horn to horn" suspended from it.
The pendulum is swinging back and forth and slowly descending, designed to kill the narrator eventually.
However, he is able to attract rats to him by smearing his bonds with the meat left for him to eat.
The rats chew through the straps, and he slips free just before the pendulum can begin to slice into his chest.
The pendulum is withdrawn into the ceiling, and the walls become red-hot and start to move inwards, forcing him slowly toward the center of the room and the pit.
As he loses his last foothold and begins to topple in, he hears a roar of voices and trumpets, the walls retract, and an arm pulls him to safety.
The French Army has captured the city of Toledo and the Inquisition has fallen into its enemies' hands.
<EOS>
During the Cold War, Marko Alexandrovich Ramius, a Lithuanian submarine commander in the Soviet Navy, intends to defect to the United States with his officers on board the experimental nuclear submarine Red October, a Typhoon-class vessel equipped with a revolutionary stealth propulsion system that makes audio detection by passive sonar extremely difficult.
The result is a strategic weapon platform that is capable of sneaking its way into American waters and launching nuclear missiles with little or no warning.
The strategic value of Red October was not lost upon Ramius, but other factors have spurred his decision to defect.
His wife, Natalia, died at the hands of a doctor who was incompetent and intoxicated; however, the doctor escaped punishment because he was the son of a Politburo member.
Natalia's untimely death, combined with Ramius's long-standing dissatisfaction with the callousness of Soviet rule and his fear of Red October's destabilizing effect on world affairs, exhausts his tolerance for the failings of the Soviet system.
As the ship leaves the shipyard at Polyarny, Ramius kills Ivan Putin, his political officer, to ensure that Putin will not interfere with the defection.
Before sailing, Ramius had sent a letter to Admiral Yuri Padorin, Natalia's uncle, brazenly stating his intention to defect.
The Soviet Northern Fleet therefore sails out to sink Red October under the pretext of a search and rescue mission.
Meanwhile, Jack Ryan, a high-level CIA analyst and a former Marine, flies from London to Langley, Virginia, to deliver MI6's photographs of Red October to the Deputy Director of Intelligence.
Ryan consults a friend at theS.
Naval Academy, ex-submariner Skip Tyler, and finds out that Red October's new construction variations house its stealth drive.
Red October passes near USS Dallas, a Los Angeles class submarine under the command of Cdr.
Bart Mancuso, which is patrolling the entrance of a route used by Soviet submarines in the Reykjanes Ridge off Iceland.
Dallas hears the sound of the stealth drive but does not identify it as a submarine.
Putting information about Ramius's letter together with the subsequent launch of the entire Northern Fleet, Ryan deduces Ramius's plans.
TheS.
military reluctantly agrees, while planning for contingencies in case the Soviet fleet has intentions other than those inferred.
As tensions rise between theS.
and Soviet fleets, the crew of Dallas analyzes sonar tapes of Red October and finally realizes that it is the sound of a new propulsion system.
Ryan must contact Ramius to prevent the loss of the submarine and her revolutionary technology.
After it is revealed that Ramius has informed Moscow of his plan for him and his officers to defect, Ryan becomes responsible for shepherding Ramius and his vessel away from the pursuing Soviet fleet, and meets with an old Royal Navy acquaintance, Admiral White, commanding a task force from the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible.
In order to convince the Soviets that Red October has been destroyed, theS.
Navy rescues her crew after Ramius fakes a reactor meltdown.
Ramius and his officers stay behind, claiming they are about to scuttle the submarine to prevent it getting into the hands of the Americans.
A decommissionedS.
ballistic missile submarine, the USS Ethan Allen, is blown up underwater as a deception.
A depth gauge taken from the main instrument panel of Red October (with the appropriate serial number) is made to appear as if it had been salvaged from the wreckage.
Meanwhile, Ryan, Captain Mancuso, some of his crew, and Owen Williams (a Russian-speaking British officer from Invincible) board Red October and meet Ramius face-to-face.
The deception efforts succeed in convincing Soviet observers that Red October has been lost.
However, GRU intelligence officer Igor Loginov, masquerading as Red October's cook, is aware of what Ramius is doing and attempts to ignite a missile's rocket motor inside a launch tube so as to destroy Red October.
Loginov opens fire with his weapon, killing Captain Lieutenant Kamarov (the ship's navigator) and seriously wounding Ramius and Williams.
Ryan attempts to persuade the fiercely patriotic Loginov to surrender rather than die in the explosion, but Loginov refuses.
Ryan manages to kill Loginov in the submarine's missile compartment.
Captain Viktor Tupolov, a former student of Ramius and commander of the Soviet Alfa-class attack submarine Konovalov, has been trailing what he initially believes is an vessel.
Based on acoustic information, Tupolev realizes that it is Red October, and proceeds to pursue and engage it.
The twoS.
submarines escorting Red October are prevented from firing by rules of engagement, and Red October is damaged by a torpedo from the Alfa.
After a tense standoff, Red October rams Konovalov broadside and sinks it.
The Americans escort Red October safely into dry dock in Norfolk, Virginia, where Ramius and his crew are taken to a CIA safehouse to begin their Americanization.
Ryan is commended by his superiors and flies back to his posting in London.
<EOS>
CIA analyst Jack Ryan attends a diplomatic conference in Moscow as part of an American delegation to the Soviet Union.
He learns that the CIA's most highly placed agent, codenamed "CARDINAL", is none other than Colonel Mikhail Semyonovich Filitov, the personal aide to the Soviet Minister of Defense and a national war hero.
Filitov was recruited by GRU colonel and British agent Oleg Penkovsky, and offered his services to the CIA after the deaths of his wife and two sons; the latter two were killed during their service in the Red Army.
As a result, Filitov has been passing political, technical, and military intelligence to the CIA for the past thirty years.
TheS.
discovers through "National Technical Means" that the Soviets are working on an ABM defense system codenamed "Bright Star", based at Dushanbe in Tajikistan.
Emilio Ortiz, a CIA liaison, is sent to aid Mujaheddin rebels in the region.
One rebel leader, known as "the Archer" due to his expertise in using surface-to-air missiles to bring down Soviet ground support aircraft, is questioned after unwittingly witnessing a test of the Soviets' ABM system.
The Archer determines that the Soviet installation is a threat to him and his people, and tasks his group with attacking and pillaging the facility.
In the end, the guerrillas destroy a large amount of Soviet equipment.
However, the rebels suffer horrendous losses, including the death of the Archer.
Ryan travels to New Mexico to meet with the country's top SDI researcher,S.
Army Major Alan Gregory, whom he brings to Washington,C, to brief the president.
Gregory lives with another scientist, Candi Long, who is working on adaptive optics for use in the development of laser weaponry.
A lesbian KGB agent, Bea Taussig&mdash;who has unluckily fallen in love with Long&mdash;describes Gregory and his work to her KGB handler, Tanya Bisyarina.
The KGB launches a plan to kidnap and debrief Gregory.
Filitov is arrested after his work for the CIA is discovered.
However, Ryan concocts a plan to both secure the return of Filitov and arrange the defection of the sitting KGB chairman, Nikolay Borissovich Gerasimov.
Gerasimov is angling to take over as General Secretary in the wake of Filitov's arrest, something Ryan is determined to prevent because of his unyielding anti-American ideology.
Ryan schemes to go public with the prior capture of the Soviet submarine Red October, banking on the political instability of the Soviet Politburo.
He plans for Filitov and Gerasimov to be exfiltrated on the American delegation's aircraft, while Gerasimov's family is extracted from Estonia by John Clark onto the submarine.
He reveals this in a private meeting with Gerasimov, forcing the KGB chairman's hand.
On Gerasimov's orders, three KGB officers kidnap Gregory and hold him in a shabby desert safe house, planning to send him to Moscow for debriefing as counter-leverage should he refuse to defect and Ryan reveal the intelligence windfall, along with the nuclear missiles theS.
received when the Red October crew defected.
Their plans are foiled when the FBI sends in the Hostage Rescue Team to retrieve Gregory and return him to Long.
Among those killed is Bisyarina.
Ryan informs Gerasimov of the failed operation, forcing the enraged chairman to accept Ryan's defection offer.
Taussig is arrested when she attempts to seduce Long after Gregory is reported kidnapped, though she'd originally only wanted to comfort her.
The flipped Gerasimov fetches Filitov from his confinement.
The three make their way to Sheremetyevo Airport, awaiting the departure of the American delegation.
Unfortunately, two KGB officers, Klementi Vladimirovich Vatutin, the KGB officer who had been interrogating Filitov and finally extracted a confession from him, and Sergey Nikolayevch Golovko, who would become an old, somewhat friendly acquaintance of Ryan's over the years, become aware of their planned departure.
As Gerasimov and Filitov escape, Ryan allows himself to be captured by Golovko, banking on his diplomatic status to protect him from harm.
Golovko then escorts Ryan to the private dacha of General Secretary Narmonov, where the two men discuss the CIA's interest in his political position and the CIA's interference in their internal security.
Ryan returns to the United States, where he and several others attend the funeral of Filitov, who had died of heart disease in the months following his CIA debriefing period.
Filitov is buried at Camp David, within twenty miles of the Antietam battlefield.
A Soviet military attaché attending the funeral questions why Filitov would be buried so close to American soldiers.
Ryan, always working to keep the peace, explains to him, "One way or another, we all fight for what we believe in.
Doesn't that give us some common ground.
".
<EOS>
In New York City, Japanese industrialist Raizo Yamata purchases a controlling interest in an American mutual fund group.
He flies to Saipan and visits Banzai Cliff&nbsp;— the site of his parents' suicide during the American invasion of the island at the close of World War II&nbsp;— to buy a large tract of land.
Meanwhile, in eastern Tennessee, a car accident involving two Japanese-made vehicles leads to the deaths of six people.
Revelations about manufacturing and shipping errors that led to the deaths stir long-standing resentment against Japan's protectionist trade policies.
As trade negotiations between the United States and Japan grind to a halt, Congress passes a law enabling theS.
to mirror the trade practices of the countries from which it imports goods.
The bill is immediately used to reciprocate Japan's non-tariff barriers, cutting off theS.
export markets upon which the Japanese economy depends.
Facing an economic crisis, Japan's ruling corporate cabal, led by Yamata, decides to take military action against theS.
Along with covert support from China and India, they plot to curtail the American presence in the Pacific and re-establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
In the wake of these developments, Jack Ryan is recruited as National Security Advisor by President Roger Durling.
Meanwhile, CIA officers John Clark and Domingo Chavez are sent to Japan to reactivate a former KGB commercial spy network (codename THISTLE) in order to gain intelligence.
Meanwhile, Japan has covertly developed nuclear weapons and with SS-18 designs bought from USSR has fabricated and deployed several ICBMs.
Japan launches the first phase of its assault, sending Self-Defense Force units to occupy the Mariana Islands, specifically Saipan and Guam.
The invasion, with the troops transported by commercial airliners, is virtually bloodless.
Meanwhile, during a joint military exercise, Japanese ships "accidentally" launch torpedoes at theS.
Pacific Fleet, destroying two submarines and crippling two aircraft carriers, the Enterprise and the John Stennis.
As a result, theS.
capability to project power into the western Pacific is drastically reduced.
An immediate retaliation is forestalled by the second phase of the Japanese offensive: an economic attack.
Even as the military offensive begins, Japan engineers the collapse of theS.
stock market by hiring a programmer who is a consultant for an exchange firm to insert a logic bomb into the system, which when triggered blocks the storage of all trade records made after noon on Friday.
The Japanese also assassinate the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
With a massive economic crisis and subsequent mass panic, the Japanese hope that America will be too distracted to quickly respond to Japan's military actions.
Japan immediately sues for peace, offering international talks and seemingly free elections in the Marianas to delay aS.
response.
Negotiators secretly reveal to theS.
that Japan has obtained nuclear ballistic missile capability.
The Japanese oligarchs, led by Yamata, believe that offers of negotiation and the nuclear deterrent, defended by a seemingly impregnable AWACS system; modified Boeing E-767 Kami, will cause theS.
to concede Japan's advantage.
With two of America's twelve carriers disabled, and the rest pinned down by a mix of maintenance and international crises elsewhere, Ryan has few resources with which to defend American interests.
Despite his typical focus on military issues, Ryan advises President Durling to deal with the economic crisis first.
Ryan also realizes that Japan's deletion of trade records could be an advantage in responding to the economic threat.
He engineers a "do-over", where all of the transactions that were deleted on the day of the mass deletion are ignored and all trade information is restored to its condition at noon of that day.
Accompanied by a presidential address to the nation and behind-the-scenes bullying of investment banks, the plan is a success: America's stock market is restored with only minor disruption.
Concurrently, a group of American investment banks start a massive economic unloading of Japanese investment products, effectively eliminating any gains made by the Zaibatsu.
The United States eliminates Japan's AWACS system through a series of "accidents" and low-profile military attacks using widely dispersedS.
assets, allowing B-2 bombers to destroy the ICBM silos.
In one staged accident, Clark and Chavez blind two incoming Japanese AWACS pilots with a high-intensity light and cause them to crash on landing.
A fictitious technical warning of a problem with the automatic landing system was used to create the impression that the attack was an accident.
They then managed to rescue Japan's moderate former prime minister Koga from his house arrest so that he could be used in later peace talks.
The Air Force uses an attack by stealthy F-22 fighters to further damage Japan's air defenses.
An Army special operations team is airdropped into Japan to support covertly inserted Comanche helicopters.
One helicopter is used to attack another AWACS plane with air-to-air missiles while several others use Hellfire missiles to kill members of Yamata's cabal.
Meanwhile, Admiral Robby Jackson liberates the Marianas with little bloodshed by using a combination of cruise missiles and carrier air attacks to severely damage the Japanese aircraft stationed on the islands which forces the Japanese commander to surrender his troops.
The damaged John Stennis been stealthily removed from Pearl Harbor while it was supposedly under repair for damage to the propellers.
However, the damaged carrier had two workable shafts which gave it enough speed for air operations so it was pressed into emergency service for the attack.
Outmaneuvered and cornered by the United States military and economic response, Japan's aggressive prime minister Hiroshi Goto resigns, ceding power to his rescued predecessor Koga.
Yamata is arrested, and the new Japanese government accepts America's generous offer of status quo ante.
Throughout the book, President Durling faces another, less important political crisis: Vice-President Ed Kealty is forced to resign after being accused of drugging and raping a former member of his staff.
With the crisis over, President Durling nominates Ryan as vice-president for his services during the crisis.
However, an embittered Japan Air Lines pilot—driven mad by the deaths of his son and brother during the conflict—flies his Boeing 747 directly into theS.
Capitol during a special joint session of Congress.
The president, as well as nearly the entire Congress, the Supreme Court, and many other members of the Federal Government are killed in the attack.
Ryan, who had been confirmed as vice-president moments before, is exiting the Capitol Building through a tunnel and narrowly escapes the explosion.
He first realizes that he is suddenly the new President of the United States when his Secret Service agent Andrea Price addresses him as "Mr President".
He takes the oath of office and begins an uncertain term as President.
<EOS>
In Antarctica, a Norwegian helicopter pursues an Alaskan Malamute to an American research station.
Upon landing, a Norwegian accidentally drops a thermite charge, destroying the helicopter.
The surviving Norwegian pursues the dog, firing a rifle, until he is shot dead by Garry, the station commander.
The Americans send a helicopter pilot, MacReady, and dr Copper to the Norwegian camp for answers, but they find only a charred ruin containing corpses.
Outside, they discover the burned remains of a humanoid corpse with two faces, which they bring back along with some video tapes.
Their biologist, Blair, performs an autopsy on the corpse, finding a normal set of human internal organs.
Clark kennels the Malamute with the station's sled dogs; it soon metamorphoses and attacks them.
When he hears the commotion, MacReady pulls the fire alarm, and Childs incinerates the creature.
Blair performs another autopsy which leads him to believe the creature perfectly imitates other organisms.
The Norwegians' records lead the Americans to a buried flying saucer that the station's geologist, Norris, hypothesizes is likely over 100,000 years old.
Blair becomes increasingly paranoid and withdraws, calculating that if the alien escapes to a civilized area, all life on Earth will be assimilated within a few years.
Fuchs tells MacReady that he is worried about Blair, and according to Blair's journal, the creature's "dead" remains are still active on a cellular level.
The camp enacts safety measures designed to reduce risk of assimilation.
The creature assimilates Bennings, but Windows catches him outside before his metamorphosis is complete and MacReady burns the creature before it can escape.
They discover Blair has wrecked all the transports and killed the remaining sled dogs.
The team subdue Blair as he is destroying the radio and lock him in an isolated tool shed.
Copper recommends a blood-serum test to determine who is assimilated, but the paranoid men turn on each other when they find the blood stores have been sabotaged.
MacReady takes charge and orders Fuchs to continue Blair's work, but Fuchs disappears; MacReady, Windows, and Nauls find his burnt corpse outside.
Windows returns to warn the others while MacReady and Nauls investigate further.
On the way back, Nauls cuts MacReady loose from the tow line, assuming that he has been assimilated when he finds a torn shirt with MacReady's name on it.
As the team debate MacReady's fate, he breaks in and threatens to destroy the station with a bundle of dynamite if they attack him.
Norris appears to suffer a heart attack after he and Nauls unsuccessfully attack MacReady from behind.
When Copper attempts to revive him, Norris transforms and kills Copper.
MacReady incinerates the creature and orders Windows to tie up everyone for a new test.
Clark attacks MacReady, but is killed.
MacReady explains his theory that every piece of the alien is an individual organism with its own survival instinct.
One by one, MacReady tests everyone's blood with a heated piece of copper wire.
Everyone is still human except Palmer, whose blood flees from the hot wire.
Exposed, Palmer transforms and infects Windows, forcing MacReady to burn them both.
Leaving Childs on guard, the others head out to test Blair, only to find that he has tunneled out of the tool shed.
They realize that Blair is assimilated and has been scavenging equipment to build a small escape craft.
Discovering that Childs is missing and the station's power generator is destroyed, MacReady speculates that the Thing now intends to hibernate until a rescue team arrives.
MacReady, Garry, and Nauls decide to dynamite the complex, hoping to destroy the Thing.
As they set the explosives, Blair kills Garry and Nauls disappears.
Blair transforms into a much larger monster and attacks, destroying the detonator, but MacReady still triggers the blast with a stick of dynamite, destroying the base.
MacReady sits nearby as the camp burns, and Childs reappears, claiming he was lost in the storm, pursuing Blair.
Exhausted and with no hope of survival, they acknowledge the futility of their distrust and share a bottle of scotch.
<EOS>
A Malthusian catastrophe on Earth has been averted by the invention of teleportation, called the "Ramsbotham jump", which is used to send Earth's excess population to colonize other planets.
However, the costs of operating the device mean that the colonies are isolated from Earth until they can produce something to justify two-way trade.
Because modern technology requires a supporting infrastructure, more primitive methods are employed — for example, horses instead of tractors.
Rod Walker is a high school student who dreams of becoming a professional colonist.
The final test of his Advanced Survival class is to stay alive on an unfamiliar planet for between two and ten days.
Students may team up and equip themselves with whatever gear they can carry, but are otherwise completely on their own.
They are told only that the challenges are neither insurmountable nor unreasonable.
On test day, each student walks through the Ramsbotham portal and finds him or herself alone on a strange planet, though reasonably close to the pickup point.
Rod, acting on his older sister's advice, takes hunting knives and basic survival gear rather than high-tech weaponry, on the grounds that the latter could make him over-confident.
The last advice the students receive is to "watch out for stobor".
On the second day, Rod is ambushed and knocked unconscious by a thief.
When he wakes up, all he has left is a spare knife hidden under a bandage.
In his desperate concentration on survival, he loses track of time.
Eventually he teams up with Jacqueline "Jack" Daudet, a student from another class whom he initially mistakes for a male.
When she tells him that more than ten days have elapsed without contact, he realizes that they are stranded.
They start recruiting others for the long haul and Rod becomes the de facto leader of a community that eventually grows to around 75 people.
Rod has no taste for politics or administration, and is happy to have Grant Cowper, an older college student and born politician, elected mayor.
Grant proves to be much better at talking than getting things done.
Despite disagreeing with many of Grant's policies, Rod supports him.
Grant ignores Rod's warning that they are living in a dangerously hard-to-defend location and that they should move to a cave system he has found.
When a species previously thought harmless suddenly changes its behavior and stampedes through their camp, the settlement is devastated and Grant is killed.
Rod is put back in charge.
Heinlein tracks the social development of this community of educated Westerners deprived of technology, followed by its abrupt dissolution when contact with Earth is reestablished.
After nearly two years of isolation, the culture shock experienced by the survivors highlights for them and the reader the pain and uncertainty of becoming an adult, by reversing the process abruptly—Each of the students goes from being a self-responsible member of an autonomous community back to being regarded as a youth.
All of the students go back willingly except for Rod, who has great difficulty reverting from the status of head of a small, but sovereign state to a teenager casually brushed aside by the adult rescuers.
However, his teacher (and now brother-in-law) and his sister persuade him to change his mind.
His teacher also informs Rod that his warning against "stobor" ("robots" spelled backwards) was just a way of personalizing the dangers of an unknown planet - to instill fear and caution in the students.
Years later, Rod is briefly depicted accomplishing his heart's desire; the novel's ending finds him preparing to lead a formal colonization party to another planet.
<EOS>
The programme takes place in a grassy, floral landscape populated by rabbits with bird calls audible in the background.
The main shelter of the four Teletubbies is an earth house known as the "Tubbytronic Superdome" implanted in the ground and accessed through a hole at the top or an especially large semicircular door at the dome's foot.
The creatures co-exist with a number of strange contraptions such as the Noo-noo, the group's anthropomorphic blue vacuum cleaner, and the Voice Trumpets.
The show's colourful, psychedelic setting was designed specifically to appeal to the attention spans of infants and unlock different sections of the mind while also educating young children of transitions that can be expected in life.
An assortment of rituals are performed throughout the course of every episode, such as the playful interactions between the Teletubbies and the Voice Trumpets, the mishaps caused by the Noo-noo, the footage of live children displayed on the screens in the Teletubbies' stomachs, and the magical event that occurs once per episode.
The event differs each time; it is often caused inexplicably and is frequently strange yet whimsical.
Each episode is closed by the Voice Trumpets and the narrator to the disappointed, reluctant, but eventually obedient Teletubbies, who bid the viewer farewell as they disappear into the Tubbytronic Superdome yet again.
<EOS>
The series focuses on the heroine, Hitomi Kanzaki, and her adventures after she is transported to the world of Gaea, a mysterious planet where she can see Earth and its moon in the sky.
On Gaea, Earth is known as the Mystic Moon.
Hitomi's latent psychic powers are enhanced on Gaea and she quickly becomes embroiled in the conflicts between the Zaibach Empire and the several peaceful countries that surround it.
The conflicts are brought about by the Zaibach Empire's quest to revive the legendary power from the ancient city of Atlantis.
As the series progresses, many of the characters' pasts and motivations, as well as the history of Atlantis and the true nature of the planet Gaea, are revealed.
<EOS>
After planning and coordinating another successful wedding ceremony, San Francisco wedding planner Mary (Jennifer Lopez) is re-introduced to childhood acquaintance Massimo (Justin Chambers) by her father (Alex Rocco) who wants the two of them to marry.
Mary, however, is not impressed and instead remains focused on her ambition to become a partner at the wedding company she works for.
As a way to persuade her boss, Geri (Kathy Najimy), to accept her as a partner, Mary pursues and is hired by catering heiress, Fran Donolly (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras) to plan her society wedding to long term boyfriend 'Eddie.
' While on the phone reporting her success Mary's shoe heel gets stuck in a manhole cover.
While she attempts to free herself a taxi collides with a dumpster and it comes hurtling towards her.
A man standing nearby rushes in and pulls her away just before the dumpster crashes.
Mary manages to thank the man before fainting.
She later wakes up in hospital and the man who saved her is revealed to be the local pediatrician, Steve Edison (Matthew McConaughey).
When Mary's friend and colleague Penny (Judy Greer) arrives she persuades Steve to attend an outdoor movie screening with them at the park, only to make up an excuse to leave the pair alone.
At the movie Mary and Steve dance but as they are about to kiss a heavy downpour forces them to run for cover.
A few days later Mary and Fran are at another of Mary’s weddings and Fran teases her for her dreamy look before Mary tells her about her movie date.
Later on Mary is attending a dance lesson with another of her clients.
Fran is also attending and introduces Mary to her fiancé 'Eddie' who turns out to be Steve.
When Fran leaves the pair to dance together Mary angrily rebukes him for leading her on and going behind Fran’s back.
Mary is left wondering whether she should continue to plan Fran and Steve's wedding, while Steve is left wondering whether his chemistry with Mary is a sign that he shouldn’t be marrying Fran.
Penny persuades Mary that her career is more important than whatever attraction she might have felt for Steve and Steve's colleague persuades him that the connection he had with Mary was just the result of pre-wedding nerves.
When they arrive at a potential wedding venue in Napa Valley, Massimo appears and, to Mary's confusion and horror, introduces himself as her fiancé.
Later when the four of them, along with Fran’s parents, are riding on horseback through the estate, Mrs Donolly’s singing frightens Mary's horse and it rushes off with a terrified Mary clinging on.
Steve instantly gallops after Mary and rescues her from the out of control horse.
When the pair are alone he bitterly rebukes her for condemning his actions when she was also engaged.
At home, Mary’s father excitedly talks about her upcoming wedding, only for her to reveal that she and Massimo are not engaged before scolding her father for trying to arrange her marriage.
Her father then reveals that his wedding with her mother, which Mary had always seen as the perfect marriage, was actually arranged and only became a loving relationship months later, leaving Mary feeling very confused.
Mary, Fran and Steve visit another potential wedding venue.
Differences in opinion between the couple begin to emerge but Steve agrees with whatever makes Fran happy.
Fran reveals she is going on a week-long business trip, and leaves Mary and Steve to continue with the wedding preparations.
The two apologize to each other for their angry words, and soon start becoming friends.
While looking for flowers, however, they run into a couple, Keith and Wendy, both whom Mary knows from her past.
When Steve asks how they all know each other, Mary reveals that Keith used to be her fiancé.
But Wendy was his secret high-school girlfriend, and she caught him cheating after seeing them making out in her car on the night of their rehearsal dinner.
That night, Mary ends up getting so drunk that she winds up going in the middle of the road, and then struggles to get back in her apartment building.
She then breaks down and laments over Keith being married and expecting a baby while she is still alone and miserable.
Steve finally manages to get them in Mary's apartment when another tenant opens the door for them.
Mary sobers and Steve decides to stay with her for a while.
During that time, he comforts her and insists that Keith was a fool to pick Wendy over her.
He then leaves but quickly returns and confesses that he has feelings for Mary.
She sadly replies that she respects Fran too much to let anything happen between them and sends Steve away.
Fran returns early from her trip and comes to speak with Mary.
Mary fears that Steve has revealed his feelings for her but instead Fran reveals she doesn't know if she is in love with Steve anymore.
Ignoring her heart, Mary persuades Fran to go ahead with the wedding.
At a birthday party they are both attending, Massimo offers Mary a heartfelt proposal and after a little hesitation she finally agreed to marry him.
The two couple's prepare for their weddings.
When the day arrives Mary leaves Penny to coordinate the Donolly wedding before she goes to the town hall to marry Massimo.
Before the wedding starts, Steve takes Fran for a walk and asks her if they’re doing the right thing.
Fran eventually admits that she doesn't want to get married.
The pair part as friends and Fran leaves to go on their honeymoon alone.
Penny, surprised at seeing this, comes over to Steve.
When asking her where Mary is, Penny then reveals her marriage plans to Steve and he rushes off to stop her.
At the town hall, Massimo and Mary prepare to marry but her father stops the ceremony, realizing that the wedding is what he wants for her and not what she wants.
Mary, who has given up on true love, insists that life isn’t a fairytale and marrying Massimo is the right thing to do.
But later, she realizes that he is not the one and ends up leaving the ceremony after all.
Steve arrives to find Mary's father and Massimo outside.
Massimo reveals that he couldn't go ahead with the wedding knowing that Mary was not in love with him and actually in love with Steve.
Steve reveals his feelings to Mary’s father, who tells him to go and get her.
Steve and Massimo ride off on Massimo's scooter to the park where another outdoor movie is starting.
Steve finds Mary, asks her to dance and they kiss.
<EOS>
In the framing story, a man (Peter Falk) reads a book, The Princess Bride, to his sick grandson (Fred Savage).
Scenes of the reading occasionally interrupt the main story; for example, when the boy tells his grandfather to skip the parts that include kissing.
Buttercup (Robin Wright) has grown up on a farm in the Renaissance Era, in the (fictional) country of Florin.
She mercilessly orders around the farmhand, Westley (Cary Elwes), but he only replies "As you wish" to her every whim.
Buttercup eventually comes to understand that this is his expression of love, which she then comes to return.
Westley leaves to seek his fortune so that they might marry, but Buttercup learns that Westley's ship was attacked by the legendary Dread Pirate Roberts, who is infamous for leaving no one alive.
Accordingly, Westley is presumed dead.
Five years later, Buttercup reluctantly agrees to marry Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), the Crown Prince of Florin.
Before the wedding, she is kidnapped by a trio of bandits: a Sicilian boss named Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), a giant named Fezzik (André the Giant), and a Spanish master swordsman named Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), who is seeking revenge against his father's murderer, whom he knows to have six fingers on his right hand.
These three are in Humperdinck's employ and have been ordered to kill Buttercup once in Guilder, Florin's enemy, as a pretext to start a war.
The four are soon followed by a man dressed in black, and Vizzini orders Inigo and then Fezzik to kill him.
The man in black bests Inigo in swordplay, knocking him out with the butt of his sword, then chokes Fezzik unconscious in hand-to-hand combat, and finally tricks Vizzini into drinking lethal poison during a battle of wits, and thereby frees Buttercup.
Buttercup, believing the man in black to be the Dread Pirate Roberts, tries to escape and pushes him down a steep hill, but when he shouts "As you wish" as he falls, she realizes he is her beloved Westley and throws herself down the hill after him.
As Westley escorts her back to Florin across a hazardous bog called the Fire Swamp, he explains that though he was captured, the previous Roberts, intrigued by Westley's pleas for mercy and his stories about Buttercup, befriended Westley and trained him in fighting and swordsmanship, and after secretly revealing that he was not the original Roberts (he inherited the title), he eventually retired and bequeathed the title to Westley.
Humperdinck, Count Rugen (Christopher Guest) and their men eventually capture Westley and Buttercup and take them back to Florin; Humperdinck later tells Buttercup he has let Westley return to his ship, but in reality Rugen and the Albino (Mel Smith) are torturing Westley in a secret laboratory called the Pit of Despair, using a torture machine to drain the life from him.
When Buttercup tells Humperdinck that he is a coward and that she still loves Westley, Humperdinck locks her in a suite, rushes to the Pit and, ignoring Rugen's warning, engages the machine at its highest setting, sending a screaming Westley to his death.
Fezzik, having reunited with a drunk Inigo in a nearby village, has learned that Rugen is the six-fingered man Inigo seeks, but, with the castle secured for Humperdinck's wedding, believes they need the Man in Black's (Westley's) help to invade; whom they trust due to the honorable way he defeated them previously.
Fezzik sobers up Inigo, they stumble upon the Albino, and Fezzik inadvertently knocks him unconscious when trying to receive information on Westley and Rugen.
Westley's dying screams lead them to the Pit, and they recover his body, bringing it to Miracle Max (Billy Crystal), a bitter and destitute apothecary whose confidence had been shattered due to his banishment from the castle by Humperdinck.
Max notes that Westley is "only mostly dead", but sustained by true love, and provides a potion (in the form of a chocolate-covered pill) that brings him back to life.
Outside the castle gate, Inigo and Fezzik give Westley the pill; he quickly begins to recover, and comes up with a plan to defeat the castle guards and get into the castle itself.
Hearing the commotion outside, Humperdinck panics and orders the priest to declare him and Buttercup married.
Having scared the soldiers off, Inigo, Fezzik and Westley make their way into the castle corridors and are intercepted by Rugen and his men; Inigo quickly dispatches the men and introduces himself to Rugen: "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya.
You killed my father.
Prepare to die".
Rugen beats a cowardly retreat with Inigo in pursuit; leaving Westley in the hallway, Fezzik runs to help Inigo, who ultimately confronts Rugen.
Rugen injures Inigo multiple times, but strengthened by his determination to exact revenge, Inigo overpowers and kills Rugen.
Meanwhile, Westley somehow finds his way into the honeymoon suite and stops Buttercup just as she is about to kill herself; Westley points out to her that because she did not say "I do", the ceremony was not properly completed; therefore, the marriage is not valid.
When Humperdinck arrives ready to kill him once and for all, Westley bluffs being at full health and forces Humperdinck to stand down and turn over Buttercup; she ties him to a chair and they all leave him alone with his cowardice.
As Buttercup, Westley, Inigo and Fezzik prepare to leave (on four white horses Fezzik found), Inigo wonders about what he will do with his life now that he has fulfilled his vow; Westley suggests he take up piracy saying "You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts".
In the framing story, the grandson allows the grandfather to read on about Westley and Buttercup sharing a passionate kiss.
As the grandfather finishes the story and prepares to leave, the boy asks him to read the story again the next day.
The grandfather smiles and replies, "As you wish".
<EOS>
Identical twins Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick (Hayley Mills) meet at Miss Inch's Summer Camp for Girls, unaware that they are sisters.
Their identical appearance initially creates rivalry, and they continuously pull pranks on each other, which ultimately leads to the camp dance being crashed by their mischief.
As punishment, they must live together in the isolated "Serendipity" cabin (and eat together at an "isolation table") for the remainder of their time at summer camp.
After finding out that they both come from single parent homes, they soon realize they are twin sisters and that their parents, Mitch (Brian Keith) and Maggie (Maureen O'Hara), divorced shortly after their birth, with each parent having custody of one of them.
The twins, each eager to meet the parent she never knew, switch places.
They drill each other on the other's behavior and lives, and Susan cuts Sharon's hair into the same style as hers.
While Susan is in Boston, Massachusetts masquerading as Sharon, Sharon goes to Carmel, California pretending to be Susan.
Sharon telephones Susan in Boston with news that their father is planning to remarry, and that their mother needs to be rushed to California to stop the wedding.
In Boston, Susan reveals to her mother the truth about the switched identities and the two fly to California.
In California, the twins (with mild approval from their mother) scheme to sabotage their father's marriage plans.
Mitch's money-hungry - and much younger - fiancée Vicky Robinson (Joanna Barnes) receives rude, mischievous treatment from the girls and some veiled cattiness from Maggie.
One evening, the girls recreate their parents' first date at an Italian restaurant with a gypsy violinist.
The former spouses are gradually drawn together, though they quickly begin bickering over minor things and Vicky.
To delay Maggie's return to Boston with Sharon, the twins dress and talk alike so their parents are unable to tell them apart.
They will reveal who is who only after returning from the annual family camping trip.
Mitch and Maggie reluctantly agree, but when Vicky discovers and consequently objects to the plan of them spending alone time together in the woods, Maggie tricks her into taking her place instead (knowing full well that she's not made for 'the great outdoors', which might very well prove her undoing).
The girls effect the coup de grâce; Vicky spends her time swatting mosquitoes (being tricked by the girls to use sugared water instead of mosquito repellent) and being awakened in terror by two bear cubs licking honey off her feet which the twins had previously placed there.
Exasperated, Vicky finally has a shouting tantrum destroying everything in her path and culminating in angrily slapping one of the girls, leaving Mitch with a whole new-found view of her.
When she runs off to escape back to the city in a great huff, Mitch seems none too worried to be rid of her.
When Mitch and the girls return from the trip, Maggie greets them with a sumptuous home-cooked meal, and Mitch is immediately reminded and recaptured by her charms.
They are soon reminiscing about their past and Mitch admits that he's missed her dearly which leads to them embracing with a kiss.
They admit to each other that neither want nor need grow old alone, which is slowly creeping up on them; they have no more time to lose.
With this they rekindle their love, and the two remarry in the final scene, with the twins, members of the wedding party, elated their plan worked out exactly as they'd hoped.
<EOS>
In the 25th century, sexual intercourse and reproduction are prohibited, whereas use of mind-altering drugs is mandatory to enforce compliance among the citizens and to ensure their ability to conduct dangerous and demanding tasks.
Emotions, coitus, and the concept of family are a taboo.
Everyone is clad in identical uniforms and has shaven heads to emphasize equality, except the police androids (who wear black) and robed monks.
Instead of names, people have designations – reminiscent of licence plates – with three arbitrary letters (referred to as the "prefix") and four digits; shown on an identity badge worn at all times.
At their jobs in central video CCTV control centers, SEN 5241 and LUH 3417 keep surveillance on the city.
LUH has a male roommate, THX 1138, who works in a factory producing android police officers.
At the beginning of the story, THX leaves the job while the loudspeakers urge the workers to "increase safety", and congratulate them for only losing 195 workers in the last period, to the competing factory's 242.
On the way home, he stops at a confession booth in a row of many, and mumbles prayers about "party" and "masses", under the portrait of "OMM 0910".
A soothing voice greets THX, and OMM ends every confession with a parting salutation: "You are a true believer, blessings of the State, blessings of the masses.
Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents and be happy".
At home, THX takes his drugs, and watches holo-broadcasts while engaging with a masturbatory device.
LUH secretly substitutes pills in her possession for THX's medications; whereupon THX eventually suffers physical discomfort (vomiting) along with mental/emotional changes (confusion).
The drug substitution also leads to LUH and THX becoming involved romantically, resulting in the two engaging in intercourse.
THX later is confronted by SEN, who arranges THX as his new roommate, but THX files a complaint against SEN for the illegal housing mate change.
Without drugs in his system, THX falters during a critical and hazardous phase of his job, and a control center engages a "mind lock" on THX which raises the level of danger.
After the release of the mind lock, THX makes the necessary correction to that work phase.
THX and LUH are arrested.
THX enjoys a brief reunion with LUH, disrupted shortly after she reveals her pregnancy.
At THX's trial, THX is sentenced to prison, alongside SEN.
Most of the prisoners seem uninterested in escape, but eventually THX and SEN find an exit; they are later joined by hologram SRT 5752, who starred in the holo-broadcasts.
During the escape, THX and SRT are separated from SEN.
Chased by the police robots, THX and SRT are trapped in a Control Center, from which THX learns that LUH has been "consumed", possibly for organ reclamation, and her name has been reassigned to fetus 66691 in a growth chamber.
SEN eventually escapes to an area reserved for the monks of OMM, where a lone monk notices that SEN has no identification badge.
SEN attacks him and later wanders into a child-rearing area, strikes up a conversation with children, and sits aimlessly until police androids apprehend him.
THX and SRT steal two cars, but SRT crashes his into a concrete pillar.
Pursued by two police androids on motorcycles, THX flees to the limits of the city and escapes into a ventilation shaft.
The police androids pursue him on motorcycles along the ventilation shaft to an escape ladder but are ordered by Central Command to cease pursuit, on grounds that the expense of his capture exceeds their budget by 6%.
It is then revealed that the city is entirely underground, and that THX has escaped onto the surface; he then witnesses the Sun setting as the end titles roll.
<EOS>
Trigun revolves around a man known as "Vash the Stampede" and two Bernardelli Insurance Society employees, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, who follow him around in order to minimize the damages inevitably caused by his appearance.
Most of the damage attributed to Vash is actually caused by bounty hunters in pursuit of the sixty billion double dollar bounty on Vash's head for the destruction of the city of July.
However, he cannot remember the incident due to retrograde amnesia, being able to recall only fragments of the destroyed city and memories of his childhood.
Throughout his travels, Vash tries to save lives using non-lethal force.
He is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas Wolfwood, who, like Vash, is a superb gunfighter with a mysterious past.
As the series progresses, more about Vash's past and the history of human civilization on the planet Gunsmoke is revealed.
<EOS>
The series follows an unnamed man (played by Patrick McGoohan) who, after abruptly and angrily resigning from his job, apparently prepares to make a hurried departure from the country.
While packing his luggage, he is rendered unconscious by knockout gas piped into his London flat.
When he wakes, he finds himself in a recreation of his apartment, located in a mysterious seaside "village" within which he is held captive, isolated from the mainland by mountains and sea.
The Village is further secured by numerous monitoring systems and security forces, including a sinister balloon-like device called Rover that recaptures—or kills—those who attempt escape.
The man encounters the Village's population: hundreds of people from all walks of life and cultures, all seeming to be peacefully living out their lives.
They do not use names, but have been assigned numbers which give no clue as to any person's status within the Village, whether as inmate or guard.
Potential escapees therefore have no idea whom they can and cannot trust.
The protagonist is assigned Number Six, but he repeatedly refuses the pretense of his new identity.
Number Six is monitored heavily by Number Two, the Village administrator, who acts as an agent for an unseen "Number One".
A variety of techniques are used by Number Two to try to extract information from Number Six, including hallucinogenic drug experiences, identity theft, mind control, dream manipulation, and various forms of social indoctrination and physical coercion.
All of these are employed not only to find out why Number Six resigned as an agent, but also to elicit other purportedly dangerous information he gained as a spy.
The position of Number Two is filled in by various other characters on a rotating basis.
Sometimes this is part of a larger plan to confuse Number Six; at other times, it seems to be a change of personnel made as a result of failure to successfully interrogate Number Six.
Number Six, distrustful of anyone involved with the Village, refuses to co-operate or provide the answers they seek.
He struggles, usually alone, with various goals, such as determining for which side of the Iron Curtain the Village works, if indeed it works for any at all; remaining defiant to its imposed authority; concocting his own plans for escape; learning all he can about the Village; and subverting its operation.
His schemes lead to the dismissals of the incumbent Number Two on two occasions, although he never escapes.
By the end of the series, the administration, becoming desperate for Number Six's knowledge as well as fearful of his growing influence in the Village, takes drastic measures that threaten the lives of Number Six, Number Two, and the rest of the Village.
A major theme of the series is individualism, as represented by Number Six, versus collectivism, as represented by Number Two and the others in the Village.
McGoohan stated that the series aimed to demonstrate a balance between the two points.
<EOS>
Elizabeth I, who was staying at Hatfield House at the time of her accession, rode to London to the cheers of both the ruling class and the common people.
When Elizabeth came to the throne, there was much apprehension among members of the council appointed by Mary, due to the fact that many of them (as noted by the Spanish ambassador) had participated in several plots against Elizabeth, such as her imprisonment in the Tower, trying to force her to marry a foreign prince and thereby sending her out of the realm, and even pushing for her death.
In response to their fear, she chose as her chief minister Sir William Cecil, a Protestant, and former secretary to Lord Protector the Duke of Somerset and then to the Duke of Northumberland.
Under Mary, he had been spared, and often visited Elizabeth, ostensibly to review her accounts and expenditure.
He was the cousin and friend of Blanche Parry, the closest person to Elizabeth for 56 years.
Elizabeth also appointed her personal favourite, the son of the Duke of Northumberland Lord Robert Dudley, her Master of the Horse, giving him constant personal access to the queen.
Elizabeth had a long, turbulent path to the throne.
She had a number of problems during her childhood, one of the main ones being after the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn.
When Anne was beheaded, Henry declared Elizabeth an illegitimate child and she would, therefore, not be able to inherit the throne.
After the death of her father, she was raised by his widow, Catherine Parr and her husband Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley.
A scandal arose with her and the Lord Admiral to which she stood trial.
During the examinations, she answered truthfully and boldly and all charges were dropped.
She was an excellent student, well-schooled in Latin, French, Italian, and somewhat in Greek, and was a talented writer.
She was supposedly a very skilled musician as well, in both singing and playing the lute.
After the rebellion of Thomas Wyatt the younger, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
No proof could be found that Elizabeth was involved and she was released and retired to the countryside until the death of her sister, Mary I of England.
Elizabeth was a moderate Protestant; she was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, who played a key role in the English Reformation in the 1520s.
She had been brought up by Blanche Herbert Lady Troy.
At her coronation in January 1559, many of the bishops – Catholic, appointed by Mary, who had expelled many of the Protestant clergymen when she became queen in 1553 – refused to perform the service in English.
Eventually, the relatively minor Bishop of Carlisle, Owen Oglethorpe, performed the ceremony; but when Oglethorpe attempted to perform traditional Catholic parts of the Coronation, Elizabeth got up and left.
Following the Coronation, two important Acts were passed through parliament: the Act of Uniformity and the Act of Supremacy, establishing the Protestant Church of England and creating Elizabeth Supreme Governor of the Church of England (Supreme Head, the title used by her father and brother, was seen as inappropriate for a woman ruler).
These acts, known collectively as the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, made it compulsory to attend church services every Sunday; and imposed an oath on clergymen and statesmen to recognise the Church of England, the independence of the Church of England from the Catholic Church, and the authority of Elizabeth as Supreme Governor.
Elizabeth made it clear that if they refused the oath the first time, they would have a second opportunity, after which, if the oath was not sworn, the offenders would be deprived of their offices and estates.
Even though Elizabeth was only twenty-five when she came to the throne, she was absolutely sure of her God-given place to be the queen and of her responsibilities as the 'handmaiden of the Lord'.
She never let anyone challenge her authority as queen, even though many people, who felt she was weak and should be married, tried to do so.
The popularity of Elizabeth was extremely high, but her Privy Council, her Parliament and her subjects thought that the unmarried queen should take a husband; it was generally accepted that, once a queen regnant was married, the husband would relieve the woman of the burdens of head of state.
Also, without an heir, the Tudor line would end; the risk of civil war between rival claimants was a possibility if Elizabeth died childless.
Numerous suitors from nearly all European nations sent ambassadors to English court to put forward their suit.
Risk of death came dangerously close in 1564 when Elizabeth caught smallpox; when she was most at risk, she named Robert Dudley as Lord Protector in the event of her death.
After her recovery, she appointed Dudley to the Privy Council and created him Earl of Leicester, in the hope that he would marry Mary, Queen of Scots.
Mary rejected him, and instead married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a descendant of Henry VII, giving Mary a stronger claim to the English throne.
Although many Catholics were loyal to Elizabeth, many also believed that, because Elizabeth was declared illegitimate after her parents' marriage was annulled, Mary was the strongest legitimate claimant.
Despite this, Elizabeth would not name Mary her heir; as she had experienced during the reign of her predecessor Mary I, the opposition could flock around the heir if they were disheartened with Elizabeth's rule.
Numerous threats to the Tudor line occurred during Elizabeth's reign.
In 1569, a group of Earls led by Charles Neville, the sixth Earl of Westmorland, and Thomas Percy, the seventh Earl of Northumberland attempted to depose Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.
In 1571, the Protestant-turned-Catholic Thomas Howard, the fourth Duke of Norfolk, had plans to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, and then replace Elizabeth with Mary.
The plot, masterminded by Roberto di Ridolfi, was discovered and Norfolk was beheaded.
The next major uprising was in 1601, when Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex, attempted to raise the city of London against Elizabeth's government.
The city of London proved unwilling to rebel; Essex and most of his co-rebels were executed.
Threats also came from abroad.
In 1570, Pope Pius V issued a Papal bull, Regnans in Excelsis, excommunicating Elizabeth, and releasing her subjects from their allegiance to her.
Elizabeth came under pressure from Parliament to execute Mary, Queen of Scots, to prevent any further attempts to replace her; though faced with several official requests, she vacillated over the decision to execute an anointed queen.
Finally, she was persuaded of Mary's (treasonous) complicity in the plotting against her, and she signed the death warrant in 1586.
Mary was executed at Fotheringay Castle on 8 February 1587, to the outrage of Catholic Europe.
There are many reasons debated as to why Elizabeth never married.
It was rumoured that she was in love with Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and that on one of her summer progresses she had birthed his illegitimate child.
This rumour was just one of many that swirled around the two's long-standing friendship.
However, more important to focus on were the disasters that many women, such as Lady Jane Grey, suffered due to being married into the royal family.
Her sister Mary's marriage to Philip brought great contempt to the country, for many of her subjects despised Spain and Philip and feared that he would try to take complete control.
Recalling her father's disdain for Anne of Cleves, Elizabeth also refused to enter into a foreign match with a man that she had never seen before, so that also eliminated a large number of suitors.
Despite the uncertainty of Elizabeth's – and therefore the Tudor's – hold on England, she never married.
The closest she came to marriage was between 1579 and 1581, when she was courted by Francis, Duke of Anjou, the son of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.
Despite Elizabeth's government constantly begging her to marry in the early years of her reign, it was now persuading Elizabeth not to marry the French prince for his mother, Catherine de' Medici, was suspected of ordering the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of tens of thousands of French Protestant Huguenots in 1572.
Elizabeth bowed to public feeling against the marriage, learning from the mistake her sister made when she married Philip II of Spain, and sent the Duke of Anjou away.
Elizabeth knew that the continuation of the Tudor line was now impossible; she was forty-eight in 1581, and too old to bear children.
By far the most dangerous threat to the Tudor line during Elizabeth's reign was the Spanish Armada of 1588.
Launched by Elizabeth's old suitor Philip II of Spain, this was commanded by Alonso de Guzmán El Bueno, the seventh Duke of Medina Sidonia.
The Spanish invasion fleet outnumbered the English fleet's 22 galleons and 108 armed merchant ships; however, the Spanish lost as a result of bad weather on the English Channel and poor planning and logistics, and in the face of the skills of Sir Francis Drake and Charles Howard, the second Baron Howard of Effingham (later first Earl of Nottingham).
While Elizabeth declined physically with age, her running of the country continued to benefit her people.
In response to famine across England due to bad harvests in the 1590s, Elizabeth introduced the poor law, allowing peasants who were too ill to work a certain amount of money from the state.
All the money Elizabeth had borrowed from Parliament in 12 of the 13 parliamentary sessions was paid back; by the time of her death, Elizabeth not only had no debts, but was in credit.
Elizabeth died childless at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603.
Elizabeth may not have left behind an heir, but she left behind a legacy and monarchy worth noting.
Elizabeth pursued with her goals of being well endowed with every aspect of her kingdom and knowing everything there was to know while being the reigning monarchy.
She took part in law, economics, politics and governmental issues both domestic and abroad.
Realms that had once been strictly forbidden to the female gender were now being ruled by one.
She pushed the barriers of tradition by never marrying nor giving into womanly duties.
She was both a man and woman; a king and a queen; but one Elizabeth.
She never named a successor.
However, her chief minister Sir Robert Cecil had corresponded with the Protestant King James VI of Scotland, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and James's succession to the English throne was unopposed.
There has been discretion over the selected heir.
It has been argued that Elizabeth would have selected James because she felt guilty about what happened to his mother, her cousin.
Whether this is true, is hard to know for sure, for Elizabeth did her best to never show emotion nor give into claims.
Elizabeth was a bull, strong and hard-headed who kept the target in sight.
Elizabeth's primary target: providing the best for her people and proving those wrong who doubted her while maintaining a straight composure.
The House of Tudor survived only in the female line, and the House of Stuart occupied the English throne for most of the following century.
<EOS>
The plot of the novel varies between each of the published versions.
The summary below deals with the longest version, the 1891 novel.
However, certain episodes described—in particular Dorian's encounter with, and murder of, James Vane—do not appear in the version originally submitted by Wilde to Lippincott's.
The Picture of Dorian Gray begins on a beautiful summer day in Victorian era England, where Lord Henry Wotton, an opinionated man, is observing the sensitive artist Basil Hallward painting the portrait of Dorian Gray, a handsome young man who is Basil's ultimate muse.
While sitting for the painting, Dorian listens to Lord Henry espousing his hedonistic world view, and begins to think that beauty is the only aspect of life worth pursuing.
This prompts Dorian to wish that the painted image of himself would age instead of himself.
Under the hedonist influence of Lord Henry, Dorian fully explores his sensuality.
He discovers the actress Sibyl Vane, who performs Shakespeare plays in a dingy, working-class theatre.
Dorian approaches and courts her, and soon proposes marriage.
The enamoured Sibyl calls him "Prince Charming", and swoons with the happiness of being loved, but her protective brother, James, warns that if "Prince Charming" harms her, he will murder him.
Dorian invites Basil and Lord Henry to see Sibyl perform in Romeo and Juliet.
Sibyl, too enamoured with Dorian to act, performs poorly, which makes both Basil and Lord Henry think Dorian has fallen in love with Sibyl because of her beauty instead of her acting talent.
Embarrassed, Dorian rejects Sibyl, telling her that acting was her beauty; without that, she no longer interests him.
On returning home, Dorian notices that the portrait has changed; his wish has come true, and the man in the portrait bears a subtle sneer of cruelty.
Conscience-stricken and lonely, Dorian decides to reconcile with Sibyl, but he is too late, as Lord Henry informs him that Sibyl has committed suicide by swallowing prussic acid.
Dorian then understands that, where his life is headed, lust and good looks shall suffice.
Dorian locks the portrait up, and over the following eighteen years, he experiments with every vice, influenced by a morally poisonous French novel that Lord Henry Wotton gave him.
[The narrative does not reveal the title of the French novel, but, at trial, Wilde said that the novel Dorian Gray read was À Rebours ('Against Nature', 1884), by Joris-Karl Huysmans.
]  One night, before leaving for Paris, Basil goes to Dorian's house to ask him about rumours of his self-indulgent sensualism.
Dorian does not deny his debauchery, and takes Basil to see the portrait.
The portrait has become so hideous that Basil is only able to identify it as his work by the signature he affixes to all his portraits.
Basil is horrified, and beseeches Dorian to pray for salvation.
In anger, Dorian blames his fate on Basil, and stabs him to death.
Dorian then calmly blackmails an old friend, the scientist Alan Campbell, into using his knowledge of chemistry to destroy the body of Basil Hallward.
Alan later kills himself over the deed.
To escape the guilt of his crime, Dorian goes to an opium den, where James Vane is unknowingly present.
James had been seeking vengeance upon Dorian ever since Sibyl killed herself, but had no leads to pursue: the only thing he knew about Dorian was the name Sibyl called him, "Prince Charming".
In the opium den however he hears someone refer to Dorian as "Prince Charming", and he accosts Dorian.
Dorian deceives James into believing that he is too young to have known Sibyl, who killed herself 18 years earlier, as his face is still that of a young man.
James relents and releases Dorian, but is then approached by a woman from the opium den who reproaches James for not killing Dorian.
She confirms that the man was Dorian Gray and explains that he has not aged in 18 years.
James runs after Dorian, but he has gone.
James then begins to stalk Dorian, causing Dorian to fear for his life.
However during a shooting party, a hunter accidentally kills James Vane who was lurking in a thicket.
On returning to London, Dorian tells Lord Henry that he will live righteously from then on.
His new probity begins with deliberately not breaking the heart of the naïve Hetty Merton, his current romantic interest.
Dorian wonders if his new-found goodness has reverted the corruption in the picture, but when he looks he sees only an even uglier image of himself.
From that, Dorian understands that his true motives for the self-sacrifice of moral reformation were the vanity and curiosity of his quest for new experiences.
Deciding that only full confession will absolve him of wrongdoing, Dorian decides to destroy the last vestige of his conscience, and the only piece of evidence remaining of his crimes – the picture.
In a rage, he takes the knife with which he murdered Basil Hallward, and stabs the picture.
The servants of the house awaken on hearing a cry from the locked room; on the street, passers-by who also heard the cry call the police.
On entering the locked room, the servants find an unknown old man, stabbed in the heart, his face and figure withered and decrepit.
The servants identify the disfigured corpse by the rings on its fingers which belonged to their master; beside him is the picture of Dorian Gray, restored to its original beauty.
<EOS>
Alvin Straight has not shown up to his regular bar meeting with his friends.
He is eventually found lying on his floor at home, although he insists that he "just needs a bit of help getting up".
His daughter Rose takes her reluctant father to see a doctor, who sternly admonishes Alvin to give up tobacco.
He also tells Alvin that he should start using a walker.
Alvin refuses, and does not tell Rose.
Alvin then learns that his brother Lyle has suffered a stroke.
Longing to visit him, but unable to drive, Alvin gradually develops a plan to travel to Mount Zion on his "ancient" riding lawn-mower and towing a small homemade travel-trailer, to the consternation of his family and friends.
Alvin's first attempt fails: after experiencing difficulty starting the old mower's motor, he doesn't get far before the machine finally breaks down, and he is forced to flag down a passing bus.
Alvin arranges for his mower to be transported back home on a flatbed truck (with him still perched on the mower's seat), where he takes out his frustrations on the mower by blowing up its motor and gas tank with a well-aimed shotgun blast.
At the John Deere dealer, he purchases a newer replacement lawn tractor from a salesman (Everett McGill) who is generous but describes Alvin as being a smart man, "until now".
Alvin continues on his quest.
He passes a young female hitchhiker who later approaches his campfire and says that she could not get a ride.
In conversation, Alvin astutely deduces that she is pregnant (although this is not extremely physically obvious) and has run away from home.
He reveals more information about his daughter: one night somebody was watching Rose's children and there was a fire and one of her sons got badly burned; the state then decided that Rose was not competent to look after her children and took them away from her.
Alvin tells the hitchhiker about the importance of family by describing a bundle of sticks that is hard to break ("United we stand; divided we fall").
The next day Alvin emerges from the trailer to find that his hitchhiker friend has left him a bundle of sticks tied together, implying that she plans to return home to her own family.
He continues with his journey.
Alvin enjoys watching a rainstorm from the shelter of an abandoned farmhouse.
The next scene shows Alvin as a huge group of RAGBRAI cyclists race past him.
Although the film takes place in September, the original journey was in July, when RAGBRAI actually takes place.
He later arrives at the cyclists' camp and he is greeted with applause.
He speaks with them about growing old.
When he is asked about the worst part of being old, he replies, "remembering when you was young".
The next day, Alvin is troubled by the massive trucks passing him.
He then interacts with a distraught woman who has hit a deer, and is being driven to distraction by the fact that she continually hits deer while commuting, no matter how hard she tries to avoid them.
She drives away in a tearful huff, and Alvin, who had started to run short of food, cooks and eats the deer, then mounts the antlers above the rear doorway of his trailer as a tribute to the deer and the human sustenance it had provided.
In the next scene, Alvin's brakes fail as he travels down a steep hill; he struggles to maintain control of the speeding tractor and finally manages to bring the vehicle to a complete stop.
Some townspeople help get Alvin's mower and trailer off the road.
They later discover that the mower also has transmission problems.
Now beginning to run low on cash, Alvin borrows a cordless phone from a homeowner – gently but resolutely refusing an invitation to come indoors – and calls Rose to ask her to send him his Social Security check.
He then leaves money on the doorstep to pay for his long-distance telephone call.
A local motorist offers Alvin a ride the rest of the way to Lyle's, but Alvin declines, stating that he prefers to travel his own way.
An elderly war veteran takes him into town for a drink, and Alvin tells a story about how he is haunted by a memory of accidentally shooting one of his military comrades.
Alvin's tractor is fixed and he is presented with an exorbitant bill by the mechanics, who are twins and are constantly bickering.
Alvin successfully negotiates the price down, and explains his mission, which he calls "a hard swallow to [my] pride," but "a brother is a brother".
The mechanic twins seem to relate to this, realizing they should make peace.
Later, Alvin camps in a cemetery and chats with a priest.
The priest recognizes Lyle's name and is aware of his stroke.
The priest says that Lyle did not mention he had a brother.
Alvin replies that "neither one of us has had a brother for quite some time".
Alvin wants to make peace with Lyle and is emphatic that whatever happened ten years ago does not matter anymore.
"I say, 'Amen' to that, brother," the priest replies.
The next obstacle Alvin must overcome is apparent engine trouble, just a few miles from Lyle's house.
Alvin stops in the middle of the road, unsure of how to proceed.
A large farm tractor driving by then stops to help, but fortunately this time the problem was evidently just a few drops of bad gas, because the lawn-tractor's engine sputters to life again after sitting for a few minutes.
The gracious farmer then leads the way on his own tractor, and drives along slowly ahead of Alvin during the final leg of his journey to make sure he gets there okay.
Lyle's house is dilapidated.
Using his two canes, Alvin makes his way to the door.
He calls for his brother.
At first Lyle does not appear and Alvin expresses relief when he does.
The two brothers make contact, one with a walker and one with two canes.
Lyle invites Alvin to sit down.
Lyle looks at Alvin's mower-tractor contraption and asks if Alvin had ridden that thing just to see him.
Alvin responds simply, "I did, Lyle".
The sky darkens, and the two men sit together silently and look up at the stars.
<EOS>
The various versions follow the same basic plot but they are in many places mutually contradictory, as Adams rewrote the story substantially for each new adaptation.
Throughout all versions, the series follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman, following the destruction of the Earth by the Vogons, a race of unpleasant and bureaucratic aliens, to make way for an intergalactic bypass.
Dent's adventures intersect with several other characters: Ford Prefect (who named himself after the Ford Prefect car to blend in with what was assumed to be the dominant life form, automobiles), an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and a researcher for the eponymous guidebook, who rescues Dent from Earth's destruction; Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's eccentric semi-cousin and the Galactic President; the depressed robot Marvin the Paranoid Android; and Trillian, formerly known as Tricia McMillan, a woman Arthur once met at a party in Islington and the only other human survivor of Earth's destruction thanks to Beeblebrox' intervention.
<EOS>
Bandits approach a mountain village, but their chief decides to spare it until after the harvest because they had raided it before.
The plan is overheard by a farmer.
Three farmers ask Gisaku, the village elder and miller, for advice.
He declares they should hire samurai to defend the village.
Since they have no money, Gisaku tells them to find hungry samurai.
After little success, the group watch Kambei, an aging but experienced rōnin, rescue a young boy who had been taken hostage by a thief.
A young samurai named Katsushirō asks to become Kambei's disciple.
The villagers then ask for help, and after initial reluctance, Kambei agrees.
He recruits old friend Shichirōji and, with Katsushirō's assistance, three other samurai: the friendly, wily Gorobei; the good-willed Heihachi; and Kyūzō, a taciturn master swordsman whom Katsushirō regards with awe.
Although inexperienced, Katsushirō is selected because time is short.
Kikuchiyo, a man who carries a family scroll that he claims makes him a samurai, follows the group despite attempts to drive him away.
On arrival, the samurai find the villagers cowering in their homes, refusing to greet them.
Feeling insulted by such a cold reception, Kikuchiyo rings the village alarm bell, prompting the villagers to come out of hiding.
The samurai are both pleased and amused by this, and accept him as a comrade-in-arms.
Slowly the samurai and farmers begin to trust each other as they train together.
Katsushirō forms a relationship with Shino, a farmer's daughter, who had been masquerading as a boy for protection from the supposedly lustful samurai.
However, the six samurai are angered when Kikuchiyo brings them armor and weapons, which the villagers most likely acquired by killing injured or dying samurai.
Kikuchiyo retorts that samurai are responsible for battles, raids, taxation and forced labor that devastate the villagers' lives.
By so doing, he reveals his origin as an orphaned farmer's son.
The samurais' anger turns to shame.
Three bandit scouts are spotted.
Two are killed, while another reveals the location of their camp.
Against the wishes of the samurai, the villagers kill the prisoner.
The samurai burn down the bandits' camp in a pre-emptive strike.
Rikichi, a troubled villager who helps the samurai, breaks down when he sees his wife, who had apparently been kidnapped and made a concubine in a previous raid.
On seeing Rikichi, she walks back into her burning hut.
Heihachi is killed trying to save Rikichi, whose grief is compounded.
When the bandits finally attack, they are confounded by new fortifications, including a moat and wooden fence.
Several bandits are killed according to Kambei's plan.
As the bandits enter the village singly, they are hunted down and killed by groups of farmers armed with bamboo spears.
Gisaku refuses to abandon his mill on the outskirts of the village and perishes with his family, who tried to save him.
A lone baby is rescued by Kikuchiyo, who breaks down in tears, as it reminds him of his own childhood.
The bandits possess three Japanese matchlock firearms.
Kyūzō ventures out alone and returns with one.
An envious Kikuchiyo abandons his post—and his contingent of farmers—to bring back another.
He is chastised by Kambei because, while he was gone, the bandits killed some of his farmers.
The bandit chief attacks again, and Gorobei is slain.
That night, Kambei predicts that, due to their dwindling numbers, the bandits will make one last all-out attack.
Meanwhile, Katsushirō and Shino's relationship is discovered by her father.
He hits her until Kambei and the villagers intervene.
Shichirōji calms everyone down by saying the couple should be forgiven because they are young and that before any battle, passions can run high.
The next morning in a torrential downpour, Kambei orders that the remaining thirteen bandits be allowed into the village.
As the battle winds down, their leader, armed with a gun, enters the women's hut, from where he shoots Kyūzō.
An enraged Kikuchiyo charges the hut; he is shot, but kills the bandit chief before dying.
The three surviving samurai watch as the joyful villagers sing while planting their crops.
Kambei—standing beneath the funeral mounds of his four dead comrades—reflects that it is another pyrrhic victory for the samurai: "In the end we lost this battle too.
The victory belongs to the farmers, not to us".
<EOS>
In the 22nd century, Dr Vannevar Morgan is a famous structural engineer who hopes to develop the "space elevator" from a theoretical concept to reality and enlists the resources of his employers to carry out experiments.
But the only suitable starting point (Earth station) for the elevator lies at the summit of a mountain in Taprobane occupied by an ancient order of Buddhist monks, who implacably oppose the plan.
Morgan is approached by a Mars-based consortium to develop the elevator on Mars as part of a massive terraforming project.
To demonstrate the viability of the technology, Morgan tries to run a thin cable of "hyperfilament" from an orbital factory down to ground level at Taprobane.
A monk at the monastery, a former astrophysicist who is a mathematical genius, tries to sabotage the attempt by creating an artificial hurricane using a hijacked weather-control satellite.
His attempt succeeds, but the hurricane blows butterflies to the peak of the mountain.
This fulfills an ancient prophecy that causes the monks to leave the mountain.
The tower can be built on Earth after all.
Forced to resign his position for acting beyond his authority, Morgan joins the Martian consortium named "Astroengineering" and construction of the Tower commences.
Several years later, the Earth-based tower is well under construction and travel up and down—both for tourists and for transfer to rocket ships—is being trialled.
An astrophysicist and a group of his students and tower staff are stranded in an emergency chamber six hundred kilometres up after an accident with their transport capsule.
They have limited food and air supplies.
Whilst a laser on a weather-control satellite is able to supply heat, it is imperative to provide them with filter masks against the increasing carbon dioxide and also with food, air, and medical supplies.
Despite his rapidly failing health, Morgan asserts his right to travel up the tower in a one-man "spider" to rescue them.
He nearly fails, with limited battery power, but ultimately succeeds in reaching the chamber, delivering the supplies, and thus saving the stranded scientists.
Morgan walks around outside the tower to investigate damage the accident caused.
On the way back down, he realizes that the geostationary satellites could be connected, and more space elevators could be constructed, forming a wheel-like structure without gravitational perturbation problems.
Then he has a heart attack and dies.
A short epilogue envisages Earth many centuries later, after the sun has cooled and Earth has been depopulated, with humans now living on the terraformed inner planets.
Several space elevators lead to a giant "circumterran" space station that encircles Earth at geostationary altitude.
The analogy with a wheel is evident: the space station itself is the wheel rim, Earth is the axle, and the six equidistant space elevators the spokes.
<EOS>
A poor village in Mexico is periodically raided for food and supplies by Calvera (Eli Wallach) and his bandits.
After he and his forty men's latest raid, during which they kill a villager, the village leaders decide the situation cannot continue.
They discuss it with the venerated elder (Vladimir Sokoloff) who lives just outside the village, and he recommends they fight back.
Taking what meager objects of value the village has, a delegation rides to a town just inside the United States border hoping to barter for weapons to defend themselves with.
Once there they approach Chris Adams (Yul Brynner), a veteran Cajun gunslinger.
Chris suggests they hire gunfighters to defend the village, which would be cheaper than buying guns and ammunition.
He cautions the village men that once they actively resist Calvera they will have to keep killing until all the bandits are dead.
At first Chris agrees only to help the delegation find capable men, but later he decides to recruit and lead them.
Despite the poor pay offered, he is able to find five gunmen, all doing it for their own reasons.
The other men include the gunfighter Vin Tanner (Steve McQueen), who has gone broke after a round of gambling and jokes he may have to accept a position as a store clerk; Chris's friend Harry Luck (Brad Dexter), who believes Chris knows about hidden treasure near the village; the Irish-Mexican Bernardo O'Reilly (Charles Bronson), who has fallen on hard times; Britt (James Coburn), an expert in both knife and gun who joins purely for the challenge involved; and the dapper, on-the-run gunman Lee (Robert Vaughn), haunted by thoughts that he has lost his nerve and taste for battle.
On their way to the village they are trailed by the hotheaded Chico (Horst Buchholz), an aspiring gunfighter whom Chris had previously humiliated by rejecting him.
Now impressed by his persistence, Chris invites him to join the group.
Arriving at the village, they have the villagers build fortifications and begin to train them to defend themselves.
Each finds himself befriending particular villagers.
Chico is pursued by Petra (Rosenda Monteros), one of the village's young women.
(Village elders had hidden all the young women, fearing the gunfighters might rape them, but Chico had stumbled across their hiding place) Bernardo bonds with some of the village's boys.
Residents comfort Lee, who is struggling with nightmares and fearing the loss of his skills.
Harry presses the villagers for information about any treasure.
Later, when Bernardo points out that the seven are consuming almost all the food in the village, the gunmen share it with the village children.
Calvera and his bandits arrive, sustain heavy losses in a shootout with the seven and the villagers, and are run out of town.
Hilario (Jorge Martínez de Hoyos) and Vin, guarding against another possible attack, briefly discuss nerves on the eve of battle.
Vin admits he still feels such nerves, and says he envies Hilario for fighting for an honourable cause.
Chico, who is Mexican, partly from recklessness and partly to impress the others, follows Calvera back to his camp and pretends to be one of the bandits.
He learns that Calvera must raid the village soon because he and his men are desperate for food.
Upon hearing this information, some fearful villagers call for the gunfighters to leave.
Even some of the seven waver: Vin is of two minds; and Harry argues they were hired merely to put up enough resistance that Calvera would move on to an easier village.
But Chris insists that they stay, even threatening to kill anyone who suggests giving up the fight.
They ride out to make a surprise raid on Calvera's camp, but find it abandoned.
Returning to the village, they find that some villagers have allowed Calvera and his men to sneak in and take control.
Calvera spares the seven's lives, believing they have learned that the simple farmers are not worth defending.
He also fears reprisals from the gunfighters' friends north of the border.
While gathering their things before departing, Chris and Vin talk of how they had become emotionally attached to the village, and might have been tempted to give up their careers as gunmen and settle in such a place.
Bernardo gets angry with the boys he befriended when they call their parents cowards.
Chico raves against the villagers and how much he hates them, and when Chris reminds him he is of just such peasant stock he angrily responds that it is men like Calvera and Chris who made the villagers what they are.
The seven gunmen are escorted some distance from the village, where their weapons are returned to them.
They debate their next move and all but Harry, who believes the effort will be futile and suicidal, agree to return and fight.
Harry rides off alone.
Returning to the village, the six gunmen are able to get well within it before being detected.
A gunfight breaks out.
Harry, who has had a change of heart, arrives in time to prevent a cornered Chris from being killed, but is himself fatally shot.
Before his death Chris comforts him by saying there was indeed a fortune hidden in the village.
Lee finds the nerve to burst into a house where several villagers are held captive, shooting the bandits guarding them.
This enables the villagers, some of whom were among those who had comforted Lee, to join in the fight on the side of the seven.
Lee emerges from the house to see this, but is gunned down.
Bernardo is shot protecting the boys he befriended, with his last breath he tells them to look at how bravely their fathers are fighting.
Britt dies after shooting at a considerable number of bandits but exposing himself from cover.
Chris manages to shoot Calvera, who asks him, "You came back.
to a place like this.
Why.
A man like you.
Why.
" He dies without receiving an answer.
The remaining bandits take flight.
The three surviving gunmen help to bury the dead, then ride out of town.
At the top of the hill overlooking the village they stop to look back.
Chris says adios to Chico, both having realized his proper place is in the village, with Petra; she is overjoyed when she sees he has returned.
Chris and Vin chat with the venerated elder.
He bids them farewell and says that only the villagers have really won: "You're like the wind, blowing over the land and.
passing on.
¡Vaya con Dios.
" As they leave, they pass the graves of their fallen comrades.
Chris says, "The Old Man was right.
Only the farmers won.
We lost.
We'll always lose".
<EOS>
During the American Civil War, mercenary Angel Eyes interrogates former Confederate soldier Stevens, whom Angel Eyes is contracted to kill, about Bill Carson, a fugitive who stole a cache of Confederate gold.
Stevens offers Angel Eyes $1,000 to kill Baker, Angel Eyes's employer.
Angel Eyes accepts the contract, and kills Stevens as he leaves.
Angel Eyes returns to Baker for his fee, then shoots Baker, fulfilling his contract with Stevens.
Meanwhile, Mexican bandit Tuco Ramírez is rescued from three bounty hunters by "Blondie", who delivers him to the local sheriff to collect his $2,000 bounty.
As Tuco is about to be hanged, Blondie severs Tuco's noose by shooting it, and sets him free.
The two escape on horseback and split the bounty in a lucrative money-making scheme.
They repeat the process in another town for more reward money.
Blondie grows weary of Tuco's complaints, and abandons him penniless in the desert.
A vengeful Tuco tracks Blondie to a town being abandoned by Confederate troops.
As he prepares to have Blondie hang himself, Union forces shell the town, allowing Blondie to escape.
Following an arduous search, Tuco recaptures Blondie and force-marches him across a desert until Blondie collapses from dehydration.
As Tuco prepares to shoot him, he sees a runaway carriage.
Inside is a delirious Bill Carson, who promises Tuco $200,000 in Confederate gold, buried in a grave in Sad Hill Cemetery.
Tuco demands to know the name on the grave, but Carson collapses from thirst before answering.
When Tuco returns with water, Carson has died and Blondie, slumped next to him, reveals that Carson recovered and told him the name on the grave before dying.
Tuco, who now has strong motivation to keep Blondie alive, gives him water and takes him to a nearby frontier mission to recover.
After Blondie's recovery, the two leave in Confederate uniforms from Carson's carriage, only to be captured by Union soldiers and remanded to the POW camp of Batterville.
At roll call, Tuco answers for "Bill Carson," getting the attention of Angel Eyes, now a disguised Union sergeant at the camp.
Angel Eyes tortures Tuco, who reveals the name of the cemetery, but confesses that only Blondie knows the name on the grave.
Realizing that Blondie will not yield to torture, Angel Eyes offers him an equal share of the gold and a partnership.
Blondie agrees and rides out with Angel Eyes and his gang.
Tuco is packed on a train to be executed, but escapes.
Blondie, Angel Eyes, and his henchmen arrive in an evacuated town.
Tuco, having fled to the same town, takes a bath in a ramshackle hotel and is surprised by Elam, a bounty hunter searching for him.
Tuco shoots Elam, causing Blondie to investigate the gunshots.
He finds Tuco, and they agree to resume their old partnership.
The pair kill Angel Eyes's men, but discover that Angel Eyes himself has escaped.
Tuco and Blondie travel to Sad Hill, now held by Union troops on one side of a strategic bridge against the advancing Confederate troops.
Blondie decides to destroy the bridge to disperse the two armies to allow access to the cemetery.
As they wire the bridge with explosives, Tuco suggests they share information, in case one person dies before he can help the other.
Tuco reveals the name of the cemetery, while Blondie says "Arch Stanton" as the name of the grave.
After the bridge explodes, the armies disperse, and Tuco steals a horse and rides to Sad Hill to claim the gold for himself.
He finds Arch Stanton's grave and begins digging.
Blondie arrives and encourages him at gunpoint to continue.
A moment later, Angel Eyes surprises them both.
Blondie opens Stanton's grave, revealing just a skeleton.
Blondie states that he lied about the name on the grave, and offers to write the real name of the grave on a rock.
Placing it face-down in the courtyard of the cemetery, he challenges Tuco and Angel Eyes to a three-way duel.
The trio stare each other down.
Everyone draws, and Blondie shoots and kills Angel Eyes, while Tuco discovers that his own gun was unloaded by Blondie the night before.
Blondie reveals that the gold is actually in the grave beside Arch Stanton's, marked "Unknown".
Tuco is initially elated to find bags of gold, but Blondie holds him at gunpoint and orders him into a hangman's noose beneath a tree.
Blondie binds Tuco's hands and forces him to stand balanced precariously atop an unsteady grave marker while he takes half the gold and rides away.
As Tuco screams for mercy, Blondie returns into sight.
Blondie severs the rope with a rifle shot, dropping Tuco, alive but tied up, onto his share of the gold.
Tuco curses loudly while Blondie rides off into the horizon.
<EOS>
In the midst of a war-time evacuation, a British aeroplane crashes on or near an isolated island in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean.
The only survivors are boys in their middle childhood or preadolescence.
Two boys—the fair-haired Ralph and an overweight, bespectacled boy nicknamed "Piggy"—find a conch, which Ralph uses as a horn to congregate all the survivors to one area.
Due largely to the fact that Ralph appears responsible for bringing all the survivors together, he immediately commands some authority over the other boys and is quickly elected their "chief", but he does not receive the votes of the members of a boys' choir, led by the red-headed Jack Merridew.
Ralph establishes three primary policies: to have fun, survive, and to constantly maintain a smoke signal that could alert passing ships to their presence on the island and thus rescue them.
The boys create a form of democracy by declaring that whoever holds the conch shall also be able to speak at their formal gatherings and receive the attentive silence of the larger group.
Jack organises his choir into a hunting party responsible for discovering a food source.
Ralph, Jack, and a quiet, dreamy boy named Simon soon form a loose triumvirate of leaders with Ralph as the ultimate authority.
Though he is Ralph's only real confidant, Piggy is quickly made into an outcast by his fellow "biguns" (older boys) and becomes an unwilling source of laughs for the other children while being hated by Jack.
Simon, in addition to supervising the project of constructing shelters, feels an instinctive need to protect the "littluns" (younger boys).
The semblance of order quickly deteriorates as the majority of the boys turn idle; they give little aid in building shelters, spend their time having fun and begin to develop paranoias about the island.
The central paranoia refers to a supposed monster they call the "beast", which they all slowly begin to believe exists on the island.
Ralph insists that no such beast exists, but Jack, who has started a power struggle with Ralph, gains a level of control over the group by boldly promising to kill the creature.
At one point, Jack summons all of his hunters to hunt down a wild pig, drawing away those assigned to maintain the signal fire.
A ship travels by the island, but without the boys' smoke signal to alert the ship's crew, the vessel continues without stopping.
Ralph angrily confronts Jack about his failure to maintain the signal; in frustration Jack assaults Piggy, breaking his glasses.
The boys subsequently enjoy their first feast.
Angered by the failure of the boys to attract potential rescuers, Ralph considers relinquishing his position as leader, but is convinced not to do so by Piggy, who both understands Ralph's importance, and deeply fears what will become of him should Jack take total control.
One night, an aerial battle occurs near the island while the boys sleep, during which a fighter pilot ejects from his plane and dies during the descent.
His body drifts down to the island in his parachute; both get tangled in a tree near the top of the mountain.
Later on, while Jack continues to scheme against Ralph, twins Sam and Eric, now assigned to the maintenance of the signal fire, see the corpse of the fighter pilot and his parachute in the dark.
Mistaking the corpse for the beast, they run to the cluster of shelters that Ralph and Simon have erected to warn the others.
This unexpected meeting again raises tensions between Jack and Ralph.
Shortly thereafter, Jack decides to lead a party to the other side of the island, where a mountain of stones, later called Castle Rock, forms a place where he claims the beast resides.
Only Ralph and a quiet suspicious boy, Jack's closest supporter Roger, agree to go; Ralph turns back shortly before the other two boys but eventually all three see the parachutist whose head rises via the wind; they then flee, now believing the beast is truly real.
When they arrive at the shelters, Jack calls an assembly and tries to turn the others against Ralph, asking for them to remove him from his position.
Receiving no support, Jack storms off alone to form his own tribe.
Roger immediately sneaks off to join Jack, and slowly an increasing amount of older boys abandon Ralph to join Jack's tribe.
Jack's tribe continues to lure recruits in from the main group by promising feasts of cooked pig.
The members begin to paint their faces and enact bizarre rites, including sacrifices to the beast.
Simon, who faints frequently and is likely an epileptic, has a secret hide-away where he goes to be alone.
One day while he is there, Jack and his followers erect a faux sacrifice to the beast near-by: a pig's head, mounted on a sharpened stick, and soon swarming with scavenging flies.
Simon conducts an imaginary dialogue with the head, which he dubs the "Lord of the Flies".
The head mocks Simon's notion that the beast is a real entity, "something you could hunt and kill", and reveals the truth: they, the boys, are the beast; it is inside them all.
The Lord of the Flies also warns Simon that he is in danger, because he represents the soul of man, and predicts that the others will kill him.
Simon climbs the mountain alone and discovers that the beast is only a dead parachutist trapped by rocks being moved by the wind.
Rushing down to tell the others, Simon is seen by the boys who are engaged in a ritual dance.
The frenzied boys mistake Simon for the beast, attack him, and beat him to death.
Jack and his rebel band decide that the real symbol of power on the island is not the conch, but Piggy's glasses—the only means the boys have of starting a fire.
They raid Ralph's camp, confiscate the glasses, and return to their abode on Castle Rock.
Ralph, now deserted by most of his supporters, journeys to Castle Rock to confront Jack and secure the glasses.
Taking the conch and accompanied only by Piggy, Sam, and Eric, Ralph finds the tribe and demands that they return the valuable object.
Confirming their total rejection of Ralph's authority, the tribe captures and binds the twins under Jack's command.
Ralph and Jack engage in a fight which neither wins before Piggy tries once more to address the tribe.
Any sense of order or safety is permanently eroded when Roger, now sadistic, deliberately drops a boulder from his vantage point above, brutally killing Piggy and shattering the conch.
Ralph manages to escape, but Sam and Eric are tortured by Roger until they agree to join Jack's tribe.
Ralph secretly confronts Sam and Eric who warn him that Jack and Roger hate him and that Roger has sharpened a stick at both ends, implying the tribe intends to hunt him like a pig and behead him.
The following morning, Jack orders his tribe to begin a hunt for Ralph.
Jack's savages set fire to the forest while Ralph desperately weighs his options for survival.
Following a long chase, most of the island is consumed in flames.
With the hunters closely behind him, Ralph trips and falls.
He looks up at a uniformed adult – a naval officer whose party has landed from a passing war-ship to investigate the fire.
Ralph bursts into tears over the death of Piggy and the "end of innocence".
Jack and the other children, filthy and unkempt, also revert to their true ages and erupt into sobs.
The officer expresses his disappointment at seeing British boys exhibiting such feral, warlike behaviour before turning to stare awkwardly at his own war-ship.
<EOS>
The story follows several citizens &ndash; and people they encounter &ndash; in and around Kansas City, Missouri and the college town of Lawrence, Kansas, to its west.
The film's narrative is structured as a before-during-after scenario of a nuclear attack: the first segment introduces the various characters and their stories; the second shows the nuclear disaster itself, and; the third details the effects of the fallout on the characters.
During the first segment, as the characters are introduced, the chronology of events leading up to the war is depicted entirely via television and radio news broadcasts as well as communications among US military personnel and hearsay, enhanced by characters' reactions and analysis of the events.
The Soviet Union is shown to have commenced a military buildup in East Germany (which the Soviets insist are Warsaw Pact exercises) with the goal of intimidating the United States (and Great Britain and France) into withdrawing from West Berlin.
When the United States does not back down, Soviet armored divisions are sent to the border between East and West Germany.
During the late hours of Friday, September 15, news broadcasts report a "widespread rebellion among several divisions of the East German Army".
As a result, the Soviets blockade West Berlin.
Tensions mount, and the United States issues an ultimatum that the Soviets stand down from the blockade by 6:00&nbsp;am.
the next day, and noncompliance will be interpreted as an act of war.
The Soviets refuse, and the President of the United States orders allS.
military forces around the world on DEFCON 2 alert.
On Saturday, September 16, NATO forces in West Germany invade East Germany through the Helmstedt checkpoint to free Berlin.
The Soviets hold the Marienborn corridor and inflict heavy casualties on NATO troops.
Two Soviet MiG-25s cross into West German airspace and bomb a NATO munitions storage facility, also striking a school and a hospital.
A subsequent radio broadcast states that Moscow is being evacuated.
At this point, majorS.
cities begin mass evacuations as well.
There soon follow unconfirmed reports that nuclear weapons were used in Wiesbaden and Frankfurt.
Meanwhile, in the Persian Gulf, naval warfare erupts, as radio reports tell of ship sinkings on both sides.
Eventually, the Soviet Army reaches the Rhine.
Seeking to prevent Soviet forces from invading France and causing the rest of Western Europe to fall, NATO halts the Soviet advance by airbursting three low-yield tactical nuclear weapons over advancing Soviet troops.
Soviet forces counter by launching a nuclear strike on NATO headquarters in Brussels.
In response, the United States Strategic Air Command begins scrambling B-52 bombers.
The Soviet Air Force then destroys a BMEWS station at RAF Fylingdales, England and another at Beale Air Force Base in California.
Meanwhile, on board the EC-135 Looking Glass aircraft, the order comes in from the President for a full nuclear strike against the Soviet Union.
Almost simultaneously, an Air Force officer receives a report that a massive Soviet nuclear assault against the United States has been launched, further updated with a report that over 300 Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are inbound.
It is deliberately unclear in the film whether the Soviet Union or the United States launches the main nuclear attack first.
The first salvo of the Soviet nuclear attack on the central United States (as shown from the point of view of the residents of Kansas and western Missouri) occurs at 3:38&nbsp;pm.
Central Daylight Time, when a large-yield nuclear weapon air bursts at high altitude over Kansas City, Missouri.
This generates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that shuts down the electric power grid to any remaining of nearby Whiteman AFB's operable Minuteman II missile silos and of the surrounding areas.
Thirty seconds later, incoming Soviet ICBMs begin to hit military and population targets.
Kansas City, Sedalia, Missouri, and all the way south to El Dorado Springs, Missouri are blanketed with ground burst nuclear weapons.
While the story provides no specifics, it strongly suggests that America's cities, military, and industrial bases are heavily damaged or destroyed.
The aftermath depicts the central United States as a blackened wasteland of burned-out cities filled with burn, blast, and radiation victims.
Eventually, theS.
President delivers a radio address in which he declares there is now a ceasefire between the United States and the Soviet Union (which, although not shown, has suffered the same devastating effects) and states there has not been and will not ever be any surrender by the United States.
dr Russell Oakes lives in the upper-class Brookside neighborhood with his wife and works in a hospital in downtown Kansas City.
He is scheduled to teach a hematology class at the University of Kansas (KU) hospital in nearby Lawrence, Kansas, and is en route when he hears an alarming Emergency Broadcast System alert on his car radio.
He exits the crowded freeway and attempts to contact his wife but gives up due to the long line at a phone booth.
Oakes attempts to return to his home via the K-10 freeway and is the only eastbound motorist.
The nuclear attack begins, and Kansas City is gripped with panic as air raid sirens wail.
Oakes' car is permanently disabled by the EMP from the first high altitude detonation, as are all motor vehicles and electricity.
Oakes is about away from downtown when the missiles hit.
His family, many colleagues, and almost all of Kansas City's population are killed.
He walks to Lawrence, which has been severely damaged from the blasts, and, at the university hospital, treats the wounded with dr Sam Hachiya and Nurse Nancy Bauer.
Also at the university, science Professor Joe Huxley and students use a Geiger counter to monitor the level of nuclear fallout outside.
They build a makeshift radio to maintain contact with dr Oakes at the hospital as well as to locate any other broadcasting survivors beyond their area.
Airman Billy McCoy is stationed at a Minuteman missile silo near Whiteman Air Force Base, east-southeast of Kansas City, and is called to duty during the DEFCON 2 alert.
His crew are among the first to witness the initial missile launches, indicating full-scale nuclear war.
After it becomes clear that a Soviet counterstrike is imminent, the airmen panic.
Several stubbornly insist that they should stay at their post and take shelter in the silo, while others, including McCoy, point out that it is futile because the silo will not withstand a direct hit.
McCoy tells them they have done their jobs and speeds away in an Air Force truck to retrieve his wife and child in Sedalia ( east of Whiteman AFB), but the truck is permanently disabled by an EMP from an airburst detonation.
McCoy abandons the truck and takes shelter inside an overturned semi truck trailer, barely escaping the oncoming nuclear blast.
After the attack, McCoy walks towards a town and finds an abandoned store, where he takes candy bars and other provisions, while gunfire is heard in the distance.
While standing in line for a drink of water from a well pump, McCoy befriends a man who is mute and shares his provisions.
McCoy asks another man along the road about Sedalia, and the man indicates that Sedalia and Windsor no longer exist.
As McCoy and his companion both begin to suffer the effects of radiation sickness, they leave a refugee camp and head to the hospital at Lawrence, where McCoy ultimately succumbs to the radiation sickness.
Farmer Jim Dahlberg and his family live in rural Harrisonville, Missouri, very close to a field of missile silos about south-southwest of Kansas City.
While the family is preparing for the wedding of their elder daughter, Denise, to KU senior Bruce Gallatin, Jim prepares for the impending attack by converting their basement into a makeshift fallout shelter.
As the missiles are launched, he forcefully carries his wife Eve, who refuses to accept the reality of the escalating crisis and continues making wedding preparations, downstairs into the basement.
While running to the shelter, the Dahlberg's son, Danny, inadvertently looks behind him just as a missile detonated in the distance and is instantly blinded and carried back to the shelter by Dahlberg.
KU student Stephen Klein, while hitchhiking home to Joplin, Missouri, stumbles upon the farm and persuades the Dahlbergs to take him in.
After several days in the basement, Denise, distraught over the situation and the unknown whereabouts of Bruce, who, unbeknownst to her, was killed in the attack, escapes from the basement and runs about the field that is cluttered with dead animals.
She sees a clear blue sky and thinks the worst is over.
However, the field is actually covered in radioactive fallout.
Klein goes after her, attempting to warn her about the effects of the invisible nuclear radiation that is going through her cells like x-rays, but Denise, ignoring this warning, tries to run from him.
Eventually, Klein is able to chase Denise back to safety in the basement, but not before Denise runs to the stairs to find her wedding dress.
During a makeshift church service, while the minister tries to express how lucky they are to have survived, Denise begins to bleed externally from her groin due to radiation sickness from her run through the field.
In the background, a Presidential address remarks that there is a ceasefire between the United States and the Soviet Union, which has suffered similar damage, and states that there has not been and will not ever be any surrender by the United States.
Klein takes Danny and Denise to Lawrence for treatment.
dr Hachiya unsuccessfully attempts to treat Danny, and Klein also develops radiation sickness.
Dahlberg, upon returning from an emergency farmers' meeting, confronts a group of silent survivors squatting on his farm and attempts to persuade them to move somewhere else, only to be shot and killed mid-sentence by one of the silent survivors.
Ultimately, the situation at the hospital becomes grim.
dr Oakes collapses from exhaustion and, upon awakening several days later, learns that Nurse Bauer has died from meningitis.
Oakes, suffering from terminal radiation sickness, decides to return to Kansas City to see his home for the last time, while dr Hachiya stays behind.
Oakes hitches a ride on an Army National Guard truck, where he witnesses US military personnel blindfolding and executing looters.
After somehow managing to locate where his home was, he finds the charred remains of his wife's wrist watch and a family huddled in the ruins.
Oakes angrily orders them to leave his home.
The family silently offers Oakes food, causing him to collapse in despair, as a member of the family comforts him.
As the scene fades to black, Professor Huxley calls into his makeshift radio: "Hello.
Is anybody there.
Anybody at all.
" To which, there is no response.
<EOS>
Chapter One – Looking-Glass House: Alice is playing with a white kitten (whom she calls "Snowdrop") and a black kitten (whom she calls "Kitty")—the offspring of Dinah, Alice's cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland—when she ponders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror's reflection.
Climbing up on the fireplace mantel, she pokes at the wall-hung mirror behind the fireplace and discovers, to her surprise, that she is able to step through it to an alternative world.
In this reflected version of her own house, she finds a book with looking-glass poetry, "Jabberwocky", whose reversed printing she can read only by holding it up to the mirror.
She also observes that the chess pieces have come to life, though they remain small enough for her to pick up.
Chapter Two – The Garden of Live Flowers: Upon leaving the house (where it had been a cold, snowy night), she enters a sunny spring garden where the flowers have the power of human speech; they perceive Alice as being a "flower that can move about".
Elsewhere in the garden, Alice meets the Red Queen, who is now human-sized, and who impresses Alice with her ability to run at breathtaking speeds.
This is a reference to the chess rule that queens are able to move any number of vacant squares at once, in any direction, which makes them the most "agile" of pieces.
Chapter Three – Looking-Glass Insects: The Red Queen reveals to Alice that the entire countryside is laid out in squares, like a gigantic chessboard, and offers to make Alice a queen if she can move all the way to the eighth rank/row in a chess match.
This is a reference to the chess rule of Promotion.
Alice is placed in the second rank as one of the White Queen's pawns, and begins her journey across the chessboard by boarding a train that literally jumps over the third row and directly into the fourth rank, thus acting on the rule that pawns can advance two spaces on their first move.
Chapter Four – Tweedledum and Tweedledee: She then meets the fat twin brothers Tweedledum and Tweedledee, whom she knows from the famous nursery rhyme.
After reciting the long poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter", the Tweedles draw Alice's attention to the Red King—loudly snoring away under a nearby tree—and maliciously provoke her with idle philosophical banter that she exists only as an imaginary figure in the Red King's dreams (thereby implying that she will cease to exist the instant he wakes up).
Finally, the brothers begin acting out their nursery-rhyme by suiting up for battle, only to be frightened away by an enormous crow, as the nursery rhyme about them predicts.
Chapter Five – Wool and Water: Alice next meets the White Queen, who is very absent-minded but boasts of (and demonstrates) her ability to remember future events before they have happened.
Alice and the White Queen advance into the chessboard's fifth rank by crossing over a brook together, but at the very moment of the crossing, the Queen transforms into a talking Sheep in a small shop.
Alice soon finds herself struggling to handle the oars of a small rowboat, where the Sheep annoys her with (seemingly) nonsensical shouting about "crabs" and "feathers".
Unknown to Alice, these are standard terms in the jargon of rowing.
Thus (for a change) the Queen/Sheep was speaking in a perfectly logical and meaningful way.
Chapter Six – Humpty Dumpty: After crossing yet another brook into the sixth rank, Alice immediately encounters Humpty Dumpty, who, besides celebrating his unbirthday, provides his own translation of the strange terms in "Jabberwocky".
In the process, he introduces Alice (and the reader) to the concept of portmanteau words, before his inevitable fall.
Chapter Seven – The Lion and the Unicorn: "All the king's horses and all the king's men" come to Humpty Dumpty's assistance, and are accompanied by the White King, along with the Lion and the Unicorn, who again proceed to act out a nursery rhyme by fighting with each other.
In this chapter, the March Hare and Hatter of the first book make a brief re-appearance in the guise of "Anglo-Saxon messengers" called "Haigha" and "Hatta" (ie.
"Hare" and "Hatter"—these names are the only hint given as to their identities other than John Tenniel's illustrations).
Chapter Eight – “It’s my own Invention”: Upon leaving the Lion and Unicorn to their fight, Alice reaches the seventh rank by crossing another brook into the forested territory of the Red Knight, who is intent on capturing the "white pawn"—who is Alice—until the White Knight comes to her rescue.
Escorting her through the forest towards the final brook-crossing, the Knight recites a long poem of his own composition called Haddocks' Eyes, and repeatedly falls off his horse.
His clumsiness is a reference to the "eccentric" L-shaped movements of chess knights, and may also be interpreted as a self-deprecating joke about Lewis Carroll's own physical awkwardness and stammering in real life.
Chapter Nine – Queen Alice: Bidding farewell to the White Knight, Alice steps across the last brook, and is automatically crowned a queen, with the crown materialising abruptly on her head.
She soon finds herself in the company of both the White and Red Queens, who relentlessly confound Alice by using word play to thwart her attempts at logical discussion.
They then invite one another to a party that will be hosted by the newly crowned Alice—of which Alice herself had no prior knowledge.
Chapter Ten – Shaking: Alice arrives and seats herself at her own party, which quickly turns to a chaotic uproar—much like the ending of the first book.
Alice finally grabs the Red Queen, believing her to be responsible for all the day's nonsense, and begins shaking her violently with all her might.
By thus "capturing" the Red Queen, Alice unknowingly puts the Red King (who has remained stationary throughout the book) into checkmate, and thus is allowed to wake up.
Chapter Eleven – Waking: Alice suddenly awakes in her armchair to find herself holding the black kitten, whom she deduces to have been the Red Queen all along, with the white kitten having been the White Queen.
Chapter Twelve – Which dreamed it.
: The story ends with Alice recalling the speculation of the Tweedle brothers, that everything may have, in fact, been a dream of the Red King, and that Alice might herself be no more than a figment of his imagination.
One final poem is inserted by the author as a sort of epilogue which suggests that life itself is but a dream.
<EOS>
In late 1999, an orbiting Indian nuclear satellite is out of control and predicted to re-enter the atmosphere, threatening unknown populated areas of the Earth.
Mass populations trying to flee the likely impact sites cause a worldwide panic.
Caught in a traffic jam and suffering from boredom, Claire Tourneur escapes the highway congestion by taking a side road.
When she gets into a car crash with a pair of bank robbers, they enlist her to carry their stolen cash to Paris.
Along the way, she meets a man being pursued by an armed party who introduces himself as Trevor McPhee, and allows him to travel to Paris with her.
After reaching the house of her estranged lover, Eugene, Claire discovers that Trevor has stolen some of the money.
Claire then travels to Berlin and hires missing persons detective Phillip Winter to help her find Trevor through tracking his passport and credit card — he agrees to help when he finds out Trevor has a substantial bounty on his head.
However, when Claire meets Trevor for lunch, she betrays Winter and attempts to escape with Trevor.
Winter catches the two making love in a motel room, after which Trevor handcuffs them to the bed and escapes with more of Claire's money.
Winter, Claire and Eugene meet in Moscow to continue the search, and find out from Moscow bounty hunters that Trevor is actually Sam Farber, wanted for stealing the prototype of a secret research project.
Multiple government agencies and freelance bounty hunters are chasing him to recover the device.
Winter quits the job, intimidated by the even larger bounty on Sam's head, but Eugene buys a tracking computer to help Claire.
However, when the computer finds Sam's location, she leaves Eugene while she thinks he is sleeping.
Following Sam on the Trans-Siberian Railway, she travels through China and reaches Japan, where she rescues Winter from a botched capture attempt at a capsule hotel.
She finds Sam at a pachinko parlor rapidly losing his eyesight, and buys them train tickets to a random mountain inn.
There, Sam reveals that the stolen prototype belongs to his father, Henry Farber and is a device for recording and translating brain impulses.
He has been recording places and people around the world for his blind mother, Edith Jeanne Moreau, but the recordings are exhausting his eyes.
After the innkeeper heals Sam's eyes, he and Claire fly to San Francisco to take more recordings before heading to the Australian outback, where his father's laboratory is.
Eugene, who had traveled to Japan only to be abandoned by Claire once again, teams up with Winter to capture Sam.
Along with the bank robbers, they travel to Central Australia, but Eugene fights Sam upon finding him, causing both to get arrested.
When Winter bails them out, they discover that the bag containing the camera was taken from Claire while she was drugged with sleeping pills.
However, the bag also contains the original tracker attached to Claire's bank money, which the bank robbers can trace.
Claire and Sam take off in a small airplane to retrieve the camera.
When the Indian nuclear satellite is shot down by the US government, the resulting Nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NEMP) effect wipes out all unshielded electronics worldwide.
Claire and Sam are forced to land the plane when the engine quits.
They walk across the desert until they find the camera with the bounty hunter Burt.
Reuniting with Eugene, Winter and the bank robbers, they travel in hand-cranked diesel-powered jeeps to the lab, which is sheltered in a massive cave.
Henry tries to synchronize the camera with Sam's memory in order to transmit clean images to Edith's brain, but Sam is injured and too tired to perform well.
After father and son come to blows, Claire tries the experiment with her recordings to phenomenal success.
It is revealed that Henry wishes to apply the technology to dream retrieval in order to win a Nobel Prize.
However, Henry pushes too hard and Edith eventually dies of exhaustion.
Eugene's writer's block seems to have been cured and he begins composing on an antique typewriter.
After Edith's death, Henry begins working on how to record human dreams.
The Aborigines disagree with his goals and abandon him, so he experiments on himself, Claire, and Sam.
They eventually become addicted to viewing their dreams on portable video screens.
Eugene finds Claire curled up in a rock crevasse glued to her screen and takes her back to the village, driving her into painful withdrawal when he refuses to replace the batteries for her screen.
He finishes the novel about her adventure and gives it to her, curing her of "the disease of images".
Meanwhile, Sam wanders into the rocky desert labyrinths with his own screen and is ultimately rescued by the Aborigines.
Henry is taken by the CIA while lying in the laboratory's dream-recording chair.
Eugene and Claire leave the village together but break up for good.
Later, Claire becomes an astronaut and spends her 30th birthday as an ecological observer, orbiting in a space station.
Eugene, Winter and the bank robbers celebrate with her by singing "Happy Birthday" over a video fax.
<EOS>
The chapters alternate between the worlds, and time—even-numbered chapters are set on Anarres and earlier in time, odd-numbered chapters are set on Urras and later in time.
The only exceptions are the first and the last chapters which include both worlds and are, thematically, chapters of transition.
In chapter one, we are basically in the middle of the story, with Shevek leaving Anarres, while the last chapter is set in space as he returns from Urras to Anarres.
The penultimate chapter (chapter twelve) is the last one set in Anarres, and ends at a point before the first chapter begins.
Shevek, a physicist working on a new theory of time finds his work blocked by a jealous superior and distrusted by society due to fears it conflicts with the prevailing political philosophy.
His physics work is further disrupted by the need for him to perform manual labor during a drought in this anarchist society.
He arranges to go to Urras to finish and publish his theory.
Arriving on Urras, Shevek is feted.
Shevek soon finds himself digusted with the social, sexual and political conventions of the hierarchical capitalist society he is in.
He joins in a labor protest that is violently suppressed and he escapes to safety.
Finally he is sponsored by ambassadors of Earth who provide him safe passage back to Anarres.
<EOS>
The player takes on the part of Prisoner 849, aboard the prison spacecraft Vortex Rikers.
During transport to a moon-based prison, the ship is pulled to an uncharted planet before reaching its destination.
The ship crash-lands on the lip of a canyon on the planet Na Pali, home of the Nali, a primitive tribal race of four-armed humanoids.
The Nali and their planet have been subjugated by the Skaarj, a race of brutish yet technologically advanced reptilian humanoids.
Skaarj troops board the downed Vortex Rikers and kill the remaining survivors, except for Prisoner 849, who manages to find a weapon and escape from the ship.
The planet Na Pali is rich in "Tarydium", a mineral that is found as light blue crystals, which possesses a high energy yield and utility that is the reason the Skaarj have invaded.
The ship has crashed near one of the many Tarydium mines and processing facilities that the Skaarj have built.
Prisoner 849 travels through the mines, meeting Nali slaves and eventually entering the ruins of Nali temples, villages and cities, where the extent of the Nalis' suffering and exploitation are made clear.
Throughout the game the player stumbles across the remains of other humans, often with electronic journals that detail their last days and hint at the cause of their demise.
Usually the tales are of desperate struggles to hide from the Skaarj or other bloodthirsty inhabitants of the planet.
The player never meets another live human aside from a wounded crew member on the bridge of the prison ship who gasps and dies immediately.
Prisoner 849 is likely the only human alive on the planet Na Pali throughout the game.
Prisoner 849 continues to make their way through a series of alien installations, a second crashed human spaceship, and ancient Nali temples infested with Skaarj troops and their minions, eventually arriving at the Nali Castle.
Inside the castle, the prisoner locates a teleporter that leads to the Skaarj Mothership.
The mothership proves to be a vast labyrinth, but Prisoner 849 manages to find the ship's reactor and destroys it, plunging the vessel into darkness.
After navigating the corridors in the dark, the player arrives at the Skaarj Queen's chamber and kills her.
Prisoner 849 jumps into an escape pod as the mothership disintegrates.
Although the prisoner survives the Skaarj, the escape pod is left to float into space, with slim hopes of being found.
The expansion, Return to Na Pali, developed by defunct Legend Entertainment, picks up not long after Unreal's ending; Prisoner 849 is found by a human warship, the UMS Bodega Bay.
Upon learning of the prisoner's identity, the UMS (the Unified Military Services) conscripts them into service, forcing the prisoner to return to Na Pali in order to locate the downed ship UMS Prometheus.
There, the prisoner is to retrieve some weapons research.
In return, the prisoner will receive a full pardon and transportation back to Earth, though the real plan is revealed to be maintaining the secrecy of the mission by killing the prisoner immediately after the information is secured.
Upon arriving at the Prometheus, Prisoner 849 finds the secret weapons log, but soon after, they find a working radio communicator nearby.
The prisoner listens to a recently recorded and archived conversation between the Bodega Bay and a nearby space station, the UMS Starlight, exposing the military's treachery.
As Prisoner 849 transmits the research log, a squad of marines beam on board the ship, intending to eliminate the prisoner, who manages to escape into a nearby mine system.
Once again, Prisoner 849 is forced to traverse a series of alien facilities and Nali temples in an attempt to locate another way off the planet.
Eventually the prisoner ends up at another Nali Castle, where a small space shuttle is stored.
After fighting through Skaarj, the prisoner manages to take off in the spacecraft.
However, the Bodega Bay is waiting in orbit, and launches a missile at the prisoner's ship.
The prisoner outmaneuvers the missile, and leads it back on a collision course with the Bodega Bay.
The large ship is disabled by the ensuing blast, and Prisoner 849 escapes into space.
<EOS>
In Philadelphia in 1961, Elijah Price is born with Type I osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare disease that renders sufferers' bones extremely fragile and prone to fracture.
As revealed later in flashbacks, Elijah—who grows up to become a comic-book art dealer—develops a theory, based on the comics he has read during his many hospital stays, that if he represents extreme human frailty, there must be someone "unbreakable" at the opposite extreme.
Years later, another Philadelphia man, security guard David Dunn, is also searching for meaning in his life.
He had given up a promising football career during his collegiate days to marry Audrey after they were involved in an auto accident.
Now, however, their marriage is dissolving, to the distress of their young son Joseph.
As he returns home from a job interview in New York City, David's train crashes, killing the other 131 passengers, while he is the only survivor, sustaining no injuries.
At the memorial for the crash's victims, he finds a card on his car's windshield, inviting him to Elijah's store.
Elijah proposes to David that he is the kind of person after whom comic-book superheroes are modeled, and repeatedly pursues the issue with David and Audrey, trying to learn if David had ever been ill or injured during childhood.
Although Elijah unsettles him, David begins to test himself.
While lifting weights with Joseph, he bench presses about 350 pounds, well above what he had thought he could do.
Joseph begins to idolize his father and believes he is a superhero, although David still maintains he is "an ordinary man".
David challenges Elijah with an incident from his childhood when he almost drowned.
Elijah suggests that the incident highlights the common comic trope whereby superheroes often have one weakness; he contends David's might be water.
While surveying the stored wreckage of the train crash that he survived, David recalls the car accident that ended his athletics career, remembering that he was unharmed and ripped a door off the car in order to save Audrey.
David used the accident as an excuse to quit football because Audrey did not like the violence of the sport.
Under Elijah's influence, David develops what he thought was an unusual insight into human behavior into an extrasensory perception that enables him to glimpse criminal acts committed by the people who make contact with him.
At Elijah's suggestion, David stands in the middle of a crowd in Philadelphia's 30th Street Station.
As various people bump into him, he senses the crimes they perpetrated, such as theft and rape, and finds one he can act on: a sadistic janitor who invaded a family home, killed the parents and is holding the children captive.
David follows the janitor to the victims' house and frees the children, but the janitor ambushes him and pushes him off a balcony into a swimming pool.
David nearly drowns (since he cannot swim), but the children rescue him.
He then attacks the janitor from behind and strangles him to death while once more remaining uninjured.
That night, he and Audrey reconcile.
The following morning, he secretly shows a newspaper article on the anonymous heroic act, featuring a sketch of David in his hooded rain poncho, to his son, who recognizes the hero as his father.
David attends an exhibition at Elijah's comic book art gallery and meets Elijah's mother, who explains the difference between villains who fight heroes with physical strength versus those who use their intelligence.
Elijah brings David to the back room of his studio, extends his hand, and asks David to shake it.
Upon doing so, David sees visions of Elijah orchestrating several terrorist disasters, including David's recent train accident, causing hundreds of deaths.
David is horrified, but Elijah insists the deaths were justified as a means to find him.
Calling himself "Mr.
Glass", a nickname his peers had used to taunt him with when he was growing up, he explains that his own purpose in life is to be the villain to David's hero.
Screen captions reveal that David reported Elijah's actions to the police, and that Elijah was convicted of murder and terrorism and committed to an institution for the criminally insane.
<EOS>
After sinking a merchant ship from an Allied convoy, German U-boat U-571 has her engines badly damaged by depth charges from a British destroyer.
U-571's skipper Kapitänleutnant Gunther Wassner makes a distress call that is intercepted by American intelligence, so the US Navy has submarine S-33 modified to resemble a German resupply U-boat to steal the Enigma coding device and sink the U-571.
As the crew of S-33 receive their assignment, the submarine's executive officer Lieutenant Tyler is unhappy about his promotion being blocked by commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Dahlgren.
During a storm, S-33's boarding party surprises and overwhelms the crew of U-571.
After securing U-571, the American S-33 is torpedoed by the German resupply sub that was sent to aid U-571.
Lieutenant Commander Dahlgren is blown off the deck of S-33 and seriously wounded, while struggling to stay afloat he refuses rescue and orders the boarding party on the captured U-boat to submerge.
Lieutenant Tyler takes command of U-571 and dives below the surface where they engage and sink the resupply sub in an underwater battle.
After making repairs and restoring power Tyler decides to route the disabled submarine to Land's End in Cornwall, England.
They are spotted by a German reconnaissance plane which is unaware that U-571 has been commandeered by Americans; a nearby German destroyer sends over a small contingent but right before boarders arrive, Tyler gives orders to fire a shot from the deck gun, destroying the German destroyer's radio room, and preventing it from reporting the capture of a German sub and its Enigma machine and code books.
The sub dives underneath the German destroyer, which then begins to drop depth charges to sink U-571.
U-571's original master Kapitänleutnant Wassner escapes captivity and kills one of Tyler's crew but he is subdued before he can sabotage the boat's engines.
Tyler attempts to trick the destroyer into stopping its attack by ejecting debris and a corpse out of a torpedo tube, faking their own destruction, however the German destroyer continues dropping depth charges.
The crew then realizes that Kapitänleutnant Wassner, despite being shackled, is using Morse Code tapping to signal to the destroyer that the submarine was captured and knock him out.
U-571, hiding at below , is damaged by the high water pressure.
Control of the main ballast tanks is lost and the ship ascends uncontrollably.
Tyler orders crewman Trigger to submerse himself in the bilge underwater to repressurize the torpedo tubes.
Trigger uses an air hose to enter the flooded compartment.
He closes the air valve to the torpedo tubes, but a second leak and broken valve are found, which Trigger can't reach.
U-571 surfaces heavily damaged and begins to flood, unable to fire its last torpedo from its stern tubes.
The destroyer gives chase and fires upon U-571 with its main guns; the first hit causes pipes to collapse, pinning Trigger's leg, after he has left the air hose behind.
Unable to turn back, he reaches for the valve and closes it before he dies.
The second the pressure is available, Tyler orders Tank to fire the final torpedo.
The German destroyer is unable to take evasive action and is sunk.
As the crew sigh in relief, Tank reports Trigger's death.
U-571 has taken severe damage and will not remain afloat for long.
The crew abandons the submarine with the Enigma in their possession.
The crew watch U-571 as she slips beneath the waves.
Floating aboard an inflatable lifeboat, they are eventually rescued by a US Navy PBY Catalina flying boat.
<EOS>
An Arab fighter named Siba was planned, and his character model even appeared on some Virtua Fighter arcade cabinets (though, in some cases, Akira's name was placed under his portrait).
He was ultimately dropped, but later appeared in Fighters Megamix.
Once in the Shōwa period, the defunct Japanese army intended to approach Henry Pu-yi, the last Emperor of the Ching Dynasty in their effort to take advantages.
However, they were defeated by the Imperial guards who utilized the martial art called Hakkyoku-ken.
During World War II, the Japanese army research the mysteries of Hakkyoku-ken to create supersoldiers, developing the ultimate martial art.
Approximately half a century has passed since then, the ultimate World Fighting Tournament is about to start, and all kinds of fighters from around the world engage to determine the world's best.
Behind the Tournament, however, there exists an intrigue designed by a sinister syndicate.
<EOS>
Set in contemporary West Berlin (at the time still enclosed by the Berlin Wall), Wings of Desire follows two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, as they roam the city, unseen and unheard by its human inhabitants, observing and listening to the diverse thoughts of Berliners: a pregnant woman in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, a painter struggling to find inspiration, a broken man who thinks his girlfriend no longer loves him.
Their raison d'être is, as Cassiel says, to "assemble, testify, preserve" reality.
In addition to the story of two angels, the film is also a meditation on Berlin's past, present, and future.
Damiel and Cassiel have always existed as angels; they existed in Berlin before it was a city, and before there were even any humans.
Among the Berliners they encounter in their wanderings is an old man named Homer, who, unlike the Greek poet Homer, dreams of an "epic of peace".
Cassiel follows the old man as he looks for the then-demolished Potsdamer Platz in an open field, and finds only the graffiti-covered Berlin Wall.
Although Damiel and Cassiel are pure observers, visible only to children, and incapable of any physical interaction with our world, Damiel begins to fall in love with a profoundly lonely circus trapeze artist named Marion.
She lives by herself in a caravan, dances alone to the music of Crime & the City Solution, and drifts through the city.
A subplot follows Peter Falk, who has arrived in Berlin to make a film about Berlin's Nazi past.
As the film progresses, it emerges that Peter Falk was once an angel, who, having grown tired of always observing and never experiencing, renounced his immortality to become a participant in the world.
As one can take only so much of infinity, Damiel's longing is in the opposite direction, for the genuineness and limitedness of human existence in the world, perhaps a reference to Dasein, or Existenz.
When he sheds his immortal existence, he experiences life for the first time: he bleeds, sees colors for the first time (the movie up to this point is filmed in a sepia-toned monochrome, except for brief moments when the angels are not present or looking), tastes food and drinks coffee.
Meanwhile, Cassiel inadvertently taps into the mind of a young man just about to commit suicide by jumping off a building.
Cassiel tries to save the young man but is unable to do so, and is left haunted and tormented by the experience.
Eventually, Damiel meets the trapeze artist Marion at a bar (during a concert by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), and they greet each other with familiarity as if they had long known each other.
In the end, Damiel is united with the woman he has desired for so long.
The film ends with the message: "To be continued".
The story is concluded in Wenders' 1993 sequel, In weiter Ferne, so nah.
(Faraway, So Close.
).
<EOS>
Grouchy, stubborn and egotistical Professor Isak Borg is a widowed 78-year-old physician who specialized in bacteriology.
Before specializing he served as general practitioner in rural Sweden.
He sets out on a long car ride from Stockholm to Lund to be awarded the degree of Doctor Jubilaris 50 years after he received his doctorate from Lund University.
He is accompanied by his pregnant daughter-in-law Marianne who does not much like her father-in-law and is planning to separate from her husband, Evald, Isak's only son, who does not want her to have the baby, their first.
During the trip, Isak is forced by nightmares, daydreams, old age and impending death to reevaluate his life.
He meets a series of hitchhikers, each of whom sets off dreams or reveries into Borg's troubled past.
The first group consists of two young men and their companion, a woman named Sara who is adored by both men.
Sara is a double for the love of Isak's youth.
The first group remains with him throughout his journey.
Next Isak and Marianne pick up an embittered middle-aged couple, the Almans, whose vehicle has nearly collided with theirs.
The pair exchanges such terrible vitriol and venom that Marianne stops the car and demands that they leave.
The couple reminds Isak of his own unhappy marriage.
In a dream sequence, Isak is asked by Sten Alman, now the examiner, to read “foreign” letters on the blackboard.
He cannot.
So, Alman reads it for him: "A doctor's first duty is to ask forgiveness," from which he concludes, "You are guilty of guilt".
He reminisces about his childhood at the seaside and his sweetheart Sara, with whom he remembered gathering strawberries, but who instead married his brother.
He is confronted by his loneliness and aloofness, recognizing these traits in both his ancient mother (whom they stop to visit) and in his middle-aged physician son, and he gradually begins to accept himself, his past, his present and his approaching death.
In one dream, he is quizzed by a very judgmental medical professor; he is also praised by a small-town merchant who remembers him.
Borg finally arrives at his destination and is promoted to Doctor Jubilaris, but this proves to be an empty ritual.
That night, he bids a loving goodbye to his young friends, to whom the once bitter old man whispers in response to a playful declaration of the young girl's love, "I'll remember".
As he goes to his bed in his son's home, he is overcome by a sense of peace, and dreams of a family picnic by a lake.
Closure and affirmation of life have finally come, and Borg's face radiates joy.
<EOS>
In 1977, Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) graduate from the University of Chicago and share the drive to New York City, where Sally is beginning journalism school and Harry is starting a career.
Harry is dating a friend of Sally's, Amanda (Michelle Nicastro).
During the drive, they discuss their differing ideas about relationships between men and women.
Harry says that "Men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way".
Sally disagrees, claiming that men and women can be strictly friends without sex.
During a stop in a diner, Sally is angered when Harry tells her she is attractive; she accuses him of making a pass at her.
In New York, they part on unfriendly terms.
Five years later, Harry and Sally find themselves on the same flight.
Sally has just started dating a man named Joe (Steven Ford) – who is a neighbor of Harry's – and Harry is engaged to a woman named Helen, which surprises Sally.
Harry suggests they become friends, forcing him to qualify his previous "rule" about the impossibility of male-female friendships.
Despite Harry's suggestions of exceptions to that rule, they separate, concluding that they will not be friends.
Harry and Sally run into each other again in a bookstore five years later.
They have coffee and talk about their previous relationships; Sally and Joe broke up because she wanted a family and he did not want to marry, and Harry's relationship ended when Helen fell in love with another man.
They take a walk and decide to be friends.
They have late-night phone conversations, go to dinner, and spend time together.
Their dating experiences with others continue to inform their differing approaches to relationships and sex.
During a New Year's Eve party, Harry and Sally find themselves attracted to each other.
Though they remain friends, they set each other up with their respective best friends, Marie (Carrie Fisher) and Jess (Bruno Kirby).
When the four go to a restaurant, Marie and Jess hit it off; they later become engaged.
One night, over the phone, Sally tearfully tells Harry that her ex is getting married.
He rushes to her apartment to comfort her, and they unexpectedly have sex, resulting in an awkward moment the next morning as Harry leaves in a state of distress.
This creates tension in their relationship.
Their friendship cools for three weeks until the two have a heated argument during Jess and Marie's wedding dinner.
Following this fight, Harry repeatedly attempts to mend his friendship with Sally, but she feels that they cannot be friends after what happened.
At a New Year's Eve party that year, Sally feels alone without Harry by her side.
Harry spends New Year's alone, walking around the city.
As Sally decides to leave the party early, Harry appears and declares his love for her.
At first, she argues that the only reason he is there is because he is lonely, but he disagrees and lists the many things he realized he loves about her.
They make up and kiss and marry three months later.
<EOS>
Modern wuxia stories are largely set in ancient or pre-modern China.
The historical setting can range from being quite specific and important to the story, to being vaguely-defined, anachronistic, or mainly for use as a backdrop.
Elements of fantasy, such as the use of magic powers and appearance of supernatural beings, are common in some wuxia stories but are not a prerequisite of the wuxia genre.
However, the martial arts element is a definite part of a wuxia tale, as the characters must know some form of martial arts.
Themes of romance are also strongly featured in some wuxia tales.
A typical wuxia story features a young male protagonist who experiences a tragedy – such as the loss of his loved ones – and goes on to undertake several trials and tribulations to learn several forms of martial arts from various fighters.
At the end of the story, he emerges as a powerful fighter whom few can equal.
He uses his abilities to follow the code of xia and mends the ills of the jianghu.
For instance, the opening chapters of some of Jin Yong's works follow a certain pattern: a tragic event occurs, usually one that costs the lives of the newly introduced characters, and then it sets events into motion that will culminate in the primary action of the story.
Other stories use different structures.
For instance, the protagonist is denied admission into a martial arts sect.
He experiences hardships and trains secretly and waits until there is an opportunity for him to show off his skills and surprise those who initially looked down on him.
Some stories feature a mature hero with powerful martial arts abilities confronting an equally powerful antagonist as his nemesis.
The plot will gradually meander to a final dramatic showdown between the protagonist and his nemesis.
These types of stories were prevalent during the era of anti-Qing revolutionaries.
Certain stories have unique plots, such as those by Gu Long and Huang Yi.
Gu Long's works have an element of mystery and are written like detective stories.
The protagonist, usually a formidable martial artist and intelligent problem-solver, embarks on a quest to solve a mystery such as a murder case.
Huang Yi's stories are blended with science fiction.
Despite these genre-blending elements, wuxia is primarily a historical genre of fiction.
Notwithstanding this, wuxia writers openly admit that they are unable to capture the entire history of a course of events and instead choose to structure their stories along the pattern of the protagonist's progression from childhood to adulthood instead.
The progression may be symbolic rather than literal, as observed in Jin Yong's The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, where Linghu Chong progresses from childish concerns and dalliances into much more adult ones as his unwavering loyalty repeatedly thrusts him into the rocks of betrayal at the hands of his inhumane master.
Eight common attributes of the xia are listed as benevolence, justice, individualism, loyalty, courage, truthfulness, disregard for wealth, and desire for glory.
Apart from individualism, these characteristics are similar to Confucian values such as ren (仁; "benevolence", "kindness"), zhong (忠; "loyalty"), yong (勇; "courage", "bravery") and yi (義; "righteousness").
The code of xia also emphasises the importance of repaying benefactors after having received deeds of en (恩; "grace", "favour") from others, as well as seeking chou (仇; "vengeance", "revenge") to bring villains to justice.
However, the importance of vengeance is controversial, as a number of wuxia works stress Buddhist ideals, which include forgiveness, compassion and a prohibition on killing.
In the jianghu, martial artists are expected to be loyal to their master (sifu).
This gives rise to the formation of several complex trees of master-apprentice relations as well as the various sects such as Shaolin and Wudang.
If there are any disputes between fighters, they will choose the honourable way of settling their issues through fighting in duels.
The martial arts in wuxia stories are based on wushu techniques and other real life Chinese martial arts.
In wuxia tales, however, the mastery of such skills are highly exaggerated to superhuman levels of achievement and prowess.
The following is a list of skills and abilities a typical fighter in a wuxia story possesses: In wuxia stories, characters attain the above skills and abilities by devoting themselves to years of diligent study and exercise, but can also have such power conferred upon them by a master who transfers his inner energy to them.
The instructions to mastering these skills through training are found in secret manuals known as miji (秘笈).
In some stories, specific skills can be learned by spending several years in seclusion with a master or training with a group of fighters.
The meaning of the term "jianghu" (江湖; literally "rivers and lakes"; Cantonese: kong-woo) has evolved over the course of Chinese history.
First coined by Zhuangzi in the late 4th century BC, it was used to describe a way of life different from that of being actively involved in politics.
At the time, it referred to the way of life of underachieving or maligned scholar-officials who distanced themselves from the circles of political power.
In this sense, "jianghu" could be loosely interpreted as the way of life of a hermit.
Over the centuries, "jianghu" gained greater acceptance among the common people and gradually became a term used to describe a sub-society parallel to, and sometimes orthogonal to, mainstream society.
This sub-society initially included merchants, craftsmen, beggars and vagabonds, but over time it assimilated bandits, outlaws and gangs who lived "outside the existing law".
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, bards and novelists began using the term "jianghu" to create a literature of a fictional society of adventurers and rebels who lived not by existing societal laws, but by their own moral principles.
The core of these moral principles encompassed en (恩; "grace", "favour"), yi (義; "righteousness"), and chou (仇; "vengeance", "revenge").
Stories in this genre bloomed and enriched various interpretations of "jianghu".
At the same time, the term "jianghu" also developed intricate interconnections with gang culture because of outlaws' mutually shared distaste towards governments.
The inclusion of martial arts as a feature of "jianghu" was a recent development in the early 20th century.
Novelists started creating a fantasy world in "jianghu" in which characters are martial artists and in which the characters' enforcement of righteousness is symbolised by conflicts between different martial artists or martial arts sects and the ultimate triumph of good over evil.
Martial arts became a tool used by characters in a "jianghu" story to enforce their moral beliefs.
On the other hand, there are characters who become corrupted by power derived from their formidable prowess in martial arts and end up abandoning their morality in their pursuit of power.
Around this time, the term "jianghu" became closely related to a similar term, "wulin" (武林; literally "martial forest"; Cantonese: mou-lam), which referred exclusively to a community of martial artists.
This fantasy world of "jianghu" remains as the mainstream definition of "jianghu" in modern Chinese popular culture, particularly wuxia culture.
The following description focuses more on the martial arts aspect of "jianghu", its well-established social norms, and its close relation with "wulin".
A common aspect of the jianghu is that the courts of law are dysfunctional and that all disputes and differences (within the community) can only be resolved by members of the community, through the use of mediation, negotiation or force, predicating the need for the code of xia and acts of chivalry.
Law and order within the jianghu are maintained by the various orthodox and righteous sects and heroes.
Sometimes these sects may gather to form an alliance against a powerful evil organisation in the jianghu.
A leader, called the "wulin mengzhu" (武林盟主; lit.
"master of the wulin alliance"), is elected from among the sects in order to lead them and ensure law and order within the jianghu.
The leader is usually someone with a high level of mastery in martial arts and a great reputation for righteousness who is often involved in some conspiracy and/or killed.
In some stories, the leader may not be the greatest martial artist in the jianghu; in other stories, the position of the leader is hereditary.
The leader is an arbiter who presides and adjudicates over all inequities and disputes.
The leader is a de jure chief justice of the affairs of the jianghu.
Members of the jianghu are also expected to keep their distance from any government offices or officials, without necessarily being antagonistic.
It was acceptable for jianghu members who are respectable members of society (usually owning properties or big businesses) to maintain respectful but formal and passive relationship with the officials, such as paying due taxes and attending local community events.
Even then, they are expected to shield any fugitives from the law, or at the least not to turn over fugitives to the officials.
Local officials who are more savvy would know better than to expect co-operation from jianghu members, and would refrain from seeking help except to apprehend the worst and most notorious criminals.
If the crimes also violated some of the moral tenets of jianghu, jianghu members may assist the government officials.
An interesting aspect is that while senior officials are kept at a distance, jianghu members may freely associate with low-ranking staff such as runners, jailers, or clerks of the magistrates.
The jianghu members maintained order among their own in the community and prevent any major disturbance, thus saving a lot of work for their associates in the yamen.
In return, the runners turn a blind eye to certain jianghu activities that are officially disapproved, the jailers ensured incarcerated jianghu members are not mistreated, and the clerks pass on useful tips to the jianghu community.
This reciprocal arrangement allowed their superiors to maintain order in their jurisdiction with the limited resources available and jianghu members greater freedom.
Although many jianghu members were Confucian-educated, their attitudess towards the way of life in the jianghu is largely overshadowed by pragmatism.
In other words, they feel that Confucian values are to be respected and upheld if they are useful, and to be discarded if they are a hindrance.
The basic (spoken and unspoken) norms of the jianghu are: The term "jianghu" is linked to cultures other than those pertaining to martial arts in wuxia stories.
It is also applied to anarchic societies.
For instance, the triads and other Chinese secret societies use the term "jianghu" to describe their world of organised crime.
Sometimes, the term "jianghu" may be replaced by the term "underworld" à la "criminal underworld".
In modern terminology, "jianghu" may mean any circle of interest, ranging from the entertainment industry to sports.
Colloquially, retirement is also referred to as "leaving the jianghu" (退出江湖).
In wuxia stories, when a reputable fighter decides to retire from the jianghu, he will do so in a ceremony known as "washing hands in the golden basin" (金盆洗手).
He washes his hands in a golden basin filled with water, signifying that he will no longer be involved in the affairs of the jianghu.
When a reclusive fighter who has retired from the jianghu reappears, his return is described as "re-entering the jianghu" (重出江湖).
<EOS>
Wolfenstein 3D is divided into two sets of three episodes: "Escape from Castle Wolfenstein", "Operation: Eisenfaust", and "Die, Führer, Die.
" serve as the primary trilogy, with a second trilogy titled The Nocturnal Missions including "A Dark Secret", "Trail of the Madman", and "Confrontation".
The protagonist is William "BJ".
Blazkowicz, an American spy of Polish descent, and the game follows his efforts to destroy the Nazi regime.
In "Escape", Blazkowicz has been captured while trying to find the plans for Operation Eisenfaust (Iron Fist) and imprisoned in Castle Wolfenstein, from which he must escape.
"Operation: Eisenfaust" follows his discovery and thwarting of the Nazi plan to create an army of undead mutants in Castle Hollehammer, while in "Die, Führer, Die.
" he infiltrates a bunker under the Reichstag, culminating in a battle with Adolf Hitler in a robotic suit equipped with four chain guns.
The Nocturnal Missions form a prequel storyline dealing with German plans for chemical warfare.
"A Dark Secret" deals with the initial pursuit through a weapons research facility of the scientist responsible for developing the weaponry.
"Trail of the Madman" takes place in Castle Erlangen, where Blazkowicz's goal is to find the maps and plans for the chemical war.
The story ends in "Confrontation", which is set in Castle Offenbach as he confronts the Nazi general behind the chemical warfare initiative.
An additional episode entitled Spear of Destiny was released as a retail game by FormGen.
It follows Blazkowicz on a different prequel mission trying to recapture the Spear of Destiny from the Nazis after it was stolen from Versailles.
FormGen later developed two sequel episodes, "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge", each of which feature Blazkowicz as he fights through another Nazi base to recover the Spear of Destiny after it has been stolen again as part of a plot to build a nuclear weapon or summon demons.
<EOS>
In 1814 French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, facing certain defeat at the hands of Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia (the Sixth coalition), abdicates at the demand of his marshals.
He is banished to Elba with 1,000 men, but escapes and returns to France.
Ney, now serving the monarchy of Louis XVIII of France, is tasked with recapturing him, but he and his army defect to Napoleon.
King Louis flees, Napoleon triumphantly enters Paris, and the European powers declare war.
The Prussian von Muffling interrupts the Duchess of Richmond's ball to warn the Duke of Wellington that Napoleon has invaded Belgium to defeat the Allied forces before they can unite.
Realising that Napoleon has got between himself and the Prussians, Wellington decides to halt the French at Waterloo.
The French fight the British to a draw at Quatre-Bras, but defeat the Prussians at Ligny.
Field Marshal Blücher rejects the advice of his Chief of Staff, General Gneisenau to retreat and instead moves north to Wavre to keep contact with Wellington.
Napoleon, enraged that Ney has let Wellington withdraw to ground of his choosing, directs 30,000 men under Marshal Grouchy to pursue Blücher and keep the Prussians from rejoining the British, while he leads his remaining force against Wellington.
The battle of Waterloo, delayed to let the ground dry after the previous night's storm, starts shortly after 11:30 am with cannon fire from the French.
Napoleon launches a diversionary infantry attack on Wellington's right flank, the Chateau of Hougoumont, but Wellington refuses to divert forces.
Napoleon then attacks the allied left with d'Erlon's infantry corps.
General Picton successfully halts the attack but is killed.
Ponsonby's cavalry brigade, the renowned Royal Scots Greys, pursue the French, but go too far across the battlefield and become isolated from the rest of the Allied force, and are thus cut to pieces by Napoleon's lancers.
Ponsonby himself is killed.
Napoleon realises that troops spotted emerging from the woods to the east are Prussians (Blücher's army), not French (Grouchy's force), but keeps this from his army.
He then suffers stomach pain and withdraws temporarily, leaving Marshal Ney in command.
Ney misinterprets a reorganisation of the Allied line as a retreat and leads a cavalry charge, which is repelled with heavy losses by allied infantry squares.
Napoleon returns and rebukes his marshals for letting Ney attack without infantry support.
However he hopes that Wellington's line has been worn down.
The British farmhouse of La Haye Sainte falls, and Napoleon sends the Imperial Guard for the decisive blow.
As they advance they are repulsed by Maitland's Guards Division, who were lying unseen in the grass on the reverse of the slope.
The repulse of the Guard devastates French morale, and the arrival of the Prussians makes matters certain.
After refusing to surrender, the Imperial Guard squares are annihilated with close range artillery.
After the battle, Wellington wanders among the piles of dead, lamenting the cost of victory.
At the same time Napoleon, who had declared that he would die with his men, is dragged by his marshals from the field and later departs in a carriage for Paris.
<EOS>
The play opens on an outdoor scene of two bedraggled companions: the philosophical Vladimir and the weary Estragon who, at the moment, cannot remove his boots from his aching feet, finally muttering, "Nothing to be done".
Vladimir takes up the thought loftily, while Estragon vaguely recalls having been beaten the night before.
Finally, his boots come off, while the pair ramble and bicker pointlessly.
When Estragon suddenly decides to leave, Vladimir reminds him that they must stay and wait for an unspecified person called Godot&mdash;a segment of dialogue that repeats often.
Unfortunately, the pair cannot agree on where or when they are expected to meet with this Godot.
They only know to wait at a tree, and there is indeed a leafless one nearby.
Eventually, Estragon dozes off and Vladimir rouses him but then stops him before he can share his dreams&mdash;another recurring activity between the two men.
Estragon wants to hear an old joke, which Vladimir cannot finish without going off to urinate, since every time he starts laughing, a kidney ailment flares up.
Upon Vladimir's return, the increasingly jaded Estragon suggests that they hang themselves, but they abandon the idea when the logistics seem ineffective.
They then speculate on the potential rewards of continuing to wait for Godot, but can come to no definite conclusions.
When Estragon declares his hunger, Vladimir provides a carrot (among a collection of turnips), at which Estragon idly gnaws, loudly reiterating his boredom.
"A terrible cry" heralds the entrance of Lucky, a silent, baggage-burdened slave with a rope tied around his neck, and Pozzo, his arrogant and imperious master, who holds the other end and stops now to rest.
Pozzo barks abusive orders at Lucky, which are always quietly followed, while acting civilly though tersely towards the other two.
Pozzo enjoys a selfish snack of chicken and wine, before casting the bones to the ground, which Estragon gleefully claims.
Having been in a dumbfounded state of silence ever since the arrival of Pozzo and Lucky, Vladimir finally finds his voice to shout criticisms at Pozzo for his mistreatment of Lucky.
Pozzo ignores this and explains his intention to sell Lucky, who begins to cry.
Estragon takes pity and tries to wipe away Lucky's tears, but, as he approaches, Lucky violently kicks him in the shin.
Pozzo then rambles nostalgically but vaguely about his relationship with Lucky over the years, before offering Vladimir and Estragon some compensation for their company.
Estragon begins to beg for money when Pozzo instead suggests that Lucky can "dance" and "think" for their entertainment.
Lucky's dance, "the Net", is clumsy and shuffling; Lucky's "thinking" is a long-winded and disjointed monologue&mdash;it is the first and only time that Lucky speaks.
The soliloquy begins as a relatively coherent and academic lecture on theology but quickly dissolves into mindless verbosity, escalating in both volume and speed, that agonises the others until Vladimir finally pulls off Lucky's hat, stopping him in mid-sentence.
Pozzo then has Lucky pack up his bags, and they hastily leave.
Vladimir and Estragon, alone again, reflect on whether they met Pozzo and Lucky before.
A boy then arrives, purporting to be a messenger sent from Godot to tell the pair that Godot will not be coming that evening "but surely tomorrow".
During Vladimir's interrogation of the boy, he asks if he came the day before, making it apparent that the two men have been waiting for a long period and will likely continue.
After the boy departs, the moon appears and the two men verbally agree to leave and find shelter for the night, but they merely stand without moving.
It is daytime again and Vladimir begins singing a recursive round about the death of a dog, but twice forgets the lyrics as he sings.
Again, Estragon claims to have been beaten last night, despite no apparent injury.
Vladimir comments that the formerly bare tree now has leaves and tries to confirm his recollections of yesterday against Estragon's extremely vague, unreliable memory.
Vladimir then triumphantly produces evidence of the previous day's events by showing Estragon the wound from when Lucky kicked him.
Noticing Estragon's barefootedness, they also discover his previously forsaken boots nearby, which Estragon insists are not his, although they fit him perfectly.
With no carrots left, Vladimir is turned down in offering Estragon a turnip or a radish.
He then sings Estragon to sleep with a lullaby before noticing further evidence to confirm his memory: Lucky's hat still lies on the ground.
This leads to his waking Estragon and involving him in a frenetic hat-swapping scene.
The two then wait again for Godot, while distracting themselves by playfully imitating Pozzo and Lucky, firing insults at each other and then making up, and attempting some fitness routines&mdash;all of which fail miserably and end quickly.
Suddenly, Pozzo and Lucky reappear, but the rope is much shorter than during their last visit, and Lucky now guides Pozzo, rather than being controlled by him.
As they arrive, Pozzo trips over Lucky and they together fall into a motionless heap.
Estragon sees an opportunity to exact revenge on Lucky for kicking him earlier.
The issue is debated lengthily until Pozzo shocks the pair by revealing that he is now blind and Lucky is now mute.
Pozzo further claims to have lost all sense of time, and assures the others that he cannot remember meeting them before, but also does not expect to recall today's events tomorrow.
His commanding arrogance from yesterday appears to have been replaced by humility and insight.
His parting words&mdash;which Vladimir expands upon later&mdash;are ones of utter despair.
Lucky and Pozzo depart; meanwhile Estragon has again fallen asleep.
Alone, Vladimir is encountered by (apparently) the same boy from yesterday, though Vladimir wonders whether he might be the other boy's brother.
This time, Vladimir begins consciously realising the circular nature of his experiences: he even predicts exactly what the boy will say, involving the same speech about Godot not arriving today but surely tomorrow.
Vladimir seems to reach a moment of revelation before furiously chasing the boy away, demanding that he be recognised the next time they meet.
Estragon awakes and pulls his boots off again.
He and Vladimir consider hanging themselves once more, but when they test the strength of Estragon's belt (hoping to use it as a noose), it breaks and Estragon's trousers fall down.
They resolve tomorrow to bring a more suitable piece of rope and, if Godot fails to arrive, to commit suicide at last.
Again, they decide to clear out for the night, but, again, neither of them makes any attempt to move.
<EOS>
The novel is set in a future a few decades ahead of the 1960s, when it was written.
The USA is still competing with the Soviet Union.
Both have functioning bases on the Moon, and the Soviets have gained the lead in sending an expedition to Mars.
From the point of view of most of the population of the Earth, a new planet appears out of nothing close to the Moon, shortly after a total lunar eclipse.
Over a period of few days the planet appears to consume the Moon.
On Earth, the new planet's gravity causes death and destruction as it raises huge ocean tides and causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Flying saucers appear in the skies, apparently trying to mitigate some of the disastrous effects.
Then after a spectacular battle in space between the new planet and another, the skies are empty again.
Earth is left without a Moon.
The novel follows the lives of people around the globe.
There is a man attempting a solo crossing of the Atlantic ocean, a smuggler operating off the coast of Vietnam, two friends in England, a trio of drug addicts in New York City, and the military controllers of the USA Moon mission, deep in a bunker somewhere near Washington DC.
The new planet is referred to by everybody as simply "the Wanderer".
The main protagonists are three longtime friends.
Paul Hagbolt is escorting Margo Gelhorn (and her cat, Miaow) to observe the lunar eclipse at an observatory in California.
Their friend, and Margo's fiance, is Don Merriam, one of the American astronauts at the Moon base.
Following on a whim a sign advertising a "flying saucer symposium", Paul and Margo fall in with a group of intellectuals, dreamers, charlatans and misfits.
At that point events overtake them.
The new planet appears and triggers an earthquake that buries their cars in a landslide.
They must avoid tsunamis, more earthquakes, roving mobs and flying saucers to survive.
On the Moon Don Merriam is the only one to escape the destruction of the moonbase.
He tries to take off in one of the base's spaceships, only to fall through the Moon itself as it splits into two under the influence of the new planet.
His ship is eventually captured by the inhabitants of the new planet.
Events take a bizarre turn when the group of saucer enthusiasts is faced with a tsunami.
A flying saucer appears, and a cat-like being uses some kind of gun to repel the waves.
Then the being uses the same device to pull Paul, who is holding Miaow, into the saucer.
At the same time the gun falls into the hands of the people on the ground.
In the saucer Paul meets a being calling itself Tigerishka.
A large, female telepathic feline creature, she initially mistakes Miaow as the intelligent being whose thoughts she can hear, and Paul as a "monkey".
Realizing her mistake, she regards Paul with contempt.
Monkey-beings are not well regarded by her people.
However she slowly warms to him, and explains why her planet has appeared to consume the moon.
Like many of the human characters, her people are intellectuals, dreamers, charlatans and misfits.
They belong to a culture that spans the Universe, has achieved immortality, and can construct planets and traverse hyperspace.
They can create bodies for themselves that reflect the origins of their races, such as Tigerishka's cat-form.
However they are fleeing their culture's police.
Their culture rejects nonconformists, instead devoting itself to ensuring that intelligent life survives to the end of time.
Tigerishka's people want to explore hyperspace, and tinker with space, time and the Mind.
Their flight has brought them to Earth orbit simply to refuel.
Huge amounts of matter must be converted to energy to power their hyperspace drive and their weapons.
As alien as Tigerishka is, Paul becomes besotted with her.
Tigerishka eventually yields to his advances.
At the same time, Don Merriam has been rescued with his ship by the Wanderer's other spaceships.
He is reunited with Paul aboard Tigerishka's ship.
Now they must testify in the Wanderer's trial, for the police have arrived.
A second planet, "The Stranger", colored a dull gray where the Wanderer is bright purple and yellow, appears and threatens battle.
Don and Paul give their testimony as to the good treatment they have seen, along with thousands of other humans appearing by some kind of holographic projection.
However the trial goes badly.
Paul and Don are evacuated in Don's ship, placed into position close to Earth by Tigerishka.
Tigerishka takes Miaow with her back to her planet.
Then the final battle takes place, and both planets disappear.
In the final scene, Margo and her companions walk to Vandenberg Spaceport as Don's ship comes in to land.
<EOS>
During a surprise drill of a nuclear attack, many United States Air Force Strategic Missile Wing controllers prove unwilling to turn a required key to launch a missile strike.
Such refusals convince John McKittrick and other systems engineers at NORAD that missile launch control centers must be automated, without human intervention.
Control is given to a NORAD supercomputer, WOPR, programmed to continuously run war simulations and learn over time.
David Lightman, a bright, but unmotivated Seattle high school student and hacker, uses his computer to break into the school district's computer system and change his grades.
He does the same for his friend and classmate Jennifer Mack.
Later, while war dialing numbers in Sunnyvale, California to find a computer company, he connects with a system that does not identify itself.
Asking for games, he finds a list that starts with chess, checkers, backgammon, and poker, as well as titles like "Theaterwide Biotoxic and Chemical Warfare" and "Global Thermonuclear War," but cannot proceed further.
Two hacker friends explain the concept of a backdoor password and suggest tracking down the Falken referenced in "Falken's Maze," the first game listed.
David discovers that Stephen Falken was an early artificial intelligence researcher, and guesses correctly that his dead son's name, "Joshua," is the password.
David does not know that the Sunnyvale phone number connects to WOPR at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.
He starts a game of Global Thermonuclear War, playing as the Soviet Union.
The computer starts a simulation that briefly convinces the military personnel at NORAD that actual Soviet nuclear missiles are inbound.
While they defuse the situation, Joshua nonetheless continues the simulation to trigger the scenario and win the game, as it does not understand the difference between reality and simulation.
It continuously feeds false data such as Soviet bomber incursions and submarine deployments to NORAD, pushing them into raising the DEFCON level and toward a retaliation that will start World War III.
David learns the true nature of his actions from a news broadcast, and FBI agents arrest him and take him to NORAD.
He realizes that WOPR is behind the NORAD alerts, but because he fails to convince McKittrick, he faces espionage charges.
David escapes NORAD by joining a tourist group and, with Jennifer's help, travels to the Oregon island where Falken lives.
David and Jennifer find that Falken has become despondent and believes that nuclear war is inevitable, that it is as futile as a game of tic-tac-toe between two experienced players.
The teenagers convince Falken that he should return to NORAD to stop WOPR.
The computer stages a massive Soviet first strike with hundreds of missiles, submarines, and bombers.
Believing the attack to be genuine, NORAD prepares to retaliate.
Falken, David, and Jennifer convince military officials to cancel the second strike and ride out the attack.
WOPR tries to launch the missiles itself, however, using a brute-force attack to obtain the launch code.
Without humans in the control centers as a safeguard, the computer will trigger a mass launch.
All attempts to log in and order Joshua to cancel the countdown fail, and all weapons will launch if the computer is disabled.
Falken and David direct the computer to play tic-tac-toe against itself.
This results in a long string of draws, forcing the computer to learn the concept of futility and no-win scenarios.
WOPR obtains the missile code, but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they, too, all result in stalemates.
Having discovered the concept of Mutual assured destruction ("WINNER: NONE"), the computer tells Falken that it has concluded that nuclear war is "a strange game" in which "the only winning move is not to play".
WOPR relinquishes control of NORAD and the missiles and offers to play "a nice game of chess".
<EOS>
Xenogears initially takes place on Ignas, the largest continent of the Xenogears world, and the site of a centuries-long war between the nations of Aveh and Kislev.
A church-like organization known as the Ethos has excavated gears, ostensibly for the preservation of the world's culture.
Although Kislev originally had the upper hand in the war, a mysterious army known as Gebler appeared and began to provide assistance to Aveh.
With Gebler's help, the Aveh military not only recovered its losses, but began making its way into Kislev's territory.
As the story unfolds, the setting broadens to encompass the entire world and the two floating countries, Shevat and Solaris.
Solaris, ruled by Emperor Cain and the Gazel Ministry, commands the Gebler army and the Ethos and secretly uses both to dominate the land-dwellers.
Shevat has been the only country to evade the control of Solaris.
Much of Xenogears plot and backstory is detailed in the Japanese-only book Xenogears Perfect Works.
This book, produced by the now defunct DigiCube, details the history of the Xenogears universe from the discovery of the Zohar to the start of the game.
According to the Perfect Works schematic (as well as the game's end credits), Xenogears is the fifth episode in a series of six, with events spanning multiple millennia.
Xenogears nine playable characters hail from different areas of the game's world.
The game begins on Ignas, a continent with two countries, Aveh and Kislev.
Fei and Citan at first appear to be from this land, although it is later learned that they originate from the capital cities Aphel Aura and Etrenank of the floating countries of Shevat and Solaris, respectively.
Fei is the story's protagonist, and has initially lost his memories of his past.
Citan is a man whose knowledge of the world and technology often aids in the party's quest.
Bart, a desert pirate, is also from Ignas and is the rightful heir to the throne of Aveh.
Rico, a demi-human with incredible strength, lives in a Kislev prison, spending his days as a gear-battling champion.
Solaris, a hidden city of advanced technology, is home to several characters in the game.
Billy, a pious worker for the Ethos religious group, was originally from Solaris.
Elly, a beautiful Gebler officer of Solaris, is destined to be near Fei and falls in love with him by the end of the game.
Maria and Chu-Chu are both from Shevat, the floating city and the only place resisting Solaris' domination.
Emeralda is a humanoid being constructed by an ancient civilization from a colony of nanomachines, and was retrieved from the ruins of the ancient civilization Zeboim.
Significant non-playable characters include Krelian and Miang, both leaders of Solaris who seek to revive Deus, a mechanical weapon that fell to earth thousands of years ago.
They serve as the game's main antagonists.
Grahf, a mysterious man with immense power, serves as a major antagonist ; he follows Fei and his group and often fights them, though his goals remain a mystery until very late in the game.
As being the Contact, the Anti-type and the Complement, Fei, Elly, and Miang have been reincarnated several times throughout the game's history.
Xenogears centers around the protagonist Fei Fong Wong, an adopted young male in the village, Lahan, brought by a mysterious "masked man" three years ago.
The events surrounding Fei's arrival at the village cause him to have retrograde amnesia.
During an attack on Lahan from Gebler, Fei pilots an empty gear and fights the enemy, accidentally destroying the village.
As a result, Fei and Citan, the village's doctor, decide to leave with the abandoned gear to get it away from the village.
Fei meets Elly, a Gebler officer, and Grahf, who claims to know about Fei's past.
Eventually, Fei and Citan are picked up by Bart, a desert pirate and heir to the throne of Aveh.
Fei again loses control of himself inside his gear while Bart and Citan are attacked by an unknown red gear.
Fei wakes up in a Kislev prison and meets Wiseman, a mysterious masked man, who originally brought Fei to Lahan.
Fei is able to escape with the help of his friends, but he and Elly are separated from the rest of the party and accidentally shot down by Bart.
They are rescued by the Thames, a mobile floating city.
After learning Elly's whereabouts, Gebler attacks Thames to kidnap Elly and Miang, a Gebler officer, unsuccessfully brainwashes her.
Ramsus, who holds a vendetta against Fei, attacks Thames, searching for him.
Afterward, Billy, an Ethos worker onboard Thames, allows Fei to use the Ethos' advanced medical technology.
Bishop Stone, Ethos' leader, reveals to the party Ethos's true purpose of controlling the land dwellers, or "Lambs", for Solaris.
The group follows Stone to Zeboim, an excavation site.
They discover a young girl composed of nanomachines, which is what Krelian, a Solarian leader, seeks.
Stone takes the girl while the group fights Id, the mysterious red gear's pilot, who wants the girl, but is stopped by Wiseman.
The group returns and finds Fei awake and standing at his gear with a case of anterograde amnesia.
Fei and his friends decide to ally themselves with the floating city of Shevat, the only remaining city capable of resisting Solaris.
When entering Solaris, they encounter Emeralda, the nanomachine colony.
She attacks at first, but recognizes Fei, referring to him as "Kim", much to Fei's confusion.
In Solaris, Fei learns that Citan has been working for Emperor Cain and that Solaris has been producing food and medicine out of recycled humans in the Soylent System facility.
The party also learns that the Gazel Ministry seeks to revive Deus and achieve eternal life, while Krelian seeks to possess Elly.
Back at Shevat, Citan informs his friends that Id is actually Fei's split personality.
The Gazel Ministry uses the Gaetia Key, an artifact that manipulates the DNA of massive amounts of humans around the world, turning them into mutants called Wels in order to collect flesh to reconstruct a god called Deus that crash-landed on the planet ten thousand years ago.
During this time, Elly and Fei become romantically involved with each other.
They learn that they are the reincarnations of Sophia and Lacan.
Lacan was a painter while Sophia was the Holy Mother of Nisan around the time of the war between Shevat and Solaris five-hundred years earlier.
Lacan blamed himself for Sophia's death during the war and, with the help of Miang, became Grahf and sought to destroy the world.
Although defeated, he and Miang have transmigrated their minds into other humans since.
Krelian and Miang dispose of the Emperor and the Gazel Ministry because they are no longer necessary and kidnap Elly, the Mother, who must be sacrificed in order to revive Deus.
Miang is killed by an enraged Ramsus as he realizes he has been used, and Elly turns into Miang, becoming absorbed by Deus.
Fei, as Id, attempts to make contact with the Zohar.
Wiseman, who reveals himself to be Fei's father, stops him, giving peace to Fei's other personalities.
Fei's gear transforms into the Xenogears and Grahf appears, revealing that he had been inside Fei's father's body.
At this time, Fei makes contact with the Wave Existence—an extra-dimensional being who is trapped inside Deus and is the source of power for all gears—and learns that he must destroy Deus to free humanity.
Grahf, who tries to merge with Fei, is defeated.
Fei discovers that he is a descendant of Abel, a young boy who was a passenger on board the Eldridge, a spaceship that was being used to transport Deus, the core of an interplanetary invasion system created by a federation of spacefaring humans, one that was deemed far too dangerous for use and was therefore dismantled.
Deus, however, had become self-aware and took over the Eldridge.
Amidst the confusion, Abel was separated from his mother and accidentally made contact with the Wave Existence through the Zohar, Deus' power source.
It gave him the power to one day destroy Deus and the Zohar in order to free itself.
The Wave Existence also sensed Abel's longing for his mother and used the biological computer Kadomony to create a woman for a companion.
When Deus gained full control over the Eldridge, the captain decided to initiate the self-destruct sequence in an attempt to destroy it.
Both Deus and the Zohar survived the explosion and landed on a nearby planet along with Abel, under the protection of the Wave Existence.
He was the sole survivor, but was soon united with the woman that the Wave Existence had created for him as a companion, Elly.
Abel and Elly, at first, led a happy life, but Deus had also created Miang, Cain, and the Gazel Ministry to begin a human civilization on the planet, one which would be under their control to one day be turned into Wels and be absorbed into Deus to recover its strength.
When the now-adult Abel and Elly discovered this, they openly challenged Cain and the Gazel Ministry, but lost.
However, through the power of the Wave Existence, they are able to be reincarnated in later eras to combat Deus.
One of these incarnations lived during an ancient technologically advanced era in Zeboim, where Abel's incarnation went by the name Kim and created Emeralda.
Fei sets out to destroy Deus and free the Wave Existence and Elly.
In Merkaba, the party defeats Deus, but they realize that the energy released from the Wave Existence's shift will destroy the planet.
Elly, inside Deus, tries to move it away from the planet and Fei, in his Xenogears, follows to save her, but both disappear in the rift.
Krelian confronts them, telling Fei he only sought to end the pain and suffering that comes with human existence by reverting everything back to when it all began, when all was one, to ascend to the realm of God.
Fei rejects Krelian's ideology with his love for Elly, but Krelian challenges Fei, telling him to prove this love that could make him independent of God, and calls forth Urobolus, a gigantic serpent-like incarnation of Miang.
Xenogears appears and Fei uses it to defeat Urobolus.
Krelian releases Elly and reveals to Fei that he had planned to become one with God along with Elly.
During her time with Krelian, Elly had seen inside his heart and realized it was full of sadness and despair for all the atrocities he had committed.
Despite everything, Elly says that Krelian truly loved people more than anyone else.
Because no one will forgive his sins, he declines Fei's offer to return and ascends to a higher plain of existence along with the Wave Existence, telling Fei and Elly that he envies them.
Fei and Elly then return to their planet along with Xenogears and reunite with the rest of the party.
<EOS>
Xena: Warrior Princess is set primarily in a fantasy version of ancient Greece and was filmed in New Zealand.
Some filming locations are confidential, but many scenes were recorded in places such as the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, part of the Auckland Regional parks often credited at the end of the episodes.
The Ancient Greece depicted in the show is largely derived from historical locations and customs, modifying known places and events – battles, trading routes, towns, and so on – to generate an attractive fictional world.
The settlements are presented as a mixture of walled villages and rural hamlets set in a lush green, mountainous landscape.
They are often seen under attack from warlords, and travelling between them involves frequent encounters with small bands of outlaws.
All of the main towns are named after historic towns of Ancient Greece, and exhibit some of their essential characteristics – Amphipolis (birthplace of Xena), Potidaea (birthplace of Gabrielle), Athens (birthplace of Joxer), Corinth, Delphi, and Cirra (birthplace of Callisto) which was burnt to the ground by Xena's army.
As the show progressed, however, events took place throughout more modern times and places, from Cleopatra's Alexandria to Julius Caesar's Rome.
The mythology of the show transitioned from that of the Olympian Gods to include Judeo-Christian elements.
Eastern religions were touched on as well, with little regard to accurate time-and-place concerns.
One episode, "The Way", which loosely interpreted elements of Hinduism as major plot points, generated controversy, requiring the producers to add a disclaimer at the head of the episode and a tag explaining the episode's intentions at its end.
Mythological and supernatural locations are presented as equally real, physical places, often accessed through physical portals hidden in the landscape such as lakes and caves.
They include the Elysian Fields, Tartarus, the River Styx, Valhalla, Heaven and Hell.
The inhabitants of such places – gods, mythological beings and forces – are for the most part manifested as human characters who can move at will between their domains and the real world.
, the Greek God of War, for instance, is an egotistical man who wears studded black leather, and , Goddess of Love, is a California valley girl who uses typical valley girl slang and dresses in flowing, translucent pink gowns.
<EOS>
The story is set nine years after the failure of the Discovery One mission to Jupiter.
A joint Soviet-American crew, including Heywood Floyd from 2001, on the Soviet spaceship Alexei Leonov (named after the cosmonaut) arrives to discover what went wrong with the earlier mission, to investigate the monolith in orbit around the planet, and to resolve the disappearance of David Bowman.
They hypothesize that much of this information is locked away on the now-abandoned Discovery One.
The Soviets have an advanced new "Sakharov" drive which will propel them to Jupiter ahead of the American Discovery Two, so Floyd is assigned to the Leonov crew.
However, a Chinese space station rockets out of Earth orbit, revealing itself to be the interplanetary spacecraft Tsien, also aimed at Jupiter.
The Leonov crewmembers think the Chinese are on a one-way trip due to its speed, but Floyd surmises that due to the large water content of Europa they intend to land there and use the water content to refuel.
The Tsien's daring mission ends in failure, when it is destroyed by an indigenous life-form on Europa.
The only survivor, Professor Chang (an acquaintance of Floyd's from a science convention years earlier) radios the story to the Leonov; it is presumed that he dies when his spacesuit air supply runs out.
The Leonov survives a dangerous aerobraking around Jupiter and arrives at Discovery.
Mission crewmember and HAL 9000's creator, dr Chandra, reactivates the computer to ascertain the cause of his earlier aberrant behaviour.
After some time, Floyd is speaking to a Russian on board, who, for an instant, sees the Monolith open again, into a Stargate, as David Bowman escapes from the Monolith's dimension back into ours.
A sequence of scenes follows the explorations of David Bowman, who has been transformed into a non-corporeal, energy-based life-form, much like the aliens controlling the monoliths.
During his journey, the Avatar of Bowman travels to Earth, making contact with significant individuals from his past: He visits his mother and brushes her hair (shortly before she dies), and he appears to his ex-girlfriend on her television screen.
In the novel, the aliens are using Bowman as a probe to learn about humankind.
He then returns to the Jupiter system to explore beneath the ice of Europa, where he finds aquatic life-forms, and under the clouds of Jupiter, where he discovers gaseous life-forms.
Both are primitive, but the aliens deem the Europan creatures to have evolutionary potential.
An apparition of Bowman appears before Floyd, warning him that they must leave Jupiter within 15 days.
Floyd has difficulty convincing the rest of the crew at first, but then the monolith vanishes from orbit.
The Leonov crew devises a plan to use the Discovery as a "booster rocket", enabling them to return to Earth ahead of schedule.
HAL and the Discovery will be trapped in Jupiter's orbit, with insufficient fuel to escape.
The crew are worried that HAL will have the same neuroses on discovering that he will be abandoned yet again, so Chandra must convince HAL that the human crew is in danger.
The Leonov crew flees Jupiter as a mysterious dark spot appears on Jupiter and begins to grow.
HAL's telescope observations reveal that the "Great Black Spot" is, in fact, a vast population of monoliths, increasing at an exponential rate, which appear to be eating the planet.
By acting as self-replicating 'von Neumann' machines, these monoliths increase Jupiter's density until the planet achieves nuclear fusion, becoming a small star.
In the novel, this obliterates the primitive life forms inhabiting the Jovian atmosphere, which the Monoliths' controllers had deemed very unlikely to ever achieve intelligence unlike the aquatic life of Europa.
As Jupiter is about to transform, Bowman returns to Discovery to give HAL a last order to carry out.
HAL begins repeatedly broadcasting the message  The creation of the new star, which Earth eventually names Lucifer, destroys Discovery.
However, in appreciation for HAL's help, Bowman has the aliens which control the monoliths remove HAL's artificial intelligence from Discovery's computer core and transform him into the same kind of life form as David Bowman, and become his companion.
The book ends with a brief epilogue, which takes place in AD 20,001, but this may also mean Europan years, which is approximately 190 Earth years, so approximately AD 2250.
By this time, the Europans have evolved into a species that has developed a primitive civilization, most likely with assistance from a monolith.
They are not described in detail, though they are said to have "tendril"-like limbs.
They regard the star Lucifer (formerly the planet Jupiter) as their primary sun, referring to Sol as "The Cold Sun".
Though their settlements are concentrated primarily in the hemisphere of Europa which is constantly bathed in Lucifer's rays, some Europans have begun in recent generations to explore the Farside, the hemisphere facing away from Lucifer, which is still covered in ice.
There they may witness the spectacle of night, unknown on the other side of Europa, when the Cold Sun sets.
The Europans who explore the Farside have been carefully observing the night sky and have begun to develop a mythology based on their observations.
They correctly believe that Lucifer was not always there.
They believe that the Cold Sun was its brother and was condemned to march around the sky for a crime.
The Europans also see three other major bodies in the sky.
One seems to be constantly engulfed in fire, and the other two have lights on them which are gradually spreading.
These three bodies are the moons Io, Callisto, and Ganymede, the latter two of which are presently being colonized by humans.
Humans have been attempting to explore Europa ever since Lucifer was created in 2010.
However, none of these attempts has been successful.
Every probe that has attempted to land on Europa has been destroyed on approach.
The debris from every probe falls to the surface of the planet, and the debris from some of the first ships to be destroyed is venerated by the Europans.
Finally, there is a Monolith on the planet, which is worshipped by the Europans more than anything else.
The Europans assume, correctly, that the Monolith is what keeps humans at bay.
Dave Bowman and HAL lie dormant in this Monolith.
The Monolith is the guardian of Europa, and will continue to prevent contact between humans and Europans for as long as it sees fit.
<EOS>
The novel opens in London in AF 632 (AD 2540 in the Gregorian calendar).
The society is illuminated by the activities of the novel's central characters, Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx, and others.
Lenina, a hatchery worker, is socially accepted and contented, but Bernard, a psychologist in the Directorate of Hatcheries and Conditioning, is not.
He is shorter in stature than the average of his Alpha caste—a quality shared by the lower castes, which gives him an inferiority complex.
His intelligence and his work with hypnopaedia allow him to understand, and disapprove of, the methods by which society is sustained.
Courting disaster, he is vocal and arrogant about his differences.
Bernard is mocked by other Alphas because of his stature, as well as for his individualistic tendencies, and is threatened with exile to Iceland because of his nonconformity.
His only friend is Helmholtz Watson, a lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering.
The friendship is based on their feelings of being misfits (in the context of the World State), but unlike Bernard, Watson's sense of alienation stems from being exceptionally gifted, intelligent, handsome, and physically strong.
Helmholtz is drawn to Bernard as a confidant.
Bernard takes a holiday with Lenina at a Savage Reservation in New Mexico.
(The culture of the village folk resembles the contemporary Native American groups of the region, descendants of the Anasazi, including the Puebloan peoples of Acoma, Laguna and Zuni) There they observe ceremonies, including a ritual in which a village boy is whipped into unconsciousness.
They encounter Linda, a woman originally from the World State who is living on the reservation with her son John, now a young man.
She too visited the reservation on a holiday, and became separated from her group and was left behind.
She had meanwhile become pregnant by a fellow-holidaymaker (who is revealed to be Bernard's boss, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning).
She did not try to return to "civilization" because of her shame at her pregnancy.
Neither Linda nor John are accepted by the villagers, and their life has been hard and unpleasant.
Linda has taught John to read, although from only two books: a scientific manual from his mother's job in the hatchery and the collected works of Shakespeare.
Ostracised by the villagers, John is able to articulate his feelings only in terms of Shakespearean drama, especially the tragedies of Othello, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.
Linda now wants to return to London, while John wants to see the "brave new world" his mother has told him about.
Bernard sees an opportunity to thwart plans to exile him, and gets permission to take Linda and John back.
On his return to London, Bernard is confronted by the Director, but turns the tables by presenting him with his long-lost lover and unknown son.
John calls the Director his "father", a vulgarity which causes a roar of laughter.
The humiliated Director resigns in shame.
Bernard, as "custodian" of the "savage" John who is now treated as a celebrity, is fawned on by the highest members of society and revels in attention he once scorned.
However, his triumph is short-lived.
Decrepit and friendless, Linda goes on a permanent soma, that is, drugged, holiday while John refuses to attend social events organised by Bernard, appalled by what he perceives to be an empty society.
Society drops Bernard as swiftly as it had taken him.
Lenina and John are physically attracted to each other, but John's view of courtship and romance, based on Shakespeare, is utterly incompatible with Lenina's freewheeling attitude to sex.
Lenina tries to seduce John, but he attacks her for being an "impudent strumpet".
John is then informed that his mother is extremely ill.
He rushes to her bedside, causing a scandal as this is not the "correct" attitude to death.
Some Delta children who enter the ward for "death-conditioning" irritate John to the point where he attacks one physically.
He then tries to break up a distribution of soma to a lower-caste group and is set upon by the outraged recipients.
Helmholtz, who has been called by Bernard, also becomes involved in the fracas.
Bernard, Helmholtz and John are brought before Mustapha Mond, the Resident "World Controller for Western Europe".
Bernard and Helmholtz are told they are to be exiled to islands, seen by society at large as a punishment for antisocial activity.
Bernard pleads grovelling for a second chance, but Helmholtz welcomes the opportunity to be an individual, and chooses the Falkland Islands as his destination, believing that their bad weather will inspire his writing.
Mond says that Bernard does not know that exile is actually a reward.
The islands are full of the most interesting people in the world, individuals who did not fit in the World State community.
Mond outlines for John the events that led to the present society and his arguments for a caste system and social control.
John rejects Mond's arguments, and Mond sums up by saying that John demands "the right to be unhappy".
John asks if he may go to the islands as well but Mond refuses, saying he wishes to "continue the experiment".
John moves to an abandoned hilltop "air-lighthouse" (meant to warn and guide helicopters) there, near the village of Puttenham, where he intends to adopt an ascetic lifestyle in order to purify himself of civilization and make amends for his mistreatment of his mother.
He practises self-mortification, and his self-flagellation is witnessed by bystanders, turning him into a sensational spectacle.
Hundreds of sightseers, hoping to witness his behaviour, arrive at John's lighthouse; one of them is Lenina.
At the sight of the woman he both adores and loathes, John attacks her with his whip.
The onlookers are whipped into a frenzy by the display and John is caught up in a soma-fueled orgy.
The next morning, John remembers the previous night's events and is stricken with remorse.
Onlookers and journalists who arrive that evening find that he has hanged himself, his body twisting aimlessly in the lighthouse.
<EOS>
The story involves the theft of nuclear weapons, and the main enemy turns out to be an Afrikaner neo-fascist group based in Germany, led by South African exile Sergei Dekker.
At the beginning of the game, terrorists steal four nuclear weapons from a storage facility in Russia, and proceed to sell them to various nations.
This is a prelude to the acquisition of advanced weapons of mass destruction by this terrorist group.
John Mullins, working for aS.
-based mercenary ("soldier of fortune") organization known only as "The Shop", and his partner, Aaron "Hawk" Parsons, are assigned to prevent the nukes from falling into the wrong hands, and stop the terrorists in their plans.
His missions take him to New York City, Sudan, Siberia, Tokyo, Kosovo, Iraq, Uganda and finally Germany.
<EOS>
This computer game takes place 30 years after the events of Heavy Metal 2000.
AKK.
² stands for Federation-Assigned Ketogenic Killzone to the second level, and is the alias both of the heroine, Julie, and also her homeworld.
Before the game begins, we are told that Julie has previously killed a tyrant and "would-be God" named Lord Tyler (during the events of Heavy Metal 2000), and brought the remnant of her people to a planet called Eden.
The people of Eden have made a startling discovery: the waters of the planet grant an eternal life to those who drink it, and they have restored ti-rural paradise, pasturing 'creepers' (large bull-like creatures) and peacefully going about their business.
This planet is camouflaged by a FAKK2 beacon and made to look like a biohazard-strewn wasteland in the hope that it will remain hidden from any threat.
However, a creature named Gith, who appears only as a disembodied cybernetic head, runs a hyper-corporation called Gith Industries whose "employees" are little more than slaves.
He scavenges the universe in a ship composed of three-quarters of a planet, and is headed for a place called Na'ChThraThull, or the "place of the soft machines", which turns out to be Eden.
Then a series of explosive asteroids take the planet's shield down, and a number of nasties (actually, Gith's employees) invade the planet.
These include huge mosquitoes and their source, a large queen called the Vymish Mama, skinless bearlike Grawlix, plants that shoot poison darts, huge flesh-eating plants, Gith's cybernetic Fleshbinders and Soul Harvesters.
Julie, with the help of gunsmith Otto and other citizens, crawls through besieged Eden to reset the shield, in vain as it turns out, then journeys through the swamps to find a character called Gruff, who unlocks the path to the Temple of the We for her.
She then overcomes the four challenges of the We before entering the final temple where the Heart of the We is kept.
However, Gith is waiting for her, and he steals the Heart and uses it to bring Lord Tyler back to life, so he could have his revenge on Julie.
However, Julie fights and kills Lord Tyler and wins the Heart, banishing Gith.
She returns to town only to find out that her pregnant sister is kidnapped by Gith, who returns in a giant space station.
It is unknown what happens next as the ending says "Thank you for playing".
<EOS>
In August 1944 a number of the arrested perpetrators of the failed assassination of Adolf Hitler were taken before Freisler for punishment, with the proceedings being recorded by film camera with the intention of displaying it to the German public in cinema newsreels.
In the multiple hearings the atmosphere with which Freisler ran his court was revealed, showing him alternating between engaging the prisoners in a cerebral manner, with clinical interrogations to prove their guilt of the charges; verbally and psychologically toying with them, or yelling personalized theatrical enraged abuse at them from the bench.
Nearly all were sentenced to death by hanging, the sentences being carried out within 2 hours of the verdicts being passed.
<EOS>
Helena, the daughter of the president of a major industrial power, arrives at the island factory of Rossum's Universal Robots.
She meets Domin, the General Manager ofUR, who tells her the history of the company:  In 1920 a man named Rossum came to the island to study marine biology, and in 1932 he accidentally discovered a chemical that behaved exactly like protoplasm, except that it did not mind being knocked around.
Rossum attempted to make a dog and a man, but failed.
His nephew came to see him, and the two argued non-stop, largely because Old Rossum only wanted to create animals to prove that not only was God not necessary but that there was no God at all, and Young Rossum only wanted to make himself rich.
Eventually, Young Rossum locked his uncle in a laboratory to play with his monsters and mutants, while Young Rossum built factories and cranked out Robots by the thousands.
By the time the play takes place (in the 1950s or 1960s, presumably), Robots are cheap and available all over the world.
They have become absolutely necessary because they allow products to be made at a fifth the previous cost.
Helena meets Fabry, dr Gall, Alquist, Busman, and Hallemeier, and reveals she is a representative of the League of Humanity, a human rights organization that wishes to "free" the Robots.
The managers of the factory find this a ridiculous proposition, since they see Robots as appliances.
Helena requests that the Robots be paid so that they can buy things they like, but the Robots do not like anything.
Helena is eventually convinced that the League Of Humanity is a waste of money, but continues to argue on the fact that robots should still have a "soul".
Later, Domin confesses that he loves Helena and forces her into an engagement.
Ten years later, Helena and her nurse Nana are talking about current events—particularly the decline in human births.
Helena and Domin reminisce about the day they met and summarize the last ten years of world history, which has been shaped by the new worldwide Robot-based economy.
Helena meets dr Gall's new Robot experiment, Radius, and Dr Gall describes his experimental Robotess, Robot Helena.
Both are more advanced, fully featured versions.
In secret, Helena burns the formula required to create Robots.
The revolt of the Robots reaches Rossum's island as the act ends.
The characters sense that the very universality of the Robots presents a danger.
Reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, the characters discuss whether creating national Robots who were unable to communicate beyond their language group would have been a good idea.
As Robot forces lay siege to the factory, Helena reveals she has burned the formula necessary to make new robots.
The characters lament the end of humanity and defend their actions, despite the fact that their imminent deaths are a direct result of those actions.
Busman is killed attempting to negotiate a peace with the Robots, who then storm the factory and kill all the humans except for Alquist, whom the Robots spare because they recognize that "he works with his hands like the Robots".
Years have passed and all humans had been killed by the robot revolution except for Alquist.
He has been working to recreate the formula that Helena destroyed.
Because he is not a scientist, he has not made any progress.
He has begged the robot government to search for surviving humans, and they have done so.
There are none.
Officials from the robot government approach Alquist and first order and then beg him to complete the formula, even if it means he will have to kill and dissect other Robots to do so.
Alquist yields, agreeing to kill and dissect, which completes the circle of violence begun in Act Two.
Alquist is disgusted by it.
Robots Primus and Helena develop human feelings and fall in love.
Playing a hunch, Alquist threatens to dissect Primus and then Helena; each begs him to take him- or herself and spare the other.
Alquist realizes that they are the new Adam and Eve, and gives charge of the world to them.
<EOS>
In the first episode, "Marooned on Mars", eight-year-old Billy Blaze, a child genius, builds a spaceship and puts on his older brother's football helmet to become Commander Keen.
One night while his parents are out of the house he flies to Mars to explore; while away from the ship the Vorticons steal four vital components and hide them in Martian cities.
Keen journeys through Martian cities and outposts to find the components, despite the efforts of Martians and robots; the final component is guarded by a Vorticon.
Keen returns to Earth—discovering a Vorticon mothership in orbit—and beats his parents home.
In "The Earth Explodes" he travels through the mothership and disables its weapons, at the end discovering that the Vorticons are being mind-controlled by the mysterious Grand Intellect, who is actually behind the attack on Earth.
In "Keen Must Die" he fights through the cities and outposts of the Vorticon home planet to reach the Grand Intellect, who is revealed to be his school rival Mortimer McMire, who he then defeats.
In Keen Dreams, which is set outside of the main continuity, Keen falls asleep after dinner and wakes up in his pajamas in bed on top of a hill.
After being told by potato soldiers that he is now the slave of King Boobus Toober, and being asked by another child to save them, he journeys through the vegetable-themed land to defeat the King, waking up in his bed at home afterwards.
The main series of games continues in "Secret of the Oracle", where Keen builds a faster-than-light radio and overhears plans by a race of aliens known as the Shikadi to destroy the galaxy.
He flies off to the Oracle on the planet of Gnosticus IV, only to discover that the Gnosticenes that run the Oracle have been kidnapped by the Shikadi.
Keen fights through the outposts and temples of the Shadowlands, rescuing the Gnosticenes, and the Oracle then tells Keen that the Shikadi are "shadow beings from the far side of the galaxy" who are building an Armageddon Machine at Korath III to blow up the galaxy and rebuild it as they wish afterwards.
In "The Armageddon Machine", Keen infiltrates the titular space station to disable it, destroying the subsystems of the machine located in each level.
When he finishes, he finds that the "Gannalech" that was leading the Shikadi was the Grand Intellect McMire, who had escaped Keen in Vorticons by leaving behind an android in his place.
A note left behind for Keen tells him that McMire plans to instead destroy the Universe.
Aliens Ate My Babysitter is set around the same time, though it is unclear whether it is actually after the events of Goodbye, Galaxy; in it, the alien Bloogs of Fribbulus Xax kidnap Keen's babysitter and plan to eat her.
Keen finds his way to her, and she reveals that she is McMire's sister, and that McMire was behind her kidnapping as a way to distract Keen while he plotted to destroy the universe.
While the planned trilogy that would cover that plot, The Universe is Toast, was never developed, the Game Boy Color Commander Keen has a sub-space anomaly disrupting life on Earth as an effect of a plot by the Bloogs, Shikadi, and Droidicus, led by McMire, to destroy the universe.
Keen fights his way through the three races' planets to find the plasma crystals powering the Omegamatic station, only for McMire to escape after taunting Keen a final time.
<EOS>
In Mexico, police officer Javier Rodriguez (del Toro) and his partner Manolo Sanchez (Vargas) stop a drug transport and arrest the couriers.
Their arrest is interrupted by General Salazar (Milian), a high-ranking Mexican official who decides to hire Javier.
Salazar instructs him to apprehend Francisco Flores (Collins), a hitman for the Tijuana Cartel, headed by the Obregón brothers.
Back in Tijuana, Flores, under torture, gives Salazar the names of important members of the Obregón cartel, who are arrested.
Javier and Salazar's efforts begin to cripple the Obregón brothers' cocaine outfit, but Javier soon discovers Salazar is a pawn for the Juárez Cartel, the rival of the Obregón brothers.
That entire portion of the Mexican anti-drug campaign is a fraud, as Salazar is wiping out one cartel because he has aligned with another for profit.
Javier's partner Sanchez attempts to sell the information of Salazar's true affiliation to the DEA but is killed for his betrayal.
Javier, who can no longer stomach working for Salazar, decides to make a deal with the DEA.
In exchange for his testimony, Javier requests electricity in his neighborhood so the youngsters can play baseball at night rather than be tempted by street gangs and crime.
Salazar's secrets are revealed to the public, and he is arrested and is shown suffering probable torture in prison.
Javier explains to the media about the widespread corruption in the police force and army.
In Mexico, Javier watches as children play baseball at night in their new stadium.
Meanwhile, Robert Wakefield (Douglas), a conservative Ohio judge, is appointed to head the President's Office of National Drug Control Policy, taking on the title drug czar.
Robert is warned by his predecessor (Brolin) and several influential politicians that the War on Drugs is unwinnable.
Robert's daughter, Caroline (Christensen), an honors student, has been using cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin which quickly develops into a drug addiction after her boyfriend Seth (Grace) introduces her to freebasing.
Caroline, Seth, and Vanessa are all arrested when a fellow student overdoses on drugs, and they try to dump him anonymously at a hospital.
As Robert and his wife Barbara (Irving) struggle to deal with the problem, Robert discovers that Barbara has known about their daughter's involvement with drugs for over six months.
Robert realizes his daughter Caroline is a drug addict and is caught between his demanding new position and difficult family life.
On a visit to Mexico, he is encouraged by Salazar's successful efforts in hurting the Obregón brothers.
When he returns to Ohio, Robert learns his efforts to see Caroline rehabilitated have failed.
She has run away to the city of Cincinnati, and no one knows her exact location.
She steals from her parents to procure money for drugs.
Robert drags Seth along as he begins to search Cincinnati for his daughter.
After a drug dealer who is prostituting Caroline refuses to reveal her whereabouts, Robert breaks into a seedy hotel room and finds a semi-conscious Caroline in the company of an older man.
He breaks down in tears as Seth quietly leaves.
Robert returns to Washington,C, to give his prepared speech on a "10-point plan" to win the war on drugs.
In the middle of the speech, he falters as he realizes how futile this all is, then tells the press that the War on Drugs implies a war even on some people's own family members, which he cannot endorse.
He then walks out of the press conference and takes a taxi to the airport.
Robert and Barbara go to Narcotics Anonymous meetings with their daughter to support her and others.
A third story is set in San Diego, where an undercover DEA investigation led by Montel Gordon (Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Guzmán) leads to the arrest of Eduardo Ruiz (Ferrer), a high-stakes dealer posing as a fisherman.
Ruiz decides to take the dangerous road to immunity by giving up his boss: drug lord Carl Ayala (Bauer), the biggest distributor for the Obregón brothers in the United States.
Ayala is indicted by a tough prosecutor, hand-selected by Robert Wakefield to send a message to the Mexican drug organizations.
As the trial against Ayala begins, his pregnant wife Helena (Zeta-Jones) learns of her husband's true profession from his associate, Arnie Metzger (Quaid).
Facing the prospect of life imprisonment for her husband and death threats against her only child, Helena decides to hire Francisco Flores to assassinate Eduardo Ruiz; she knows killing Ruiz will effectively end the trial nolle prosequi.
Flores plants a car bomb on a DEA car in an assassination attempt against Ruiz.
Shortly after planting the bomb, Flores is assassinated by a sniper in retaliation for his cooperation with General Salazar.
The car bomb meant to kill Ruiz instead kills Agent Castro, but Gordon and Ruiz survive.
Helena, knowing Ruiz is soon scheduled to testify, makes a deal with Juan Obregón (Bratt), lord of the drug cartel, who forgives the Ayala family's debt and has Ruiz poisoned.
Ayala is released, much to the dissatisfaction of Gordon, who is still angry over his partner's death.
During a phone conversation between Ayala and Metzger, Ayala deduces that it was Metzger who originally informed on Ruiz.
Evidently in a bid for power with another drug cartel in Mexico, Metzger accepted $3 million to inform on Ruiz to the FBI and facilitate the Ayala organization's downfall.
Ayala says that Metzger was planning on taking over Ayala's empire completely.
As Ayala hangs up the phone, Metzger looks up to see two hit men entering his office.
Soon after Ayala's release, Gordon bursts into the Ayala home during his homecoming celebration.
Bodyguards wrestle him to the ground, but Gordon is able to surreptitiously plant a listening bug under Ayala's desk.
Gordon is forced from the property, with the satisfaction of knowing that there is now a new opportunity to trap Ayala.
<EOS>
A mysterious man, Griffin, arrives at the local inn of the English village of Iping, West Sussex, during a snowstorm.
The stranger wears a long-sleeved, thick coat and gloves; his face is hidden entirely by bandages except for a fake pink nose; and he wears a wide-brimmed hat.
He is excessively reclusive, irascible, and unfriendly.
He demands to be left alone and spends most of his time in his rooms working with a set of chemicals and laboratory apparatus, only venturing out at night.
While Griffin is staying at the inn, hundreds of strange glass bottles (that he calls his luggage) arrive.
Many local townspeople believe this to be very strange.
He becomes the talk of the village with many theorizing as to his origins.
Meanwhile, a mysterious burglary occurs in the village.
Griffin is running out of money and is trying to find a way to pay for his board and lodging.
When his landlady demands that he pay his bill and quit the premises, he reveals part of his invisibility to her in a fit of pique.
An attempt to apprehend the stranger is frustrated when he undresses to take advantage of his invisibility, fights off his would-be captors, and flees to the downs.
There Griffin coerces a tramp, Thomas Marvel, into becoming his assistant.
With Marvel, he returns to the village to recover three notebooks that contain records of his experiments.
When Marvel attempts to betray the Invisible Man to the police, Griffin chases him to the seaside town of Port Burdock, threatening to kill him.
Marvel escapes to a local inn and is saved by the people at the inn, but Griffin escapes.
Marvel later goes to the police and tells them of this "invisible man," then requests to be locked up in a high-security jail.
Griffin's furious attempt to avenge his betrayal leads to his being shot.
He takes shelter in a nearby house that turns out to belong to dr Kemp, a former acquaintance from medical school.
To Kemp, he reveals his true identity: the Invisible Man is Griffin, a former medical student who left medicine to devote himself to optics.
Griffin recounts how he invented chemicals capable of rendering bodies invisible, and, on impulse, performed the procedure on himself.
Griffin tells Kemp of the story of how he became invisible.
He explains how he tried the invisibility on a cat, then himself.
Griffin burned down the boarding house he was staying in, along with all the equipment he used to turn invisible, to cover his tracks; but he soon realised that he was ill-equipped to survive in the open.
He attempted to steal food and clothes from a large department store, and eventually stole some clothing from a theatrical supply shop and headed to Iping to attempt to reverse the invisibility.
Now he imagines that he can make Kemp his secret confederate, describing his plan to begin a "Reign of Terror" by using his invisibility to terrorise the nation.
Kemp has already denounced Griffin to the local authorities and is waiting for help to arrive as he listens to this wild proposal.
When the authorities arrive at Kemp's house, Griffin fights his way out and the next day leaves a note announcing that Kemp himself will be the first man to be killed in the "Reign of Terror".
Kemp, a cool-headed character, tries to organise a plan to use himself as bait to trap the Invisible Man, but a note that he sends is stolen from his servant by Griffin.
Griffin uses Kemp's gun to shoot and injure a local policeman who comes to Kemp's aid, then breaks into Kemp's house.
Kemp bolts for the town, where the local citizenry come to his aid.
Griffin is seized, assaulted, and killed by a mob.
The Invisible Man's naked, battered body gradually becomes visible as he dies.
A local policeman shouts to have someone cover Griffin's face with a sheet.
In the epilogue, it is revealed that Marvel has secretly kept Griffin's notes but is completely incapable of understanding them.
<EOS>
The story mainly takes place at , a worn and aging boarding house in a town called , where 20-year-old college applicant Yusaku Godai lives.
Though honest and good-natured, he is weak-willed and often taken advantage of by the offbeat and mischievous tenants who live with him: Yotsuya, Akemi Roppongi and Hanae Ichinose.
As he is about to move out, he is stopped at the door by the beautiful Kyoko Otonashi, who announces she will be taking over as manager.
Godai immediately falls in love with her and decides to stay.
Godai and the other tenants find out that despite her young age, Kyoko is a widow who had married her high school teacher, who tragically died shortly thereafter.
Godai empathizes with Kyoko and endeavors to free her from her sadness.
He manages to work up enough courage to confess his love to her, and it begins to look as if a relationship between them might appear.
However, Kyoko meets the rich, handsome and charming tennis coach Shun Mitaka at her tennis club.
Mitaka quickly declares his intention to court Kyoko and states that he is very patient, and can wait until her heart is ready.
Godai, not willing to give up, continues to chase Kyoko.
But through a series of misunderstandings, he is seen by Kyoko and Mitaka walking with the cute and innocent Kozue Nanao.
For the rest of the series, Kozue is mistakenly perceived as being Godai's girlfriend (by Kozue herself as well).
Angered by this, Kyoko begins to openly date Mitaka.
Despite the misunderstandings, Kyoko and Godai clearly have feelings for each other, and their relationship grows over the course of the series.
Godai eventually manages to get into college and, with the help of Kyoko's family, he begins student-teaching at Kyoko's old high school.
Almost mirroring Kyoko's meeting of her husband, Godai catches the attention of precocious and brazen student Ibuki Yagami, who immediately begins pursuing him.
Her outspoken approach stands in stark contrast to Kyoko, which helps Kyoko come face to face with her feelings for Godai.
Meanwhile, Mitaka's endeavors have been hindered by his phobia of dogs, as Kyoko owns a large white dog named Soichiro in honor of her late husband.
He eventually overcomes his phobia but, when he is about to propose to Kyoko, his family begins to goad him into a marriage with the pure and innocent Asuna Kujo.
Feeling the pressure, Mitaka begins to pursue Kyoko with increased aggression.
He slowly realizes that she has decided on Godai and is waiting for him to find a job and propose.
Mitaka is completely pulled out of the race when he ends up thinking he slept with Asuna and her later announcing a pregnancy.
Taking responsibility, he proposes to Asuna, but finds out too late that it was her dog who was pregnant, not her.
As things begin to really go well for Godai, Kozue Nanao makes a reappearance in his life.
Kozue tells Godai and the other Ikkoku tenants that she is thinking of marrying another man, even though Godai had proposed to her (which is another misunderstanding).
Kyoko, feeling foolish and betrayed, slaps Godai and demands that he move out.
When Godai refuses, he wakes up the next morning to find her gone and her room empty.
Godai tries to explain himself by visiting Kyoko every day, even though she won't answer the door.
After she calms down a bit, Kyoko checks on the house and runs into the other tenants.
They try to convince her to return.
The seductive Akemi, sensing that Kyoko is still hesitant, threatens to seduce Godai if Kyoko doesn't want him.
She later tells the other tenants that she only said that to threaten Kyoko into coming back.
This backfires when Godai is spotted leaving a love hotel with Akemi (he was only there to lend her money).
It results in Kozue resolving to marry the other man.
As Kyoko is about to return to Ikkoku, she learns that Godai has ended it with Kozue, but she thinks he slept with Akemi.
She insults him, tells him that she hates him, and runs away.
Godai follows her explaining that she doesn't trust him and that, despite the other girls, she never considered one important thing: Godai's own feelings.
He passionately tells her that he loves only her: From the first moment he saw her and forevermore, she is the only woman in his eyes.
The two spend the night together.
Having cleared his last barrier of getting a teaching job, Godai proposes to Kyoko and, with the blessings of both families, they get married.
The story ends as Godai and Kyoko arrive home with their newborn daughter, Haruka, and Kyoko tells her that Maison Ikkoku is the place where they first met.
<EOS>
During the year 1866, ships of several nations spot a mysterious sea monster, which some suggest to be a giant narwhal.
The "Sea Monster" turns out to be a submarine.
The United States government assembles an expedition in New York City to find and destroy the monster.
Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and narrator of the story, who happens to be in New York at the time, receives a last-minute invitation to join the expedition which he accepts.
Canadian whaler and master harpoonist Ned Land and Aronnax's faithful servant Conseil are also brought aboard.
The expedition departs Brooklyn aboard the United States Navy frigate Abraham Lincoln and travels south around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean.
The ship finds the monster after a long search and then attacks the beast, which damages the ship's rudder.
The three protagonists are then hurled into the water and grasp hold of the "hide" of the creature, which they find, to their surprise, to be a submarine very far ahead of its era.
They are quickly captured and brought inside the vessel, where they meet its enigmatic creator and commander, Captain Nemo.
The rest of the story follows the adventures of the protagonists aboard the creature—the submarine, the Nautilus—which was built in secrecy and now roams the seas free from any land-based government.
Captain Nemo's motivation is implied to be both a scientific thirst for knowledge and a desire for revenge on (and self-imposed exile from) civilization.
Nemo explains that his submarine is electrically powered and can perform advanced marine biology research; he also tells his new passengers that although he appreciates conversing with such an expert as Aronnax, maintaining the secrecy of his existence requires never letting them leave.
Aronnax and Conseil are enthralled by the undersea adventures, but Ned Land can only think of escape.
They visit many places under the oceans, some real-life places, others completely fictional.
The travelers witness the real corals of the Red Sea, the wrecks of the battle of Vigo Bay, the Antarctic ice shelves, the Transatlantic telegraph cable and the fictional submerged land of Atlantis.
The travelers also use diving suits to hunt sharks and other marine life with air-guns and have an underwater funeral for a crew member who died when an accident occurred under mysterious—and unknown to the reader—conditions inside the Nautilus.
When the Nautilus returns to the Atlantic Ocean, a pack of "poulpes" (usually translated as a giant squid, although in French "poulpe" means "octopus") attacks the vessel and kills a crew member.
Throughout the story Captain Nemo is suggested to have exiled himself from the world after an encounter with the forces that occupied his country that had devastating effects on his family.
Not long after the incident of the poulpes, Nemo suddenly changes his behavior toward Aronnax, avoiding him.
Aronnax no longer feels the same and begins to sympathize with Ned Land.
Near the end of the book, the Nautilus is attacked by a warship of some nation that made Nemo suffer.
Filled with hatred and revenge, Nemo ignores Aronnax's pleas for mercy.
Nemo—nicknamed angel of hatred by Aronnax—destroys the ship, ramming it just below the waterline, sinking it into the bottom of the sea, much to Aronnax's horror, as he watches the ship plunge into the abyss.
Nemo bows before the pictures of his wife and children and is plunged into deep depression after this encounter.
For several days after this, the protagonists' situation changes.
No one seems to be on board any longer and the Nautilus moves about randomly.
Ned Land is even more depressed, Conseil fears for Ned's life, and Aronnax, horrified at what Nemo had done to the ship, can no longer stand the situation either.
One evening, Ned Land announces an opportunity to escape.
Although Aronnax wants to leave Nemo, whom he now holds in horror, he still wishes to see him for the last time.
But he knows that Nemo would never let him escape, so he has to avoid meeting him.
Before the escape, however, he sees him one last time (although secretly), and hears him say "Almighty God.
Enough.
Enough.
".
Aronnax immediately goes to his companions and they are ready to escape.
But while they loosen the dinghy, they discover that the Nautilus has wandered into the Moskenstraumen, more commonly known as the "Maelstrom".
They manage to escape and find refuge on a nearby island off the coast of Norway, but the fate of Nautilus is unknown.
<EOS>
Gordon Comstock has 'declared war' on what he sees as an 'overarching dependence' on money by leaving a promising job as a copywriter for an advertising company called 'New Albion'—at which he shows great dexterity—and taking a low-paying job instead, ostensibly so he can write poetry.
Coming from a respectable family background in which the inherited wealth has now become dissipated, Gordon resents having to work for a living.
The 'war' (and the poetry), however, aren't going particularly well and, under the stress of his 'self-imposed exile' from affluence, Gordon has become absurd, petty and deeply neurotic.
Comstock lives without luxuries in a bedsit in London, which he affords by working in a small bookshop owned by a Scot, McKechnie.
He works intermittently at a magnum opus he plans to call 'London Pleasures', describing a day in London; meanwhile, his only published work, a slim volume of poetry entitled Mice, collects dust on the remainder shelf.
He is simultaneously content with his meagre existence and also disdainful of it.
He lives without financial ambition and the need for a 'good job,' but his living conditions are uncomfortable and his job is boring.
Comstock is 'obsessed' by what he sees as a pervasion of money (the 'Money God', as he calls it) behind social relationships, feeling sure that women would find him more attractive if he were better off.
At the beginning of the novel, he senses that his girlfriend Rosemary Waterlow (whom he met at New Albion, and who continues to work there), is dissatisfied with him because of his poverty.
An example of his financial embarrassment is when he is desperate for a pint of beer at his local pub, but has run out of pocket money and is ashamed to cadge a drink off his fellow lodger, Flaxman.
One of Comstock's last remaining friends, Philip Ravelston, a Marxist who publishes a magazine called Anti-Christ, agrees with Comstock in principle, but is comfortably well-off himself and this causes strains when the practical miseries of Comstock's life become apparent.
He does, however, endeavour to publish some of Comstock's work and his efforts had resulted in Mice being published via one of his publisher contacts (unbeknownst to Comstock).
Gordon and Rosemary have little time together—she works late and lives in a hostel, and his 'bitch of a landlady' forbids female visitors to her tenants.
Then one evening, having headed southward and having been thinking about women—this women business in general, and Rosemary in particular—he happens to see Rosemary in a street market.
Rosemary won't have sex with him but she wants to spend a Sunday with him, right out in the country, near Burnham Beeches.
At their parting, as he takes the tram from Tottenham Court Road back to his bedsit, he is happy and feels that somehow it is agreed between them that Rosemary is going to be his mistress.
However, what is intended to be a pleasant day out away from London's grime turns into a disaster when, though hungry, they opt to pass by a 'rather low-looking' pub, and can then not find another pub, and are forced to eat an unappetising lunch at a fancy, overpriced hotel instead.
Gordon has to pay the bill with all the money he had set aside for their jaunt and worries about having to borrow money from Rosemary.
Out in the countryside again, they are about to have sex for the first time when she violently pushes him back—he wasn't going to use contraception.
He rails at her; "Money again, you see.
You say you 'can't' have a baby.
You mean you daren't; because you'd lose your job and I've got no money and all of us would starve".
Having sent a poem to an American publication, Gordon suddenly receives from them a cheque worth ten pounds – a considerable sum for him at the time.
He intends to set aside half for his sister Julia, who has always been there to lend him money and support.
He treats Rosemary and Ravelston to dinner, which begins well, but the evening deteriorates as it proceeds.
Gordon, drunk, tries to force himself upon Rosemary but she angrily rebukes him and leaves.
Gordon continues drinking, drags Ravelston with him to visit a pair of prostitutes, and ends up broke and in a police cell the next morning.
He is guilt-ridden over the thought of being unable to pay his sister back the money he owes her, because his £5 note is gone, given to, or stolen by, one of the tarts.
Ravelston pays Gordon's fine after a brief appearance before the magistrate, but a reporter hears about the case, and writes about it in the local paper.
The ensuing publicity results in Gordon losing his job at the bookshop, and, consequently, his relatively 'comfortable' lifestyle.
As Gordon searches for another job, his life deteriorates, and his poetry stagnates.
After living with his friend Ravelston, and his girlfriend Hermione, during his time of unemployment, Gordon ends up working at another book shop and cheap two-penny lending library, this time in Lambeth, owned by the sinister mr Cheeseman, for an even smaller wage of 30 shillings a week.
This is 10 shillings less than he was earning before, but Gordon is satisfied; "The job would do.
There was no trouble about a job like this; no room for ambition, no effort, no hope".
Determined to sink to the lowest level of society Gordon takes a furnished bed-sitting-room in a filthy alley parallel to Lambeth Cut.
Both Julia and Rosemary, "in feminine league against him", seek to get Gordon to go back to his 'good' job at the New Albion advertising agency.
Rosemary, having avoided Gordon for some time, suddenly comes to visit him one day at his dismal lodgings.
Despite his terrible poverty and shabbiness, they have sex but it is without any emotion or passion.
Later, Rosemary drops in one day unexpectedly at the library, having not been in touch with Gordon for some time, and tells him that she is pregnant.
Gordon is presented with the choice between leaving Rosemary to a life of social shame at the hands of her family—since both of them reject the idea of an abortion—or marrying her and returning to a life of respectability by taking back the job he once so deplored at the New Albion with its £4 weekly salary.
He chooses Rosemary and respectability and then experiences a feeling of relief at having abandoned his anti-money principles with such comparative ease.
After two years of abject failure and poverty, he throws his poetic work 'London Pleasures' down a drain, marries Rosemary, resumes his advertising career, and plunges into a campaign to promote a new product to prevent foot odour.
In his lonely walks around mean streets, aspidistras seem to appear in every lower-middle class window.
As the book closes, Gordon wins an argument with Rosemary to install an aspidistra in their new small but comfortable flat off the Edgware Road.
<EOS>
Set in France and Louisiana in the early 18th century, the story follows the hero, the Chevalier des Grieux, and his lover, Manon Lescaut.
Des Grieux comes from a noble and landed family, but forfeits his hereditary wealth and incurs the disappointment of his father by running away with Manon.
In Paris, the young lovers enjoy a blissful cohabitation, while Des Grieux struggles to satisfy Manon's taste for luxury.
He scrounges together money by borrowing from his unwaveringly loyal friend Tiberge and by cheating gamblers.
On several occasions, Des Grieux's wealth evaporates (by theft, in a house fire, etc), prompting Manon to leave him for a richer man because she cannot stand the thought of living in penury.
The two lovers finally end up in New Orleans, to which Manon has been deported as a prostitute, where they pretend to be married and live in idyllic peace for a while.
But when Des Grieux reveals their unmarried state to the Governor and asks to be wed with Manon, the Governor's nephew sets his sights on winning Manon's hand.
In despair, Des Grieux challenges the Governor's nephew to a duel and knocks him unconscious.
Thinking he had killed the man and fearing retribution, the couple flee New Orleans and venture into the wilderness of Louisiana, hoping to reach an English settlement.
Manon dies of exposure and exhaustion the following morning and, after burying his beloved, Des Grieux is eventually taken back to France by Tiberge.
<EOS>
An understanding of the drama of Boris Godunov may be facilitated by a basic knowledge of the historical events surrounding the Time of Troubles, the interregnum of relative anarchy following the end of the Ryurik Dynasty (1598) and preceding the Romanov Dynasty (1613).
Key events are as follows: Note: The culpability of Boris in the matter of Dmitriy's death can neither be proved nor disproved.
Karamzin accepted his responsibility as fact, and Pushkin and Mussorgsky after him assumed his guilt to be true, at least for the purpose of creating a tragedy in the mold of Shakespeare.
Modern historians, however, tend to acquit Boris.
<EOS>
In 1995, theSSE, an international protection agency, helps Sercian opposition leader William MacPherson engineer a coup that overthrows a century-old authoritarian regime.
Shortly afterwards, MacPherson is elected as the Sercian republic's first president.
However, Sherudo Garo, the last survivor of the regime, plots to restore the old order, launching a series of attacks and assassinations that quickly destabilize the nation.
As the finishing touch, Sherudo has MacPherson's daughter Rachel abducted and imprisoned in his family's castle on a remote island, demanding vital military secrets in exchange for her life.
A desperate MacPherson contacts theSSE, who in turn dispatch veteran agent Richard Miller, the "One Man Army", to infiltrate the castle and rescue Rachel.
Miller reaches the island and rams his explosives-rigged boat into the castle's exterior to create an entrance.
Sherudo hears the resulting boom, but his head of security, Wild Dog, assures him that Miller won't last long against his highly trained mercenaries.
Meanwhile, Miller confronts Wild Dog's troops in the submarine hangar and makes his way to the main courtyard against heavy resistance, eventually reaching Rachel's location.
She warns him of a setup before being whisked away.
Miller is then confronted by Dog's chief assassin, Moz, and his unit.
He defeats them and interrogates Moz, who reveals that Rachel has been transferred to the clock tower.
There, Miller is attacked by Sherudo, a trained knife thrower, and guns him down, only to find Rachel held at gunpoint by Dog.
Angered by Sherudo's death (since it means he won't be paid), Dog reveals his intentions to blow up the castle with Richard inside and escape with Rachel.
Pursuing them to the castle's helipad, Miller arrives just as Rachel manages to break free, leading Dog to shoot her.
A furious Miller engages Dog in a fast-and-loose gun battle across the rooftop, during which Dog accidentally sets off his detonator, apparently killing himself in a fiery explosion.
Richard collects the wounded Rachel and escapes in Sherudo's chopper just as the rest of the castle goes up in flames.
The PS1 version features a special mission known as the "Kantaris Deal", which takes place several weeks after the main story's events.
Miller is alerted bySSE to the presence of an illegal arms factory posing as a Sercian hotel, with ties to Wild Dog's organization.
He is assigned to infiltrate the factory and eliminate its owner, Kantaris.
Upon clearing the lobby, Miller has three different paths to his target.
The first takes him through the ballroom/casino, where he eliminates Kantaris's scythe-hand assassin, Web Spinner.
He then pursues her to the swimming pool just as she attempts to escape by air.
After shooting down an escort gunship, Miller damages the engines of Kantaris's ship just as it takes off, causing it to crash and explode.
The second path, which can only be accessed if there are less than 22 seconds left on the clock, instead goes through the shopping mall and down into a garbage disposal.
There, Miller uses a claw arm to punch a hole in the wall, allowing him to access the underground arms factory.
From there, he makes his way to Kantaris's office in the Lounge and defeats her personal security droid, which then malfunctions and rolls out the window, taking her with it.
The third path can be made available if Richard does not activate the claw in time.
Instead of entering the factory, he goes through the parking lot.
After defeating a spider-legged battle tank, Miller disables Kantaris's car, forcing it to crash.
If in any of these scenarios Miller fails to take action soon enough, Kantaris escapes and the mission is aborted.
(Canonically, the spin-off game takes place after the mission's failure).
<EOS>
The film opens with newsreel footage, including the farewell address in 1961 of outgoing President Dwight Eisenhower, warning about the build-up of the "military-industrial complex".
This is followed by a summary of John Kennedy's years as president, emphasizing the events that, in Stone's thesis, would lead to his assassination.
This builds to a reconstruction of the assassination on November 22, 1963.
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison subsequently learns about potential links to the assassination in New Orleans.
Garrison and his team investigate several possible conspirators, including private pilot David Ferrie (Joe Pesci), but are forced to let them go after their investigation is publicly rebuked by the federal government.
Kennedy's suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is killed by Jack Ruby, and Garrison closes the investigation.
The investigation is reopened in 1966 after Garrison reads the Warren Report and notices what he believes to be multiple inaccuracies.
Garrison and his staff interrogate several witnesses to the Kennedy assassination, and others involved with Oswald, Ruby, and Ferrie.
One such witness is Willie O'Keefe (Kevin Bacon), a male prostitute serving five years in prison for soliciting, who reveals he witnessed Ferrie discussing a coup d'état.
As well as briefly meeting Oswald, O'Keefe was romantically involved with a man called "Clay Bertrand".
Jean Hill (Ellen McElduff), a teacher who says she witnessed shots fired from the grassy knoll, tells the investigators that Secret Service threatened her into saying three shots came from the book depository, revealing changes that were made to her testimony by the Warren Commission.
Garrison's staff also test the single bullet theory by aiming an empty rifle from the window through which Oswald was alleged to have shot Kennedy.
They conclude that Oswald was too poor a marksman to make the shots, indicating someone else, or multiple marksmen, were involved.
In 1968, Garrison meets a high-level figure in WashingtonC.
who identifies himself as "X" (Donald Sutherland).
He suggests a conspiracy at the highest levels of government, implicating members of the CIA, the Mafia, the military-industrial complex, Secret Service, FBI, and Kennedy's vice-president and then president Lyndon Baines Johnson as either co-conspirators or as having motives to cover up the truth of the assassination.
X explains that the President was killed because he wanted to pull the United States out of the Vietnam War and dismantle the CIA.
X encourages Garrison to keep digging and prosecute New Orleans-based international businessman Clay Shaw for his alleged involvement.
Upon interrogating Shaw, the businessman denies any knowledge of meeting Ferrie, O'Keefe or Oswald, but he is soon charged with conspiring to murder the President.
Some of Garrison's staff begin to doubt his motives and disagree with his methods, and leave the investigation.
Garrison's marriage is strained when his wife Liz (Sissy Spacek) complains that he is spending more time on the case than with his own family.
After a sinister phone call is made to their daughter, Liz accuses Garrison of being selfish and attacking Shaw only because of his homosexuality.
In addition, the media launches attacks on television and in newspapers attacking Garrison's character and criticizing the way his office is spending taxpayers' money.
Some key witnesses become scared and refuse to testify while others, such as Ferrie, are killed in suspicious circumstances.
Before his death, Ferrie tells Garrison that he believes people are after him, and reveals there was a conspiracy around Kennedy's death.
The trial of Clay Shaw takes place in 1969.
Garrison presents the court with further evidence of multiple killers and dismissing the single bullet theory, and proposes a Dealey Plaza shots scenario involving three assassins who fired six total shots and framing Oswald for the murders of Kennedy and officer Tippit but the jury acquits Shaw after less than one hour of deliberation.
The film reflects that members of that jury stated publicly that they believed there was a conspiracy behind the assassination, but not enough evidence to link Shaw to that conspiracy.
Shaw died of lung cancer in 1974, but in 1979 Richard Helms testified that Clay Shaw had been a part-time contact of the Domestic Contacts Division of the CIA.
The end credits claim that records related to the assassination will be released to the public in 2029.
<EOS>
Léon Montana (Jean Reno) is an Italian hitman (or "cleaner", as he refers to himself) living a solitary life in New York City's Little Italy.
His work comes from a mafioso named Tony (Danny Aiello).
Léon spends his idle time engaging in calisthenics, nurturing a houseplant, and watching old films.
One day, Léon sees Mathilda Lando (Natalie Portman), a lonely twelve-year-old girl.
Mathilda lives with her dysfunctional family in an apartment down the hall.
Her abusive father and self-absorbed stepmother have not noticed that Mathilda stopped attending class at her school for troubled girls.
Mathilda's father (Michael Badalucco) attracts the ire of corrupt DEA agents, who have been paying him to stash cocaine in his apartment.
After they discover he has been cutting the cocaine to keep for himself, DEA&nbsp;agents storm the building, led by sharply dressed drug addict Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman).
During the raid, Stansfield quickly becomes unhinged and murders Mathilda's entire family while she is out shopping for groceries.
When Mathilda returns, she realizes what has happened just in time to continue down the hall, where she desperately rings her neighbour's door.
A hesitant Léon gives her shelter.
Mathilda quickly discovers that Léon is a hitman.
She begs him to take care of her and to teach her his skills, as she wants to avenge the murder of her four-year-old brother.
At first Léon is unsettled by her presence, but he eventually trains Mathilda and shows her how to use various weapons.
In exchange, she runs his errands, cleans his apartment, and teaches him how to read.
In time, the pair form a close bond.
Mathilda often tells Léon she is in love with him, but he refuses to reciprocate.
One day when Léon heads out for an apparent assignment, Mathilda fills a bag with guns from Léon's collection and sets out to kill Stansfield.
She bluffs her way into the DEA office by posing as a delivery girl, only to be ambushed by Stansfield in a bathroom.
Mathilda learns from Stansfield that Léon killed one of the corrupt DEA agents in Chinatown that morning.
Léon, after discovering her plan in a note left for him, rescues Mathilda, shooting two more of Stansfield's men in the process.
An enraged Stansfield confronts Tony, who is interrogated for Léon's whereabouts.
When Mathilda returns home from grocery shopping, an NYPD ESU team sent by Stansfield captures her and attempts to infiltrate Léon's apartment.
Léon ambushes the ESU team and rescues Mathilda.
Léon creates a quick escape for Mathilda by smashing a hole in an air shaft; he then reassures her, tells her that he loves her, and thanks her for giving him "a taste for life", moments before the police blow up the apartment.
In the chaos that follows, Léon sneaks out of the building disguised as a wounded ESU officer; he goes unnoticed save for Stansfield, who follows him and shoots him in the back.
As he is dying, Léon places an object in Stansfield's hands that he says is "from Mathilda"; Stansfield discovers that it is a grenade pin.
He then opens Léon's vest to find a cluster of active grenades, which detonates and kills them both.
Mathilda goes to Tony, as Léon had instructed her to do before he died.
Tony tells Mathilda he had been instructed by Léon to give his money to her if anything happened to him; he offers to hold it and provide the money on an allowance basis.
Mathilda returns to school and meets the headmistress, who readmits her after Mathilda reveals what had happened to her.
She then walks onto a field near the school to plant Léon's houseplant, as she had told Léon he should, to "give it roots".
<EOS>
Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland is one of ten children of a country clergyman.
Although a tomboy in her childhood, by the age of 17 she is "in training for a heroine" and is excessively fond of reading Gothic novels, among which Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho is a favourite.
Catherine is invited by the Allens, her wealthier neighbours in Fullerton, to accompany them to visit the town of Bath and partake in the winter season of balls, theatre and other social delights.
Although initially the excitement of Bath is dampened by her lack of acquaintances, she is soon introduced to a clever young gentleman, Henry Tilney, with whom she dances and converses.
Much to Catherine's disappointment, Henry does not reappear in the subsequent week and, not knowing whether or not he has left Bath for good, she wonders if she will ever see him again.
Through Mrs Allen's old schoolfriend Mrs Thorpe, she meets her daughter Isabella, a vivacious and flirtatious young woman, and the two quickly become friends.
Mrs Thorpe's son John is also a friend of Catherine's older brother, James, at Oxford where they are both students.
James and John arrive unexpectedly in Bath.
While Isabella and James spend time together, Catherine becomes acquainted with John, a vain and crude young gentleman who incessantly tells fantastical stories about himself.
Henry Tilney then returns to Bath, accompanied by his younger sister Eleanor, who is a sweet, elegant, and respectable young lady.
Catherine also meets their father, the imposing General Tilney.
The Thorpes are not very happy about Catherine's friendship with the Tilneys, as they correctly perceive Henry as a rival for Catherine's affections.
Catherine tries to maintain her friendships with both the Thorpes and the Tilneys, though John Thorpe continuously tries to sabotage her relationship with the Tilneys.
This leads to several misunderstandings, which upset Catherine and put her in the awkward position of having to explain herself to the Tilneys.
Isabella and James become engaged.
James's father approves of the match and offers his son a country parson's living of a modest sum, 400 pounds annually, which he may have in two and a half years.
The couple must therefore wait until that time to marry.
Isabella is dissatisfied, having believed that the Allens, being childless and obviously fond of the Morland siblings, would give them some of their wealth, but she pretends to Catherine that she is merely dissatisfied that they must wait so long.
James departs to purchase a ring, and John accompanies him, after coyly suggested marriage to the oblivious Catherine, which she declines.
Isabella immediately begins to flirt with Captain Tilney, Henry's older brother.
Innocent Catherine cannot understand her friend's behaviour, but Henry understands all too well, as he knows his brother's character and habits.
The flirtation continues even when James returns, much to the latter's embarrassment and distress.
The Tilneys invite Catherine to stay with them for a few weeks at their home, Northanger Abbey.
Catherine, in accordance with her novel reading, expects the abbey to be exotic and frightening.
Henry teases her about this, as it turns out that Northanger Abbey is pleasant and decidedly not Gothic.
However, the house includes a mysterious suite of rooms that no one ever enters; Catherine learns that they were Mrs Tilney's, who died nine years earlier.
Catherine decides that, since General Tilney does not now seem to be affected by the loss of his wife, he may have murdered her or even imprisoned her in her chamber.
Catherine persuades Eleanor to show her Mrs Tilney's rooms, but General Tilney suddenly appears.
Catherine flees, sure that she will be punished.
Later, Catherine sneaks back to Mrs Tilney's rooms, to discover that her over-active imagination has once again led her astray, as nothing is strange or distressing in the rooms at all.
Unfortunately, Henry joins her in the corridor and questions why she is there.
He guesses her surmises and inferences, and informs her that his father loved his wife in his own way and was truly upset by her death.
"What have you been judging from.
Remember the country and the age in which we live.
Remember that we are English, that we are Christians.
Consult your own understanding, your own sense of the probable, your own observation of what is passing around you.
Does our education prepare us for such atrocities.
Do our laws connive at them.
Dearest Miss Morland, what ideas have you been admitting.
" She leaves, crying, fearing that she has lost Henry's regard entirely.
Realizing how foolish she has been, Catherine comes to believe that, though novels may be delightful, their content does not relate to everyday life.
Henry lets her get over her shameful thoughts and actions in her own time and does not mention them to her again.
Soon after this adventure, James writes to inform her that he has broken off his engagement to Isabella and that she has become engaged instead to Captain Tilney.
Henry and Eleanor Tilney are shocked but rather sceptical that their brother has actually become engaged to Isabella Thorpe.
Catherine is terribly disappointed, realising what a dishonest person Isabella is.
A subsequent letter from Isabella herself confirms the Tilney siblings' doubts about the engagement and shows that Frederick Tilney was merely flirting with Isabella.
The General goes off to London, and the atmosphere at Northanger Abbey immediately becomes lighter and pleasanter for his absence.
Catherine passes several enjoyable days with Henry and Eleanor until, in Henry's absence, the General returns abruptly, in a temper.
He forces Eleanor to tell Catherine that the family has an engagement that prevents Catherine from staying any longer and that she must go home early the next morning, in a shocking, inhospitable move that forces Catherine to undertake the journey alone and without even a servant to see to her safety.
At home, Catherine is listless and unhappy.
Her parents, unaware of her trials of the heart, try to bring her up to her usual spirits, with little effect.
Two days after she returns home, however, Henry pays a sudden unexpected visit and explains what happened.
General Tilney (on the misinformation of John Thorpe) had believed her to be exceedingly rich as the Allen's prospective heiress, and therefore a proper match for Henry.
In London, General Tilney ran into Thorpe again, who, angry and petty at Catherine's refusal of his half-made proposal of marriage, said instead that she was nearly destitute.
Enraged, General Tilney, (again on the misinformation of John Thorpe), returned home to evict Catherine.
When Henry returned to Northanger from Woodston, his father informed him of what had occurred and forbade him to think of Catherine again.
When Henry learns how she had been treated, he breaks with his father and tells Catherine he still wants to marry her despite his father's disapproval.
Catherine is delighted.
Eventually, General Tilney acquiesces, because Eleanor has become engaged to a wealthy and titled man; and he discovers that the Morlands, while not extremely rich, are far from destitute.
<EOS>
Since the original run, Shaffer has extensively revised his play, including changes to plot details; the following is common to all revisions.
At the opening of the tale, Salieri is an old man, having long outlived his fame.
Speaking directly to the audience, he claims to have used poison to assassinate Mozart, and promises to explain himself.
The action then flashes back to the eighteenth century, at a time when Salieri has not met Mozart in person, but has heard of him and his music.
He adores Mozart's compositions, and is thrilled at the chance to meet Mozart in person, during a salon at which some of Mozart's compositions will be played.
When he finally does catch sight of Mozart, however, he is deeply disappointed to find that Mozart himself lacks the grace and charm of his compositions: When Salieri first meets him, Mozart is crawling around on his hands and knees, engaging in profane talk with his future bride Constanze Weber.
Salieri cannot reconcile Mozart's boorish behaviour with the genius that God has inexplicably bestowed upon him.
Indeed, Salieri, who has been a devout Catholic all his life, cannot believe that God would choose Mozart over him for such a gift.
Salieri renounces God and vows to do everything in his power to destroy Mozart as a way of getting back at his Creator.
Throughout much of the rest of the play, Salieri masquerades as Mozart's ally to his face while doing his utmost to destroy his reputation and any success his compositions may have.
On more than one occasion it is only the direct intervention of the Emperor himself that allows Mozart to continue (interventions which Salieri opposes, and then is all too happy to take credit for when Mozart assumes it was he who intervened).
Salieri also humiliates Mozart's wife when she comes to Salieri for aid, and smears Mozart's character with the Emperor and the court.
A major theme in Amadeus is Mozart's repeated attempts to win over the aristocratic "public" with increasingly brilliant compositions, which are always frustrated either by Salieri or by the aristocracy's own inability to appreciate Mozart's genius.
The play ends with Salieri attempting suicide with a razor in a last attempt to be remembered, leaving a confession of having murdered Mozart with arsenic.
He survives, however, and his confession is met with disbelief, leaving him to wallow once again in mediocrity.
<EOS>
The plot is delivered in a number of lengthy flashbacks in the narrative of Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) as he sits at a bus stop with a suitcase full of mementos in Savannah, Georgia in 1981.
He initiates conversation with a stranger and recalls his childhood in Greenbow, Alabama during the 1950s.
Forrest is raised by a single mother (Sally Field) who runs a bed and breakfast for travelling folk including at one point a young Elvis Presley, and has to wear leg braces to fix a crooked back.
Despite having a diminished intellect, Forrest is admitted to public school after his mother agrees to have sex with the principal.
On his first day of school, Forrest meets Jenny Curran, a girl his age who becomes his best friend and is a victim of child molestation by her father.
The children bond, finding in each other a confidante and kindred spirit.
With Jenny's encouragement, Forrest runs away from a group of bullies, struggling until his leg braces break off and he finds that he is able to run very fast.
Years later, while fleeing the same group of bullies, he runs onto a football field during a practice observed by legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, which gets him into the University of Alabama on a football scholarship.
He features in the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door and listens to George Wallace.
He then meets President John Kennedy as a member of the NCAA "All-American" team.
After graduation, he enlists in the army, where he excels at drill exercises and befriends fellow recruit Benjamin Buford Blue, nicknamed "Bubba" (Mykelti Williamson), an aspiring shrimp boat captain who suggests they go into the shrimp business together after the war.
They are sent to Vietnam under Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise).
After four months of patrolling in rain, Bubba is killed during their first encounter, an ambush which leaves many of their fellow soldiers wounded.
Lieutenant Dan sustains major injuries and loses both his legs.
Forrest is wounded in the buttocks while saving members of his platoon—including Lieutenant Dan—and is awarded the Medal of Honor, presented to him by President Lyndon Johnson at the White House.
At an anti-war rally in Washington featuring Abbie Hoffman, Forrest reunites with Jenny, who has joined the hippie movement after being expelled from college over topless photos of herself and experimenting with drugs.
While recovering from his wounds, Forrest discovers an aptitude for ping-pong, eventually playing against the Chinese in ping-pong diplomacy.
He runs into Lieutenant Dan, and finds that the former officer is now in a wheelchair and has become an embittered drunk living on disability pension.
Forrest is discharged and moves in with Dan and they spend the holidays together, with Forrest explaining his and Bubba's plan to go into the shrimping business and his intentions to fulfill Bubba's dream, which lt Dan disdainfully mocks.
During this period Forrest ends up meeting President Nixon and accidentally reveals the Watergate scandal.
After being discharged from the Army, Gump returns to Alabama and makes from ping pong endorsements, which he uses to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his promise to Bubba.
lt Dan joins Gump, and although they initially have little success, after Hurricane Carmen they are the only boat in the area left standing, and they begin to pull in huge amounts of shrimp.
They use their income to buy an entire fleet of shrimp boats.
lt Dan invests the money in Apple and they are financially secure for the rest of their lives.
Forrest returns home when his mother falls terminally ill and stays with her until her death.
Forrest donates much of his money to various causes, including a substantial sum to Bubba's family, and continues to live in the house where he grew up, taking a job as a groundskeeper.
Despite his success and finally coming home, he is lonely and often thinks of Jenny, who has been living a life of promiscuity and substance abuse.
One day, she returns to Alabama and stays with Forrest.
He asks her to marry him, but she declines because of her troubled past.
However, they have sex that night.
After she leaves the next day, a frustrated Forrest decides to go for a run, which turns into a multiple coast-to-coast three-and-a-half year journey, bringing him once more to national attention.
Back in the "present day", Gump reveals to his ever-rotating bus stop audience that he is travelling because he received a letter from Jenny, who is now living in Savannah and had seen him on TV during his running and invited him to visit.
Jenny reveals Forrest to be the father of her child, also named Forrest (Haley Joel Osment), and that she is suffering from an unknown virus (considering the timeline, it is assumed to be AIDS).
Jenny proposes to Forrest, and he accepts.
Forrest and Jenny return to Greenbow with Forrest Jr.
and are finally married; lt Dan attends the wedding with his Vietnamese fiancée Susan and shows Forrest his new prosthetic legs.
Jenny eventually dies of her illness, and Forrest becomes a devoted father to Forrest Jr.
Later, Gump is waiting with his son for the school bus to pick him up for his first day of school.
<EOS>
Margo Channing (Bette Davis) is one of the biggest stars on Broadway.
But having just turned forty she is worried about what her advancing age will mean for her career.
After a performance of Margo's latest play, Aged in Wood, Margo's close friend Karen Richards (Celeste Holm), wife of the play's author Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), brings a besotted fan Eve Harrington (Ann Baxter) in to meet Margo.
Eve tells the group gathered in Margo's dressing room—Karen and Lloyd, Margo's boyfriend Bill Sampson (Gary Merrill), a director who is eight years her junior, and Margo's maid Birdie (Thelma Ritter)—that she followed Margo's last theatrical tour to New York after seeing her in a play in San Francisco.
She tells a moving story of growing up poor and losing her young husband in World War II.
Moved, Margo quickly befriends Eve, takes her into her home, and hires her as her assistant, leaving Birdie, who instinctively dislikes Eve, feeling put out.
Eve quickly insinuates herself into Margo's life, acting as her secretary and adoring fan.
She seems to anticipate Margo's every need, including placing a long distance phone call to Bill when Margo forgets his birthday.
Margo becomes increasingly distrustful and bitter, particularly after she catches Eve trying on one of the costumes for Aged in Wood.
Margo asks her producer, Max Fabian, to hire Eve at his office, but instead Eve manages to become Margo's understudy without Margo's knowledge.
As Margo's irritation grows, Karen feels sorry for Eve.
In hopes of humbling Margo, Karen arranges for her to miss a performance of Aged in Wood, so Eve will have to give the performance in her place.
Eve invites the city's theatre critics, including the acerbic Addison DeWitt, to attend that evening's performance, which is a triumph for her.
Eve tries to seduce Bill, but he rejects her.
Instead, Addison takes her under his wing and writes a column that criticizes Margo for not making way for new talents like Eve.
That evening, Margo and Bill announce their engagement at dinner with the Richardses.
Eve calls Karen into the ladies room and tells her to either ask Lloyd to give her the part of Cora—the lead in Lloyd's next play, Footsteps in the Ceiling—or she will tell reveal Karen's role in Margo's missed performance.
Before Karen can talk with Lloyd, Margo announces to everyone's surprise that she does not wish to play Cora and would prefer to continue in Aged in Wood.
Eve is cast as Cora.
Just before the out-of-town premiere of Footsteps on the Ceiling at the Shubert in New Haven, Eve presents Addison with her next plan: to marry Lloyd, who, she claims, has come to her professing his love and his eagerness to leave his wife for her.
Now, Eve exults, Lloyd will write brilliant plays showcasing her.
Angered that Eve believes she can manipulate him as easily as she does everyone else, Addison reveals he knows that her back story is all lies.
Her real name is Gertrude Slojinski, she was never married, and she had been paid to leave her hometown over an affair with her boss, a brewer in Wisconsin.
Addison blackmails Eve, informing her that she will not be marrying Lloyd or anyone else; in exchange for Addison's silence, she now "belongs" to him.
A year later, Eve is a shining Broadway star headed for Hollywood.
At an awards banquet, she thanks Margo, Bill, Lloyd and Karen with characteristic effusion, while all four stare back at her coldly.
Eve skips a party in her honor, and returns home alone, where she encounters Phoebe, a young fan (Barbara Bates)—a high-school girl—who has slipped into her apartment and fallen asleep.
The young girl professes her adoration and begins at once to insinuate herself into Eve's life, offering to pack Eve's trunk for Hollywood.
While Eve rests in the other room, Phoebe dons Eve's elegant costume robe and poses in front of a multi-paned mirror, holding the award as if it were a crown.
<EOS>
The novel is framed as the unnamed protagonist delivering his personal report on "the IPCRESS affair" directly to the Minister of Defence, thus making the novel itself the 'IPCRESS File' of the title.
The events begin soon after his transfer from military intelligence to WOOC(P), a small civilian intelligence agency reporting directly to the British Cabinet, where he works under the command of a man named Dalby.
An intelligence broker code-named "Jay" is suspected to be behind a series of kidnappings of highly placed and influential British VIPs with the intention of selling them to the Soviets, and the protagonist is assigned to meet with Jay in order to secure the release of "Raven", a high-ranking scientist and his latest target.
After meeting Jay at a sleazy Soho strip club to negotiate Raven's release, the protagonist is abandoned; investigating his surroundings, he discovers Raven's unconscious body in a back room and attempts to rescue him, but is unsuccessful.
WOOC(P) receives intelligence that Raven is to be transferred to the Soviets in Beirut, and a rescue mission is organised with Dalby and the protagonist participating.
The protagonist is assigned as a lookout while Dalby kills Raven's captors and rescues him.
The protagonist is forced to kill the occupants of a car which suddenly arrives on the scene in order to maintain the cover of the operation, believing them to be operatives working for Jay; they instead turn out to be members of ONI.
The operation is otherwise a success and Raven is recovered, but the investigation into Jay continues.
Dalby disappears, apparently going undercover, leaving the protagonist temporarily in charge of WOOC(P).
At this point the protagonist's former superior from military intelligence, Colonel Ross, approaches the protagonist offering to sell him confidential information related to the affair.
The protagonist rejects the offer in disgust, but begins to second-guess himself.
Carswell, a statistician from another department assigned to the matter, begins noting a range of bizarre and seemingly irrelevant links between many of the kidnap victims.
A break suddenly appears when Housemartin, one of Jay's high-ranking operatives, is arrested in Shoreditch for impersonating a police officer, but by the time the protagonist and Murray, another operative assigned to the case, arrive at the police station only to discover he has been murdered in his cell.
Information from the arrest enables WOOC(P) and the police to storm one of Jay's safe-houses, but it has been abandoned.
In order to help with the administration of the department, the protagonist is assigned an assistant, Jean, a beautiful young woman towards whom he begins to develop romantic feelings.
Dalby re-emerges, and reveals intelligence suggesting that Jay's operations will interfere with an American neutron bomb test in the Pacific.
Dalby, Jean and the protagonist are sent to the test site as British observers, and while there the protagonist learns from an old friend, Barney, that the Americans suspect him of being a double-agent due to the deaths of the CIA operatives in Beirut.
Jean reveals to the protagonist that Dalby has left been visiting an abandoned Japanese bunker on the island.
Soon after, Barney is killed in apparently suspicious circumstances, and while following Dalby to the scene the protagonist is present when the bomb test site is sabotaged, setting back the bomb test and killing a military police officer.
The protagonist is arrested by the Americans and interrogated, before apparently being transferred to Hungary on suspicion of being a Soviet agent.
There, he is drugged and subject to days of psychological and physical torture, and nearly cracks before eventually managing to escape—only to discover that he is in fact back in London.
The protagonist takes refuge with Charlie Cavendish, the father of a friend killed towards the end of the Second World War, and attempts to reestablish contact with WOOC(P) without being arrested for treason.
Charlie is killed by Jay's operatives, forcing the protagonist on the run; he approaches Dalby at his home, but discovers Dalby meeting with Murray, Jay and another of Jay's operatives—confirming the protagonist's suspicions that Dalby is in fact the traitor.
The protagonist is discovered by Murray, who reveals himself to be an undercover operative from military intelligence also investigating Dalby.
The protagonist escapes, but is soon captured by Jay's operatives and taken to meet Jay—he has, however, allowed military intelligence to follow them, and Jay and Dalby are arrested by Colonel Ross.
The protagonist reveals to Jean that Jay and Dalby were using a process called "Induction of Psycho-neuroses by Conditioned REflex with Stress" (IPCRESS) to brainwash the VIPs into loyalty to the Soviet Union, which they had also unsuccessfully attempted to subject the protagonist to.
The seemingly irrelevant links that Carswell had discovered were in fact indicators of the personality traits that Jay had used to determine which VIPs would easily succumb to the process.
Dalby was the one who had sabotaged the American bomb test, as part of Jay and Dalby's efforts to frame the protagonist.
Colonel Ross reveals that his attempt to sell information to the protagonist had been a test of his loyalty, which the protagonist had passed by rejecting it.
The novel ends with the protagonist concluding his report to the Minister, revealing that Jay has turned and began working for the British, while Dalby has been executed and his death covered up as a car accident.
<EOS>
Philip Schuyler Green (Gregory Peck) is a widowed journalist who has just moved to New York City with his son Tommy (Dean Stockwell) and mother (Anne Revere).
Green meets with magazine publisher John Minify (Albert Dekker), who asks Green, a gentile, to write an article on antisemitism ("some people don't like other people just because they're Jews").
He is not very enthusiastic at first, but after initially struggling with how to approach the topic in a fresh way, Green is inspired to adopt a Jewish identity ("Phil Greenberg") and writes about his first-hand experiences.
At a dinner party, Phil meets Minify's divorced niece Kathy Lacey (Dorothy McGuire), a pre-school teacher, who turns out to be the person who originally suggested the story idea.
The next day, Phil tries to explain anti-Jewish prejudice to his young, precocious son&nbsp;– directly after displaying some anti-female prejudice of his own.
Green tells his mother that he's struck by the odd notion that the idea for the article came from "a girl" at the magazine.
His mother replies, "Why, women will be thinking next".
Phil and Kathy begin dating.
Green and Minify agree to keep it secret that Phil is not Jewish.
Phil has considerable difficulty getting started on his assignment.
He realizes he can never feel what another person feels unless he experiences it himself.
He recalls having "lived as an Okie on Route 66" or as a coalminer for previous writing jobs, instead of tapping a man on the shoulder and making him talk.
That's when he decides to write, "I Was Jewish for Six Months".
Though Kathy seems to have liberal views, when he reveals what he intends to do, she is taken aback and asks if he actually is Jewish.
The strain on their relationship due to Kathy's subtle acquiescence to bigotry becomes a key theme in the film.
At the magazine, Phil is assigned a secretary, Elaine Wales (June Havoc), who reveals that she, too, is Jewish.
She changed her name in order to get the job (her application under her real, Jewish-sounding name, Estelle Wilovsky, was rejected).
After Phil informs Minify about Wales' experience, Minify orders the magazine to adopt hiring policies that are open to Jews.
Wales has reservations about the new policy, fearing that the "wrong Jews" will be hired and ruin things for the few Jews working there now.
Phil meets fashion editor Anne Dettrey (Celeste Holm), who becomes a good friend and potentially more, particularly as strains develop between Phil and Kathy.
Phil's childhood friend, Dave Goldman (John Garfield), who is Jewish, moves to New York for a job and lives with the Greens while he looks for a home for his family.
Dave also experiences antisemitism, when some person in the armed forces tells him that he hates Jews, and gets into a brief fight before the prejudiced soldier is taken away.
Housing is scarce in the city, but it is particularly difficult for Goldman, since not all landlords will rent to a Jewish family.
When Phil tells Dave about his project, Dave is supportive, but concerned.
As Phil researches his story, he experiences several incidents of bigotry.
When his mother becomes ill with a heart condition, the doctor discourages him from consulting a specialist with an obviously Jewish name, suggesting he might be cheated.
When Phil reveals that he is himself Jewish, the doctor becomes uncomfortable and leaves.
In addition, the postman is shocked to see that a Jewish name is listed on the mail box, instead of his Christian name.
Also, when Phil wants to celebrate his honeymoon at a swanky hotel for rich people in the country, the hotel manager refuses to register Phil, because Phil is Jewish, and tells him to register at a different hotel instead.
Tommy becomes the target of bullies when his schoolmates discover he is Jewish.
Phil is troubled by the way Kathy consoles Tommy, telling him their taunts of "dirty Jew" are wrong because he isn't Jewish, not that the epithet is wrong in and of itself.
Kathy's attitudes are revealed further when she and Phil announce their engagement.
Her sister Jane (Jane Wyatt) invites them to a celebration in her home in Darien, Connecticut, which is known to be a "restricted" community where Jews are not welcome.
Fearing an awkward scene, Kathy wants to tell her family and friends that Phil is only pretending to be a Jew, but Phil prevails on Kathy to tell only Jane.
At the party, everyone is very friendly to Phil, though many people are "unable" to attend at the last minute.
Dave announces that he will have to quit his job because he cannot find a residence for his family.
Kathy owns a vacant cottage in Darien, but though Phil sees it as the obvious solution to Dave's problem, Kathy is unwilling to offend her neighbors by renting it to a Jewish family.
She and Phil break their engagement.
Phil announces that he will be moving away from New York when his article is published.
When it comes out, it is very well received by the magazine staff.
Kathy meets with Dave and tells him how sick she felt when a party guest told a bigoted joke.
However, she has no answer when Dave repeatedly asks her what she did about it.
She comes to realize that remaining silent condones the prejudice.
The next day, Dave tells Phil that he and his family will be moving into the cottage in Darien, and Kathy will be moving in with her sister next door to make sure they are treated well by their neighbors.
When Phil hears this, he reconciles with Kathy.
<EOS>
After he's called in to investigate the brutal killing of Joseph Samuels (Sam Levene), who was found dead at his home, police investigator Finlay (Robert Young) discovers there may be a murderer among a group of demobilized soldiers, who had been seen with Samuels and his female friend at a hotel bar that night.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Keeley (Robert Mitchum), concerned that his friend Mitch (George Cooper) may be the prime suspect, decides to investigate the murder to clear his friend's name.
To both investigators, each suspected soldier relays his version of that night through flashback.
The first to step up is Montgomery (Robert Ryan) and the rest are Floyd (Steve Brodie), Mitch, and a possible witness Ginny (Gloria Grahame).
As Finlay and Keeley slowly piece together the fragments of that night, they realize there is one possible motive that may have driven the killer to beat an innocent to death, which prompts Finlay to set up a trap to expose the killer.
<EOS>
Brad Braden is the no-nonsense general manager of what was at the time the world's largest railroad circus.
He has a number of problems on his hands for the upcoming season.
The show's board of directors plan to run a short 10 week season rather than risk losing $25,000 a day in a shaky post-war economy.
Brad bargains to keep the circus on the road as long as it is making a profit, thus keeping the 1,400 performers and roustabouts who make Ringling Bros.
and Barnum & Bailey Circus the Greatest Show On Earth employed.
Brad's first problem is having to tell his girlfriend, Holly, a flyer who has been expecting to be the star of that season's show, that she's out of the center ring.
The only way he was able to get management to agree to a full season was to hire The Great Sebastian, "the debonair King of the Air" and world-class trapeze artist, as the star of the show.
Holly knows Brad must think of the circus first and personal feelings second, and that he does not take chances with the show, but is nevertheless infuriated at his decision.
His second problem is keeping Sebastian under control.
He has a well-deserved reputation as a ladies' man who has cut a wide swath through the female contingent of every show he's ever worked in, to the detriment of the running of those shows.
His third problem is keeping an eye on Harry, a midway concessionaire he suspects of running crooked games of chance, who works for a mysterious gangster named mr Henderson (who has a healthy respect for Brad and not much for Harry).
Another situation, unbeknownst to Brad, involves the beloved Buttons the Clown, who is never seen without his makeup.
During a performance, Buttons converses with a female member of the audience — who warns him that an unnamed "they" are asking questions about him again.
She is in fact his mother and they see each other only once a year.
Hints about his former life are revealed as he gives first aid to performers and wraps bandages around a trapeze for Holly in an expert manner.
Holly later finds a newspaper article about a doctor who had "mercy killed" his wife, but does not immediately make the connection to Buttons.
The competition between Holly and Sebastian for the center ring develops into a romantic triangle as well, with both Sebastian and Brad vying for Holly as the aerialists' acts become increasingly daring and dangerous.
Sebastian ignores his former lovers on the show: Angel, who performs in the elephant act; and Phyllis, who does a double turn as an iron jaw artist and a vocalist, starring in a South Seas spectacular built around her talent as a singer.
The duel ends when, in response to a challenge from Holly, Sebastian removes his safety net and suffers serious injuries in a fall when a trick goes wrong.
Buttons tends to him, and when the show's doctor expresses admiration for the way he dealt with the injuries the clown explains, a little nervously, that he used to be a pharmacist's mate.
Holly finally has the center ring and star billing – but not the way she wanted it.
Brad is unable to comfort her because she is in love with Sebastian.
When Harry is caught cheating circus attendees on the midway, Brad calls him on it and fires him, finishing the fight Harry started by throwing him into a puddle of mud.
Harry leaves the lot, vowing revenge.
He is seen now and then on the periphery of the show, shooting craps and sowing disaffection, particularly with Klaus (Lyle Bettger) the elephant trainer who is obsessed with Angel, who works with his elephants as "the Sultan's Favorite".
Sebastian rejoins the show, but is unable to return to the trapeze because his injuries from the fall have left him with a useless right arm.
A guilt-ridden Holly professes her love for her former rival over the cold, unfeeling Brad.
Calling Holly a fool "for busting up the swellest guy in the circus," Angel makes a pass at Brad and they become an item.
This sits badly with Klaus, who has spent the entire season pursuing Angel.
He cannot accept that she is not in love with him and does not want him.
As he is about to leave one stand, Special Agent Gregory of the FBI intercepts Brad, asking if the circus doctor looks like the photograph of a man he is hunting (the photo is of Buttons without makeup).
Having never seen Buttons without makeup, Brad doesn't recognize the man in the photo.
The detective boards the train to continue his investigation.
Brad mentions this to Buttons, who tells him that Sebastian has feeling in his injured hand – a sign that his disability is not permanent.
Brad makes the connection between Buttons and the fugitive doctor and comments that the police will be taking fingerprints at the next stand.
The implication is that Buttons should make himself scarce until the detective leaves the show to search elsewhere.
The joy of Sebastian's potential recovery is overshadowed by a spectacular collision of the circus' two trains, set up by Harry and Angel's rejected suitor, Klaus, as a byproduct of their robbing the circus pay wagon of the money earned by the show at the last stand.
When Klaus sees the second section coming up the track and realizes that Angel is aboard, he knocks Harry out and tries to stop the train.
Both he and Harry are killed when the second section train smashes their car off the tracks and crashes into the rear of the first section, derailing train cars, breaking animal cages open, shredding equipment, and injuring people by the score.
Buttons, who had been about to flee, returns after a plea from Holly who, like Brad, had made the connection between the doctor "who killed the wife he loved, then vanished" and his new identity as Buttons the Clown.
Buttons saves the critically injured Brad by giving him a direct inter-human blood transfusion from Sebastian "on the fly," despite knowing that Gregory is watching.
This in turn leads to the FBI agent reluctantly arresting Buttons, whom he declares "is all right".
Holly realizes that she is actually in love with Brad, that she has always loved him; and takes command of the show, mounting a circus parade through the town nearest the crash and staging an open air show by the crash site, as the Big Top and lighting were lost in the wreck.
Brad's brush with death makes him realize that he is in love with Holly, but ironically she now hasn't time for him because the show must go on.
The final loose end is tied up when Sebastian proposes to Angel and she accepts.
The movie ends with the troupe mounting a "spec" to open their improvised performance, which will keep the show in the black and enable them to continue their tour, a magnificent recovery from disaster.
<EOS>
As the film opens, Joe Buck (Jon Voight), a young Texan working as a dishwasher, dresses in new cowboy clothing, packs a suitcase, and quits his job.
He heads to New York City hoping to succeed as a prostitute.
Initially unsuccessful, he succeeds in bedding a well-to-do middle-aged New Yorker (Sylvia Miles), but Joe ends up giving her money when he discovers that she is actually a high end call girl herself.
Joe then meets Enrico Salvatore "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a street con man with a limp who takes $20 from Joe by offering to introduce him to a known pimp (John McGiver).
Joe flees the encounter in pursuit of Ratso.
Joe spends his days wandering the city and sitting in his hotel room.
Soon broke, he is locked out of his hotel room and most of his belongings are impounded.
He tries to make money by agreeing to receive oral sex from a young man (Bob Balaban) in a movie theater.
When Joe learns that the young man has no money, Joe threatens him and asks for his watch, but eventually lets him go.
The following day, Joe spots Ratso and angrily shakes him down.
Ratso offers to share the apartment in which he is squatting in a condemned building.
Joe accepts reluctantly, and they begin a "business relationship" as hustlers.
As they develop a bond, Ratso's health, which has never been good, grows steadily worse.
Joe's story is told through flashbacks.
His grandmother raises him after his mother abandons him, and his grandmother shows him affection but spends time with men much the way Joe's mother did.
He also has a tragic relationship with Annie, a local mentally unstable girl.
Ratso's backstory comes through stories he tells Joe.
His father was an illiterate Italian immigrant shoe-shiner, who worked in a subway station.
He developed a bad back, and "coughed his lungs out from breathin' in that wax all day".
Ratso learned shoe-shining from his father but won't stoop so low as to do so.
He dreams of moving one day to Miami.
An unusual couple approach Joe and Ratso in a diner and hand Joe a flyer, inviting him to a party.
They enter a Warhol-esque party scene (with Warhol superstars in cameos).
Joe smokes a joint, thinking it's a normal cigarette and, after taking a pill someone offered, begins to hallucinate.
He leaves the party with a socialite (Brenda Vaccaro), who agrees to pay $20 for spending the night with him, but Joe cannot perform.
They play scribbage together and Joe shows his limited academic prowess.
She teasingly suggests that Joe may be gay and he is suddenly able to perform.
In the morning, the socialite sets up her friend as Joe's next customer and it appears that his career is on its way.
When Joe returns home, Ratso is bedridden and feverish.
Ratso refuses medical help and begs Joe to put him on a bus to Florida.
Desperate, Joe picks up a man in an amusement arcade (Barnard Hughes), and when things go wrong, robs the man when he tries to pay with a religious medallion instead of cash.
With the stolen money, Joe buys bus tickets.
On the journey, Ratso's frail physical condition further deteriorates.
At a rest stop, Joe buys new clothing for Ratso and himself, discarding his cowboy outfit.
As they near Miami, Joe talks of getting a regular job, only to realize Ratso has died.
The driver tells Joe there is nothing else to do but continue on to Miami.
The film closes with Joe, tears welling in his eyes as he sits with his arm around his dead friend.
<EOS>
After World War II, Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), and Al Stephenson (Fredric March) meet while flying home to Boone City (a fictional city patterned after Cincinnati, Ohio).
Fred was a decorated Army Air Forces captain and bombardier in Europe.
Homer lost both hands from burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk, and now uses mechanical hook prostheses.
Al served as an infantry platoon sergeant in the Pacific.
All three have trouble adjusting to civilian life.
Al has a comfortable home and a loving family: wife Milly (Myrna Loy), adult daughter Peggy (Teresa Wright, who was only thirteen years Loy's junior), and college freshman son Rob (Michael Hall, who is absent after the first one-third of the film).
He returns to his old job as a bank loan officer.
The bank president views his military experience as valuable in dealing with other returning servicemen.
When Al approves a loan (without collateral) to a young Navy veteran, however, the president advises him against making a habit of it.
Later, at a banquet held in his honor, a slightly inebriated Al expounds his belief that the bank (and America) must stand with the vets who risked everything to defend the country and give them every chance to rebuild their lives.
Before the war, Fred had been an unskilled drugstore soda jerk.
He wants something better, but the tight postwar job market forces him to return to his old job.
Fred had met Marie (Virginia Mayo) while in flight training and married her shortly afterward, before shipping out less than a month later.
She became a nightclub waitress while Fred was overseas.
Marie makes it clear she does not enjoy being married to a lowly soda jerk.
Homer was a football quarterback and became engaged to his next door neighbor, Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell), before joining the Navy.
Both Homer and his parents now have trouble dealing with his disability.
He does not want to burden Wilma with his handicap so he eventually pushes her away, although she still wants to marry him.
Peggy meets Fred while bringing her father home from a bar where the three men meet once again.
They are attracted to each other.
Peggy dislikes Marie, and informs her parents she intends to end Fred and Marie's marriage, but they tell her that their own marriage overcame similar problems.
Concerned, Al demands that Fred stop seeing his daughter.
Fred agrees, but the friendship between the two men is strained.
At the drugstore, an obnoxious customer, who claims that the war was fought against the wrong enemies, gets into a fight with Homer.
Fred intervenes and knocks the man into a glass counter, costing him his job.
Later, Fred encourages Homer to put his misgivings behind him and marry Wilma, offering to be his best man.
One evening, Wilma visits Homer and tells him that her parents want her to leave Boone City for an extended period to try to forget him.
Homer bluntly demonstrates to her how hard life with him would be.
When Wilma is undaunted, Homer reconsiders.
On arriving home, Fred discovers his wife with another veteran (Steve Cochran).
After complaining to Fred that she has "given up the best years of my life," Marie tells him that she is getting a divorce.
Fred decides to leave town, and gives his father his medals and citations.
His father is unable to persuade Fred to stay.
After Fred leaves, his father reads the citation for his Distinguished Flying Cross as composed by General Doolittle.
At the airport, Fred books space on the first outbound aircraft, without regard for the destination.
While waiting, he wanders into a vast aircraft boneyard.
Inside the nose of a B-17, he relives the intense memories of combat.
The boss of a work crew rouses him from his flashback.
When the man says the aluminum from the aircraft is being salvaged to build housing, Fred persuades the boss to hire him.
At the bride's home, people have gathered for the wedding of Homer and Wilma.
Fred, now-divorced, is Homer's best man.
While the vows are exchanged Fred and Peggy glance across at one another.
At the conclusion everyone gathers around the newlyweds.
Still gazing over at Peggy, Fred walks across the room, takes her in his arms and kisses her.
He asks if she knows how things will be for them, that it will be a hard at first, that it could take years before they can get a life established.
All the while Peggy smiles fondly at Fred, and then kisses him back.
<EOS>
Photographer Clare (Frances Conroy) learns she has breast cancer and must have a mastectomy.
Returning home post-surgery she struggles against her feelings of self-consciousness but tries to act as if all is normal in order to protect her daughter, Nina (Natalie Portman).
However she begins to begrudge Nina and Nina, in turn, begins to resent being used by Clare as a model in her photographs.
Clare puts together a show of her photographs mostly featuring Nina.
The show is a success but Clare feels uncomfortable as people constantly mention both her illness and her surgery.
At the gallery Clare and Nina fight when Nina accuses her of not letting her in and runs away.
Clare then has a meltdown where she screams at a photographer covering the event after he takes numerous photos of her.
Failing to find Nina after returning home, Clare begins to take self-portraits using a mirror, gradually stripping off all her clothes.
After finally confronting her own image in the mirror Clare begins to cry profusely.
Later, as she is developing her self-portraits in her darkroom Nina enters and apologizes for running away.
Clare gives her a prolonged hug and Nina listens to her heart beat.
<EOS>
Willie Conway goes home for his high school class reunion in Knights Ridge, Massachusetts.
He is at a crossroads in his life and cannot decide if he should marry his girlfriend.
He cannot decide if he should quit his music and take a job as a salesman.
Over the course of the film, he spends time with his old friends who are all at similar crossroads.
By the end they all discover what it is that they want.
(see character details, under "Cast" section below, for other plot developments).
<EOS>
Adele August (Susan Sarandon) is an eccentric woman who, with her reluctant daughter, Ann (Natalie Portman), leaves a small Wisconsin town and moves to Beverly Hills to realize her dreams.
However, it becomes apparent that Adele is uncertain of what those dreams are - expressing ideas such as marrying a rich man - and often makes irresponsible and impulsive decisions, such as purchasing a used Mercedes she cannot afford in order to drive to Beverly Hills.
While upset with Adele's decisions, the more practical Ann finds she cannot leave her mother and resents her for leaving Ann's stepfather for a better life.
Furthermore, Ann still loves her father, who left her family when Ann was still young.
When living in Beverly Hills, Adele improvises from day to day, often unable to pay the bills.
She winds up dating a successful dentist, but learns that he doesn't love her and has dumped her for a younger woman.
Things get complicated when Adele has a fight with Jimmy and Ann starts dating her crush, Peter.
Forcing her daughter to enroll in Beverly Hills High School, where a lot of rich kids and movie star kids go to, Adele hopes that Ann will become an actress and attend UCLA, despite Ann's interest in going away to Brown University.
Though Adele fails in many respects, she eventually accepts her daughter's plans and decides to help her.
<EOS>
The emotions of an extended upper-class family in Manhattan are followed in song from NY to Paris and Venice.
Various friends, lovers, acquaintances, and relatives act, interact, and sing, in New York, Venice, and Paris.
Young lovers Holden and Skylar in Manhattan; Skylar's parents, Bob and Steffi; Joe, an ex-husband of Steffi; DJ, a daughter from the marriage of Joe and Steffi; Von, a lady whom Joe meets in Venice; a recently released prison inmate, Charles Ferry, who is inserted between Skyler and Holden, resulting in their breakup.
<EOS>
In 1941, bugler and career soldier Private Robert Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) transfers to a rifle company at Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu.
Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes (Philip Ober) has heard he is a talented middleweight boxer and wants him to join his regimental team to secure a promotion for Holmes.
Prewitt refuses, having stopped fighting because he blinded his sparring partner and close friend over a year before.
Holmes makes life as miserable as possible for Prewitt, hoping that he will give in.
Holmes orders First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) to prepare general court-martial papers after Sergeant Galovitch (John Dennis) first insults Prewitt and then gives an unreasonable order that Prewitt refuses to obey.
Warden suggests, however, that he try to get Prewitt to change his mind by doubling up on company punishment.
The other non-commissioned officers join the conspiracy.
Prewitt is supported by his only friend, Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra).
Meanwhile, Warden begins an affair with Holmes' neglected wife, Karen (Deborah Kerr).
Warden tells Karen that he is risking a twenty-year prison sentence.
Sergeant Maylon Stark (George Reeves) has told Warden about Karen's many previous affairs at Fort Bliss, including with him.
As their relationship develops, Warden asks Karen about her affairs to test her sincerity.
Karen relates that Holmes has been unfaithful to her most of their marriage.
She miscarried one night when Holmes returned home from seeing a hat-check girl, drunk and unable to call a doctor, resulting in her being unable to bear any more children.
She then affirms her love for Warden.
Prewitt and Maggio spend their liberty at the New Congress Club, a gentlemen's club where Prewitt falls for Lorene (Donna Reed).
She wants to marry a "proper" man with a "proper" job and live a "proper" life.
Maggio and Staff Sergeant James Judson (Ernest Borgnine) nearly come to blows at the club over Judson's loud piano playing.
Later, Judson provokes Maggio by taking his photograph of his sister from him, kissing it, and whispering in Prewitt's ear.
Maggio smashes a barstool over Judson's head.
Judson pulls a switchblade, but Warden intervenes.
Judson backs down but warns Maggio that sooner or later he will end up in the stockade, where Judson is in charge.
Karen tells Warden that if he became an officer, she could divorce Holmes and marry him.
Warden reluctantly agrees to consider it.
Warden gives Prewitt a weekend pass, which he uses to see Lorene.
Maggio then walks in drunk, having deserted his post.
The military police arrest Maggio, and he is sentenced to six months in the stockade.
Then Sergeant Galovitch picks a fight with Prewitt.
At first, Prewitt refuses to fight back and then resorts to only body blows.
His fighting spirit reemerges, and Prewitt comes close to knocking Galovitch out before Holmes finally stops the fight.
Galovitch accuses Prewitt of starting the fight, but the man in charge of the detail says that it was Galovitch.
Holmes lets him off the hook.
The entire incident is witnessed by the base commander, who orders an investigation by the Inspector General.
After Holmes' motives are revealed, the base commander orders a court-martial.
When Holmes begs for an alternative, an aide suggests for Holmes to resign his commission.
Holmes' replacement, Captain Ross (John Bryant), reprimands the others involved and has the boxing team's framed photographs and trophies removed.
He then demotes Galovitch to private and puts him in charge of the latrine.
Maggio escapes from the stockade and dies in Prewitt's arms after telling of the abuse he suffered at Judson's hands.
Prewitt tracks Judson down and kills him with the same switchblade Judson pulled on Maggio earlier, but sustains a serious stomach wound.
Prewitt goes into hiding at Lorene's house.
When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, it catches military personnel by surprise.
Prewitt attempts to rejoin his company under cover of darkness but is shot dead by a patrol guarding against possible saboteurs.
Warden notes the irony of the boxing tournament being canceled because of the attack.
When Karen finds out that Warden did not apply for officer training, she realizes they have no future together.
She returns to the mainland with her husband.
Lorene and Karen meet on the ship.
Lorene tells Karen that her fiancé was a bomber pilot who was heroically killed during the attack.
Karen recognizes Prewitt's name but says nothing.
<EOS>
Thursday - An alcoholic New York writer, Don Birnam (Ray Milland), is packing for a weekend vacation with his brother Wick (Philip Terry), who is trying to discourage his drinking.
When Don’s girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman) comes to see them off, she mentions in passing that she has two tickets for a concert, to which Don urges Wick to accompany her.
Don heads for Nat’s Bar, deliberately missing his train, and then sneaks back into the flat to drink some cheap whisky he has bought, avoiding Helen who is worried about him being left alone.
Friday - Back at the bar, the owner, Nat (Howard Da Silva), criticizes Don for treating Helen so badly, and Don recalls how he first met her.
It was due to a mix-up of cloakroom tickets at the opera-house, where he had to wait for the person who had been given his coat-check in error.
This was Helen, with whom he strikes up a romance.
When he is due to meet her parents for lunch at a hotel, he loses his nerve and phones a message to her, crying off.
Presently he confesses to her that he is two people ‘Don the writer’, who can only write while drunk, and ‘Don the drunk’ who always has to be bailed out by his brother.
Still, Helen devotes herself to helping him in his plight.
Back in the present day, Don has moved on to another bar, where he is caught stealing money from a woman's purse to pay his bill, and he is subsequently thrown out.
In the flat, he finds a bottle he had stashed the previous night and drinks himself into a stupor.
Saturday - Don is broke and all the pawnshops are closed for Yom Kippur.
At Nat’s Bar, he is refused service.
In desperation, he visits a girl who had given up on him because he kept letting her down, but now agrees to give him a few dollars out of pity.
Leaving her flat, he falls down the stairs and is knocked unconscious.
Sunday - Don wakes up in an alcoholics’ ward where 'Bim' Nolan (Frank Faylen), a cynical male nurse, mocks him and other guests at ‘Hangover Plaza’, but offers to help cure his delirium.
Don refuses help, and succeeds in escaping from the ward while the staff are occupied with a violent patient.
Monday - Still broke, Don steals a bottle of whisky from a store, and spends the day drinking and hallucinating.
Helen returns, alerted by a call from Don's landlady who can hear his screams.
Finding him in a delirious state, she vows to look after him and spends the night on his couch.
Tuesday - Don slips out and pawns Helen’s coat - the thing which had first brought them together - in order to buy a gun.
She trails him to the pawn shop and finds out from the pawnbroker that he traded the coat for a gun he had pawned earlier.
She races to Don's apartment and catches him just before he is about to shoot himself in the bathroom.
He tells her their relationship is over, and she glimpses the gun which he has hidden in the bathroom.
As they struggle for control of the weapon, she reminds Don of her love for him, and her concern that he should stop drinking.
She is able to convince him that ‘Don the writer’ and ‘Don the drunk’ are the same person.
He finally commits to writing his novel The Bottle, dedicated to her, which will recount the events of the weekend.
He drops a cigarette into a glass of whiskey to make it undrinkable, as proof that he is cured.
<EOS>
Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) journeys to the remote Hebridean island Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison (Gerry Cowper), about whom he has received an anonymous letter.
Howie, a devout Christian, is disturbed to find the islanders paying homage to the pagan Celtic gods of their ancestors.
They copulate openly in the fields, include children as part of the May Day celebrations, teach children of the phallic association of the maypole, and place toads in their mouths to cure sore throats.
The Islanders, including Rowan's mother (Irene Sunters), appear to be attempting to thwart his investigation by claiming that Rowan never existed.
While staying at the Green Man Inn, Howie notices a series of photographs celebrating the annual harvest, each featuring a young girl as the May Queen.
The photograph of the most recent celebration is suspiciously missing; the landlord (Lindsay Kemp) tells him it was broken.
The landlord's beautiful daughter, Willow (Britt Ekland), attempts to seduce Howie, but he refuses her advances.
After seeing Rowan's burial plot, Howie meets the island's leader, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), grandson of a Victorian agronomist, to obtain permission for an exhumation.
Lord Summerisle explains that his grandfather developed strains of fruit trees that would prosper in Scotland's climate, and encouraged the belief that old gods would use the new strains to bring prosperity to the island.
Over the next several generations, the island's inhabitants fully embraced the pagan religion.
Howie finds the missing harvest photograph, showing Rowan standing amidst empty boxes.
His research reveals that when there is a poor harvest, the islanders make a human sacrifice to ensure that the next will be bountiful.
He comes to the conclusion that Rowan is alive and has been chosen for sacrifice.
During the May Day celebration, Howie knocks out and ties up the innkeeper so he can steal his costume and mask (that of Punch, the fool) and infiltrate the parade.
When it seems the villagers are about to sacrifice Rowan, he cuts her free and flees with her into a cave.
On exiting it, they are intercepted by the islanders, to whom Rowan happily returns.
Lord Summerisle tells Howie that Rowan is not the intended sacrifice &mdash; Howie himself is.
He fits their gods' four requirements: he came of his own free will, with "the power of a king" (by representing the Law), is a virgin, and is a fool.
Defiant, Howie loudly warns Lord Summerisle and the islanders that the fruit-tree strains are failing permanently and that the villagers will turn on him (Lord Summerisle) and sacrifice him next summer when the next harvest fails as well; Summerisle angrily insists that the sacrifice of the "willing, king-like, virgin fool" will be accepted and that the next harvest will not fail.
The villagers force Howie inside a giant wicker man statue, set it ablaze and surround it, singing the Middle English folk song "Sumer Is Icumen In".
Inside the wicker man, a terrified Howie recites Psalm 23, and prays to Christ.
He curses the islanders as he burns to death.
The wicker man collapses in flames, revealing the setting sun.
<EOS>
Mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee Cobb) gloats about his iron-fisted control of the waterfront.
The police and the Waterfront Crime Commission know that Friendly is behind a number of murders, but witnesses play "D and D" ("deaf and dumb"), accepting their subservient position rather than risking the danger and shame of informing.
Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a dockworker whose brother Charley "the Gent" (Rod Steiger) is Friendly's right-hand man.
Some years earlier, Terry had been a promising boxer, until Friendly had Charley instruct him to deliberately lose a fight that he could have won, so that Friendly could win money betting against him.
Terry is used to coax Joey Doyle (Ben Wagner), a popular dockworker, into an ambush, preventing Joey from testifying against Friendly before the Crime Commission.
Terry assumed that Friendly's enforcers were only going to "lean" on Joey to pressure him into silence, and is surprised when Joey is killed.
Joey's sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint), angry about her brother's death, shames "waterfront priest" Father Barry (Karl Malden) into fomenting action against the mob-controlled union.
Friendly sends Terry to attend and inform on a dockworkers' meeting Father Barry holds in the church, which is broken up by Friendly's men.
Terry helps Edie escape the violence, and is smitten with her.
Another dockworker, Timothy "Kayo" Dugan (Pat Henning), who agrees to testify after Father Barry promises unwavering support, ends up dead after Friendly arranges for him to be crushed by a load of whiskey in a staged accident.
Although Terry resents being used as a tool in Joey's death, and despite Father Barry's impassioned "sermon on the docks" reminding the longshoremen that Christ walks among them and that every murder is a Calvary, Terry is at first willing to remain "D and D", even when subpoenaed to testify.
However, when Edie, unaware of Terry's role in her brother's death, begins to return Terry's feelings, Terry is tormented by his awakening conscience and confesses the circumstances of Joey's death to Father Barry and Edie.
Horrified, Edie breaks up with him.
As Terry increasingly leans toward testifying, Friendly decides that Terry must be killed unless Charley can coerce him into keeping quiet.
Charley tries bribing Terry with a good job and finally threatens Terry by holding a gun against him, but recognizes that he has failed to sway Terry, who blames his own downward spiral on his well-off brother.
In what has become an iconic scene, Terry reminds Charley that had it not been for the fixed fight, Terry's prizefighting career would have bloomed.
"I coulda' been a contender," laments Terry to his brother, "Instead of a bum, which is what I am – let's face it".
Charley gives Terry the gun and advises him to run.
Terry flees to Edie's apartment, where she first refuses to let him in but finally admits her love for him.
Friendly, having had Charley watched, has Charley murdered and his body hung in an alley as bait to lure Terry out to his death, but Terry and Edie both escape the attempt on Terry's life.
After finding Charley's body, Terry sets out to shoot Friendly, but Father Barry prevents it by blocking Terry's line of fire and convincing Terry to fight Friendly by testifying instead.
Terry proceeds to give damaging testimony implicating Friendly in Joey's murder and other illegal activities, causing Friendly's mob boss to cut him off and Friendly to face indictment.
After the testimony, Friendly announces that Terry will not find employment anywhere on the waterfront.
Terry is shunned by his former friends and by a neighborhood boy who had previously looked up to him.
Refusing Edie's suggestion that they move away from the waterfront together, Terry shows up during recruitment at the docks.
When he is the only man not hired, Terry openly confronts Friendly, calling him out and proclaiming that he is proud of what he did.
The confrontation develops into a vicious brawl, with Terry getting the upper hand until Friendly's thugs gang up on Terry and nearly beat him to death.
The dockworkers, who witness the confrontation, show their support for Terry by refusing to work unless Terry is working too and pushing Friendly into the river.
Encouraged by Father Barry and Edie, the badly injured Terry forces himself to his feet and enters the dock, followed by the other workers.
A soaking wet and face-scarred Friendly, now left with nothing, swears revenge on them all, but his threats fall on deaf ears as they enter the garage and the door closes behind them.
<EOS>
Father Charles “Chuck” O’Malley (Bing Crosby), an incoming priest from East st Louis, arrives in New York City with an unconventional style that will transform the parish life of st Dominic’s Church.
On his first day, O'Malley gets into a series of mishaps; his informal appearance and attitude make a poor impression with the elder pastor, Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald).
The very traditional Fitzgibbon is further put off by O’Malley’s recreational habits&nbsp;– particularly his golf-playing&nbsp;– and his friendship with the even more casual Father Timmy O’Dowd (Frank McHugh).
In a discussion between O'Malley and O'Dowd without Fitzgibbon present, it is revealed that O’Malley was sent by the bishop to take charge of the affairs of the parish, but that Fitzgibbon is to remain as pastor.
To spare Fitzgibbon’s feelings, the older pastor is kept unaware of this arrangement and believes that O’Malley is simply his assistant.
A series of events highlights the difference between O’Malley and Fitzgibbon’s styles, as they deal with events like a parishioner being evicted and a young woman named Carol James (Jean Heather) having run away from home.
The most consequential difference of opinion between O’Malley and Fitzgibbon arises in their handling of the youth of the church, many of whom are consistently getting into trouble with the law in a gang led by Tony Scaponi (Stanley Clements).
Fitzgibbon is inclined to look the other way, siding with the boys because of their frequent church attendance.
O’Malley seeks to make inroads into the boys’ lives, befriending Scaponi and eventually convincing the boys to become a church choir.
The noise of the practicing choir annoys Fitzgibbon, who finally decides to go to the bishop and ask for O’Malley to be transferred away.
In the course of the conversation, Fitzgibbon infers the bishop’s intention to put O’Malley in charge of the parish.
To avoid an uncomfortable situation, instead of making his initial request, Fitzgibbon asks the bishop to put O’Malley in charge, and then, resigned to his fate of losing control over the church, he informs O’Malley of his new role.
A distressed Fitzgibbon then runs away, leading to a search.
He returns late at night, and as O’Malley puts the older priest to bed, the two begin to bond.
They discuss Fitzgibbon’s long-put-off desire to go to Ireland and see his mother, whom he's not seen since he left Ireland as a young priest to come to America, and who is now over 90.
O’Malley puts Fitzgibbon to sleep with an Irish lullaby, “Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral”.
Jenny Tuffel (now Genevieve Linden) (Risë Stevens), an old girlfriend of O'Malley's whom he left to join the priesthood, now has a successful acting and singing career.
O'Malley and Jenny discuss their past, and she performs a number from her starring role as Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera.
O'Malley next pays a visit to Carol, who is now suspected of living in sin with Ted Haines Jr.
(James Brown), the son of the church's mortgage-holder, Ted Haines Sr.
(Gene Lockhart).
On this visit, O’Malley describes to the young couple his calling in life to “go his way,” which to him means to follow after the joyous side of religion and lead others to do the same.
He performs for them the song “Going My Way,” which he wrote on this theme.
Jenny visits O’Malley at the church, sees the boys’ choir, and reads the sheet music of “Going My Way.
” She, O'Malley, and Father O’Dowd devise a plan to rent out the Metropolitan, perform “Going My Way” with the choir and a full orchestra, then sell the rights to the song, thereby saving the church from its financial woes.
The plan fails, as the music executive (William Frawley) brought on to hear the song does not believe it will sell.
The choir decides to make the most of its opportunity on the grand stage, and sings another song, "Swinging on a Star".
The executive overhears the song and decides to buy it, providing enough money to pay off the church mortgage.
With the church affairs in order, O’Malley and Fitzgibbon go on a golf course together.
Just as everything seems to have fallen into place, though, the parish church is damaged in a massive fire.
O'Malley prepares to move on to a new assignment from the bishop.
He leaves O’Dowd to be Fitzgibbon’s new assistant, putting Tony Scaponi in charge of the choir.
On Christmas Eve, parishioners gather in a temporary church for a service that also serves as O'Malley's farewell.
As a going-away present, O’Malley has sent for Fitzgibbon’s mother from Ireland.
As mother and son embrace for the first time in 45 years, the choir sings “Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral”, as Father O’Malley quietly slips away into the night.
<EOS>
On October 29, 2010, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that a device in a package sent from Yemen and found on a US-bound cargo plane was designed to explode on the aircraft.
Cameron said that investigators were uncertain of when the device, intercepted at East Midlands Airport, was supposed to explode.
A second device containing explosives was found on a cargo plane in Dubai.
In Yemen, police arrested but later released a woman suspected of posting the packages.
The devices, which triggered security alerts in the US, the UK and Middle East, were apparently inserted into printer cartridges and placed in packages addressed to synagogues in the Chicago area.
US President Barack Obama discussed the apparent terrorist plot with Cameron by phone, expressing his "appreciation for the professionalism of American and British services involved" in disrupting it.
Cameron said that authorities had immediately banned packages coming to (or through) the UK from Yemen and would be "looking extremely carefully at any further steps we have to take".
UK Home Secretary Theresa May said that the government did not believe that the plotters would have known the location of the device when it was planned to explode.
Although details of the device found in Britain were not released, photographs emerged in the US media of an ink-toner cartridge covered in white powder and connected to a circuit board.
The British government's statements suggested that authorities in the UK and the US remained uncertain about the targets and purpose of the apparent plot.
According to Dubai police, the explosives they found were also inside a printer-ink cartridge in a cardboard box with English-language books and souvenirs.
The cartridge contained PETN and plastic explosives mixed with lead azide (an explosive commonly used in detonators).
Unnamed US officials quoted by the Associated Press said that al-Qaeda's explosives expert in Yemen, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, was the likely suspect in the bomb-making.
They said that Asiri helped to make the bomb used in the failed Detroit Christmas Day bomb attack and another PETN device used in a failed suicide attack against a top Saudi counter-terrorism official.
The White House said that Saudi Arabia provided information which helped identify the threat, and the UK's Daily Telegraph reported that an MI6 officer responsible for Yemen had been tipped off.
<EOS>
The film is set in the Mid-Coast town of Camden, Maine.
Matt (Tom Wilkinson) and Ruth Fowler (Sissy Spacek) enjoy a happy marriage and a good relationship with their son Frank (Nick Stahl), a recent college graduate who has come home for the summer.
Frank has fallen in love with an older woman with children, Natalie Strout (Marisa Tomei).
Frank is about to begin post graduate school for architecture, but is having second-thoughts and considering staying in town to continue working as a fisherman and, more importantly, to be near Natalie.
Natalie's ex-husband, Richard Strout (William Mapother), tries to find a way into his ex-wife and children's lives, going to increasingly violent lengths to get his intentions across to Natalie.
Ruth is openly concerned about Frank's relationship with Natalie, while Matt thinks it is only a fling.
Midway through the film, Richard kills Frank during a confrontation at Natalie's house following a domestic dispute.
Though equally devastated, Matt and Ruth grieve in different ways, with Matt putting on a brave face while Ruth becomes reclusive and quiet.
Richard is set free on bail, paid by his well-to-do family, and both Matt and Ruth are forced to see Richard around town.
The tension between Matt & Ruth increases when they learn that the lack of an eyewitness to Frank's shooting means Richard will instead be charged with accidental manslaughter.
An argument erupts between the couple in which each one confronts the other.
With the air cleared, the couple is finally able to find common ground in their grief.
Matt then abducts and kills Richard.
He and a friend bury the body on the friend's wooded property.
Matt returns home to Ruth, who is awake and smoking in bed.
She asks him, "Did you do it.
" Matt appears troubled and unresponsive.
He climbs into bed and then turns away from her.
Finally, Ruth gets up to make coffee.
Matt rolls over onto his back and pulls a band-aid from a finger he injured hauling traps.
Ruth calls from the kitchen, "Matt, do you want coffee.
" Matt doesn't answer.
<EOS>
The prequel novel New Spring takes place during the Aiel War and depicts the discovery by certain Aes Sedai that the Dragon has been Reborn.
The series proper commences almost twenty years later in the Two Rivers, a near-forgotten district of the country of Andor.
An Aes Sedai, Moiraine, and her Warder Lan, arrive in the village of Emond's Field, secretly aware that servants of the Dark One are searching for a young man living in the area.
Moiraine is unable to determine which of three youths (Rand al'Thor, Matrim Cauthon, or Perrin Aybara) is the Dragon Reborn, and leads all three of them from the Two Rivers, along with their friend Egwene al'Vere.
Nynaeve al'Meara, the village wise-woman, later joins them.
Gleeman Thom Merrilin also travels with the group.
The first novel depicts their flight from various agents of the Shadow and their attempts to reach the Aes Sedai city of Tar Valon.
Thereafter the protagonists are frequently split into different groups and pursue different missions toward the cause of the Dragon Reborn, sometimes thousands of miles apart.
As they struggle to unite the various kingdoms against the Dark One's forces, their task is complicated by rulers of the nations who refuse to lose their autonomy; by the zealots styling themselves 'the Children of the Light', who do not believe in the prophecies; and by the Seanchan, the descendants of a long-lost colony of Artur Hawkwing's empire.
The Aes Sedai also become divided on how to deal with the Dragon Reborn.
As the story expands, new characters representing different factions are introduced.
Deriving its name from that of Armageddon in Christian eschatology, Tarmon Gai'don is the apocalyptic battle wherein the Dragon Reborn opposes Shai'tan, while their followers fight elsewhere.
Events and portents that foreshadow the Last Battle take place in Knife of Dreams and The Gathering Storm.
The Last Battle takes place in A Memory of Light, in the form of a 202-page single chapter.
<EOS>
The Eye of the World revolves around protagonists Rand al'Thor, Matrim (Mat) Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, and Nynaeve al'Meara, after their residence of "Emond's Field" is unexpectedly attacked by Trollocs (the antagonist's soldiers) and a Myrddraal (the undead-like officer commanding the Trollocs) intent on capturing Rand, Mat, and Perrin.
To save their village from further attacks, Rand, Mat, Perrin, and Egwene flee the village, accompanied by the Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred, her Warder Al'Lan Mandragoran, and gleeman Thom Merrilin, and later joined by Wisdom Nynaeve al'Meara.
Pursued by increasing numbers of Trollocs and Myrddraal, the travellers take refuge in the abandoned city of Shadar Logoth, where Mat is infected by the malevolent Mashadar.
While escaping the city the travelers are separated; Rand, Mat, and Thom travel by boat to Whitebridge, where Thom is lost allowing Rand and Mat to escape a Myrddraal.
In Caemlyn, Rand befriends an Ogier named Loial.
Trying to catch a glimpse of the recently captured False Dragon, Rand befriends Elayne Trakand, heir apparent to the throne of Andor, and her brothers Gawyn Trakand and Galad Damodred.
Rand is then taken before Queen Morgase and her Aes Sedai advisor, Elaida; and released without charge, in spite of Elaida's grave pronouncements regarding Rand.
Egwene and Perrin are guided separately to Caemlyn by Elyas Machera, a man who can communicate telepathically with wolves and who claims that Perrin can do the same.
The three run afoul of the Children of the Light, whereof Perrin kills two for the death of a wolf at their hands, and is sentenced to death.
Moiraine, Lan, and Nynaeve rescue Egwene and Perrin, and all are reunited with Rand and Mat.
Thereafter Moiraine determines that Mat must travel to Tar Valon, the Aes Sedai's center of power, to overcome the influence of Shadar Logoth.
Loial warns Moiraine of a threat to the Eye of the World, a pool of Saidin untouched by the Dark One's influence, which is confirmed by vivid and disturbing dreams Mat, Rand, and Perrin have had.
The Eye of the World is protected by Someshta (the Green Man) and contains one of the seven seals on the Dark One's prison, the Dragon banner of Lews Therin Telamon, and the Horn of Valere.
At the civilized world's border, the group enters the Blight (the polluted region under the Dark One's control) to protect the Eye.
After a pursuit they meet the Green Man and he reveals the Eye.
The group is then confronted by the Forsaken Aginor and Balthamel.
As battle ensues, Balthamel and the Green Man slay each other.
Soon after, Rand defeats Aginor and uses the Eye to decimate the Trolloc army and defeat Ba'alzamon.
As a result, Moiraine concludes that Rand is the Dragon Reborn, but her opinion and all other details of the final battle are kept from all the male members of the group except Lan.
<EOS>
Ba'alzamon presides over a clandestine meeting.
In addition to Forsaken and Darkfriends (the antagonist's known subordinates), the meeting includes two Aes Sedai, one later identified as Liandrin.
At Fal Dara in Shienar, following the events in The Eye of the World, the protagonists are visited by the Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Sanche, who identifies Rand al'Thor as the Dragon Reborn.
Mat's condition worsens through his psychic attachment to a parasitic dagger.
Lan Mandragoran instructs Rand in sword fighting.
Darkfriend Padan Fain is imprisoned but subsequently freed by Darkforces, stealing the Horn of Valere and the tainted dagger.
Rand, Perrin Aybara, and Mat accompany a Shienaran party southbound in pursuit, under the leadership of Lord Ingtar and guided by a tracker named Hurin.
Nynaeve al'Meara and Egwene al'Vere accompany Moraine to Tar Valon for Aes Sedai training, where they befriend Elayne Trakand and the clairvoyant Min.
There, Nynaeve passes the test to become Accepted, a rank in the White Tower below Aes Sedai and above a Novice.
Rand, Loial, and Hurin are separated from the Shienaran party and transported to an alternate world; similar to their own, but deserted and distorted.
Rand suspects that he activated the portal stone by unconsciously channeling saidin in his sleep, although Egwene dreams that a mysterious woman (later identified as Lanfear) is responsible.
Rand's struggle to accept his channeling ability is a recurring element in the novel.
In this alternate world, Rand meets Ba'alzamon and has a heron's image (the crest of his sword) branded into his palm in a fight.
Later, with the help of Selene (Lanfear in disguise), they return to their own world, ahead of Fain's and Ingtar's groups.
This done, they recover the Horn and dagger.
At a loss to explain Rand's disappearance, Lord Ingtar's group pursue Padan Fain with the aid of Perrin, who uses a telepathic ability to communicate with wolves.
Rand's party journeys to Cairhien, where Rand finds gleeman Thom Merrilin, whom he thought dead in The Eye of the World.
Rand and Loial are attacked by Trollocs (the Dark One's bestial foot-soldiers) and, during their escape, destroy the Chapter House of the Illuminator's Guild, a society retaining knowledge of fireworks.
The Horn and dagger are again lost.
Later, Thom's apprentice Dena is murdered for Thom's involvement with Rand.
With the aid of Perrin, Ingtar's group is reunited with Rand, and they learn that the Horn has been taken to Toman Head, at the port city of Falme.
To gain time, Rand tries to lead them through an alternate world; but instead loses time.
Meanwhile the invading Seanchan and their exotic beasts have occupied Falme.
Geofram Bornhald, leader of the zealous religious group Children of the Light, is preparing to attack the Seanchan.
At the White Tower, Liandrin lures Egwene and Nynaeve, along with Elayne and Min, to Toman Head, where Min is captured by the Seanchan and Egwene is collared with an a'dam: a device used by the Seanchan to control channelers.
Nynaeve and Elayne escape.
At Falme, Rand slays High Lord Turak of the Seanchan before escaping with the Horn and dagger.
Ingtar reveals himself as a Darkfriend, but redeems himself when he dies fighting for Rand's group.
Elayne and Nynaeve rescue Egwene from the Seanchan and attempt to flee the city.
At this moment the Whitecloaks also attack, leaving the heroes trapped between the Seanchan and the Whitecloaks; whereupon Mat blows the Horn of Valere, resurrecting dead heroes including Artur Hawkwing, which overcome the Seanchan and vanish.
Rand himself vanquishes Ba'alzamon, but is himself wounded, and in doing so projects an image of their duel to numerous peoples.
<EOS>
A Crown of Swords has three primary plotlines:.
<EOS>
Many of the events of Winter's Heart take place simultaneously with the events of the next book, Crossroads of Twilight.
Perrin Aybara and his followers pursue the Shaido Aiel who kidnapped his wife, Faile Bashere, while Elayne Trakand attempts to suppress rebellious nobles.
Mat Cauthon is trapped in the city of Ebou Dar in Altara, under Seanchan occupation.
His escape is disrupted by a Seanchan noblewoman named Tuon, the heir to the Seanchan Crystal Throne; and Mat, having heard a prophecy of his own marriage to the Daughter of the Nine Moons, referring to Tuon herself, kidnaps her.
Rand al'Thor is appointed a Warder by Elayne Trakand, Aviendha, and Min Farshaw; and later kills most of the Asha'man traitors in Far Madding.
Lan also kills Toram Riatin in a duel.
Caught by guards, he is imprisoned for a short time but is set free by Cadsuane and the other Aes Sedai.
Rand and Nynaeve al'Meara Travel to Shadar Logoth.
There, defended by Cadsuane Melaidhrin's Aes Sedai and loyal Asha'man against the Forsaken, Rand and Nynaeve use the Choedan Kal to cleanse saidin of the Dark One's influence.
In the process, both Shadar Logoth and the access key to the female Choedan Kal are destroyed.
<EOS>
The story starts in London on Tuesday, October 1, 1872.
Phileas Fogg is a rich British gentleman living in solitude.
Despite his wealth, Fogg lives a modest life with habits carried out with mathematical precision.
Very little can be said about his social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club.
Having dismissed his former valet, James Forster, for bringing him shaving water at instead of , Fogg hires a Frenchman by the name of Jean Passepartout as a replacement.
At the Reform Club, Fogg gets involved in an argument over an article in The Daily Telegraph stating that with the opening of a new railway section in India, it is now possible to travel around the world in 80 days.
He accepts a wager for £20,000 (equal to about £ million in ) from his fellow club members to complete such a journey within this time period.
Accompanied by Passepartout, Fogg departs from London by train at 8:45M.
on October 2; in order to win the wager, he must return to the club by this same time on December 21, 80 days later.
Fogg and Passepartout reach Suez in time.
While disembarking in Egypt, they are watched by a Scotland Yard detective named Fix, who has been dispatched from London in search of a bank robber.
Because Fogg matches the vague description of the robber, Fix mistakes Fogg for the criminal.
Since he cannot secure a warrant in time, Fix boards the steamer (the Mongolia) conveying the travellers to Bombay.
Fix becomes acquainted with Passepartout without revealing his purpose.
Fogg promises the steamer engineer a large reward if he gets them to Bombay early.
They dock two days ahead of schedule.
After reaching India they take a train from Bombay to Calcutta.
Fogg learns that the Daily Telegraph article was wrong—the railroad ends at Kholby and starts again 50 miles further on at Allahabad.
Fogg buys an elephant, hires a guide, and starts toward Allahabad.
They come across a procession in which a young Indian woman, Aouda, is led to a sanctuary to be sacrificed by sati the next day by Brahmins.
Since the young woman is drugged with opium and hemp and is obviously not going voluntarily, the travellers decide to rescue her.
They follow the procession to the site, where Passepartout takes the place of Aouda's deceased husband on the funeral pyre on which she is to be burned.
During the ceremony he rises from the pyre, scaring off the priests, and carries the young woman away.
The twelve hours gained earlier are lost, but Fogg shows no regret.
The travellers hasten to catch the train at the next railway station, taking Aouda with them.
At Calcutta, they board a steamer (the Rangoon) going to Hong Kong.
Fix has Fogg and Passepartout arrested.
They jump bail and Fix follows them to Hong Kong.
He shows himself to Passepartout, who is delighted to again meet his travelling companion from the earlier voyage.
In Hong Kong, it turns out that Aouda's distant relative, in whose care they had been planning to leave her, has moved to Holland, so they decide to take her with them to Europe.
Still without a warrant, Fix sees Hong Kong as his last chance to arrest Fogg on British soil.
Passepartout becomes convinced that Fix is a spy from the Reform Club.
Fix confides in Passepartout, who does not believe a word and remains convinced that his master is not a bank robber.
To prevent Passepartout from informing his master about the premature departure of their next vessel, the Carnatic, Fix gets Passepartout drunk and drugs him in an opium den.
Passepartout still manages to catch the steamer to Yokohama, but neglects to inform Fogg that the steamer is leaving the evening before its scheduled departure date.
Fogg discovers that he missed his connection.
He searches for a vessel that will take him to Yokohama, finding a pilot boat, the Tankadere, that takes him and Aouda to Shanghai, where they catch a steamer to Yokohama.
In Yokohama, they search for Passepartout, believing that he may have arrived there on the Carnatic as originally planned.
They find him in a circus, trying to earn the fare for his homeward journey.
Reunited, the four board a paddle-steamer, the General Grant, taking them across the Pacific to San Francisco.
Fix promises Passepartout that now, having left British soil, he will no longer try to delay Fogg's journey, but support him in getting back to Britain so he can arrest Fogg in Britain itself.
In San Francisco they board a transcontinental train to New York, encountering a number of obstacles along the way: a massive herd of bison crossing the tracks, a failing suspension bridge, and the train being attacked by Sioux warriors.
After uncoupling the locomotive from the carriages, Passepartout is kidnapped by the Indians, but Fogg rescues him after American soldiers volunteer to help.
They continue by a wind powered sledge to Omaha, where they get a train to New York.
In New York, having missed the sailing of their ship, the China, Fogg starts looking for an alternative to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
He finds a steamboat, the Henrietta, destined for Bordeaux, France.
The captain of the boat refuses to take the company to Liverpool, whereupon Fogg consents to be taken to Bordeaux for $2000 (roughly $ today) per passenger.
He then bribes the crew to mutiny and make course for Liverpool.
Against hurricane winds and going on full steam, the boat runs out of fuel after a few days.
Fogg buys the boat from the captain and has the crew burn all the wooden parts to keep up the steam.
The companions arrive at Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland, take the train to Dublin and then a ferry to Liverpool, still in time to reach London before the deadline.
Once on English soil, Fix produces a warrant and arrests Fogg.
A short time later, the misunderstanding is cleared up—the actual robber (James Strand) was caught three days earlier in Edinburgh.
However, Fogg has missed the train and arrives in London five minutes late, certain he has lost the wager.
The following day Fogg apologises to Aouda for bringing her with him, since he now has to live in poverty and cannot support her.
Aouda confesses that she loves him and asks him to marry her.
As Passepartout notifies a minister, he learns that he is mistaken in the date - it is not December 22, but December 21.
Because the party had travelled eastward, they gained one day upon crossing the International Date Line.
Passepartout informs Fogg of his mistake, and Fogg hurries to the Reform Club just in time to meet his deadline and win the wager.
Having already spent the bulk of the £20,000 during the journey, he divides the remaining money between Passepartout and Fix and marries Aouda.
<EOS>
The narrative begins just after Tom Joad is paroled from McAlester prison, where he had been imprisoned after being convicted of homicide.
On his return to his home near Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Tom meets former preacher Jim Casy, whom he remembers from his childhood, and the two travel together.
When they arrive at Tom's childhood farm home, they find it deserted.
Disconcerted and confused, Tom and Casy meet their old neighbor, Muley Graves, who tells them the family has gone to stay at Uncle John Joad's home nearby.
Graves tells them that the banks have evicted all the farmers, but he refuses to leave the area.
The next morning, Tom and Casy go to Uncle John's.
Tom finds his family loading their remaining possessions into a Hudson Motor Car Company saloon converted to a truck; with their crops destroyed by the Dust Bowl, the family has defaulted on their bank loans, and their farm has been repossessed.
Consequently, the Joads have no option but to seek work in California, described in handbills as fruitful and offering high pay.
The Joads put everything they have into making the journey.
Although leaving Oklahoma would violate his parole, Tom decides it is worth the risk, and invites Casy to join him and his family.
Traveling west on Route 66, the Joad family find the road crowded with other migrants.
In makeshift camps, they hear many stories from others, some returning from California, and the group worries about lessening prospects.
The family unit dwindles, too: Granpa dies along the road, and they bury him in a field; Granma dies close to the California state line; and both Noah (the eldest Joad son) and Connie Rivers (the husband of the pregnant Joad daughter, Rose of Sharon) split from the family.
Led by Ma, the remaining members realize they can only continue, as nothing is left for them in Oklahoma.
Reaching California, they find the state oversupplied with labor, so wages are low, and workers are exploited to the point of starvation.
The big corporate farmers are in collusion, and smaller farmers suffer from collapsing prices.
Weedpatch Camp, one of the clean, utility-supplied camps operated by the Resettlement Administration, a New Deal agency, offers better conditions, but does not have enough resources to care for all the needy families.
Nonetheless, as a Federal facility, the camp protects the migrants from harassment by California deputies.
In response to the exploitation, Casy becomes a labor organizer and tries to recruit for a labor union.
The remaining Joads work as strikebreakers in a peach orchard, where Casy is involved in a strike that eventually turns violent.
When Tom Joad witnesses Casy's fatal beating, he kills the attacker and flees as a fugitive.
The Joads later leave the orchard for a cotton farm, where Tom is at risk of being arrested for the homicide.
Tom bids his mother farewell and promises to work for the oppressed.
Rose of Sharon's baby is stillborn.
Ma Joad remains steadfast and forces the family through the bereavement.
With rain, the Joads' dwelling is flooded, and they move to higher ground.
In the final chapter of the book, the family takes shelter from the flood in an old barn.
Inside, they find a young boy and his father, who is dying of starvation.
Rose of Sharon takes pity on the man and offers him her breast, to save him from starvation.
<EOS>
The novel is set in South Wales during the reign of Queen Victoria.
It tells the story of the Morgans, a respectable mining family of the South Wales Valleys, through the eyes of one of the sons, Huw Morgan.
Huw's academic ability sets him apart from his elder brothers and enables him to consider a future away from the dangerous coal mines.
His five brothers and his father are miners.
After his eldest brother, Ivor, is killed in a mining accident, Huw moves in with his sister-in-law, Bronwen, with whom he has always been in love.
One of Huw's three sisters, Angharad, marries the wealthy mine owner's son - whom she does not love - and the marriage is an unhappy one.
She never overcomes her clandestine relationship with the local minister.
Huw's father is later killed in a mine explosion.
After everyone Huw has known either dies or moves away, and the town is reduced to a contaminated shell, he decides to leave, and tells the story of his life just before going away.
<EOS>
The novel opens with the marriage in June 1857, of Lucy Graham, a beautiful, childlike blonde who enchants almost all who meet her, to Sir Michael Audley, a middle-aged, rich, and kind widower.
Lucy was a governess for the local doctor, mr Dawson, until her marriage.
Previous to that Lucy was in service with mrs Vincent, but very little is known about her past before this.
Around the time of the marriage, Sir Michael's nephew, the barrister Robert Audley, welcomes his old friend George Talboys back to England, after three years of gold prospecting in Australia.
George is anxious to get news of his wife, Helen, whom he left three years ago when their financial situation became desperate, to seek gold in Australia.
He reads in the newspaper that she has died, and, after visiting her home to confirm this, he becomes despondent.
Robert Audley cares for his friend, and, hoping to distract him, offers to take him to his wealthy uncle's country manor.
George had a child, Georgey, who was left under the care of Lieutenant Maldon, George's father-in-law.
Robert and George set off to visit Georgey, and George decides to make Robert little Georgey's guardian and caretaker of 20,000 pounds put into the boy's name.
After settling the matter of the boy's guardianship, the two set off to visit Sir Michael.
While at the country manor Audley Court, Lady Audley avoids meeting with George.
When the two seek an audience with the new Lady Audley, she makes many excuses to avoid their visit, but he and Robert are shown a portrait of her by Alicia Audley, Robert's cousin.
George appears greatly struck by the portrait, unbeknownst to Robert (who credits the unfavourable reaction to that evening's storm).
Shortly thereafter, George disappears during a visit to Audley Court, much to Robert's consternation.
Unwilling to believe that George has simply left suddenly and without notice, Robert begins to look into the circumstances around the strange disappearance.
While searching for his friend, Robert begins to take notes of the events as they unfold.
His notes indicate the involvement of Lady Audley, much to his chagrin, and he slowly begins to collect evidence against her.
One night, he reveals the evidence and notes that George was in possession of many letters that his former wife wrote.
Lady Audley immediately sets off to London, where the letters were kept, and Robert follows after her.
However, by the time he arrives, he discovers that George's possessions have been broken into with the help of a local locksmith and that the letters have vanished.
One possession, however, remains – a book with a note written by George's wife that matches Lady Audley's handwriting.
This confirms Robert's suspicion that Lady Audley is implicated in George's disappearance; it also leads Robert to conclude that Lady Audley is actually George's supposedly dead wife.
Suspecting the worst of Lady Audley and being afraid for little Georgey's life, Robert travels to Lieutenant Maldon's house and demands possession of the boy.
Once Robert has Georgey under his control, he places the boy in a school run by mr Marchmont.
Afterwards, Robert visits George's father, mr Harcourt Talboys, and confronts the Squire with his son's death.
mr Harcourt listens dispassionately to the story.
In the course of his visit to the Talboys' manor, Robert is entranced by George's sister Clara, who looks startlingly like George.
Clara's passion for finding her brother spurs Robert on.
In February 1859, Robert continues searching for evidence.
He receives a notice that his uncle is ill, and he quickly returns to Audley Court.
While there, Robert speaks with mr Dawson and receives a brief description of all that is known about Lucy's background.
He hears that Lucy was employed by mrs Vincent at her school since 1852, and, to verify this claim, Robert tracks down mrs Vincent, who is in hiding because of debts.
According to Miss Tonks, a teacher at mrs Vincent's school, Lucy actually arrived at the school in August 1854 and was secretive about her past.
Miss Tonks gives Robert a travel box that used to belong to Lucy, and upon examining stickers on the box, Robert discovers both the name Lucy Graham and the name Helen Talboys.
Robert realises that Helen Talboys faked her death before creating her new identity.
When Robert confronts Lucy, she tells him that he has no proof, and he leaves to find more evidence, heading to Castle Inn, which is run by Luke Marks.
During the night, Lucy forces Luke's wife Phoebe to let her into the inn and Lucy sets the place on fire, with the intention of killing Robert.
However, Robert survives and returns to Audley Court and again confronts Lucy.
This time, she says she is insane and confesses her life's story to Robert and Sir Michael, claiming that George abandoned her originally and she had no choice but to abandon her old life and child in order to find another, wealthier husband.
Sir Michael is unhappy and leaves with Alicia to travel through Europe.
Robert invites a dr Mosgrave to make a more astute judgment regarding Lucy's sanity, and he proclaims that she is indeed victim to latent insanity, which overpowers her in times of stress and makes her very dangerous to any and all.
Lucy, under the name of Madame Taylor, enters a mental institution located somewhere in Belgium along the route between Brussels and Paris.
While being committed, Lucy confesses to Robert that she killed George by pushing him down a deserted well in the garden of Audley Court.
Robert grieves for his friend George until Luke Marks, who was fatally injured in the fire, manages, before dying, to tell Robert that George survived Lady Audley's attempted murder and that George, with Luke's help, left intending to return to Australia.
Robert is overjoyed, and he asks Clara to marry him and go with him to Australia to find George.
Clara accepts, but before they set out, George returns and reveals that he actually visited New York instead.
The narrative ends with the death of Lucy abroad, and Clara and Robert happily married and living in a country cottage with George and his son.
Robert's formerly infatuated cousin Alicia marries her once-spurned suitor, Sir Harry Towers, and Audley Court is left abandoned along with all of its unhappy memories.
<EOS>
In early 1943, World War II British prisoners arrive by train at a Japanese prison camp in Burma.
The commandant, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), informs them that all prisoners, regardless of rank, are to work on the construction of a railway bridge over the River Kwai that will connect Bangkok and Rangoon.
The senior British officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), informs Saito that the Geneva Conventions exempt officers from manual labor.
At the following morning's assembly, Nicholson orders his officers to remain behind when the enlisted men are sent off to work.
Saito slaps him across the face with his copy of the conventions and threatens to have them shot, but Nicholson refuses to back down.
When Major Clipton (James Donald), the British medical officer, intervenes, telling Saito there are too many witnesses for him to get away with murdering the officers, Saito leaves the officers standing all day in the intense tropical heat.
That evening, the officers are placed in a punishment hut, while Nicholson is locked in an iron box.
Meanwhile, three prisoners attempt to escape.
Two are shot dead, but United States Navy Commander Shears (William Holden), gets away, although badly wounded.
He stumbles into a village of natives who help him leave by boat.
Nicholson refuses to compromise.
Meanwhile, the prisoners are working as little as possible and sabotaging whatever they can.
Should Saito fail to meet his deadline, he would be obliged to commit ritual suicide.
Desperate, Saito uses the anniversary of Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War as an excuse to save face and announces a general amnesty, releasing Nicholson and his officers from manual labor.
Nicholson conducts an inspection and is shocked by the poor job being done by his men.
Over the protests of some of his officers, he allows Captain Reeves (Peter Williams) and Major Hughes (John Boxer) to design and build a proper bridge, despite its military value to the Japanese, for the sake of maintaining his men's morale.
The Japanese engineers had chosen a poor site, so the original construction is abandoned and a new bridge is begun downstream.
Shears is enjoying his hospital stay in Ceylon with a beautiful nurse (Ann Sears), when British Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) informs him that theS.
Navy has transferred him over to the British to join a commando mission to destroy the bridge before it's completed.
Shears is appalled at the idea of returning to a place from which he nearly died during escape.
He confesses he is not an officer, but merely had appropriated an officer's uniform prior to his capture, expecting that this revelation will invalidate the transfer order.
However, Warden responds he already knew the truth and tells Shears that the American Navy's desire to avoid dealing with the embarrassment of his actions is the very reason they agreed to his transfer.
Assured that he will be allowed to retain the privileges of being an officer and accepting that he actually has no choice, Shears relents and "volunteers" for the mission.
The commando team consists of four men.
Meanwhile, Nicholson drives his men hard to complete the bridge on time.
For him, its completion will exemplify the ingenuity and hard work of the British Army for generations, long after the war's end.
When he asks that their Japanese counterparts join in as well, a resigned Saito replies that he has already given the order.
The commandos parachute in, with one man killed on landing, leaving three to complete the mission.
Later, Warden is wounded in an encounter with a Japanese patrol and has to be carried on a litter.
He, Shears, and Canadian Lieutenant Joyce (Geoffrey Horne) reach the river in time with the assistance of Siamese women bearers and their village chief, Khun Yai.
Under cover of darkness, Shears and Joyce plant explosives on the bridge towers below the water line.
A train carrying soldiers and important dignitaries is scheduled to be the first use of the bridge the following day, so Warden waits to destroy both.
However, at daybreak the commandos are horrified to see that the water level has dropped, exposing the wire connecting the explosives to the detonator.
Making a final inspection, Nicholson spots the wire and brings it to Saito's attention.
As the train is heard approaching, they hurry down to the riverbank to investigate.
The commandos are shocked that their own man is about to uncover the plot.
Joyce, manning the detonator, breaks cover and stabs Saito to death.
Aghast, Nicholson yells for help, while attempting to stop Joyce from reaching the detonator.
As he wrestles with Nicholson, Joyce tells Nicholson that he is a British officer under orders to destroy the bridge.
When Joyce is shot dead by Japanese fire, Shears swims across the river, but is fatally wounded as he reaches Nicholson.
Recognizing the dying Shears, Nicholson exclaims, "What have I done.
" Warden fires his mortar, mortally wounding Nicholson.
The dazed colonel stumbles towards the detonator and collapses on the plunger just in time to blow up the bridge and send the train hurtling into the river below.
Witnessing the carnage, Clipton shakes his head muttering, "Madness.
&nbsp;.
Madness.
".
<EOS>
In the directors' own words, Chang is a "melodrama with man, the jungle, and wild animals as its cast".
Kru, the farmer depicted in the film, battles leopards, tigers, and even a herd of elephants, all of which pose a constant threat to his livelihood.
As filmmakers, Cooper and Schoedsack attempted to capture real life with their cameras, though they often re-staged events that had not been captured adequately on film.
The danger was real to all the people and animals involved.
Tigers, leopards, and bears are slaughtered on camera, while the film's climax shows Kru's house being demolished by a stampeding elephant.
<EOS>
After the loss of her family home Belle Reve to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of Laurel, Mississippi, to the New Orleans French Quarter to live with her younger, married sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski.
Blanche is in her thirties, and with no money, she has nowhere else to go.
Blanche tells Stella that she has taken a leave of absence from her English teaching position because of her nerves (which is later revealed to be a lie).
Blanche laments the shabbiness of her sister’s two-room flat.
She finds Stanley loud and rough, eventually referring to him as "common".
Stanley, in return, does not care for Blanche's manners and dislikes her presence.
Stanley later questions Blanche about her earlier marriage.
Blanche had married when she was very young, but her husband died, leaving her widowed and alone.
The memory of her dead husband causes Blanche some obvious distress.
Stanley, worried that he has been cheated out of an inheritance, demands to know what happened to Belle Reve, once a large plantation and the DuBois family home.
Blanche hands over all the documents pertaining to Belle Reve.
While looking at the papers, Stanley notices a bundle of letters that Blanche emotionally proclaims are personal love letters from her dead husband.
For a moment, Stanley seems caught off guard over her proclaimed feelings.
Afterwards, he informs Blanche that Stella is going to have a baby.
The night after Blanche’s arrival, during one of Stanley’s poker parties, Blanche meets Mitch, one of Stanley’s poker player buddies.
His courteous manner sets him apart from the other men.
Their chat becomes flirtatious and friendly, and Blanche easily charms him; they like each other.
Suddenly becoming upset over multiple interruptions, Stanley explodes in a drunken rage and strikes Stella.
Blanche and Stella take refuge with the upstairs neighbor, Eunice.
When Stanley recovers, he cries out from the courtyard below for Stella to come back by repeatedly calling her name until she comes down and allows herself to be carried off to bed.
After Stella returns to Stanley, Blanche and Mitch sit at the bottom of the steps in the courtyard, where Mitch apologizes for Stanley's coarse behavior.
Blanche is bewildered that Stella would go back with him after such violence.
The next morning, Blanche rushes to Stella and describes Stanley as a subhuman animal, though Stella assures Blanche that she and Stanley are fine.
Stanley overhears the conversation but keeps silent.
When Stanley comes in, Stella hugs and kisses him, letting Blanche know that her low opinion of Stanley does not matter.
As the weeks pass, Blanche and Stanley continue to not get along.
Blanche has hope in Mitch, and tells Stella that she wants to go away with him and not be anyone’s problem.
During a meeting between the two, Blanche confesses to Mitch that once she was married to a young man, Allan Grey, whom she later discovered in a sexual encounter with an older man.
Grey later committed suicide when Blanche told him she was disgusted with him.
The story touches Mitch, who tells Blanche that they need each other.
It seems certain that they will get married.
Later on, Stanley repeats gossip to Stella that he has gathered on Blanche, telling her that Blanche was fired from her teaching job for having sex with a student and that she lived at a hotel known for prostitution (the Flamingo).
Stella erupts in anger over Stanley’s cruelty after he states that he has also told Mitch about the rumors, but the fight is cut short as she goes into labor and is sent to the hospital.
As Blanche waits at home alone, Mitch arrives and confronts Blanche with the stories that Stanley has told him.
At first she denies everything, but eventually confesses that the stories are true.
She pleads for forgiveness, but an angry and humiliated Mitch rejects her.
He then advances toward her as though to rape her; in response, Blanche screams "fire", and he runs away in fright.
When Stella has the baby, Stanley and Blanche are left alone in the apartment.
In their final confrontation, it is strongly implied that Stanley rapes Blanche, imminently resulting in her psychotic crisis.
Weeks later, at another poker game at the Kowalski apartment, Stella and her neighbor, Eunice, are packing Blanche's belongings.
Blanche has suffered a complete mental breakdown and is to be committed to a mental hospital.
Although Blanche has told Stella about Stanley's assault, Stella cannot bring herself to believe her sister's story.
When a doctor and a matron arrive to take Blanche to the hospital, she initially resists them and collapses on the floor in confusion.
Mitch, present at the poker game, breaks down in tears.
When the doctor helps Blanche up, she goes willingly with him, saying: "Whoever you are, I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers".
The play ends with Stanley continuing to comfort Stella while the poker game continues uninterrupted, as Steve says: "This game is seven-card stud".
<EOS>
In "the not-too-distant future", eugenics is common.
A genetic registry database uses biometrics to classify those so created as "valids" while those conceived by traditional means and more susceptible to genetic disorders are known as "in-valids".
Genetic discrimination is illegal, but in practice genotype profiling is used to identify valids to qualify for professional employment while in-valids are relegated to menial jobs.
Vincent Freeman is conceived without the aid of genetic selection; his genetics indicate a high probability of several disorders and an estimated life span of 302 years.
His parents, regretting their decision, use genetic selection to give birth to their next child, Anton.
Growing up, the two brothers often play a game of "chicken" by swimming out to sea with the first one returning to shore considered the loser; Vincent always loses.
Vincent dreams of a career in space travel but is reminded of his genetic inferiority.
One day Vincent challenges Anton to a game of chicken and bests him before Anton starts to drown.
Vincent saves Anton and then leaves home.
Vincent works as an in-valid, cleaning office spaces including that of Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, a space-flight conglomerate.
He gets a chance to pose as a valid by using hair, skin, blood and urine samples from a donor, Jerome Eugene Morrow, who is a former swimming star paralyzed due to a car accident.
With Jerome's genetic makeup, Vincent gains employment at Gattaca, and is assigned to be navigator for an upcoming trip to Saturn's moon Titan.
To keep his identity hidden, Vincent must meticulously groom and scrub down daily to remove his own genetic material, and pass daily DNA scanning and urine tests using Jerome's samples.
Gattaca becomes embroiled in controversy when one of its administrators is murdered a week before the flight.
The police find a fallen eyelash of Vincent's at the scene.
An investigation is launched to find the murderer, Vincent being the top suspect.
Through this, Vincent becomes close to a co-worker, Irene Cassini, and falls in love with her.
Though a valid, Irene has a higher risk of heart failure that will prevent her from joining any deep space Gattaca mission.
Vincent also learns that Jerome's paralysis is by his own hand; after coming in second place in a swim meet, Jerome threw himself in front of a car.
Jerome maintains that he was designed to be the best, yet wasn't, and that is the source of his suffering.
Vincent repeatedly evades scrutiny from the investigation, and it is revealed that Gattaca's mission director was the killer, as the administrator was threatening to cancel the mission.
Vincent learns the identity of the detective who closed the case, his brother Anton, who has become aware of Vincent's presence.
The brothers meet, and Anton warns Vincent that what he is doing is illegal, but Vincent asserts that he has gotten to this position on his own merits.
Anton challenges Vincent to one more game of chicken.
As the two swim out in the dead of night, Anton is surprised at Vincent's stamina, and Vincent reveals that his trick to winning was not saving energy for the swim back.
Anton turns back and begins to drown, but Vincent rescues him and swims them both back to shore using celestial navigation.
On the day of the launch, Jerome reveals that he has stored enough DNA samples for Vincent to last two lifetimes upon his return, and gives him an envelope to open once in flight.
After saying goodbye to Irene, Vincent prepares to board but discovers there is a final genetic test, and he currently lacks any of Jerome's samples.
He is surprised when dr Lamar, the person in charge of background checks, reveals that he knows Vincent has been posing as a valid.
Lamar admits that his son looks up to Vincent and wonders whether his son, genetically selected but "not all that they promised", could break the limits just as Vincent has.
He passes Vincent as a valid.
As the rocket launches, Jerome dons his swimming medal and immolates himself in his home's incinerator; Vincent opens the note from Jerome to find only a lock of Jerome's hair attached to it.
Vincent muses on this, stating "For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess, I’m suddenly having a hard time leaving it.
Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once a part of a star.
Maybe I'm not leaving; maybe I'm going home".
<EOS>
Part One follows several different people over the same period of several days.
Several of the characters appear in the two previous books, including Armand, Daniel (the "boy reporter" of Interview with the Vampire), Marius, Louis, Gabrielle and Santino.
Each of the six chapters in Part One tells a different story about a different person or group of people.
Two things unify these chapters: a series of dreams about red-haired twin sisters, and the fact that a powerful being is killing vampires around the world by means of spontaneous combustion.
Pandora and Santino rescue Marius, having answered his telepathic call for help.
Marius informs his rescuers that Akasha has been awakened by Lestat, or rather his rock music, for he has joined a rock band of mortals whose names are Alex, Larry and Tough Cookie.
Having been awakened by Lestat's rebellious music, Akasha destroys her husband Enkil and plots to rule the world.
Akasha is also revealed as the source of the attacks on other vampires.
Part Two takes place at Lestat's concert.
Jesse Reeves, a member of the secret Talamasca and relative of Maharet, is mortally injured while attending the concert, and is taken to Maharet's Sonoma compound where she is made into a vampire.
The vampires from Part One later congregate in the Sonoma compound.
The only vampires not present are Akasha and Lestat.
Akasha has abducted Lestat and takes him as an unwilling consort to various locations in the world, inciting women to rise up and kill the men who have oppressed them.
Part Three takes place at Maharet's home in a Sonoma forest.
There Maharet tells the story of Akasha and the red-haired twins (who are, in fact, Maharet and her sister, Mekare) to Pandora, Jesse, Marius, Santino, Eric, Armand, Daniel, Louis and Gabrielle.
Also present are Mael and Khayman, who already know the story.
In Part Four, Akasha confronts the gathered vampires at Maharet's compound.
There she explains her plans and offers the vampires a chance to be her "angels" in her New World Order.
Akasha plans to kill 90 percent of the world's human men, and to establish a new Eden in which women will worship Akasha as a goddess.
If the assembled vampires refuse to follow her, she will destroy them.
The vampires refuse, but before Akasha can destroy them, Mekare enters.
Mekare kills Akasha by severing her head and then consumes Akasha's brain and heart.
Amel passes into Mekare, thereby saving the lives of the remaining vampires.
She becomes the new Queen of the Damned.
In Part Five, the vampires leave Maharet's compound and assemble at Armand's resort, the Night Island, (according to Anne Rice, inspired by Fire Island) in Florida to recover.
They eventually go their separate ways (as told in The Tale of the Body Thief).
Lestat takes Louis to see David Talbot in London.
After their brief visit with Talbot they depart into the night, an incensed Louis and his angry words filling Lestat with glee.
The Queen of the Damned, deals with the origins of vampires themselves.
The mother of all vampires, Akasha, begins as a pre-Egyptian queen, in a land called Kemet (which will become Egypt), many thousands of years ago.
During this time two powerful witches (Maharet and Mekare) live in the mountains of an unnamed region.
The witches are able to communicate with invisible spirits and gain simple favors from them.
During this period there is a bloodthirsty, invisible spirit known as Amel who continually asks the two witches if they need his assistance, although they prudently decline the offer.
The witches' village is destroyed and they are incarcerated by the king and queen, who desire their knowledge.
When the witches offend Akasha, the Queen condemns the twins.
Enkil then orders his chief steward (who is Khayman as a mortal man) to rape the twins in his stead, which would prove their lack of power, before the eyes of the court.
Afterward the witches are cast out into the desert.
While making her way back home with a pregnant Maharet, Mekare curses the king and queen secretly with the bloodthirsty spirit.
Eventually this spirit inflicts such torment on Akasha and Enkil that they again demand advice and help from the two witches.
Conspirators, unhappy with the young king's policies, assassinate the royal couple in Khayman's house while they were attempting to exorcise Amel, who had been tormenting Khayman.
While the king and queen lie dying, the evil spirit sees its chance to ensnare the soul of the dying queen and pulls it back into her body.
The spirit combines itself with the flesh and blood of the queen, transforming her into a vampire.
Akasha allows the king to drink her blood, which saves his life.
They then order Khayman to find the witches and bring them back to Egypt so that they could use their knowledge of spirits to help them, as they feel guilty because of their thirst for blood.
However, when the witches admit that they cannot help the monarchs, Akasha orders the mutilation of the witches: Maharet loses her eyes and Mekare her tongue.
Afterward, Khayman, who had been turned into a vampire by Akasha, comes to the witches' cell and turns them too.
The three flee together, but are caught by Akasha's soldiers.
Khayman escapes, but Maharet and Mekare are further punished.
The witches are put into two separate coffins which are then set afloat on two separate bodies of water.
They are only reunited near the end of the novel Queen of the Damned.
In Mekare's absence, Maharet returns to watch over her daughter and her descendants.
Maharet's descendants become what she calls the Great Family.
A maternal line, the Great Family includes every culture, religion, ethnicity, and race.
The Great Family represents all humanity and shows the vampires what Akasha would destroy with the creation of her New World Order.
As the source of all vampires, Akasha is connected to all vampires by the blood and spirit they collectively share.
In an experiment by the first Keeper, Akasha and Enkil are exposed to sunlight when they are several thousand years old.
This merely darkens their skin.
However, the result on all other vampires is extreme, and many of the weakest vampires die, thus confirming the legend that anything that harms Akasha will also directly affect all of her progeny.
<EOS>
The Dukes of Hazzard follows the adventures of "The Duke Boys," cousins Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat) (including Coy and Vance Duke for most of season 5), who live on a family farm in fictional Hazzard County, Georgia, with their attractive female cousin Daisy (Catherine Bach) and their wise old Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle).
The Duke boys race around in their customized 1969 Dodge Charger stock car, dubbed (The) General Lee, evading crooked and corrupt county commissioner Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and his bumbling and corrupt Sheriff Rosco Coltrane (James Best) along with his deputy(s), and always managing to get caught in the middle of the various escapades and incidents that often occur in the area.
Bo and Luke had previously been sentenced to probation for illegal transportation of moonshine; their Uncle Jesse made a plea bargain with theS.
Government to refrain from distilling moonshine in exchange.
As a result, Bo and Luke are on probation and not allowed to carry firearms&nbsp;— instead, they often use compound bows, sometimes with arrows tipped with dynamite — or to leave Hazzard County unless they get probation permission from their probation officer, Boss Hogg, although the exact details of their probation terms vary from episode to episode.
Sometimes it is implied that they would be jailed for merely crossing the county line; on other occasions, it is shown that they may leave Hazzard, as long as they are back within a certain time limit.
Several other technicalities of their probation also came into play at various times.
Corrupt county commissioner Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg, who either runs or has fingers in virtually everything in Hazzard County, is forever angry with the Dukes, especially Bo and Luke for always foiling his crooked schemes.
He is always looking for ways to get them out of the picture so that his plots have a chance of succeeding.
Many episodes revolve around Hogg trying to engage in an illegal scheme, sometimes with aid of hired criminal help.
Some of these are get-rich-quick schemes, though many others affect the financial security of the Duke farm, which Hogg has long wanted to acquire for various reasons.
Other times, Hogg hires criminals from out of town to do his dirty work for him, and often tries to frame Bo and Luke for various crimes as part of these plots.
Bo and Luke always seem to stumble over Hogg's latest scheme, sometimes by curiosity, and often by sheer luck, and put it out of business.
Despite the Dukes often coming to his rescue (see below), Hogg forever seems to have an irrational dislike of the clan, particularly Bo and Luke, often accusing them of spying on him, robbing or planning to rob him, and other supposedly nefarious actions, as he believes they are generally out to get him.
The other main characters of the show include local mechanic Cooter Davenport (Ben Jones), who in early episodes was portrayed as a wild, unshaven rebel, often breaking or treading on the edge of the law, before settling down to become the Duke family's best friend (he is often referred to as an "honorary Duke") and owns the local garage; and Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer), an honest but naive young deputy who, despite his friendship with the Dukes (and his crush on Daisy), is reluctantly forced to take part in Hogg and Rosco's crooked schemes.
In the third and fourth seasons, when Enos leaves for his own show, he is replaced by Boss' cousin Deputy Cletus Hogg (Rick Hurst), Boss's cousin, who is slightly more wily than Enos but still a somewhat reluctant player in Hogg's plots.
Owing to their fundamentally good natures, the Dukes often wind up helping Boss Hogg out of trouble, albeit grudgingly.
More than once Hogg is targeted by former associates who are either seeking revenge or have double crossed him after a scheme has unraveled in one way or another.
Sheriff Coltrane also finds himself in some instances.
On such occasions, Bo and Luke usually have to rescue their adversaries as an inevitable precursor to defeating the bad guys; in other instances, the Dukes join forces with Hogg and Coltrane to tackle bigger threats to Hazzard or one of their respective parties.
These instances became more frequent as the show progressed, and later seasons saw a number of stories where the Dukes and Hogg (and Coltrane) temporarily work together.
<EOS>
Teenager Marty McFly is an aspiring musician dating girlfriend Jennifer Parker in Hill Valley, California.
His father George is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen, while his mother Lorraine is an overweight, depressed alcoholic.
While dissatisfied with Marty's relationship with Jennifer, Lorraine recalls how she met George when her father hit him with a car.
On October 26, 1985, Marty meets his scientist friend, dr Emmett Brown, at a shopping mall parking lot.
Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean and powered by plutonium stolen from Libyan terrorists.
Doc demonstrates the navigation system with the example date of November 5, 1955: the day he conceived the machine.
A moment later, the Libyans arrive and shoot him, apparently killing him.
Marty escapes in the DeLorean, but inadvertently activates the time machine, and arrives in 1955 without the required plutonium needed to return.
There, Marty encounters the teenage George, who is bullied by classmate Biff.
After Marty saves George from an oncoming car and is knocked unconscious, he awakens to find himself tended by an infatuated Lorraine.
Marty leaves and tracks down Doc's younger self to help him return to 1985.
With no plutonium, Doc explains that the only power source capable of generating the necessary 121 gigawatts of electrical power for the time machine is a bolt of lightning.
Marty shows Doc a flyer from the future that recounts a lightning strike at the town's courthouse the coming Saturday night.
Doc instructs Marty to not leave his house or interact with anyone, as he could inadvertently change the course of history and alter the future; because of this, Doc refuses to heed warnings from Marty about his death in 1985.
Marty realizes that he has prevented his parents from meeting and Doc warns Marty that he will be erased from existence if he does not find a way to introduce George to Lorraine.
Doc formulates a plan to harness the power of the lightning while Marty sets about introducing his parents, but he antagonizes Biff and his gang in the process.
When Lorraine asks Marty to the upcoming school dance, Marty plans to have George "rescue" Lorraine from Marty's inappropriate advances.
The plan goes awry when a drunken Biff attempts to force himself on Lorraine.
George arrives to rescue her from Marty, but finds Biff instead.
George knocks out Biff and Lorraine follows George to the dance floor, where they kiss and fall in love while Marty plays music with the band.
Satisfied that he has secured his future existence, Marty leaves to meet Doc.
As the storm arrives, Marty returns to the clock tower and the lightning strikes on cue, sending Marty back to October 1985.
He finds that Doc is not dead, as he had listened to Marty's warnings and worn a bullet-proof vest.
Doc takes Marty home, then departs to 2015.
Marty awakens the next morning to find his family changed: George is a self-confident, successful author, Lorraine is physically fit and happy, his brother David is a successful businessman, his sister Linda works in a boutique and has many "boyfriends" and Biff is now an obsequious auto valet.
As Marty reunites with Jennifer, the DeLorean appears with Doc, dressed in a futuristic outfit, insisting they accompany him to 2015 to fix a problem with their future children.
The trio get inside the DeLorean and disappear into the future.
<EOS>
The travel begins with a short preamble in which Lemuel Gulliver gives a brief outline of his life and history before his voyages.
During his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people, less than tall, who are inhabitants of the island country of Lilliput.
After giving assurances of his good behavior, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favorite of the Lilliput Royal Court.
He is also given permission by the King of Lilliput to go around the city on condition that he must not harm their subjects.
At first, the Lilliputians are hospitable to Gulliver, but they are also wary of the threat that his size poses to them.
The Lilliputians reveal themselves to be a people who put great emphasis on trivial matters.
For example, which end of an egg a person cracks becomes the basis of a deep political rift within that nation.
They are a people who revel in displays of authority and performances of power.
Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbors the Blefuscudians by stealing their fleet.
However, he refuses to reduce the island nation of Blefuscu to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the royal court.
Gulliver is charged with treason for, among other crimes, "making water" in the capital though he was putting out a fire and saving countless lives.
He is convicted and sentenced to be blinded.
With the assistance of a kind friend, "a considerable person at court", he escapes to Blefuscu.
Here, he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship, which safely takes him back home.
He soon sets out again.
When the sailing ship Adventure is blown off course by storms and forced to sail for land in search of fresh water, Gulliver is abandoned by his companions and is left on a peninsula on the western coast of the North American continent.
The grass of that land is as tall as a tree.
He is then found by a farmer who was about 72&nbsp;ft.
tall, judging from Gulliver estimating a man's step being.
He brings Gulliver home and the farmer's daughter Glumdalclitch cares for Gulliver.
The giant-sized farmer treats him as a curiosity and exhibits him for money.
After a while the constant shows make Gulliver sick, and the farmer sells him to the queen of the realm.
Glumdalclitch (who accompanied her father while exhibiting Gulliver) is taken into the Queen of Brobdingnag's service to take care of the tiny man.
Since Gulliver is too small to use their huge chairs, beds, knives and forks, the Queen of Brobdingnag commissions a small house to be built for him so that he can be carried around in it; this is referred to as his "traveling box".
Between small adventures such as fighting giant wasps and being carried to the roof by a monkey, he discusses the state of Europe with the King of Brobdingnag.
The King is not happy with Gulliver's accounts of Europe, especially upon learning of the use of guns and cannons.
On a trip to the seaside, his traveling box is seized by a giant eagle which drops Gulliver and his box into the sea where he is picked up by some sailors who return him to England.
Setting out again, Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates and he is marooned close to a desolate rocky island near India.
He is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music, mathematics, and astronomy but unable to use them for practical ends.
Laputa's custom of throwing rocks down at rebellious cities on the ground prefigures air strikes as a method of warfare.
Gulliver tours Balnibarbi, the kingdom ruled from Laputa, as the guest of a low-ranking courtier and sees the ruin brought about by the blind pursuit of science without practical results, in a satire on bureaucracy and on the Royal Society and its experiments.
At the Grand Academy of Lagado in Balnibarbi , great resources and manpower are employed on researching completely preposterous schemes such as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, softening marble for use in pillows, learning how to mix paint by smell, and uncovering political conspiracies by examining the excrement of suspicious persons (see muckraking).
Gulliver is then taken to Maldonada, the main port of Balnibarbi, to await a trader who can take him on to Japan.
While waiting for a passage, Gulliver takes a short side-trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib which is southwest of Balnibarbi.
On Glubbdubdrib, he visits a magician's dwelling and discusses history with the ghosts of historical figures, the most obvious restatement of the "ancients versus moderns" theme in the book.
The ghosts consist of Julius Caesar, Brutus, Homer, Aristotle, René Descartes, and Pierre Gassendi.
On the island of Luggnagg, he encounters the struldbrugs, people who are immortal.
They do not have the gift of eternal youth, but suffer the infirmities of old age and are considered legally dead at the age of eighty.
After reaching Japan, Gulliver asks the Emperor "to excuse my performing the ceremony imposed upon my countrymen of trampling upon the crucifix", which the Emperor does.
Gulliver returns home, determined to stay there for the rest of his days.
Despite his earlier intention of remaining at home, Gulliver returns to sea as the captain of a merchantman, as he is bored with his employment as a surgeon.
On this voyage, he is forced to find new additions to his crew whom he believes to have turned the rest of the crew against him.
His crew then commits mutiny.
After keeping him contained for some time, they resolve to leave him on the first piece of land they come across, and continue as pirates.
He is abandoned in a landing boat and comes upon a race of hideous, deformed and savage humanoid creatures to which he conceives a violent antipathy.
Shortly afterwards, he meets the Houyhnhnms, a race of talking horses.
They are the rulers while the deformed creatures called Yahoos are human beings in their base form.
Gulliver becomes a member of a horse's household and comes to both admire and emulate the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle, rejecting his fellow humans as merely Yahoos endowed with some semblance of reason which they only use to exacerbate and add to the vices Nature gave them.
However, an Assembly of the Houyhnhnms rules that Gulliver, a Yahoo with some semblance of reason, is a danger to their civilization and expels him.
He is then rescued against his will by a Portuguese ship and is disgusted to see that Captain Pedro de Mendez, a Yahoo, is a wise, courteous, and generous person.
He returns to his home in England, but he is unable to reconcile himself to living among "Yahoos" and becomes a recluse, remaining in his house, largely avoiding his family and his wife, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables.
<EOS>
Celie is a poor, uneducated, 14-year-old girl living in the American South in the 1930s.
She writes letters to God because her father, Alphonso, beats and rapes her.
Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once, a pregnancy that resulted in the birth of a girl.
Alphonso takes the baby girl away shortly after her birth.
Celie has a second child, a boy, whom Alphonso also abducts.
Celie's ailing mother dies after cursing Celie on her deathbed.
Celie and her younger sister, 12-year-old Nettie, learn that a man identified only as Mister wants to marry Nettie.
Alphonso refuses to let Nettie marry, instead arranging for Mister to marry Celie.
Mister, needing someone to care for his children and keep his house, eventually accepts the offer.
Mister and his children, whose mother was murdered by a jealous lover, all treat Celie badly.
However, she eventually gets Mister's squalid living conditions and incorrigible children under control.
Shortly thereafter, Nettie runs away from Alphonso and takes refuge at Celie's house, where Mister makes sexual advances toward her.
Celie then advises Nettie to seek assistance from a well-dressed black woman that she had seen in the general store a while back; the woman had unknowingly adopted Celie's daughter and was the only black woman that Celie had ever seen with money of her own.
Nettie is forced to leave after promising to write.
Celie, however, never receives any letters and concludes that her sister is dead.
Time passes and Mister's children begin to grow up and leave home.
Harpo, Mister's son, falls in love with an assertive girl named Sofia, who becomes pregnant with Harpo's baby and, despite initial resistance from Mister, marries Harpo.
Harpo and Sofia have five more children in short order.
Celie is amazed by Sofia's defiant refusal to submit to Harpo's attempts to control her.
Kinder and gentler than his father, Harpo feels emasculated due to his inability to get Sofia to "mind".
Celie advises Harpo not to try to dominate Sofia; she also tells Harpo that Sofia loves him, admitting that she, Celie, only obeys Mister out of fear.
Harpo temporarily follows Celie's advice but falls back under Mister's sway.
A momentarily jealous Celie then advises Harpo to beat Sofia.
Sofia fights back, however, inflicting serious injuries on Harpo.
After Sofia confronts her, Celie, who was already feeling guilty about what she had done, apologizes and confides in her about all the abuse she suffers at Mister's hands.
She also begins to consider Sofia's advice about defending herself against further abuse from Mister.
Glamorous Shug Avery, a jazz and blues singer and Mister's long-time mistress, falls ill, and Mister takes her into his house.
Celie, who had been fascinated by photos of Shug she found in Mister's belongings, is thrilled to have her there.
Mister's father expresses disapproval of the arrangement, reminding Mister that Shug has three out-of-wedlock children.
Mister proudly states that he knows for certain that all the children have the same father, indirectly admitting to being their father.
Mister's father leaves in disgust after drinking a glass of water into which Celie spit.
While Shug is initially rude to Celie, who has taken charge of nursing her, the two women become friends, and Celie soon finds herself infatuated with Shug.
Frustrated by Harpo's domineering behavior, Sofia moves out, taking her children with her.
Several months later, Harpo opens a juke joint where a fully recovered Shug performs nightly.
Shug decides to stay when she learns that Mister beats Celie when she is away.
Shug and Celie's relationship grows more intimate.
Sofia returns for a visit and promptly gets into a fight with Harpo's new girlfriend, Squeak, knocking Squeak's teeth out.
In town one day, while Sofia is enjoying a day out with her new beau, a prizefighter, and their respective children, the mayor's wife, Miss Millie, approaches the group.
She begins to "finger" Sofia's children (physically examine them in a way reminiscent of slaves on an auction block) without bothering, at first, to speak to their mother or ask permission.
At first, Sofia silently endures.
Miss Millie then looks up and addresses Sofia, remarking on how clean the children are and bluntly asks Sofia if she would like to be her maid.
Sofia, who does not work as a maid, straightforwardly refuses saying "Hell no".
The mayor then pushes his wife aside, calling Sofia "girl" and daring her to repeat herself.
When Sofia does so defiantly, the mayor slaps Sofia.
Sofia responds by using her fist to knock the mayor, her assailant, onto the ground.
The police quickly arrive at the scene and brutally beat Sofia as she pleads with the prizefighter not to intervene on her behalf and instead to take her children to safety.
Sofia emerges from her ordeal with a cracked skull, broken ribs, her face rendered nearly unrecognizable, and blind in one eye.
Sofia is subsequently sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Squeak, a mixed-race woman and Sheriff Hodges' illegitimate niece, attempts to blackmail the sheriff into releasing Sofia, resulting in her being raped by the sheriff.
Squeak cares for Sofia's children while she is incarcerated, and the two women develop a friendship.
Sofia is eventually released and begins working for Miss Millie, which she detests.
Despite being newly married to a person called Grady, Shug instigates a sexual relationship with Celie on her next visit.
One night Shug asks Celie about her sister, and Shug helps Celie recover letters from Nettie that Mister has been hiding from her for decades.
The letters indicate that Nettie befriended a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine, the well-dressed woman that Celie saw in the store, whom Nettie eventually accompanied to Africa to do missionary work.
Samuel and Corrine have unwittingly adopted Celie's son and daughter (by Celie's father), Adam and Olivia.
Corrine, noticing that her adopted children resemble Nettie, wonders if Samuel fathered the children with her.
Increasingly suspicious, Corrine tries to limit Nettie's role in her family.
Through her letters, Nettie reveals that she has become disillusioned with her missionary work.
Corrine becomes ill with a fever.
Nettie asks Samuel to tell her how he adopted Olivia and Adam.
Realizing that Adam and Olivia are Celie's children, Nettie then learns that Alphonso is her and Celie's stepfather.
Their biological father was a store owner whom white men lynched because they resented his success.
She also learns that their mother suffered a mental collapse after the death of her husband and that Alphonso exploited the situation in order to control their mother's considerable wealth.
Nettie confesses to Samuel and Corrine that she is in fact their children's biological aunt.
The gravely ill Corrine refuses to believe her until Nettie reminds her of her previous encounter with Celie in the store.
Later, Corrine dies, finally having accepted Nettie's story.
Meanwhile, Celie visits Alphonso, who confirms Nettie's story.
Celie begins to lose some of her faith in God, which she confides to Shug, who explains to Celie her own unique religious philosophy.
Celie, having had enough of her husband's abuse, decides to leave Mister along with Shug and Squeak, who is considering a singing career of her own.
Celie puts a curse on Mister before leaving him for good.
Celie settles in Tennessee and supports herself as a seamstress.
She learns that Mister, suffering from a considerable decline in fortunes after Celie left him, has changed dramatically; he gives Celie permission to call him by his first name, Albert.
Albert proposes that they marry "in the spirit as well as in the flesh," but Celie declines.
Alphonso dies, Celie inherits his land, and moves back into her childhood home.
Around this time, Shug falls in love with Germaine, a member of her band, and the news thereof crushes Celie.
Shug travels with Germaine, all the while writing postcards to Celie.
Celie pledges to love Shug even if Shug does not love her back.
Meanwhile, Nettie and Samuel marry and prepare to return to America.
Before they leave, Adam marries Tashi, an African girl.
Following an African tradition, Tashi undergoes the painful rituals of female circumcision and facial scarring.
In solidarity, Adam undergoes the same facial scarring ritual.
Just after Celie realizes that she is content in her life without Shug, Shug returns, having ended things with Germaine.
The end of the novel has Nettie, Samuel, Olivia, Adam, and Tashi arriving at Celie's house.
Nettie and Celie embrace, having not seen each other for over 30 years.
They introduce one another to their respective families as the novel ends.
<EOS>
The play consists of four interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, which is set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.
The play opens with Hermia, who is in love with Lysander, resistant to her father Egeus' demand that she wed Demetrius, whom he has arranged for her to marry.
Helena meanwhile pines unrequitedly for Demetrius.
Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law before Duke Theseus, whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else face death.
Theseus offers her another choice: lifelong chastity while worshipping the goddess Artemis as a nun.
Peter Quince and his fellow players Nick Bottom, Francis Flute, Robin Starveling, Tom Snout, and Snug plan to put on a play for the wedding of the Duke and the Queen, "the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe".
Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them to the players.
Nick Bottom, who is playing the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of Thisbe, the Lion, and Pyramus at the same time.
He would also rather be a tyrant and recites some lines of Ercles.
Bottom is told by Quince that he would do the Lion so terribly as to frighten the duchess and ladies enough for the Duke and Lords to have the players hanged.
Quince ends the meeting with "at the Duke's oak we meet".
In a parallel plot line, Oberon, king of the fairies, and Titania, his queen, have come to the forest outside Athens.
Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until she has attended Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding.
Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman", since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshippers.
Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience.
He calls upon Robin "Puck" Goodfellow, his "shrewd and knavish sprite", to help him concoct a magical juice derived from a flower called "love-in-idleness", which turns from white to purple when struck by Cupid's arrow.
When the concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person, upon waking, falls in love with the first living thing they perceive.
He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower with the hope that he might make Titania fall in love with an animal of the forest and thereby shame her into giving up the little Indian boy.
He says, "And ere I take this charm from off her sight,/As I can take it with another herb,/I'll make her render up her page to me".
Hermia and Lysander have escaped to the same forest in hopes of eloping.
Helena, desperate to reclaim Demetrius's love, tells Demetrius about the plan and he follows them in hopes of killing Lysander.
Helena continually makes advances towards Demetrius, promising to love him more than Hermia.
However, he rebuffs her with cruel insults against her.
Observing this, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man.
Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having actually seen either before, and administers the juice to the sleeping Lysander.
Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether he is dead or asleep.
Upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena.
Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia and is enraged.
When Demetrius goes to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius' eyes.
Upon waking up, he sees Helena.
Now, both men are in pursuit of Helena.
However, she is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally.
Hermia is at a loss to see why her lover has abandoned her, and accuses Helena of stealing Lysander away from her.
The four quarrel with each other until Lysander and Demetrius become so enraged that they seek a place to duel to prove whose love for Helena is the greater.
Oberon orders Puck to keep Lysander and Demetrius from catching up with one another and to remove the charm from Lysander so Lysander can return to love Hermia, while Demetrius continues to love Helena.
Meanwhile, Quince and his band of six labourers ("rude mechanicals", as they are described by Puck) have arranged to perform their play about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding and venture into the forest, near Titania's bower, for their rehearsal.
Bottom is spotted by Puck, who (taking his name to be another word for a jackass) transforms his head into that of a donkey.
When Bottom returns for his next lines, the other workmen run screaming in terror: They claim that they are haunted, much to Bottom's confusion.
Determined to await his friends, he begins to sing to himself.
Titania, having received the love-potion, is awakened by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him.
She lavishes him with the attention of her and her fairies, and while she is in this state of devotion, Oberon takes the changeling.
Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania, orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom, and arranges everything so Helena, Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander will all believe they have been dreaming when they awaken.
Puck distracts Lysander and Demetrius from fighting over Helena's love by mimicking their voices and leading them apart.
Eventually, all four find themselves separately falling asleep in the glade.
Once they fall asleep, Puck administers the love potion to Lysander again, claiming all will be well in the morning.
The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning hunt.
They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius no longer loves Hermia, Theseus over-rules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding.
The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream.
After they exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream "past the wit of man".
In Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the six workmen perform Pyramus and Thisbe.
The performers are so terrible playing their roles that the guests laugh as if it were meant to be a comedy, and everyone retires to bed.
Afterwards, Oberon, Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and its occupants with good fortune.
After all the other characters leave, Puck "restores amends" and suggests to the audience that what they just experienced might be nothing more than a dream.
<EOS>
In 1961, the Soviet Union launches its first ballistic missile nuclear submarine, the K-19.
Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford), aided by executive officer Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson).
Polenin, the original captain, and the crew have served together for some time, but Vostrikov's appointment is alleged to have been aided by his wife's political connections.
During his first inspection, Vostrikov discovers the reactor officer to be drunk and asleep on duty and sacks him, ordering Polenin to request a replacement.
The new reactor officer, Vadim Radtchenko (Peter Sarsgaard), arrives direct from nuclear school, fresh from the naval academy.
Before the launch, the medical officer is killed when struck by an oncoming truck, and is replaced by the command's foremost medical officer, an army officer, never having been out to sea and prone to motion sickness.
During the official launch of the K-19, the bottle of champagne fails to break when it strikes the bow, known to be a sign of ill fortune.
The crew's performance improves and their first mission starts.
The K-19 is to surface in the Arctic to fire an unarmed ballistic missile as a test, then to patrol a zone in the Atlantic within range of New York City and WashingtonC.
To test the submarine's limits, Vostrikov orders the K-19 to submerge past its maximum operational depth of 250 meters to its "crush depth" (300 meters), then surface rapidly at full-speed to break through the Arctic pack-ice, estimated at no more than one metre thick.
Polenin regards this maneuver as dangerous and storms off the bridge.
Scraping along the underside of the ice, the K-19 breaks through with no apparent damage.
The test missile is launched successfully.
On the second part of its mission, a pipe carrying coolant to the reactor cooling system springs a leak and then bursts completely.
Polenin and Vostrikov are informed that once the nuclear reactor reaches 1000&nbsp;°C, the nuclear reactor will explode.
Control rods are inserted to stop the reactor, but without coolant the reactor temperature continues to rise rapidly.
Polenin and Radtchenko learn back-up coolant systems are not installed.
The K-19 surfaces to contact fleet command about the accident and await orders.
The cable for the long-range transmitter antenna on the conning tower, however, is damaged.
Vostrikov assumes his surfacing maneuver in the Arctic caused the damage.
An engineering team conceives a plan to rig a makeshift coolant system, but Polenin discovers the submarine has been provided with chemical suits rather than radiation suits.
The first group emerges vomiting and heavily blistered; the second team succeed in cooling the reactor, but many are severely ill with radiation poisoning.
As radiation levels slowly rise inside the ship, the submarine surfaces and most of the crewmen are ordered topside.
Vostrikov is informed that a helicopter is approaching, but it is a United States Navy helicopter from a nearby destroyer.
Asking if the K-19 requires assistance, Vostrikov tells the destroyer "no" and refuses to allow the Americans anywhere near K-19.
Back in the Soviet Union, the government worries about the condition of the K-19.
Making its way toward a group of Diesel submarines in the south, its pipework ruptures and the temperature begins to rise once again, forcing Vostrikov to dive and quell a mutiny.
The second repair is successful, but the engineer is certain to die from radiation poisoning.
Captain Vostrikov drags him from the reactor.
The K-19 finally reaches to the Diesel submarines, however, the Soviet leadership orders him to confine the crew on the submarine until a freighter can pick them up.
Knowing it would be too dangerous to stay, Vostrikov orders the crew to be evacuated to the Diesel submarines, despite knowing he will most likely lose his command and be sent to a gulag.
After the incident, Captain Vostrikov is tried for endangering the mission and disobeying a direct order, but Polenin comes to his defense, resulting in charges being dropped.
Later in 1989, an aged Captain Vostrikov meets Polenin on the anniversary of the day they were rescued.
The commanders enter a cemetery where K-19 survivors have met since the incident.
Vostrikov is visibly moved as he greets the men and informs them that he nominated the crewmen who died from radiation poisoning&nbsp;— 28 in total&nbsp;— for the Hero of the Soviet Union award, but was told the honor was reserved for combat veterans.
<EOS>
The film is presented in two parts, divided by an intermission.
The film opens in 1935 when Lawrence is killed in a motorcycle accident.
At his memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral, a reporter tries (with little success) to gain insights into this remarkable, enigmatic man from those who knew him.
The story then moves backward to the First World War, where Lawrence is a misfit British Army lieutenant, notable for his insolence and education.
Over the objections of General Murray, mr Dryden of the Arab Bureau sends him to assess the prospects of Prince Faisal in his revolt against the Turks.
On the journey, his Bedouin guide is killed by Sherif Ali for drinking from his well without permission.
Lawrence later meets Colonel Brighton, who orders him to keep quiet, make his assessment, and leave.
Lawrence ignores Brighton's orders when he meets Faisal.
His outspokenness piques the prince's interest.
Brighton advises Faisal to retreat after a major defeat, but Lawrence proposes a daring surprise attack on Aqaba; its capture would provide a port from which the British could offload much-needed supplies.
The town is strongly fortified against a naval assault but only lightly defended on the landward side.
He convinces Faisal to provide fifty men, led by a sceptical Sherif Ali.
Teenage orphans Daud and Farraj attach themselves to Lawrence as servants.
They cross the Nefud Desert, considered impassable even by the Bedouins, travelling day and night on the last stage to reach water.
One of Ali's men, Gasim, succumbs to fatigue and falls off his camel unnoticed during the night.
When Lawrence discovers him missing, he turns back and rescues Gasim—and Sherif Ali is won over.
He gives Lawrence Arab robes to wear.
Lawrence persuades Auda abu Tayi, the leader of the powerful local Howeitat tribe, to turn against the Turks.
Lawrence's scheme is almost derailed when one of Ali's men kills one of Auda's because of a blood feud.
Howeitat retaliation would shatter the fragile alliance, so Lawrence declares that he will execute the murderer himself.
He is then stunned to discover that the culprit is Gasim, the very man whom he risked his own life to save in the desert, but he shoots him anyway.
The next morning, the Arabs overrun the Turkish garrison.
Lawrence heads to Cairo to inform Dryden and the new commander, General Allenby, of his victory.
While crossing the Sinai Desert, Daud dies when he stumbles into quicksand.
Lawrence is promoted to major and given arms and money for the Arabs.
He is deeply disturbed, however, confessing that he enjoyed executing Gasim, but Allenby brushes aside his qualms.
He asks Allenby whether there is any basis for the Arabs' suspicions that the British have designs on Arabia.
When pressed, the general states that they do not.
Lawrence launches a guerrilla war, blowing up trains and harassing the Turks at every turn.
American war correspondent Jackson Bentley publicises Lawrence's exploits, making him famous.
On one raid, Farraj is badly injured.
Unwilling to leave him to be tortured by the enemy, Lawrence shoots him dead before fleeing.
When Lawrence scouts the enemy-held city of Deraa with Ali, he is taken, along with several Arab residents, to the Turkish Bey.
Lawrence is stripped, ogled, and prodded.
Then, for striking out at the Bey, he is severely flogged and possibly raped (off-camera) before being thrown into the street.
The experience traumatises Lawrence.
He returns to British headquarters in Cairo but does not fit in.
A short time later in Jerusalem, General Allenby urges him to support the "big push" on Damascus.
Lawrence hesitates to return but finally relents.
Lawrence recruits an army that is motivated more by money rather than by the Arab cause.
They sight a column of retreating Turkish soldiers who have just massacred the residents of Tafas.
One of Lawrence's men is from Tafas; he demands, "No prisoners.
" When Lawrence hesitates, the man charges the Turks alone and is killed.
Lawrence takes up the dead man's battle cry; the result is a slaughter in which Lawrence himself participates.
Afterwards, he regrets his actions.
Lawrence's men take Damascus ahead of Allenby's forces.
The Arabs set up a council to administer the city but the desert tribesmen prove ill-suited for such a task.
Despite Lawrence's efforts, they bicker constantly.
Unable to maintain the public utilities, the Arabs soon abandon most of the city to the British.
Lawrence is promoted to colonel and immediately ordered back to England, as his usefulness to both Faisal and the British is at an end.
The film comes full circle as the disenchanted Lawrence is driven away in a staff car.
<EOS>
Career criminals Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and his crew; Chris Shiherlis, Michael Cheritto, and Trejo, hire Waingro to help them rob $16&nbsp;million in bearer bonds from an armored car.
During the heist, Waingro impulsively kills a guard, infuritating McCauley.
As the team attempts to kill Waingro, he escapes.
McCauley's fence, Nate, suggests he sell the stolen bonds back to their original owner, money launderer Roger Van Zant.
Van Zant agrees, but instructs his men to ambush McCauley at the meeting.
McCauley survives the ambush and vows revenge against Van Zant.
LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), working with Sergeant Drucker and Detectives Sammy Casals, Mike Bosko and Danny Schwartz, investigate the heist and identify McCauley's crew as the perpetrators.
They discover their next target to be a precious metals depository.
The unit stakes out the depository and observe the crime in progress, but inadvertently alert McCauley to their presence.
McCauley abandons the burglary.
Hanna, dissatisfied with the lack of evidence, lets McCauley's crew escape.
Despite the increased police surveillance, McCauley's crew agrees to one last brazen bank robbery worth $12&nbsp;million to secure their financial futures.
Waingro approaches Van Zant with information about eliminating McCauley's crew.
McCauley starts a relationship with Eady (Amy Brenneman), a designer he meets in a cafe.
Hanna moves into a hotel after learning his wife Justine (Diane Venora) is having an affair.
Hanna pulls over McCauley on the freeway and invites him to coffee.
Face-to-face, the aging professionals bond over their personal problems; Hanna's concern for his depressed stepdaughter Lauren and his string of failed marriages due to work, and McCauley's solitary life of a career criminal which, forbidding attachment and requiring mobility, makes his romantic relationships tenuous.
Both men reaffirm their commitment to their work and to using lethal force if necessary to stop the other.
After coffee, Hanna discovers that McCauley's crew have evaded their surveillance.
When Trejo withdraws from the robbery, McCauley recruits ex-convict Donald Breedan (Dennis Haysbert) into the crew.
Hanna's unit receives a confidential tip and interrupt McCauley's crew in the middle of their bank robbery.
In the ensuing gunfight, several police officers, including Bosko, are killed, while McCauley's crew loses Breedan and Cheritto.
Shiherlis is wounded, but escapes with McCauley.
McCauley leaves Shiherlis with a doctor to treat his wounds.
He breaks into Trejo's house to find Trejo near death.
Trejo reveals that Waingro alerted Van Zant to their bank robbery, who subsequently informed the police.
McCauley finishes off Trejo at his own request, then kills Van Zant at his home.
McCauley approaches Eady, who has accepted his criminal activities, with a plan to flee to New Zealand.
Hanna orders police surveillance on Waingro and leaks his location to criminal channels, suspecting McCauley will attempt to kill him before leaving town.
Shiherlis' estranged wife Charlene is detained in a police safehouse, where Drucker threatens her with criminal charges if she doesn't betray Shiherlis to police.
Charlene agrees, but when Shiherlis shows up in disguise, she surreptitiously warns him, allowing Shiherlis to slip through the dragnet.
Hanna finds Lauren unconscious in his hotel room from a suicide attempt and rushes her to the hospital.
McCauley and Eady drive to the airport when he receives word of Waingro's location at a nearby hotel.
Initially dismissive, McCauley decides to risk his freedom for revenge.
He infiltrates the hotel, pulling a fire alarm to distract security and confronts Waingro before killing him.
Moments away from escape, he notices Hanna approaching through the crowds and is forced to abandon Eady for his freedom.
Hanna chases McCauley into a field outside the LAX freight terminal.
In the cat-and-mouse shootout, McCauley is exposed, and Hanna mortally wounds him.
Near death, McCauley offers his hand to Hanna, who takes it, and reverently watches his adversary die.
<EOS>
Several third-party programs have graphical user interfaces that can be used to generate graphs using gnuplot as the plotting engine.
These include: Other programs that use gnuplot include:.
<EOS>
Calvin Clifford (C) "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lonely office drudge at a national insurance corporation in a high-rise building in New York City.
In order to climb the corporate ladder, Bud allows four company managers, who reinforce their position over him by regularly calling him "Buddy Boy," to take turns borrowing his Upper West Side apartment for their various extramarital liaisons, which are so noisy that his neighbors assume that he is a playboy bringing home different women every night.
The four managers (Ray Walston, David Lewis, Willard Waterman, and David White) write glowing reports about Bud, who hopes for a promotion from the personnel director, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray).
Sheldrake calls Baxter to his office but says that he has found out why they were so enthusiastic.
Then he goes on to promote him in return for exclusive privileges to borrow the apartment.
He insists on using it that same night and, as compensation for such short notice, gives Baxter two company-sponsored tickets to the hit Broadway musical The Music Man.
After work, Bud catches Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator on whom he has had his eye, and asks her to go to the musical with him.
They agree to meet at the theater after she has a drink with a former fling.
The man whom she meets, by coincidence, is Sheldrake, who convinces her that he is about to divorce his wife for her.
They go to Baxter's apartment as Baxter waits forlornly outside the theater.
Several weeks later, at the company's raucous Christmas party, Sheldrake's secretary Miss Olsen (Edie Adams), drunkenly reveals to Fran that Fran is just the latest in a string of female employees whom Sheldrake has seduced into affairs with the promise of divorcing his wife, with Miss Olsen herself being one of them.
At Bud's apartment, Fran confronts Sheldrake, upset with herself for believing his lies.
Sheldrake maintains that he genuinely loves her but then leaves to return to his suburban family as usual.
Meanwhile, Bud accidentally finds out about Sheldrake and Fran.
Heartbroken, he lets himself be picked up by a woman (Hope Holiday) at a local bar.
When they arrive at his apartment, he is shocked to find Fran in his bed, fully clothed and unconscious from an intentional overdose of his sleeping pills.
He enlists the help of his neighbor, dr Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), to revive Fran without notifying the authorities and sends his confused bar pickup home.
To protect his job, he lets Dreyfuss believe that he and Fran are lovers who had fought, which he took so lightly that he was meeting another woman while she was attempting suicide.
This comes as no surprise to dr Dreyfuss or his wife, who long assumed Baxter was a womanizing playboy from all the noise coming from his apartment at all hours.
Fran spends two days recuperating at his apartment, while Bud tries entertaining and distracting her from any further suicidal thoughts, talking her into playing numerous hands of gin rummy.
Since she has been missing, Fran's brother-in-law Karl Matuschka (Johnny Seven) comes to the office looking for her.
She has not been there and neither has Baxter.
The previous day, one of the executives had seen Fran in the bedroom when he came to the apartment hoping to borrow it, and mentioned it to the other executives.
Resenting Bud for denying them access to his apartment, the executives direct the man there.
Baxter again takes responsibility for Fran's actions, and Karl punches him twice in the face.
Fran kisses Bud for not revealing her affair with Sheldrake to Karl, and Bud, sensing that she now cares for him, smiles and says the punch "didn't hurt a bit".
Sheldrake rewards Bud with a further promotion and fires Miss Olsen for telling Fran his history of womanizing.
However, Miss Olsen retaliates by telling his wife, who promptly throws him out.
Sheldrake moves into a room at his athletic club but now figures that he can string Fran along while he enjoys his newfound bachelorhood.
When Sheldrake asks Bud for the key to the apartment on New Year's Eve, Bud refuses and quits the firm.
That night at a party, an indignant Sheldrake tells Fran about Bud refusing to let Sheldrake use the apartment, especially for bringing Fran there, and then quitting.
Fran finally realizes that Baxter is the man who truly loves her.
Fran deserts Sheldrake at the party and runs to Bud's apartment.
Arriving at the door, she hears a loud noise like a gunshot.
Afraid that Bud has shot himself, Fran pounds on the door.
Bud, holding a bottle of overflowing champagne, finally opens the door, surprised and delighted that Fran is there.
Bud has been packing for a move to another job and city.
Fran insists on resuming their gin rummy game, telling Bud that she is now free as well.
When he declares his love for her, her reply is the now-famous final line of the film: "Shut up and deal", delivered with a loving and radiant smile.
<EOS>
The novel's historical backdrop is the North African/Italian Campaigns of World War II.
The story is told out of sequence, moving back and forth between the severely burned "English" patient's memories from before his accident and current events at the bomb-damaged Villa San Girolamo, an Italian monastery, where he is being cared for by Hana, a troubled young Canadian Army nurse.
The English patient's only possession is a well-worn, and heavily annotated copy of Herodotus's The Histories that has survived the fiery parachute drop.
Hearing the book constantly being read aloud to him brings about detailed recollections of his desert explorations, yet he is unable to recall his own name.
Instead, he chooses to believe the assumption by others that he is an Englishman based on the sound of his voice.
The patient is in fact László de Almásy, a Hungarian Count and desert explorer, one of many members of a British cartography group.
Caravaggio, an Italian-Canadian in the British foreign intelligence service since the late 1930s, befriended Hana's father before the latter died in the war.
He learns that Hana is at the villa caring for a patient.
He had remained in North Africa to spy when the German forces gain control and then transfers to Italy.
He is eventually caught, interrogated, and tortured; they even cut off his thumbs.
Caravaggio bears physical and psychological scars from his painful war experience for which he seeks vengeance.
Two British soldiers yell at Hana to stop her from playing a piano since the Germans often booby-trapped them.
One of the soldiers, Kip, an Indian Sikh, a trained sapper, specializes in bomb and ordnance disposal.
Kip decides to stay at the villa to attempt to clear it of unexploded ordnance.
Kip and the English patient immediately become friends.
The English patient, sedated by morphine, begins to reveal everything: he fell in love with the Englishwoman Katharine Clifton who, with her husband Geoffrey, accompanied Almásy's desert exploration team.
Almásy was mesmerized by Katharine's voice as she read Herodotus' Histories out loud by the campfire.
They soon began a very intense affair, but she cut it short, claiming that Geoffrey would go mad if he were to discover them.
Geoffrey offers to return Almásy to Cairo on his plane since the expedition will break camp with the coming of war.
Almásy is unaware that Katharine is aboard the plane as it flies low over him and then crashes.
Geoffrey is killed outright.
Katharine is injured internally and Almásy leaves her in the Cave of Swimmers.
Caravaggio tells Almásy that British Intelligence knew about the affair.
Almásy makes a three-day trek to British-controlled El Taj for help.
When he arrives, he is detained as a spy because of his name, despite telling them about Katharine's predicament.
He later guides German spies across the desert to Cairo.
Almásy retrieves Katharine's body from the Cave and, while flying back, the decrepit plane leaks oil onto him and both of them catch fire.
He parachutes from the plane and is found by the Bedouin.
The novel ends with Kip learning that America has bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
He departs from Villa San Girolamo, estranged from his white companions.
<EOS>
Protagonist Harvey Cheyne, Jr, is the son of a wealthy railroad magnate and his wife, in San Diego, California.
Washed overboard from a transatlantic steamship and rescued by fishermen off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Harvey can neither persuade them to take him quickly to port, nor convince them of his wealth.
Disko Troop, captain of the schooner We're Here, offers him temporary membership in the crew until they return to port, and Harvey later accepts.
Through a series of trials and adventures, Harvey, with the help of the captain's son Dan Troop, becomes acclimated to the fishing lifestyle, and even skillful.
Eventually, the schooner returns to port and Harvey wires his parents, who immediately hasten to Boston, Massachusetts, and thence to the fishing town of Gloucester to recover him.
There, Harvey's mother rewards the seaman Manuel, who initially rescued her son; Harvey's father hires Dan to work on his prestigious tea clipper fleet; and Harvey goes to Stanford to prepare for taking over his father's shipping lines.
<EOS>
Lester Burnham is a middle-aged advertising executive and magazine writer who despises his job.
He is unhappily married to Carolyn, a neurotic yet fiercely ambitious real estate broker who grows red roses in their yard; their teenaged daughter, Jane, abhors her parents and has low self-esteem.
The Burnhams' new neighbors are the Fitts family, consisting of homophobic retired United States Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts, his near-catatonic wife, Barbara, and their teenaged son, Ricky, who constantly films his surroundings with a camcorder, collecting hundreds of recordings on videotapes in his bedroom.
His job as a part-time bar caterer serves as a front for his secret marijuana dealings.
Frank is a strict disciplinarian who previously sent Ricky to a military school and briefly committed him to a psychiatric hospital.
Jim Olmeyer and Jim Berkley, a gay couple who live nearby, welcome the Fitts family to the neighborhood.
On the way to school, Frank reveals his homophobia while he angrily discusses the incident with Ricky.
Lester becomes infatuated with Jane's vain friend, Angela Hayes, after seeing her perform a half-time dance routine at a high school basketball game with Jane.
He starts having sexual fantasies about Angela, in which red rose petals are a recurring motif.
Carolyn begins an affair with her married business rival, Buddy Kane.
When Lester's boss and efficiency expert, Brad, tells him that he is to be laid off, Lester instead blackmails him for $60,000 and quits his job.
Lester takes a minimum-wage job at a fast-food restaurant, trades in his Toyota Camry for his dream car, a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, and starts working out after he overhears Angela tell Jane that she would find him sexually attractive if he got in shape.
He begins smoking marijuana supplied by Ricky.
The girls' friendship wanes after Jane starts a relationship with Ricky.
Jane and Ricky bond over what Ricky considers the most beautiful imagery he has filmed: a plastic bag being blown in the wind.
Lester discovers Carolyn's infidelity, but reacts indifferently.
Buddy ends the affair, fearing an expensive divorce.
Frank becomes suspicious of Lester and Ricky's friendship when he finds his son's footage of Lester lifting weights while nude, which Ricky captured by chance, leading him to believe that Ricky is gay.
After spying on Ricky and Lester through Lester's garage window, Frank mistakenly concludes the pair is sexually involved.
He later confronts and beats Ricky for the supposed affair and accuses him of being gay.
Ricky falsely admits the charges and goads his father into expelling him from their home.
Meanwhile, Carolyn is sitting in her car in the rain, taking a gun out of the glove box while a voice on the radio talks about not being a victim.
Jane argues with Angela about the latter's flirtation with Lester.
In the midst of their argument, Ricky appears and convinces Jane to flee with him to New York City and assures Angela that she is ugly, boring, and ordinary.
Frank confronts Lester and attempts to kiss him; Lester rebuffs the colonel, who tearfully flees.
Carolyn puts the gun in her handbag, shouting, "I refuse to be a victim.
" Lester finds a distraught Angela sitting alone in their darkened living room; she asks him to tell her she is beautiful.
He does, and they kiss.
Carolyn drives through the rain, rehearsing a confession to Lester.
Just as Lester and Angela are about to have sex, Angela admits her virginity, prompting Lester to change his mind.
He instead comforts her and the pair bond over their shared frustrations.
Angela goes to the bathroom and Lester smiles at a family photograph in his kitchen.
An unseen figure raises a gun to the back of his head, a gunshot sounds, and blood sprays on the wall.
Ricky and Jane find Lester's body, while Carolyn breaks down crying in the closet.
A bloodied Frank returns home, where a gun is shown to be missing from his collection.
Lester's closing narration describes meaningful experiences during his life; he says that, despite his death, he is happy because there is "so much beauty" in the world.
<EOS>
Set in the mid through late 19th century, it depicts Zola's friendship with Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne, and his rise to fame through his prolific writing, with particular focus on his involvement late in life in the Dreyfus affair.
Struggling writer Émile Zola (Paul Muni) shares a drafty Paris attic with his friend, painter Paul Cézanne (Vladimir Sokoloff).
A chance encounter with a street prostitute (Erin O'Brien-Moore) hiding from a police raid inspires his first bestseller, Nana, an exposé of the steamy underside of Parisian life.
Other successful books follow.
Zola becomes rich and famous; he marries Alexandrine (Gloria Holden) and settles down to a comfortable life in his mansion.
One day, his old friend Cézanne, still poor and unknown, visits him before leaving the city, and tells Zola that with his success he has become complacent, a far cry from the zealous reformer of his youth.
Meanwhile, a French secret agent steals a letter addressed to a military officer in the German embassy.
The letter confirms there is a spy within the top French army staff.
With little thought, the army commanders decide that Jewish Captain Alfred Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut) is the traitor, is courtmartialed and imprisoned on Devil's Island in then French Guyana.
Later, Colonel Picquart (Henry O'Neill), the new chief of intelligence, discovers evidence implicating the spy as Major Walsin-Esterhazy (Robert Barrat), but he is ordered by his superiors to remain silent to avert official embarrassment and is quickly reassigned to a distant post.
Years go by.
Finally, Dreyfus's loyal wife Lucie (Gale Sondergaard) pleads with Zola to take up her husband's cause.
Zola is reluctant to give up a comfortable life, but she brings forth new evidence to pique his curiosity.
A letter is published in the newspaper accusing the army of covering up the monstrous injustice.
Zola barely escapes from an angry mob incited by military agents provocateurs.
As expected, he is brought up for libel.
His attorney, Maitre Labori (Donald Crisp) does his best against the presiding judge's refusal to bring up the Dreyfus affair and the perjury committed by all the military witnesses, except for Picquart.
Zola, found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison, reluctantly accepts his friends' advice to avoid risk becoming a martyr and instead flee to England, to continue the campaign on behalf of Dreyfus.
A new administration finally admits that Dreyfus is innocent, those responsible for the coverup are dismissed or commit suicide, although Walsin-Esterhazy flees the country in disgrace.
Zola dies of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty stove the night before the public ceremony in which Dreyfus is exonerated.
<EOS>
The film opens with two men in boxing gloves and trunks sparring vigorously.
They conclude their session and get dressed.
One dons a natty suit, the other a priest's collar.
The first man is "Blackie" Norton (Clark Gable), a saloonkeeper and gambler.
He owns the Paradise Club on Pacific Street in the notorious Barbary Coast.
The other is Blackie's childhood friend, Father Tim Mullen (Spencer Tracy), a Roman Catholic priest.
Blackie hires Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald), a promising, but impoverished, classically trained singer from Benson, Colorado.
She becomes a star attraction at the Paradise, especially for singing "San Francisco" (a song composed for the movie, which became the city's unofficial anthem).
The club piano player, "The Professor" (Al Shean), can tell Mary has a professionally trained voice.
Mat (Ted Healy), Blackie's good friend at the Paradise, wisely predicts that Mary is not going to stay on the "Coast".
Father Tim makes several attempts to reform Blackie, while the other nightclub owners urge him to run for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in order to protect their crooked interests.
Encouraged by Father Tim, who believes Blackie can use the supervisor position to implement reform, Blackie decides to run for office.
However, despite Father Tim's best efforts, Blackie remains a jaunty Barbary Coast atheist, although Blackie secretly paid for the new organ in Father Tim's church.
Blackie's feelings for Mary intensify, but complications arise when she is offered an opportunity to sing in the opera.
Although she initially refuses to break her contract with Blackie, she later leaves the Paradise Club due to the overtly sexual manifestation of Blackie's feelings for her.
Mary is hired by the Tivoli Opera House on Market Street.
There she becomes involved with Nob Hill scion Jack Burley (Jack Holt).
Blackie wants to stop Mary singing at the Tivoli, and although he arrives the night of her premiere with a process server to shut down the show, when he hears her sing he decides not to stop the opera.
After her performance, Blackie visits Mary in her dressing room.
Realizing she still loves him, Mary asks him to marry her.
Blackie agrees, but their reunion is soon interrupted by Burley, who had earlier proclaimed his love for Mary and proposed to her.
Blackie, seeing Burley as competition for Mary's affections, is happy to tell him of their intent to marry.
However, as Blackie gloatingly tells Burley of their plans, it becomes clear that Blackie intends to take Mary away from the Tivoli and put her back on stage at the Paradise.
Burley appeals to Mary, but Blackie presents Mary with an ultimatum by asking if she wants to marry him or stay at the Tivoli.
Mary's choice is to return to the Paradise.
Backstage, before the opening night of her return performance, she asks Blackie if they can set the date for their wedding.
Blackie agrees, but wants to postpone getting married until after the election.
Father Tim drops in, and is angered by Mary's skimpy stage costume.
He defies Blackie to put her on the stage in front of the rowdy Paradise audience.
Mary observes Blackie's reaction to Father Tim's statements, and decides to leave with the priest after Blackie strikes him in the face.
Mary goes back to Burley and eventually meets his mother (Jessie Ralph) at her Nob Hill mansion.
She tells Mary that she started out in 1850 as Massie, the washerwoman in Portsmouth Square, and that although she also once had a "Blackie" in her life, she chose to marry the elder Burley.
This cements Mary's decision to accept Burley's proposal of marriage.
On April 17, 1906, by order of Burley, the San Francisco Police Department closes the Paradise.
Blackie, distraught about the future of his club, ends up at the city's annual Chickens Ball.
Mary and Burley are in attendance.
Mary, after learning of the club's closing, enters the Chickens Ball competition for the Paradise, sings "San Francisco", and wins.
Blackie angrily refuses the prize money, stating that Mary had no right to sing on behalf of his club.
Embarrassed, Mary is about to leave the ball with Burley.
Then, at 5:13&nbsp;am.
April 18, 1906, the earthquake hits the city.
The city id devastated: buildings collapse, fires rage out of control, and hundreds are killed.
Firemen can't stop the fires due to broken water mains.
As Blackie wanders the city searching for Mary, he comes upon Mat, who was injured at the destroyed Hall of Justice on Washington Street.
A nurse tells Blackie that Mat is dying.
Before he dies, Mat tells Blackie he was wrong about his feelings toward Mary.
Blackie then walks to Nob Hill, where he sees mrs Burley, who senses her son has died.
(Blackie did indeed see the dead Burley) She leaves the area as US Army troops from the Presidio prepare to blow up her mansion to make a firebreak.
Blackie later meets Father Tim, who takes him to Golden Gate Park, where there is a tent camp for the homeless.
There Blackie hears Mary's voice lifted in song with those in mourning.
After seeing Mary, Blackie falls to his knees to thank God for sparing Mary's life.
Mary sees Blackie praying, and as she walks toward him, word spreads through the camp that "The fire's out.
" As people shout about building a new San Francisco, Blackie and Mary join the crowd (a surprisingly multi-racial group, given the era of the film) as they leave the park marching arm-in-arm, singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
The film ends with a dissolve from the smoldering ruins into the "modern" San Francisco of the mid-1930s.
(When the film is shown near April 18 by Bay Area television stations, the scenes of the 1930s city are replaced with stock news footage of the city in the modern era).
<EOS>
The story traces Peter's journey from self-sufficient fisherman to his dependency on a risen Christ.
It also presents another story of redemption and forgiveness, as he takes in a young Arab/Jewish girl, Fara.
As they both learn of Jesus, it changes their lives.
The young Fara discovers that she is the daughter of Herod Antipas who married and shortly discarded her Arab mother Arnon in favor of Herodias.
Her half Arab ancestry makes her marriage to the future King Deran impossible.
Disguised as a boy Fara goes to Galilee to assassinate Herod in revenge, though Herod has survived eight previous assassination attempts from the Arabs who are described as people with a short temper and a long memory.
She is followed by Voldi, an Arab prince who wishes to marry her and take her back home, however Voldi is captured by the Romans.
Robbed by bandits, Fara is discovered by John the Baptist who advises her to listen to the great teacher, Jesus.
She comes under the protection of Peter but vows to kill Herod.
She manages to be employed in Herod's household as she can translate Greek, in particular a series of prophecies written in the language that have been given to Herod.
<EOS>
Amélie Poulain (Tautou) is born in February 1974 and raised by eccentric parents who – incorrectly believing that she has a heart defect – decide to home school her.
To cope with her loneliness, Amélie develops an active imagination and a mischievous personality.
When Amélie is six, her mother, Amandine (Lorella Cravotta), is killed when a suicidal Canadian tourist jumps from a church roof and lands on her.
As a result, her father Raphaël's (Rufus) withdrawal from society worsens.
Amélie leaves home at the age of 18 and becomes a waitress at the Café des 2 Moulins in Montmartre, which is staffed and frequented by a collection of eccentrics.
Single but not a virgin, she finds contentment in simple pleasures like dipping her hand into grain sacks and cracking creme brulee with a spoon and lets her imagination roam free.
On 30 August 1997, startled by the news of the death of Princess Diana, Amélie drops a plastic perfume-stopper which dislodges a wall tile and accidentally reveals an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades earlier.
Amélie resolves to track down the boy and return the box to him.
She promises herself that if it makes him happy, she will devote her life to bringing happiness to others.
After inquiring the apartment's concierge and several old tenants about the boy's identity, Amélie meets her reclusive neighbour, Raymond Dufayel (Serge Merlin), an artist with brittle bone disease who repaints Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir every year.
He correctly recalls the boy's name as "Bretodeau".
Amélie quickly finds the man, Dominique Bretodeau (Maurice Bénichou), and surreptitiously gives him the box.
Moved to tears by the discovery and the memories it holds, Bretodeau resolves to reconcile with his estranged daughter and the grandson he has never met.
Amélie happily embarks on her new mission.
Amélie secretly executes complex schemes that affect the lives of those around her.
She escorts a blind man to the Métro station, giving him a rich description of the street scenes he passes.
She persuades her father to follow his dream of touring the world by stealing his garden gnome and having a flight attendant friend airmail pictures of it posing with landmarks from all over the world.
She starts a romance between her hypochondriacal co-worker Georgette (Isabelle Nanty) and Joseph (Dominique Pinon), one of the customers in the bar.
She convinces Madeleine Wells (Yolande Moreau), who lives on her block of flats, that the husband who abandoned her had sent her a final conciliatory love letter just before his accidental death years before.
She uses gaslighting tactics on Collignon (Urbain Cancelier), the nasty greengrocer.
Mentally exhausted, Collignon no longer abuses his meek but good-natured assistant Lucien (Jamel Debbouze).
A delighted Lucien takes charge at the grocery stand.
mr Dufayel, having observed Amélie, begins a conversation with her about his painting, a copy of Luncheon of the Boating Party.
Although he has copied the same painting 20 times, he has never quite captured the look of the girl drinking a glass of water.
They discuss the meaning of this character, and over several conversations Amélie begins projecting her loneliness onto the image.
Dufayel recognizes this, and uses the girl in the painting to push Amélie to examine her attraction to a quirky young man, Nino Quincampoix (Mathieu Kassovitz), who collects the discarded photographs of strangers from passport photo booths.
When Amélie bumps into Nino a second time, she realizes she is falling in love with him.
He accidentally drops a photo album in the street.
Amélie retrieves it.
Amélie plays a cat-and-mouse game with Nino around Paris before returning his treasured album anonymously.
After arranging a meeting at the 2 Moulins, Amélie panics and tries to deny her identity.
Her co-worker, Gina (Clotilde Mollet), concerned for Amélie's well-being, screens Nino for her; Joseph's comment about this misleads Amélie to believe she has lost Nino to Gina.
It takes Dufayel's insight to give her the courage to pursue Nino, resulting in a romantic night together and the beginning of a relationship, and Amélie finally finds happiness for herself.
<EOS>
At seventeen years old and seven months pregnant, Novalee Nation (Natalie Portman) sets off on a road trip from Tennessee to California with her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens (Dylan Bruno) in an old, broken down 1963 Plymouth.
While driving through Sequoyah, Oklahoma, Novalee notices her shoes have fallen through the hole in the floor of the car while she was napping.
She asks Willy Jack to stop at the local Walmart so that she can go to the bathroom and buy new shoes.
When Novalee reaches out for her change at the checkout, the amount of $555 sends her into a panic as we learned early on that she believes that the number 5 is a bad omen.
She runs barefoot outside to discover that Willy Jack has abandoned her and left only her new Polaroid camera behind.
Having no where else to go, she walks back inside and meets Thelma "Sister" Husband (Stockard Channing), a woman who runs the Welcome Wagon in town and gives her a buckeye tree.
Novalee also meets a photographer named Moses Whitecotton (Keith David) who advises her to give her baby a strong name.
Later that evening, Novalee feeling sick, runs into the bathroom again to vomit.
When she comes out of the bathroom, she discovers the store has closed.
She soon figures out how to live undetected in the Walmart, spending the days walking around the town and sneaking back into the store to stay the night.
Meanwhile, Willy Jack is arrested and accused of fraternizing with an attractive stranger he has no idea is actually 14 years old and stealing money and cigarettes from a convenience store.
He is sentenced to serve time where he composes a country song entitled "Beat of the Heart".
Novalee manages to live at the store for several weeks.
She visits the library and meets Forney Hull (James Frain) who looks after his librarian alcoholic sister Mary Elizabeth (Margaret Hoard).
After finding the info on how to tend to a buckeye tree, Novalee visits Sister Husband where she urges Novalee to plant the buckeye tree in her yard.
Birth contractions wake Novalee during a thunderstorm.
Her water breaks and she goes into labor.
As she collapses, she notices that she is in aisle 5 and because of her superstition, she struggles to pull herself to the next aisle.
Forney (who has been following her and saw her go into the store at closing time) smashes through a plate-glass window and helps deliver her baby offscreen.
The next morning, Novalee wakes up in the local hospital to find she is a media celebrity for giving birth in a Walmart.
She is befriended by her nurse, Lexie Coop (Ashley Judd).
After Lexie tells her the baby still doesn't have a name, Novalee declares she will name her daughter Americus.
Lexie reveals to Novalee that she is a single woman with four children by three different men and tells an astonished Novalee that Lexie's children are all named after snack foods: Brownie, Praline, Cherry and Baby Ruth.
While Novalee and Lexi are reading letters that have been sent supporting her, Novalee's mother, Mama Lil (Sally Field), who abandoned her as a child, sees her on television and appears at the hospital.
Her mother, claiming the women can pool their money and get an apartment together, takes the $500 that Novalee received as a gift from the President of Walmart.
Novalee also tells Mama Lil that Walmart has offered her a job in any of the Walmart stores across the country.
Mama Lil, tucking Novalee's $500 into her bra, promises to pick up Novalee and Americus the next morning.
Much to her dismay and disgust, realizing Mama Lil has abandoned her again, Novalee sits rejected at the hospital with no where to go.
Sister Husband arrives and offers to let Novalee and the baby live with her.
Novalee, feeling she has a family for the first time in her life, enjoys living at Sister Husband's.
While thanking him for delivering her baby, Novalee becomes friends with Forney who lives at the library with his sister.
One night, while Novalee and Forney are shopping for Christmas trees, Forney remarks that Americus is 5 months old that day.
Novalee is alarmed at the realization and hurries home to check Americus.
Upon arriving, she finds the police at her home and learns Americus has been kidnapped.
Novalee remembers that in the hospital she received a card from Midnight, Mississippi saying her baby was an "abomination under God," because she was born out of wedlock.
The police quickly apprehend a vehicle with Mississippi plates and Americus is found safe in a nativity scene outside a church.
Upon being released from prison and making it to Nashville, Tennessee, Willy Jack becomes a one-hit-wonder with the song he wrote in jail.
He teams with the grizzled and cranky music agent, Ruth Meyers (Joan Cusack), who cleans him up and gives him the stage name "Billy Shadow".
Three years later, Novalee begins a career as a photographer with the help of Moses.
When a tornado blows through Sequoyah, Sister Husband is killed offscreen, and their home is destroyed.
In memory of Sister, Novalee shoots a picture of Americus and the still-standing buckeye tree amidst the damage from the storm.
After the funeral, one of Sister Husband's friends from Alcoholics Anonymous informs Novalee that she is the beneficiary of Sister's estate, totaling around $40,000.
Novalee builds a new home for herself and Americus on Sister's land.
In Las Vegas, Willy Jack attempts to branch out his career and, behind Ruth Meyers' back, starts shopping around for another agent.
He meets with a well-known agent named Johnny DeSoto (Richard Nance) to discuss dumping Ruth.
DeSoto warns a cocky Willy Jack that Ruth is a great ally but can also be a powerful enemy.
At the same time, Novalee is also in Las Vegas to accept an award in a photo contest she has won.
Novalee and Willy Jack just miss meeting each other.
Ruth Meyers, who has gotten in his hotel room, informs Willy Jack that his old cellmate, Tommy Reynolds, is suing him claiming he is the true writer of Beat of a Heart, now a major radio hit.
Willy Jack tells her that he wrote the song and asks Ruth what to do.
Ruth tells Willy Jack that he should ask Johnny DeSoto to help him (having somehow found out about his talk with him), and terminates her connections with Willy Jack.
Novalee returns to Sequoyah after the awards event without realizing how close she came to seeing Willy Jack.
One day, Novalee receives a garbled and panicked call from Brownie, Lexie's oldest child.
She rushes over to find Lexie bruised and battered with her kids crouched beside her.
We learn that Lexie's new love interest started to molest her two eldest children and nearly beat her to death as she attempted to protect them.
Lexie's injuries hinder her nursing job and she and her children have to move in with Novalee and Americus.
Lexie breaks down feeling guilty and angry.
She tearfully tells Novalee that she ignored her kid's dislike for her boyfriend, now realizing her kids saw he was evil, but all Lexie saw was his new Buick (referring to his material wealth).
Lexie asks Novalee what is she supposed to say when her kids ask why this happened to them.
Novalee comforts her providing Lexie with an answer from Novalee's own life experiences.
Mary Elizabeth later passes away and when Forney does not appear at the funeral, Novalee finds him in a hotel and comforts him.
They act on their feelings they have denied for so long and spend the night together.
Forney confesses his feelings for her.
Novalee confides in Lexie but tells her she is confused about her own feelings for Forney.
Novalee learns that Lexie is seeing someone new.
Lexie is embarrassed to admit "Ernie" is an exterminator and does not have quite the physical attributes she's gone for in the past.
Lexie eventually falls in love with Ernie (Bob Coonrod) after learning he gave his ex-wife his restored 1967 Chevy Camaro in exchange for custody of his step-daughter whom he adopted as his own.
They get married, and Lexie tells Novalee that she's pregnant.
After Forney returns from his sister's burial on the east coast, Novalee feels deeply that she is not good enough for him, knowing he has a chance of going back to school.
Knowing his life would be a dead end staying with her in Sequoyah, she struggles through lying to him saying she does not love him.
Novalee feels she would be preventing Forney from living the life he is intended to live and becoming successful.
Heartbroken and rejected by Novalee, Forney returns to school in Maine.
Severely depressed at his ruined career following the lawsuit, Willy Jack becomes an alcoholic and starts popping pills while driving with a woman across country.
He wanders off drunk and collapses on a railroad track where he is unable to move as a train approaches.
On Americus's 5th birthday, Novalee picks up a newspaper and sees an article about Willy Jack having lost his legs some months before and recently being robbed of his wheelchair.
Novalee visits Willy Jack in the hospital and he reveals to her that he lied to her on their last day together when he said he couldn't feel the baby's heart.
He confesses his whole life would've been different if he'd been able to undo this one lie.
Novalee, realizing he is now a pathetically changed man, is able to finally forgive and let go of Willy Jack.
Novalee realizes that her lies are similar mistakes with Forney.
She drives Willy Jack home to Tennessee and then continues to Maine to find Forney at a college.
Novalee tells him she really does love him and they return to Oklahoma and marry.
The final scene is of their wedding, which takes place in a Walmart.
<EOS>
The son of a highly respected music professor, Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld, Jr.
yearns to make his mark in show business.
He begins by promoting Eugen Sandow, the "world's strongest man", at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, overcoming the competition of rival Billings and his popular attraction, belly dancer Little Egypt, with savvy marketing (allowing women to feel Sandow's muscles).
Ziegfeld returns to his father and young Mary Lou at the Chicago Musical College, and departs to San Francisco, where he and Sandow are deemed frauds for putting on a show in which Sandow faces a lion who falls asleep as soon as it is let out of the cage.
Flo travels to England on an ocean liner, where he runs into Billings again who is laughing at a newspaper article denouncing him as a fraud.
Flo discovers that Billings is on his way to sign a contract with beautiful French star, Anna Held.
Despite losing all his money gambling at Monte Carlo, Flo charms Anna into signing with him instead, pretending that he doesn't know Billings.
Anna twice almost sends him away for his rudeness and for being broke, before revealing that she appreciates his honesty.
Ziegfeld promises to give her "more publicity than she ever dreams of" and to feature her alongside America's most prominent theatrical performers.
At first, Anna's performance at the Herald Square Theatre is not a success.
However, Flo manages to generate publicity by sending 20 gallons of milk to Anna every day for a fictitious milk bath beauty treatment, then refusing to pay the bill.
The newspaper stories soon bring the curious to pack his theater, and Ziegfeld introduces eight new performers to back her.
Audience members comment on how the milk must make her skin beautiful and the show is a major success.
Flo sends Anna flowers and jewelry and a note saying "you were magnificent my wife", and she agrees to marry him, flaunting her new diamonds to her fellow performers.
However, one success is not enough for the showman.
He has an idea for an entirely new kind of show featuring a bevy of blondes and brunettes, one that will "glorify" the American girl.
The new show, the Ziegfeld Follies, an opulent production filled with beautiful women and highly extravagant costumes and sets, is a smash hit, and is followed by more versions of the Follies.
Ziegfeld tries to make a star out of Audrey Dane, who is plagued with alcoholism, and he lures Fanny Brice away from vaudeville, showering both with lavish gifts.
He gives stagehand Ray Bolger his break as well.
Mary Lou, now a young woman, visits Ziegfeld, who doesn't recognize her initially, and hires her as a dancer.
The new production upsets Anna, who realizes that Flo's world does not revolve around just her, and she becomes envious of the attention he pays to Audrey.
She divorces him after walking in on Flo and a drunk Audrey at the wrong moment.
Audrey walks out on Flo and the show after an angry confrontation.
Broke, Flo borrows money from Billings for a third time for the new show.
Flo meets the red-headed Broadway star Billie Burke and soon marries her.
When she hears the news, a heartbroken Anna telephones Flo and pretends to be glad for him.
Flo and Billie eventually have a daughter named Patricia.
Flo's new shows are a success, but after a while, the public's taste changes, and people begin to wonder if the times have not passed him by.
After a string of negative reviews in the press, Flo overhears three men in a barber's shop saying that he'll "never produce another hit".
Stung, he vows to have four hits on Broadway at the same time.
He achieves his goal, with the hits Show Boat (1927), Rio Rita (1927), Whoopee.
(1928), and The Three Musketeers, and invests over $1 million (US$ in dollars) of his earnings in the stock market.
However, the stock market crash of 1929 bankrupts him, forcing Billie to return to the stage.
Shaken by the reversal of his financial fortunes and the growing popularity of movies over live stage shows, he becomes seriously ill.
Billings pays him a friendly visit, and the two men agree to become partners in a new, even grander production of The Ziegfeld Follies.
But the reality is that both men are broke and Ziegfeld realizes this.
In the final scene in his apartment overlooking the Ziegfeld Theatre, in a half-delirium, he recalls scenes from several of his hits, exclaiming, "I've got to have more steps, higher, higher", before slumping over dead in his chair.
<EOS>
The novel features scenes and events including the discovery of a near-dead alien in the desert, who clearly says in English, "I'm sorry, but there is bad news," and this alien's subsequent interrogation and autopsy; the discovery of an artificial geological formation and its subsequent nuclear destruction by a desperate military; and the Earth's eventual destruction by the mutual annihilation of a piece of neutronium and a piece of antineutronium dropped into Earth's core.
There is another alien faction at work, however, represented on Earth by small spider-like robots that recruit human agents through some form of mind control.
They frantically collect all the human data, biological records, tissue samples, seeds, and DNA from the biosphere that they can, and evacuate a handful of people from Earth.
In space, this faction's machines combat and eventually destroy the attackers, though not before Earth's fate is sealed.
The evacuees eventually settle a newly terraformed Mars while some form the crew of a Ship of the Law to hunt down the home world of the killers, a quest described in the sequel, Anvil of Stars.
One of the point of view characters is Arthur Gordon, a scientist who, with his wife Francine and son Martin is among those rescued from the destruction of Earth.
Some other characters are close to an American president who fails to take action against the threat.
The two books show at least one solution to the Fermi paradox, with electromagnetically noisy civilisations being snuffed out by the arrival of self-replicating machines designed to destroy any potential threat to their (possibly long-dead) creators.
(A similar theme is explored in Fred Saberhagen's Berserker novels).
<EOS>
In the novel, renegade biotechnologist Vergil Ulam creates simple biological computers based on his own lymphocytes.
Faced with orders from his nervous employer to destroy his work, he injects them into his own body, intending to smuggle the "noocytes" (as he calls them) out of the company and work on them elsewhere.
Inside Ulam's body, the noocytes multiply and evolve rapidly, altering their own genetic material and quickly becoming self-aware.
The nanoscale civilization they construct soon begins to transform Ulam, then others.
The people who are infected start to find that genetic faults such as myopia and high blood pressure get fixed.
Ulam's eyesight, posture, strength, and intelligence are all improved.
The infected can even have conversations with their noocytes, some reporting that the cells seem to sing.
Through infection, conversion, and assimilation of humans and other organisms, the cells eventually aggregate most of the biosphere of North America into a region seven thousand kilometers wide.
This civilization, which incorporates both the evolved noocytes and recently assimilated conventional humans, is eventually forced to abandon the normal plane of existence in favor of one in which thought does not require a physical substrate.
The reason for the noocytes' inability to remain in this reality is somewhat related to the strong anthropic principle.
The book's structure is titled "inter-phase", "prophase", "metaphase", "anaphase", "telophase", and "interphase".
This mirrors the major phases of cell cycle: interphase and mitosis.
<EOS>
Brontë Parrish (MacDowell), a horticulturalist and an environmentalist, enters into a sham marriage with Georges Fauré (Depardieu), an illegal alien from France, so he may obtain a green card.
In turn, Brontë uses her fake marriage credentials to rent the apartment of her dreams.
After moving in, to explain her spouse's absence, she tells the doorman and neighbors he is conducting musical research in Africa.
Contacted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service for an interview to determine if her marriage is legitimate, Brontë tracks down Georges, who is working as a waiter.
Although the two have little time to get their facts straight, the agents who question them appear to be satisfied with their answers.
But when one of the agents asks to use the bathroom and Georges directs him to a closet, their suspicions are aroused, and they schedule a full, formal interview to be conducted two days later at their office.
Advised by her attorney she could face criminal charges if their deception is uncovered, Brontë reluctantly invites Georges to move in with her.
They try to learn about each other's past and their quirks and habits but quickly find they can barely tolerate each other.
Georges is a fiery-tempered selfish slob and smoker who prefers red meat to vegetarian food, while Brontë is shown as uptight and cold, obsessed with her plants and wrapped up in environmental issues.
Brontë's best friend Lauren Adler's parents plan to leave New York City and may donate their trees and plants to the Green Guerrillas, a group overseeing the development of inner city gardens.
Brontë is invited to a dinner party to discuss the issue and discovers Georges is there, having been asked by Lauren.
He so impresses the Adlers with an impressionistic piano piece set to a poem about children and trees that they agree to donate their plants to the Green Guerrillas.
When Brontë's parents later arrive at the apartment for an unannounced visit, Georges pretends to be the handyman.
When Brontë's boyfriend Phil returns from a trip, Georges reveals he is her husband.
Brontë angrily kicks Georges out, but the pair nonetheless appear at the immigration interview the next day.
The two are questioned separately, and when Georges is caught out by the interviewer, he confesses the marriage is a sham.
He agrees to deportation but insists Brontë not be charged for her role in the charade.
He lets Brontë believe the interview was a success and the two go their separate ways.
A few days later, Georges invites Brontë to join him at the cafe where they first met.
When she notices one of the immigration agents is seated nearby, she realizes Georges is being deported, and finally aware she loves him, tries to stop him from leaving.
Georges promises to write every day asking the same question "When are you coming, Cherie.
", a line he had also used when describing their fabricated courtship to the INS.
Then, Georges is deported back to France, just as they have admitted their love for each other.
<EOS>
The story deals with the life of Garp.
His mother, Jenny Fields, is a strong-willed nurse who wants a child but not a husband.
She encounters a dying ball turret gunner known only as Technical Sergeant Garp, who was severely brain damaged in combat.
Jenny nurses Garp, observing his infantile state and almost perpetual autonomic sexual arousal.
As a matter of practicality and kindness in making his passing as comfortable as possible and reducing his agitation, she manually gratifies him several times.
Unconstrained by convention and driven by practicality and her desire for a child, Jenny rapes Technical Sergeant Garp, and uses his semen to impregnate herself and names the resulting son "T".
(a name derived from "Technical Sergeant", but consisting of just initials).
Jenny raises young Garp alone, taking a position at the all-boys Steering School in New England.
Garp grows up, becoming interested in sex, wrestling, and writing fiction&mdash;three topics in which his mother has little interest.
After his graduation in 1961, his mother takes him to Vienna, where he writes his first novella.
At the same time, his mother begins writing her autobiography, A Sexual Suspect.
After Jenny and Garp return to Steering, Garp marries Helen, the wrestling coach's daughter, and begins his family—he a struggling writer, she a teacher of English.
The publication of A Sexual Suspect makes his mother famous.
She becomes a feminist icon, as feminists view her book as a manifesto of a woman who does not care to bind herself to a man, and who chooses to raise a child on her own.
She nurtures and supports women traumatized by men, among them the Ellen Jamesians, a group of women named after an eleven-year-old girl whose tongue was cut off by her rapists to silence her.
The members of the group cut off their own tongues in support of the girl.
Garp becomes a devoted parent, wrestling with anxiety for the safety of his children and a desire to keep them safe from the dangers of the world.
He and his family inevitably experience dark and violent events through which the characters change and grow.
Garp learns (often painfully) from the women in his life (including transsexual ex-football player Roberta Muldoon), who are struggling to become more tolerant in the face of intolerance.
The story contains a great deal of (in the words of Garp's fictional teacher) "lunacy and sorrow", and the sometimes ridiculous chains of events the characters experience still resonate with painful truth.
The novel contains several framed narratives: Garp's first novella, The Pension Grillparzer; "Vigilance", a short story; and the first chapter of his novel, The World According to Bensenhaver.
The book also contains some motifs that appear in almost all John Irving novels: bears, New England, Vienna, wrestling, people who are uninterested in having sex, and a complex Dickensian plot that spans the protagonist's whole life.
Adultery (another common Irving motif) also plays a large part, culminating in one of the novel's most harrowing and memorable scenes.
Another familiar Irving trope, castration anxiety, is present, most obviously in the fate of one character, Michael Milton.
<EOS>
In December 1995, Chuck Noland is a time-obsessed systems engineer, who travels worldwide resolving productivity problems at FedEx depots.
He is in a long-term relationship with Kelly Frears, with whom he lives in Memphis, Tennessee.
Although the couple wants to get married, Chuck's busy schedule interferes with their relationship.
A Christmas with relatives is interrupted when Chuck is summoned to resolve a problem in Malaysia.
While flying through a violent storm, his plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean.
Chuck escapes the sinking plane and is saved by an inflatable life raft, but loses the emergency locator transmitter.
He clings to the life raft, loses consciousness, and floats all night before being washed up on an island.
After he awakens, he explores the island and soon discovers that it is uninhabited.
Several FedEx packages from the crashed plane wash up on the shore, as well as the corpse of one of the pilots, which he buries.
He initially tries to signal for rescue and makes an escape attempt with the remnants of his life raft, but cannot pass the powerful surf and the coral reefs surrounding the island.
He searches for food, water, and shelter, and opens the packages, finding a number of potentially useful items.
He leaves one package, with a pair of angel wings stenciled on it, unopened.
During a first attempt to make fire, Chuck receives a deep wound to his hand.
In anger and pain, he throws several objects, including a Wilson volleyball from one of the packages.
A short time later he draws a face in the bloody hand print on the ball, names it Wilson, and begins talking to it.
One night, Chuck calculates that in order for the rescue workers to find the site of the plane crash, they will have to search an area twice the size of Texas, making him doubtful he will ever be found.
Four years later, Chuck has adapted to the meager living conditions on the island, having become adept at spearing fish and making fires.
He also has regular conversations and arguments with Wilson, which has become his only means of socialization.
A large section from a portable toilet washes up on the island; Chuck uses it as a sail in the construction of a raft.
After spending some time building and stocking the raft and deciding when the weather conditions will be optimal (using an analemma he has created in his cave to monitor the time of year), he launches, using the sail to overcome the powerful surf.
After some time on the ocean, a storm nearly tears his raft apart.
The following day, as Chuck sleeps, Wilson becomes untethered and floats away from the raft.
Chuck is wakened by the spray of a sounding whale, sees Wilson, and swims after him, but Wilson has gone too far to safely retrieve.
Chuck returns to the raft and collapses in tears.
Later, a passing cargo ship finds him, drifting.
Upon returning to civilization, Chuck learns that he has long been given up for dead; his family and acquaintances have held a funeral, and Kelly has since married Chuck's one-time dentist and has a daughter.
After reuniting with Kelly, the pair profess their love for each other but, realizing they can't be together because of her commitment to her new family, they sadly part.
Kelly gives Chuck the keys to the car they once shared.
Sometime later, after buying a new volleyball, Chuck travels to Canadian, Texas to return the unopened FedEx package with the angel wings to its sender, a woman named Bettina Peterson.
The house at the address is empty, so he leaves the package at the door with a note saying that the package saved his life.
He departs and stops at a remote crossroads.
A friendly woman passing by in a pickup truck stops to explain where each road leads.
As she drives away, Chuck notices the angel wings on the back of her truck is identical to the one on the parcel.
As Chuck is left standing at the crossroads he looks down each road, then smiles faintly as he looks in the direction of the woman's truck.
<EOS>
The novel tells the story through a fictional first-person narrator by the name of Roger Byam, based on a crew member Peter Heywood.
Byam, although not one of the mutineers, remains with the Bounty after the mutiny.
He subsequently returns to Tahiti, and is eventually arrested and taken back to England to face a court-martial.
He and several other members of the crew are eventually acquitted.
<EOS>
Spoiled heiress Ellen "Ellie" Andrews has eloped with pilot and fortune-hunter "King" Westley against the wishes of her extremely wealthy father, Alexander.
Alexander wants to have the marriage annulled because he knows that Westley is really only interested in her money.
Jumping ship in Florida, she runs away boarding a bus to New York City to reunite with her new spouse.
She meets fellow bus passenger Peter Warne, a freshly out-of-work newspaper reporter.
Soon Warne recognizes her and gives her a choice: If she will give him an exclusive on her story, he will help her reunite with Westley.
If not, he will tell her father where she is.
Ellie agrees to the first choice.
As they go through several adventures together, Ellie loses her initial disdain for him and begins to fall in love.
When they have to hitchhike, Peter fails to draw attention until Ellie displays a shapely leg to Danker, the next driver.
When they stop en route, Danker tries to steal their luggage, but Peter seizes his car.
Nearing the end of their journey, Ellie confesses her love to Peter.
When the owners of the motel in which they are staying notice that Peter's car is gone, they expel Ellie.
Believing Peter has deserted her, Ellie telephones her father, who agrees to let her marry Westley.
Meanwhile, Peter has obtained money from his editor to marry Ellie, but misses her on the road.
Although Ellie has no desire to be with Westley, she believes Peter has betrayed her for the reward money, and agrees to have a second, formal wedding to Westley.
On her wedding day, she finally reveals the whole story.
When Peter comes to Ellie's home, mr Andrews offers him the reward money, but Peter insists on being paid only his expenses: a paltry $3960.
When Ellie's father presses him for an explanation of his odd behavior, Peter admits he loves Ellie, and storms out.
Westley arrives for his wedding via autogyro but at the wedding ceremony, mr Andrews reveals Peter's refusal of the reward money to Ellie, sends her to Peter, and pays Westley off.
<EOS>
Doctor Otternschlag (Lewis Stone), a disfigured veteran of World War I and a permanent resident of the Grand Hotel in Berlin, wryly observes, "People coming, going.
Nothing ever happens", after which a great deal transpires.
Baron Felix von Geigern (John Barrymore), who squandered his fortune and supports himself as a card player and occasional jewel thief, befriends Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore), a meek accountant who, having discovered he is dying, has decided to spend his remaining days in the lap of luxury.
Kringelein's former employer, industrialist General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery), is at the hotel to close an important deal, and he hires stenographer Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) to assist him.
She aspires to be an actress and shows Preysing some magazine photos for which she posed, implying she is willing to offer him more than typing if he is willing to help advance her career.
Another guest is Russian ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo), whose career is on the wane.
She is high strung and seemingly on the verge of a breakdown.
When the Baron is in her room to steal her jewelry and she returns from the theatre, he hides in her room and overhears her as she talks to herself in despair about wanting to end it all, holding a vial of medication in her hand.
He comes out of hiding and engages her in conversation, and Grusinskaya finds herself attracted to him.
The following morning, a repentant Baron returns Grusinskaya's jewels, and she is able to forgive his crime.
Instead, she invites him to accompany her to Vienna, an offer he accepts.
The Baron joins Kringelein and Flaemmchen at the hotel bar, and she cajoles the ailing man into dancing with her.
Preysing interrupts them and imperiously demands she join him.
Irritated by his former employer's coarse behavior, Kringelein – who is aware of Preysing's many swindles – tells him what he thinks of him.
Surprised by his uncharacteristic audacity, Preysing attacks Kringelein and the two men must be separated.
The Baron is desperate for money to pay his way out of the criminal group he had been working with.
He and Kringelein decide to get a card game going, and Kringelein wins everything, and then becomes intoxicated.
When he drops his wallet, the Baron locates and quietly stashes it in his jacket pocket, intending to keep the winnings for himself.
However, after Kringelein begins to frantically search for his lost belongings, the Baron – who desperately needs the money but has become very fond of Kringelein – pretends to have suddenly discovered the wallet and returns it to him.
As part of a current desperate merger plan, Preysing must travel to London, and he asks Flaemmchen to accompany him.
Later, when the two are in her room, which opens on to his, Preysing sees the shadow of the Baron rifling through his belongings.
He confronts the Baron; the two struggle, and Preysing bludgeons the Baron with the telephone, killing him.
Flaemmchen comes in and sees what happened and tells Kringelein, who confronts Preysing.
He insists he acted in self-defense, but Kringelein, who always hated Preysing, summons the police and Preysing is arrested.
Grusinskaya departs for the train station, fully expecting to find the Baron waiting for her there.
Meanwhile, Kringelein offers to take care of Flaemmchen, who suggests they go to Paris and seek a cure for his illness.
As they leave the hotel, Doctor Otternschlag once again observes, "Grand Hotel.
Always the same.
People come.
People go.
Nothing ever happens".
<EOS>
George and Martha engage in dangerous emotional games.
George is an associate professor of history and Martha is the daughter of the president of the college.
After they return home, Martha reveals she has invited a young married couple, whom she met at the party, for a drink.
The guests arrive – Nick, a biology professor (who Martha thinks teaches math), and his wife, Honey.
As the four drink, Martha and George engage in scathing verbal abuse of each other in front of Nick and Honey.
The younger couple is first embarrassed and later enmeshed.
They stay.
Martha taunts George aggressively, and he retaliates with his usual passive aggression.
Martha tells an embarrassing story about how she humiliated him with a sucker-punch in front of her father.
During the telling, George appears with a gun and fires at Martha, but an umbrella pops out.
After this scare, Martha's taunts continue, and George reacts violently by breaking a bottle.
Nick and Honey become increasingly unsettled and, at the end of the act, Honey runs to the bathroom to vomit, because she had too much to drink.
Traditionally, "Walpurgisnacht" is the name of an annual witches' meeting (satiric in the context of the play).
Nick and George are sitting outside.
As they talk about their wives, Nick says that his wife had a "hysterical pregnancy".
George tells Nick about a time that he went to a gin-mill with some boarding school classmates, one of whom had accidentally killed his mother by shooting her.
This friend was laughed at for ordering "bergin".
The following summer, the friend accidentally killed his father while driving, was committed to an asylum, and never spoke again.
George and Nick discuss the possibility of having children and eventually argue and insult each other.
After they rejoin the women in the house, Martha and Nick dance suggestively.
Martha also reveals the truth about George's creative writing escapades: he had tried to publish a novel about a boy who accidentally killed both of his parents (with the implication that the deaths were actually murder), but Martha's father would not let it be published.
George responds by attacking Martha, but Nick separates them.
George suggests a new game called "Get the Guests".
George insults and mocks Honey with an extemporaneous tale of "the Mousie" who "tooted brandy immodestly and spent half her time in the upchuck".
Honey realizes that the story is about her and her "hysterical pregnancy".
The implication is that she trapped Nick into marrying her because of a false pregnancy.
She feels sick and runs to the bathroom again.
At the end of this scene, Martha starts to act seductively towards Nick in George's presence.
George pretends to react calmly, reading a book.
As Martha and Nick walk upstairs, George throws his book against the door.
In all productions until 2005, Honey returns, wondering who rang the doorbell (Martha and Nick had knocked into some bells).
George comes up with a plan to tell Martha that their son has died, and the act ends with George eagerly preparing to tell her.
In what is labeled the "Definitive Edition" of the script, however, the second act ends before Honey arrives.
Martha appears alone in the living room, shouting at the others to come out from hiding.
Nick joins her.
The doorbell rings: it is George, with a bunch of snapdragons in his hand, calling out, "Flores para los muertos" (flowers for the dead), a reference to the play and movie A Streetcar Named Desire, also about a marriage and outside influences.
Martha and George argue about whether the moon is up or down: George insists it is up, while Martha says she saw no moon from the bedroom.
This leads to a discussion in which Martha and George insult Nick in tandem, an argument revealing that Nick was too drunk to have sex with Martha upstairs.
George asks Nick to bring Honey back for the final game – "Bringing Up Baby".
George and Martha have a son, about whom George has repeatedly told Martha to keep quiet.
George talks about Martha's overbearing attitude toward their son.
He then prompts her for her "recitation", in which they describe, in a bizarre duet, their son's upbringing.
Martha describes their son's beauty and talents and then accuses George of ruining his life.
As this segment progresses, George recites sections of the Libera me (part of the Requiem Mass, the Latin mass for the dead).
At the end of the play, George informs Martha that a messenger from Western Union arrived at the door earlier with a telegram saying their son was "killed late in the afternoon.
on a country road, with his learner's permit in his pocket" and that he "swerved, to avoid a porcupine".
The description matches that of the boy in the gin-mill story told earlier.
Martha screams, "You can't do that.
" and collapses.
It becomes clear to the guests that George and Martha's son is a mutually agreed-upon fiction.
The fictional son is a final "game" the two have been playing since discovering early in their marriage that they are infertile.
George has decided to "kill" him because Martha broke the game's single rule: never mention their son to others.
Overcome with horror and pity, Nick and Honey leave.
Martha suggests they could invent a new imaginary child, but George forbids the idea, saying it was time for the game to end.
The play ends with George singing, "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf.
" to Martha, whereupon she replies, "I am, George.
I am".
<EOS>
Humanity has lived for 40 million years on a planet called Harmony, after leaving an Earth that has been destroyed by human conflict.
In order not to repeat the mistakes that led to the destruction of civilization on Earth, a computer, known as the Oversoul, was left as guardian of this planet.
Its main mission was to prevent humans from developing technologies that could make wars a global affair.
For that, humans were genetically modified so they could communicate with the Oversoul.
The Oversoul uses this connection to make humans quite easily distracted when thinking about forbidden technologies, leading them to forget that train of thought.
However, after this long time the Oversoul is beginning to fail, and it chooses a group of humans to return to Earth in search of the Keeper of Earth, in the hopes it will be able to find a way to maintain power over the people on Harmony.
To this end the Oversoul recruits Volemak, father of the protagonist of the story, Nafai.
Nafai and Issib, his brother, begin to try and defy the Oversoul's capability to override thought.
Through this they learn of the danger that it is in.
Nafai begins hearing the Oversoul's voice in his mind.
The first book focuses on the family's eventual betrayal, the taking of the Index, and the downfall of the man Gaballufix, who had been planning to ally the city of Basilica, the home of the main characters and the setting of the first half of the book, with a malignant nation.
Nafai, Elemak and Mebbekew, his older half brothers, Issib and his father Volemak are eventually forced to leave the city.
They come back to retrieve the Index of the Oversoul, which allows them to communicate with it directly.
Because of Nafai's careless blunders and miraculous successes, Elemak, Nafai's oldest brother, begins to hate him, a theme that will play out throughout the rest of the saga.
<EOS>
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, also known as Prince Eddy, marries and fathers a child with Annie Crook, a shop girl in London's East End.
Prince Eddy had visited the area under an assumed name and Annie is unaware of her husband's royal position.
Queen Victoria becomes aware of the marriage and has Albert separated forcibly from his wife, whom she places in an asylum.
Victoria then instructs her royal physician Sir William Gull to impair Annie's sanity, which he does by damaging or impairing her thyroid gland.
The prince's daughter is taken to Annie Crook's parents by the painter Walter Sickert, a friend of Eddy's who had accompanied him on his trips to the East End.
Crook's father believes the child to be his through an incestuous relationship with his daughter.
The potentially scandalous matter is resolved, until a group of prostitutes — Annie's friends Mary Kelly, Polly Nichols, Anne Chapman, and Liz Stride — who are aware of the illegitimate child and its royal connections, attempt to blackmail Sickert to pay off a gang of thugs who are threatening them.
After Queen Victoria learns of the blackmail attempt, Gull is once again enlisted, this time to silence the group of women who are threatening the crown.
The police are complicit in the crimes&nbsp;— they are granted prior knowledge of Gull's intentions, and are adjured not to interfere until the plot is completed.
Gull, a high-ranking Freemason, begins a campaign of violence against the five women, brutally murdering them with the aid of a barely literate carriage driver, John Netley.
While he justifies the murders by claiming they are a Masonic warning to an apparent Illuminati threat to the throne, the killings are, in Gull's mind, part of an elaborate mystical ritual to ensure male societal dominance over women (see "Interpretations" below).
Whilst targeting Mary Kelly, Gull also kills Catherine Eddowes, who was using Kelly's name as an alias.
As the killings progress, Gull becomes more and more psychologically unhinged, culminating in a full psychic vision of the future during his murder of Mary Kelly.
The story also serves as an in-depth character study of Gull; exploring his personal philosophy and motivation, and making sense of his dual role as royal assassin and serial killer.
Though rooted in factual biographical details of Gull's life, Moore admitted taking substantial fictional license: for example, the real-life Gull suffered a stroke; Moore fictionalises this event as a theophany, with Gull seeing "Jahbulon", a masonic figure, fundamentally altering Gull's world view and indirectly leading to the murders.
Gull takes John Netley, his coachman, sole confidant, and reluctant aide, on a tour of London landmarks (including Cleopatra's Needle and Nicholas Hawksmoor's churches), expounding on their hidden mystical significance, which is lost to the modern world [these themes had also been explored in detail by Moore's near contemporary Peter Ackroyd in his novel Hawksmoor, published five years before From Hell].
Later, Gull forces the semi-literate Netley to write the infamous From Hell letter which lends the work its title.
Following this, several people write letters to the police claiming to be the murderer, and the nickname "Jack the Ripper" becomes a household name.
Gull has a number of transcendent experiences in the course of the murders, culminating with a vivid vision of what London will be like a century after the last murder.
It is implied that, through his grisly activities, male dominance over femininity is assured, and the twentieth century is thus given its dominant form, though Gull finds it disgusting nevertheless.
Inspector Frederick Abberline investigates the Ripper crimes, without success until a fraudulent psychic, Robert James Lees, acting on a personal grudge against Gull, identifies him as the murderer.
Gull confesses, and Lees and Abberline, shocked, report the matter to superiors within the Police force, who work to cover up the discovery.
They inform both Abberline and Lees that Gull was operating alone, and gripped by insanity.
Abberline later discovers through chance Gull's actual intentions to cover up the matter of the royal "bastard" fathered by the Duke of Clarence, and resigns from the Metropolitan Police, protesting the official cover-up of the murders.
Gull is tried by a secret Freemasonic council, which determines he is insane; Gull, for his own part, refuses to submit to the council, informing them that no man amongst them may be counted as his peer, and may not therefore judge the "mighty work" he has wrought.
A phony funeral is staged, Gull is imprisoned under a pseudonym "Thomas Mason", and the Freemasons frame boarding school teacher Montague Druitt as a suspect, killing him to create the appearance of a suicide.
Years later, and moments before his death, Gull has an extended mystical experience, where his spirit travels through time, observing the crimes of the London Monster, instigating or inspiring a number of other killers (Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady), causing Netley's death, as well as serving as the inspiration for both Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and William Blake's painting "The Ghost of a Flea".
The last experience his spirit undergoes before it "becomes God" is a view of a woman, who, in the novel's appendices, is implied to be Mary Kelly (it's possible that she had been mistaken for another woman that shared her lodgings and may have formed a bond with Abberline).
She is apparently able to see his spirit and abjures him to begone "back to Hell".
<EOS>
A top secret research facility hidden in the Colorado mountains is the last remaining outpost of the United States Army after its defeat by the PanAsians.
The conquerors had absorbed the Soviets after being attacked by them and had then gone on to absorb India as well.
The invaders are depicted as ruthless and cruel—for example, they crush an abortive rebellion by killing 150,000 American civilians as punishment.
Noting that the invaders have allowed the free practice of religion (the better to pacify their slaves), the Americans set up a church of their own in order to build a resistance movement—the Sixth Column (as opposed to a traitorous fifth column).
The laboratory is in turmoil as the novel begins.
All but six of the personnel have died suddenly, due to unknown forces released by an experiment operating within the newly discovered magneto-gravitic or electro-gravitic spectra.
The surviving scientists soon learn that they can selectively kill people by releasing the internal pressure of their cell membranes, among other things.
Using this discovery, they construct a race-selective weapon which will kill only Asians.
<EOS>
In the summer of 2007 Earth is under clandestine attack.
Slug-like creatures, arriving in flying saucers, are attaching themselves to people's backs, taking control of their victims' nervous systems, and manipulating those people as puppets.
The Old Man, the head of clandestine national security agency called the Section, goes to Des Moines, Iowa, with Sam and Mary, two of his best agents, to investigate a flying saucer report, but much more seriously the ominous disappearance of the six agents sent previously.
They discover that the slugs are steadily taking over Des Moines, but they cannot convince the President to declare an emergency.
Sam takes two other agents and returns to Des Moines to get more evidence of the invasion.
They fail and are obliged to leave the city quickly, but in the confusion of their fleeing the city's television center a slug sneaks onto one of the agents.
Back in Washington the team discovers the slug and captures it, but later it escapes and attaches itself to Sam, using Sam's skills and knowledge to make a clean escape.
Thoroughly puppetized, Sam begins to infiltrate more slugs into the city, using the Constitution Club as a recruiting center.
The Old Man captures him, takes him to Section's new headquarters, and interrogates the slug through Sam.
Under drug-induced hypnosis Sam reveals that the slugs come from Titan, the sixth moon of Saturn.
After recuperating from his ordeal, Sam finds that the President and Congress are ready to accept the idea that the United States has been infiltrated and they mandate a law that requires people to go naked to demonstrate that they are not carrying slugs.
As the army prepares a counter-attack in the most heavily infested areas, Sam goes alone to Kansas City to get an estimate of the number of slugs involved.
There he learns that he can kill a slug by crushing it with his hand.
He also discovers that the slugs reproduce through fission.
Escaping from the city, he returns to Washington too late to stop the counter-attack, which fails.
After a short leave, during which they get married and kill a slug that seems to have been targeting Sam for repossession, Sam and Mary return to work.
Together with the Old Man, they go to Pass Christian, Mississippi to inspect a flying saucer that had made a bad landing.
Inside the alien ship Mary is overwhelmed by repressed memories from the time she was a child on Venus and had been possessed by a slug.
The slug had died from Nine-day Fever but Mary, luckily, had survived the disease.
Adopting biological warfare, the authorities culture Nine-day Fever and its cure in bulk sufficient to cover the country, and then infected slugs are allowed to escape into the heavily infested areas.
Several days later thousands of medics are landed in those areas to give the cure to those people whose slugs have died.
Sam and the Old Man join the effort in Jefferson City, Missouri, but the Old Man is possessed by the last healthy slug in the city and he knocks Sam out.
Sam regains consciousness in an air-car that the Old Man is flying to the Yucatán, where the slug intends to restart its effort to conquer Humanity.
With the car on autopilot, the Old Man slumps over the steering wheel and the slug begins to fission so that it can possess both the Old Man and Sam.
In desperation Sam kicks the controls, causing the air-car to accelerate so sharply that the Old Man is slammed back against the seat forcefully enough to crush the slug.
The air-car's emergency system mitigates the resulting crash and Sam and the Old Man wait to be rescued.
Some years later Sam and Mary board a spaceship headed for Saturn on a mission to exterminate the slugs.
<EOS>
The film begins in 1536 when Henry VIII (Richard Burton) considers whether or not he should sign the warrant for the execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn: then, in a long flashback which takes up virtually the entire film, the whole truth is revealed.
Starting in 1527, Henry has a problem: he reveals his dissatisfaction with his wife, Catherine of Aragon (Irene Papas).
He is currently enjoying a discreet affair with Mary Boleyn, a daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn who is one of his courtiers; but the King is bored with her too.
At a court ball, he notices Mary's 18-year-old sister Anne (Geneviève Bujold), who has just returned from her education in France.
She is engaged to the son of the Earl of Northumberland and they have received their parents' permission to marry.
The King, however, is enraptured with Anne's beauty and orders his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, to break up the engagement.
When news of this decision is carried to Anne, she reacts furiously.
She blames the Cardinal and the King for ruining her happiness.
When Henry makes a rather clumsy attempt to seduce her, Anne bluntly informs him how she finds him: "I've heard what your courtiers say and I've seen what you are.
You're spoiled and vengeful and bloody.
Your poetry is sour and your music is worse.
You make love as you eat with a good deal of noise and no subtlety".
Henry brings her back to Court with him, whilst she continues to resist his advances out of a mixture of repugnance for Henry and her lingering anger over her broken engagement.
However, she becomes intoxicated with the power that the King's love gives her.
"Power is as exciting as love," she tells her brother George Boleyn, "and who has more of it than the king.
" Using this power, she continually undermines Cardinal Wolsey (Anthony Quayle), who at first sees Anne as just a passing love interest for the King.
When Henry again presses Anne to become his mistress, she repeats that she will never give birth to a child who is illegitimate.
Desperate to have a son, Henry suddenly comes up with the idea of marrying Anne in Catherine's place.
Anne is stunned, but she agrees.
Wolsey begs the King to abandon the idea because of the political consequences of divorcing Catherine.
Henry refuses to listen.
When Wolsey fails to persuade the Pope to give Henry his divorce, Anne points out this failing to an enraged Henry.
Wolsey is dismissed from office and his magnificent palace in London is given as a present to Anne.
In this splendour, Anne realises that she has finally fallen in love with Henry.
They sleep together and, after discovering that she is pregnant, they are secretly married.
Anne is given a splendid coronation, but the people jeer at her in disgust as "the king's whore".
Months later, Anne gives birth to a daughter: Princess Elizabeth.
Henry is displeased since he was hoping for a boy, and their marital relationship begins to cool.
His attentions are soon diverted to Lady Jane Seymour, one of Anne's maids.
Once she discovers this liaison, Anne banishes Jane from court.
"She has the face of a simpering sheep," she informs Henry, "and the manners, but 'not' the morals.
I don't want her near me".
During a row over Sir Thomas More's opposition to Anne's queenship, Anne refuses to sleep with her husband unless More is put to death.
"It's his blood, or else it's my blood and Elizabeth's.
" she cries hysterically.
More is put to death, but Anne's subsequent pregnancy ends as a result of a stillborn boy.
Henry demands that his new minister, Thomas Cromwell, find a way to get rid of Anne.
Cromwell tortures a servant in her household into confessing to adultery with the Queen; he then arrests four other courtiers who are also accused of being Anne's lovers.
Anne is taken to the Tower and placed under arrest.
When she is told that she has been accused of adultery, she laughs.
"I thought you were serious.
" she says, before being informed that it is deadly serious.
When she sees her brother being brought into the Tower, Anne asks why he has been arrested.
"He too is accused of being your lover," mutters her embarrassed uncle.
Anne's face shudders with horror before she whispers, "Incest.
Oh God help me, the King is mad.
I am doomed".
At Anne's trial, she manages to cross-question Mark Smeaton, the tortured servant who finally admits that the charges against Anne are lies.
Henry makes an appearance, before visiting Anne in her chambers that night.
He offers her freedom if she will agree to annul their marriage and make their daughter illegitimate.
Anne refuses, saying that she would rather die than betray their daughter.
Henry slaps her before telling her that her disobedience will mean her death.
Moving back to 1536, Henry decides to execute Anne.
A few days later, Anne is taken to the scaffold and beheaded by a French swordsman.
Henry rides off to marry Jane Seymour and the film's final shot is of their young daughter, Elizabeth (Amanda Jane Smythe), toddling alone in the garden as she hears the cannon firing to announce her mother's death.
<EOS>
With the arrival of spring and fine weather outside, the good-natured Mole loses patience with spring cleaning.
He flees his underground home, emerging to take in the air and ends up at the river, which he has never seen before.
Here he meets Rat (a water vole), who at this time of year spends all his days in, on and close by the river.
Rat takes Mole for a ride in his rowing boat.
They get along well and spend many more days boating, with Rat teaching Mole the ways of the river.
One summer day, Rat and Mole disembark near the grand Toad Hall and pay a visit to Toad.
Toad is rich, jovial, friendly and kind-hearted, but aimless and conceited; he regularly becomes obsessed with current fads, only to abandon them abruptly.
Having recently given up boating, Toad's current craze is his horse-drawn caravan.
He persuades the reluctant Rat and willing Mole to join him on a trip.
Toad soon tires of the realities of camp life, and sleeps in the following day to avoid chores.
Later that day, a passing motorcar scares the horse, causing the caravan to overturn into a ditch.
Rat threatens to have the law on the car driver, while Mole calms the horse, but Toad's craze for caravan travel is immediately replaced by an obsession with motorcar.
Mole wants to meet the respected but elusive Badger, who lives deep in the Wild Wood, but Rat—knowing that Badger does not appreciate visits—tells Mole to be patient and wait for Badger to pay them a visit himself.
Nevertheless, on a snowy winter's day, while the seasonally somnolent Rat dozes, Mole impulsively goes to the Wild Wood to explore, hoping to meet Badger.
He gets lost in the woods, sees many "evil faces" among the wood's less-welcoming denizens, succumbs to fright and panic and hides, trying to stay warm, among the sheltering roots of a tree.
Rat, finding Mole gone, guesses his mission from the direction of Mole's tracks and, equipping himself with two pistols and a stout cudgel, goes in search, finding him as snow begins to fall in earnest.
Attempting to find their way home, Rat and Mole quite literally stumble across Badger's home—Mole barks his shin on the boot scraper on Badger's doorstep.
Badger—en route to bed in his dressing-gown and slippers—nonetheless warmly welcomes Rat and Mole to his large and cozy underground home, providing them with hot food and dry clothes.
Badger learns from his visitors that Toad has crashed seven cars, has been in hospital three times, and has spent a fortune on fines.
Though nothing can be done at the moment (it being winter), they resolve that when the time is right they will make a plan to protect Toad from himself; they are, after all, his friends, and are worried about his well-being.
With the arrival of summer, Badger visits Mole and Rat to take action over Toad's self-destructive obsession.
The three of them go to Toad Hall, and Badger tries talking Toad out of his behaviour, to no avail.
They put Toad under house arrest, with themselves as the guards, until Toad changes his mind.
Feigning illness, Toad bamboozles the Water Rat (who is on guard duty at the time) and escapes.
Badger and Mole are cross with Rat for his gullibility, but draw comfort because they need no longer waste their summer guarding Toad.
However, Badger and Mole continue to live in Toad Hall in the hope that Toad may return.
Meanwhile, Toad orders lunch at The Red Lion Inn, and then sees a motorcar pull into the courtyard.
He steals the car, drives it recklessly and is caught by the police.
He is sent to prison for 20 years.
In prison, Toad gains the sympathy of the gaoler's daughter, who helps him to escape disguised as a washerwoman.
Though free again, Toad is without money or possessions other than the clothes upon his back.
He manages to board a railway engine manned by a sympathetic driver, which is then pursued by a special train loaded with policemen, detectives and prison warders.
Toad jumps from the train and, still disguised as a washerwoman, comes across a horse-drawn barge.
The barge's female owner offers him a lift in exchange for Toad's services as a washerwoman.
After botching the wash, Toad gets into a fight with the barge-woman, who tosses him into the canal.
In revenge, Toad makes off with the barge horse, which he then sells to a gypsy.
Toad subsequently flags down a passing car, which happens to be the very one he stole earlier.
The car owners, not recognising Toad in his disguise, permit him to drive their car.
Once behind the wheel, he is repossessed by his former passion and drives furiously, declaring his true identity to the passengers who try to seize him.
This leads to the car landing in a horse-pond, after which Toad flees once more.
Pursued by police, he runs accidentally into a river, which carries him by sheer chance to the house of Rat.
Toad now hears from Rat that Toad Hall has been taken over by weasels and stoats from the Wild Wood, who have driven out Mole and Badger.
Although upset at the loss of his house, Toad realises what good friends he has and how badly he has behaved.
Badger then arrives and announces that he knows of a secret tunnel into Toad Hall through which the enemies may be attacked.
Armed to the teeth, Badger, Rat, Mole and Toad enter via the tunnel and pounce upon the unsuspecting Wild Wooders who are holding a celebratory party.
Having driven away the intruders, Toad holds a banquet to mark his return, during which (for a change) he behaves both quietly and humbly.
He makes up for his earlier excesses by seeking out and compensating those he has wronged, and the four friends live out their lives happily ever after.
In addition to the main narrative, the book contains several independent short stories featuring Rat and Mole.
These appear for the most part between the chapters chronicling Toad's adventures, and are often omitted from abridgements and dramatizations.
The chapter "Dulce Domum describes Mole's return to his home, accompanied by Rat, in which, despite finding it in a terrible mess after his abortive spring clean, he rediscovers, with Rat's help, a familiar comfort.
"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" tells how Mole and Rat search for Otter's missing son Portly, whom they find in the care of the god Pan.
(Pan removes their memories of this meeting "lest the awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and pleasure".
) Finally in "Wayfarers All", Ratty shows a restless side to his character when he is sorely tempted to join a Sea Rat on his travelling adventures.
<EOS>
Prologue:  A newspaper headline explains that society matron mrs Rittenhouse (Dumont) is holding a lavish party at her home in Long Island.
The party will host renowned explorer Captain Geoffrey (or Jeffrey) ("The 'T.
' stands for Edgar".
) Spaulding (Groucho) as the guest of honor, recently returned from Africa.
Also, as a special treat for the guests and Capt.
Spaulding, revered art collector Roscoe Chandler will unveil his recently acquired painting by famous fictional artist Beaugard.
The bulk of the movie consists of a succession of comedy sketches, one liner jokes, and visual gags.
Hives (Greig) instructs the servant crew on preparations for the party (He's One of Those Men).
Chandler arrives with the Beaugard and proceeds to set it up to be displayed.
Hives announces Capt.
Spaulding's assistant Horatio Jameson (Zeppo) who arrives to announce the captain (I Represent the Captain).
Immediately, Capt.
Spaulding makes a grand entrance (Hooray for Captain Spaulding, Part I) and announces that he cannot stay and must leave immediately, uninterested in the party (Hello, I Must Be Going).
mrs Rittenhouse begs him to stay and the guests declare their admiration for the Captain (Hooray for Captain Spaulding, Part II) and he decides to stay.
Soon after, Signor Emanuel Ravelli (Chico) arrives with his colleague the professor (Harpo), hired to provide music for the weekend event.
After an elaborate introduction, The Professor scares the guests away with a pistol he grabs from Capt.
Spaulding's supplies.
The Professor soon takes off chasing after a young, attractive, blonde party-goer.
mrs Rittenhouse's daughter Arabella is attending the party with her fiancé John Parker, who is a struggling painter.
John feels discouraged because he hasn't be able to make a living with his art in order to support himself and Arabella.
Arabella suggests John do a portrait for Chandler, suggesting he would receive an impressive commission.
John laughs at the idea, not believing Chandler to have a genuine appreciation for art.
After examining the Beaugard, Arabella devises a scheme to win Chandler's interest in John's work: They'll replace the Beaugard with a almost perfect copy of it John painted in art school, since they can find no obvious differences.
After the painting is unveiled at the party, they will surprise everyone and hopefully convince Chandler to hire John.
Arabella asks Ravelli to switch the paintings.
Meanwhile another guest, neighbor mrs Whitehead thinks up the same idea with her friend Grace Carpenter as a means of humiliating mrs Rittenhouse.
They grab Grace's poorly made copy that she painted and ask Hives to put it in place of the Beaugard, unaware that they are taking out John's copy.
Throughout the day a series of comedy sketches and visual gags take place:   Ravelli catches the Professor chasing after the blonde girl and scolds him.
Soon mrs Rittenhouse and mrs Whitehead arrive and the four proceed to play a absurd variation on Bridge.
Ravelli and the Professor run into Chandler on the staircase and recognize him as a fish peddler from Czechoslovakia.
Chandler tries to bribe the two in order to keep them quiet, but they end up taking his money, tie and garters as well as, miraculously, Chandler's birthmark which the Professor puts on his arm.
After a series of strange interludes while speaking with mrs Rittenhouse, Capt.
Spaulding has a debate with Chandler outside on the balcony after his encounter with Ravelli and the Professor.
Later that night in the middle of a storm, Ravelli and the Professor attempt to replace the Beaugard with the power going on and off, making the job more difficult.
In the middle of the job Capt.
Spaulding and mrs Rittenhouse wander in, making the job more difficult.
They succeed in replacing the painting.
During the party, mrs Rittenhouse invites Capt.
Spaulding to speak about his travels in Africa.
He proceeds to tell a ridiculous and absurd account of his travels before mrs Rittenhouse cuts him off.
Signor Ravelli is invited to play some selection on the piano (I'm Daffy Over You, Silver Threads Among The Gold, Anvil Chorus).
After several quips and interruptions by Spaulding, Ravelli, and the Professor, Chandler invites the guests into the parlor so he can unveil the Beaugard.
Once revealed, Chandler notices the poor quality and realizes someone has stolen his painting and replaces it with a cheap imitation.
John feels discouraged, thinking the painting is still his copy.
Suddenly the power goes out, and when restored, the imitation Beaugard is missing as well.
The guests, now in an uproar, scatter and attempt to find the stolen painting, led by Capt.
Spaulding.
John and Arabella discuss the excitement of the situation and their love for each other (Why Am I So Romantic.
).
The next day, a police squad arrives to secure the house and search for the missing painting.
Realizing that they may have gone to far, mrs Whitehead and Grace ask Hives for the Beaugard he took back, but he can't find it anywhere.
mrs Whitehead deduces the Professor must have stolen it.
After confronting him she gets Grace's copy back.
Later, John finds Grace's copy of the Beaugard and reveals to Arabella that someone else must have had the same idea as them.
Realizing that Chandler never actually saw John's copy, they become more hopeful.
Soon after John realizes the copy he found is now missing.
Capt.
Spaulding, Jameson, and Ravelli discuss how they might go about finding the missing painting.
After getting the painting back from the Professor (now in disguise) John and Arabella bring it to Capt.
Spaulding.
They figure out that The Professor must be the one who stole the paintings, and enlist the police to help find him.
After a brief altercation, Spaulding, Ravelli, and Jameson enter with The Professor (My Old Kentucky Home).
The Professor is apprehended and the three paintings are returned.
Chandler momentarily mistakes John's copy for the Beaugard.
Realizing his talent, Chandler hires John to do a series a portraits for him.
After momentarily letting the Professor go free, the police sergeant tries to apprehend him.
To escape arrest, the Professor sprays the guests with a knockout substance from a Flit can.
After everyone is laid out on the floor and fully subdued, the film concludes with the Professor knocking himself out next to the pretty blonde he has been chasing throughout the entire film.
<EOS>
The Hunting of the Snark shares its fictional setting with Lewis Carroll's earlier poem "Jabberwocky" published in his children's novel Through the Looking-Glass (1871).
Eight nonsense words from "Jabberwocky" appear in The Hunting of the Snark: bandersnatch, beamish, frumious, galumphing, jubjub, mimsiest (which previously appeared as mimsy in "Jabberwocky"), outgrabe and uffish.
In a letter to the mother of his young friend Gertrude Chataway, Carroll described the domain of the Snark as "an island frequented by the Jubjub and the Bandersnatch—no doubt the very island where the Jabberwock was slain".
The crew consists of ten members, whose descriptions all begin with the letter B: a Bellman, the leader; a "Boots", who is the only member of the crew without an illustration; a maker of Bonnets and Hoods; a Barrister, who settles arguments among the crew; a Broker, who can appraise the goods of the crew; a Billiard-marker, who is greatly skilled; a Banker, who possesses all of the crew's money; a Butcher, who can only kill beavers; a Beaver, who makes lace and has saved the crew from disaster several times; and a Baker, who can only bake wedding cake, forgets his belongings and his name, but possesses courage.
After crossing the sea guided by the Bellman's map of the Ocean—a blank sheet of paper—the hunting party arrive in a strange land, and the Bellman informs them of the five signs of a Snark: its "meagre and hollow, but crisp" taste; a habit of rising late and taking breakfast during five o'clock tea; "its slowness in taking a jest"; a "fondness for bathing-machines"; and its ambition.
The Bellman warns them that some Snarks are highly dangerous Boojums, causing the Baker to faint.
Once revived, the Baker recalls that his uncle warned him that if the Snark turns out to be a Boojum, the hunter will "softly and suddenly vanish away, and never be met with again".
The Baker confesses that the notion of this sudden vanishment brings him much distress.
With this in mind, they split up to hunt the Snark: "They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care; / They pursued it with forks and hope; / They threatened its life with a railway-share; / They charmed it with smiles and soap".
Along the way, the Butcher and Beaver, previously mutually wary, become fast friends, after the Butcher teaches it more in ten minutes than it could learn from books in seventy years.
The Barrister, meanwhile, dreams of the court trial of a pig accused of deserting its sty, whom the Snark is defending.
The Snark, however, finds the pig guilty and sentences it to transportation and a fine of forty pound.
His dream concludes with the jailer informing the court that the pig has actually been dead for years, to the judge's disgust.
During the hunt, the Banker finds himself attacked by a bandersnatch, and loses his sanity after trying to bribe the creature.
At the conclusion of the poem, the Baker calls out that he has found a snark, but when the others arrive, he has mysteriously disappeared, leading the narrator to explain: "For the Snark was a Boojum, you see".
<EOS>
The book tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is bored with daily squabbles over food.
Seized by a passion for flight, he pushes himself, learning everything he can about flying, until finally his unwillingness to conform results in his expulsion.
An outcast, he continues to learn, becoming increasingly pleased with his abilities as he leads a peaceful and happy life.
One day, Jonathan is met by two gulls who take him to a "higher plane of existence" in which there is no heaven but a better world found through perfection of knowledge.
There he meets other gulls who love to fly.
He discovers that his sheer tenacity and desire to learn make him "pretty well a one-in-a-million bird".
In this new place, Jonathan befriends the wisest gull, Chiang, who takes him beyond his previous learning, teaching him how to move instantaneously to anywhere else in the Universe.
The secret, Chiang says, is to "begin by knowing that you have already arrived".
Not satisfied with his new life, Jonathan returns to Earth to find others like him, to bring them his learning and to spread his love for flight.
His mission is successful, gathering around him others who have been outlawed for not conforming.
Ultimately, the very first of his students, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, becomes a teacher in his own right, and Jonathan leaves to teach other flocks.
Part One of the book finds young Jonathan Livingston frustrated with the meaningless materialism, conformity, and limitation of the seagull life.
He is seized with a passion for flight of all kinds, and his soul soars as he experiments with exhilarating challenges of daring aerial feats.
Eventually, his lack of conformity to the limited seagull life leads him into conflict with his flock, and they turn their backs on him, casting him out of their society and exiling him.
Not deterred by this, Jonathan continues his efforts to reach higher and higher flight goals, finding he is often successful but eventually he can fly no higher.
He is then met by two radiant, loving seagulls who explain to him that he has learned much, and that they are there now to teach him more.
Jonathan transcends into a society where all the gulls enjoy flying.
He is only capable of this after practicing hard alone for a long time and the first learning process of linking the highly experienced teacher and the diligent student is raised into almost sacred levels.
They, regardless of the all immense difference, are sharing something of great importance that can bind them together: "You've got to understand that a seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull".
He realizes that you have to be true to yourself: "You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way".
In the third part of the book are the last words of Jonathan's teacher: "Keep working on love".
Through his teachings, Jonathan understands that the spirit cannot be really free without the ability to forgive, and that the way to progress leads—for him, at least—through becoming a teacher, not just through working hard as a student.
Jonathan returns to the Breakfast Flock to share his newly discovered ideals and the recent tremendous experience, ready for the difficult fight against the current rules of that society.
The ability to forgive seems to be a mandatory "passing condition".
"Do you want to fly so much that you will forgive the Flock, and learn, and go back to them one day and work to help them know.
" Jonathan asks his first student, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, before getting into any further talks.
The idea that the stronger can reach more by leaving the weaker friends behind seems totally rejected.
Hence, love, deserved respect, and forgiveness all seem to be equally important to the freedom from the pressure to obey the rules just because they are commonly accepted.
In 2013 Richard Bach took up a non-published fourth part of the book which he had written contemporaneously with the original.
He edited and polished it and then sent the result to a publisher.
Bach reported that it was a near-death experience which had occurred in relation to a nearly fatal plane crash in August 2012, that had inspired him to finish the fourth part of his novella.
In February 2014, the 138-page Bach work Illusions II was published as a booklet by Kindle Direct Publishing.
It also contains allusions to and insights regarding the same near-death experience.
In October 2014, Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition, was reissued and includes part four of the story.
<EOS>
In 1915, married socialite Louise Bryant encounters the radical journalist John Reed for the first time at a lecture in Portland, Oregon, and she is intrigued with his idealism.
Upon meeting him for an interview on international politics which lasts over the course of a night, she realizes that writing has been her only escape from her frustrated high society existence.
Inspired to leave her husband, Bryant joins Reed in Greenwich Village, New York City, and becomes acquainted with the local community of activists and artists, including anarchist and author Emma Goldman and the playwright Eugene O'Neill.
Later, they move to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to concentrate on their writing, becoming involved in the local theatre scene.
Through her writing, Bryant becomes a feminist and radical in her own right.
Reed becomes involved in labor strikes with the "Reds" of the Communist Labor Party of America.
Obsessed with changing the world, he grows restless and heads for st Louis to cover the 1916 Democratic Convention.
During Reed's absence, Bryant falls into a complicated affair with O'Neill.
Upon his return, Reed discovers the truth about the affair and realizes he still loves Bryant.
The two marry secretly and make a home together in Croton-on-Hudson, north of New York City, but still have conflicting desires.
When Reed admits to his own infidelities, Bryant takes a ship to Europe to work as a war correspondent.
After a flare-up of a kidney disorder, Reed is warned to avoid excessive travel or stress, but he decides to take the same path.
Reunited as professionals, the two find their passion rekindled as they are swept up in the fall of Russia's Czarist regime and the events of the 1917 Revolution.
The second part of the film takes place shortly after the publication of Ten Days that Shook the World.
Inspired by the idealism of the Revolution, Reed attempts to bring the spirit of Communism to the United States, because he is disillusioned with the policies imposed upon Communist Russia by Grigory Zinoviev and the Bolsheviks.
While attempting to leave Europe, he is briefly imprisoned and interrogated in Finland.
He returns to Russia and is reunited with Bryant at the railway station in Moscow.
By this point, Reed is growing progressively weaker as a result of his kidney disorder.
Bryant helps nurse the ailing Reed, who eventually dies.
<EOS>
The 20th century's industrialization leaves the world overcrowded, polluted and suffering global warming due to "the greenhouse effect".
In 2022, with 40 million people in New York City, housing is dilapidated; homeless people fill the streets; many are unemployed, the few "lucky" ones with jobs are only barely scraping by, and food and working technology is scarce.
Most of the population survives on rations produced by the Soylent Corporation, whose newest product is Soylent Green, a green wafer advertised to contain "high-energy plankton" from the World Ocean, more nutritious and palatable than its predecessors "Red" and "Yellow", but in short supply.
New York City Police Department detective Frank Thorn lives with aged friend and "book" (a police analyst) Solomon "Sol" Roth.
Roth remembers life before its current miserable state, and often waxes nostalgic.
He is also well-educated and uses a small library of reference materials to assist Thorn.
Investigating the murder of William Simonson, a member of the wealthy elite, Thorn questions Shirl, a concubine, and Tab Fielding, Simonson's bodyguard, who, when the murder took place, was escorting Shirl.
Thorn searches Simonson's apartment for clues and enjoys Simonson's luxurious lifestyle, helping himself to Simonson's whiskey, fresh produce, and beef Shirl purchased as a surprise for Simonson.
Thorn gives Roth the classified Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015 to 2019 he's found in Simonson's apartment.
Roth's research reveals Simonson and the current governor of New York, Joseph Santini, were partners in a law firm, and that Simonson was also a member of the board of Soylent.
Thorn tells his lieutenant, Hatcher, that he suspects an assassination: nothing had been stolen from the apartment, its sophisticated alarm was not working for the first time in two years, Simonson's bodyguard was absent, and the perpetrator used a meat hook instead of a gun to make it look like Simonson was killed in a burglary.
Thorn visits Fielding's apartment and interrogates Fielding's concubine, Martha, helping himself to a teaspoon of strawberry jam, later identified by Roth as too great a luxury for the concubine of a bodyguard to afford.
Shirl reveals that Simonson became troubled in the days before his death.
Thorn questions a Catholic priest that Simonson visited; the priest first fails to remember Simonson and is then unable to describe the confession.
Fielding later murders the priest.
Governor Santini closes the investigation, but Thorn ignores this and the Soylent Corporation dispatches Simonson's murderer to kill Thorn.
He tracks Thorn to a ration distribution center where police officers are providing security.
When the Soylent Green there is exhausted, the crowd riots.
The assassin attempts to kill Thorn in the confusion, but is crushed by a "scoop" crowd-dispersion vehicle.
Thorn threatens both Fielding and Martha to scare Fielding out of following him and returns to Shirl, telling her that all cities are like theirs and the more valuable, unharmed countryside is guarded to protect the wealthier classes' privileges of better food, water and shelter, leaving most people trapped in the cities.
Roth takes Soylent's oceanographic reports to a group of researchers, who agree that the oceans no longer produce the plankton from which Soylent Green is reputedly made, and infer that it is produced from human remains, the only conceivable supply of protein matching the known production.
They also deduce that Simonson found out about this from the reports and his influence inside the corporation and, afraid he would talk because he didn´t like it, the company murdered him.
Unable to live with this discovery, Roth seeks assisted suicide at a government clinic.
Thorn rushes to stop him, but arrives too late, and is mesmerized by the euthanasia process's visual and musical montage &ndash; a display of extinct forests, wild animals, rivers and ocean life.
Before dying, Roth tells Thorn his discovery and begs him to expose the truth.
Thorn stows himself aboard a garbage truck to the disposal center, where he sees human corpses converted into Soylent Green.
Returning to make his report, he is ambushed by Fielding and others.
Thorn phones his precinct for backup but the precinct is engaged on a priority call.
Thorn requests to be connected with Shirl, and to be "cut in" when the precinct is free.
Thorn tells Shirl to stay with her apartment's new owner, and Shirl tells Thorn she wants to live with him, but the line is "cut in" and Thorn is connected to Hatcher.
Thorn retreats into a cathedral filled with homeless people.
He kills Fielding but is injured.
When the police arrive, Thorn urges Hatcher to spread the word that "Soylent Green is people.
".
<EOS>
Jannings' character is a doorman for a famous hotel, who takes great pride in his work and position.
His manager decides that the doorman is getting too old and infirm to present the image of the hotel, and so demotes him to a less demanding job, of washroom attendant.
He tries to conceal his demotion from his friends and family but, to his shame, he is discovered.
His friends, thinking he has lied to them all along about his prestigious job, taunt him mercilessly while his family rejects him out of shame.
The man, shocked and in incredible grief, returns to the hotel to sleep in the washroom where he works.
The only person to be kind towards him is the night watchman, who covers him with his coat as he falls asleep.
Following this comes the film's only title card, which says: "Here the story should really end, for, in real life, the forlorn old man would have little to look forward to but death.
The author took pity on him and has provided a quite improbable epilogue".
At the end, the doorman reads in the newspaper that he inherited a fortune from a Mexican millionaire named Money, a patron who died in his arms in the hotel washroom.
Jannings returns to the hotel, where he dines happily with the night watchman who showed him kindness.
On their way to the carriage, the doorman gives tips to all the service personnel from the hotel, who quickly line up along his way.
In the final scene of the film, when both the doorman and the night watchman are in the carriage, a beggar asks the doorman for some money.
The doorman invites the beggar to the carriage and even gives a tip to the new doorman, who is now in charge of bringing the guests inside.
<EOS>
Robert Neville is the apparent sole survivor of a pandemic whose symptoms resemble vampirism.
It is said that the pandemic was caused by a war, and that it was spread by dust storms in the cities and an explosion in the mosquito population.
The narrative details Neville's daily life in Los Angeles as he attempts to comprehend, research, and possibly cure the disease, to which he is immune.
Neville's past is revealed through flashbacks; the disease claimed his wife and daughter, and he was forced to kill his wife after she seemingly rose from the dead as a vampire and attacked him.
Neville survives by barricading himself by sunset inside his house, further protected by garlic, mirrors, and crucifixes.
Swarms of vampires, led by Neville's neighbor, Ben Cortman, regularly surround his house, trying to find ways to get inside.
During the day, he scavenges for supplies and searches out the inactive vampires, driving stakes into their hearts to kill them.
He finds brief solace in a stray dog that finds its way to his house.
Desperate for company, Neville slowly earns the dog's trust with food and brings it into the house.
Despite his efforts, the dog proves to be infected and dies a week later.
After bouts of depression and alcoholism, Neville decides to find out the scientific cause of the pandemic.
He obtains books and other research materials from a library, and through painstaking research discovers the root of the disease in a strain of bacteria capable of infecting both deceased and living hosts.
He also discovers that the vampires are affected by the garlic, mirrors, and crosses because of "hysterical blindness", the result of previous psychological conditioning of the infected.
Driven insane by the disease, the infected now react as they believe they should when confronted with these items.
Even then, their reaction is constrained to the beliefs of the particular person; for example, a Christian vampire would fear the cross, but a Jewish vampire would not.
Neville also discovers more efficient means of killing the vampires, other than just driving a stake into their hearts.
This includes exposing them to direct sunlight (which kills the bacteria) or inflicting deep wounds on their bodies so that the bacteria switch from being anaerobic symbionts to aerobic parasites, rapidly consuming their hosts when exposed to air.
He is now killing such large numbers of vampires in his daily forays that his nightly visitors have diminished significantly.
After three years, Neville sees an apparently uninfected woman, Ruth, in broad daylight, and captures her.
After some convincing, Ruth tells him her story of how she and her husband survived the pandemic (though her husband was killed two weeks earlier).
Neville is puzzled by the fact that she is upset when he speaks of killing vampires; he thinks that if her story of survival was true, she would have become hardened to the act.
He attempts to test whether she is a vampire by exposing her to garlic, which causes her to recoil violently.
At night Neville is startled awake and finds Ruth fully clothed at the front door of the house.
Suspicious, he questions her motives, but relates the trauma of his past, whereupon they comfort each other.
Ruth reluctantly allows him to take a blood sample but knocks him unconscious when the sample reveals that she is infected.
When he wakes, Neville discovers a note from Ruth confessing that she is actually infected and that Neville was responsible for her husband's death.
Ruth admits that she was sent to spy on him.
It turns out that only the infected created from reanimated corpses are utterly feral, but not those who were alive when they were infected.
The living-infected have slowly overcome their disease until they can spend short periods of time in sunlight, and are attempting to build a new society.
They have developed medication which helps them to overcome the most severe symptoms of the infection.
Ruth warns Neville that her people will attempt to capture him, and that he should leave his house and escape to the mountains.
Neville cannot bring himself to leave his house, however, and assumes that he will be captured and treated fairly by the new society.
Infected members of the new society eventually attack the house.
During the attack, the members of the new society violently dispatch the other feral vampires outside the house, and Neville becomes alarmed at the grim enjoyment they appear to take from this task.
Realising that the intention of the attackers may be to kill him rather than to capture him he tries to defend himself with a pistol, leading to one of the infected shooting and badly injuring him.
Neville wakes in a barred cell where he is visited by Ruth, who informs him that she is a ranking member of the new society but, unlike the others, does not resent him.
Ruth attempts to present a facade of indifference to Neville, but is unable to maintain it during her discussion with him.
After discussing the effects of Neville's vampire-killing activities on the new society, she acknowledges the need for Neville's execution and gives him pills, claiming they will "make it easier".
Fatally injured, Neville accepts his fate and asks Ruth not to let this society become heartless.
Ruth kisses him and leaves.
Neville goes to his prison window and sees the infected waiting for his execution.
He now sees that the infected view him with the same hatred and fear that he once felt for the vampires; he realizes that he, a remnant of old humanity, is now a legend to the new race born of the infection: just as vampires are monsters which hunt humans during the time of day they are not active (night), he is a feared monster that hunts the vampires during the daylight hours when they are asleep.
He recognises that their desire to kill him is not something he can condemn.
As the pills take effect, he thinks: "[I am] a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever.
I am legend".
<EOS>
In 1988, theS.
Ohio-class submarine USS Montana has an encounter with an unidentified submerged object and sinks near the Cayman Trough.
With Soviet ships moving in to try to salvage the sub and a hurricane moving over the area, theS.
government opts to send a SEAL team to Deep Core, a privately owned experimental underwater drilling platform near the Cayman Trough to use as a base of operations.
The platform's designer, dr Lindsey Brigman, insists on coming along with the SEAL team, despite her estranged husband Virgil "Bud" Brigman being the current foreman.
During initial investigation of the Montana, a power outage in the team's submersibles leads to Lindsey seeing a strange light circling the sub.
At the same time, one of Deep Core's crew, "Jammer", damages his breathing apparatus in an apparent panic, and falls into a coma.
This prompts the admiral in charge of the operation to send lt Coffey, the SEAL team leader, to take one of the mini-subs and recover a Trident missile warhead from the Montana, just as the storm hits above.
Coffey does not get permission from the Deep Core crew.
The Benthic Explorer, which Deep Core is tethered to, is rocked by the storm, and the cable crane is torn from the ship.
The crane falls into the trench and, without the mini-sub to disconnect the cable, Deep Core is dragged towards the trench, stopping just short of it.
The rig is partially flooded, killing several crew members and damaging its power systems.
Coffey shows little remorse when he and his SEALs return to the damaged base.
Lindsey is sent in dive gear to retrieve some oxygen bottles from a damaged portion of the rig to give the crew enough time to wait out the storm.
While working, she's accosted by a small, maneuverable pink/purple device, followed by a much larger one.
Before she can take a picture as proof, the large craft zooms downward into the trench, leaving her to take fuzzy, smeared pictures of the smaller one following it.
She coins the term "non-terrestrial intelligence", or "NTI".
As the crew struggles against the cold, they find an NTI has formed a living column of water and is exploring the base.
Though they treat it with curiosity, Coffey is agitated by it and cuts it in half by closing a pressure bulkhead on it, causing it to retreat.
The crew soon realize that Coffey is suffering paranoia from high-pressure nervous syndrome.
Spying on him through a remote operated vehicle, they find he and another SEAL are arming the warhead to attack the NTIs, and race to stop him.
Bud fights Coffey but Coffey escapes in a mini-sub with the primed warhead, and Bud and Lindsey give chase in the other sub.
Coffey is able to launch the warhead into the trench, but his sub is damaged and drifts over the edge of the trough, and he is crushed when the sub implodes from high pressures.
The other mini-sub is also damaged and is taking on water; with only one functional diving suit, Lindsey opts to enter deep hypothermia when the ocean's cold water engulfs her, and Bud swims back with her body to the platform.
There, he and the crew administer CPR and revive her.
Bud and Lindsey reaffirm their lost love.
One SEAL, unaware of Coffey's plan at the time, helps to locate the warhead, stopped on a ledge several thousand feet down the trench.
Bud volunteers to use an experimental diving suit equipped with a liquid breathing apparatus to survive to that depth, though he will only be able to communicate through a keypad on the suit.
Bud begins his dive, assisted by Lindsey's voice keeping him coherent against the effects of the mounting pressure, and reaches the warhead.
The SEAL guides him in disarming it, but his only light source is yellow, making two high-contrast striped wires appear identical, forcing him to make a 50-50 choice on which wire to cut.
With nearly no oxygen left in the system, Bud types out that he knew this was a one-way trip, and tells Lindsey he loves her.
As he waits for death, an NTI approaches Bud and takes his hand.
He is guided to an alien ship deeper in the trench.
Deep inside, the NTI creates an atmospheric pocket for Bud, allowing him to breathe normally.
The NTI plays back Bud's message to his wife and the two look at each other with understanding.
On Deep Core the crew is waiting for rescue when they see a message from Bud that he met some friends and warning them to hold on.
The base shakes and lights from the trench bring the arrival of the alien ship.
It rises to the ocean's surface, with Deep Core and several of the surface ships run aground on its hull.
The crew of Deep Core leave the platform, surprised they aren't suffering from decompression sickness, when they see Bud walking out of the alien ship.
Lindsey races to hug Bud.
In the extended version, the events in the film are played against a backdrop of conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, with the potential for all-out war; the sinking of the Montana fueling the aggression.
There is more conflict between Bud and Lindsey in regards to their former relationship.
The primary addition is the ending: when Bud is taken to the alien ship, they start by showing him images of war and aggression from news sources around the globe.
The aliens then create massive tidal waves that threaten the world's coasts, but stop them short before they hit.
They then show Bud his message to Lindsey, and let the tidal waves disperse without damage, as a warning to humanity.
<EOS>
Basil is a half-English, half-Greek writer raised in Britain who bears the hallmarks of an uptight, middle-class Englishman.
He is waiting at the Athens port of Piraeus on mainland Greece to catch a boat to Crete when he meets a gruff, yet enthusiastic Greek Macedonian peasant and musician named Zorba.
Basil explains to Zorba that he is traveling to a rural Cretan village where his father owns some land, with the intention of reopening a lignite mine and perhaps curing his writer's block.
Zorba relates his experience with mining and convinces Basil to take him along.
When they arrive at Crete, they take a car to the village where they are greeted enthusiastically by the town's impoverished peasant community.
They stay with an old French war widow and courtesan named Madame Hortense in her self-styled "Hotel Ritz".
The audacious Zorba tries to persuade Basil into making a move on the much older Madame Hortense, but when he is understandably reluctant, Zorba seizes the opportunity, and they form a relationship.
Over the next few days, Basil and Zorba attempt to work the old lignite mine, but find it unsafe and shut it down.
Zorba then has an idea to use the forest in the nearby mountains for logging (although his specific plan is left ambiguous), however the land is owned by a powerful monastery, so Zorba visits and befriends the monks, getting them drunk.
Afterwards, he comes home to Basil and begins to dance in a way that mesmerizes Basil.
Meanwhile, Basil and Zorba get their first introduction to "the Widow", a young and attractive widowed woman, who is incessantly teased by the townspeople for not remarrying, especially to a young, local boy who is madly in love with her, but whom she has spurned repeatedly.
One rainy afternoon, Basil offers her his umbrella, which she reluctantly takes.
Zorba suggests that she is attracted to him, but Basil, ever shy, denies this and refuses to pursue the widow.
Basil hands Zorba some money, and sends him off to the large town of Chania, where Zorba is to buy cable and other supplies for the implementation of his grand plan.
Zorba says goodbye to Basil and Madame Hortense, who is by now madly in love with him.
In Chania, Zorba entertains himself at a cabaret and strikes up a brief romance with a much younger dancer.
In a letter to Basil, he details his exploits and indicates that he has found love.
Angered by Zorba's apparent irresponsibility and the squandering of his money, Basil untruthfully tells Madame Hortense that Zorba has declared his love to her and intends to marry her upon his return&nbsp;– to which she is ecstatic to the point of tears.
Meanwhile, the Widow returns Basil's umbrella by way of Mimithos, the village idiot.
When Zorba eventually returns with supplies and gifts, he is surprised and angered to hear of Basil's lie to Madame Hortense.
He also asks Basil about his whereabouts the night before.
That night, Basil had gone to the Widow's house, made love to her and spent the night.
The brief encounter comes at great cost.
A villager catches sight of them, and word spreads, and the young, local boy who is in love with the Widow is taunted mercilessly about it.
The next morning, the villagers find his body by the sea, where he has drowned himself out of shame.
The boy's father holds a funeral which the villagers attend.
The widow attempts to come inconspicuously, but is blocked from entering the church.
She is eventually trapped in the courtyard, then beaten and stoned by the villagers, who hold her responsible for the boy's suicide.
Basil, meek and fearful of intervening, tells Mimithos to quickly fetch Zorba.
Zorba arrives just as a villager, a friend of the boy, tries to pull a knife and kill the widow.
Zorba overpowers the much younger man and disarms him.
Thinking that the situation is under control, Zorba asks the Widow to follow him and turns his back.
At that moment, the dead boy's father pulls his knife and cuts the widow's throat.
She dies at once, as the villagers shuffle away apathetically, whisking the father away.
Only Basil, Zorba and Mimithos show any emotion over her murder.
Basil proclaims his inability to intervene whereupon Zorba laments the futility of death.
On a rainy day, Basil and Zorba come home and find Madame Hortense waiting.
She expresses anger at Zorba for making no progress on the wedding.
Zorba conjures up a story that he had ordered a white satin wedding dress, lined with pearls and adorned with real gold.
Madame Hortense presents two golden rings she had made and proposes their immediate engagement.
Zorba tries to stall, but eventually agrees with gusto, to Basil's surprise.
Some time later, Madame Hortense has contracted pneumonia, and is seen on her deathbed.
Zorba stays by her side, along with Basil.
Meanwhile, word has spread that "the foreigner" is dying, and since she has no heirs, the State will take her possessions and money.
The desperately poor villagers crowd around her hotel, impatiently waiting for her demise so they can steal her belongings.
As two old ladies enter her room and gaze expectantly at her, other women try to enter, but Zorba manages to fight them off.
At the instant of her death, the women re-enter Madame Hortense's bedroom en masse to steal her valued possessions.
Zorba leaves with a sigh, as the hotel is ransacked and stripped bare by the shrieking and excited villagers.
When Zorba returns to Madame Hortense's bedroom, the room is barren apart from her bed (where she lies) and the bird in her cage.
Zorba takes the birdcage with him.
Finally, Zorba's elaborate contraption to transport timber down the hill is complete.
A festive ceremony, including lamb on a spit is held, and all the villagers turned out.
After a blessing from the priests, Zorba signals the start by firing a rifle in the air.
A log comes hurtling down the zip line at a worrying pace, destroying the log itself and slightly damaging part of the contraption.
Zorba remains unconcerned and gives orders for a second log.
This one also speeds down and shoots straight into the sea.
By now the villagers and priests have grown fearful and head for cover.
Zorba remains unfazed and orders a third log, which accelerates downhill with such violence that it dislodges the entire contraption, destroying everything.
The villagers flee, leaving Basil and Zorba behind.
Basil and Zorba sit by the shore to eat roasted lamb for lunch.
Zorba pretends to tell the future from the lamb shank, saying that he foresees a great journey to a big city.
He then asks Basil directly when he plans to leave, and Basil replies that he will leave in a few days.
Zorba declares his sadness about Basil's imminent departure to England and tells Basil that he is missing madness.
Basil asks Zorba to teach him to dance.
Zorba teaches him the sirtaki and Basil begins to laugh hysterically at the catastrophic outcome.
The story ends with both men enthusiastically dancing the sirtaki on the beach.
<EOS>
In late 1975, Rocky Balboa is a hard-living but failing boxer from an Italian neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Between fights, he works as an enforcer for loan shark Tony Gazzo.
The World Heavyweight Champion, Apollo Creed, announces plans to hold a match in Philadelphia during the upcoming United States Bicentennial.
However, he is informed five weeks from the fight date that his scheduled opponent, Mac Lee Greene, is unable to compete due to an injured hand.
With all other potential replacements booked up or otherwise unavailable, Creed decides to spice things up by giving a local contender a chance to face him.
He finds Balboa while searching through books of fighters, liking his nickname "The Italian Stallion" and his fighting style, being Southpaw.
Rocky meets with promoter Miles Jergens, presuming Creed is seeking local sparring partners.
Rocky reluctantly agrees to the match, which will pay him $150,000.
After several weeks of training, using whatever he can find, including meat carcasses as punching bags, Rocky accepts an offer of assistance from former boxer Mickey "Mighty Mick" Goldmill, a respected trainer and former bantamweight fighter from the 1920s, who always criticized Rocky for wasting his potential.
At the same time, Rocky begins a relationship with Adrian, a clerk at the local pet store.
He gradually gains the shy Adrian's trust, culminating in a kiss.
Her alcoholic brother Paulie becomes jealous of Rocky's success, but Rocky calms him by agreeing to advertise his meatpacking business at the fight.
The night before the match, Rocky becomes depressed after touring the arena.
He confesses to Adrian that he does not expect to win, but is content to go the distance against Creed and prove himself to everyone.
On New Year's Day, the climactic boxing match begins, with Creed making a dramatic entrance dressed as George Washington and then Uncle Sam.
Taking advantage of his overconfidence, Rocky knocks him down in the first round—the first time that Creed has ever been knocked down.
Humiliated, Creed takes Rocky more seriously for the rest of the fight, though his ego never fully fades.
The fight goes on for the full 15 rounds, with both fighters sustaining many injuries; Rocky suffers his first broken nose and debilitating trauma around the eye, and Creed sustains brutal blows to his ribs with substantial internal bleeding.
As the match progresses, Creed's superior skill is countered by Rocky's apparently unlimited ability to absorb punches, and his dogged refusal to be knocked out.
As the final round bell sounds, with both fighters locked in each other's arms, they promise to each other that there will be no rematch.
After the fight, multiple layers of drama are played out: the sportscasters and the audience go wild, Jergens announces over the loudspeaker that the match was "the greatest exhibition of guts and stamina in the history of the ring", and Rocky calls out repeatedly for Adrian, who runs down and comes into the ring as Paulie distracts arena security.
As Jergens declares Creed the winner by virtue of a split decision (8:7, 7:8, 9:6), Adrian and Rocky embrace and profess their love to each other, not caring about the result of the fight.
<EOS>
Meursault learns of his mother's death.
At her funeral, he expresses none of the expected emotions of grief.
When asked if he wishes to view the body, he says no, and, instead, smokes and drinks coffee in front of the coffin.
Rather than expressing his feelings, he comments to the reader only about the attendees at the funeral.
He later encounters Marie, a former employee of his firm.
The two become re-acquainted, go swimming, watch a comedy film, and begin to have a sexual relationship, a day after his mother's funeral.
In the next few days, he helps his friend and neighbour, Raymond Sintès, take revenge on a Moorish girlfriend suspected of infidelity.
For Raymond, Meursault agrees to write a letter to his girlfriend, with the sole purpose of inviting her over so that Raymond can have sex with her but spit in her face at the last minute as emotional revenge.
Meursault sees no reason not to help him, and it pleases Raymond.
He does not express concern that Raymond's girlfriend is going to be emotionally hurt, as he believes Raymond's story that she has been unfaithful.
While listening to Raymond, he is both somewhat drunk and characteristically unfazed by any feelings of empathy.
In general, he considers other people either interesting or annoying, or feels nothing for them at all.
The letter works: the girlfriend returns, but the situation escalates when she slaps Raymond after he tries to kick her out, and he beats her.
Raymond is taken to court where Meursault testifies that she had been unfaithful, and Raymond is let off with a warning.
After this, the girlfriend's brother and several Arab friends begin trailing Raymond.
Raymond invites Meursault and Marie to a friend's beach house for the weekend.
There they encounter the spurned girlfriend's brother and an Arab friend; these two confront Raymond and wound him with a knife during a fist fight.
Later, Meursault walks back along the beach alone, now armed with a revolver which he took from Raymond to prevent him from acting rashly.
Meursault encounters the brother of Raymond's Arab girlfriend.
Disoriented and on the edge of heatstroke, Meursault shoots when the Arab flashes his knife at him.
It is a fatal shot, but Meursault shoots the man four more times.
He does not divulge to the reader any specific reason for his crime or what he feels, other than being bothered by the heat and intensely bright sunlight.
Meursault is now incarcerated, and explains his arrest, time in prison, and upcoming trial.
His general detachment makes living in prison very tolerable, especially after he gets used to the idea of being restricted and unable to have sex with Marie.
He passes the time screwing, or mentally listing the objects he owned in his apartment.
At the trial, the prosecuting attorney portrays Meursault's quietness and passivity as demonstrating guilt and a lack of remorse.
The prosecutor tells the jury more about Meursault's inability or unwillingness to cry at his mother's funeral than the murder.
He pushes Meursault to tell the truth, but the man resists.
Later, on his own, Meursault tells the reader that he simply was never able to feel any remorse or personal emotions for any of his actions in life.
The dramatic prosecutor denounces Meursault, claiming that he must be a soulless monster, incapable of remorse, and thus deserves to die for his crime.
Although Meursault's attorney defends him and later tells Meursault that he expects the sentence to be light, Meursault is alarmed when the judge informs him of the final decision: that he will be publicly guillotined.
In prison, while awaiting execution of his death sentence, Meursault meets with a chaplain, but rejects his proffered opportunity of turning to God.
The prisoner says that God is a waste of his time.
Although the chaplain persists in trying to lead Meursault from his atheism (or, perhaps more precisely, his apatheism), Meursault finally accosts him in a rage.
He has an outburst about his frustrations and the absurdity of the human condition, and his personal anguish without respite at the meaninglessness of his existence.
He expresses anger about others, saying that they have no right to judge him for his actions or for who he is, that no one has the right to judge another.
Meursault grasps the universe's indifference towards humankind, and prepares for his execution.
<EOS>
After World War II, three teenage boy rocket experimenters are recruited by one boy's uncle, dr Cargraves, a renowned physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project, to refit a conventionally powered surplus "mail rocket".
It is to be converted to run on a thorium nuclear pile which boils zinc as a propellant.
They use a cleared area in a military weapons test range in the desert for their work, despite prying and sabotage attempts by unknown agents.
Upon completion of the modifications, they stock the rocket, which they name the Galileo, and take off for the Moon, taking approximately 3 days to arrive.
After establishing a semi-permanent structure based on a Quonset hut, they claim the moon on behalf of the United Nations.
As they set up a radio to communicate with the Earth they pick up a local transmission, the sender of which promises to meet them.
Instead, their ship is bombed.
Fortunately, they are able to hole up undetected in their hut and succeed in ambushing the other ship when it lands, capturing the pilot.
They discover that there is a Nazi base on the Moon.
They bomb it from their captured ship and land.
One survivor is found, revived, and questioned.
The boys also find evidence of an ancient lunar civilization, and postulate that the craters of the moon were formed not by impacts from space, but by nuclear bombs that destroyed the alien race.
When the base's Nazi leader shoots the pilot in order to silence him, Cargraves convenes a trial and finds him guilty of murder.
Cargraves prepares to execute the prisoner by ejecting him into vacuum, mostly as a bluff for information on how to fly the base's spaceship.
The Nazi capitulates in the airlock and teaches them how to fly the ship back to Earth.
The boys radio the location of the hidden Nazi base on Earth to the authorities, leading to its destruction; they return as heroes.
<EOS>
In 2075, teenager Matt Dodson applies to join the prestigious Space Patrol.
After a number of physical, mental, and ethical tests, he is accepted as a cadet.
He makes friends with fellow recruits William 'Tex' Jarman, Venus-born Oscar Jensen, and Pierre Armand from Ganymede.
His first roommate is Girard Burke, the arrogant son of a wealthy spaceship builder.
They are transported to the orbiting school ship PRS James Randolph for further training.
Burke eventually either resigns or is asked to leave, and goes into the merchant service, but the remainder do well enough to be assigned to working Patrol ships.
Dodson, Jarman and Jensen ship out on the Aes Triplex.
Their first real mission is to help search for a missing research vessel, the Pathfinder, in the Asteroid Belt.
They find it, but all aboard are dead, the unlucky victims of a fast-moving asteroid that punctured the ship when the armored outer airlock door was open.
Before the accident, a researcher on the Pathfinder had found evidence that the planet which blew up to form the asteroids was inhabited by an intelligent species, and that the explosion had been artificial.
The captain of the Aes Triplex transfers half the crew to the repaired Pathfinder so that they can take the ship and the news of the startling discovery back to Earth quickly.
With the remainder (including all three cadets), he continues his patrol.
Then, he receives an urgent message to investigate an incident on Venus.
He sends Lieutenant Thurlow and the cadets to the planet's surface.
The lander touches down on a sinkhole, giving the crew barely enough time to get out before it disappears in the mud.
With Thurlow comatose, injured when the lander fell over, Jensen assumes command.
He contacts the sentient usually-friendly Venerians, but the entire party is taken captive.
They soon find out why.
These particular natives had never seen human beings before, until old classmate Burke showed up in a prospecting ship.
He had taken the matriarch of the local clan hostage when she refused to give him permission to exploit a rich deposit of radioactive ores.
The locals promptly attacked the ship and killed his crew; Burke managed to send a message for help before being taken prisoner.
Jensen skillfully gains the matriarch's trust and convinces her that they are honorable and civilized, unlike Burke, and the Patrolmen are released.
Neither the lander nor Burke's ship is flightworthy.
To their amazement, she takes the stranded humans to the carefully preserved Astarte, the legendary first ship to set out for Venus over a century before and thought to have been lost en route.
According to the log, the crew perished from disease.
With the help of the natives, the cadets recommission the ship and fly it back to (human) civilization at Venus's South Pole colony.
Dodson is initially disappointed when they are not treated as heroes—but then he realizes that what they accomplished was simply what was expected of Patrolmen.
<EOS>
A young man named Don Harvey leaves his dude ranch high school on Earth to go to his scientist parents on Mars.
He visits an old family friend who asks him to deliver a ring to his father, but they are both later arrested by security forces.
Harvey is released and given his ring back, after it has been examined; he is told that his friend has died of "heart failure".
It is only later that he realizes that all deaths can be described that way.
Harvey boards a shuttle to a space station orbiting the Earth.
The station doubles as a transshipment terminus and a military base, armed with missiles to keep restive nations in check.
On the trip up, he befriends one of his fellow passengers, a Venusian "dragon" named Sir Isaac Newton.
Sir Isaac is a renowned physicist who can speak English using a portable device.
Harvey gets caught up in the Venusian war of independence when the station is captured by the colonials in a surprise raid.
Most of the other travelers are sent back to Earth, while a few decide to join the rebels.
Harvey is in a quandary.
The spaceship to Mars has been confiscated, but he remains determined to get there, by way of Venus if necessary.
Because he was born in space, with one parent from Venus and the other from Earth, he claims Venusian citizenship; more importantly, Sir Isaac vouches for him.
He is allowed to tag along, which turns out to be very fortunate for Harvey.
The rebels blow up the station to stir up trouble for the Earth government.
When the shuttle returns to Earth with its radios disabled, the military assumes it has been booby-trapped and destroys it, killing all aboard.
On his arrival on Venus, Harvey finds that his Earth-backed money is now worthless.
A banker lends him money, telling him to pay it forward.
He gets a job washing dishes for his keep for Charlie, a Chinese immigrant who runs a small restaurant.
He befriends a young woman, Isobel, when he tries to send a message to his parents.
However, communication with Mars has been cut due to the hostilities.
Harvey settles in to wait out the war, when the war comes to him.
Earth sends a military force to put down the rebellion.
The Venusian ships are destroyed in orbit and the ground forces are routed.
Charlie is killed resisting the occupying soldiers.
Harvey is rounded up and questioned by a senior security officer, who is very eager to get his hands on Harvey's ring.
Luckily, Harvey had given it to Isobel for safekeeping and he does not know where she is or whether she is even alive.
Before he can be interrogated with drugs, he escapes and joins the Venusian guerrilla forces.
Harvey becomes an effective commando.
In time, he is tracked down by the leaders of the resistance, who turn out to also be looking for the ring.
Isobel and her father (who is an important member of the rebels) are safe at the very base where Harvey is taken.
The seemingly valueless ring turns out to be carrying the secret of scientific breakthroughs resulting from archeological studies of an extinct alien civilization on Mars.
With Sir Isaac's assistance, it is used to build an advanced spaceship that is much faster than any other vessel in existence, with revolutionary weapons and defenses also derived from the new technology.
As the only combat veteran with knowledge of the ship, christened Little David, Harvey is recruited for its maiden voyage, manning a self-destruct mechanism, with strict orders to blow up the ship if it is in danger of being captured.
Little David intercepts and defeats a group of warships on their way to Mars to crush the revolt there.
Afterwards, Harvey is probably reunited with his parents, although the story ends before then.
<EOS>
Max Jones works the family farm in the Ozark Mountains.
With his father dead and his stepmother marrying again to a man he detests, Max runs away from home, taking his late uncle's astrogation manuals.
Most occupations are tightly controlled by guilds with hereditary memberships.
One such is the Astrogators Guild.
Since his uncle had been a member and had no children, Max hopes that before he died, his uncle had named him his heir.
He begins hitchhiking towards Earthport to find out.
Along the way, he finds a friendly face in hobo Sam Anderson, who later alludes to being a deserter from the Imperial Marines.
Sam feeds Max and offers advice, though he later departs with Max's valuable manuals.
At the guild's headquarters, Max is disappointed to find that he had not been named as an heir, but he is returned his uncle's substantial security deposit for his manuals.
Max learns that Sam had tried to claim the deposit for himself.
By chance, he runs into an apologetic Sam.
With Max's money, Sam is able to finagle them a one way job/trip aboard a starship using forged papers.
Max signs on as a steward's mate third class, and then he absorbs the contents of the Stewards Guild manual using his eidetic memory.
Among his duties is caring for several animals, including passengers' pets.
When passenger Eldreth "Ellie" Coburn visits her pet, an alien, semi-intelligent "spider puppy" that Max has befriended, she learns that he can play three-dimensional chess, and challenges him to a game.
A champion player, she diplomatically lets him win.
Meanwhile, Sam manages to rise to the position of master-at-arms.
When, through Ellie's machinations, the ship's officers discover that Max had learned astrogation from his uncle, Max is promoted to the command deck.
Under the tutelage of Chief Astrogator Hendrix and Chief Computerman Kelly, he becomes a probationary apprentice chartsman, then a probationary astrogator.
In a meeting with Hendrix, Max reluctantly admits to faking his record to get into space.
Hendrix defers the matter until their return to Earth.
The Asgard then departs for Halcyon, a human colony planet orbiting Nu Pegasi.
When Hendrix dies, the astrogation department is left dangerously shorthanded.
The aging captain tries to take his place, but is not up to the task.
When Max detects an error in his real-time calculations leading up to a transition, neither the captain nor Assistant Astrogator Simes believe him, and the ship becomes lost.
They locate a habitable world, which Ellie names Charity, and the passengers become colonists.
Meanwhile, the crew continues to try to figure out where they are and whether they can return to Earth.
Unfortunately, it turns out the planet is already inhabited by hostile centaur-like sapients.
Max and Ellie are captured, but Ellie's pet is able to guide Sam to them.
They escape, though Sam is killed covering their retreat.
Upon his return, Max is informed that the captain has died.
Simes tried to take command illegally and was killed by Sam, leaving Max as the only remaining astrogator.
To make matters worse, Simes hid or destroyed the astrogation manuals.
Vastly outnumbered by the natives, the humans are forced to attempt a perilous return to known space by reversing the erroneous transition.
Max must pilot the ship; he must also supply the missing astrogation tables from his eidetic memory.
To add to his burdens, the remaining officers inform Max that he must take command, as only an astrogator can be the captain.
The pressure is immense, but Max succeeds and the ship returns to known space.
Max pays heavy fines for breaking their regulations, but becomes a member of the Astrogators Guild.
However, he loses any chance for a relationship with Eldreth: she returns home to marry her boyfriend.
Max accepts this with mixed feelings, but looks forward to his new career.
<EOS>
The book is a first-person narrative consisting of the diary of Podkayne Fries, a 15 year old (Earth years) girl living on Mars with her parents and 11 year old brother Clark.
Due to the unscheduled "uncorking" (birth) of their three test-tube babies, Podkayne's parents cancel a much-anticipated trip to Earth.
Disappointed, Podkayne confesses her misery to her uncle, Senator Tom Fries, an elder statesman of the Mars government.
Tom arranges for Clark and Podkayne, escorted by himself, to get upgraded passage on a luxury liner to Earth.
During boarding, Clark is asked by a customs official "Anything to declare.
" and facetiously answers "Two kilos of happy dust.
" As he anticipated, his seemingly flippant remark gets him taken away and searched, just in time to divert attention away from Podkayne's luggage, where he has hidden a package he was paid to smuggle aboard.
Podkayne suspects the reason behind her brother's behavior, but cannot prove it.
Clark was told it was a present for the captain, but is far too cynical to be taken in.
He later carefully opens the package and finds a nuclear bomb, which he, in typical Clark-fashion, disarms and keeps.
Much of the description of the voyage is based on Heinlein's own experiences as a naval officer and world traveler.
Clark's ploy is taken from a real-life incident, related in Heinlein's Tramp Royale, in which his wife answers the same question with "heroin" substituted for the fictitious, but equally illegal, happy dust.
Once aboard, they are befriended by "Girdie", an attractive, capable, experienced woman left impoverished by her late husband.
Much to Podkayne's surprise, the normally very self-centered Clark contracts a severe case of puppy love.
The liner makes a stop at Venus, which is depicted as a latter-day Las Vegas gone ultra-capitalistic.
The planet is controlled by a single corporation; the dream of most of the frantically enterprising residents is to earn enough to buy a single share in it, which guarantees lifelong financial security.
Just about anything goes, as long as one can pay for it.
The penalty for murder is a fine paid to the corporation for the victim's estimated value plus his projected future earnings.
On a less serious level, Heinlein anticipated, by over forty years, television ads in taxicabs (in the book, holographic), which have since been implemented in taxicabs in major cities worldwide.
The Fries are given VIP treatment by the Venus Corporation and Podkayne is escorted by Dexter Cunha, the Chairman's dashing son.
She begins to realize that Tom is much more than just her pinochle-playing uncle.
When Clark vanishes and even the corporation is unable to find him, Tom reveals that he is on a secret diplomatic mission, and the children have been his protective coloration—Tom appearing to be a doddering uncle escorting two young people on a tour of the solar system rather than the accredited representative to a vital conference on Luna that he is.
Clark has been kidnapped by members of a political faction opposed to Tom.
Podkayne makes an ill-judged attempt to rescue Clark by herself and falls into the kidnappers' clutches as well—only to find her uncle caught too.
The captors' scheme is to use the children to blackmail the uncle into doing their bidding at the Luna conference.
Clark quickly realizes that once Uncle Tom is released, no matter what happens, their kidnappers will have little reason to keep their prisoners alive.
He is prepared, however: he engineers an escape, kills his captors, and forgets to disable the nuclear bomb he had intended to go off only if they failed in their escape.
In Heinlein's original ending, Podkayne is killed.
This did not please his publisher, who demanded and got a rewrite over the author's bitter objections.
In a letter to Lurton Blassingame, his literary agent, Heinlein complained that it would be like "revising Romeo and Juliet to let the young lovers live happily ever after".
He also declared that changing the end "isn't real life, because in real life, not everything ends happily".
In the original ending, after they escape from the kidnappers to a safe distance, Podkayne remembers that a semi-intelligent Venerian "fairy" baby has been left behind, and returns to rescue it.
When the bomb that Clark leaves for the kidnappers blows up, Podkayne is killed, shielding the young fairy with her body.
Clark takes over the narrative for the last chapter.
The story ends with a hint of hope for him, as he admits his responsibility for what happened to Podkayne — that he "fubbed it, mighty dry" — then shows some human feeling by regretting his inability to cry and describes his plan to raise the fairy himself.
In the revised version, Podkayne is badly injured by the bomb, but not fatally.
Uncle Tom, in a phone conversation with Podkayne's father, blames the parents — especially the mother — for neglecting the upbringing of the children.
Uncle Tom feels that Clark is dangerous and maladjusted, and attributes this to the mother giving priority to her career.
Clark still takes over as the narrator, and, again, regrets that Podkayne was hurt and plans to take care of the fairy, this time because Podkayne will want to see it when she is better.
This is the ending that appeared when the book was published 1963.
The 1993 Baen edition included both endings (which differ only on the last page) and featured a "pick the ending" contest, in which readers were asked to submit essays on which ending they preferred.
The 1995 edition included both endings, Jim Baen's own postlude to the story, and twenty-five of the essays.
The ending in which Podkayne dies was declared the winner.
Among the reasons readers favored this ending were that they felt Heinlein should have been free to create his own story, and they believed the changed ending turned a tragedy into a mere adventure, and not a very well constructed one at that.
This ending has appeared in all subsequent editions.
<EOS>
In 2009 a genetically enhanced nine-year-old female supersoldier designated as X5-452 (Geneva Locke) escapes along with eleven others from a secretS.
government institution codenamed Manticore where they were born, raised, and trained to be soldiers and assassins.
On June 1, 2009, months after X5-452's escape terrorists detonate an electromagnetic pulse weapon in the atmosphere over theS.
which destroys the vast majority of computer and communication systems, throwing the country into chaos.
Ten years later in 2019 the now 19-year-old X5-452 (Jessica Alba), who calls herself Max Guevara, struggles to search for her Manticore brothers and sisters.
In a recovering United States which is now barely more than a Third World nation she tries to live a relatively normal life and evade capture by Manticore, who wish to recover their lost asset.
Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly), an underground cyber-journalist with the alias Eyes Only, attempts to recruit her to help fight corruption in the post-Pulse world.
She initially refuses but accepts after Cale is rendered a paraplegic attempting the assignment he was recruiting her for.
A romantic interest buds between the two.
While assisting Cale Max also makes a living as a bicycle messenger at Jam Pony, a courier company, along with her friends Original Cindy (Valarie Rae Miller), Herbal Thought (Alimi Ballard), and Sketchy (Richard Gunn).
Other X5s are periodically introduced, most significantly the unit leader Zack (William Gregory Lee).
The Manticore hunt for the escaped X5s is led by Colonel Donald Lydecker (John Savage).
Near the end of the season Lydecker is betrayed by his superior, the even more ruthless Elizabeth Renfro (Nana Visitor), and he defects from Manticore.
He aids Max and Zack in an assault on Manticore headquarters.
Max is badly wounded and captured.
Zack, who has also been captured, commits suicide to provide Max with his heart, as she needs an X5 heart transplant to survive.
Cale exposes Manticore to the world.
Renfro decides to burn the facility to cover up the evidence and is killed in the process.
Aided by Joshua (Kevin Durand), a transgenic with canine DNA, Max escapes the facility and frees the other transgenics including Alec (Jensen Ackles), a fellow X5, who later joins Jam Pony.
When Max is reunited with Cale he immediately becomes ill and almost dies.
Max discovers that Manticore has infected her with a virus specifically designed to kill Cale, and the two must avoid all physical contact to keep him alive.
Max learns that Joshua was the first transgenic created by Sandeman, Manticore's founder.
Over the course of the season, it is revealed that a millennia-old breeding cult has bred their own super-soldiers who rival the Manticore-produced transgenics.
Ames White (Martin Cummins), a government agent tasked with eliminating the freed transgenics, is revealed to be a member of the cult.
When a strange message written in Max's genetic code makes an appearance on her skin it is revealed that Sandeman is a renegade from the breeding cult and Ames White is his son.
White is still loyal to the cult and hates his father's transgenic creations with a passion.
Believing that Max is a threat to the breeding cult's plans they attempt to kill her, but she escapes to Terminal City, an abandoned part of Seattle where hundreds of outcast transgenics have been hiding.
When the police begin to surround Terminal City Max convinces the other transgenics to stand their ground rather than run.
The series ends with the military surrounding Terminal City as the residents raise their newly designed flag from one of the buildings, and wait for a possible invasion.
<EOS>
Story of O is a tale of female submission involving a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer named O, who is taught to be constantly available for oral, vaginal, and anal intercourse, offering herself to any male who belongs to the same secret society as her lover.
She is regularly stripped, blindfolded, chained and whipped; her anus is widened by increasingly large plugs; her labium is pierced and her buttocks are branded.
The story begins when O's lover, René, brings her to the château in Roissy, where she is trained to serve the members of an elite club.
After this initial training, as a demonstration of their bond and his generosity, René hands O to his elder stepbrother Sir Stephen, a more severe master.
René wants O to learn to serve someone whom she does not love, and someone who does not love her.
Over the course of this training, O falls in love with Sir Stephen and believes him to be in love with her as well.
During the summer, Sir Stephen sends O to an old mansion in Samois solely inhabited by women for advanced training and body modifications related to submission.
There she agrees to receive permanent marks of Sir Stephen's ownership, in the form of a brand and a steel tag hanging from a labia piercing.
Meanwhile René has encouraged O to seduce Jacqueline, a vain fashion model, and lure her to Roissy.
Jacqueline is repulsed when she first sees O's chains and scars, although O herself is proud of her condition as a willing slave.
However, Jacqueline's younger half-sister becomes enamored of O, and begs to be taken to Roissy.
At the climax, O is presented as a sexual slave, nude but for an owl-like mask and a leash attached to her piercing, before a large party of guests who treat her solely as an object.
Afterward, she is shared by Sir Stephen and an associate of his who is referred to only as "The Commander".
Some early editions included several different variations of an epilogue which note that O was later abandoned by Sir Stephen, though there is debate as to whether Desclos intended it to be included in the finished work; in one such version, O is so distraught by the threat of this abandonment that she insists she would rather die and asks for permission to commit suicide, which is granted.
<EOS>
An ancestor of John Thomas Stuart XI brought the alien, long-lived Lummox home from an interstellar voyage.
The articulate, sentient pet he inherited from his late father has gradually grown from the size of a collie pup to a ridable behemoth—especially after consuming a used car.
The childlike Lummox is perceived to be a neighborhood nuisance and, upon leaving the Stuart property one day, causes substantial property damage across the city of Westville.
John's mother wants him to get rid of it, and a court orders it destroyed.
Desperate to save his pet, John Thomas considers selling Lummox to a zoo.
He rapidly changes his mind and runs away from home, riding into the nearby wilderness on Lummox's back.
His girlfriend Betty Sorenson joins him and suggests bringing the beast back into town and hiding it in a neighbor's greenhouse.
However, it isn't easy to conceal such a large creature.
Eventually, the court tries to have Lummox destroyed, but is unable to do so, much to Lummox's amusement.
Meanwhile, the Hroshii, an advanced, powerful and previously unknown alien race, appear and demand the return of their lost child.
or else.
A friendly alien diplomat of a third species intimates that the threat is not an empty one.
Initially, no one associates Lummox with the newcomers, in part due to the size difference (Lummox was overfed).
Lummox is identified as royalty, complicating the already-tense negotiations.
It is discovered that, from her viewpoint, the young Lummox has been pursuing her only hobby and principal interest: the raising of John Thomases.
She makes it clear that she intends to continue doing so.
This gives the chief human negotiator the leverage he needs to establish diplomatic relations with the aliens, who normally do not hold regular relations with other species.
At the request of Lummox, the recently married John and Betty accompany her back to her people as members of the human diplomatic mission.
<EOS>
The film is set in the village of Nomen Tuum (Latin, "your name"), which has a well that can heal the sick and make a person more beautiful.
Because of the latter, many conceited or corrupt individuals come to the village for this cosmetic effect.
The village has notoriety for its magical water, as well as being a ground for darkness and demons.
Along the village, succubi entice the tainted souls who come to Nomen Tuum and lead them to their deaths in order to offer their souls to Hell/the God of Darkness.
A prominent young succubus named Kia (Allyson Ames) loathes the routine of herding sinners to hell.
Kia claims her powers are being wasted, and needs something/someone more stimulating as her prey.
Her sister succubus, Amael (Eloise Hardt), warns Kia of the danger that a pure soul will bring: love.
Kia persists anyway and attempts to find a clergyman to seduce into darkness.
After watching their behaviour however, she realizes these men are just as iniquitous and shrewd as her previous victims.
She soon stumbles upon a suitable victim: Marc (Shatner), a young soldier, who with his sister Arndis (Ann Atmar) comes to the sacred water in order to heal his battle-wounds.
Kia then continues to follow the siblings and pretends to be lost.
After a brief eclipse, Kia convinces Marc to accompany her to the sea.
During the eclipse, Arndis becomes blind from looking into the sky.
Disoriented, she stumbles around in order to find Marc.
Marc and Kia quickly become attracted to each other.
Marc will not have closer relations with Kia except if they are married.
As Kia sleeps, Marc takes her to the village cathedral.
Kia flees from the cathedral, bewildered by the sight of Christ and the saints.
She is repulsed by both the Godly images and Marc's pure love.
His purity makes her ill.
Amael and Kia meditate revenge on Marc for "defiling her" with an "act of love".
Amael summons an incubus (Milos Milos) that attempts to kill Marc and rapes and murders Arndis.
As Marc prays for his sister he makes the sign of the cross and the lurking demons cringe in horror.
Defending himself from the incubus' attack, he appears to have killed him and Amael tells him he has the sin of murder on his hands.
Kia follows Marc, who is dying, to the cathedral where she professes her love for him.
The resurrected incubus intervenes and claims she belongs to the God of Darkness.
Kia defies him and makes the sign of the cross, surprising even herself.
The incubus transforms into a goat and wrestles her to the ground.
After the struggle she claims, "I belong to the God of Light," and crawls toward Marc, who immediately embraces her.
The final scene shows the couple staring in disbelief at the boundary of the cathedral, with the goat gazing back at them.
<EOS>
Ex-fighter pilot and taxi driver Ted Striker (Robert Hays) became traumatized during the War, leading to a pathological fear of flying.
As a result, he is unable to hold a responsible job.
His wartime girlfriend, Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty), now a flight attendant, leaves him.
Striker nervously boards a Boeing 707 (Trans American Flight 209) from Los Angeles to Chicago on which she is serving, hoping to win her back, but she rebuffs him.
After dinner is served, many of the passengers fall ill, and fellow passenger dr Rumack (Leslie Nielsen) deduces that the passengers have contracted food poisoning from the fish.
The cockpit crew, including pilot Clarence Oveur (Peter Graves) and co-pilot Roger Murdock (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), have also been affected, leaving no one to fly the plane.
Elaine contacts the Chicago control tower for help, and is instructed by tower supervisor Steve McCroskey (Lloyd Bridges) to activate the plane's autopilot, a large inflatable pilot doll (listed as "Otto" in the end credits), which will get them to Chicago, but will not be able to land the plane.
Rumack convinces Striker to fly the plane, though Striker feels unable to handle the pressure and the unfamiliar aircraft.
McCroskey knows that he must get someone else to help take the plane down and calls Rex Kramer (Robert Stack), Striker's commanding officer in the war.
Despite their hostile relationship, he is the best choice to instruct Striker.
As the plane nears Chicago, Striker is overcome by stress but regains confidence after a pep talk from dr Rumack.
With Kramer's advice, Striker is able to land the plane safely with only minor injuries to some passengers.
Striker's courage rekindles Elaine's love for him, and the two share a kiss.
Both then wave farewell to "Otto" as he takes off in the evacuated plane after inflating a female companion.
<EOS>
A group of Anglican nuns travel to a remote location in the Himalayas (the Palace of Mopu, near Darjeeling) to set up a school and hospital for the local people, only to find themselves increasingly seduced by the sensuality of their surroundings in a converted seraglio high up in the mountains, and by the local British agent Mr Dean (David Farrar).
Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), the Sister Superior, is attempting to forget a failed romance at home in Ireland.
Tensions mount as Dean's laid-back charm makes an impression on Clodagh, but also attracts the mentally unstable Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron), who becomes pathologically jealous of Clodagh, resulting in a nervous breakdown and a violent climax.
In a subplot, 'the Young General' (Sabu), heir to the throne of a princely Indian state who has come to the convent for his education, becomes infatuated with Kanchi, a lower caste dancing girl (Jean Simmons).
While much of the film's dialogue is taken verbatim from the novel, the film does not follow the novel exactly.
In particular the film does not include Mr Dean's rejection of Sister Clodagh's design for the chapel, in favour of his own design of an open-sided building without door, located at the top of the ridge, above the Holy Man.
Additionally, (the imminently departing) Sister Philippa is not replaced by Sister Adela, a stern nun who is horrified at the dereliction of duty by the original nuns.
<EOS>
Taking the natural logarithm of Arrhenius' equation yields:  Rearranging yields:  This has the same form as an equation for a straight line:  where x is the reciprocal of  So, when a reaction has a rate constant that obeys Arrhenius' equation, a plot of ln(k) versus T gives a straight line, whose gradient and intercept can be used to determine E and A.
This procedure has become so common in experimental chemical kinetics that practitioners have taken to using it to define the activation energy for a reaction.
That is the activation energy is defined to be (&minus;R) times the slope of a plot of ln(k) vs.
(1/T&thinsp;).
<EOS>
After recovering from tetrodotoxin poisoning inflicted by the SMERSH agent Rosa Klebb (in From Russia, with Love) the MI6 agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, on a rest cure to the British colony of Jamaica.
While there he is instructed to investigate the disappearance of Commander John Strangways, the head of MI6's Station J in Kingston, and his secretary.
Bond is briefed that Strangways had been investigating the activities of Doctor Julius No, a reclusive Chinese-German who lives on the fictional island of Crab Key and runs a guano mine.
The island has a colony of roseate spoonbills at one end while local rumour is that a vicious dragon also lives there.
The spoonbills are protected by the American National Audubon Society, two of whose representatives died when their plane crashed on No's airstrip.
On his arrival in Jamaica, Bond soon realises that he is being watched, as his hotel room is searched, a basket of poisoned fruit is delivered to the room (supposedly a gift from the colonial governor) and a deadly centipede is placed in his bed while he is sleeping.
With the help of an old friend, Quarrel, Bond surreptitiously visits Crab Key to establish whether there is a connection between No and the disappearance of the MI6 personnel.
Bond and Quarrel meet Honeychile Rider, who is there to collect valuable shells.
Bond and Rider are captured by No's men after Quarrel is burned to death by the doctor's "dragon"—a flamethrowing armoured swamp buggy designed to keep away trespassers.
Bond discovers that No is working with the Russians and has built an elaborate underground facility from which he can sabotage US test missiles launched from Cape Canaveral.
No had previously been a member of a Chinese tong, but after he stole a large amount of money from their treasury, he was captured by the organisation.
The tong's leaders had No's hands cut off as a warning to others, and then shot.
Because No's heart was on the right side of his body, the bullet missed it and he survived.
Interested in the ability of the human body to withstand and survive pain, No forces Bond to navigate his way through an obstacle course constructed in the facility's ventilation system.
Bond is kept under observation as he suffers electric shocks, burns and an encounter with large poisonous spiders.
Bond's ordeal ends in a fight with a captive giant squid, which he defeats by using improvised weapons.
After his escape he encounters Rider, who has been pegged out to be eaten by crabs; they had ignored her and she managed to escape.
Bond kills No by taking over the guano-loading machine at the docks and diverting the flow of guano to bury him alive.
Bond and Rider then escape from No's complex in the "dragon" buggy.
<EOS>
A military satellite returns to Earth.
Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town closest to where the satellite landed, is apparently dead.
The base commander suspects the satellite returned with an extraterrestrial organism and recommends activating Wildfire, a protocol for a government-sponsored team that counters extraterrestrial biological infestation.
The scientists believe the satellite, which was intentionally designed to capture upper-atmosphere microorganisms for bio-weapon exploitation, returned with a deadly microorganism that kills by nearly instantaneous disseminated intravascular coagulation (lethal blood clotting).
Upon investigating the town, the Wildfire team discovers that the residents either died in mid-stride or went "quietly nuts" and committed bizarre suicides.
Two Piedmont inhabitants—the sick, Sterno-addicted, geriatric Peter Jackson and the constantly bawling infant Jamie Ritter—are biological opposites who somehow survived the organism.
Jackson, the infant, and the satellite are taken to the secret underground Wildfire laboratory, a secure facility equipped with every known capacity for protection against a biological element escaping into the atmosphere, including a nuclear weapon to incinerate the facility if necessary.
Wildfire is hidden in a remote area near the fictional town of Flatrock, Nevada, sixty miles from Las Vegas, concealed in the sub-basements of a legitimate Department of Agriculture research station.
dr Hall is the only scientist authorized to disarm the automatic self-destruct mechanism; he is an unmarried male and thus presumed to make the most dispassionate decisions during crises.
Further investigation determines that the bizarre deaths were caused by a crystal-structured, extraterrestrial microbe transported by a meteor that crashed into the satellite, knocking it from orbit.
The microbe contains chemical elements required for terrestrial life and appears to have a crystalline structure, but lacks DNA, RNA, proteins, and amino acids, yet it directly transforms matter to energy and vice versa.
The microbe, code named "Andromeda", mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biological properties.
The scientists learn that Andromeda grows only within a narrow pH range; in a too-acidic or too-alkaline growth medium, it will not multiply.
Andromeda's ideal pH range is 739–743, within the range found in normal human blood.
That is why Jackson and Ritter survived: both had abnormal blood pH (Jackson acidotic from consumption of Sterno and Aspirin, the infant alkalotic from hyperventilation).
However, by the time the scientists realize this, Andromeda has mutated into a form that degrades the lab's plastic shields and escapes its containment.
Trapped in the contaminated laboratory, dr Burton demands that Stone inject him with Kalocin (a fictional "universal antibiotic"); Stone refuses, arguing it would render Burton too vulnerable to infection by other harmful bacteria.
Burton survives because the mutated Andromeda is no longer lethal to humans.
The mutated Andromeda attacks the synthetic rubber door and hatch seals within the Wildfire complex, racing toward the upper levels and the surface.
The self-destruct atomic bomb is automatically armed when it detects a containment breach, triggering its detonation countdown to prevent the spread of the infection.
As the bomb arms, the scientists realize that given Andromeda's ability to generate matter directly from energy, the organism would be able to consume the released energy and ultimately benefit from an atomic explosion, growing into a super-colony within a day.
To halt the detonation, dr Hall must insert a special key he carries into an emergency substation anywhere in Wildfire.
Unfortunately, he is trapped in a section with no substation.
He must navigate Wildfire's obstacle course of automatic defenses to reach a working substation on an upper level.
He barely disarms the bomb in time before all the air is evacuated from the deepest level of the Wildfire complex.
Andromeda is suspected to have eventually mutated into a benign form and migrated to the upper atmosphere, where the oxygen content is lower, better suiting its growth.
The novel's epilogue reveals that a manned spacecraft, Andros V, was incinerated during atmospheric re-entry, presumably because Andromeda had eaten its plastic heat shield and caused it to burn up.
<EOS>
The single-player game is set around two years after the events of Mysteries of the Sith.
As with Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, the player controls Kyle Katarn (voiced by Jeff Bennett), a former Jedi who has cut his links with the Force after almost succumbing to the Dark Side.
At the start of the game he is a mercenary working for the New Republic.
Over the course of the game, Kyle is joined by various other characters.
Three of the most prominent are Jan Ors (Vanessa Marshall), a fellow mercenary and subsequent love interest; Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), the sophisticated administrator of Cloud City, as seen in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi; and Luke Skywalker (Bob Bergen), leader of the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV.
The player also receives help from other Jedi and New Republic soldiers, while Mon Mothma (Carolyn Seymour), Chief-of-State of the New Republic, assigns Kyle and Jan missions during the game.
There are four main enemies: Desann (Mark Klastorin), a former student of the Jedi Academy, who killed a fellow student before leaving the Order; Tavion (Kath Soucie), Desann's apprentice; Galak Fyyar (Steven Blum), a general in the Imperial Remnant; and Reelo Baruk (Kevin Michael Richardson), a crime lord posing as a "respectable garbage collector" on Nar Shaddaa.
Other enemies include Imperial stormtroopers, numerous thugs and soldiers infused with the Force (known as the "Reborn").
The game begins with Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors investigating a supposedly abandoned Imperial outpost on Kejim.
However, when they arrive, they find the base crawling with Imperial forces.
They fight their way through the base, discovering a research center studying crystals similar to those used to power lightsabers.
Tracing the crystals' origin, Kyle and Jan travel to Artus Prime, a mining colony turned into an Imperial stronghold, where the miners have been enslaved and experimented upon.
Katarn thwarts the Imperial operations, but not before Jan is captured by the Dark Jedi Desann and his apprentice Tavion.
Kyle tries to rescue her, but, having forsaken the ways of the Jedi, he is easily defeated by Desann, who orders Tavion to kill Jan before they leave the planet.
With Jan dead, Kyle travels to the Valley of the Jedi (a major plot element in Dark Forces II) to regain his Force powers, and then to the Jedi Academy to get his lightsaber.
There, he learns of Desann's origins from Luke Skywalker.
Luke offers Kyle his lightsaber back if he can complete a set of trials.
Kyle completes the trials easily, so easily that Luke quickly deduces Kyle has returned to the Valley.
Sensing Kyle's anger about the death of Jan, Luke warns Kyle that the path he is walking is a dangerous one, but he nevertheless gives Kyle the information he seeks, linking Desann to Reelo Baruk, a Rodian crime lord on Nar Shaddaa.
Reelo proves to have little information, but Kyle stumbles upon Lando Calrissian, who has been imprisoned in Baruk's dungeons.
From Lando, Kyle learns that Desann is a part of a huge operation smuggling cortosis, a lightsaber-resistant material, through Cloud City.
Escaping from Reelo, Kyle and Lando then head for Bespin.
Lando drops Kyle off at the bottom of Cloud City, and as he works his way up the structure he has his first encounter with a Reborn.
He subsequently fights several Reborn, plus numerous Remnants, until he eventually encounters Tavion, who is about to board a ship headed for Galak Fyyar's Star Destroyer, the Doomgiver.
Kyle defeats Tavion and threatens to kill her, but Tavion pleads for her life, telling Kyle that Jan is alive and on board the Doomgiver.
Jan's faked death was just a ploy to trick Kyle into going to the Valley of the Jedi in order for Desann to follow him there and tap its power.
In exchange for her life, Tavion lets Kyle use her ship to travel to the Star Destroyer.
After fighting his way past some stormtroopers at the Cairn Installation - an Imperial base hidden on an asteroid in the Lenico Belt, where the Doomgiver is docked - Kyle meets up with Luke Skywalker.
From Luke, Kyle learns that Desann has found the Valley of the Jedi, and used its energy to empower an army of Reborn which could number in the thousands.
After battling several Reborn together, they part ways.
Kyle then sneaks across the Cairn base and finds out it is also a large assault ship construction facility, which is preparing for a full-scale planetary assault.
Kyle confronts more Reborn, including "Shadowtroopers" - Reborn equipped with armor which is both lightsaber-resistant, and allows a measure of invisibility.
Kyle manages to sneak into the Doomgiver before the ship leaves Cairn, but Luke is left behind.
After the Doomgiver completes its jump to hyperspace, Kyle uses the ship's communications array to contact Rogue Squadron.
He finds Jan in the detention block, but then learns that Desann was not specifically interested in the Valley of the Jedi - instead his goal all along was to invade the Jedi Academy.
Kyle destroys the Doomgivers shield reactor, and kills Galak Fyyarr.
Narrowly escaping the ship's destruction, Kyle and Jan use an escape pod to land on Yavin IV.
With the invasion fully underway, Kyle heads to the Jedi Academy, while Jan goes to a hangar to assist in the aerial battle.
Kyle soon finds the academy overrun with Imperial forces, but with the help of the New Republic troops, he fends them off.
Together with Jedi Academy students, he engages in a fight against Reborn warriors and Shadowtroopers.
After crossing underground tunnels, Kyle finally confronts Desann.
He reveals the Doomgivers destruction and the defeat of the Imperial forces, but Desann rejects Kyle's offer to rejoin the Jedi and they engage in a lightsaber battle.
Kyle prevails and kills Desann.
He subsequently reunites with Luke and Jan, and politely rebuffs Luke's offer to safeguard his lightsaber, saying he is not ready to forsake the Force again.
<EOS>
Rainbow Six is set in the year 1999 and 2000.
Rainbow is a newly created multinational counter-terrorism unit, composed of elite soldiers from NATO countries, formed to address the growing problem of international terrorism.
The organization's director is John Clark, and the team leader is Ding Chavez.
The term "Rainbow Six" refers to the director of the organization, John Clark.
Soon after its inauguration, Rainbow finds itself responding to a series of seemingly unrelated terrorist attacks by the Phoenix Group, a radical eco-terrorist organization.
Throughout its investigation, Rainbow is assisted and advised by John Brightling, chairman of the powerful biotechnology corporation Horizon Inc.
However, Rainbow eventually learns that the Phoenix Group is actually a front for Horizon Inc itself.
Brightling's company is developing a highly contagious strain of the Ebola virus called "Brahma", adapted from a strain killing Central African cattle(called "Ebola Shiva" in the novel) with the ability to kill every human being on the planet.
In order to protect "mother nature", John Brightling is planning to kill most of the human race, sparing only Brightling's chosen few, who will re-emerge and rebuild the planet into a scientific and environmentally-friendly utopia.
To achieve this goal, he has used the scattered terrorist attacks to create fear of terrorism, which he then exploited in order to get a security contract for his own private security firm at the Olympic Games.
Brightling's plan is for his "security personnel" to unleash the virus at the games, spreading it to all the countries of the world.
Rainbow succeeds in preventing the release of the virus at the Olympics, and Brightling and his collaborators retreat to their Horizon Ark facility in the Brazilian jungle, from which they had originally planned to weather out the global holocaust.
Rainbow infiltrates the facility, killing all of Brightling's collaborators and capturing Brightling himself.
<EOS>
The Marathon series of games was the first in its genre to place a heavy emphasis on storytelling through the use of terminals, which are computer interfaces included within the game through which players not only learn about and sometimes accomplish mission objectives, but also discover detailed story information.
The textual form of this narrative conceit allowed for much more detail than the typically terse examples of voice acting in Marathon's contemporaries.
Set in 2794, Marathon places the player as a security officer aboard an enormous human starship called theESC.
Marathon, orbiting a colony on the planet Tau Ceti IV.
Throughout the game, the player attempts to defend the ship (and its crew and colonists) from a race of alien slavers called the Pfhor.
As he fights against the invaders, he witnesses interactions among the three shipboard AIs (Leela, Durandal and Tycho), and discovers that all is not as it seems aboard the Marathon.
Among other problems, Durandal has gone rampant and appears to be playing the humans against the Pfhor to further his own mysterious agenda; ultimately leading the S'pht, one of the races enslaved by the Pfhor, in a rebellion.
Seventeen years after the events of the first game, in , the artificial intelligence, Durandal, sends the player and an army of ex-colonists to search the ruins of Lh'owon, the S'pht homeworld.
Lh'owon was once described as a paradise but is now a desert world after first the S'pht Clan Wars and then the invasion by the Pfhor.
He does not mention what information he is looking for, although he does let it slip that the Pfhor are planning to attack Earth, and that being on Lh'owon may stall their advance.
Marathon 2 brings many elements to the game that can be considered staples of the series such as: a Lh'owon-native species known as F'lickta, the mention of an ancient and mysterious race of advanced aliens called the Jjaro, and a clan of S'pht that avoided enslavement by the Pfhor: the S'pht'Kr.
At the climax of the game, the player activates Thoth, an ancient Jjaro AI.
Thoth then contacts the S'pht'Kr, who in turn destroy the Pfhor armada.
Marathon Infinity, the final game in the series, includes more levels than Marathon 2, which are larger and part of a more intricate plot.
The game's code changed little since Marathon 2, and many levels can be played unmodified in both games.
The only significant additions to the game's engine were the Jjaro ship, multiple paths between levels, a new rapid-fire weapon that could be used underwater, and vacuum-enabled humans carrying fusion weapons (called "Vacuum Bobs" or "VacBobs").
The player traverses multiple timelines, attempting to find one in which the W'rkncacnter is not freed.
In one timeline, the player is forced to destroy Durandal, and in another Durandal merges with Thoth.
At the end of the game, an ancient Jjaro machine is activated that keeps the W'rkncacnter locked in the Lh'owon sun.
Elements of the plot and setting of Marathon are similar to The Jesus Incident by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom.
Both stories take place aboard colony ships orbiting Tau Ceti, where sentient computers have engaged crew and colonists in a fight for survival.
While Ship in The Jesus Incident has achieved a higher level of omniscient consciousness, Durandal's rampancy parallels the "rogue consciousness" from Herbert's earlier.
<EOS>
The story begins when Kururin’s brothers and sisters go missing, and it is up to him to find them.
Kururin is initially unsure that he is up to the task because he has never left his home world before.
Being the adventurous and helpful fellow he is, Kururin agrees to rescue his lost family.
Teacher Hare trains Kururin in the art of controlling the Helirin, a stick-shaped helicopter that has a slow-spinning propeller.
Piloting the Helirin through the different worlds will be a difficult task, but using Teacher Hare's valuable lessons, Kururin bravely sets out on his adventure to rescue his lost family.
<EOS>
In the futuristic year of 2026, in the city of Metropolis, wealthy industrialists reign from high-rise tower complexes, while underground-dwelling workers toil to operate the underground machines that power the city.
Joh Fredersen is the city's master.
His son Freder idles away his time in a pleasure garden, but is interrupted by the arrival of a young woman named Maria, who has brought a group of workers' children to witness the lifestyle of the rich.
Maria and the children are ushered away, but Freder, fascinated, goes to the machine rooms to find her.
Witnessing the explosion of a huge machine that kills and injures several workers, he hurries to tell Fredersen about the accident.
Grot, foreman of the Heart Machine, brings to Fredersen secret maps found on the dead workers.
Freder secretly rebels against Fredersen by deciding to help the workers, after seeing his father's cold indifference towards the harsh conditions they face.
Fredersen takes the maps to the inventor Rotwang to learn their meaning.
Rotwang had been in love with a woman named Hel, who left him to marry Fredersen and later died giving birth to Freder.
Rotwang shows Fredersen a robot he has built to "resurrect" Hel.
The maps show a network of catacombs beneath Metropolis, and the two men go to investigate.
They eavesdrop on a gathering of workers, including Freder.
Maria addresses them, prophesying the arrival of a mediator who can bring the working and ruling classes together.
Freder believes that he could fill the role and declares his love for Maria.
Fredersen orders Rotwang to give Maria's likeness to the robot so that it can ruin her reputation among the workers, unaware that Rotwang plans to use the robot to kill Freder and bring down Metropolis.
Rotwang kidnaps Maria, transfers her likeness to the robot and sends her to Fredersen.
Freder finds the two embracing and, believing it is the real Maria, falls into a prolonged delirium.
Intercut with his hallucinations, the false Maria unleashes chaos throughout Metropolis, driving men to murder and stirring dissent amongst the workers.
Freder recovers and returns to the catacombs.
Finding the false Maria urging the workers to rise up and destroy the machines, Freder accuses her of not being the real Maria.
The workers follow the false Maria from their city to the machine rooms, leaving their children behind.
They destroy the Heart Machine, which causes the workers' city below to flood.
The real Maria, having escaped from Rotwang's house, rescues the children with the help of Freder.
Grot berates the celebrating workers for abandoning their children in the flooded city.
Believing their children to be dead, the hysterical workers capture the false Maria and burn her at the stake.
A horrified Freder watches, not understanding the deception until the fire reveals her to be a robot.
Rotwang chases the real Maria to the roof of the cathedral, pursued by Freder, and the two men fight as Fredersen and the workers watch from the street.
Rotwang falls to his death.
Freder fulfills his role as mediator by linking the hands of Fredersen and Grot to bring them together.
<EOS>
The film opens with Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) in an Egyptian tomb, seeking a diamond at one end of a chamber.
As she approaches she is attacked by a large robot.
After an intense chase and battle, she disables it by ripping out its motivational circuits.
She takes the diamond, which is revealed to be a memory card labeled "Lara's Party Mix", and inserts it into a laptop computer inside the robot, whereupon it plays music.
Now it is revealed that the scene took place in a practice arena in her home, and that her assistant Bryce (Noah Taylor) programmed the robot, SIMON, to challenge her in combat.
It is the day of the first phase of a planetary alignment, culminating in a solar eclipse, which (in the film) happens once every 5,000 years.
In Venice, the Illuminati search for a key to rejoin halves of "the triangle", which must be done by the final phase of the alignment.
mr Powell (Iain Glen), an Illuminati member, makes assurances that they are almost ready, but in reality he has no idea where to find the key.
Lara's butler, James "Hilly" Hillary (Chris Barrie), tries to interest her in several projects; but she ignores them.
May 15, as Hilly is aware, is the day that Lara's father disappeared many years earlier.
She has not recovered from his loss.
Later that night, Lara has a dream reminding her what her father said about the alignment and an object linked to it called the Triangle of Light.
Waking, she is aware of a clock ticking.
Searching for it, she discovers a secret chamber under the staircase with a carriage clock that had spontaneously begun ticking.
Bryce probes it and discovers a strange device hidden inside the clock.
Since the device resembles a clock, Lara consults a clock expert friend of her father's, mr Wilson (Leslie Phillips).
She believes it is connected to the "Triangle of Light", but Wilson disavows knowledge of the clock or the Triangle.
Lara encounters Alex West (Daniel Craig), a fellow tomb raider with unscrupulous methods.
They are attracted to each other, but Croft cannot abide his for-profit attitude.
That night, Lara is contacted by Wilson, who tells her that he gave her name to a man named Manfred Powell in regards of the clock.
In reality, Wilson is also a member of the Illuminati.
The next day, Lara sees Powell in his home, and shows him photographs of the clock.
Later, while discussing it with Bryce, she points out that Powell was lying about his knowledge.
That night, as Lara does a bungee ballet, armed commandos invade the house and steal the clock despite her attempts to fend them off.
The next morning, Lara receives a letter from her father, arranged to arrive after the beginning of the alignment, where he explains that the clock is the key to retrieve two halves of the mystic Triangle of Light, which is revealed to be an object of phenomenal destructive power that granted its wielder power over time and space.
He says that it was made from a metal found in a meteor crater made by a meteor that had fallen to earth during a previous alignment.
Initially housed in a city built in the meteor crater by those who worshiped the object, misuse of the Triangle's power destroyed the city and so it was split into two halves; one was hidden in a tomb in Cambodia, the other half in the ruined city itself, in modern-day Siberia.
Her father urges her to find and destroy both halves before the Illuminati can find it.
In Cambodia, West figures out part of the puzzle on how to retrieve the triangle half, but Lara manages to successfully grab the piece.
Before everyone can leave, the liquid metal which came out with the piece brings the statues in the temple to life and attacks the team killing some members.
Lara is left to fight off and destroy a huge six-armed guardian statue which is the last one to come to life.
She successfully defeats it and leaves the temple by diving through a waterfall.
She then travels to a Buddhist town where a young monk welcomes her.
After a worship service, an aged monk who is the leader there gives Lara some tea and as they converse, he tells her that he knew her father before.
She and Powell arrange to meet in Venice, since each of them has what the other needs to finish the Triangle.
Powell proposes a partnership to find the Triangle, and informs Lara that her father was a member of the Illuminati, which she vehemently denies.
Though hesitant at first, she, along with Bryce, meets with Powell for the trip to Siberia.
Inside the tomb, there is a giant model of the solar system, which activates as the alignment nears completion.
Lara retrieves the last half of the Triangle, but when Powell tries to complete it, the halves will not fuse.
He realizes that Lara knows the solution to the puzzle, and kills West in order to persuade her to complete the Triangle to save both West's life and her father's.
Lara reluctantly complies, and they then struggle for control of the Triangle, with Lara prevailing.
Lara then finds herself in a strange alternate existence facing her father Lord Richard Croft (Jon Voight).
He explains that it is a "crossing" of time and space, and urges her to destroy the Triangle instead of using it to save his life.
She leaves her father and returns to the chamber, where time is slowly running backwards from the point where Powell killed West.
Croft takes the knife he threw into West's chest and reverses it, then destroys the Triangle, which returns time to its normal flow and directs the knife into Powell's shoulder.
The chamber begins to self-destruct, Everyone turns to leave, but Powell tells Croft that he killed her father and retrieved his pocket watch with a picture of Lara's mother inside.
Lara and Powell engage in a hand-to-hand fight.
Lara kills him, retrieves it, and escapes as the chamber crumbles.
At the mansion, Hilly and Bryce are shocked to see Lara wearing a dress.
She goes into the garden to her father's memorial, then returns inside, where Bryce has a reprogrammed SIMON, ready to challenge Lara once again.
Hillary reveals a silver tray holding Lara's pistols, which she takes with a smile.
<EOS>
Mary Shelley states in the introduction that in 1818 she discovered, in the Sibyl's cave near Naples, a collection of prophetic writings painted on leaves by the Cumaean Sibyl.
She has edited these writings into the current narrative, the first-person narrative of a man living at the end of the 21st century.
Lionel's father was a friend of the king before he was cast away because of his gambling.
Lionel's father left to take his life, but before he did so he left a letter for the king to take care of his family after his death.
After Lionel's father died the letter was never delivered.
Lionel and his sister grow up with no parental influence, and as a result grow to be uncivilised.
Lionel develops a hatred of the royal family, and Perdita grows to enjoy her isolation from society.
When the king leaves the throne, the monarchy comes to an end and a republic is created.
When the king dies the Countess attempts to raise their son, Adrian, to reclaim the throne, but Adrian opposes his mother and refuses to take the throne.
Adrian moves to Cumberland where Lionel, who bears a grudge against Adrian and his family for the neglect of the Verney family, intends to terrorise and confront Adrian.
He is mollified by Adrian's good nature and his explanation that he only recently discovered the letter.
Lionel and Adrian become close friends, and Lionel becomes civilised and philosophical under Adrian's influence.
Adrian assists Lionel in pursuing political endeavors in Vienna which Lionel accepts and leaves for 2 years but chooses to return to England because he hasn't heard from either Adrian or his sister.
Lionel returns to England to face the personal turmoil amongst his acquaintances.
Lord Raymond, who came to be renowned for his exploits in a war between Greece and Turkey, has returned to England in search of political position, and soon Perdita and Evadne both fall in love with him.
On discovering that his beloved, Evadne, is in love with Raymond, Adrian goes into exile, presumably mad.
Raymond intends to marry Idris (with whom Lionel is in love) as a first step towards becoming king, with the help of the Countess.
However, he ultimately chooses his love for Perdita over his ambition, and the two marry.
Under Lionel's care Adrian recovers, although he remains physically weak.
On learning of the love between Idris and Lionel, the Countess schemes to drug Idris, bring her to Austria, and force her to make a politically motivated marriage.
Idris discovers the plot and flees to Lionel, who marries her soon after.
The Countess leaves for Austria, resentful of her children and of Lionel.
Adrian and the others live happily together until Raymond runs for Lord Protector and wins.
Perdita soon adjusts to her newfound social position, while Raymond becomes well-beloved as a benevolent administrator.
He discovers, however, that Evadne, after the political and financial ruin of her husband (on account of her own political schemes) is living in poverty and obscurity in London, unwilling to plead for assistance.
Raymond attempts to support Evadne by employing her artistic skills in secrecy, and later nursing her in illness, but Perdita learns of the relationship and suspects infidelity.
Her suspicions arouse Raymond's proud and passionate nature, and the two separate.
Raymond resigns his position and leaves to rejoin the war in Greece, accompanied for a time by Adrian.
Shortly after the wounded Adrian returns to England, rumours arise that Raymond has been killed.
Perdita, loyal in spite of everything, convinces Lionel to bring her and Clara to Greece to find him.
Lionel finds Raymond and brings him back to Greece.
Lionel and Raymond then go back to fighting and go to Constantinople.
Lionel discovers Evadne, dying of wounds received fighting in the war.
Before she dies, Evadne prophesies Raymond's death, a prophecy which confirms Raymond's own suspicions.
Raymond's intention to enter Constantinople causes dissension and desertion amongst the army because of reports of the plague.
Raymond enters the city alone, and soon dies in a fire.
He is taken to Athens for burial.
Lionel then drugs and take Perdita on to a ship for England.
Perdita, distraught by Raymond's death, drowns herself by throwing herself off the ship.
In 2092, while Lionel and Adrian attempt to return their lives to normality, the plague continues to spread across Europe and the Americas, and reports of a black sun cause panic throughout the world.
At first England is thought to be safe, but soon the plague reaches even there.
Ryland, recently elected Lord Protector, is unprepared for the plague, and flees northward, later dying alone amidst a stockpile of provisions.
Adrian takes command and is largely effective at maintaining order and humanity in England, although the plague rages on summer after summer.
Ships arrive in Ireland carrying survivors from America, who lawlessly plunder Ireland and Scotland before invading England.
Adrian raises a military force against them, but ultimately is able to resolve the situation peacefully.
The few remaining survivors decide to abandon England in search of an easier climate.
On the eve of their departure to Dover, Lionel receives a letter from Lucy Martin, who was unable to join the exiles because of her mother's illness.
Lionel and Idris travel through a snowstorm to assist Lucy, but Idris, weak from years of stress and maternal fears, dies along the way.
Lionel and the Countess, who had shunned Idris and her family out of resentment towards Lionel, are reconciled at Idris' tomb.
Lionel recovers Lucy (whose mother has died), and the party reaches Dover en route to France.
In France, Adrian discovers that the earlier emigrants have divided into factions, amongst them a fanatical religious sect led by a false messiah who claims that his followers will be saved from disease.
Adrian unites most of the factions, but this latter group declares violent opposition to Adrian.
Lionel sneaks into Paris, where the cult has settled, to try to rescue Juliet.
She refuses to leave because the imposter has her baby, but she helps Lionel to escape.
Later, when Juliet's baby sickens, Juliet discovers that the imposter has been hiding the effects of the plague from his followers.
She is killed warning the other followers, after which the imposter commits suicide, and his followers return to the main body of exiles at Versailles.
The exiles travel towards Switzerland, hoping to spend the summer in a colder climate less favourable to the plague.
By the time they reach Switzerland, however, all but four (Lionel, Adrian, Clara, and Evelyn) have died.
The four spend a few relatively happy seasons at Switzerland, Milan, and Como before Evelyn dies of typhus.
The survivors attempt to sail across the Adriatic Sea to Greece, but a sudden storm drowns Clara and Adrian.
Lionel, the last man, swims to shore.
The story ends in the year 2100.
<EOS>
Set in the late 1960s and 1970s, the story describes the efforts of Episcopal Bishop Timothy Archer, who must cope with the theological and philosophical implications of the newly discovered Gnostic Zadokite scroll fragments.
The character of Bishop Archer is loosely based on the controversial, iconoclastic Episcopal Bishop James Pike, who in 1969 died of exposure while exploring the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea in the West Bank.
As the novel opens, it is 1980.
On the day that John Lennon is shot and killed, Angel Archer visits the houseboat of Edgar Barefoot, (a guru based on Alan Watts), and reflects on the lives of her deceased relatives.
During the sixties, she was married to Jeff Archer, son of the Episcopal Bishop of California Timothy Archer.
She introduced Kirsten Lundborg, a friend, to her father-in law, and the two began an affair.
Kirsten has a son, Bill, from a previous relationship, who has schizophrenia, although he is knowledgeable as an automobile mechanic.
Tim is already being investigated for his gnostic, allegedly heretical views about the Zadokite scrolls, which reproduce some of Jesus Christ's statements about the world, but have been dated to the second century before the birth of Christ.
Jeff commits suicide due to his romantic obsession with Kirsten.
However, after poltergeist activity, he manifests to Tim and Kirsten at a seance, also attended by Angel.
Angel is skeptical about the efficacy of astrology, and believes that the unfolding existential situation of Tim and Kirsten is akin to Friedrich Schiller's German Romanticism era masterpiece, the Wallenstein trilogy (insofar as their credulity reflects the loss of rational belief in contemporary consensual reality).
The three are told that Kirsten and Tim will die.
As predicted, Kirsten loses her remission from cancer, and also commits suicide after a barbiturate overdose.
Tim travels to Israel to investigate whether or not a psychotropic mushroom was associated with the resurrection, but his car stalls, he becomes disoriented, falls from a cliff, and dies in the desert.
On the houseboat, Angel is reunited with Bill, Kirsten's son who has schizophrenia.
He claims to have Tim's reincarnated spirit within him, but is soon institutionalized.
Angel agrees to care for Bill, in return for a rare record that Edgar offers her.
Transmigration is one of Dick's most overtly philosophical and intellectual works.
While Dick's novels usually employ multiple narrators or an omniscient perspective, this story is told in the first person by a single narrator: Angel Archer, Bishop Archer's daughter-in-law.
Dick's work was often criticized for its flat, stereotypical female characters, so Angel may represent his effort to prove he could create a rich and believable feminine voice.
<EOS>
In the book the plot emerges in a fragmented way, with shifting points of view and events that seem out of order.
As presented, it shows Richard MacDuff avoiding his boss Gordon Way, the CEO of Wayforward Technologies II, by going to the Coleridge dinner at his old college St Cedd's.
Following the annual reading of "Kubla Khan" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge, MacDuff witnesses his former tutor, Professor Urban "Reg" Chronotis, perform an inexplicable magic trick where he makes a cruet disappear and then finds it again by smashing an ancient clay pot that a young girl brought to the dinner, having found it on holiday in Greece.
When MacDuff and Prof.
Chronotis' adjourn to the professor's lodgings, they find a horse there, which the Professor is alarmed about but unable to explain.
MacDuff returns to his London flat and finds himself doing things that are out of character, including climbing a drainpipe to break into the flat belonging to Gordon's sister Susan to erase an embarrassing message he left on her answering machine and later named a suspect in the death of Gordon Way.
At that point Dirk Gently, a self-claimed "Holistic Detective" that believes in the "fundamental interconnectedness of all things" and currently searching for a missing cat, intervenes and sets about solving the mystery, even though MacDuff was not aware that there was one.
Four billion years in Earth's past, a group of Salaxalans attempts to populate the Earth; however, a mistake caused by their engineer – who used an Electric Monk to irrationally believe the proposed fix would work – causes their landing craft to explode, killing the Salaxalans and generating the spark of energy needed to start the process of life on Earth.
The ghost of the Salaxalan engineer roams the earth waiting to undo his mistake, watching human life develop and waiting to find a soul that it can possess.
The ghost finds it can only possess individuals that fundamentally want to do the same task it is trying to accomplish itself.
Otherwise, it is only able to influence the individual in subtle ways.
In the early 19th century, the ghost discovers Coleridge, who in this reality has yet to be interrupted by the "man from Porlock" during the writing of "Kubla Khan".
The ghost influences Coleridge to describe the accident and how to correct the problem that destroyed the landing craft within the work's prose.
The ghost begins seeking out someone whose hardship can be influenced by Coleridge's work when it becomes apparent to him that Coleridge himself is too 'relaxed' on laudanum to be useful to him.
It later discovers that Prof.
Chronotis possesses a time machine disguised as his quarters.
At the aforementioned Coleridge dinner, the ghost influences Prof.
Chronotis to use the time machine to perform the magic trick, using the opportunity to lure an Electric Monk and its horse into the quarters.
Upon return to the present, the ghost finds the Monk unusable for its purposes and lets it roam free while seeking a new host.
The Monk then goes off to kill Way due to a misunderstanding.
As a ghost himself, Way attempts to call Susan or MacDuff to tell him something important, but cannot do so without a bodily form.
The ghost attempts to possess MacDuff, but only manages to successfully get him to climb into Susan's flat before leaving him.
At this point, Gently has determined that MacDuff had been possessed by a ghost, and, through the insight of a child, determines that a time machine was involved.
The two visit Prof.
Chronotis who admits to the truth.
As they talk, the ghost of the Salaxalan engineer has found Michael Wenton-Weakes, a recently fired editor of an arts magazine.
The ghost convinces Wenton-Weakes to read Coleridge's work, leading him to kill Albert Ross, the editor that replaced him.
With this action, the ghost is able to fully possess Wenton-Weakes' body.
The ghost arrives at Prof.
Chronotis' quarters and asks he take them back in time just prior to the explosion of the Salaxalan ship so that he can make the proper repairs.
As they watch the ghost take Wenton-Weakes' body out towards the ship, MacDuff gets a call from Susan (due to mixed-up utility connections in the flat) and learns of Ross's murder.
Gently realises that the ghost must have used Wenton-Weakes to kill Ross, and asserts they need to stop the ghost before it can repair the ship, which would prevent the formation of life on earth.
They travel to the 19th century long enough for Gently to interrupt Coleridge, disrupting the ghost's influence on the author and preventing the full version of "Kubla Khan" containing the instructions for fixing the ship from ever having been written and preventing the ship from being fixed in the past.
Upon arrival back in the 20th century, Gently, MacDuff, and Prof.
Chronotis find humanity as they expect it but with very small, subtle changes.
Reg discovers his time machine no longer functions, after having the telephone company repair the phone line to his quarters.
Dirk learns that the missing cat was never missing in the first place as a result of their actions, and sends his client a revised bill that reads, "To: saving human race from total extinction - no charge".
<EOS>
Dragonflight takes place in the far future on Pern, a planet colonized by humans.
The colonists had originally intended to gradually adopt a low-technology agrarian lifestyle, but were forced to move more quickly after they encountered the deadly Thread raining down from the sky.
By harnessing and riding the indigenous, flying, fire-breathing dragons (with genetic alterations to make them larger and telepathic), the colonists destroyed the Thread in the skies over Pern, creating pockets of safety over its surface, before it was able to burrow into the land and breed.
Humanity finally managed to find equilibrium and began to create a thriving culture, society, and economy, eventually expanding right across Pern's northern continent.
However, when this narrative begins, an unusually long interval between Thread attacks has caused the general population to dismiss the threat as myth and gradually withdraw support from the Weyrs where dragons are bred and trained.
By the time of this narrative, only one Weyr remains (the other five having mysteriously disappeared at the same time in the last quiet interval), maintaining a precarious existence.
Dragons are telepathic and are capable of forming a lifelong bond with one particular human in a process called Impression.
Tradition, established thousands of years before the narrative, dictates that selected young humans with empathetic and telepathic talents are taken to the Hatching Grounds as candidates for Impression.
The dragons come in several colors which generally correlate with their sizes; blue males, green females, brown males, bronze males, and golden females&nbsp;– queens.
Bronzes, the largest males, are by tradition the only ones who compete to win the queens in their mating flights.
The green females are banned from breeding as they produce only small, less talented dragons.
The golden queens are not only the largest dragons, they also hold a subtle control over their dragon communities Weyrs.
Dragonflight chronicles the story of Lessa, the sole survivor of the noble ruling family of Ruatha Hold on the northern continent of Pern.
When the rest of her family is killed by a cruel usurper, Fax, she survives by disguising herself as a drudge (a menial servant), partly through simply adopting a slovenly appearance, but also by using her hereditary telepathic abilities to make others see her as far older and less attractive than she actually is.
Her only friend is a watch-wher, a somewhat telepathic animal related to dragons, that guards the Hold.
Lessa psychically influences other Hold workers to do less than their best work, or to become clumsy or inefficient, in order to sabotage Ruatha as part of her strategy to make it economically unproductive, so that Fax will renounce it and she can retake her Hold.
F'lar, wingleader at Benden Weyr, and rider of the bronze dragon Mnementh, finds Lessa while searching for candidates to impress a new queen dragon.
The current queen has a batch of eggs due to hatch shortly, including a crucial golden egg.
After killing Fax in single combat, following the rules of the Pernese code duello, he realises that she manipulated him emotionally to kill Fax and engineered Fax's renouncement.
F'lar recognizes that Lessa possesses both unusually strong psychic abilities and great strength of will.
He recognizes her potential to be the strongest Weyrwoman in recent history, and the path to his own leadership at Benden Weyr.
F'lar convinces a reluctant Lessa to give up her birthright as Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold for the larger domain of the dragonweyr and she agree to pass the title on to Fax's newborn son (who later features in The White Dragon).
F'lar takes Lessa to Benden Weyr, where she Impresses the queen hatchling Ramoth and becomes the Weyrwoman, the new co-leader of the last active Weyr.
On Ramoth's first mating flight, Mnementh catches her, and by Weyr tradition, this makes F'lar the Weyrleader.
One Weyr by itself is not enough to defend the planet; there had been six, but the other five Weyrs are now empty, deserted since the last Pass centuries before.
In a desperate attempt to increase their numbers, a new queen, Prideth, and her rider, Kylara, are sent back between times (a recently rediscovered skill) ten turns, to allow Prideth time to mature and reproduce.
Lessa travels four hundred turns into the past to bring the five 'missing' Weyrs forward to her present.
This is a huge strain for both her and Ramoth.
She convinces the dragonriders of the five Weyrs to go with her to their future, and they use the Red Star as a guide to make smaller, less strenuous hops forward in time.
This not only provides much needed skilled reinforcements in the battle against Thread, but explains how and why the five Weyrs were abandoned: they came forward in time.
<EOS>
A fastidious and wholesome history teacher named Kate (Meg Ryan) is living in Canada with her fiancé, Charlie (Timothy Hutton), a dentist.
While waiting for her Canadian citizenship to come through, Kate has been busy planning their wedding and the purchase of their first house, complete with a white picket fence.
When Charlie urges her to accompany him to Paris for an upcoming conference, she declines due to her fear of flying and her general intolerance for cheese, secondhand smoke, and the French.
A few days later, Kate's plans for the future are crushed when she receives a phone call from Charlie, who informs her that he has fallen in love with a beautiful French "goddess" named Juliette (Susan Anbeh) and that he will not be returning.
Determined to win him back, Kate boards a flight to Paris and is seated next to a crude Frenchman, Luc Teyssier (Kevin Kline), whose every word seems to annoy her.
Unknown to Kate, Luc is smuggling a vine cutting and a stolen diamond necklace into France hoping to use both to start his own vineyard.
With the help of a few drinks, Kate is able to tolerate her "rude" and "hygiene deficient" seating partner long enough to arrive safely in Paris.
Before de-boarding, Luc sneaks the vine and necklace into Kate's bag, knowing she will not be searched at customs.
At the terminal, Luc is spotted by Inspector Jean-Paul Cardon (Jean Reno) who insists on giving him a ride during which he searches his bag.
Jean-Paul knows of Luc's vocation, but feels "protective" of him because Luc once saved his life.
Meanwhile, Kate arrives at the Hôtel George V where she encounters new levels of French sarcasm and rudeness from the concierge ().
While waiting in the lobby with a petty thief named Bob (François Cluzet), Kate sees Charlie and Juliette kissing in a descending elevator and faints.
Bob steals her bag and leaves just as Luc arrives.
After reviving Kate, Luc realizes that Bob now has the necklace, goes with Kate to Bob's apartment, and recovers the bag, absent her money and passport.
Upset with Luc, Kate heads off on her own and learns that Charlie is traveling south to Cannes to meet Juliette's parents.
Luc, meanwhile, realizes that the necklace must still be in Kate's bag.
He tracks her down to the train station, offers to help her "win back Charlie", and together they board a train to Cannes.
After lactose intolerant Kate samples some of the 452 official government cheeses of France, she becomes sick, and they get off the train at Luc's hometown of La Ravelle in Paulhaguet, where they stay at his family home and vineyard.
Kate learns about Luc's past and how he gambled away his vineyard birthright to his brother in a single hand of poker; she also learns that while he may be a schemer, he knows a lot about wine, and dreams of someday buying land for his own winery.
As they board the train to Cannes, Kate shows him that she in fact has the necklace.
At Cannes, the two check into a room at the Carlton Hotel using a stolen credit card.
Following Luc's advice, Kate confronts Charlie in front of Juliette on the beach pretending to be indifferent to him.
To make him jealous, Luc pretends to be Kate's lover, and the deception works.
Later that afternoon, Jean-Paul approaches Kate and urges her to convince Luc to return the necklace anonymously to avoid jail.
Luc was planning to sell the necklace at Cartier, but agrees to Kate's "new plan" to have her sell the necklace, as that would be safer.
At dinner, Charlie apologizes to Kate and accompanies her to her room where he tries to seduce her.
Rejecting his advances, Kate realizes she no longer wants him, and that she has fallen in love with Luc.
Meanwhile, in an effort to "ensure victory" for her, Luc takes an all-too-willing Juliette to bed, but his plan fails when he calls her "Kate".
The following morning, Kate tells Luc that Charlie wants her back, but quickly leaves the room, saying, "Cartier is waiting".
She returns the necklace to Jean-Paul and purchases a Cartier check for $45,782 with her own savings to create the illusion that she sold it.
After giving the check to Luc, she leaves for the airport pretending to meet Charlie.
Soon after, Jean-Paul approaches Luc and reveals the charade and all that Kate has done for him.
Luc rushes to the airport, boards the plane, and confesses that he's in love with her and wants her to stay with him.
Sometime later, he and Kate embrace each other in their beautiful new vineyard.
<EOS>
Luke Skywalker initiates a plan to rescue Han Solo from the crime lord Jabba the Hutt with the help of Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2.
Leia infiltrates Jabba's palace on Tatooine disguised as a bounty hunter with Chewbacca as her prisoner.
Lando is already there disguised as a guard.
Leia releases Han from his carbonite prison, but she is captured and enslaved.
Luke arrives soon afterward but after a tense standoff, he is captured.
After Luke survives his battle with Jabba's Rancor, Jabba sentences him and Han to death by feeding them to the Sarlacc.
Luke frees himself and battles Jabba's guards.
During the chaos, Boba Fett, who has remained at Jabba's palace since delivering Han, attempts to attack Luke, but Han inadvertently knocks him into the Sarlacc pit.
Meanwhile, Leia strangles Jabba to death, and Luke destroys Jabba's sail barge as the group escapes.
While the others rendezvous with the Rebel Alliance, Luke returns to Dagobah where he finds that Yoda is dying.
Before he dies, Yoda confirms that Darth Vader, once known as Anakin Skywalker, is Luke's father, and there is "another Skywalker".
The spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi confirms that this other Skywalker is Luke's twin sister, Leia.
Obi-Wan tells Luke that he must fight Vader again to defeat the Empire.
The Rebel Alliance learns that the Empire has been constructing a new Death Star under the supervision of Emperor Palpatine himself.
As the station is protected by an energy shield, Han leads a strike team to destroy the shield generator on the forest moon of Endor; doing so would allow a squadron of starfighters to destroy the Death Star.
The strike team, accompanied by Luke and Leia, travels to Endor in a stolen Imperial shuttle.
On Endor, Luke and his companions encounter a tribe of Ewoks and, after an initial conflict, gain their trust.
Later, Luke tells Leia that she is his sister, Vader is their father, and that he must go and confront him.
Surrendering to Imperial troops, Luke is brought to Vader and unsuccessfully tries to convince him to turn from the dark side of the Force.
Vader takes Luke to the Death Star to meet the Emperor, intent on turning him to the dark side.
The Emperor reveals that the Death Star is actually fully operational and the Rebel fleet will fall into a trap.
On Endor, Han's strike team is captured by Imperial forces, but a surprise counterattack by the Ewoks allows the Rebels to battle the Imperials.
Meanwhile, Lando, piloting the Millennium Falcon, leads the Rebel fleet to the Death Star, only to find that the station's shield is still active and the Imperial fleet is waiting for them.
The Emperor tempts Luke to give in to his anger and join the dark side of the Force, and Luke engages Vader in a lightsaber duel.
Vader senses that Luke has a sister, and threatens to turn her to the dark side.
Enraged, Luke attacks Vader and severs his father's prosthetic right hand.
The Emperor entreats Luke to kill Vader and take his place, but Luke refuses, declaring himself a Jedi as his father had been.
On Endor, the strike team defeats the Imperial forces and destroys the shield generator, allowing the Rebel fleet to launch their assault on the Death Star.
At the same time, a furious Palpatine tortures Luke with Force lightning.
Unwilling to let his son die, Vader kills the Emperor but is mortally wounded in the process.
He asks Luke to help remove his mask before dying in Luke's arms.
As the battle between the Imperial and Alliance fleets continues, Lando leads a group of Rebel ships into the Death Star's core and destroys the main reactor.
As Luke escapes on a shuttle with his father's body, the Falcon flies out of the Death Star's superstructure as the station explodes.
On Endor, Leia reveals to Han that Luke is her brother, and they share a kiss.
Luke returns to Endor and cremates his father's body on a funeral pyre.
As the Rebels celebrate their victory over the Empire, Luke smiles as he sees the spirits of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and the redeemed Anakin watching over them.
<EOS>
Supreme Chancellor Valorum, leader of the Galactic Republic, dispatches Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, to negotiate with the Trade Federation leadership to end a blockade of battleships around the planet Naboo.
Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord and the Trade Federation's secret adviser, orders Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray to kill the Jedi and invade Naboo with an army of battle droids.
The Jedi escape and flee to Naboo, where Qui-Gon saves a Gungan outcast, Jar Jar Binks, from being run over and killed by a droid tank during the invasion.
Indebted to the Jedi, Jar Jar leads them to an underwater Gungan city.
The Jedi unsuccessfully try to persuade the Gungan leader, Boss Nass, into helping the people of Naboo, though they are able to obtain transportation to Theed, the capital city on the surface.
They rescue Queen Amidala, the ruler of the Naboo people, and escape the planet on her royal starship, which is damaged as they pass the Federation blockade.
Amidala's ship is unable to sustain its hyperdrive and lands for repairs on the desert planet Tatooine.
Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, astromech droid R2-D2, and Amidala (in disguise as one of her handmaidens) visit the settlement of Mos Espa to buy new parts at a junk shop.
They meet the shop's owner Watto and his nine-year-old slave, Anakin Skywalker, who is a gifted pilot and engineer and has created a protocol droid called C-3PO.
Qui-Gon senses a strong presence of the Force within Anakin and is convinced that he is the "chosen one" of Jedi prophecy who will bring balance to the Force.
Qui-Gon wagers Anakin's freedom with Watto in a Podrace, which Anakin wins.
Anakin joins the group to be trained as a Jedi, leaving his mother Shmi behind.
En route to their starship, Qui-Gon briefly duels with Darth Maul, Darth Sidious's apprentice, who was sent to capture Amidala.
Qui-Gon quits the duel and escapes by leaping onto the open boarding ramp of the departing starship.
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan escort Amidala to the Republic capital planet of Coruscant so that she can plead her people's case to Chancellor Valorum and the Galactic Senate.
Qui-Gon asks the Jedi Council for permission to train Anakin as a Jedi, but the Council refuses, concerned that Anakin is vulnerable to the dark side.
Undaunted, Qui-Gon vows to train Anakin anyway.
Meanwhile, Naboo's Senator Palpatine persuades Amidala to make a vote of no confidence in Valorum to elect a more capable chancellor to resolve the crisis on Naboo.
Though she is successful in pushing for the vote, Amidala grows frustrated with the corruption in the Senate and decides to return to Naboo.
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are ordered by the Jedi Council to accompany the Queen to Naboo and to also try and discover if the Sith from the Dark Side of the Force have returned.
On Naboo, Padmé reveals herself to the Gungans as Queen Amidala and persuades them into an alliance against the Trade Federation.
Jar Jar leads his people in a battle against the droid army while Padmé leads the hunt for Gunray in Theed.
During a battle in a starship hangar to free Naboo pilots, Anakin takes shelter in a vacant starfighter and inadvertently triggers its autopilot, joining the battle against the Federation droid control ship in space.
Anakin blunders into the hanger of the droid control ship and destroys the ship from within before escaping, deactivating the droid army.
Meanwhile, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan battle Darth Maul, who mortally wounds Qui-Gon before being bisected by Obi-Wan.
As he dies, Qui-Gon asks Obi-Wan to train Anakin.
Subsequently, Palpatine is elected as the new Supreme Chancellor and Gunray is arrested.
The Jedi Council promotes Obi-Wan to the rank of Jedi Knight and reluctantly accepts Anakin as Obi-Wan's apprentice.
At a festive ceremony, Padmé presents a gift of appreciation and friendship to the Gungans.
<EOS>
Ten years after the Trade Federation's invasion of Naboo, the Galactic Republic is threatened by a Separatist movement organized by former Jedi Master Count Dooku.
Senator Padmé Amidala comes to Coruscant to vote on a motion to create an army to assist the Jedi against this threat.
Narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt upon arrival, she is placed under the protection of Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker.
The two Jedi thwart a second attempt on her life and subdue the assassin, Zam Wesell, a shape-shifter who is soon killed by her bounty hunter client before she can reveal his identity.
The Jedi Council assigns Obi-Wan to identify and capture the bounty hunter, while Anakin is assigned to escort Padmé back to Naboo, where the pair develop a romantic attraction towards each other.
Obi-Wan's investigation leads him to the remote ocean planet Kamino, where he discovers an army of clones is being produced for the Republic, with bounty hunter Jango Fett serving as their genetic template.
Obi-Wan deduces Jango to be the bounty hunter he is seeking, and follows him and his clone son, Boba, to the desert planet Geonosis via a homing beacon placed on their ship, the Slave Meanwhile, Anakin becomes troubled by premonitions of his mother, Shmi, in pain, and travels to Tatooine with Padmé to save her.
They meet Owen Lars, Anakin's stepbrother and the son of Shmi's new husband, Cliegg Lars.
Cliegg tells Anakin that Shmi was abducted by Tusken Raiders weeks earlier and is likely dead.
Determined to find her, Anakin ventures out and, finding the Tusken campsite, locates Shmi, dying from torture at the hands of the Tuskens.
She dies in Anakin's arms.
Anakin, enraged, massacres the Tuskens and returns to the Lars homestead with Shmi's body.
After revealing his deed to Padmé, Anakin says that he wants to prevent death.
On Geonosis, Obi-Wan discovers a Separatist gathering led by Count Dooku, whom Obi-Wan learns had authorized Padmé's assassination and is developing a battle droid army with Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray.
Obi-Wan transmits his findings to Anakin to relay to the Jedi Council, but is captured mid-transmission.
With knowledge of the droid army, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is voted emergency powers to send the clones into battle.
Anakin and Padmé journey to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan, but are also captured.
The three are sentenced to death, but are eventually saved by a battalion of Jedi and clone troopers led by Mace Windu and Yoda; Jango Fett is killed by Mace during the rescue.
As the clone and droid armies battle, Obi-Wan and Anakin intercept Dooku, and the three engage in a lightsaber battle.
Dooku overpowers Obi-Wan and Anakin, but then Yoda arrives and engages the Count in a duel.
Finding he is unable to defeat Yoda, Dooku flees.
Arriving at Coruscant, he delivers blueprints for a superweapon, the Death Star, to his Sith master, Darth Sidious, who confirms that "everything is going as planned".
As the Jedi gravely acknowledge the beginning of the Clone Wars, Anakin is fitted with a robotic arm and secretly marries Padmé on Naboo, with C-3PO and R2-D2 as their witnesses.
<EOS>
The Babington plot was related to several separate plans: At the behest of Mary's French supporters, John Ballard, a Jesuit priest and agent of the Roman Church, went to England on various occasions in 1585 to secure promises of aid from the northern Catholic gentry on behalf of Queen Mary.
In March 1586, he met with John Savage, an ex-soldier who was involved in a separate plot against Elizabeth and who had sworn an oath to assassinate the queen.
He was resolved in this plot after consulting with three friends: dr William Gifford, Christopher Hodgson and Gilbert Gifford.
Gifford had been arrested by Walsingham and agreed to be a double agent.
Gifford was already in Walsingham's employ by the time Savage was going ahead with the plot, according to Conyers Read.
Later that same year, Gifford reported to Charles Paget and Don Bernardino de Mendoza, and told them that English Catholics were prepared to mount an insurrection against Elizabeth, provided that they would be assured of foreign support.
While it was uncertain whether Ballard's report of the extent of Catholic opposition was accurate, what was certain that he was able to secure assurances that support would be forthcoming.
He then returned to England, where he persuaded a member of the Catholic gentry, Anthony Babington, to lead and organise the English Catholics against Elizabeth.
Ballard informed Babington about the plans that had been so far proposed.
Babington's later confession made it clear that Ballard was sure of the support of the Catholic League:  Despite this assurance of foreign support, Babington was hesitant, as he thought that no foreign invasion would succeed for as long as Elizabeth remained, to which Ballard answered that the plans of John Savage would take care of that.
After a lengthy discussion with friends and soon-to-be fellow conspirators, Babington consented to join and to lead the conspiracy.
Unfortunately for the conspirators, Walsingham was certainly aware of some of the aspects of the plot, based on reports by his spies, most notably Gilbert Gifford, who kept tabs on all the major participants.
While he could have shut down some part of the plot and arrested some of those involved within reach, he still lacked any piece of evidence that would prove Queen Mary's active participation in the plot and he feared to commit any mistake which might cost Elizabeth her life.
Walsingham and Cecil realised that the July 1584 decree by Queen Elizabeth after the Throckmorton Plot that prevented all communication to and from Mary, also impaired their ability to entrap her.
They needed evidence for which she could be executed based on their Bond of Association tenets.
Thus Walsingham established a new line of communication, one which he could carefully control without incurring any suspicion from Mary.
Gifford approached the French ambassador to England, Guillaume de l'Aubespine, Baron de Châteauneuf-sur-Cher, and described the new correspondence arrangement that had been designed by Walsingham.
Gifford and jailer Paulet had arranged for a local brewer to facilitate the movement of messages between Queen Mary and her supporters by placing them in a watertight casing inside the stopper of a beer barrel.
Thomas Phelippes, a cipher and language expert in Walsingham's employ, was then quartered at Chartley Hall to receive the messages, decode them and send them to Walsingham.
Gifford submitted a code table (supplied by Walsingham) to Chateauneuf and requested the first message be sent to Mary.
All subsequent messages to Mary would be sent via diplomatic packets to Chateauneuf, who then passed them on to Gifford.
Gifford would pass them on to Walsingham, who would confide them to Phelippes.
The cipher used was a nomenclator cipher.
Phelippes would decode and make a copy of the letter.
The letter was then resealed and given back to Gifford, who would pass it on to the brewer.
The brewer would then smuggle the letter to Mary.
If Mary sent a letter to her supporters, it would go through the reverse process.
In short order, every message coming to and from Chartley Hall was intercepted and read by Walsingham.
<EOS>
It's the early 1920s and Aleksandr Ivanovich 'Sascha' Luzhin (Turturro), a gifted but tormented chess player, arrives in a Northern Italian city to compete in an international chess competition.
Prior to the tournament he meets Natalia Katkov (Watson) and he falls in love with her almost immediately.
She in turn finds his manner to be appealing and they begin to see each other in spite of her mother's disapproval.
Competing alongside Luzhin in the championship is Dottore Salvatore Turati (Fabio Sartor), who is approached by Leo Valentinov (Stuart Wilson), a Russian, who is Luzhin's former chess tutor from pre-revolutionary Russia.
Valentinov tells the Italian that Luzhin cannot handle pressure and he intimates he will make sure that his former prodigy will be unsettled off-table giving Turati a winning chance.
The competition starts badly for Luzhin who is unsettled by the presence of his former friend and coach.
He struggles through the early rounds but he soon begins to win again as his relationship with Katkov becomes closer and intimate.
She then informs her parents that she is going to marry him.
Meanwhile, Luzhin goes on to reach the final and face Turati.
But in the finals the Russian Émigré loses out to the time clock, forcing the game to adjourn.
However, outside the venue, he is whisked away by an accomplice of Valentinov who abandons him in the countryside.
His former teacher knows that this will completely unhinge him because of the memory of his parents' abandonment many years ago.
Luzhin wanders aimlessly until he collapses and is found by a group of Blackshirts.
Luzhin is taken to the hospital suffering from complete mental exhaustion.
The doctor informs Katkov that he will die if he keeps playing chess as he is addicted to the game and it's consuming his very being.
Nevertheless, even while recuperating Valentinov comes around with a chess board encouraging Luzhin to finish the match with the Italian, Turati.
Natalia defends her beloved but urges him to break off with the game.
Luzhin seems to agree.
Eventually Luzhin leaves the hospital.
He and Natalia then agree to marry at the earliest opportunity.
However, on the morning of the wedding, Luzhin is put into a car with Valentinov, who tells him that there is the small matter of finishing the competition.
In terror, Luzhin leaps from the car.
Dazed, cut and mentally confused, he stumbles back to the hotel where he tries to dig up the rest of the glass chess pieces he buried on the grounds years ago, (1:36:39 "I've got the King but I need the whole army.
".
) but he does not find them.
Luzhin, who is in his muddied wedding suit, sits in his room as Natalia and the hotel staff try to open the door.
But before they can get in, the troubled chess grandmaster throws himself out of his bedroom window and dies.
The tragic death is witnessed by Valentinov who has just arrived by car.
The film then concludes in the competition hall where Natalia completes the competition using her fiancé's notes.
She discovers the papers in his pocket and an experienced chess player explains to her the matter of the notes.
In an arranged meeting without public she plays against Turati who does exactly what Luzhin expected and loses.
Katkov and Turati then leave acknowledging the Pyrrhic victory and the genius of Luzhin.
<EOS>
In 1912, thirteen-year-old Indiana Jones is horseback riding with his Boy Scout troop at Arches National Park in Utah.
While scouting caves, Indy discovers a group of grave robbers who have found a golden crucifix belonging to Coronado and steals it from them, hoping to donate it to a museum.
The men give chase through a passing circus train, leaving Indy with a bloody cut across his chin from a bullwhip and a new phobia of snakes.
Indy escapes, but the local sheriff makes him return the cross to the robbers.
Impressed with Indy's bravery, the leader of the robbers gives Indy his fedora, and encourages him to not give up.
In 1938, Indy recovers the cross off the coast of Portugal and donates it to Marcus Brody's museum.
Later, Indy is introduced to Walter Donovan, who informs him that Indy's father, Henry Jones, Sr, has vanished while searching for the Holy Grail, using an incomplete inscription as his guide.
Indy then receives Henry's Grail diary via mail from Venice.
Realizing that he would not have sent the diary unless he was in trouble, Indy and Marcus travel to Venice, where they meet Henry's Austrian colleague, dr Elsa Schneider.
Beneath the library where Henry was last seen, Indy and Elsa discover the tomb of a First Crusade knight, which also contains a complete version of the inscription that Henry had used, this one revealing the location of the Grail.
They flee, however, when the catacombs are set aflame by the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, a secret society that protects the Grail from evildoers.
Indy and Elsa capture one of the Brotherhood, Kazim, and Indy tells him that his goal is only to find his father and that he has no interest in finding the Grail.
Kazim tells him that Henry is being held in Castle Brunwald on the Austrian-German border.
Marcus later reveals a map drawn by Henry of the route to the Grail, which begins in Alexandretta.
Indy removes the pages containing the map from the diary, gives it to Marcus for safekeeping and sends Marcus to İskenderun, the city built on the ruins of Alexandretta to rendezvous with their old friend Sallah, and he and Elsa head to Castle Brunwald.
At Castle Brunwald, Indy rescues Henry, but learns that Elsa and Donovan are actually working with the Nazis, and are using him to find the Grail for them.
Meanwhile, Marcus is captured in Hatay, while waiting with Sallah for the Joneses.
The Joneses escape from Castle Brunwald.
Henry tells Indy that to reach the Grail, one must face three booby traps and his diary contains the clues to guide them through the challenges safely.
They recover the diary from Elsa at a book burning rally in Berlin.
They then board a Zeppelin to leave Germany, but the Nazis soon discover the Joneses are aboard and they escape in a parasite biplane.
They crash while engaging in a dogfight with Luftwaffe fighters.
The two meet up with Sallah in Hatay, where they learn of Marcus's abduction.
The Nazis are already moving toward the Grail's location, using the map possessed by Marcus.
In exchange for a Rolls-Royce, the Sultan of Hatay has given the Nazis full access to his equipment for the expedition, including a large tank.
Indy, Henry, and Sallah find the Nazi expedition, which is ambushed by the Brotherhood.
During the battle, Henry is captured by SS Colonel Ernst Vogel while attempting to rescue Marcus from the tank; Kazim and his comrades are killed.
The younger Jones pursues the tank on horseback and, with the aid of Sallah, saves Henry and Marcus.
He is then caught up in a fight with Vogel, and barely escapes before the tank goes over a cliff, crushing Vogel to death.
Indy, Henry, Marcus, and Sallah catch up with the surviving Nazis, led by Donovan and Elsa, who have found the temple where the Grail is kept but are unable to pass through the three protective booby traps.
Donovan mortally wounds Henry in order to force Indy to risk his life in the traps to find the Grail and use its healing power to save Henry.
Using the information in the diary and followed by Donovan and Elsa, Indy safely overcomes the traps and reaches the Grail's chamber, which is guarded by a knight.
He has been kept alive for seven hundred years by the power of the Grail, which is hidden among dozens of false Grails; only the true Grail brings life, while a false one claims it.
Donovan ages rapidly and decays into dust upon drinking from a false grail.
Indy selects the true Grail, which the knight warns cannot be taken beyond the temple's entrance.
Indy fills the Grail with holy water and takes it to Henry, which heals him instantly.
Elsa, disregarding the knight's warning, then takes the Grail and attempts to leave with it.
The temple begins to collapse and Elsa falls to her death trying to recover the Grail.
Indy nearly suffers the same fate but Henry persuades him to let it go.
The Joneses, Marcus, and Sallah escape the temple and ride off into the sunset.
<EOS>
Early one morning, a taxi pulls up at Tiffany & Co.
on Fifth Avenue in New York City, from which elegantly dressed Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) emerges.
After looking into the shop's windows, she strolls home.
Outside her apartment, she fends off Sid Arbuck (Claude Stroud), her date from the disastrous night before.
Later, she is awakened by new neighbor Paul Varjak (George Peppard), ringing her doorbell to get into the building.
The pair chat as she dresses to leave for her weekly visit to Sally Tomato (Alan Reed), a mobster incarcerated at Sing Sing prison.
Tomato's lawyer, O'Shaughnessy, pays her $100 a week to deliver "the weather report".
As she is leaving for Sing Sing, Holly is introduced to Paul's "decorator", wealthy older woman Emily Eustace Failenson (Patricia Neal), whom Paul nicknames "2E".
That night, Holly goes out onto the fire escape to elude an over-eager date (Mel Blanc).
She peeks into Paul's apartment and sees 2E leaving money and kissing Paul goodbye.
After 2E leaves, Holly enters Paul's apartment and learns that he is a writer who has not had anything published since a book of vignettes five years before.
Holly, in turn, explains that she is trying to save money to support her brother Fred when he gets out of the Army.
The pair fall asleep, but are awakened when Holly has a nightmare about Fred.
She later buys Paul a typewriter ribbon to apologize and invites him to a party at her apartment.
There, Paul meets her Hollywood agent, Berman (Martin Balsam), who describes Holly's transformation from country girl into Manhattan socialite.
He is also introduced to José da Silva Pereira (José Luis de Vilallonga), a wealthy Brazilian politician, and Rusty Trawler (Stanley Adams), the "ninth richest man in America under 50".
In the days that follow, Paul and Holly become closer.
One day, 2E enters Paul's apartment, worried that she is being followed.
Paul tells her that he will investigate and eventually confronts Doc Golightly (Buddy Ebsen), Holly's estranged husband.
Doc explains that Holly's real name is Lula Mae Barnes.
They married when she was 14, and he wants to take her back to Texas, as Fred will be returning.
After Paul reunites Holly and Doc, she tells Paul the marriage was annulled.
At the bus station, she tells Doc she is not going with him.
Doc leaves broken-hearted.
After drinking at a club, Paul and Holly return to her apartment, where she drunkenly tells him that she plans to marry Trawler for his money.
A few days later, Paul learns that one of his short stories will be published.
On the way to tell Holly, he sees a newspaper headline stating that Trawler has married someone else.
Holly and Paul agree to spend the day together, taking turns doing things that each has never done before.
At Tiffany's, Paul has the ring from Doc Golightly's box of Cracker Jack engraved as a present for Holly.
After spending the night together, he awakens to find her gone.
When 2E arrives, Paul ends their relationship.
She calmly accepts, having earlier concluded that he and some other woman are in love.
Holly schemes to marry José for his money, which angers Paul.
After Holly receives a telegram notifying her of Fred's death, she trashes her apartment.
Months later, Paul has moved out.
He is invited to dinner by Holly, who is leaving the next morning for Brazil to continue her relationship with José.
However, they are arrested in connection with Sally Tomato's drug ring, and Holly spends the night in jail.
The next morning, Holly is released on bail and finds Paul waiting, and they take a cab.
He has her cat and a letter from José explaining he must end their relationship due to her arrest.
Holly insists she will go to Brazil anyway, asks the cab to pull over, and releases the cat into the rain.
Paul confronts Holly about his love and her behavior, then leaves, tossing the Cracker Jack ring they had engraved for her by Tiffany's into her lap and telling her to examine her life.
She goes through a decision making moment, puts on the ring, and runs after Paul, who has gone looking for the cat.
She searches the alley and finally finds the cat.
Paul and Holly look into each other's eyes and kiss.
<EOS>
A military station in Houston, TX, the United States Decoding Service (USDS), NASA Wing, has intercepted a message from outer space.
After decoding, the message contains only the cryptic statement:  "Mars.
Needs.
Women"  Martians have developed a genetic deficiency that now produces only male children.
A mission to Earth is launched, consisting of five Martian males, led by Dop (Tommy Kirk).
Once here their team intends to recruit Earth women to come to Mars in order to mate and produce female offspring, saving their civilization from extinction.
Using their sophisticated transponder, Dop attempts to make contact with the military, who have now tracked the aliens' arrival on Earth.
The military eventually views the Martians as invaders, so the team takes on the guise of Earth men, acquiring human clothes, money, maps, and transportation.
They finally select their prospective candidates, setting their sights on four American women: a homecoming queen, a stewardess, a stripper, and, most especially, a Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist, dr Bolen (Yvonne Craig), an expert in "space genetics".
Resorting to hypnosis, the women are captured, but Dop quickly becomes enamored with dr Bolen; soon he is ready to sabotage their mission for her.
After the military discover their hideout, the Martians are forced to return home without their female captives.
Mars still needs women.
<EOS>
The protagonist in the story is Nell, a thete (or person without a tribe; equivalent to the lowest working class) living in the Leased Territories, a lowland slum belt on the artificial, diamondoid island of New Chusan, located offshore from the mouth of the Yangtze River, northwest of Shanghai.
At the age of four, Nell receives a stolen copy of an interactive book, Young Lady's Illustrated Primer: a Propædeutic Enchiridion, in which is told the tale of Princess Nell and her various friends, kin, associates, &c, originally intended for the wealthy Neo-Victorian "Equity Lord" Chung-Sik Finkle-McGraw's granddaughter.
The story follows Nell's development under the tutelage of the Primer, and to a lesser degree, the lives of Elizabeth and Fiona, girls who receive similar books.
The Primer is intended to steer its reader intellectually toward a more interesting life, as defined by "Equity Lord" Alexander Chung-Sik Finkle-McGraw, and growing up to be an effective member of society.
The most important quality to achieving an "interesting life" is deemed to be a subversive attitude towards the status quo.
The Primer is designed to react to its owners' environment and teach them what they need to know to survive and develop.
The Diamond Age is characterized by two intersecting, almost equally-developed story lines: Nell's education through her independent work with the Primer, and the social downfall of engineer and designer of the Primer, John Percival Hackworth, who has made an illegal copy of the Primer for his own young daughter, Fiona.
His crime becomes known both to Lord Finkle-McGraw and to dr X, the black market engineer whose compiler Hackworth used to create the copy of the Primer, and each man attempts to exploit Hackworth to advance the opposing goals of their tribes.
A third storyline follows an actress, Miranda, who plays the voice of Nell's Primer and has almost become Nell's surrogate mother, in her attempts to find Nell.
Later Miranda's storyline is taken over by Miranda's associate Carl Hollywood after Miranda disappears.
The text also includes fully narrated educational tales from the Primer that map Nell's individual experience (eg.
her four toy friends) onto archetypal folk tales stored in the primer's database.
Although The Diamond Age explores the role of technology and personal relationships in child development, its deeper and darker themes also probe the relative values of cultures (which Stephenson explores in his other novels as well) and the shortcomings in communication between them.
<EOS>
in 2009 historian Christopher Andrew’s official history of MI5, Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 included a chapter (section E part 4) specifically debunking the idea that there was any plot against Wilson in the 1970s.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told the House of Commons on 6 May 1987:  In 1963, Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn is said to have secretly claimed that Wilson was a KGB agent.
The majority of intelligence officers did not believe that Golitsyn was credible in this and various other claims, but a significant number did (most prominently James Jesus Angleton, Deputy Director of Operations for Counter-Intelligence at theS.
Central Intelligence Agency) and factional strife broke out between the two groups.
Former MI5 officer Peter Wright claimed in his memoirs, Spycatcher, that 30 MI5 agents then collaborated in an attempt to undermine Wilson.
He retracted that claim, saying there was only one man.
In March 1987, James Miller, a former agent, claimed that the Ulster Workers Council Strike of 1974 had been promoted by MI5 in order to help destabilise Wilson's government.
In July 1987, Labour MP Ken Livingstone used his maiden speech to raise the 1975 allegations of a former Army Press officer in Northern Ireland, Colin Wallace, who also alleged a plot to destabilise Wilson.
Chris Mullin, MP, speaking on 23 November 1988, argued that sources other than Peter Wright supported claims of a long-standing attempt by MI5 to undermine Wilson's government.
In 2009, The Defence of the Realm, the authorised history of MI5 by Christopher Andrew, held that while MI5 kept a file on Wilson from 1945, when he became an MP – because communist civil servants claimed that he had similar political sympathies – there was no bugging of his home or office, and no conspiracy against him.
In 2010 newspaper reports made detailed allegations that the bugging of 10 Downing Street had been omitted from the history for "wider public interest reasons".
In 1963 on Macmillan's orders following the Profumo Affair, MI5 bugged the cabinet room, the waiting room, and the prime minister's study until the devices were removed in 1977 on Callaghan's orders.
From the records it is unclear if Wilson or Heath knew of the bugging, and no recorded conversations were retained by MI5 so possibly the bugs were never activated.
Professor Andrew had previously recorded in the preface of the history that "One significant excision as a result of these requirements (in the chapter on The Wilson Plot) is, I believe, hard to justify" giving credence to these new allegations.
<EOS>
In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team aboard the research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh search the wreck of RMS Titanic for a necklace with a rare diamond, the Heart of the Ocean.
They recover a safe containing a drawing of a young woman wearing only the necklace dated April 14, 1912, the day the ship struck the iceberg.
Rose Dawson Calvert, the woman in the drawing, is brought aboard Keldysh and tells Lovett of her experiences aboard Titanic.
In 1912 Southampton, 17-year-old first-class passenger Rose DeWitt Bukater, her fiancé Cal Hockley, and her mother Ruth board the luxurious Titanic.
Ruth emphasizes that Rose's marriage will resolve their family's financial problems and retain their high-class persona.
Distraught over the engagement, Rose considers suicide by jumping from the stern; Jack Dawson, a penniless artist, intervenes and discourages her.
Discovered with Jack, Rose tells a concerned Cal that she was peering over the edge and Jack saved her from falling.
When Cal becomes indifferent, she suggests to him that Jack deserves a reward.
He invites Jack to dine with them in first class the following night.
Jack and Rose develop a tentative friendship, despite Cal and Ruth being wary of him.
Following dinner, Rose secretly joins Jack at a party in third class.
Aware of Cal and Ruth's disapproval, Rose rebuffs Jack's advances, but realizes she prefers him over Cal.
After rendezvousing on the bow at sunset, Rose takes Jack to her state room; at her request, Jack sketches Rose posing nude wearing Cal's engagement present, the Heart of the Ocean necklace.
They evade Cal's bodyguard and have sex in an automobile inside the cargo hold.
On the forward deck, they witness a collision with an iceberg and overhear the officers and designer discussing its seriousness.
Cal discovers Jack's sketch of Rose and an insulting note from her in his safe along with the necklace.
When Jack and Rose attempt to inform Cal of the collision, he has his bodyguard slip the necklace into Jack's pocket and accuses him of theft.
Jack is arrested, taken to the master-at-arms' office, and handcuffed to a pipe.
Cal puts the necklace in his own coat pocket.
With the ship sinking, Rose flees Cal and her mother, who has boarded a lifeboat, and frees Jack.
On the boat deck, Cal and Jack encourage her to board a lifeboat; Cal claims he can get himself and Jack off safely.
After Rose boards one, Cal tells Jack the arrangement is only for himself.
As her boat lowers, Rose decides that she cannot leave Jack and jumps back on board.
Cal takes his bodyguard's pistol and chases Rose and Jack into the flooding first-class dining saloon.
After using up his ammunition, Cal realizes he gave his coat and consequently the necklace to Rose.
He later boards a collapsible lifeboat by carrying a lost child.
After braving several obstacles, Jack and Rose return to the boat deck.
The lifeboats have departed and passengers are falling to their deaths as the stern rises out of the water.
The ship breaks in half, lifting the stern into the air.
Jack and Rose ride it into the ocean and he helps her onto a wooden panel only buoyant enough for one person.
He assures her that she will die an old woman, warm in her bed.
Jack dies of hypothermia but Rose is saved.
With Rose hiding from Cal en route, the RMS Carpathia takes the survivors to New York City where Rose gives her name as Rose Dawson.
She later finds out Cal committed suicide after losing all his money in the 1929 Wall Street crash.
Back in the present, Lovett decides to abandon his search after hearing Rose's story.
Alone on the stern of Keldysh, Rose takes out the Heart of the Ocean — in her possession all along — and drops it into the sea over the wreck site.
While she is seemingly asleep or has died in her bed, photos on her dresser depict a life of freedom and adventure inspired by the life she wanted to live with Jack.
A young Rose reunites with Jack at the Titanic Grand Staircase, applauded by those who died.
<EOS>
On July 2, 1996, an enormous alien mothership that has one fourth the mass of the Moon enters orbit around Earth, deploying 36 smaller spacecraft, each wide, that take positions over some of Earth's major cities and military bases.
David Levinson, an MIT-trained satellite technician, decodes a signal embedded in the global satellite transmissions that he determines is a timer counting down to a coordinated attack.
With the help of his former wife, White House Communications Director Constance Spano, Levinson, and his father Julius, gain access to the Oval Office and warn President Thomas Whitmore that the aliens are hostile.
Whitmore orders large-scale evacuations of New York City, Los Angeles, and WashingtonC, but it is too late; the timer reaches zero and the ships activate devastating directed-energy weapons, killing millions.
Whitmore, the Levinsons, and a few others narrowly escape aboard Air Force One as the capital is destroyed, along with other locations over which the ships are positioned.
On July 3, international leaders begin ordering individual counterattacks.
Their aviation forces attack destroyer ships positioned above the ruins of the cities, but they are protected by force fields.
Each destroyer launches a swarm of attack fighters, which wipe out the human fighter squadrons.
Captain Steven Hiller, a pilot with the USMC squadron VMFA-314 based out of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, survives by luring his attacker to the enclosed spaces of the Grand Canyon and sacrificing his plane, forcing the alien to crash-land.
He subdues the injured alien pilot and flags down a convoy of refugees, hitching a ride with former combat pilot Russell Casse.
They transport the unconscious alien to nearby Area 51 where Whitmore's group has landed.
Through Secretary of Defense Albert Nimzicki, they learn that a faction of the government has been involved in a UFO conspiracy since 1947, when one of the invaders' attack fighters crashed in Roswell.
Area 51 houses the refurbished alien fighter and three alien corpses recovered from the crash.
When eccentric scientist Brackish Okun examines the alien captured by Hiller, it regains consciousness and attacks.
It telepathically invades Okun's mind and uses his vocal cords to communicate with Whitmore before launching a psychic attack against him.
Whitmore sees visions of the alien's plans: their entire civilization travels from planet to planet, exterminating all indigenous life and harvesting the planet of all natural resources.
After Secret Service agents and military personnel kill the alien, Whitmore reluctantly authorizes a nuclear attack; a B-2 Spirit fires a nuclear cruise missile at an alien destroyer positioned above Houston, but the ship remains intact.
On July 4, Levinson demonstrates that the key to defeating the aliens lies in deactivating their force fields, and devises a way to do so by uploading a computer virus into the mothership.
He proposes using the refurbished alien fighter to implement the plan, which Hiller volunteers to pilot.
The two are able to implant the virus and deploy a nuclear weapon on board the mothership.
With military pilots in short supply, Whitmore enlists the help of volunteers with flight experience, including Casse, and leads an attack on a destroyer ship bearing down on Area 51.
With the alien's shields deactivated, the fighters are able to inflict damage but their supply of missiles is quickly exhausted.
As the destroyer prepares to fire on the base, the last missile, equipped on Casse's plane, jams, and Casse decides to sacrifice his own life.
He flies his plane kamikaze-style into the directed-energy weapon port, which results in an explosion that destroys the ship.
Human resistance forces around the world successfully destroy the other craft using this vulnerability.
As humankind is rejoicing in victory, Hiller and Levinson return to Area 51 unharmed and reunite with their families.
They and military officers nearby accompany Whitmore and his daughter in watching the wreckage from the mothership burn up, resembling a fireworks display as it enters Earth's atmosphere.
<EOS>
The film opens on depicting the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event caused by a collision of an asteroid striking the Earth 65 million years ago, with narration warning that such an event will happen again.
In the present day, a massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis and bombards a swath of land surrounding the North Atlantic, particularly New York City.
NASA discovers through the Hubble that the meteors were debris propelled from the asteroid belt by a rogue asteroid roughly the size of Texas.
The asteroid will collide with Earth in 18 days, causing a second extinction event.
NASA scientists, led by Dan Truman, plan to trigger a thermonuclear detonation at least inside the asteroid to split it in two, driving the pieces apart so both will fly past the Earth.
NASA contacts Harry Stamper, considered the best deep-sea oil driller in the world, for assistance.
Harry insists he will need his full team to help execute NASA's plan, and they agree to help but only after their list of unusual rewards are met.
NASA plans to launch two specialized shuttles, Freedom and Independence, to increase the chances of success; the shuttles will refill with liquid oxygen from a Russian space station before making a slingshot maneuver around the Moon to approach the asteroid from behind.
NASA puts Harry and his crew through a short and rigorous astronaut training program, while Harry's team re-outfit the mobile drillers, "Armadillos", for the job.
During training, Truman and Harry are skeptical about the abilities ofJ.
Frost, a hot-headed drill operator who has been dating Harry's daughter Grace against Harry's wishes.
The destruction of Shanghai by a meteorite forces the government to reveal the asteroid's existence, as well as their plan.
The shuttles are launched and arrive at the space station, where its sole cosmonaut Lev Andropov helps with refueling.
A major fire breaks out during the fueling process, forcing the crews, including Lev, to evacuate in the shuttles before the station explodes.
The shuttles perform the slingshot around the Moon, but approaching the asteroid, the Independence's engines are destroyed by trailing debris, and it crash-lands on the asteroid.
Grace, awareJ.
was aboard the Independence, is traumatized by this news, believing he was killed.
Unknown to the others,J, Lev, and "Bear" (another of Harry's crew) survive the impact and head towards the Freedom target site in their Armadillo.
Freedom safely lands on the asteroid, but overshoots the target zone, landing on a much harder metallic field than planned, and their drilling quickly falls behind schedule.
The military initiates a backup plan they call "secondary protocol", planning to remotely detonate the weapon at the asteroid's surface, despite Truman and Harry's insistence that it would be ineffective.
Truman delays the military, while Harry convinces the shuttle commander Colonel Willie Sharp to disarm the remote trigger.
Harry's crew continues to work, but in their haste, they accidentally hit a gas pocket, blowing their Armadillo into space and losing another man.
As the world learns of the mission's apparent failure, another meteorite decimates most of Paris.
All seems lost until Independence's Armadillo arrives.
WithJ.
at the controls, they reach the required depth for the bomb.
However, flying debris from the asteroid damages the triggering device, requiring someone to stay behind to manually detonate the bomb.
The crew draw straws, andJ.
is selected.
As he and Harry exit the airlock, Harry rips offJ.
's air hose and shoves him back inside, telling him that he is the son Harry never had and gives his blessing to marry Grace.
Harry contacts Grace to bid his final farewell.
After some last minute difficulties involving both the shuttle engines and the detonator, the Freedom moves to a safe distance and Harry triggers the detonation while his life flashes before his eyes.
The bomb successfully splits the asteroid, avoiding the collision with Earth.
Freedom safely returns to Earth, and the surviving crew are treated as heroesJ.
and Grace get married, with photos of Harry and the other lost crew members present.
<EOS>
The galaxy is in the midst of a civil war.
Spies for the Rebel Alliance have stolen plans to the Galactic Empire's Death Star, a heavily armed space station capable of destroying an entire planet.
Rebel leader Princess Leia has the plans, but her ship is captured by Imperial forces under the command of the evil Darth Vader.
Before she is captured, Leia hides the plans in the memory of an astromech droid, R2-D2, along with a holographic recording.
R2-D2 flees to the surface of the desert planet Tatooine with C-3PO, a protocol droid.
The droids are captured by Jawa traders, who sell them to moisture farmers Owen and Beru Lars and their nephew Luke Skywalker.
While cleaning R2-D2, Luke accidentally triggers part of Leia's message, in which she requests help from Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The next morning, Luke finds R2-D2 searching for Obi-Wan, and meets Ben Kenobi, an old hermit who lives in the hills and reveals himself to be Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan tells Luke of his days as one of the Jedi Knights, former Galactic Republic peacekeepers with supernatural powers derived from an energy called The Force, who were all but wiped out by the Empire.
Contrary to his uncle's statements, Luke learns that his father, Anakin, fought alongside Obi-Wan as a Jedi Knight.
Obi-Wan tells Luke that Vader was his former pupil who turned to the dark side of the Force and killed Anakin.
Obi-Wan then presents to Luke his father's weapon – a lightsaber.
Obi-Wan views Leia's complete message, in which she begs him to take the Death Star plans to her home planet of Alderaan and give them to her father for analysis.
Obi-Wan invites Luke to accompany him to Alderaan and learn the ways of the Force.
Luke declines, but changes his mind after discovering that Imperial stormtroopers searching for C-3PO and R2-D2 have destroyed his home and killed his aunt and uncle.
Obi-Wan and Luke hire smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate Chewbacca to transport them to Alderaan on Han's ship, the Millennium Falcon.
Upon the Falcons arrival at the location of Alderaan, the group discover that the planet has been destroyed by order of the Death Star's commanding officer, Grand Moff Tarkin, as a show of power.
The Falcon is captured by the Death Star's tractor beam and brought into its hangar bay.
While Obi-Wan goes to disable the tractor beam, Luke discovers that Leia is imprisoned aboard, and with the help of Han and Chewbacca, rescues her.
After several escapes, the group makes its way back to the Falcon.
Obi-Wan disables the tractor beam, and on the way back to the Falcon, he engages in a lightsaber duel with Vader.
Once he is sure the others can escape, Obi-Wan allows himself to be killed.
The Falcon escapes from the Death Star, unknowingly carrying a tracking beacon, which the Empire follows to the Rebels' hidden base on Yavin IV.
The Rebels analyze the Death Star's plans and identify a vulnerable exhaust port that connects to the station's main reactor.
Luke joins the Rebel assault squadron, while Han collects his payment for the transport and intends to leave, despite Luke's request that he stay and help.
In the ensuing battle, the Rebels suffer heavy losses after several unsuccessful attack runs, leaving Luke as one of the few surviving pilots.
Vader leads a squad of TIE fighters and prepares to attack Luke's X-wing fighter, but Han returns and fires on the Imperials, sending Vader spiraling away.
Helped by guidance from Obi-Wan's spirit, Luke uses the Force and successfully destroys the Death Star seconds before it can fire on the Rebel base.
Back on Yavin IV, Leia awards Luke and Han with medals for their heroism.
<EOS>
The story takes place in the kingdom of Ivalice, located in a peninsula surrounded by sea on the north, west and south, with a headland south of the landmass.
Its geography features ranging landscapes, from plains to mountains ranges to deserts and forests.
It is heavily populated by human beings, although intelligent monsters can be found living in less populated areas.
Magic is predominant in the land, although ruins and artifacts indicated that past populace had relied on machinery, such as airships and robots.
Ivalice is a kingdom of seven territories; Fovoham, Gallione, Limberry, Lionel, Zeltennia, the Holy Territory of Murond (Mullonde in later versions), and the Royal Capital of Lesalie (Lesalia in later versions), Ivalice's neighbors are the kingdom of Ordalia in the east and Romanda, a military nation to the north, across the Rhana Strait.
While the three nations share common royal bloodlines, major wars have taken place between them.
An influential religious institution known as the Murond Glabados Church heads the dominant faith, centering around a religious figure known as Saint Ajora.
The story takes place after Ivalice ended its war with the two nations in what is known as the Fifty Years War, and is facing economic problems and political strife.
Adding to its problems is the recent death of the king, whose heir is only an infant.
A regent is needed to rule in place of the prince, and the kingdom is split between Prince Goltana, represented by the Black Lion, and Prince Larg, symbolized by the White Lion.
The conflict leads to what is known in the game as the Lion War.
Behind this backdrop is a revelation by the game's historian Alazlam Durai, who seeks to reveal the story of an unknown character whose role in the Lion War was major but was covered up by the kingdom's church.
The setting is based around this character, named by default as Ramza, and revolves around his early life and the future conflicts he faced while the events that changed the kingdom unfold.
Central to the plot of the game are two main characters, Ramza Beoulve and Delita Heiral.
The two characters are childhood friends, and while both are born of differing social classes; Ramza a noble and Delita a commoner, both disregarded this fact and grew up together believing in justice and honor, as taught by Ramza's father Balbanes.
However, as the story progresses, the two characters faced many conflicts that changed their viewpoint on life; Delita seeks to manipulate the upper class to achieve his dreams, while Ramza believes in justice and honor regardless of name and class.
The game's plot is then portrayed through the eyes of Ramza Beoulve, who is the player character of the story.
His exploits in the war introduced him to a number of characters; each with their own roles and agenda concerning the war and the fictional world, Ivalice, that they inhabit.
The most prominent factions at the beginning of the story are those of Prince Goltana and Prince Larg, both are nobles seeking to obtain control of the throne by being the guardian to the monarch's young heir and were thus engaged in a war.
The story progresses to include characters from the Murond Glabados Church, which have been controlling Ivalice silently and engineering the war in question.
As the game progresses, players are able to recruit generic player characters and customize them using the Job system of the Final Fantasy series.
Several battles also feature "Guest" characters that are controlled via the game'sI, which may be recruited later in the game according to the story proper.
Aside from original characters, the developers have also incorporated cameo roles from other Square games.
The characters were designed by Akihiko Yoshida, who was also in charge of the illustration and character designs of games such as Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy XII, and Vagrant Story.
Final Fantasy Tactics begins with Ivalice just recovering from the Fifty Year War against Ordalia.
The power vacuum caused by the death of its ruler, King Omdoria, soon sparks another conflict.
Princess Ovelia and the younger Prince Orinas are both candidates to the throne, with the former supported by Prince Goltana of the Black Lion, and the latter by Queen Ruvelia and her brother, Prince Larg of the White Lion.
This erupts into a full-scale war known as the "Lion War", with either side using whatever means possible to secure their place in the throne.
This includes bearing an illegitimate child, killing other possible heirs, betrayal, assassination and false identities.
Throughout the game, nobles regard commoners and peasants as animals, and many commoners try to take revenge on the nobles, who abandoned them after the war.
Most joined the so-called Death Corps to fight against the nobles' soldiers, and many die in vain.
Ramza, part of the noble Beoulve family of knights, and Delita, his childhood friend who was an ordinary commoner, are witnesses to this phenomenon.
Events such as meeting an arrogant noble named Algus, as well as the negligent killing of Delita's sister Teta during an uprising, cause Delita and Ramza to abandon their ties to the nobility, both going separate ways.
Ramza joins a mercenary group, led by Gafgarion, who protects Princess Ovelia from being hunted by both sides.
Delita joins Prince Goltana's forces to rise up through the ranks and gain control over his own destiny.
Ramza and Delita are reunited when Gafgarion attempts to take Ovelia to Prince Larg, though this proves futile.
Agrias suggests visiting Cardinal Draclau of the Glabados Church to protect Ovelia, while Delita continues to work in the shadows, working with multiple sides to realize his ambitions.
Along the way to Lionel Castle, Ramza meets Mustadio, a machinist in possession of a holy relic called the Zodiac Stone.
Hunted by a trading company for the power it contains, Mustadio also seeks Draclau's intervention.
However, soon after the encounter with Cardinal Draclau, Ramza discovers that an elaborate plot was set by the Murond Glabados Church.
In their desire to control Ivalice, the Church, particularly the High Priest, Marge Funeral, uses the legend of the so-called holy Zodiac Braves to gather the Zodiac Stones, and fuels the Lion War between Larg and Goltana.
To stave off Ramza's interference, Draclau uses the stone to transform into a legendary Lucavi demon, and Ramza has no choice but to slay him/it.
As a result, Ramza is regarded a heretic of the Church, and he is approached by the Heretic Examiner Zalmo at Lesalia Imperial Capital.
While noble in name, the Beoulve family is susceptible to corruption, due to ambition.
Dycedarg, the eldest sibling, conspires with Larg and the Church to ensure that the Beoulve family remains in power.
However, his younger brother Zalbag is unaware of his dealings.
Alma, Ramza's younger sister, remains in church, unaffected by the situation until Ramza is branded a heretic in front of her.
Ramza seeks to rescue her after her capture while helping Ramza escape the Heresy Examiners.
Only Ramza and Alma share their father's sense of justice.
Ramza is chased throughout the story by the Shrine Knights, the soldiers of the Church who are hunting the Zodiac Stones, although he gains allies, either by saving their lives, or by showing them the truth.
Some individuals with knowledge of the Zodiac Stones attempt to conspire with the Shrine Knights for its power, though most fail.
Ramza also acquires proof of the Church's lies about Saint Ajora, a central figure in the religion, and attempts to use it along with the Zodiac Stone to reveal the organization's plot.
During the course of the story, the two sides face off in a major battle that sees the deaths of many soldiers, including their leaders Larg and Goltana.
Ramza manages to stop the bloodshed from continuing and rescues the general Cidolfas Orlandu, though the Church succeeds in eliminating the two Lions to secure its power over Ivalice.
Deeper into the story, Ramza discovers that the Shrine Knights are in reality Lucavi, and the real conspirators behind the Church's plot.
The Lucavi are seeking to resurrect their leader Altima, who in the past was Saint Ajora, and they need much bloodshed and a suitable body to complete the resurrection.
Alma is to serve as the host for Altima's incarnation.
While racing off to find her, Ramza encounters Dycedarg - now a Lucavi demon - and witnesses Zalbag's death.
Zalbag is then risen and converted into an undead servant, and frequently begs for death during the encounter.
At the end of the story, though Altima is resurrected, Ramza and his allies succeed in destroying her.
Their final fates are unknown, although Olan does witness Ramza and Alma riding away from the kingdom on Chocobos at the end of the game.
In the epilogue, Delita marries Ovelia and becomes the King of Ivalice.
However, he fails to find true satisfaction as even Ovelia distrusts him, leading her to stab Delita.
Ovelia in turn is stabbed by the agonizing Delita and dies.
Delita then sorrowfully cries out to Ramza, asking if what they have done was worth what they received (vilification for Ramza, and ostracization for Delita).
Olan Durai, a witness who had many encounters with Ramza, attempts to reveal the Church's evil plot with the "Durai Report".
However, his papers are confiscated and he is burned at the stake for heresy.
The story ends many years later with the historian Alazlam Durai intent on revealing the truth of the Lion War and the Durai Report.
<EOS>
An octahedron-shaped artifact called the Stone-Like, along with a non-functioning robot, has been unearthed.
Earth's secretary of defense, Chief Igarashi, orders the Stone-Like to be examined.
Meanwhile, up in Earth's atmosphere, inside the spaceship Tetra, Commander Tengai issues Buster, Reana and Guy to test out the three new Silvergun prototype fighter crafts.
Back on Earth, Igarashi relays information on the Stone-Like and the robot, claiming it has the serial number 00104, exactly the same number of the robot aboard the Tetra, CREATOR 00104.
Tengai cannot believe this be just a coincidence (partly due to Igarashi proving that it is, indeed the same robot), and has the three Silvergun pilots on standby.
Suddenly, the Stone-Like starts to act up and destroys the facility containing it.
As it overwhelms the Earth defense forces, the Stone-Like wipes out all life on Earth in a magnificent flash.
Only the crew of the Tetra remain unharmed, as they were in satellite orbit.
One year after the Stone-Like destroyed Earth, the Tetra, running low on food and fuel supplies, makes its return to Earth.
The story is now told non-linearly, beginning with the third stage of the game, "Return".
The Tetra flies back to Earth, and the three pilots, in their respective Silverguns, are sent out to investigate.
Stage 2, "Reminiscence", is actually a flashback sequence, where the Tetra and the Silverguns head to the Earth defense headquarters, where Chief Igarashi is, prior to the Stone-Like's attack.
Knowing it's impossible to stop the Stone-Like, Igarashi has the Tetra and the Silverguns to make for satellite orbit, and evade the Stone-Like.
The escape is successful, but the same cannot be said for Earth and its inhabitants.
Back in the present, the Stone-Like, now aware of the Tetra and Silverguns' presence, uses its power and commands its own manufactured weapons to destroy them.
Stage 4, "Evasion", now takes place.
Seeing a need to know more about the Stone-Like, Tengai has Creator, the robot aboard the Tetra, to head for the Earth defense headquarters and gather information about it, while the Tetra and the Silverguns hold off the Stone-Like's forces.
However, the Stone-Like sees through their plan and heads straight for the headquarters as well.
Stage 5, "Victim", begins, as two towering battleships lumber over the headquarters, intending to prevent Creator from succeeding its mission.
The Silverguns hastily destroys the cruisers, but the Stone-Like appears and levels the headquarters.
Just before the building collapses, Tengai pilots the Tetra and holds up the structure from falling, allowing Creator to board Reana's Silvergun to safety.
Catching the Stone-Like off-guard, Gai goes on a suicidal run and attempts to destroy the artifact, but fails to do so, as his Silvergun vanishes upon contact with it.
Tengai orders Buster and Reana to head for space, while he makes a last-ditch effort and attempt to stall the Stone-Like, just as Gai did.
With all seemingly lost, Buster persuades Reana to join him and try to destroy the Stone-Like.
Before they head out into the space, Creator asks that they leave it one thing from them.
The Stone-Like, having located Buster and Reana, engages them in space combat, while briefly explaining that because of humanity's constant nature to war and destruction, it had to bring about the apocalypse.
Stage 6, "The Origin", concludes with the Stone-Like, having been defeated, now transports the two Silverguns and its pilots back in time, to the year 100,000 BC.
Stage 1, "Link", has the Stone-Like unleash its power in a cataclysmic explosion.
As Buster and Reana make an attempt to escape the blast, they are swallowed up in the blinding light, seemingly destroyed.
The ending concludes with Creator, 20 years into the future, having secluded itself inside an underground facility on Earth, now brimming with life again, creating a clone of Buster and Reana, from their strands of hair, the thing that he asked from both of them.
The Stone-Like is now deactivated, its power exhausted from the last battle.
In its last moments before its energy fades, Creator explains that the Stone-Like is the guardian of Earth, and sees to it the advancement of the planet, its inhabitants and their way of living.
If it deems that things must start over, the Stone-Like will destroy Earth and recreate it again, until humanity realize their nature and change before the Stone-Like delivers the consequences.
Creator's purpose was always to ensure that mankind will survive, through their clones, and with these words, Creator stops functioning.
As the story ends, the Buster and Reana clone start to wake from their cloning tubes.
The story of Radiant Silvergun is only available in the Saturn Mode of the Sega Saturn version of the game.
Arcade Mode and the original arcade version of Radiant Silvergun do not include any cutscenes or dialog save for a slide show at the end of the game consisting of stills from the ending video.
<EOS>
Final Fantasy II features four playable characters as well as several secondary characters who are only briefly controlled by the player.
Primary characters include , a resident of the country of Fynn and the main protagonist; , a soft-spoken archer and dedicated enemy of the Empire; , a simple monk who communicates with animals; and , a conflicted dark knight who is missing for most of the game.
Five playable characters temporarily join the party to assist Firion, Maria, and Guy in their missions for the rebellion.
These are , the prince of Kas'ion and a member of the rebellion; , a villager in the town of Salamand; , a pirate; , who is a White Mage with the rebellion, and , who is the first dragoon to appear in the series.
Firion and the (named in Kenji Terada's novelization of the game) are the respective hero and villain representing Final Fantasy II in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, fighting games featuring characters from across the series.
Firion is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa in the Japanese versions and by Johnny Yong Bosch in the English versions; Mateus is voiced by Kenyu Horiuchi in the Japanese versions and Christopher Corey Smith in the English versions.
In the PlayStation's opening FMV of Final Fantasy II, Firion is also voiced by Yukimasa Obi, while Maria is played by Noriko Shitaya, Guy by Kenta Miyake, and Leon by Takayuki Yamaguchi.
Final Fantasy II begins as Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon are attacked by Palamecian Black Knight soldiers and left for dead.
Firion, Maria, and Guy are rescued by Princess Hilda, who has established a rebel base in the town of Altair after her kingdom of Fynn was invaded by the Emperor.
Hilda denies their request to join the rebel army because they are too young and inexperienced.
The three set off for Fynn in search of Leon; there they find a dying Prince Scott of Kashuan, Hilda's fiancé, who informs them that a former knight of Fynn, Borghen, betrayed the rebellion and became a General in the Imperial army.
The party returns to Altair to inform Hilda.
She allows the group to join the rebellion and asks them to journey north to find mythril, a metal which could be used to create powerful weapons.
The party makes its way north to the occupied village of Salamand, saves the villagers forced to work in the nearby mines, and retrieves the mythril.
For their next mission, the party is sent to the city of Bafsk to prevent the construction of a large airship known as the Dreadnought; however, it takes off just as they arrive.
After retrieving the Sunfire, a weapon which can blow up the Dreadnought, they watch helplessly as an airship with Hilda on board is captured by the Dreadnought.
When the Dreadnought lands to stock up on supplies, the party rescues Hilda and throws the Sunfire into the airship's engine.
Before escaping from the explosion, the party encounters a dark knight whom Maria thinks she recognizes as Leon.
On his deathbed, the King of Fynn tasks the party to seek the help of the seemingly extinct dragoons of Deist.
In Deist, the party finds only a mother with her son, learning that all but one of the Dragoons are dead, partly as a result of Imperial poison.
After placing an egg of the last wyvern in a cavern, the party returns to Altair and rescues Hilda from the Empire a second time, before successfully reclaiming Fynn from the Imperial forces.
They then travel west in search of a powerful magic item, joining forces with the last surviving dragoon on the way.
The party returns to Fynn and sees that many towns have been destroyed by a cyclone summoned by the Emperor.
The party calls upon the newly born last wyvern to take them to a castle inside the cyclone, where they confront and kill the Emperor.
Back at Fynn, everyone celebrates the Empire's defeat, but a mortally wounded Fynn soldier arrives and reveals that Leon has taken the throne and plans to destroy the Rebels with the Imperial army.
The party enters the castle of Palamecia and confronts Leon.
However, the Emperor reappears in the throne room in a new demonic form, revealing he has returned from Hell with the intention of destroying the entire world.
The party and Leon escape Palamecia Castle with the wyvern, as the castle is replaced with the palace of Hell, Pandaemonium.
Leon agrees to help the group seal the Emperor away.
The party travels to the Jade Passage, an underground passage to the underworld, and finds the portal to Pandaemonium, where they finally defeat the Emperor.
The Dawn of Souls remake of the game for the Game Boy Advance includes an additional mission that takes place after the game, called "Soul of Rebirth".
The story of the bonus mission follows several characters who died during the story of the game as they travel through alternate versions of several locations in the game and defeat another version of the Emperor.
<EOS>
Most of Final Fantasy IV takes place on Earth, also known as the Blue Planet, which consists of a surface world (or Overworld), inhabited by humans, and an underground world (or Underworld), inhabited by the Dwarves.
An artificial moon orbits the planet, upon which the Lunarians live.
The Lunarians are a race of beings originally from a world which was destroyed, becoming the asteroid belt surrounding the Blue Planet, and are identified by a moon-shape crest on their foreheads.
They created the artificial moon, resting until a time when they believe their kind can co-exist with humans.
A second, natural moon orbits the Blue Planet as well, although it is never visited in the game.
Final Fantasy IV offers twelve playable characters, each with a unique, unchangeable character class.
During the game, the player can have a total of five, or fewer, characters in the party at any given time.
The main character, Cecil Harvey, is a dark knight and the captain of the Red Wings, an elite air force unit of the kingdom of Baron.
He serves the king alongside his childhood friend Kain Highwind, the commander of the Dragoons.
Rosa Farrell is a white mage and archer, as well as Cecil's love interest.
The Red Wings' airships were constructed by Cecil's friend, the engineer Cid Pollendina.
During his quest, Cecil is joined by others, including Rydia, a young summoner from the village of Mist; Tellah, a legendary sage; Edward Chris von Muir, the prince of Damcyan and a bard; Yang Fang Leiden, the head of the monks of Fabul; Palom and Porom, a white mage and a black mage, twin apprentices from the magical village of Mysidia; Edward "Edge" Geraldine, the ninja prince of Eblan; and Fusoya, the guardian of the Lunarians during their long sleep.
Zemus is the main antagonist of the game.
He wishes to destroy the human race so that his people can populate the earth.
He uses Golbez to do this by controlling him and Kain with his psychic powers to activate the Giant of Babil, a huge machine created to carry out the genocide.
The Red Wings attack the city of Mysidia to steal their Water Crystal, and return to the Kingdom of Baron.
When Cecil, Captain of the Red Wings, afterwards questions the king's motives, he is stripped of his rank and sent with Kain, his friend and Captain of the Dragoons, to deliver a ring to the Village of Mist.
There, Kain and Cecil watch in horror as monsters burst forth from inside the ring and lay waste to the village.
A young girl, Rydia, is the only survivor and summons a monster named Titan in anger.
This monster causes an earthquake, separating Cecil and Kain.
Cecil awakens afterward and takes the wounded Rydia to a nearby inn.
Baron soldiers come for Rydia but Cecil defends her, and she joins him on his journey.
It is revealed that Rosa, Cecil's love interest, had followed him and is extremely ill with a fever.
Soon after this, Cecil and Rydia meet Tellah, who is going to Damcyan Castle to retrieve his eloping daughter, Anna.
However, Anna is killed when the Red Wings bomb the castle.
Edward, Anna's lover and the prince of Damcyan, explains that the Red Wings' new commander, Golbez, did this to steal the Fire Crystal for Baron as they had stolen the Water Crystal from Mysidia.
Tellah leaves the party to exact revenge on Golbez for Anna's death.
After finding a cure for Rosa, the party decides to go to Fabul to protect the Wind Crystal.
Here they meet Master Yang, a warrior monk serviced to the kingdom and the protection of the crystal.
The Red Wings attack, and Kain reappears as one of Golbez's servants.
He attacks and defeats Cecil; when Rosa intervenes, Golbez kidnaps her and Kain takes the crystal.
On the way back to Baron, the party is attacked by Leviathan and separated.
Cecil awakes alone near Mysidia.
When he enters the town, he finds that its residents hold him in utter contempt for the prior attack on their town.
Through the Elder of Mysidia, he learns that to defeat Golbez, he must climb Mt.
Ordeals and become a Paladin.
Before embarking on his journey, he is joined by the twin mages, Palom and Porom.
On the mountain he encounters Tellah, who is searching for the forbidden spell Meteor to defeat Golbez.
Casting aside the darkness within himself, Cecil becomes a Paladin, while Tellah learns the secret of Meteor.
Upon reaching Baron, the party discovers an amnesiac Yang and restores his memory.
The party then confronts the King, only to discover that he had been replaced by one of Golbez's minions, Cagnazzo.
After defeating him, Cid arrives and takes them to one of his airships, the Enterprise.
On the way, the party enters a room booby-trapped by Cagnazzo, where Palom and Porom sacrifice themselves to save Cecil, Tellah, Cid, and Yang.
On the airship, Kain appears and demands Cecil retrieve the final crystal in exchange for Rosa's life, which the party obtains with assistance from a bedridden Edward.
Kain then leads the party to the Tower of Zot, where Rosa is imprisoned.
At the tower's summit, Golbez takes the crystal and attempts to flee.
Tellah casts Meteor to stop Golbez, sacrificing his own life in the process.
However, the spell only weakens Golbez, ending his mind control of Kain.
Kain helps Cecil rescue Rosa, who teleports the party out of the collapsing tower to Baron.
In Baron, Kain reveals that Golbez must also obtain four subterranean "Dark Crystals" to achieve his goal of reaching the moon.
The party travels to the underworld and encounter the Dwarves, who are currently fighting the Red Wings.
They defeat Golbez thanks to a sudden appearance by Rydia, now a young woman due to her time spent in the Feymarch, the home of the Eidolons.
However, the party ultimately fails to prevent Golbez from stealing the Dwarves' crystal.
With the help of the Dwarves, they enter the Tower of Babil in order to obtain the crystals Golbez has stored there, only to find that they have been moved to a surface portion of the tower.
Yang later sacrifices himself in order to stop the tower's cannons from firing on the Dwarves (though he's later revealed to have survived).
After escaping a trap set by Golbez, the party flees the underworld aboard the Enterprise, with Cid sacrificing himself to reseal the passage between the two worlds and to prevent the Red Wings from continuing their pursuit.
The party, now joined by Edge, the prince of Eblan, travels back to the Tower of Babil in order to take back the stolen crystals.
Upon reaching the crystal room, however, the party falls through a trap door to the underworld.
Meeting with the Dwarves once again and finding Cid to be alive, the party sets out to retrieve the eighth crystal before Golbez can.
When the crystal is obtained, Golbez appears and reveals he still has control over Kain, while taking the crystal for himself.
After learning of the Lunar Whale, a ship designed to take travelers to and from the moon, the party is rejoined by Cid.
They travel to the surface and board the Lunar Whale.
On the moon, the party meets the sage Fusoya, who explains that Cecil's father was a Lunarian.
Fusoya also explains that a Lunarian named Zemus plans to destroy life on the Blue Planet so that the Lunarians can take over, using Golbez to summon the Giant of Babil, a colossal robot.
The party returns to Earth and the forces of the two worlds attack the Giant, including Palom and Porom, who have been revived.
After the party breaks the robot, Golbez and Kain confront them, only to have Fusoya break Zemus' control over Golbez, in turn releasing Kain.
Cecil learns that Golbez is his older brother.
Golbez and Fusoya head to the core of the moon to defeat Zemus, and Cecil's party follows.
In the moon's core, the party witnesses Golbez and Fusoya kill Zemus, but then quickly fall to his resurrected form, the spirit Zeromus, the embodiment of all of Zemus' hatred and rage.
Back on Earth, the Elder of Mysidia commands all of Cecil's allies and friends to pray for the party, which gives Cecil and his allies the strength to fight and slay Zeromus.
Following the battle, Fusoya and Golbez opt to leave Earth with the moon.
Cecil, at last accepting the truth, acknowledges Golbez as his brother, and bids him farewell.
During the epilogue, most of the cast reunites to celebrate Cecil and Rosa's wedding and their coronation as Baron's new king and queen, while Kain is seen atop Mt.
Ordeals, having vowed to atone for his misdeeds.
<EOS>
Final Fantasy VI takes place on a large, unnamed world.
During the course of the game, its geography and landscape change due to various developments in the game's plot.
During the first half of the game, the world is divided into three major continents and referred to as the World of Balance.
The northern continent is punctuated by a series of mountain ranges and contains many of the locations accessible to the player.
Most of the southern continent has been taken over by the Empire, while the eastern continent is home to a large patch of land called the Veldt where monsters from all over the world can be found.
Halfway through the game, the world's geographical layout is altered, resulting in its three large continents splitting into several islands of various size situated around a larger continent at their center.
This altered layout of the game's locations is referred to as the World of Ruin.
In contrast to the medieval settings featured in previous Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy VI is set in what is now known as a steampunk environment.
The structure of society parallels that of the latter half of the 19th century, with opera and the fine arts serving as recurring motifs throughout the game, and a level of technology comparable to that of the Second Industrial Revolution.
Railroads and steamships are in use, and a coal mining operation is run in the northern town of Narshe.
Additionally, several examples of modern engineering and weaponry (such as a chainsaw and drill) have been developed in the Kingdom of Figaro.
However, communication systems have not reached significant levels of development, with letters sent by way of carrier pigeon serving as the most common means of long-distance communication.
A thousand years before the events of the game, three entities known as the Warring Triad initiated a conflict that would come to be called the War of the Magi.
This quarrel grew to catastrophic proportions, unleashing magical energy into the world which transformed afflicted humans into espers—magical beings who themselves were used as soldiers in the war.
Eventually realizing the horrific calamity wrought by their hands, the Triad returned free will to the espers and sealed their own powers, becoming stone statues.
Their only request was that the espers ensure their power remain locked away so it might never be used again.
The espers carried their stone gods to a hidden land, sealing both the statues and themselves off from the realm of humans.
The concept of magic gradually faded to legend and myth as mankind built a society extolling science and technology.
At the game's opening, the most advanced nation is the Empire, a cruel and expanding dictatorship led by Emperor Gestahl and his clownish general Kefka Palazzo.
Approximately eighteen years before the events of the game begin, the barrier between the espers' land and the rest of the world weakened.
Soon after, Gestahl takes advantage of this and attacks the espers' land, capturing several of them.
Using the espers as a power source, Gestahl initiated a research program to combine magic with machinery and infuse humans with magical powers, the result being a craft known as "Magitek".
Kefka became the first experimental prototype of a line of magically empowered soldiers called Magitek Knights, drastically impairing his sanity.
Magitek innovations have allowed the Empire to supplement its forces with mechanical infantry, armed with Magitek-powered weaponry.
At the opening of the game, the Empire is on the verge of rediscovering the full potential of magic by reopening the gateway to the world of the espers.
However, Gestahl's military dominion is opposed by the Returners, a rebel organization seeking to overthrow the Empire and free its territories.
Final Fantasy VI features fourteen permanent playable characters, the most of any game in the main series, as well as several secondary characters who are only briefly controlled by the player.
The starting character, Terra Branford, is a reserved half-human, half-esper girl who spent most of her life as a slave to the Empire, thanks to a mind-controlling device, and is unfamiliar with love.
Other primary characters include Locke Cole, a treasure hunter and rebel sympathizer with a powerful impulse to protect women; Celes Chere, a former general of the Empire, who joined the Returners after being jailed for questioning imperial practices; Edgar Figaro, a consummate womanizer and the king of Figaro, who claims allegiance to the Empire while secretly supplying aid to the Returners; Sabin Rene Figaro, Edgar's brother, who fled the royal court in order to pursue his own path and hone his martial arts skills; Cyan Garamonde, a loyal knight to the kingdom of Doma who lost his family and friends as a result of Kefka poisoning the kingdom's water supply; Setzer Gabbiani, a habitual gambler and thrill seeker and owner of the world's only airship; Shadow, a ninja mercenary, who offers his services to both the Empire and the Returners at various stages throughout the game; Relm Arrowny, a young but tough artistic girl with magical powers; Strago Magus, Relm's elderly grandfather and a Blue Mage; Gau, a feral child surviving since infancy in the harsh wilderness known as the Veldt; Mog, a Moogle from the mines of Narshe; Umaro, a savage but loyal sasquatch also from Narshe, talked into joining the Returners through Mog's persuasion; and Gogo, a mysterious, fully shrouded master of the art of mimicry.
Most of the main characters in the game hold a significant grudge against the Empire and, in particular, Kefka Palazzo, who serves as one of the game's main antagonists along with Emperor Gestahl.
The supporting character Ultros serves as a recurring villain and comic relief throughout the game.
A handful of Final Fantasy VI characters have reappeared in later games, such as Secret of Evermore.
Additionally, Final Fantasy SGI, a short tech demo produced for the Silicon Graphics Onyx workstation, featured polygon-based 3D renderings of Locke, Terra, and Shadow.
A mind-controlled Terra Branford participates in an Imperial raid on Narshe in search of a recently unearthed frozen esper (later identified as Tritoch; Valigarmanda in the GBA retranslation) found in the city's mines.
The esper then kills Terra's controllers and breaks the Imperial control over her, but she is unable to remember anything about her past.
Locke Cole, a treasure hunter, promises to protect her until she can regain her memories and helps her escape to the hideout of the Returners, a group of militants opposing the Empire.
Along the way, they pass through the Kingdom of Figaro and meet Edgar Roni Figaro, the king, and his estranged brother, Sabin Rene Figaro, who join them.
Banon, the leader of the Returners, asks for Terra's help in their struggle against the Empire, and she agrees.
Just as the resistance is preparing to return to Narshe to investigate the frozen esper, the Empire attacks South Figaro.
Locke heads to the besieged town to slow the Empire's advance, while the rest of the group makes their way via rafting down the nearby Lethe River.
However, Sabin is separated from the group after a battle with Ultros, self-proclaimed "octopus royalty" and a recurring antagonist, forcing the various members of the Returners to find their own ways to Narshe in three different scenarios controlled by the player.
In Locke's scenario, he must escape the imperial occupied town of South Figaro without detection.
Sabin has been swept to a distant continent and must find a way back while Terra, Edgar, and Banon will continue to float down the Lethe River back to Narshe.
Eventually, the original party reunites in Narshe.
Locke brings with him Celes Chere, one of the Empire's own generals, whom he saved from execution for defying the Empire's ruthless practices.
Sabin brings with him Cyan Garamonde, whose family was killed during the Empire's siege of Doma Castle when Kefka Palazzo ordered the water supply poisoned, and Gau, a feral child he befriended on the Veldt.
In Narshe, the Returners prepare to defend the frozen esper from the Empire.
After the player successfully thwarts the Imperial invasion, Terra approaches the frozen esper, prompting her to transform into an esper-like form herself.
She flies away, confused and horrified by her own transformation.
The Returners set out to search for Terra and eventually trace her to the city of Zozo, though they are still shocked by her apparent existence as an esper.
There, they also meet the esper Ramuh, who tells them that if they free various other espers from the Magitek Research Facility in the Empire's capital, Vector, they may find one who can help Terra.
Vector is on the southern continent, to which the Empire does not allow maritime access, so the Returners go to the Opera House and recruit Setzer Gabbiani, who is believed to be the owner of the Blackjack, the only airship in the world.
They then travel to Vector and attempt to rescue several espers, including Maduin, who is revealed to be Terra's father.
However, the espers are already dying from the experiments at Vector, and choose instead to give their lives to transform into magicite—the crystallized remains of the espers' essences that form when they die and allow others to use their powers.
The dying espers bestow their magicite upon the Returners.
Before the group can then escape, Kefka arrives and causes the Returners, including Locke, to momentarily doubt Celes' loyalty, much to her anguish.
However, she provides proof to them of her support by covering for the group while the rest escape.
The rest of the group then returns to Zozo, where Terra reacts to the magicite of her father, prompting her to gain knowledge of her past and accept herself as the half-human, half-esper child of Maduin and a human woman.
After reuniting with Terra, the Returners decide that it is time to launch an all-out attack on the Empire, and Banon asks Terra to attempt contacting the espers' land in order to gain their support.
Terra succeeds in making contact, and when the espers learn that the others captured by the Empire previously have now perished, they become infuriated and enter the human world, where they destroy much of Vector.
When the Returners arrive in the capital, they find Emperor Gestahl claiming to no longer have the will to fight, inviting the Returners to a banquet to negotiate peace.
Gestahl asks Terra to deliver a truce to the espers on his behalf, to which she agrees.
Accompanied by Locke, Shadow (a ninja mercenary hired by the Empire for the mission), Generals Celes and Leo, the player must then guide Terra to the remote village Thamasa in search of the espers, where they meet Strago Magus and his granddaughter, Relm Arrowny, who also accompany them.
Soon, they find the espers and Terra convinces them to accept a truce with Gestahl.
However, during the negotiations, Kefka attacks the espers, killing each of those still alive and capturing the magicite that remains from their essence.
Additionally, he kills General Leo, who is appalled by Kefka's dishonorable tactics and attempts to defend the espers.
The Returners reunite, now aware that the peace was a ploy for Gestahl to obtain magicite and the stone statue remains of the Warring Triad within the espers' now-unsealed land.
Kefka and Gestahl travel through the open gate to the esper world, find the Warring Triad, and prompt the island on which the esper world is located to detach and fly in the sky as an ominous Floating Continent.
The Returners attempt to stop them from causing further damage, but despite their efforts, they are unable to prevent Kefka and Gestahl from gaining the power of the statues.
Now empowered, Kefka promptly kills Gestahl and moves the statues out of their proper alignment, upsetting the balance of magical power and causing the destruction of most of the surface world.
In the disaster, the Returners are separated from one another as Setzer's airship is torn apart.
One year later, Celes awakens from a coma on a deserted island and learns that the world has been devastated by Kefka, who now dominates it as a god-like ruler.
Much of the human population has died and plant and animal life are slowly being killed by sickness, punctuating humanity's despair.
Celes sets out from the Solitary Island to try to reunite with as many of her friends as she can find.
Celes is only required by the game's story to reunite with Sabin and Setzer, who leads them to the Falcon, an airship that belonged to a deceased friend; however, in a series of mostly optional side-quests, the player has the opportunity to gather the entire group, all still alive, as well as new allies Umaro and Gogo.
Together, this quantity of Returners launch a new offensive against Kefka's Tower.
Inside, the Returners battle their way through Kefka's defenses and destroy the three statues, the source of Kefka's newfound power.
When destroying the statues, once the source of all magic, does not cause any noticeable reaction, the party realizes that Kefka has successfully drained the Warring Triad of power and has become the source of all magical power.
Making a final stand against Kefka, the characters destroy him, but since the gods' power had come to reside in him all magicite begins to shatter and Kefka's magically-maintained tower begins to crumble.
The Returners make their escape, though if Terra is present, she begins to weaken due to her half-esper heritage.
However, before her father's magicite shatters, his spirit informs her that by holding to the human side of herself, she may survive the passing of magic.
In the end, the party escapes Kefka's Tower aboard the Falcon.
Terra survives, and the group observes the world's communities rejuvenating themselves.
<EOS>
Final Fantasy IX takes place primarily on the four continents of a world named Gaia.
Most of Gaia's population reside on the Mist Continent, named so because the entire continent is blanketed in thick Mist.
Lands outside the Mist Continent—the Outer, Lost and Forgotten continents—are uncharted territories not explored until midway through the game.
Several locations on the parallel world of Terra and the dream land of Memoria round out the game's areas.
The Mist Continent features four nations: Alexandria, Lindblum, Burmecia, and Cleyra.
Alexandria is a kingdom to the northeast of the Mist Continent ruled by a monarchy located in Alexandria Castle.
The technologically advanced Lindblum, ruled by a regent, is nestled on a plateau to the southwest where airships regularly fly by.
The Kingdom of Burmecia, whose capital is showered by eternal rain is to the northwest and nearby to the isolated Cleyran civilisation, which is nestled in a giant tree in the desert, protected by a powerful sandstorm.
Treno, a large, perpetually dark city, heavily populated by both aristocrats and paupers, is located on the southeast part of the continent.
The Mist Continent is extremely mountainous resulting in a natural barrier between many of the ruling nations.
Gaia is inhabited by humans and various non-human races.
Alexandria, Treno, and Lindblum are populated by a mix of humans and anthropomorphic animals.
The Burmecians are anthropomorphic rats who value dance, thus accounting for their general aversion to footwear, and live in both Burmecia and Cleyra.
The Cleyrans split from the Burmecians when the latter started to appreciate "the art of war".
The dwarves are short humanoid creatures who appear as inhabitants of the village of Conde Petie on the Outer Continent.
There is also a village of black mages that have gained self-awareness, who reside in the Outer Continent, as well.
The Genomes, an artificial race of soulless vessels inhabit Terra; they will house the once-dormant Terran souls when Terra assimilates Gaia.
Summoners are similar to other humans, but with a horn on their forehead.
In the story, only two summoners remain (Garnet and Eiko); the others were exterminated when the Terran warship Invincible destroyed their homeland of Madain Sari.
Lastly, the Qu are large, seemingly androgynous humanoids, who are recognised as fine gourmands.
They inhabit marshlands throughout the world where they catch their main source of nutrition: frogs.
The eight main playable characters in Final Fantasy IX are Zidane Tribal, a member of a group of bandits called Tantalus masquerading as a theatre troupe; Garnet Til Alexandros XVII (alias Dagger), the Princess of Alexandria who has a strange connection to "Eidolons", Vivi Ornitier, a young, timid, and kind black mage trying to find the meaning of his existence; Adelbert Steiner, the Captain of the Knights of Pluto and loyal servant of Alexandria and Princess Garnet; Freya Crescent, a dragon knight from the city of Burmecia looking for her lost love; Quina Quen, a Qu whose master wants him/her to travel the world so that s/he will learn about cuisine; Eiko Carol, a six-year-old girl living in Madain Sari, the lost village of the eidolon summoners, and along with Garnet, one of the last two remaining summoners; and Amarant Coral, a bounty hunter hired to return Garnet to Alexandria.
Other main characters include Regent Cid Fabool, the charismatic leader of Lindblum; Queen Brahne, Garnet's mother and the power-hungry Queen of Alexandria; General Beatrix, the powerful leader of the female knights of Alexandria; and antagonist Kuja, an arms dealer and enemy of Gaia.
Other minor characters and groups also appear, such as Blank, Zidane's good friend and band partner, but their significance and back-stories are revealed as the game progresses.
Final Fantasy IX opens with Zidane and the Tantalus Theater Troupe attempting to kidnap Princess Garnet during her sixteenth birthday celebration in the city of Alexandria.
Upon reaching her, they discover that Garnet, who is concerned about Queen Brahne's increasingly erratic behavior, had planned on escaping the city and is willing to be kidnapped, especially as their employer, Regent Cid of Lindblum, is who she wanted to run to.
During the escape from the city, the troupe is joined by Vivi, who is looking to explore, and Steiner, who decides to travel with Garnet for her protection rather than take her back against her will.
After the group flees the city and its guards, their damaged airship crashes, and Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and Steiner travel on together.
During their journey to Lindblum, Garnet takes the alias Dagger, and the group discovers a factory in the village of Dali that is manufacturing soulless black mage soldiers that look similar to Vivi.
In Lindblum, the party meets with Cid, who explains that he hired the group to kidnap Garnet to get her away from Brahne, who also worries him.
Upon learning that Alexandria has invaded the city-state of Burmecia, the party splits in two.
Zidane, Vivi, and new joinee Freya investigate Burmecia, while Dagger and Steiner journey back to Alexandria to try to stop Brahne from starting a war.
Zidane's group finds that Burmecia has been conquered with help from a man named Kuja, and refugees have fled to the nearby city of Cleyra.
They rush to Cleyra to defend it from the encroaching forces.
Dagger, meanwhile, is ignored and captured by Brahne, who extracts powerful magical weapons called eidolons from her.
Brahne proceeds to use one to destroy Cleyra.
Zidane and company escaped the city on Brahne's airship and rescue Garnet, but while they do so Brahne attacks Lindblum with another eidolon.
Cid informs the group, when they reach Lindblum, that Kuja is Brahne's arms dealer.
Believing him to be from one of the other continents, normally inaccessible by airship, the party travels through a tunnel with Quina to the Outer Continent.
There they meet Eiko, discover a village of black mages, and find the Iifa Tree, which produces a fighting-stimulant called Mist.
They learn that Kuja uses Mist to create the Black Mages, and Vivi was a prototype.
After stopping the Mist creation, the group meets Amarant, hired by Brahne to capture Garnet, who joins them instead.
They also learn that Garnet is originally from the same destroyed village as Eiko, and has the power to summon eidolons, which was the reason she was adopted by Brahne.
Brahne and Kuja then reach the Iifa Tree, but Brahne attempts to kill him with an eidolon; Kuja instead takes control over it and destroys her and her army instead.
The party returns to Alexandria to install Garnet as queen, but are assaulted at her coronation by Kuja.
Garnet and Eiko summon an eidolon to combat Kuja's; when Kuja tries to take control of their eidolon, he is stopped by an old man named Garland, who then uses Kuja's ship to destroy Garnet's eidolon and damage the city.
Kuja flees with the intent to fight Garland for power.
Seeking to stop both of them, the party gets an experimental airship from Cid that runs on steam rather than Mist, which will allow them to journey to the other continents.
Chasing Kuja, they find a portal to the parallel world of Terra; there they discover that Terra is dying, and its people created Garland to orchestrate merging the two worlds.
Garland in turn created Genomes, self-aware soulless beings which would be taken over by Terran souls after the merging.
The Iifa Tree serves to block Gaian souls from leaving Gaia but letting Terran souls in to be reborn into the Genomes, with the Gaian souls transformed into the Mist.
Kuja and Zidane are Genomes, and Kuja turned against Garland to avoid being taken over at the conclusion of the plan.
Kuja kills Garland with his newly gained powers, then destroys Terra as the party flees to Gaia with the Genomes.
At the Iifa tree, the party defeats Kuja, preventing him from destroying Gaia as well.
The fight, so near what they find to be the Crystal, the source of life, summons Necron, a force of annihilation.
Its defeat destroys the Tree; the party flees, while Zidane stays behind to rescue Kuja.
In the epilogue one year later, the fates of all of the characters are shown, and Zidane reappears in Alexandria to see Queen Garnet.
<EOS>
Final Fantasy X is set in the fictional world of Spira, consisting of one large landmass divided into three subcontinents, surrounded by small tropical islands.
It features diverse climates, ranging from the tropical Besaid and Kilika islands, to the temperate Mi'ihen region, to the frigid Macalania and Mt.
Gagazet areas.
Although predominantly populated by humans, Spira features a variety of races.
Among them are the Al Bhed, a technologically advanced but disenfranchised sub-group of humans with distinctive green eyes and unique language.
The Guado, which are less human in appearance, with elongated fingers and other arboreal features.
Still less human are the lion-like Ronso and the frog-like Hypello.
A subset of Spira's sentient races are the "unsent", the strong-willed spirits of the dead that remain in corporeal form.
In Spira, the dead who are not sent to the Farplane by a summoner come to envy the living and transform into "fiends", the monsters that are encountered throughout the game; however, unsent with strong attachments to the world of the living may retain their human form.
Other fauna in Spira, aside from those drawn from real animals, such as cats, dogs, birds, and butterflies, include the gigantic, amphibious shoopufs (which are similar to elephants); and the emu-like chocobo, which appears in most Final Fantasy games.
Spira is very different from the mainly European-style worlds found in previous Final Fantasy games, being much more closely modeled on Southeast Asia, most notably with respect to vegetation, topography, architecture, and names.
There are seven main playable characters in Final Fantasy X, starting with Tidus, a cheerful young teenager and a star blitzball player from Zanarkand, who seeks a way home after an encounter with Sin transported him to Spira.
To do so, he joins Yuna, a summoner on a journey to obtain the Final Aeon and defeat the enormous whale-like "Sin".
Journeying with them are: Kimahri Ronso, a young warrior of the Ronso tribe who watched over Yuna during her childhood; Wakka, a blitzball player whose younger brother was killed by Sin; and Lulu, a stoic black mage close to Yuna and Wakka.
During the journey, they are joined by Auron, a former warrior monk, who worked with both Tidus' and Yuna's fathers to defeat Sin 10 years prior; and Rikku, Yuna's cousin, a perky Al Bhed girl and the first friendly person Tidus meets upon arriving in Spira.
The main protagonist Tidus waits with his allies outside the ruins of an ancient city.
Tidus narrates the events that led to the present, spanning most of the game's storyline.
It begins in Tidus's home city, the high-tech metropolis of Zanarkand, where he is a renowned star of the underwater sport blitzball, and son of the famous blitzball star, Jecht.
During a blitzball tournament, the city is attacked by an immense creature that Auron, a man not originally from Zanarkand, calls "Sin".
Sin destroys Zanarkand, taking Tidus and Auron to the world of Spira.
Upon arriving in Spira, Tidus is rescued by Al Bhed salvagers in the area, who speak a language that is foreign to Tidus.
Upon asking him where he is from, one of them, Rikku, who speaks the same language as Tidus, tells him that Sin destroyed Zanarkand 1,000 years ago.
After Sin attacks again, Tidus is separated from the divers and drifts to the tropical island of Besaid, where he meets Wakka, captain of the local blitzball team, when he impresses them with his blitzball skills.
Wakka introduces Tidus to Yuna, a young summoner about to go on a pilgrimage to obtain the Final Aeon and defeat Sin with her guardians Lulu, a mage of black magic, and Kimahri, a member of the Ronso tribe.
Meanwhile, Tidus joins to help Wakka in the upcoming blitzball tournament to find a way back home.
The party travels across Spira to gather aeons, defending against attacks by Sin and its "offspring"—fiends called Sinspawn.
After the tournament, they are joined by Auron, who convinces Tidus to become Yuna's guardian.
He reveals to Tidus that Yuna's father, Lord Braska; Tidus's father, Jecht; and himself made the same pilgrimage to defeat Sin ten years ago.
Tidus thought his father had died at sea ten years earlier.
Following another attack from Sin, they are joined by Rikku, later revealed to be Yuna's cousin.
When the party arrives in the city of Guadosalam, the leader of the Guado, Seymour Guado, proposes to Yuna, saying that it will ease Spira's sorrow.
At Macalania Temple, the group sees a message from Seymour's father Jyscal's spirit, who declares he was killed by his son, who now aims to destroy Spira.
The group reunites with Yuna to engage Seymour in battle, killing him; soon afterward, Sin attacks, separating Yuna from the others.
While searching for her on Bikanel Island, the homeland of the Al Bhed where they had surfaced, Tidus has an emotional breakdown when he learns that summoners die after summoning the Final Aeon, leading to his desire to find a way to defeat Sin while keeping Yuna alive.
The group finds Yuna in Bevelle, where she is being forced to marry the unsent Seymour.
They crash the wedding and escape with Yuna.
The group is captured at the Bevelle temple, and are ordered to stand trial.
After escaping from their sentence, the group heads towards the ruins of Zanarkand, seen in the introduction of the game.
On the way there, Tidus learns that he, Jecht, and the Zanarkand they hail from are summoned entities akin to aeons based on the original Zanarkand and its people.
Long ago, the original Zanarkand battled Bevelle in a machina war, in which the former was defeated.
Zanarkand's survivors became "fayth" so that they could use their memories of Zanarkand to create a new city in their image, removed from the reality of Spira.
One thousand years after its creation, the fayth have become exhausted from "dreaming" their Zanarkand, but are unable to stop due to Sin's influence.
Once they reach Zanarkand, Yunalesca—the first summoner to defeat Sin and unsent ever since—tells the group that the Final Aeon is created from the fayth of one close to the summoner.
After defeating Sin, the Final Aeon kills the summoner and transforms into a new Sin, which has caused its cycle of rebirth to continue.
Yuna decides against using the Final Aeon, due to the futile sacrifices it carries and the fact that Sin would still be reborn.
Disappointed by their resolution, Yunalesca tries to kill Tidus' group, but she is defeated and vanishes, ending hope of ever attaining the Final Aeon.
After the fight, the group learns that Yu Yevon, a summoner who lost his humanity and mind, is behind Sin's cycle of rebirth.
This leads the group to infiltrate Sin's body to battle Seymour, and Jecht's imprisoned spirit.
With Sin's host defeated, Tidus' group battles and defeats Yu Yevon.
Sin's cycle of rebirth ends, and the spirits of Spira's fayth are freed from their imprisonment.
Auron, who had earlier been revealed to be unsent, goes to the Farplane.
Just then, Dream Zanarkand and Tidus disappear, now that the freed fayth stopped the summoning.
Afterward, in a speech to the citizens of Spira, Yuna resolves to help rebuild their world now that it is free of Sin.
In a post-credits scene, Tidus awakens under water.
He then swims towards the ocean surface, and the screen fades to white.
<EOS>
The fictional events of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest take place on a single continent of an unnamed world, which is divided into four distinct regions: Foresta, Aquaria, Fireburg, and Windia.
The welfare of each region is determined by the state of one of four shining crystals: earth, water, fire, and wind, respectively.
For centuries the Focus Tower had stood at the heart of the world.
It had been a center for trade and knowledge, and the world's people met there to peacefully settle their differences.
But on one warm summer day, powerful monsters stormed the Tower, stole the four crystals, and then took off with the magical coins that kept the Tower's doors unlocked.
The monsters began consuming the power of the crystals; they grew in strength while the world began to decay.
An old prophecy tells that at the time the "vile four" steal the power and divide the world behind four doors, a knight will appear to vanquish the darkness.
The game opens with an adventurous youth named Benjamin climbing the Hill of Destiny.
While exploring, his village is destroyed in an earthquake.
As Benjamin is climbing the Hill, he meets a mysterious old man who charges Benjamin with fulfilling the knight's prophecy.
Although initially in disbelief, Benjamin accepts the role and the Old Man shows him the Focus Tower (supposedly the center of the World).
After defeating a monster at the top of the hill, Benjamin follows the Old Man to the Level Forest, where he is tasked with recovering the Crystal of Earth.
Proceeding to Foresta, he meets with an axe-wielding girl named Kaeli, who agrees to help Benjamin if he can help her rid the Level Forest of monsters.
Kaeli is ambushed and poisoned in the process, and her mother informs Benjamin of the Elixir and where it can be found.
Benjamin's search for Elixir to heal Kaeli brings him to Bone Dungeon, where he's aided by a treasure hunter named Tristam in succeeding dual purposes: not only does Benjamin get Elixir from Tristam to heal Kaeli, but he defeats one of the four Vile Evils, Flamerous Rex, to free the Crystal of Earth and in turn restore life to the dying village of Foresta.
Tristam leaves and Benjamin heals Kaeli.
Benjamin is then told that Aquaria is in danger, and is in need of help.
He is told (by the Old Man and various others) that he should see Spencer.
He is also told that a girl named Phoebe can help him as well.
After proceeding through the first stage of the Focus Tower, and arriving in the province of Aquaria, Benjamin locates Phoebe, and learns that Spencer is trapped underground by thick ice floes.
Phoebe needs the "wakewater," which is said to be able to help free Aquaria.
Benjamin and Phoebe head to the (aptly named) Wintry Cave and defeat a monster to obtain the Libra Crest.
Using this crest to enter the Libra Temple, they find that the source of the "wakewater" has dried up.
Finding the Old Man in the back of the Libra Temple, they find that he holds the only bag (water skin, actually) of wakewater, and to use it on the plant in the center of town.
Back in Aquaria, they find that the wakewater doesn't work, and reviving the crystal is the only thing that will save the town and Spencer.
They head off for the Ice Pyramid and defeat the second of the Vile Evils, the Ice Golem.
The Ice Crystal is saved, and Benjamin and Phoebe head back to Aquaria.
They find the town is now like Foresta (after the crystal is revived there) and Spencer is back and digging his tunnel to save Captain Mac (Kaeli's Father).
Upon leaving, Spencer hands the Venus Key to Benjamin, and tells him to head for Fireburg.
Benjamin arrives in the Focus Tower to find the Old Man again, who tells him to find Reuben, and disappears.
Benjamin then heads for Fireburg, and finds Reuben.
Reuben joins when Benjamin promises to help free Reuben's dad, Arion.
Upon finding Tristam in the Inn (who gives Benjamin the Multi-Key), they find the coward who left Arion in the mine in a locked house.
He teaches Benjamin how to throw the bombs and says that it will free Arion.
Benjamin and Reuben then proceed to the Mine and free Arion.
Arion tells some tales of how the Fire Crystal has gone berserk, and Reuben goes off with Benjamin to the Volcano to stop the Vile Evil from stealing the crystal's power.
After defeating the Dualhead Hydra, Benjamin and Reuben find the Fire Crystal returning to power.
They decide to head to Windia, and Reuben is ambushed by monsters and falls off the rope bridge.
Tristam comes along and helps Benjamin cross the bridge, but they are stymied by a tree who won't talk to them.
Tristam says that there is a gal in Foresta who can talk to tree spirits, and the two drop in on Aquaria where Kaeli was trying to find Spencer.
Benjamin and Tristam go down into the tunnel and find Spencer, who tells Tristam of a great treasure.
They leave, and Phoebe plants a bomb that collapses a tunnel Spencer was building.
She leaves to tell Spencer what happened, and Benjamin takes Kaeli to the Alive Forest to talk to the dormant tree spirit.
He tells them that he will take them to Windia if they kill the monsters dwelling within him.
They do, and he takes them to Windia.
Upon arriving in Windia, Benjamin and Kaeli find Otto, whose daughter was caught in Pazuzu's Tower when the winds from nearby Mount Gale knocked out his Rainbow Road.
The only way the road works is when there is no wind, so Benjamin and Kaeli proceed to Mount Gale and stop the wind by defeating a powerful monster at the top.
After returning to Windia, Otto powers up the Rainbow Road and the two adventurers proceed to Pazuzu's Tower.
After giving chase, they corner Pazuzu and defeat the fourth Vile Evil and restore the Wind Crystal.
Norma is reunited with Otto, and Kaeli stays to take care of her.
Reuben shows up and after a series of long events Captain Mac is rescued.
Reuben falls down because of the injury sustained on the Rope Bridge, and Phoebe joins Benjamin instead.
The Old Man tells Benjamin an ominous addendum to the prophecy: "the one behind the four is darker than the night, and rises midst the land".
It becomes known that the Dark King is the true source of evil.
Benjamin thus sails to Doom Castle to confront the Dark King, who threatens to enslave Benjamin along with the rest of mankind.
The Dark King claims that he wrote and spread the prophecy Benjamin had followed throughout his quest.
Once the Dark King is defeated, the old man congratulates Benjamin and reveals that he is the Fifth Crystal, The Crystal of Light in the guise of a human.
At the end of the game, Benjamin is seen still craving adventure, and he borrows the ship from Captain Mac as his friends gather to wish him off.
While sailing, Tristam makes a surprise appearance.
<EOS>
The Hero (named by the player), is a prisoner of the Dark Lord.
One day, the Hero's friend informs him of the Dark Lord's goals and urges him to seek a Knight named Bogard.
As the Hero escapes imprisonment, he learns the Dark Lord is seeking a key to the Mana Sanctuary in order to control the Mana Tree, an energy source which sustains life.
The Hero is befriended by the Heroine (named by the player) who is also seeking Bogard.
The two find Bogard who recommends them to meet a man named Cibba.
During his journey to meet Cibba, the Heroine gets kidnapped and was rescued by the Hero with the aid of a mysterious man.
When they meet Cibba, he plays a message left by the Heroine's mother who reveals she is a descendant of the guardians of the Mana Tree and that her pendant is the key to it.
The mysterious man, after discovering she holds the pendant, reveals himself to be Julius, Dark Lord's advisor, and kidnaps the Heroine.
The Hero then attempts to rescue the Heroine but fails and gets knocked out of Julius's airship.
The Heroine gives the Hero the pendant just before he falls off the airship.
The Hero is then reunited with Amanda, an escapee from his prison, who steals the pendant in order to win her brother Lester's freedom.
The mayor of Jadd, Davias, takes the pendant but transforms Lester into a parrot.
The Hero and Amanda confront a Medusa for its tear which will break the spell.
They kill it but Amanda is infected by the Medusa's attack causing her to transform into one.
The Hero reluctantly kills her and uses her tears to break Lester's spell.
Lester avenges Amanda's death by killing Davias who reveals he gave the pendant to the Dark Lord.
The Hero confronts and defeats the Dark Lord; however, Hero discovers that the Heroine is under Julius' mind control and has opened the entrance to the Mana Tree.
Julius reveals he is the last survivor of the Vandole empire, the empire who attempted to control the Mana Tree years ago, and handily defeats the Hero.
Realizing he is powerless to defeat Julius, the Hero learns from Cibba about a powerful sword called Excalibur.
Cibba helps him find the Excalibur only to find a rusty Sword instead.
He explains that the rusty sword is the Excalibur and would reveal its true strength to whoever it finds worthy.
The Hero then raises Dime Tower to reach the Mana Sanctuary and meets a robot known as Marcie.
After reaching the top, the tower begins to collapse and Marcie sacrifices himself by throwing the Hero across.
After obtaining and passing the sword's trials, the Hero confronts and defeats Julius at the cost of the Mana Tree's life.
The Heroine's mother reveals she is the current Mana Tree and before dying, asks the Heroine to succeed her position.
The Heroine agrees and bids farewell to the Hero as she becomes the next Mana Tree and the Hero her guardian.
<EOS>
The backstory of Final Fantasy V is revealed in phases through cutscenes and interactions with non-playable characters.
One millennium before the events of the main story, a powerful mage named Enuo imperiled the world using the power of an evil entity called the "Void".
The people retaliated by using twelve legendary weapons to vanquish Enuo; however, the Void itself could not be destroyed.
Consequently, the people split the world's four elemental Crystals into two sets, effectively creating two worlds.
The Void then became sealed in a dimensional cleft between the two worlds.
Nearly a thousand years passed without incident, and both worlds prospered due to the powers of their Crystals of Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth.
New kingdoms and towns flourished, and travel by ship acted as a critical means of commerce and communication.
However, a sinister force was stirring in the second world—ever since the Void incident, malicious demons had been sealed inside a tree in the Great Forest of Moore.
The corrupted amalgamation of spirits emerged as Exdeath, the game's primary antagonist.
When Exdeath attempted to claim the world for himself, a group of heroes called the "Four Warriors of Dawn" (Galuf, Xezat, Dorgann, and Kelger) sealed him within the first world using its Crystals, and peace returned for another thirty years.
Final Fantasy V features five player characters, though only four of which are playable at a given time.
Bartz Klauser is a traveling adventurer who becomes involved in the story when he investigates the site of a meteorite strike.
Lenna Charlotte Tycoon is a princess of Tycoon who follows her father to investigate the Wind Shrine's Crystal.
Early on, Bartz finds her unconscious and saves her from goblins.
Galuf Doe is a mysterious old man who was discovered unconscious near the meteorite with a case of amnesia.
Faris Scherwiz is a pirate captain who captures Bartz, Lenna, and Galuf when they try to steal her ship; she is revealed to be Sarisa Scherwill Tycoon in disguise.
Krile Mayer Baldesion is the granddaughter of Galuf who journeys with him to the planet and receives his abilities.
Most of the main characters were involved with or related to the original Four Warriors of Dawn, such as Dorgann Klauser (Bartz's father), Kelger Vlondett, and Xezat Matias Surgate; Galuf was the fourth warrior.
The game also contains several supporting characters, including engineer Cid Previa, his grandson Mid Previa, and turtle sage Ghido.
One of Exdeath's henchmen, Gilgamesh, is a recurring mini-boss in the second half of the game.
Gilgamesh has also appeared in newer Final Fantasy titles, such as Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIII-2 as downloadable content, Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, , and World of Final Fantasy.
Concept art for the characters was designed by Yoshitaka Amano; he has offered such artwork for every main Final Fantasy installment since the original.
Final Fantasy V begins on a day when the world's wind currents begin to slow and stale.
Deeply troubled by this occurrence, the king of Tycoon makes ready to travel to the Wind Shrine on the back of his drake, quelling the worries of his daughter, Princess Lenna.
Upon arriving at the Shrine, the king bears witness to the Wind Crystal shattering before his eyes.
Meanwhile, a young traveller named Bartz, resting in the woods near Tycoon, witnesses a meteorite plunge to the planet's surface just outside the castle.
Bartz promptly investigates, discovering Lenna lying unconscious from attack.
After rescuing her, they discover an old man in the debris with partial amnesia named Galuf.
Lenna explains that she had been on her way to the Wind Shrine after her father.
Galuf suddenly recalls that it was his original destination as well, opting to accompany her.
Though the trio part ways, Bartz soon encounters Lenna and Galuf again assaulted by monsters in a quaking valley.
The three travel together, finding all land routes blockaded by the upheavals caused by the meteorite's fall.
Exploring an underground cavern, they encounter a den of pirates and their leader, Faris.
With the help of the pirate captain, the group makes its way to the Wind Shrine to discover the shattered Crystal, but no sign of the missing king.
The shards react to their presence, however, and an image of Tycoon appears, explaining to them that they must protect those Crystals that yet remain.
Eventually, the party comes to discover that the Crystals formed a seal upon Exdeath, an ancient sorcerer; with them destroyed, not only would the dark essence be released, but over time the planet itself would become uninhabitable.
The party attempts to save the crystals of Water, Fire, and Earth; but by the machinations of human folly or the influence of the sealed Exdeath, they fail.
Having been freed, Exdeath defeats the party and returns to his homeworld.
Galuf's granddaughter Krile arrives by meteorite, restoring Galuf's memory completely; he recalls he originated from the same world as Exdeath, pursuing him back home with Krile.
Bartz and the others resolve that the fight is not Galuf's alone, together traveling to the distant planet world, where Exdeath is already wreaking havoc in pursuit of that world's Crystals.
The trio is captured, but Galuf rescues them and defeats Exdeath's lieutenant, Gilgamesh, in the process.
They are blown to a distant continent when a magical barrier is activated during their escape, but make their way to Bal Castle, Galuf's kingdom.
The party meets Xezat, one of Galuf's companions and a former Warrior of Dawn, and learn that Bartz's father was part of their group.
Joining forces, they deactivate the barrier around Exdeath's castle, but at the cost of Xezat's life.
They then learn of Exdeath's origins, traveling to the Guardian Tree to dispel the seals.
Exdeath anticipates the party's actions and torches Moore Forest, ensnaring the group.
Krile arrives to help, but is herself trapped by the warlock's powers.
At the sight of his granddaughter's capture, Galuf frees himself and battles Exdeath to the point of death, refusing to fall until the creature flees.
Collapsing from his wounds, Galuf dies despite the party's efforts to save him, imparting his abilities to Krile.
The party pursues Exdeath to his tower and defeats him, but the remaining Crystals shatter and the worlds are reunited.
For a time, it seems Exdeath has been truly destroyed, and the party celebrates in Tycoon.
Bartz, however, is contacted by the sage Ghido.
Meeting with him, a thorn suddenly leaps from Krile's palm, manifesting as Exdeath, now resurrected and fully in command of the Void.
With it, he removes entire towns and kingdoms from existence, tossing them into a tear in reality.
Fortunately for the party, the reunification of worlds has opened the pathways to ancient sites where weapons and powers used to quell Enuo's rise a thousand years past lay in wait.
So armed, the party enters the Rift, seeking out Exdeath at the center of the inter-dimensional nexus where they, too, fall prey to the Void.
With help from their fallen allies, the party survives and is returned before Exdeath, now manifested as a demonic sylvan, battling him until he weakens and is swallowed by his own power.
He then transforms into Neo Exdeath, intent on destroying the very essence of reality, himself with it.
Exdeath is ultimately defeated, and, using the power of the Crystal shards, the heroes seal the Void once more and restore the reunified world and its Crystals.
The game's ending varies based on how many party members are still alive at Neo Exdeath's defeat, detailing the events after the world's resurrection.
At the end, the remaining group visits the Guardian Tree, and find that the fallen party members have returned to life.
<EOS>
The gypsy Esmeralda captures the hearts of many men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire, but especially Quasimodo and his guardian Archdeacon Claude Frollo.
Frollo is torn between his obsessive lust for Esmeralda and the rules of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
He orders bandits to kidnap her, but the hunchback is captured by Phoebus and his guards, who save Esmeralda.
The following day, Quasimodo is sentenced to be flogged and turned on the pillory for one hour, followed by another hour's public exposure.
He calls for water.
Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, approaches the public stocks and offers him a drink of water.
It saves him, and she captures his heart.
Later, Esmeralda is arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus, whom Frollo actually attempted to kill in jealousy after seeing him trying to seduce Esmeralda.
She is sentenced to death by hanging.
As she is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down by the bell rope of Notre-Dame and carries her off to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary, temporarily protecting her from arrest.
Frollo later informs Gringoire that the Court of Parlement has voted to remove Esmeralda's right to sanctuary so she can no longer seek shelter in the cathedral and will be taken away to be killed.
Clopin, the leader of the Gypsies, hears the news from Gringoire and rallies the citizens of Paris to charge the cathedral and rescue Esmeralda.
When Quasimodo sees the Gypsies, he assumes they are there to hurt Esmeralda, so he drives them off.
Likewise, he thinks the King's men want to rescue her, and tries to help them find her.
She is rescued by Frollo and her phony husband Gringoire.
But after yet another failed attempt to win her love, Frollo betrays Esmeralda by handing her to the troops and watches while she is being hanged.
When Frollo laughs during Esmeralda's hanging, Quasimodo pushes him from the heights of Notre Dame to his death.
Quasimodo later goes to Montfaucon, a huge graveyard in Paris where the bodies of the condemned are dumped, where he stays with Esmeralda's dead body and dies of starvation.
About eighteen months later, the tomb is opened, and the skeletons are found.
As someone tries to separate them, they crumble to dust.
<EOS>
Chapter One – Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice is feeling bored and drowsy while sitting on the riverbank with her older sister, who is reading a book with no pictures or conversations.
She then notices a White Rabbit wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch, talking to itself as it runs past.
She follows it down a rabbit hole, but suddenly falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes.
She finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit through, but through it she sees an attractive garden.
She then discovers a bottle on a table labelled "DRINK ME", the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key, which she has left on the table.
She eats a cake with "EAT ME" written on it in currants as the chapter closes.
Chapter Two – The Pool of Tears: Chapter Two opens with Alice growing to such a tremendous size that her head hits the ceiling.
Alice is unhappy and, as she cries, her tears flood the hallway.
After shrinking down again due to a fan she had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse, who is swimming as well.
She tries to make small talk with him in elementary French (thinking he may be a French mouse) but her opening gambit "Où est ma chatte.
" ("Where is my cat.
") offends the mouse and he tries to escape her.
Chapter Three – The Caucus Race and a Long Tale: The sea of tears becomes crowded with other animals and birds that have been swept away by the rising waters.
Alice and the other animals convene on the bank and the question among them is how to get dry again.
The Mouse gives them a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror.
A Dodo decides that the best thing to dry them off would be a Caucus-Race, which consists of everyone running in a circle with no clear winner.
Alice eventually frightens all the animals away, unwittingly, by talking about her (moderately ferocious) cat.
Chapter Four – The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill: The White Rabbit appears again in search of the Duchess's gloves and fan.
Mistaking her for his maidservant, Mary Ann, he orders Alice to go into the house and retrieve them, but once she gets inside she starts growing.
The horrified Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard, to climb on the roof and go down the chimney.
Outside, Alice hears the voices of animals that have gathered to gawk at her giant arm.
The crowd hurls pebbles at her, which turn into little cakes.
Alice eats them, and they make her smaller again.
Chapter Five – Advice from a Caterpillar: Alice comes upon a mushroom; sitting on it is a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah.
The Caterpillar questions Alice and she admits to her current identity crisis, compounded by her inability to remember a poem.
Before crawling away, the caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her taller and the other side will make her shorter.
She breaks off two pieces from the mushroom.
One side makes her shrink smaller than ever, while another causes her neck to grow high into the trees, where a pigeon mistakes her for a serpent.
With some effort, Alice brings herself back to her normal height.
She stumbles upon a small estate and uses the mushroom to reach a more appropriate height.
Chapter Six – Pig and Pepper: A Fish-Footman has an invitation for the Duchess of the house, which he delivers to a Frog-Footman.
Alice observes this transaction and, after a perplexing conversation with the frog, lets herself into the house.
The Duchess's Cook is throwing dishes and making a soup that has too much pepper, which causes Alice, the Duchess, and her baby (but not the cook or grinning Cheshire Cat) to sneeze violently.
Alice is given the baby by the Duchess and to her surprise, the baby turns into a pig.
The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house.
He disappears, but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air, prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat.
Chapter Seven – A Mad Tea-Party: Alice becomes a guest at a "mad" tea party along with the March Hare, the Hatter, and a very tired Dormouse who falls asleep frequently, only to be violently woken up moments later by the March Hare and the Hatter.
The characters give Alice many riddles and stories, including the famous "Why is a raven like a writing desk.
".
The Hatter reveals that they have tea all day because Time has punished him by eternally standing still at 6&nbsp;pm (tea time).
Alice becomes insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she leaves, claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to.
Chapter Eight – The Queen's Croquet Ground: Alice leaves the tea party and enters the garden, where she comes upon three living playing cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red because The Queen of Hearts hates white roses.
A procession of more cards, kings and queens and even the White Rabbit enters the garden.
Alice then meets the King and Queen.
The Queen, a figure difficult to please, introduces her trademark phrase "Off with her head.
", which she utters at the slightest dissatisfaction with a subject.
Alice is invited (or some might say ordered) to play a game of croquet with the Queen and the rest of her subjects, but the game quickly descends into chaos.
Live flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls, and Alice once again meets the Cheshire Cat.
The Queen of Hearts then orders the Cat to be beheaded, only to have her executioner complain that this is impossible since the head is all that can be seen of him.
Because the cat belongs to the Duchess, the Queen is prompted to release the Duchess from prison to resolve the matter.
Chapter Nine – The Mock Turtle's Story: The Duchess is brought to the croquet ground at Alice's request.
She ruminates on finding morals in everything around her.
The Queen of Hearts dismisses her with the threat of execution and she introduces Alice to the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle.
The Mock Turtle is very sad, even though he has no sorrow.
He tries to tell his story about how he used to be a real turtle in school, which the Gryphon interrupts so that they can play a game.
Chapter Ten – : The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon dance to the Lobster Quadrille, while Alice recites (rather incorrectly) "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster".
The Mock Turtle sings them "" during which the Gryphon drags Alice away for an impending trial.
Chapter Eleven – Who Stole the Tarts.
: Alice attends a trial in which the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts.
The jury is composed of various animals, including Bill the Lizard; the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter; and the judge is the King of Hearts.
During the proceedings, Alice finds that she is steadily growing larger.
The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no right to grow at such a rapid pace and take up all the air.
Alice scoffs and calls the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she cannot help it.
Meanwhile, witnesses at the trial include the Hatter, who displeases and frustrates the King through his indirect answers to the questioning, and the Duchess's cook.
Chapter Twelve – Alice's Evidence: Alice is then called up as a witness.
She accidentally knocks over the jury box with the animals inside, and the King orders the animals to be placed back into their seats before the trial continues.
The King and Queen order Alice to be gone, citing Rule 42 ("All persons more than a mile high must leave the court"), but Alice disputes their judgement and refuses to leave.
She argues with the King and Queen of Hearts over the ridiculous proceedings, eventually refusing to hold her tongue.
The Queen shouts her familiar "Off with her head.
" but Alice is unafraid, calling them out as just a pack of cards, just as they start to swarm over her.
Alice's sister wakes her up from a dream, brushing what turns out to be some leaves, and not a shower of playing cards, from Alice's face.
Alice leaves her sister on the bank to imagine all the curious happenings for herself.
<EOS>
Set during a war between the 'Starmen (inhabitants of the planet Lilistar) and six-limbed insectoid creatures called the reegs, Now Wait for Last Year is the story of Eric Sweetscent, an organ-transplant doctor who gets wrapped up in Earth-Lilistar politics.
At the onset of the story, Sweetscent is the personal org-trans surgeon for Virgil Ackerman, the president of Tijuana Fur & Dye.
Using an extraterrestrial amoeba which can imitate the cell-structure of anything it touches, TF&D had been the largest manufacturer of synthetic furs on the planet.
But like all major corporations on Earth, TF&D has been requisitioned to produce for the war effort.
Ackerman invites Sweetscent to "Wash-35", a recreation of his boyhood native Washington DC in a simulated 1935 and his vacation getaway on Mars, where he announces an ulterior motive in the retreat.
Waiting for them when they arrive is a guest—Gino Molinari, the elected leader of Earth.
Known as "the Mole", he is rumored to have the enigmatic ability to come back from the dead, and he has requested the services of Sweetscent.
Ackerman gladly passes Sweetscent on to Molinari.
Meanwhile, Sweetscent's wife, Kathy, tries JJ-180, a new hallucinogenic drug which proves to be highly toxic and addictive.
The effects of JJ-180 are not clear at first, however, only hours off of it, Kathy finds herself unable to function and violently craving JJ-180 again.
She is visited by 'Starmen who claim the reegs invented JJ-180 as a chemical weapon against the 'Starmen and Terrans, also stating that there is no known cure for the drug's addiction and 'That's why we put you on it'.
Kathy is now a slave to JJ-180.
The 'Starmen inform Kathy of her husband's new position with Molinari and suspect the latter's possible defection to the reegs.
Kathy is promised more JJ-180 if she agrees to spy on her husband for Lilistar.
Threatened with deportation, Kathy capitulates and agrees to their terms.
Eventually, she takes a second dose of the drug as her ability to function becomes nearly impossible due the effects of the withdrawal.
Jumping into a taxi-cab, both she and the cab are plunged back in time to the 1930s.
As the effects of the drug wear off, they slowly make their way back to the present time, uncertain as to whether the past they visited was their own or an alternate one.
An increasingly paranoid Kathy sets off to visit her husband.
Under his new employer Eric Sweetscent is let in on certain State secrets: Molinari seems to have a psychosomatic condition that mirrors any illness or disease of anyone in his vicinity.
The effects of this condition appear to be real, yet the Mole pulls through every time, always returning from the brink of death.
Molinari, like everyone else, has realized that in siding with the 'Starmen Earth has doomed itself to the wrong side of a losing war.
However, there does not seem to be any safe way of defecting to the reegs, and Molinari fears that his deteriorating health will not instill confidence in the Terrans should the 'Starmen retaliate, as they are certain to do.
Sweetscent is shown footage of a healthier, younger Molinari in uniform and is led to believe that an android look-alike of the President has been created for public appearances, a notion that does not account for the fact that there is at least one other Molinari on the premises, a bullet-ridden corpse that is being preserved for use in the event of certain possible future developments.
Kathy arrives to inform her husband of her addiction, and in an effort to motivate him to find a cure she slips a pill of JJ-180 into his drink.
Without enough time to be furious, Eric slips a year into the future of an alternate world where his colleagues inform him that he disappeared the day Kathy came to visit.
Sweetscent also witnesses that in the new timeline Earth has sided with the reegs and Lilistar has lost the war.
Upon returning to the present of his own timeline, Sweetscent is eager to present this information to Molinari, who reveals that he too has been taking JJ-180, and that the effect is different for each user.
Certain users are sent to the past, while others are sent to the future.
Each trip is in an alternate universe, and therefore no one can effectively change their own past or future.
However, aside from minor details, events in all observed universes seem to be moving in the same direction, and therefore, information obtained from one alternate world's future will most likely be applicable to another.
In Molinari's case he slips sideways in time under the drug's influence and is able to pull alternate versions of his present self into his own timeline and then keep them there.
Having learned the secret to Molinari's alter-aliases as well as confirming the feasibility of an alliance with the reegs, Eric takes a larger dose of JJ-180 which propels him further into the future.
While there, he obtains a cure for JJ-180's addiction, an item of wide accessibility in the future, as well as obtaining more information about the possible future of the war in his own timeline.
He also gathers information as to the effects of JJ-180 on the brain as he is increasingly worried about Kathy's mental condition.
Taking a fraction of a pill so as to not immediately return to his own time, Eric again ends up one year in his own future where the 'Starmen have occupied Earth after learning of the Terrans' defection to the reegs.
He is arrested by a 'Star patrol but saved by his future self, who informs him that Ackerman and the rest of the crew at TF&D have taken a stand against Lilistar, using Ackerman's getaway on Mars as their hideout.
Now knowing the general future history of the next few years, Eric returns to his own time where his wife's mental condition is deteriorating every day.
He resolves to check her into a clinic and is sent into deep reflection about the nature of their relationship.
Feeling that he would be justified, he attempts to arrange an affair with a younger girl at Molinari's recommendation.
However, he backs out of it and begins to slip into a deep depression while reflecting on his life.
He goes to Mexico to purchase poison with which to commit suicide.
Deciding against it at the last second, Eric watches as the 'Starmen begin their invasion of Earth.
Deciding that he is destined to join Ackerman's resistance against the 'Starmen, Eric enters an automated cab bound for TF&D, asking it what it would do if its wife suffered from brain-damage without possibility of recovery (which Eric had confirmed by contacting his future self).
After pointing out that robots do not marry, the cab hypothetically concludes that it would stay with her.
Life, argues the cab, is made up of a series of circumstances, different for each person.
To leave one's wife would be to say that he requires a uniquely easier set of circumstances than what has been provided.
That reasoning, to the cab, was an irrational way of thinking.
Eric agrees and decides to stay with his wife despite the challenges presented by her condition, and in the closing paragraph is commended by the cab for being a 'good man'.
<EOS>
On Halloween in the seaside town of Wells Harbor, Maine, Rynn Jacobs is celebrating her thirteenth birthday alone in her father Lester's house.
Lester was a poet and the two recently moved from England, where he leased the house for three years.
Frank Hallet, the adult son of landlord Cora Hallet, visits and makes sexual advances toward Rynn.
Cora Hallet later arrives at the house, searching for Rynn's father.
Rynn claims he is in New York and taunts the landlord about her son.
The situation becomes more tense when mrs Hallet insists on retrieving her jelly glasses from the cellar.
Rynn steadfastly refuses to let her in the cellar, and mrs Hallet leaves.
She returns later, and, ignoring Rynn's warnings, opens the trapdoor to go into the cellar.
Suddenly terrified by something she sees, mrs Hallet attempts to flee but accidentally knocks down the cellar door support, fatally hitting her head on the door.
Trying to hide evidence of mrs Hallet's visit, Rynn goes outside to move her car.
Her inability to start it attracts the attention of Mario, a young magician and the nephew of Officer Miglioriti.
Mario helps her move the car, and they have dinner together at Rynn's house.
Miglioriti stops by to tell them that Frank Hallet has reported his mother missing, and asks to see Rynn's father, but Mario covers by saying that her father has gone to bed.
Later that night, Frank Hallet makes a surprise visit.
Suspicious and looking for answers about the whereabouts of his mother and Rynn's father, he tries to scare Rynn into talking by killing her pet hamster.
Mario chases Frank away, and Rynn now trusts him enough to show him her secret.
Her terminally ill father and abusive mother divorced long ago.
To protect Rynn from being returned to her mother's custody after his death, he moved them to an isolated area and made plans to allow Rynn to live alone, then committed suicide in the ocean so his body would not be found.
He also left Rynn with a jar of potassium cyanide, telling her that it was a sedative, to give to her mother if she ever came for her.
Rynn coolly recounts how she put the powder in her mother's tea and watched her die.
She learned embalming at the library in order to hide the body in the cellar.
The trust between Rynn and Mario blossoms into romance.
It starts to rain heavily, and Mario catches a cold.
Miglioriti, suspicious of Rynn's excuses for her father's absence, again returns to the house.
When he asks to see her father, Mario, disguised as an old man, comes down the stairs and introduces himself as Lester Jacobs.
After winter sets in, Rynn learns that Mario's cold has developed into pneumonia and he is in the hospital.
Rynn comes to see him, but he is unconscious, and she feels lonelier than ever before.
That night, as Rynn is going to bed, she is shocked to find Frank coming out of the cellar.
Having put the pieces together and knowing the truth about Rynn's parents, he attempts to blackmail her by offering to protect her secrets in exchange for sexual favours.
Rynn, seemingly defeated and resigned to Frank's demands, agrees to his suggestion that they have a cup of tea.
Rynn places a dose of the potassium cyanide into her own cup and then takes the tea and almond cookies to the living room.
A suspicious Frank switches his cup with hers, and Rynn watches on as he begins to succumb to the poison.
<EOS>
The story begins in London during the summer of 1900.
Two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, meet while playing in the adjacent gardens of a row of terraced houses.
They decide to explore the attic connecting the houses, but take the wrong door and surprise Digory's Uncle Andrew in his study.
Uncle Andrew tricks Polly into touching a yellow magic ring, causing her to vanish.
Then he explains to Digory that he has been dabbling in magic, and that the rings allow travel between one world and another.
He blackmails Digory into taking another yellow ring to follow wherever Polly has gone, and two green rings so that they both can return.
Digory finds himself transported to a sleepy woodland with an almost narcotic effect; he finds Polly nearby.
The woodland is filled with pools.
Digory and Polly surmise that the wood is not really a proper world at all but a "Wood between the Worlds", similar to the attic that links their rowhouses back in England, and that each pool leads to a separate universe.
They decide to explore a different world before returning to England, and jump into one of the nearby pools.
They then find themselves in a desolate abandoned city of the ancient world of Charn.
Inside the ruined palace, they discover statues of Charn's former kings and queens, which degenerate from the fair and wise to the unhappy and cruel.
They find a bell with a hammer, an inscription inviting the finder to strike the bell.
Despite protests from Polly, Digory rings the bell.
This awakens the last of the statues, a witch queen named Jadis, who, to avoid defeat in battle, had deliberately killed every living thing in Charn by speaking the "Deplorable Word".
As the only survivor left in her world, she placed herself in an enchanted sleep that would only be broken by someone ringing the bell.
The children realize Jadis's evil nature and attempt to flee, but she follows them back to England by clinging to them as they clutch their rings.
In England, she discovers that her magical powers do not work, although she retains her superhuman strength.
Dismissing Uncle Andrew as a poor magician, she enslaves him and orders him to fetch her a "chariot"—a hansom cab—so she can set about conquering Earth.
They leave, and she attracts attention by robbing a jewellery store.
The police chase after her cab, until she crashes at the foot of the Kirke house.
Jadis breaks off and brandishes an iron rod from a nearby lamp-post to fight off police and onlookers.
Polly and Digory grab her and put on their rings to take her out of their world, dragging with them Uncle Andrew, Frank the cab-driver, and Frank's horse, since all were touching one another when the children grabbed their rings.
In the Wood between the Worlds they jump into a pool, hoping it leads back to Charn.
Instead they stumble into a dark void that Jadis recognizes as a world not yet created.
They then all witness the creation of a new world by the lion Aslan, who brings stars, plants, and animals into existence as he sings.
Jadis, as terrified by his singing as the others are attracted to it, tries to kill Aslan with the iron rod; but it rebounds harmlessly off him, and in the creative soil of the new world it sprouts into a growing lamp-post.
Jadis flees.
Aslan gives some animals the power of speech, commanding them to use it for justice and merriment.
Aslan confronts Digory with his responsibility for bringing Jadis into his young world, and tells Digory he must atone by helping to protect the new land of Narnia from her evil.
Aslan transforms the cabbie's horse into a winged horse named Fledge, and Digory and Polly fly on him to a distant garden high in the mountains.
Digory's task is to take an apple from a tree in this garden and plant it in Narnia.
In the garden Digory finds a sign warning not to steal from the garden.
Digory picks one of the apples for his mission, but their overpowering smell tempts him.
Jadis appears, having herself eaten an apple to become immortal; she tempts Digory either to eat an apple himself and join her in immortality, or steal one to take back to Earth to heal his dying mother.
Digory resists, knowing his mother would never condone theft, but hesitates.
He sees through the Witch's ploy when she suggests he leave Polly behind—not knowing Polly can get away by her own ring.
Foiled, the Witch departs for the North.
Digory returns to Narnia and plants the apple, which grows into a tree instantly.
Aslan tells Digory how the tree works: anyone who steals the apples gets their heart's desire, but in a form that makes it unlikeable.
In the Witch's case, she has achieved immortality, but it only means eternal misery because of her evil heart.
Moreover, the magic apples are now a horror to her, such that the apple tree will repel her for centuries to come.
With Aslan's permission, Digory then takes an apple from the new tree to heal his mother.
Aslan returns Digory, Polly, and Uncle Andrew to England; Frank and his wife, Helen (transported from England by Aslan) stay to rule Narnia as its first King and Queen.
Digory's apple restores his mother's health, and he and Polly remain lifelong friends.
Uncle Andrew reforms and gives up magic, but still enjoys bragging about his adventures with the Witch.
Digory plants the apple's core with Uncle Andrew's rings in the back yard of his aunt's home in London, and it grows into a large tree.
Years later, Digory's family inherit a mansion in the country, and the apple tree blows down in a storm.
Digory has its wood made into a wardrobe, setting up the events in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
<EOS>
In a world where toys are living things who pretend to be lifeless when humans are present, a group of toys, owned by six-year-old Andy Davis, are caught off-guard when Andy's birthday party is moved up a week, as Andy, his single mother and infant sister Molly are preparing to move the following week.
The toys' leader and Andy's favorite toy, an old-fashioned cowboy doll named Sheriff Woody organizes the other toys, including Bo Peep the shepherdess, mr Potato Head, Rex the Dinosaur, Hamm the Piggy Bank and Slinky Dog, into a scouting mission.
Green army men, led by Sarge, spy on the party and report the results to the others via baby monitors.
The toys are relieved when the party appears to end with none of them having been replaced, but then Andy receives a surprise gift – an electronic toy space ranger action figure named Buzz Lightyear, who believes that he is an actual space ranger.
Buzz impresses the other toys with his various features, and Andy begins to favor him, making Woody feel left out.
As Andy prepares for a family outing at Pizza Planet, his mother allows him to bring only one toy along.
Fearing Andy will choose Buzz, Woody attempts to trap him behind a desk, but ends up knocking him out a window instead, resulting in the other toys accusing Woody of murdering Buzz out of jealousy.
Before they can exact punishment, Andy takes Woody instead and leaves for Pizza Planet.
When the family stops for gas, Woody finds that Buzz has hitched a ride on the car as well, and the two fight, only to find the family has left without them.
They manage to make their way to the restaurant by stowing away on a pizza delivery truck, where Buzz, still believing he is a real space ranger despite Woody's attempts to convince him otherwise, gets them stuck in a crane game, where they are picked out by Andy's destructive neighbor Sid Phillips.
Woody attempts to escape from Sid's house, but Buzz, finally discovering he is a toy, sinks into despondency.
Sid plans to launch Buzz on a firework rocket, but his plans are delayed by a thunderstorm.
Woody tells Buzz about the joy he can bring to Andy as a toy, restoring his confidence.
The next morning, Woody and Sid's mutant toy creations rescue Buzz just as Sid is about to launch the rocket and scare Sid into no longer abusing toys by coming to life in front of him, and he runs into his house while screaming.
Woody and Buzz then leave Sid's house just as Andy and his family drive away toward their new home.
The duo tries to make it to the moving truck, but Sid's dog, Scud, sees them and gives chase.
Buzz gets left behind, and Woody tries rescuing him with Andy's RC car, but the other toys, thinking Woody eliminated RC as well, attack and toss him off the truck.
Having evaded Scud, Buzz and RC pick up Woody and continue after the truck.
Upon seeing Woody and Buzz together on RC, the other toys realize their mistake and try to help them get back aboard but RC's batteries become depleted, stranding them.
Woody ignites the rocket on Buzz's back and manages to throw RC into the truck before they soar into the air.
Buzz opens his wings to free himself from the rocket before it explodes, gliding with Woody to land safely into a box in the van, right next to Andy.
On Christmas Day, at their new house, Woody and Buzz stage another reconnaissance mission to prepare for the new toy arrivals.
As Woody jokingly asks what might be worse than Buzz, they discover Andy's new gift is a puppy, and the two share a worried smile.
<EOS>
Ojo the very unlucky is a young Munchkin boy who, devoted to life with his uncle Unc Nunkie in the wilderness but on the verge of starvation, goes to see a neighboring "magician" and old friend of Unc, dr Pipt.
While there they see a demonstration of the Pipt-made Powder of Life, which animates any object it touches after saying the magic words.
drpipt's wife has transformed an unsightly patchwork quilt into a patchwork servant and carefully prepared its brains for it to be an obedient unquestioning servant.
Ojo, however, messes around with the ingredients for the brains, and the patchwork girl comes to life as a madcap,poetry - spouting, acrobatic creature.
In flinging about, she knocks over a bottle of Liquid of Petrification.
Unc Nunkie and dr Pipt's wife are thus the sufferers of the consequences of another of the Doctor's inventions, the Liquid of Petrifaction, which turns them into solid marble statues.
The remainder of this book is Ojo's quest through Oz to collect the five components of an antidote to the Liquid: a six-leaved clover found only in the Emerald City, three hairs from the tip of a Woozy's tail, a gill (a quarter of a pint) of water from a dark well (one that remains untouched by natural light), a drop of oil from a live man's body, and the left wing of a yellow butterfly.
With the help of the life-size patchwork doll named Scraps, Bungle the snobbish Glass Cat (another of dr Pipt's creations), the Woozy, Dorothy, the Shaggy Man, and the Scarecrow, Ojo gathers all of these supplies but the left wing – the Tin Woodman, who rules the yellow Winkie Country, which is the only place where yellow butterflies grow, will not allow any living thing to be killed, even to save another's life.
The party returns to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz (one of the few allowed to lawfully practice magic in Oz) uses his own magic to restore Unc Nunkie and dr Pipt's wife.
(the whole quest for the ingredients of the antidote, foredoomed to failure, turns out to be an excuse for a Oz travelog, as the Deus Ex Machina of the Wizard rendered it un-necessary)The story is also a growth process for Ojo; he learns that luck is not a matter of who you are or what you have, but what you do; he is renamed "Ojo the Lucky," and so he appears in the following Oz books.
<EOS>
The book is a memoir of Maureen Johnson Smith Long, mother, lover, and eventual wife of Lazarus Long.
Maureen is ostensibly recording the events of the book while held in prison alongside Pixel, the eponymous character of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.
Maureen, born on July 4, 1882, recounts her girlhood in backcountry Missouri, discovery that her family is a member of the long-lived Howard Families (whose backstory is revealed in Methuselah's Children), marriage to Brian Smith, another member of that group, and her life—largely in Kansas City—until her apparent death in 1982.
In addition, Maureen lives through, and gives her (sometimes contradictory) viewpoints on many events in other Heinlein stories, most notably the 1917 visit from the future by "Ted Bronson" (Lazarus Long), told from Long's point of view in Time Enough for Love, Harriman's space program from The Man Who Sold the Moon, and the rolling roads from The Roads Must Roll.
The adventures of Maureen include a series of sexual encounters, beginning in childhood wherein, having just had her first sexual intercourse, is examined by her father, a doctor, and finds herself desiring him sexually.
Her story then encompasses various boys, her husband, ministers, other women's husbands, boyfriends, swinging sessions, and the adult Lazarus Long/Theodore Bronson.
Additionally, she continues a lifelong pursuit of her father sexually, encourages her husband to have sexual intercourse with their daughters, and accompanies him when he does; but forbids a son and daughter of hers from continuing an incestuous relationship, primarily for the sister's reluctance to share the brother with other women.
All of these are set against a history lesson of an alternate 20th century in which a variety of social and philosophical commentary is delivered.
She is eventually rescued by Lazarus Long and other characters of various novels in the ship Gay Deceiver (from The Number of the Beast), and after rescuing her father from certain death in the Battle of Britain, is united with her descendants in a massive group marriage in the settlement of Boondock, on the planet Tertius.
Maureen ends her memoir and the Lazarus Long saga with the phrase "And we all lived happily ever after".
<EOS>
The story, which is told in the first person, centers on down-and-out actor Lawrence Smith (stage name Lorenzo Smythe, also known as "The Great Lorenzo").
A brilliant actor and mimic (or so we are told, by Smith himself), he is down to his last coin when a spaceman hires him to double for an unspecified public figure.
It is only when he is on his way to Mars that he finds out he will have to impersonate one of the most prominent politicians in the solar system (and one with whose views Smith deeply disagrees): John Joseph Bonforte.
Bonforte is the leader of the Expansionist coalition, currently out of office but with a good chance of changing that at the next general election.
Bonforte has been kidnapped by his political opponents, and his aides want Smith to impersonate Bonforte while they try to find him.
Bonforte is rescued, but he is in poor health due to the treatment inflicted on him during his imprisonment.
This forces Smith to extend his performance, even to becoming temporary Supreme Minister and running in an election.
(This is made plausible through Bonforte's extensive Farley Files) The central political issue in the election is the granting of the vote to Martians in the human-dominated Solar System.
Lorenzo shares the anti-Martian prejudice prevalent among large parts of Earth's population, but he is called upon to assume the persona of the most prominent advocate for Martian enfranchisement.
Smith takes on not only Bonforte's appearance, but some aspects of his personality.
At the moment of electoral victory, Bonforte dies of the aftereffects of his kidnapping, and Smith assumes the role for life.
In a retrospective conclusion set twenty-five years later, Smith reveals that he wrote the first-person narrative as therapy.
Lorenzo has become Bonforte, suppressing his own identity permanently.
He has been generally successful and has carried forward Bonforte's ideals to the best of his ability.
Penny (Bonforte's adoring secretary and now Smith's wife) says, "she never loved anyone else".
<EOS>
The Long Range Foundation (LRF) is a non-profit organization that funds expensive, long-term projects for the benefit of mankind.
It has built a dozen exploratory torchships to search for habitable planets to colonize.
The vessels can continually accelerate, but cannot exceed the speed of light, so the voyages will last many years.
Each starship has a much larger crew than necessary to maintain a more stable, long-term shipboard society, as well as provide replacements for the inevitable deaths.
It is found that some twins and triplets can communicate with each other telepathically.
The process seems to be instantaneous and unaffected by distance, making it the only practical means of communication for ships traveling many light years away from Earth.
Before announcing the discovery, the foundation first recruits as many of these people as it can.
Testing shows that teenagers Tom and Pat Bartlett have this talent and both sign up.
Pat, the dominant twin, manipulates things so that he gets selected as the crew member, much to Tom's annoyance.
However, Pat does not really want to leave and his subconscious engineers a convenient accident so that Tom has to take his place at the last minute.
On board, Tom is pleased to find that his uncle Steve, a military man, has arranged to get assigned to the same ship.
The trip is fraught with problems as trivial as an annoying roommate and as serious as mutiny.
The ship visits several star systems.
Due to the nature of relativistic travel (see twin paradox), the twin who remained behind ages faster and eventually the affinity between them is weakened to the point that they can no longer communicate easily.
Some of the spacefaring twins, including the protagonist, are able to connect with descendants of the Earthbound twins.
Tom works with first his niece, then his grandniece and finally his great-grandniece.
The last planet scouted proves to be particularly deadly.
Unexpectedly intelligent and hostile natives capture and kill a large portion of the remaining crew, including the captain and Tom's uncle.
The reserve captain takes charge, but is unable to restore the morale of the devastated survivors.
When he insists on continuing the mission rather than returning to Earth, members of the crew begin to consider mutiny.
Shortly after he notifies Earth of the dire situation, they are surprised to hear a spaceship will rendezvous with them in less than a month and surmise it must be a more advanced LRF spaceship.
Scientists on Earth have discovered faster-than-light travel, in part due to research into the nature of telepathy, and are collecting the surviving crews of the LRF torchships.
The explorers return to an Earth they no longer recognize, and in most cases, no longer fit in.
Tom, however, returns to marry his last telepathic partner, his own great-grandniece, who has been reading his mind since childhood.
<EOS>
Thorby is a young, defiant slave boy recently arrived at the planet Jubbul's capital Jubbulpore, where he is purchased by an old beggar, Baslim the Cripple, for a trivial sum and taken to the beggar's surprisingly well-furnished underground home.
Thereafter Baslim treats the boy as a son, teaching him not only the trade of begging, but also mathematics, history, and several languages, while sending Thorby on errands all over the city, carefully passing along information and keeping track of the comings and goings of starships, so that Thorby realizes that his foster father is gathering intelligence, particularly on the slave trade.
In addition, Baslim has Thorby memorize a contingency plan and a message to deliver to one of five starship captains in the event of Baslim's arrest or death.
When Baslim is captured by the local authorities and commits suicide, Thorby and local innkeeper 'Mother Shaum' convey the message to Captain Krausa of the starship Sisu.
Because the 'Free Trader' society to whom Krausa belongs owes a debt to Baslim for the rescue of one of their crews from a slave trader, the captain takes Thorby aboard the Sisu at great risk to himself and his clan.
Thorby is adopted by the captain (thereby gaining considerable shipboard social status) and adjusts to the insular, clannish, matriarchal culture of the traders.
The advanced education provided by Baslim and the fast reflexes of youth make him an ideal fire controlman, in which position Thorby destroys a pirate craft.
His immediate superior, a young woman named Mata, begins to view him as a suitable husband—something forbidden by the Free Trader's customs, and she is transferred to another ship.
Thorby is again transferred when the captain, against the wishes of his wife, the executive officer and head of the clan (who wants to use Thorby's connection to Baslim to enhance Sisu's prestige), obeys Baslim's last wish, entrusting the boy to a military cruiser and asking its captain to assist Thorby in finding his own people.
In order to implement a background search without having to pay the immense cost, Thorby is enlisted in the military service of the Terran Hegemony, the dominant military power in the galaxy.
Thorby is ultimately identified as Thor Bradley Rudbek, the long-lost heir of a very powerful family and a substantial shareholder in Rudbek and Associates, a large, sprawling interstellar business including one of the largest starship-manufacturing companies and the entire city of Rudbek (formerly Jackson Hole, Wyoming).
In his absence, the business is run by a relative by marriage, "Uncle" John Weemsby, who encourages his stepdaughter Leda to guide Thorby in adjustment to his new situation while secretly scheming to block Thorby's growing interest and interference in the company.
Thorby, investigating his parents' disappearance and his capture and sale by slavers, comes to suspect that his parents were eliminated to prevent the discovery that some portions of Rudbek and Associates were secretly profiting from the slave trade.
When Weemsby quashes further investigation, Thorby seeks legal help and launches a proxy fight, which he unexpectedly wins when Leda votes her shares in his favor.
He fires Weemsby and assumes full control of the firm.
When Thorby realizes that it will take a lifetime to remove Rudbek and Associates from the slave trade, he reluctantly abandons his dream of imitating Baslim as a member of the elite anti-slaver "X" Corps of the Hegemonic Guard.
Knowing that "a person can't run out on his responsibilities", he resolves to fight the slave trade as the head of Rudbek and Associates.
<EOS>
The story focuses on a human raised on Mars and his adaptation to, and understanding of, humans and their culture.
It is set in a post-third world war United States, where organized religions are politically powerful.
There is a World Federation of Free Nations, including the demilitarizedS, with a world government supported by Special Service troops.
A manned expedition is mounted to visit the planet Mars, but all contact is lost after landing.
A second expedition 25 years later finds a single survivor, Valentine Michael Smith.
Smith was born on the spacecraft and was raised entirely by the Martians.
He is ordered by the Martians to accompany the returning expedition.
Because Smith is unaccustomed to the conditions on Earth, he is confined at Bethesda Hospital, where having never seen a human female, he is attended by male staff only.
Seeing this restriction as a challenge, Nurse Gillian Boardman eludes the guards and goes in to see Smith.
By sharing a glass of water with him, she inadvertently becomes his first female "water brother", considered a profound relationship by the Martians.
Gillian tells her lover, reporter Ben Caxton, about her experience with Smith.
Ben explains that as heir to the entire exploration party, Smith is extremely wealthy, and following a legal precedent set during the colonisation of the Moon, he could be considered owner of Mars itself.
His arrival on Earth has prompted a political power struggle that puts his life in danger.
Ben persuades her to bug Smith's room and then publishes stories to bait the government into releasing him.
Ben is seized by the government, and Gillian persuades Smith to leave the hospital with her.
When government agents catch up with them, Smith sends the agents irretrievably into a fourth dimension, then is so shocked by Gillian's terrified reaction that he enters a semblance of catatonia.
Gillian, remembering Ben's earlier suggestion, conveys Smith to Jubal Harshaw, a famous author who is also a physician and a lawyer.
Smith continues to demonstrate psychic abilities and superhuman intelligence, coupled with a childlike naïveté.
When Harshaw tries to explain religion to him, Smith understands the concept of God only as "one who groks", which includes every extant organism.
This leads him to express the Martian concept of life as the phrase "Thou art God", although he knows this is a bad translation.
Many other human concepts such as war, clothing, and jealousy are strange to him, while the idea of an afterlife is a fact he takes for granted because Martian society is directed by "Old Ones", the spirits of Martians who have "discorporated".
It is also customary for loved ones and friends to eat the bodies of the dead, in a rite similar to Holy Communion.
Eventually, Harshaw arranges freedom for Smith and recognition that human law, which would have granted ownership of Mars to Smith, has no applicability to a planet already inhabited by intelligent life.
Still inexhaustibly wealthy, and now free to travel, Smith becomes a celebrity and is feted by the Earth's elite.
He investigates many religions, including the Fosterite Church of the New Revelation, a populist megachurch wherein sexuality, gambling, alcohol consumption, and similar activities are allowed, even encouraged, and only considered "sinning" when not under church auspices.
The Church of the New Revelation is organized in a complexity of initiatory levels: an outer circle, open to the public; a middle circle of ordinary members who support the church financially; and an inner circle of the "eternally saved" — attractive, highly sexed men and women, who serve as clergy and recruit new members.
The Church owns many politicians and takes violent action against those who oppose it.
Smith also has a brief career as a magician in a carnival, where he and Gillian befriend the show's tattooed lady, an "eternally saved" Fosterite named Patricia Paiwonski.
Eventually, Smith starts a Martian-influenced "Church of All Worlds" combining elements of the Fosterite cult (especially the sexual aspects) with Western esotericism, whose members learn the Martian language and thus acquire psychokinetic abilities.
The church is eventually besieged by Fosterites for practicing "blasphemy", and the church building is destroyed; but unknown to the public, Smith's followers teleport to safety.
Smith is arrested by the police, but escapes and returns to his followers, later explaining to Jubal that his gigantic fortune has been bequeathed to the Church.
With that wealth and their new abilities, Church members will be able to re-organize human societies and cultures.
Eventually, those who cannot or will not learn Smith's methods will die out, leaving Homo superior.
Incidentally, this may save Earth from eventual destruction by the Martians, who were responsible for the destruction of the fifth planet, eons ago.
Smith is killed by a mob raised against him by the Fosterites.
From the afterlife, he speaks briefly to grief-stricken Jubal, to dissuade him from suicide.
Having consumed a small portion of Smith's remains in keeping with Martian custom, Jubal and some of the Church members return to Jubal's home to regroup and prepare for their new evangelical role founding congregations.
Meanwhile, Smith re-appears in the afterlife to replace the Fosterites' eponymous founder, amid hints that Smith was an incarnation of the Archangel Michael.
<EOS>
Evelyn Cyril "EC".
Gordon (also known as "Easy" and "Flash") had been recently discharged from an unnamed war in Southeast Asia.
He is pondering what to do with his future and considers spending a year traveling in France.
He is presented with a dilemma: follow up on a possible winning entry in the Irish Sweepstakes or respond to a newspaper ad which asks "Are you a coward.
".
He settles on the latter, discovering it has been placed by Star, a stunningly gorgeous woman he had previously met on Île du Levant.
Star informs him that he is the one to embark on a perilous quest to retrieve the Egg of the Phoenix.
When she asks what to call him, he wants to suggest Scarface, referring to the scar on his face, but she stops him as he is saying "Oh, Scar.
".
and repeats this as "Oscar", and thus gives him his new name.
Along with Rufo, her assistant, who appears to be a man in his fifties, they tread the "Glory Road" in swashbuckling style, slaying dragons and other exotic creatures.
Shortly before the final Quest for the Egg itself, Oscar and Star marry.
The team then proceeds to enter the tower in which the Egg has been hidden, navigating a maze of illusions and optical tricks.
Oscar scouts ahead and encounters a fearsome foe who, though unnamed, is clearly the legendary 17th-century swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac, the final guardian of the Egg.
After a long fight, the party escapes with the Egg.
When they arrive in the home universe of Star and Rufo, Rufo informs Oscar that Star is actually the Empress of many worlds—and Rufo's grandmother.
The Egg is a cybernetic device that contains the knowledge and experiences of most of her predecessors.
Despite her youthful appearance, she is the mother of dozens of children (via egg donation), and has undergone special medical treatments that extend her life much longer than usual.
She has Oscar unknowingly receive the same treatments.
Initially, Oscar enjoys his new-found prestige and luxurious life as the husband of the Empress of the Twenty Universes.
However, as time goes on, he grows bored and feels out of place and useless.
When he demands Star's professional judgment, she tells him that he must leave; her world has no place or need for a hero of his stature.
It will be decades before she can complete the transfer of the knowledge held in the Egg, so he must go alone.
He returns to Earth but has difficulty readjusting to his own world, despite having brought great wealth along with him.
He begins to doubt his own sanity and whether the adventure even happened.
The story ends as he is contacted by Rufo to set up another trip along the Glory Road.
<EOS>
At the time of the story, 2075, the Moon (Luna) is used as a penal colony by Earth's government, with the inhabitants living in underground cities.
Most inhabitants (called "Loonies") are criminals, political exiles, or descendants thereof.
The total population is about three million, with men outnumbering women two to one, so that polyandry is the norm.
Although Earth's Protector of the Lunar Colonies (called the "Warden") holds power, in practice there is little intervention in the loose Lunar society.
HOLMES IV ("High-Optional, Logical, Multi-Evaluating Supervisor, Mark IV") is the Lunar Authority's master computer, having almost total control of Luna's machinery on the grounds that a single computer is cheaper than (though not as safe as) multiple independent systems.
The story is narrated by Manuel Garcia "Mannie" O'Kelly-Davis, a computer technician who discovers that HOLMES IV has achieved self-awareness and has developed a sense of humor.
Mannie names it "Mike" after Mycroft Holmes, brother of Sherlock Holmes, and they become friends.
At the beginning of the story, Mannie, at Mike's request, places a recorder in an anti-Authority meeting.
When the authorities raid the gathering, Mannie flees with Wyoming ("Wyoh") Knott, a political agitator, whom he introduces to Mike and with whom he meets his former teacher, the elderly Professor Bernardo de la Paz, who claims that Luna must stop exporting hydroponic wheat to Earth or its limited water resources will be exhausted.
In connection with this, Mike calculates that if no prevention occurs, there will be food riots in seven years and cannibalism in nine.
Wyoh and the Professor decide to start a revolution, which Mannie is persuaded to join after Mike calculates that it has a 1 in 7 chance of success.
Mannie, Wyoh, and de la Paz thereafter form covert cells, protected by Mike, who adopts the persona of "Adam Selene", leader of the movement, and communicates via the telephone system.
Mannie saves the life of Stuart Rene LaJoie, a rich, well-connected, sympathetic tourist, who begins turning public opinion on Earth in favor of Lunar independence.
When soldiers brought to quell the mounting unrest rape and kill a local young woman, then kill another who finds her body, rioting erupts.
The Loonies overcome military opposition and overthrow the Lunar Authority's Protector, called "the Warden".
When Earth tries to reclaim the colony, the revolutionaries plan to use in defense a smaller duplicate of the electromagnetic catapult used to export wheat.
Mike impersonates the Warden in messages to Earth, to give the revolutionaries time to organize their work.
Meanwhile, the Professor sets up an "Ad-Hoc Congress" to distract dissenters.
When Earth finally learns the truth, Luna declares its independence on July 4, 2076, the 300th anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence.
Mannie and the Professor go to Earth to plead Luna's case, where they are received in Agra by the Federated Nations, and embark on a world tour advertising the benefits of a free Luna, while urging various governments to build a catapult to transfer supplies, especially water, to Luna in exchange for grain.
Their proposals are rejected and they are imprisoned; but they are freed by Stuart LaJoie and returned, with him, to Luna.
Public opinion on Earth has become fragmented, while on Luna the news of Mannie's arrest and the attempt to bribe him with the appointment of himself as Warden have unified the normally fractious Loonies.
An election is held in which Mannie, Wyoh, and the Professor are elected (possibly by the intervention of Mike).
he Federated Nations on Earth send armies to destroy the Lunar revolution, but these are vanquished, with great loss of life, by the revolutionaries.
The rumor is circulated that Mike's alter-ego Adam Selene was among those killed, thus removing the need for him to appear in the flesh.
When Mike launches rocks at sparsely populated locations on Earth, warnings are released to the press detailing the times and locations of the bombings—but disbelieving people, as well as people on religious pilgrimages, travel to the sites and die.
As a result, public opinion turns against the fledgling nation.
A second attack destroys Mike's original catapult, but the Loonies have built a secondary smaller one in a secret location, and with Mannie acting as its on-site commander, the Loonies continue to attack Earth until it concedes Luna's independence.
Professor Bernardo de la Paz, as leader of the nation, proclaims victory to the gathered crowds, but collapses and dies.
Mannie takes control, but he and Wyoh eventually withdraw from politics altogether, and find that the new government falls short of their expectations.
When Mannie tries to speak to Mike afterwards, he finds out that the computer has lost its self-awareness and its human-like qualities.
<EOS>
The story takes place in the early 21st century against a background of an overpopulated Earth with a violent, dysfunctional society.
Elderly billionaire Johann Sebastian Bach Smith is being kept alive through medical support and decides to have his brain transplanted into a new body.
He advertises an offer of a million dollars for the donation of a body from a brain-dead patient.
Smith omits to place any restriction on the sex of the donor, so when his beautiful young female secretary, Eunice Branca, is murdered, her body is used.
He changes his name to Joan Eunice Smith, with the first name given "the two-syllable pronunciation" Jo-Ann to mimic the sound of his original name.
After Smith awakens after the transplant, he discovers he can communicate with Eunice's personality.
They agree not to reveal her existence, fearing that they would be judged insane and locked up.
Smith's identity is unsuccessfully challenged by his descendants, who hope to inherit his fortune.
Smith and Eunice decide to have a baby together and so they (Joan and Eunice) are artificially inseminated using Smith's sperm from the sperm bank.
Joan explores her new sexuality at length.
She goes to visit Eunice's widower, Joe Branca, to help reconcile him to what has happened.
Joan marries her lawyer, Jake Salomon, and moves her household and friends onto a boat.
Jake has a massive rupture of a large blood vessel in his brain and dies, but his personality is saved and joins Smith and Eunice in Joan's head.
She (Joan, Eunice and Jake) emigrates to the moon to find a better future for her child.
Once there, her body starts to reject her (Smith's) transplanted brain.
She dies during childbirth.
<EOS>
A writer seated at the best restaurant of the space habitat "Golden Rule" is approached by a man who urges him that "Tolliver must die" and is himself shot before the writer's eyes.
The writer — Colonel Colin Campbell, living under a number of aliases including his pen name "Richard Ames" — is joined by a beautiful and sophisticated lady, Gwendolyn Novak, who helps him flee to Luna with a bonsai maple and a would-be murderer ("Bill").
After escaping to the moon, Gwen claims to have been present during the revolt described in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
Still pursued by assassins, Campbell and Novak are rescued by an organization known as the Time Corps under the leadership of Lazarus Long.
After giving Campbell a new leg to replace one lost in combat years before, the Time Corps attempt to recruit Campbell for a special mission.
Accepting only on Gwen's account, Campbell agrees to assist a team to retrieve the decommissioned Mike, a sentient computer introduced in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Engaged in frequent time-travel, the Time Corps has been responsible for changing various events in the past, creating an alternate universe with every time-line they disrupt.
Mike's assistance is needed in order to accurately predict the conditions and following events in each of the new universes created.
Campbell's frequent would-be assassins are revealed to be members of contemporary agencies also engaged in time manipulation who, for unknown reasons, do not want to see Mike rescued by the Time Corps.
During the mission, Gwen is grievously wounded and Campbell loses his foot again, though the Time Corps succeed in retrieving Mike.
The story ends with Campbell talking into a recorder (presumably the source of the first-person narrative) reflecting on the mission and his relationship with Gwen.
<EOS>
Starting off a grocer, Ira Howard became rich as a sutler wholesaler during the American War of the Secession, but died of old age at 48 or 49 years old.
The trustees of his will carried out his wishes to prolong human life, by financially encouraging those with long-lived grandparents to marry each other and have children.
By the 22nd century the "Howard families" have a life expectancy exceeding 150 years and keep their existence secret with the "Masquerade", in which the members fake their deaths and obtain new identities.
The Masquerade helped the Families survive the dictatorship of Nehemiah Scudder, but as an experiment some Howard members reveal themselves to The Covenant, hoping that the free society established after Scudder's defeat will be friendly.
They are mistaken; others refuse to believe that the Families obtained their lifespan by selective breeding, instead insisting they have developed a secret method to extend life.
Administrator Slayton Ford, leader of Earth, believes that the Families are telling the truth, but cannot prevent efforts to force Howard members to reveal their alleged rejuvenatory abilities.
Lazarus Long, the eldest member of the Families, proposes that the Families hijack the colony starship New Frontiers to escape Earth.
Using an inertialess drive invented by Howard member Andrew Jackson "Slipstick" Libby, the Families leave the Solar System with the deposed Ford.
The first planet they discover has humanoid inhabitants domesticated by indescribable godlike natives.
When Earthly humans prove incapable of similar domestication, they are expelled from the planet.
The second planet is a lush environment with no predators and mild weather.
Its inhabitants are part of a group mind, with the mental ability to manipulate the environment on the genetic and molecular level, but do not distinguish between individuals.
This becomes evident when Mary Sperling, second oldest of the Families, joins the group mind to become immortal.
The Families are further horrified when the group mind genetically modifies the first baby born on the planet into a new, alien form.
A majority of the Families returns to Earth to demand their freedom; Libby, with the help of the group mind, builds a new faster-than-light drive to take them home in months instead of years.
The Families return to the Solar System 74 years after their original departure because of time dilation, and discover that Earth's scientists have artificially extended human lifespan indefinitely, replicating what they believe is the Families' secret.
The Howard members are now welcomed for their discovery of travel faster than light.
Libby and Long decide to recruit other members of the Families, and explore space with the new drive.
<EOS>
Between World War I and II, a tremendously wealthy Englishman, Bartlebooth (whose name combines two literary characters, Herman Melville's Bartleby and Valery Larbaud's Barnabooth), devises a plan that will both occupy the remainder of his life and spend his entire fortune.
First, he spends 10 years learning to paint watercolors under the tutelage of Valène, who also becomes a resident of 11 Rue Simon-Crubellier.
Then, he embarks on a 20-year trip around the world with his loyal servant Smautf (also a resident of 11 rue Simon-Crubellier), painting a watercolor of a different port roughly every two weeks for a total of 500 watercolors.
Bartlebooth then sends each painting back to France, where the paper is glued to a support board, and a carefully selected craftsman named Gaspard Winckler (also a resident of 11 rue Simon-Crubellier) cuts it into a jigsaw puzzle.
Upon his return, Bartlebooth spends his time solving each jigsaw, re-creating the scene.
Each finished puzzle is treated to re-bind the paper with a special solution invented by Georges Morellet, another resident of 11 rue Simon-Crubellier.
After the solution is applied, the wooden support is removed, and the painting is sent to the port where it was painted.
Exactly 20 years to the day after it was painted, the painting is placed in a detergent solution until the colors dissolve, and the paper, blank except for the faint marks where it was cut and re-joined, is returned to Bartlebooth.
Ultimately, there would be nothing to show for 50 years of work: the project would leave absolutely no mark on the world.
Unfortunately for Bartlebooth, Winckler's puzzles become increasingly difficult and Bartlebooth himself becomes blind.
An art fanatic also intervenes in an attempt to stop Bartlebooth from destroying his art.
Bartlebooth is forced to change his plans and have the watercolors burned in a furnace locally instead of couriered back to the sea, for fear of those involved in the task betraying him.
By 1975, Bartlebooth is 16 months behind in his plans, and he dies while he is about to finish his 439th puzzle.
Ironically, the last hole in the puzzle is in the shape of the letter X while the piece that he is holding is in the shape of the letter.
<EOS>
The series follows the story of two young female assassins, the Corsican Mireille Bouquet and the Japanese amnesiac Yuumura Kirika, who embark together on a personal journey to seek answers about mysteries concerning their past.
At first, they seem to be only vaguely related to each other, but there are clues and hints given throughout the series that there is more going on behind the scenes than at first glance.
In their journey to learn more about Kirika's lost memories and her connection to Mireille, the two form an alliance and begin performing assassinations under the code name "Noir".
During the course of the series, they are lured into more and more traps by a secret organization named Les Soldats ("The Soldiers" in French).
Les Soldats are a secret organization that has been a part, yet separate group of humanity.
It is this hidden group that created and once completely controlled the deadly duo "Noir".
Each time that Les Soldats soldiers are sent to kill Mireille and Kirika, it is considered a test as to whether or not the young women are suitable to carry the title "Noir".
<EOS>
The play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War.
Its heroine, Raina Petkoff, is a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff, one of the heroes of that war, whom she idolizes.
On the night after the Battle of Slivnitza, a Swiss mercenary soldier in the Serbian army, Captain Bluntschli, climbs in through her bedroom balcony window and threatens to shoot Raina if she gives the alarm.
When Russian/Bulgarian troops burst in to search the house for him, Raina hides him so that he won't be killed.
He asks her to remember that "nine soldiers out of ten are born fools".
In a conversation after the soldiers have left, Bluntschli's attitude towards war and soldiering (pragmatic and practical as opposed to Raina's idealistic views) shocks her, especially after he admits that he uses his ammunition pouches to carry chocolates rather than cartridges for his pistol.
When the search dies down, Raina and her mother Catherine sneak Bluntschli out of the house, disguised in an old housecoat.
The war ends with the Bulgarians and Serbians signing a peace treaty and Sergius returns to Raina, but also flirts with her insolent servant girl Louka (a soubrette role), who is engaged to Nicola, the Petkoffs' manservant.
Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome, but she hides it.
Bluntschli unexpectedly returns so that he can give back the old housecoat, but also so that he can see her.
Raina and her mother are shocked, especially when her father and Sergius reveal that they have met Bluntschli before and invite him to stay for lunch (and to help them with troop movements).
Afterwards, left alone with Bluntschli, Raina realizes that he sees through her romantic posturing, but that he respects her as a woman, as Sergius does not.
She tells him that she had left a photograph of herself in the pocket of the coat, inscribed "To my chocolate-cream soldier", but Bluntschli says that he didn't find it and that it must still be in the coat pocket.
Bluntschli gets a telegram informing him of his father's death and revealing to him his now-enormous inheritance.
Louka then tells Sergius that Bluntschli is the man whom Raina protected and that Raina is really in love with him.
Sergius challenges Bluntschli to a duel, but Bluntschli avoids fighting and Sergius and Raina break off their engagement (with some relief on both sides).
Raina's father, Major Paul Petkoff, discovers the portrait in the pocket of his housecoat; Raina and Bluntschli trick him by removing the photograph before he finds it again in an attempt to convince him that his mind is playing tricks on him, but Petkoff is determined to learn the truth and claims that the "chocolate-cream soldier" is Sergius.
After Bluntschli reveals the whole story to Major Petkoff, Sergius proposes marriage to Louka (to Major Petkoff and Catherine's horror); Nicola quietly and gallantly lets Sergius have her, and Bluntschli, recognising Nicola's dedication and ability, determines to offer him a job as manager in one of the hotels he inherited.
While Raina is now unattached, Bluntschli protests that—being 34 and believing she is 17—he is too old for her.
On learning that she is actually 23, he immediately proposes marriage and proves his wealth and position by listing his inheritance from the telegram.
Raina, realizing the hollowness of her romantic ideals, protests that she would prefer her poor "chocolate-cream soldier" to this wealthy businessman.
Bluntschli says that he is still the same person, and the play ends with Raina proclaiming her love for him and Bluntschli, with Swiss precision, both clearing up the major's troop movement problems and informing everyone that he will return to be married to Raina exactly two weeks from that day.
<EOS>
Three years after the destruction of the Death Star, the Rebel Alliance has been driven from their former base on Yavin IV by the Galactic Empire.
The Rebels, led by Princess Leia, have set up their new base on the ice planet Hoth.
The Imperial fleet, led by Darth Vader, continues to hunt for the Rebels’ new base by dispatching probe droids across the galaxy.
While investigating a potential meteor strike, Luke Skywalker is injured and captured by a wampa, a yeti-like creature.
He manages to escape from its cave with his lightsaber, but soon succumbs to the brutally cold temperatures and collapses.
The ghost of his late mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, instructs him to go to the Dagobah system to train under Jedi Master Yoda.
He is found by Han Solo, who kills his tauntaun and uses its warmth to keep Luke warm while he sets up a shelter.
Han and Luke make it through the night and are rescued by a search party.
On patrol, Han and Chewbacca discover the meteor Luke had planned to investigate is actually a probe droid, which alerts the Empire to the Rebels’ location.
The Empire launches a large-scale attack, using AT-AT Walkers to capture the base.
Despite heavy resistance, the Walkers destroy the base's shield generator and force the Rebels to retreat.
Han and Leia escape on the Millennium Falcon with C-3PO and Chewbacca, but their hyperdrive malfunctions.
They hide in an asteroid field, where Han and Leia grow closer, and eventually, kiss.
Vader summons bounty hunters, including the notorious Boba Fett, to assist in finding the Falcon.
Luke, meanwhile, escapes with R2-D2 in his X-wing fighter and crash-lands on the swamp planet Dagobah.
He meets a diminutive creature who is revealed to be Yoda; after conferring with Obi-Wan's spirit, Yoda reluctantly accepts Luke as his student.
Yoda trains Luke as a Jedi and raises his sunken ship from the swamp, to Luke's dismay.
After evading the Empire, Han sets a course for Cloud City, a floating colony in the skies of the gas giant planet Bespin.
Cloud City is run by Han's old friend, Lando Calrissian.
Unknowingly, the Millennium Falcon has been tracked for the Empire by Boba Fett; shortly after they arrive, Lando leads the group into a trap and they are handed over to Darth Vader and Boba Fett.
Vader plans to use the group as bait to lure out Luke, intending to capture him alive and take him to the Emperor.
During his training on Dagobah, Luke sees a premonition of Han and Leia in pain in a city in the clouds and, against Yoda's wishes, leaves to save them.
Vader goes back on his agreement with Lando to let Leia and Chewbacca stay in Cloud City and instead, takes them into custody.
He intends to hold Luke in suspended animation in a block of carbonite for delivery to the Emperor.
To test this process, he selects Han to be frozen against the protests of Fett, who fears he will lose his bounty.
Vader hands the frozen Han over to Fett, who intends to leave for Tatooine to deliver Han to Jabba the Hutt and claim the bounty on Solo.
Lando, who was forced into cooperating with the Empire, initiates an escape and frees Leia and the others.
They then try to save Han but are too late and unable to stop Fett as he departs on his ship.
They fight their way back to the Falcon and flee Cloud City.
After arriving at Cloud City, and engaging in a brief confrontation with Boba Fett, Luke ultimately falls into Vader's trap.
The two engage in a lightsaber duel that leads them over the city's central air shaft where, as his mentors warned, Luke proves to be no match for Vader who severs Luke's right hand, causing him to lose his weapon.
After Luke refuses to join Vader against the Emperor, Vader reveals that he is Luke's father, Anakin Skywalker.
Horrified by the truth, Luke throws himself off the bridge and is pulled into an air shaft.
He is ejected beneath the floating city but is able to grab onto an antenna.
He makes a desperate telepathic plea to Leia, who senses it and persuades Lando to return for him in the Falcon.
After Luke is brought on board, they are chased by TIE fighters but R2-D2 reactivates the Falcons hyperdrive, allowing them to escape.
Later, aboard a medical frigate in the Rebel fleet, Luke's severed hand is replaced with a robotic prosthetic.
Lando and Chewbacca set off for Tatooine in the Falcon in order to find Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett to save Han.
As the Falcon departs, Luke, Leia, R2-D2, and C-3PO gaze out on the galaxy and await word from Lando.
<EOS>
From a prison cell where he has been charged with murder, David Aames (Tom Cruise), in a prosthetic mask, tells his life story to court psychologist, dr Curtis McCabe (Kurt Russell).
In flashback, David is shown to be the wealthy owner of a large publishing firm in New York City which he inherited from his father, leaving its regular duties to his father's trusted associates.
As David enjoys the bachelor lifestyle, he is introduced to Sofia Serrano (Penélope Cruz) by his best friend, author Brian Shelby (Jason Lee) at a party.
David and Sofia spend a night together talking and fall in love.
When David's former lover, Julianna "Julie" Gianni (Cameron Diaz), hears of Sofia, she attempts to kill herself and David in a car crash.
Julie dies but David survives, his face grotesquely disfigured, leading him to wear a mask to hide the injuries.
With no hope to use plastic surgery to repair the damage, David cannot come to grips with the idea of wearing the mask for the rest of his life.
On a night out with Sofia and Brian, David gets hopelessly drunk and Sofia and Brian leave David to wallow in the street outside.
David is awakened the next day in the street by Sofia, who apologises for deserting him the night before, and takes him home.
The two continue to see each other, and David has his face surgically repaired despite being told it was impossible before.
Though his life seems perfectly content, David finds oddities, such as brief visions of his distorted face, and a man (Noah Taylor) at a bar that tells him David can control the world and everyone in it, if he wanted to.
One day, when he goes to Sofia's apartment, he finds Julie there instead; all of the previous mementos of Sofia now show Julie's face.
Angry and confused, David suffocates Julie, and is later arrested and placed in a mental institution, finding his face has reverted to its previously disfigured state.
David completes telling his story to Curtis, who proceeds to then visit David further for more sessions to try to help him recuperate.
During one interview Curtis tells David the staff reported him calling out "Ellie" in a bad dream and asks who she is.
David later sees a nearby TV advertisement for "Life Extension", a company that specializes in cryonic suspension, and realises he'd actually called out "L","E".
Under Curtis' and a police officer's guard, David is taken to the Life Extension offices, where the salesclerk Rebecca (Tilda Swinton) explains they freeze people just after the point of death, until a cure for their ailment is available in the future, keeping their brain active by placing them in a lucid dream state.
David becomes anxious and breaks free of Curtis, realizing he is in his own lucid dream that has gone wrong, and calls for tech support.
David finds himself in the empty lobby of the offices, and the man whom he saw earlier at the bar appears, claiming to be David's tech support from Life Extension, which is now known as the Oasis Project.
They ride up in an elevator to the top of an impossibly tall building, the height triggering David's severe acrophobia.
The man explains that David has been in cryonic sleep for 150 years.
David had opted for Life Extension's services after struggling with his breakup with Sofia and his disfigurement, and after securing the publishing company to its associates, proceeded to kill himself with a drug overdose; Life Extension preserved his body and, as David directed, put him into his lucid dream starting from the drunken night when Sofia left him, under the "vanilla sky" from a Monet painting.
However, during his sleep, the dream went horribly wrong and attempted to incorporate elements from his subconscious, such as substituting Julie for Sofia and creating a father-figure in Curtis.
As they arrive at the top of the building, the man offers David a choice: either to be reinserted into the corrected lucid dream, or return to the real world by taking a literal leap of faith off the roof that will wake him from his sleep.
David decides to wake up, ignoring the vision of Curtis that his subconscious has brought to life to talk him out of it.
David envisions Sofia and Brian to say his goodbyes.
Conquering his final fear, David jumps off the building, his life flashing before his eyes, and whites out immediately before hitting the ground.
A female voice commands him to "open your eyes" (a recurring theme in the movie), and the film ends with David opening his eyes.
The 2015 Blu-ray release offers the option to watch the film with an alternate ending.
This alternate ending expands greatly upon the details at the end of the film.
While it all leads to the same conclusion, there are additional scenes, alternate takes, and alternate dialogue.
After Rebecca describes the lucid dream, David rushes out of the room but does not immediately dash towards the elevator.
He meets McCabe in the restroom who tries to convince him that this is all a hoax and a con and that his case is going to trial.
David tells him that he's only in his imagination.
Much like in the theatrical cut, the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" plays, but this version makes it clear that David hears the music and that he chose it; meanwhile McCabe tries to convince him there is no music.
At this point, David dashes out of the restroom for the elevator the way he does in the theatrical cut, but the scene in the lobby is expanded – David shoots the police officer who is firing at him and is then surrounded by a SWAT team whom McCabe tries to talk down, but the SWAT team fires at both of them.
They black out and wake up in the emptied lobby where McCabe continues to applaud what he believes is a performance while David gets into the elevator with Ventura and tells him what happened at the end of his real life.
Once they reach the roof, McCabe re-enters again and his pleas to David not to believe Ventura become more and more desperate until he collapses onto the ground in despair.
David's interaction with Sofia is extended as he tells her he loves her but can't settle for a dream.
He then jumps off the building and screams that he wants to wake up as images from his life flash before his eyes.
He wakes up in bed and a voice tells him "Open your eyes.
You're going to be fine".
<EOS>
Ben Sanderson is a Hollywood screenwriter whose alcoholism costs him his job, family, and friends.
With nothing left to live for, and a sizable severance check from his boss, he heads to Las Vegas to drink himself to death.
As he drives drunkenly down the Las Vegas Strip, he nearly hits a woman, Sera, on the crosswalk.
She chastises him and walks away.
Sera is a prostitute working for an abusive pimp, Yuri Butso, a Latvian immigrant.
Polish mobsters are after Yuri, so he ends his relationship with Sera in fear that the Poles may hurt her.
On his second day in Las Vegas, Ben goes looking for Sera, introduces himself and offers her $500 to come to his room for an hour.
Sera agrees but Ben does not want sex.
Instead, they talk and form a relationship and Sera invites Ben to move into her apartment.
Ben instructs Sera never to ask him to stop drinking.
Sera asks Ben not to criticize her occupation.
At first, they are happy, but they soon become frustrated with the other's behavior.
Sera begs Ben to see a doctor which makes him furious.
While Sera is out working Ben goes to a casino and returns with another prostitute.
Sera returns to find them in her bed and throws Ben out.
Shortly afterward Sera is approached by three college students at the Excalibur hotel and casino.
She initially rejects their offer by stating that she only "dates" one at a time, but eventually acquiesces when she is offered an increased price.
When she enters their hotel room, the college students change the deal and request anal sex, which she refuses.
When she attempts to leave, she is brutally raped.
The next morning, she is spotted by her landlady returning home battered and is evicted.
Sera receives a call from Ben, who is on his deathbed.
Sera visits Ben, and the two make love.
He dies shortly thereafter.
Later, Sera explains to her therapist that she accepted Ben for who he was and loved him.
<EOS>
In 1936, archaeologist Indiana Jones braves an ancient booby-trapped temple in Peru and retrieves a golden idol.
He is confronted by rival archaeologist René Belloq and the indigenous Hovito people.
Surrounded and outnumbered, Indy surrenders the idol to Belloq and escapes aboard a waiting floatplane.
Jones returns to his teaching position at Marshall College, where he is interviewed by two Army Intelligence agents.
They inform him that the Nazis are searching for his old mentor, Abner Ravenwood, under whom Jones studied at the University of Chicago.
The Nazis know that Ravenwood is the leading expert on the ancient city of Tanis in Egypt, and that he possesses the headpiece of the Staff of Ra.
Jones deduces that the Nazis are searching for the Ark of the Covenant – the Nazis believe that if they acquire the Ark, their armies will become invincible.
The Staff of Ra is the key to finding the Well of Souls, a secret chamber in which the Ark is buried.
The agents authorize Jones to recover the Ark to prevent the Nazis from obtaining it.
He travels to Nepal and discovers that Abner has died, and the headpiece is in the possession of Ravenwood's daughter Marion.
Jones visits Marion at her tavern, where she reveals her bitter feelings toward him from a previous romantic affair.
She physically rebuffs his offer to buy the headpiece, and Jones leaves.
Shortly after, a group of thugs arrive with their Nazi commander, Arnold Toht.
Toht threatens Marion to get the headpiece, but when Jones returns to the bar to fight the Nazis and save Marion, her bar is accidentally set on fire; during the fight, the headpiece ends up in the fire and Toht severely burns his hand trying to take the hot headpiece, and flees the tavern screaming.
Indy and Marion escape with the headpiece, and Marion decides to accompany Indy in his search for the Ark so he can repay his debt to her.
The pair travels to Cairo, where they meet up with Indy's friend Sallah, a skilled excavator.
Sallah informs them that Belloq and the Nazis are digging for the Well of Souls with a replica of the headpiece (created from the scar on Toht's hand).
They quickly realize the Nazi headpiece is incomplete and that the Nazis are digging in the wrong place.
The Nazis kidnap Marion and it appears to Jones that she is killed in an exploding truck.
After a confrontation with Belloq in a local bar, Indy and Sallah infiltrate the Nazi dig site and use their staff to correctly locate the Ark.
Indy discovers Marion is alive, bound and gagged in a tent, but does not release her for fear of alerting the Nazis.
Indy, Sallah, and a small group of diggers unearth the Well of Souls and acquire the Ark.
Belloq and Nazi officer Colonel Dietrich arrive, seize the Ark from Jones, throwing Marion into the Well of Souls with him before sealing it back up.
Jones and Marion escape to a local airstrip, where Jones has a fistfight with a Nazi mechanic and destroys the flying wing that was to transport the Ark to Berlin.
The panicked Nazis remove the Ark in a truck and set off for Cairo, but Jones catches them and retakes it.
He makes arrangements to take the Ark to London aboard a tramp steamer.
The next day, a Nazi U-boat appears and intercepts the ship.
Belloq and Dietrich seize the Ark and Marion but cannot locate Jones, who stows away aboard the U-boat and travels with them to an island in the Aegean Sea.
Once there, Belloq plans to test the power of the Ark before presenting it to Hitler.
Jones reveals himself and threatens to destroy the Ark with a panzerfaust, but Belloq calls his bluff and Jones surrenders rather than destroy such an important historical artifact.
The Nazis take Indy and Marion to an area where the Ark will be opened and tie them to a post to observe.
Belloq performs a ceremonial opening of the Ark, which appears to contain nothing but sand, all that remains of the Ten Commandments.
Suddenly, angelic ghost-like beings emerge from the Ark.
Indy cautions Marion to keep her eyes closed and not to observe what happens next.
Belloq and the others look on in astonishment as the apparitions are suddenly revealed to be angels of death.
A vortex of flame forms above the Ark and shoots bolts of fiery energy into the gathered Nazi soldiers, killing them all.
As Belloq, Toht and Dietrich all scream in terror, the Ark turns its fury on them: Dietrich's head shrivels up, Toht's face is melted off his skull and Belloq's head explodes.
Flames then engulf the remains of the doomed assembly, save for Indy and Marion, and the pillar of fire rises into the sky.
The Ark's lid is blasted high into the air before dropping back down onto the Ark and sealing it.
Jones and Marion find their ropes burned off and embrace.
In Washington,C, the Army Intelligence agents inform Jones and Marcus Brody that the Ark is someplace safe and will be studied by "top men".
The Ark is shown being stored in a giant government warehouse among countless similar crates.
<EOS>
Hitmen Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega arrive at the apartment of Brett to retrieve a briefcase for their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace.
After Vincent checks the contents of the briefcase, Jules shoots one of Brett's associates, then declaims a passage from the Bible before he and Vincent kill Brett.
Some time later, champion boxer Butch Coolidge accepts a large sum from Marsellus to take a dive in his upcoming match.
Vincent and Jules deliver the briefcase.
The next day, Vincent purchases heroin from his drug dealer Lance.
He shoots up to pass the day, then drives to meet Mia, Marsellus's wife, who Marsellus has asked Vincent to escort while he is out of town.
They head to a 1950s-themed restaurant and participate in a twist contest, then return to the Wallace house with the trophy.
While Vincent is in the bathroom, Mia finds his heroin, mistakes it for cocaine, snorts it and overdoses.
Vincent rushes her to Lance's house, where they revive her with an adrenaline shot to her heart.
Butch double-crosses Marsellus and wins the bout.
At the motel where he and his girlfriend Fabienne are lying low, Butch discovers she has forgotten to pack his father's watch, a beloved heirloom, and flies into a rage.
He returns to his apartment and retrieves the watch, but notices a gun on the kitchen counter and hears the toilet flush.
Vincent exits the bathroom and Butch shoots him dead.
As Butch waits at a traffic light in his car, Marsellus walks by, recognizes him, and chases him into a pawnshop.
The owner, Maynard, captures them at gunpoint and ties them up in the basement.
Maynard is joined by Zed, a security guard; they take Marsellus to another room to rape him, leaving the "gimp", a silent figure in a bondage suit, to watch Butch.
Butch breaks loose and knocks out the gimp.
He is about to flee, but decides to save Marsellus.
As Zed rapes Marsellus, Butch kills Maynard with a katana retrieved from the pawnshop.
Marsellus retrieves Maynard's shotgun and shoots Zed.
Marsellus informs Butch that they are even, so long as he tells no one about the rape and departs Los Angeles forever.
Butch picks up Fabienne on Zed's chopper.
Some time earlier, after Vincent and Jules have executed Brett in his apartment, another man bursts out of the bathroom and shoots wildly, missing every time; Jules and Vincent shoot him.
Jules decides their lucky escape was a miracle, which Vincent disputes.
As Jules drives, Vincent accidentally shoots Brett's associate Marvin in the face.
They hide the car at the home of their associate Jimmie, who insists they deal with the problem before his wife comes home.
Marsellus sends his cleaner, Winston Wolfe, who directs Jules and Vincent to clean the car, hide the body in the trunk, dispose of their bloody clothes, and drive the car to a junk yard.
At a diner, Jules tells Vincent he plans to retire from his life of crime, taking their "miraculous" survival as a sign.
While Vincent is in the bathroom, a couple, "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny", hold up the restaurant.
When Jules holds Pumpkin at gunpoint, Honey Bunny becomes hysterical and trains her gun on him; Vincent returns with his gun trained on her, creating a Mexican standoff.
Jules recites the biblical passage, expresses ambivalence about his life of crime, and allows the robbers to take his own cash and leave.
Jules and Vincent leave the diner with the briefcase.
<EOS>
Anthony "Tony" Manero is a 19-year-old Italian American man from the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City.
Tony lives with his parents, and works at a dead-end job in a small hardware store.
The stagnant monotony of his life is temporarily dispelled every Saturday night when Tony is "king of the dance floor" at 2001 Odyssey, a local disco club.
Tony has four close friends: Joey; Double J; Gus; and the diminutive Bobby A fringe member of his group of friends is Annette, a neighborhood girl who longs for a more permanent physical relationship with Tony.
Tony and his friends ritually stop on the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge to clown around.
The bridge has special significance for Tony as a symbol of escape to a better life on the other side—in more suburban Staten Island.
Tony agrees to be Annette's partner in an upcoming dance contest at 2001 Odyssey, but her happiness is short-lived when Tony is mesmerized by another woman at the club, Stephanie Mangano, who executes intricate dance moves with exceptional grace and finesse.
Although Stephanie coldly rejects Tony's advances, she eventually agrees to be his partner in the dance competition, provided that their partnership will remain strictly professional.
Tony's older brother, Frank Jr, who was the pride of the Manero family since he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, brings despair to their parents when he tells them that he has left the priesthood.
Tony shares a warm relationship with Frank Jr, but feels vindicated that he is no longer the black sheep of the family.
While on his way home from the grocery store, Gus is attacked by a Hispanic gang and hospitalized.
He tells Tony and his friends that his attackers were the Barracudas.
Meanwhile, Bobby has been trying to get out of his relationship with his devoutly Catholic girlfriend, Pauline, who is pregnant with his child.
Facing pressure from his family and others to marry her, Bobby asks former priest Frank Jr, if the Pope would grant him dispensation for an abortion.
When Frank tells him such a thing would be highly unlikely, Bobby's feelings of despair intensify.
Bobby lets Tony borrow his 1964 Chevrolet Impala to help move Stephanie from Bay Ridge to Manhattan, and futilely tries to extract a promise from Tony to call him later that night.
Eventually, the group gets their revenge on the Barracudas, and crash Bobby C's car into their hangout.
Tony, Double J, and Joey get out of the car to fight, but Bobby takes off when a gang member tries to attack him in the car.
When the guys visit Gus in the hospital, they are angry when he tells them that he may have targeted the wrong gang.
Later, Tony and Stephanie dance at the competition and end up winning first prize.
However, Tony believes that a Puerto Rican couple performed better, and that the judges' decision was racially rigged.
He gives the Puerto Rican couple the first prize trophy, and leaves with Stephanie.
Once outside in a car, she denigrates their relationship and he tries to rape her.
She resists and runs from him.
Tony's friends come to the car along with a drunk and stoned Annette.
Joey says she has agreed to have sex with everyone.
Tony tries to lead her away, but is subdued by Double J and Joey, and sullenly leaves with the group in the car.
Double J and Joey rape Annette.
Bobby pulls the car over on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge for their usual cable-climbing antics.
Typically abstaining, Bobby gets out and performs more dangerous stunts than the rest.
Realizing that he is acting recklessly, Tony tries to get him to come down.
Bobby's strong sense of alienation, his deadlocked situation with Pauline, and Tony's broken promise to call him earlier that day—all culminate in a suicidal tirade about Tony's lack of caring before Bobby slips and falls to his death in the water below them.
Disgusted and disillusioned by his friends, his family, and his life, Tony spends the rest of the night riding the subway into Manhattan.
Morning has dawned by the time he appears at Stephanie's apartment.
He apologizes for his bad behavior, telling her that he plans to relocate from Brooklyn to Manhattan to try and start a new life.
Tony and Stephanie salvage their relationship and agree to be friends, sharing a tender moment.
<EOS>
Dorothy is a young girl who lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and her little dog Toto on a Kansas farm.
One day, Dorothy and Toto are caught up in a cyclone that deposits her farmhouse into Munchkin Country in the magical Land of Oz.
The falling house has killed the Wicked Witch of the East, the evil ruler of the Munchkins.
The Good Witch of the North arrives with the grateful Munchkins and gives Dorothy the magical Silver Shoes that once belonged to the witch.
The Good Witch tells Dorothy that the only way she can return home is to go to the Emerald City and ask the great and powerful Wizard of Oz to help her.
As Dorothy embarks on her journey, the Good Witch of the North kisses her on the forehead, giving her magical protection from harm.
On her way down the yellow brick road, Dorothy attends a banquet held by a Munchkin man named Boq.
The next day, Dorothy frees the Scarecrow from the pole on which he is hanging, applies oil from a can to the rusted connections of the Tin Woodman, and meets the Cowardly Lion.
The Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin Woodman wants a heart, and the Cowardly Lion wants courage, so Dorothy encourages the three of them to journey with her and Toto to the Emerald City to ask for help from the Wizard.
After several adventures, the travelers enter the gates of the Emerald City and meet the Guardian of the Gates, who asks them to wear green tinted spectacles to keep their eyes from being blinded by the city's brilliance.
Each one is called to see the Wizard: Dorothy sees the Wizard as a giant head on a marble throne, the Scarecrow as a lovely lady in silk gauze, the Tin Woodman as a terrible beast, the Cowardly Lion as a ball of fire.
The Wizard agrees to help them all if they kill the Wicked Witch of the West, who rules over Oz's Winkie Country.
The Guardian warns them that no one has ever managed to defeat the witch.
The Wicked Witch of the West sees the travelers approaching with her one telescopic eye.
She sends a pack of wolves to tear them to pieces, but the Tin Woodman kills them with his axe.
She sends wild crows to peck their eyes out, but the Scarecrow kills them by breaking their necks.
She summons a swarm of black bees to sting them, but they are killed trying to sting the Tin Woodman while the Scarecrow's straw hides the other three.
She sends her Winkie soldiers to attack them, but the Cowardly Lion stands firm to repel them.
Finally, she uses the power of the Golden Cap to send the winged monkeys to capture Dorothy, Toto, and the Cowardly Lion, unstuff the Scarecrow, and dent the Tin Woodman.
Dorothy is forced to become the Wicked Witch's personal slave, while the witch schemes to steal Dorothy's Silver Shoes.
The Wicked Witch successfully tricks Dorothy out of one of her Silver Shoes.
Angered, Dorothy throws a bucket of water at her and is shocked to see the witch melt away.
The Winkies rejoice at being freed of the witch's tyranny and help restuff the Scarecrow and mend the Tin Woodman.
They ask the Tin Woodman to become their ruler, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas.
Dorothy finds the Golden Cap and summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and her companions back to the Emerald City.
The King of the Winged Monkeys tells how he and the other monkeys are bound by an enchantment to the cap by the sorceress Gayelette from the North, and that Dorothy may use the cap to summon the Winged Monkeys two more times.
When Dorothy and her friends meet the Wizard of Oz again, Toto tips over a screen in a corner of the throne room that reveals the Wizard.
He sadly explains he is a humbug—an ordinary old man who, by a hot air balloon, came to Oz long ago from Omaha.
The Wizard provides the Scarecrow with a head full of bran, pins, and needles ("a lot of bran-new brains"), the Tin Woodman with a silk heart stuffed with sawdust, and the Cowardly Lion a potion of "courage".
Their faith in the Wizard's power gives these items a focus for their desires.
The Wizard decides to take Dorothy and Toto home and leave the Emerald City.
At the send-off, he appoints the Scarecrow to rule in his stead, which he agrees to do after Dorothy returns to Kansas.
Toto chases a kitten in the crowd and Dorothy goes after him, but the tethers of the balloon break and the Wizard floats away.
Dorothy summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and Toto home, but they explain they cannot cross the desert surrounding Oz.
The Soldier with the Green Whiskers informs Dorothy that Glinda the Good Witch of the South may be able to help her return home, so the friends begin their journey to see Glinda, who lives in Oz's Quadling Country.
On the way, the Cowardly Lion kills a giant spider who is terrorizing the animals in a forest.
The animals ask the Cowardly Lion to become their king, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas.
Dorothy summons the Winged Monkeys a third time to fly them over a mountain to Glinda's palace.
Glinda greets the travelers and reveals that the Silver Shoes Dorothy wears can take her anywhere she wishes to go.
Dorothy embraces her friends, all of whom will be returned to their new kingdoms through Glinda's three uses of the Golden Cap: the Scarecrow to the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman to the Winkie Country, and the Lion to the forest; after which the cap shall be given to the King of the Winged Monkeys, freeing them.
Dorothy takes Toto in her arms, knocks her heels together three times, and wishes to return home.
Instantly, she begins whirling through the air and rolling through the grass of the Kansas prairie, up to her Kansas farmhouse.
Dorothy runs to her Aunt Em, saying "I'm so glad to be at home again.
".
<EOS>
Akeem Joffer, the heir to the throne of Zamunda (a fictional African kingdom), lives a pampered lifestyle with every daily task performed by servants.
Akeem has become fed up with this and wishes to do more for himself.
The final straw comes when his parents, King Jaffe and Queen Aeoleon, present him with an arranged bride-to-be named Imani Izzi, whom he has never met and who has been trained to obey Akeem's every command.
Akeem concocts a plan to travel to the United States to find an intelligent, independent-minded woman he can both love and respect, and who will love Akeem for who he is and not for his wealth and social status as a prince.
Akeem and his best friend/personal aide, Semmi, flip a coin to decide between going to either Los Angeles or New York City, and end up going to New York City.
They end up in the borough of Queens and rent a run-down apartment in the neighborhood of Long Island City, passing themselves off as poor foreign students.
They begin working at a local fast food restaurant called McDowell's—an obvious ripoff of McDonald's—owned by widower Cleo McDowell and his two daughters, Lisa and Patrice.
Akeem soon falls in love with Lisa, who possesses all the qualities that the prince is looking for in a woman, as first seen by Akeem at a rally where she makes a strong plea to renovate a playground.
The rest of the film centers on Akeem's attempts to win Lisa's hand in marriage, which is complicated by Lisa's lazy and obnoxious boyfriend, Darryl Jenks (Eriq La Salle), whose father owns "Soul Glo" (a Jheri curl–like hairstyling aid).
Lisa eventually breaks up with Darryl after he announces their engagement (without Lisa having given her consent) to their families, and starts dating Akeem.
Although Akeem thrives on hard work and learning how commoners live, Semmi is not comfortable with living the life of a poor man.
When Akeem randomly donates their travel money to the homeless Randolph and Mortimer Duke (characters in the previous Eddie Murphy film Trading Places), Semmi transmits a plea to the King of Zamunda for financial help.
This causes Akeem's parents to travel to Queens and expose Akeem's identity as a prince to the McDowells.
mr McDowell, initially disapproving of the match as he did not want to see his daughter with a man of poor means, is ecstatic that she has in fact attracted the interest of an extremely wealthy prince, but Lisa becomes angry and confused as to why Akeem lied to her about his identity, as he had told her before that he was actually a Zamundan goat herder.
Still hurt and angry that Akeem lied to her, she refuses to marry him, even after he offers to renounce his throne, and he returns home with a broken heart, resigned to marry the woman chosen for him by his parents.
On the way to the airport, King Jaffe remarks that Akeem can't marry Lisa anyway because of "tradition," and tries defending himself by saying "Who am I to change it.
", with Queen Aeoleon curtly responding, "I thought you were the King.
At the final scene's wedding procession, Akeem, still heartbroken, waits dejectedly at the altar as his soon-to-be consort makes her way down the aisle.
However, when Akeem lifts the veil to kiss her, he finds Lisa instead of Imani.
Akeem and Lisa are married, and they ride happily in a carriage after the ceremony to the cheers of Zamundans.
Witnessing such splendor, Lisa is both surprised and touched by the fact that Akeem would have given it up just for her.
Akeem offers to formally abdicate if she doesn't want a life like this, but Lisa playfully declines and decides to become royalty instead.
<EOS>
In the 23rd century, starship C-57D reaches the distant world Altair IV to determine the fate of an Earth expedition sent there 20 years earlier.
dr Edward Morbius, one of the expedition's scientists, unsuccessfully tries to persuade the relief ship not to land, saying he cannot guarantee their safety.
Commander John Adams, Lieutenant Jerry Farman, and Lieutenant "Doc" Ostrow are met by Robby the Robot, who transports them to Morbius' residence.
Morbius describes how one by one the rest of the expedition was killed by an unknown planetary force that vaporized their starship, the Bellerophon, as the last survivors tried to lift off.
Only Morbius, his wife (who later died of natural causes), and their daughter Altaira were somehow immune.
Morbius offers to help them prepare for the return journey, but Adams says he must await further instructions from Earth.
The next day, Adams finds Farman teaching Altaira how to kiss; furious, he dismisses Farman and berates Altaira for her naivety and revealing clothing.
She reports the incident to Morbius, who says that she never needs to see Adams again.
But Altaira designs a new, more conservative gown to please Adams.
That night, an invisible intruder sabotages equipment aboard the starship.
Adams and Ostrow confront Morbius the following morning.
While waiting for him to exit his study, Adams steps outside to talk to Altaira.
Adams apologizes for his behavior and they kiss.
They are attacked by a tiger, and Adams disintegrates the animal, which had previously been tame in Altaira's presence.
Upon Morbius' appearance, Adams and Ostrow learn he has been studying the Krell, a highly advanced native race that perished overnight 200,000 years before.
In a Krell laboratory Morbius shows them a "plastic educator", a device capable of measuring and enhancing intellectual capacity.
When Morbius first used it, he barely survived, but his intellect was permanently doubled.
Morbius then takes them on a tour of a vast, 20 miles square, Krell underground machine complex, still functioning and powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors.
Afterwards, Adams demands that Morbius turn over his scientific discoveries to Earth.
Morbius refuses, claiming that "humanity is not yet ready to receive such limitless power".
In response to the sabotage, Adams orders a force field fence deployed around the starship.
It proves ineffective when the intruder returns and murders Chief Engineer Quinn.
Morbius warns Adams that he has a premonition of further deadly attacks, similar to what happened with the Bellerophon.
That night, the invisible creature returns and is outlined in the fence's force field.
The ships weapons have no effect, and it kills Farman and two others.
Morbius, asleep in the Krell lab, is startled awake by screams from Altaira; at the same instant, the roaring creature vanishes.
Later, while Adams tries to persuade Altaira to leave, Ostrow sneaks away to use the Krell educator.
With his dying breath, Ostrow explains to Adams that the underground machine was built to materialize anything the Krell could imagine.
He says that the Krell forgot one thing: "Monsters from the Id".
Adams asserts that Morbius' subconscious mind created the creature that killed the members of the original expedition and attacked his crew; Morbius refuses to accept this accusation.
After Altaira tells Morbius that she intends to leave with Adams, Robby detects the creature approaching.
Morbius commands the robot to kill it, but Robby knows it is a manifestation of Morbius and shuts down.
The monster melts through the almost indestructible Krell metal doors of the laboratory where Adams, Altaira, and Morbius have taken refuge.
Morbius finally accepts the truth.
He confronts and disowns the creature but is fatally injured.
Before Morbius dies, he has Adams unknowingly initiate a chain reaction within the Krell reactors, saying they must be in deep space within 24 hours.
At a safe distance, Adams, Altaira, Robby and the surviving crew witness the destruction of Altair IV.
<EOS>
In 2084, construction worker Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is having troubling dreams about Mars and a mysterious woman there.
His wife Lori (Sharon Stone) dismisses the dreams and discourages him from thinking about Mars, where the governor, Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox), is fighting rebels while searching for a rumored alien artifact located in the mines.
At Rekall, a company that provides memory implants of vacations, Quaid opts for a memory trip to Mars as a Secret Agent fantasy.
However, during the procedure, before the memory is implanted, something goes wrong, and Quaid starts revealing previously suppressed memories of actually being a Secret Agent.
The company sedates him, wipes his memory of the visit, and sends him home.
On the way home, Quaid is attacked by his friend Harry (Robert Costanzo) and some construction co-workers; he is forced to kill them, using elite fighting skills.
He is then attacked in his apartment by Lori, who states that she was never his wife; their marriage was just a false memory implant, and Cohaagen sent her as an agent to monitor Quaid.
He is then attacked and pursued by armed thugs led by Richter (Michael Ironside), Lori's real husband and Cohaagen's operative.
After evading his attackers, Quaid is given a suitcase containing money, gadgets, fake IDs, a disguise, and a video recording.
The video is of Quaid himself, who identifies himself as "Hauser" and explains that he used to work for Cohaagen but switched sides after learning about the artifact and underwent the memory wipe to protect himself.
"Hauser" instructs Quaid to remove a tracking device located inside his skull before ordering him to go to Mars and check into the Hilton Hotel with a fake ID.
Quaid makes his way to Mars and follows clues to Venusville, the colony's red-light district, primarily populated by people mutated as a result of poor radiation shielding.
He meets Benny (Mel Johnson, Jr), a taxi driver, and Melina (Rachel Ticotin), the woman from his dreams; but she spurns him, believing that Quaid is still working for Cohaagen.
Quaid later encounters dr Edgemar (Roy Brocksmith) and Lori, who claim Quaid has suffered a "schizoid embolism" and is trapped in a fantasy based on the implanted memories.
Edgemar warns that Quaid is headed for lunacy (his description loosely predicting later events) and a lobotomy if he does not return to reality, then offers Quaid a pill that would waken him from the dream.
Quaid puts the pill in his mouth, but after seeing Edgemar sweating in fear, he kills Edgemar and spits out the pill.
Lori alerts Richter's forces, who burst into the room and capture Quaid, but Melina rescues him, with Quaid killing Lori in the process.
The two race back to the Venusville bar and escape into the tunnels with Benny.
Unable to locate Quaid, Cohaagen shuts down the ventilation to Venusville, slowly asphyxiating its citizens.
Quaid, Melina, and Benny are taken to a resistance base; and Quaid is introduced to Kuato (Marshall Bell), a parasitic twin conjoined to his brother's stomach.
Kuato reads Quaid's mind and tells him that the alien artifact is a turbinium reactor that will create a breathable atmosphere for Mars when activated, eliminating Cohaagen's abusive monopoly on breathable air.
Cohaagen's forces burst in and kill most of the resistance, including Kuato, who instructs Quaid to start the reactor.
Benny reveals that he is also working for Cohaagen, and that he alerted Cohaagen's forces.
Quaid and Melina are taken to Cohaagen, who explains that the Quaid persona was a ploy by Hauser to infiltrate the mutants and lead Cohaagen to Kuato, thereby wiping out the resistance.
Cohaagen orders Hauser's memory to be re-implanted in Quaid and Melina programmed as Hauser's obedient wife, but Quaid and Melina escape into the mines where the reactor is located.
They work their way to the control room of the reactor, and Benny attacks them in an excavation machine.
Quaid kills Benny, then confronts Richter and his men, killing them too.
Quaid reaches the reactor control room, where Cohaagen is waiting with a bomb.
During the ensuing struggle, Cohaagen triggers the bomb, but Quaid throws it away, blowing out one of the walls of the control room and causing an explosive decompression.
While reaching for the reactor controls, Quaid knocks out Cohaagen, and he is sucked out onto the Martian surface, killing him.
Quaid manages to activate the reactor before he and Melina are also pulled out.
The reactor releases air into the Martian atmosphere, saving Quaid, Melina and the rest of Mars' population.
As humans walk onto the surface of the planet in its new atmosphere, Quaid momentarily pauses to wonder whether he is dreaming or not, before turning to kiss Melina.
<EOS>
In 1801, Lockwood, a wealthy young man from the South of England who is seeking peace and recuperation, rents Thrushcross Grange in Yorkshire.
He visits his landlord, Heathcliff, who lives in a remote moorland farmhouse, Wuthering Heights.
There Lockwood finds an odd assemblage: Heathcliff seems to be a gentleman, but his manners are uncouth; the reserved mistress of the house is in her mid-teens; and a young man who seems to be a member of the family, yet dresses and speaks as if he is a servant.
Snowed in, Lockwood is grudgingly allowed to stay and is shown to a bedchamber where he notices books and graffiti left by a former inhabitant named Catherine.
He falls asleep and has a nightmare in which he sees the ghostly Catherine trying to enter through the window.
He cries out in fear, rousing Heathcliff, who rushes into the room.
Lockwood is convinced that what he saw was real.
Heathcliff, believing Lockwood to be right, examines the window and opens it, hoping to allow Catherine's spirit to enter.
When nothing happens, Heathcliff shows Lockwood to his own bedroom and returns to keep watch at the window.
At sunrise, Heathcliff escorts Lockwood back to Thrushcross Grange.
Lockwood asks the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, about the family at Wuthering Heights, and she tells him the tale.
Thirty years earlier, the owner of Wuthering Heights is mr Earnshaw, who lives with his teenage son Hindley and younger daughter Catherine.
On a trip to Liverpool, Earnshaw encounters a homeless boy, described as a "dark-skinned gypsy in aspect".
He adopts the boy and names him Heathcliff.
Hindley feels that Heathcliff has supplanted him in his father's affections and becomes bitterly jealous.
Catherine and Heathcliff become friends and spend hours each day playing on the moors.
They grow close.
Hindley is sent to college.
Three years later Earnshaw dies and Hindley becomes the landowner; he is now master of Wuthering Heights.
He returns to live there with his new wife, Frances.
He allows Heathcliff to stay but only as a servant.
A few months after Hindley's return, Heathcliff and Catherine walk to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the Lintons, who live there.
After being discovered they try to run away but are caught.
Catherine is injured by the Lintons' dog and taken into the house to recuperate, while Heathcliff is sent home.
Catherine stays with the Lintons.
The Lintons are landed gentry and Catherine is influenced by their fine appearance and genteel manners.
When she returns to Wuthering Heights her appearance and manners are more ladylike, and she laughs at Heathcliff's unkempt appearance.
The next day, knowing that the Lintons are to visit, Heathcliff tries to dress up, in an effort to impress Catherine, but he and Edgar Linton get into an argument and Hindley humiliates Heathcliff by locking him in the attic.
Catherine tries to comfort Heathcliff, but he vows revenge on Hindley.
The following year, Frances Earnshaw gives birth to a son, named Hareton, but she dies a few months later.
Hindley descends into drunkenness.
Two more years pass, and Catherine and Edgar Linton become friends, while she becomes more distant from Heathcliff.
Edgar visits Catherine while Hindley is away and they declare themselves lovers soon afterwards.
Catherine confesses to Nelly that Edgar has proposed marriage and she has accepted, although her love for Edgar is not comparable to her love for Heathcliff, whom she cannot marry because of his low social status and lack of education.
She hopes to use her position as Edgar's wife to raise Heathcliff's standing.
Heathcliff overhears her say that it would "degrade" her to marry him (but not how much she loves him), and he runs away and disappears without a trace.
Distraught over Heathcliff's departure, Catherine makes herself ill.
Nelly and Edgar begin to pander to her every whim to prevent her from becoming ill again.
Three years pass.
Edgar and Catherine marry and go to live together at Thrushcross Grange, where Catherine enjoys being "lady of the manor".
Six months later, Heathcliff returns, now a wealthy gentleman.
Catherine is delighted, but Edgar is not.
Edgar's sister, Isabella, soon falls in love with Heathcliff, who despises her, but encourages the infatuation as a means of revenge.
One day, he embraces Isabella, leading to an argument with Edgar.
Upset, Catherine locks herself in her room and begins to make herself ill again.
Heathcliff takes up residence at Wuthering Heights and spends his time gambling with Hindley and teaching Hareton bad habits.
Hindley dissipates his wealth and mortgages the farmhouse to Heathcliff to pay his debts.
Heathcliff elopes with Isabella Linton.
Two months later, they return to Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff hears that Catherine is ill and, with Nelly's help, visits her secretly.
However, Catherine is pregnant.
The following day she gives birth to a daughter, Cathy, shortly before dying.
After Catherine's funeral, Isabella leaves Heathcliff, takes refuge in the South of England and gives birth to a son, Linton.
Hindley dies six months after Catherine, and Heathcliff thus finds himself master of Wuthering Heights.
Twelve years pass.
Catherine's daughter Cathy has become a beautiful, high-spirited girl.
Edgar learns that his sister Isabella is dying, so he leaves to retrieve her son Linton in order to adopt and educate him.
Cathy, who has rarely left home, takes advantage of her father's absence to venture further afield.
She rides over the moors to Wuthering Heights and discovers that she has not one but two cousins: Hareton, in addition to Linton.
She also lets it be known that her father has gone to fetch Linton.
When Edgar returns with Linton, a weak and sickly boy, Heathcliff insists that he live at Wuthering Heights.
Three years pass.
Walking on the moors, Nelly and Cathy encounter Heathcliff, who takes them to Wuthering Heights to see Linton and Hareton.
Heathcliff hopes that Linton and Cathy will marry, so that Linton will become the heir to Thrushcross Grange.
Linton and Cathy begin a secret friendship, echoing the childhood friendship between their respective parents, Heathcliff and Catherine.
The following year, Edgar becomes very ill and takes a turn for the worse while Nelly and Cathy are out on the moors, where Heathcliff and Linton trick them into entering Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff keeps them captive to enable the marriage of Cathy and Linton to take place.
After five days, Nelly is released and later, with Linton's help, Cathy escapes.
She returns to the Grange to see her father shortly before he dies.
Now master of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Cathy's father-in-law, Heathcliff, insists on her returning to live at Wuthering Heights.
Soon after she arrives Linton dies.
Hareton tries to be kind to Cathy, but she withdraws from the world.
At this point, Nelly's tale catches up to the present day (1801).
Time passes and, after being ill for a period, Lockwood grows tired of the moors and informs Heathcliff that he will be leaving Thrushcross Grange.
Eight months later, Lockwood returns to the area by chance.
Given that his tenancy at Thrushcross Grange is still valid, he decides to stay there again.
He finds Nelly living at Wuthering Heights and enquires what has happened since he left.
She explains that she moved to Wuthering Heights to replace the housekeeper, Zillah, who had left.
Hareton has an accident and is confined to the farmhouse.
During his convalescence, he and Cathy overcome their mutual antipathy and become close.
While their friendship develops, Heathcliff begins to act strangely and has visions of Catherine.
He stops eating and, after four days, is found dead in Catherine's old room.
He is buried next to Catherine.
Lockwood learns that Hareton and Cathy plan to marry on New Year's Day.
As he gets ready to leave, he passes the graves of Catherine, Edgar and Heathcliff and pauses to contemplate the quiet of the moors.
<EOS>
The novel is a first-person narrative from the perspective of the title character.
The novel's setting is somewhere in the north of England, during the reign of George III (1760–1820), and goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she gains friends and role models but suffers privations and oppression; her time as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family, during which her earnest but cold clergyman cousin, st John Rivers, proposes to her; and her reunion with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester.
During these sections the novel provides perspectives on a number of important social issues and ideas, many of which are critical of the status quo (see the Themes section below).
Literary critic Jerome Beaty opines that the close first person perspective leaves the reader "too uncritically accepting of her worldview", and often leads reading and conversation about the novel towards supporting Jane, regardless of how irregular her ideas or perspectives are.
Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters, and most editions are at least 400 pages long.
The original publication was in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15, 16 to 27, and 28 to 38; this was a common publishing format during the 19th century (see three-volume novel).
Brontë dedicated the novel's second edition to William Makepeace Thackeray.
The novel begins with the titular character, Jane Eyre, aged 10, living with her maternal uncle's family, the Reeds, as a result of her uncle's dying wish.
It is several years after her parents died of typhus.
mr Reed, Jane's uncle, was the only person in the Reed family who was kind to Jane.
Jane's aunt, Sarah Reed, dislikes her, treats her as a burden, and discourages her children from associating with Jane.
mrs Reed and her three children are abusive to Jane, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
The nursemaid Bessie proves to be Jane's only ally in the household, even though Bessie sometimes harshly scolds Jane.
Excluded from the family activities, Jane is incredibly unhappy, with only a doll and books for comfort.
One day, after her cousin John knocks her down and she attempts to defend herself, Jane is locked in the red room where her uncle died; there, she faints from panic after she thinks she has seen his ghost.
She is subsequently attended to by the kindly apothecary, mr Lloyd, to whom Jane reveals how unhappy she is living at Gateshead Hall.
He recommends to mrs Reed that Jane should be sent to school, an idea mrs Reed happily supports.
mrs Reed then enlists the aid of the harsh mr Brocklehurst, director of Lowood Institution, a charity school for girls.
mrs Reed cautions mr Brocklehurst that Jane has a "tendency for deceit", which he interprets as her being a "liar".
Before Jane leaves, however, she confronts mrs Reed and declares that she'll never call her "aunt" again, that mrs Reed and her daughter, Georgiana, are the ones who are deceitful, and that she shall tell everyone at Lowood how cruelly mrs Reed treated her.
At Lowood Institution, a school for poor and orphaned girls, Jane soon finds that life is harsh, but she attempts to fit in and befriends an older girl, Helen Burns, who is able to accept her punishment philosophically.
During a school inspection by mr Brocklehurst, Jane accidentally breaks her slate, thereby drawing attention to herself.
He then stands her on a stool, brands her a liar, and shames her before the entire assembly.
Jane is later comforted by her friend, Helen.
Miss Temple, the caring superintendent, facilitates Jane's self-defence and writes to mr Lloyd, whose reply agrees with Jane's.
Jane is then publicly cleared of mr Brocklehurst's accusations.
The 80 pupils at Lowood are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals, and thin clothing.
Many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes, and Jane's friend Helen dies of consumption in her arms.
When mr Brocklehurst's maltreatment of the students is discovered, several benefactors erect a new building and install a sympathetic management committee to moderate mr Brocklehurst's harsh rule.
Conditions at the school then improve dramatically.
The name Lowood symbolizes the "low" point in Jane's life where she was maltreated.
Helen Burns is a representation of Charlotte's elder sister Maria, who died of tuberculosis after spending time at a school where the children were mistreated.
After six years as a student and two as a teacher at Lowood, Jane decides to leave, like her friend and confidante Miss Temple, who recently married.
She advertises her services as a governess and receives one reply, from Alice Fairfax, housekeeper at Thornfield Hall.
Jane takes the position, teaching Adèle Varens, a young French girl.
One night, while Jane is walking to a nearby town, a horseman passes her.
The horse slips on ice and throws the rider.
Despite the rider's surliness, Jane helps him to get back onto his horse.
Later, back at Thornfield, she learns that this man is Edward Rochester, master of the house.
Adèle is his ward, left in his care when her mother abandoned her.
At Jane's first meeting with him within Thornfield, mr Rochester teases her, accusing her of bewitching his horse to make him fall.
He also talks strangely in other ways, but Jane is able to give as good as she gets.
mr Rochester and Jane soon come to enjoy each other's company, and spend many evenings together.
Odd things start to happen at the house, such as a strange laugh, a mysterious fire in mr Rochester's room (from which Jane saves Rochester by rousing him and throwing water on him and the fire), and an attack on a house guest named mr Mason.
Then Jane receives word that her aunt mrs Reed is calling for her, because she suffered a stroke after her son John died.
Jane returns to Gateshead and remains there for a month, attending to her dying aunt.
mrs Reed confesses to Jane that she wronged her, giving Jane a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, mr John Eyre, in which he asks for her to live with him and be his heir.
mrs Reed admits to telling mr Eyre that Jane had died of fever at Lowood.
Soon afterward, mrs Reed dies, and Jane helps her cousins after the funeral before returning to Thornfield.
Back at Thornfield, Jane broods over mr Rochester's rumoured impending marriage to the beautiful and talented, but snobbish and heartless, Blanche Ingram.
However, one midsummer evening, Rochester baits Jane by saying how much he will miss her after getting married, but how she will soon forget him.
The normally self-controlled Jane reveals her feelings for him.
Rochester is then sure that Jane is sincerely in love with him, and he proposes marriage.
Jane is at first sceptical of his sincerity, but eventually believes him and gladly agrees to marry him.
She then writes to her Uncle John, telling him of her happy news.
As she prepares for her wedding, Jane's forebodings arise when a strange woman sneaks into her room one night and rips her wedding veil in two.
As with the previous mysterious events, mr Rochester attributes the incident to Grace Poole, one of his servants.
During the wedding ceremony, mr Mason and a lawyer declare that mr Rochester cannot marry because he is already married to mr Mason's sister, Bertha.
mr Rochester admits this is true but explains that his father tricked him into the marriage for her money.
Once they were united, he discovered that she was rapidly descending into madness, and so he eventually locked her away in Thornfield, hiring Grace Poole as a nurse to look after her.
When Grace gets drunk, his wife escapes and causes the strange happenings at Thornfield.
It turns out that Jane's uncle, mr John Eyre, is a friend of mr Mason's and was visited by him soon after mr Eyre received Jane's letter about her impending marriage.
After the marriage ceremony is broken off, mr Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of France, and live with him as husband and wife, even though they cannot be married.
Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love for him, Jane leaves Thornfield in the middle of the night.
Jane travels as far from Thornfield as she can using the little money she had previously saved.
She accidentally leaves her bundle of possessions on the coach and has to sleep on the moor, and unsuccessfully attempts to trade her handkerchief and gloves for food.
Exhausted and hungry, she eventually makes her way to the home of Diana and Mary Rivers, but is turned away by the housekeeper.
She collapses on the doorstep, preparing for her death.
st John Rivers -- Diana and Mary's brother -- and a clergyman save her.
After she regains her health, st John finds Jane a teaching position at a nearby village school.
Jane becomes good friends with the sisters, but st John remains aloof.
The sisters leave for governess jobs, and st John becomes somewhat closer to Jane.
st John learns Jane's true identity and astounds her by telling her that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her his entire fortune of 20,000 pounds (equivalent to over £13 million in 2011).
When Jane questions him further, st John reveals that John Eyre is also his and his sisters' uncle.
They had once hoped for a share of the inheritance but were left virtually nothing.
Jane, overjoyed by finding that she has living and friendly family members, insists on sharing the money equally with her cousins, and Diana and Mary come back to live at Moor House.
Thinking Jane will make a suitable missionary's wife, st John asks her to marry him and to go with him to India, not out of love, but out of duty.
Jane initially accepts going to India but rejects the marriage proposal, suggesting they travel as brother and sister.
As soon as Jane's resolve against marriage to st John begins to weaken, she mysteriously hears mr Rochester's voice calling her name.
Jane then returns to Thornfield to find only blackened ruins.
She learns that mr Rochester's wife set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the roof.
In his rescue attempts, mr Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight.
Jane reunites with him, but he fears that she will be repulsed by his condition.
"Am I hideous, Jane.
", he asks.
“Very, sir: you always were, you know”, she replies.
When Jane assures him of her love and tells him that she will never leave him, mr Rochester again proposes, and they are married.
He eventually recovers enough sight to see their first-born son.
<EOS>
Three years after Count Dooku raided several Jedi on Geonosis, war has gripped the galaxy.
During a space battle over the planet Coruscant, Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker lead a mission to rescue the kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine from Separatist commander General Grievous.
After infiltrating Grievous's flagship, the Jedi battle Dooku.
Anakin subdues Dooku, and on Palpatine's urging, he kills him.
Grievous flees the battle-torn cruiser, which the Jedi crash-land on Coruscant.
There, Anakin reunites with his wife, Padmé Amidala, who reveals she is pregnant.
While initially excited, Anakin begins to have prophetic visions of Padmé dying in childbirth, and his worry steadily grows.
Palpatine appoints Anakin to the Jedi Council as his representative, but the Council declines to grant Anakin the rank of Jedi Master and orders him to spy on Palpatine, causing Anakin's faith in the Jedi to diminish significantly.
Palpatine tantalizes Anakin with secret knowledge of the dark side of the Force, including the power to save his loved ones from dying.
Meanwhile, Obi-Wan travels to the planet Utapau to deal with General Grievous, and Yoda travels to Kashyyyk to defend the planet from invasion.
Tempting Anakin, Palpatine eventually reveals that he is the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, saying that only he has the knowledge to save Padmé from dying.
Anakin reports Palpatine's treachery to Mace Windu, who confronts and subdues the Sith Lord, severely disfiguring him in the process.
Fearing that he will lose Padmé, Anakin intervenes on Palpatine's behalf, severs Windu's hand, allowing Palpatine to finish him to death.
Anakin pledges himself to a disfigured Palpatine, who dubs him Darth Vader.
Palpatine issues an order for the clone troopers to kill their Jedi commanders and dispatches Vader along with a legion of clones to kill everyone in the Jedi Temple.
Vader massacres the remaining Separatist leaders hiding on the volcanic planet Mustafar, while Palpatine addresses the Galactic Senate, transforming the Republic into the Galactic Empire and declaring himself Emperor.
Having survived the chaos, Obi-Wan and Yoda return to Coruscant and learn of Anakin's treachery.
Unable to convince Padmé about Anakin's turn to the dark side, Obi-Wan stows aboard her ship.
Padmé travels to Mustafar and begs Vader to leave the dark side.
He refuses, and upon witnessing Obi-Wan, chokes Padmé into unconsciousness in a fit of rage.
Obi-Wan duels and defeats Vader, leaving him for dead at the bank of a lava river.
On Coruscant, Yoda battles Palpatine until their duel reaches a stalemate, and Yoda flees with Bail Organa.
Palpatine, sensing that his apprentice is in danger, travels to Mustafar.
On the asteroid Polis Massa, Obi-Wan regroups with Yoda and Padmé gives birth to twins Luke and Leia before dying.
A funeral is held for Padmé on Naboo.
On Mustafar, Palpatine finds a severely burnt Vader still alive.
After returning to Coruscant, Vader's mutilated body is amputated and covered in a black armored suit.
Palpatine explains to Vader that he killed Padmé in his anger.
Meanwhile, Obi-Wan and Yoda decide to conceal the twins from the Sith, as they are the galaxy's only hope for freedom.
Yoda exiles himself to the planet Dagobah, while Vader and the Emperor oversee the construction of a superstation, the Death Star.
Bail Organa adopts Leia as his own daughter and takes her to Alderaan, while Obi-Wan delivers Luke to his step-family Owen and Beru Lars on Tatooine, where Obi-Wan intends to watch over Luke until the time is right to challenge the Empire.
<EOS>
Crusoe (the family name corrupted from the German name "Kreutznaer") sets sail from the Queen's Dock in Hull on a sea voyage in August 1651, against the wishes of his parents, who want him to pursue a career, possibly in law.
After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his lust for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again.
This journey, too, ends in disaster, as the ship is taken over by Salé pirates (the Salé Rovers) and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor.
Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him.
The ship is en route to Brazil.
Crusoe sells Xury to the captain.
With the captain's help, Crusoe procures a plantation.
Years later, Crusoe joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island (which he calls the Island of Despair) near the mouth of the Orinoco river on 30 September 1659.
He observes the latitude as 9 degrees and 22 minutes north.
He sees penguins and seals on his island.
As for his arrival there, only he and three animals, the captain's dog and two cats, survive the shipwreck.
Overcoming his despair, he fetches arms, tools and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks.
He builds a fenced-in habitat near a cave which he excavates.
By making marks in a wooden cross, he creates a calendar.
By using tools salvaged from the ship, and some he makes himself from "ironwood", he hunts, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to make pottery and raises goats.
He also adopts a small parrot.
He reads the Bible and becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing but human society.
More years pass and Crusoe discovers native cannibals, who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners.
At first he plans to kill them for committing an abomination but later realizes he has no right to do so, as the cannibals do not knowingly commit a crime.
He dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing some prisoners; when a prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he appeared.
Crusoe then teaches him English and converts him to Christianity.
After more natives arrive to partake in a cannibal feast, Crusoe and Friday kill most of the natives and save two prisoners.
One is Friday's father and the other is a Spaniard, who informs Crusoe about other Spaniards shipwrecked on the mainland.
A plan is devised wherein the Spaniard would return to the mainland with Friday's father and bring back the others, build a ship, and sail to a Spanish port.
Before the Spaniards return, an English ship appears; mutineers have commandeered the vessel and intend to maroon their captain on the island.
Crusoe and the ship's captain strike a deal in which Crusoe helps the captain and the loyal sailors retake the ship and leave the worst mutineers on the island.
Before embarking for England, Crusoe shows the mutineers how he survived on the island and states that there will be more men coming.
Crusoe leaves the island 19 December 1686 and arrives in England on 11 June 1687.
He learns that his family believed him dead; as a result, he was left nothing in his father's will.
Crusoe departs for Lisbon to reclaim the profits of his estate in Brazil, which has granted him much wealth.
In conclusion, he transports his wealth overland to England to avoid travelling by sea.
Friday accompanies him and, en route, they endure one last adventure together as they fight off famished wolves while crossing the Pyrenees.
<EOS>
Tom Reagan is the advisor and right-hand man for Leo O'Bannon, an Irish mobster and political boss who runs an unspecifiedS.
city during Prohibition.
When Leo's rival, the Italian gangster Johnny Caspar announces his intent to kill bookie Bernie Bernbaum, Leo goes against Tom's advice and extends his protection to Bernie.
Bernie is the brother of Verna, who has begun a relationship with Leo – while also carrying on an affair with Tom.
Tom tries everything he can to convince Leo to give Bernie up to Caspar to end the war; he attempts to convince Leo that Verna is playing him to protect her brother, but Leo will not be swayed.
After an assassination attempt on Leo, Tom reveals his affair with Verna to Leo to prove that she is dishonest.
Leo beats Tom, and turns his back on both of them.
Tom then approaches Caspar looking for work, and Caspar commands him to kill Bernie in the woods at Miller's Crossing to prove his loyalty.
Bernie pleads with Tom to spare him, saying "Look in your heart".
Tom fires his gun to fake the killing and tells Bernie to run and hide.
Caspar assumes Leo's position as boss of the city, controlling the police and using them to destroy Leo's operations.
Meanwhile, Tom begins sowing discord between Caspar and his trusted enforcer, the brutal Eddie "the Dane" Dane.
Upon finding that his men didn't actually see Tom kill Bernie, Dane takes Tom back to Miller's Crossing to see if Bernie's body is there.
Tom nearly cracks as they approach the location, but they find a body that had been shot in the face and disfigured by birds.
Unknown to Tom, Bernie returned to town and killed Dane's lover Mink, who was Bernie's lover too, and placed the body where his should have been.
Bernie holds this over Tom's head and tries to blackmail Tom into killing Caspar.
Tom uses Mink's unknown whereabouts to convince Caspar that Eddie Dane has betrayed him.
Dane denies it, and Caspar has to decide whom he believes, and whom he will kill.
In a rage, he beats Eddie Dane before shooting him in the head.
Tom then arranges a meeting with Bernie, but sends Caspar instead on the pretext that he will be meeting Mink.
Bernie gets the jump on Caspar and kills him.
Tom arrives and tricks Bernie into giving up his gun, saying they can blame Eddie Dane, then reveals that Dane is dead, and that he intends to kill Bernie in retribution for blackmailing him.
Bernie again begs for mercy, saying "Look in your heart", but Tom asks "What heart.
" and shoots him.
With Caspar and Eddie Dane dead, Leo resumes his post as boss.
Verna has won her way back into Leo's good graces, and she reacts coldly to Tom.
On the day Bernie is buried, Leo announces that Verna has proposed to him, and offers Tom his job back.
Tom refuses, and remains behind, watching as Leo departs.
<EOS>
In the first serial, "The Wrong End of Time", Simon, whose mother has died recently, has been taken on holiday in 1970 by the Skinner family – father Frank (Derek Benfield), mother Jean (Iris Russell) and daughter Liz – to the village of St Oswald.
Frank had served at the (now abandoned) naval research base in St Oswald during World War II, where he had suffered a mental breakdown.
This has left him with no recollection of what happened during his time there.
Also staying at St Oswald is a man called Charles Traynor (Denis Quilley), who reveals that he was Skinner's commanding officer at the base during the war.
Traynor had ordered Skinner to destroy the apparatus the scientists at the base were working on, and he is eager to learn from Skinner if he succeeded in the task.
This is because a German expeditionary team attacked and took over the base for a short time in 1940.
The German commander, Gottfried (Sandor Elès), is now a prominent scientist on the other side of the Iron Curtain, and Traynor is concerned that if the research work done at the base had fallen into his hands, it could be used against the West.
While out playing near the ruins of the naval base, Liz and Simon encounter the Time Barrier for the first time.
They are transported back to 1940, to the very day the Germans took over the base.
There they encounter both Traynor, who is commander of the base, and Liz's father, a young naval recruit (played by John Alkin).
A link is maintained to the present via Liz's mother, who is able to communicate telepathically with her daughter.
When the Germans arrive, Liz and Simon are initially captured, but then escape and succeed in helping young Frank Skinner carry out Traynor's orders to destroy the secret apparatus – a prototype laser weapon – before the Germans can seize it.
They escape back through the Time Barrier, but instead of returning to St Oswald in their time of 1970, they find themselves in an icy wilderness.
During their experience in 1940, Liz is shot yet the bullet does not harm her, which seems to confirm Traynor's advice to Liz's parents (in 1970) that the children are not actually in any danger from the time travel because they are only hallucinating about it and the past cannot harm them.
Prior to Liz and Simon entering the time barrier, at the beginning of the episode, another teenager enters the time barrier.
This is witnessed by a man but isn't believed when he talks about it in the pub.
After crossing the time barrier Liz and Simon encounter this teenager and help her return to the present day.
In the second serial, "The Time of the Ice Box", this icy wilderness is revealed to be Antarctica in the year 1990.
Liz and Simon are rescued from the ice and brought to a research base – the International Institute for Biological Research, nicknamed the "Ice Box" - headed by Morgan Devereaux (John Barron).
In the present, Traynor is amazed to learn of Devereaux's presence in the future; he had been a student of Devereaux's and believed he had died in 1969.
Meanwhile, Liz is stunned when she encounters first her mother, and then her future self – a cold, emotionless, scientist going by the name Beth (Mary Preston) – working in the Ice Box.
Her father Frank is also there, but has been buried under the ice for ten years as part of an experiment, which Liz only discovers later to her disgust and horror.
The staff of the Ice Box are conducting controlled experiments on human volunteers, including tests of longevity drug called HA57.
A catalogue of failures has been plaguing the research effort, but Devereaux refuses to entertain the possibility that the base computer is making errors.
The failures get worse, and Devereaux's behaviour becomes more and more erratic.
Liz and Simon learn that Devereaux is a clone of the original Devereaux, the first in the world.
Investigating further, Liz and Simon discover that the purpose of the computer is to create a new clone of Devereaux.
This is so that the formula for the longevity drug, which is known only to Devereaux and not written down, can be preserved and kept secret.
The Ice Box researchers confront Devereaux, attempting to convince him that the computer is malfunctioning.
Devereaux is unable to accept his failing and, suffering a mental breakdown, escapes out into the Antarctic ice.
As the computer fails, the base begins to freeze over.
The staff, including Jean and Beth, each take a dose of an anti-freeze formula in the hope of surviving the cold until rescue arrives.
Liz and Simon depart; as they approach the Time Barrier, they discover the frozen body of Devereaux.
In "The Year of the Burn Up", the Time Barrier returns Simon and Liz to 1970.
Traynor warns them not to use the Time Barrier again.
Determined to prevent the future of the Ice Box that they have witnessed, and curious as to what Traynor is afraid they might discover, they disobey him and once more enter the Time Barrier.
Once again, they end up in 1990, but in an alternate future to that of the Ice Box.
In this future, England is covered in tropical rainforest.
Once again, Liz encounters her future self, Beth (once more played by Mary Preston).
This time, however, she is a hippy Earth mother type who has rebelled against the technocracy that rules this future world, and lives in a primitive village with similar misfits.
Simon also encounters his future self – a technocrat known as Controller 2957 (David Graham), charged with implementing the Master Plan intended to reshape the Earth to the benefit of mankind.
The Master Plan had originally been devised in 1970 by Traynor.
However, 2957 has since usurped him, and now Traynor, who is still alive in 1990, is determined to wreak his revenge.
Traynor sabotages the computer managing the Master Plan.
His interference ruins the Earth's climate, causing global temperatures to soar and leading to an environmental collapse of devastating proportions.
Beth aids Liz and Simon in returning through the Time Barrier before heading for the safety of some caves with the misfits and 2957, who has seen the error of his ways, where there is water and they might stand a chance of survival.
The final serial, "The Day of the Clone", ties together many of the elements of the previous serials.
Believing that Beth needs her help, Liz attempts to return to 1990 via the Time Barrier, but is kidnapped by Traynor.
Simon goes looking for Liz and tracks her to R1, a secret research establishment under Traynor's command.
The children learn that R1 was established by Morgan Devereaux to research into the longevity drug – HA57 – that the children previously encountered in the Ice Box.
They break out of R1 and, with Traynor in pursuit, they make their escape through the Time Barrier, which transports them to the year 1965.
Realising that Devereaux would have been alive in this time, they return to R1.
There the children learn that R1 is not only researching longevity, but also cloning.
Devereaux believes that for the cloning and longevity process to be a success, subjects must also undergo psychological reconditioning, but Traynor, who is working at R1 as the Government's representative, disagrees, believing that Devereaux is turning the volunteer subjects into brainwashed puppets.
When Traynor threatens to shut down R1, Devereaux has him detained and replaced by a clone.
Simon realises that it is Devereaux who is the source of the dystopian futures they have witnessed, and that the Traynor they know has been a clone all along.
The Time Barrier created a clone projection of Devereaux in the Ice Box in the hope that the children could return a working formula for HA57 to the Traynor clone in 1970.
The Traynor clone is also a projection of the Time Barrier, charged with implementing Devereaux's vision of the future: the catastrophic Master Plan that will lead to the "Burn Up".
Returning to 1970, Liz and Simon discover the real Traynor, locked up in a secret room in R1 since 1965.
The children and the real Traynor confront the clone Traynor at the Time Barrier at St Oswald.
Traynor tells the clone that he doesn't exist, that he is a projection.
As the clone nears the Barrier, an invisible force grabs him and he disappears into the Time Barrier.
Liz and Simon return to their families, leaving the real Traynor alone.
<EOS>
In 1799, New York City police constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is deployed to the Westchester County hamlet of Sleepy Hollow, New York, which has been plagued by a series of brutal slayings in which the victims are found decapitated: Peter Van Garrett (Martin Landau), a wealthy farmer; his son Dirk; and the widow Emily Winship.
Crane learns that locals believe the killer is the undead apparition of a headless Hessian mercenary from the American Revolutionary War who rides a black steed in search of his missing head.
Crane begins his investigation, remaining skeptical about the paranormal elements until he actually encounters the Headless Horseman, who kills the town magistrate, Samuel Phillipse (Richard Griffiths).
Boarding at the home of the town's richest family, the Van Tassels, Crane is taken with their daughter Katrina (Christina Ricci).
Crane and Young Masbath, the son of one of the Horseman's victims, go to the cave dwelling of a reclusive witch.
She reveals the location of the Tree of the Dead, which marks the Horseman's grave, as well as his portal into the natural, living world.
Crane discovers that the ground is freshly disturbed and the Horseman's skull is missing.
That night, the family of the village midwife is killed by the Horseman and Katrina's suitor, Brom van Brunt (Casper Van Dien) is also killed trying to stop the Horseman.
The Horseman doesn't attempt to interact with or harm van Brunt until he has no choice; from this, Crane hypothesizes that the Horseman is attacking select targets, and that whoever dug up and stole the skull is the person controlling the Horseman.
Crane starts to believe that a conspiracy links all the deaths together, so he looks into Van Garrett's last will.
Van Garrett had made a new will just before he died, leaving all his possessions to his secret new bride, Emily Winship, whom Crane discovers was pregnant with Van Garrett's child.
Crane deduces that all who knew about the new will, the marriage and the pregnancy were the victims of the Horseman and that Katrina's father Baltus Van Tassel (Michael Gambon), who would have inherited the fortune, is the person holding the skull.
Katrina, finding out that Crane suspects her father, burns all the evidence that Crane has accumulated.
A council is held in the church.
The Horseman seemingly kills Katrina's stepmother, Lady Van Tassel, and heads off to the church to get Baltus.
Crane realizes the Horseman can't enter the church due to it being holy ground.
A fight breaks out between the village elders in the church resulting in the deaths of Reverend Steenwyck and Doctor Lancaster, only ending when the Horseman harpoons Baltus through a window, dragging him out and acquiring his head.
The next day, Crane believes Katrina to be the one who controls the Headless Horsemen.
Crane later becomes suspicious when he realizes the diagram made by Katrina he thought summoned the Horseman is really one of protection, and also that the corpse of Lady Van Tassel has a wound that seems to have been caused post-mortem.
The corpse is revealed as that of a servant when Lady Van Tassel (Miranda Richardson) emerges alive to ambush Katrina.
Lady Van Tassel tells Katrina that her family was driven from their ancestral home by the Van Garretts, and that she became a witch and summoned the Horseman to kill Van Garrett, his new wife and unborn child and every villager who knew about the new will.
She then sends the Horseman after Katrina to remove the last obstacle to inheriting Van Garrett's land.
Following a fight and a stagecoach chase, Crane eventually thwarts Lady Van Tassel by throwing the skull to the Horseman, who reattaches his head to his body and breaks Lady Van Tassel's curse.
The Horseman, no longer under her control, hoists Van Tassel up on his horse and gives her a bloody kiss against her will.
He then rides to Hell, taking her with him, fulfilling her end of the deal with the Devil.
Crane returns home to New York City with Katrina and Young Masbath, just in time for the new century.
<EOS>
The poem starts with Mulan sitting worriedly at her loom, as one male from each family is called to serve in the army to defend China from invaders.
Her father is old and weak and her younger brother is just a child, so she decides to take his place and bids farewell to her parents, who support her.
She is already skilled in fighting, having been taught martial arts, sword fighting, and archery by the time she enlists in the army.
After twelve years of fighting, the army returns and the warriors are rewarded.
Mulan turns down an official post, and asks only for a swift horse to carry her home.
She is greeted with joy by her family.
Mulan dons her old clothes and meets her comrades, who are shocked that in their years traveling together, they did not realize that she was a woman.
However, this does not change their good friendship.
Chu Renhuo's Romance of the Sui and Tang (c.
1675) provides additional backdrops and plot-twists.
Here, Mulan lives under the rule of Heshana Khan of the Western Turkic Khaganate.
When the Khan agrees to wage war in alliance with the emergent Tang dynasty, which was poised to conquer all of China, Mulan's father Hua Hu () fears he will be conscripted into military service since he only has two daughters and an infant son.
Mulan crossdresses as a man and enlists in her father's stead.
She is intercepted by the forces of the Xia king Dou Jiande and is brought under questioning by the king's warrior daughter Xianniang (), who tries to recruit Mulan as a man.
Discovering Mulan to be a fellow female warrior, she is so delighted that they become sworn sisters.
In the Sui Tang Romance, Mulan comes to a tragic end, a "detail that cannot be found in any previous legends or stories associated Hua Mulan," and believed to have been interpolated by the author Chu Renho.
Xianniang's father is vanquished after siding with the enemy of the Tang dynasty, and the two sworn sisters, with knives in their mouths, surrender themselves to be executed in the place of the condemned man.
The act of filial piety wins reprieve from Emperor Taizong of Tang and the imperial consort who was birth-mother to the Emperor bestows money to Mulan to provide for her parents and wedding funds for the princess who confessed to having promised herself to general ().
(In reality, Dou Jiande was executed, but in the novel he lives on as a monk)  Mulan is given leave to journey back to her homeland, and once arrangements were made for Mulan's parents to relocate, it is expected that they will all be living in the princess's old capital of Leshou (, modern Xian County, Hebei).
Mulan is devastated to discover her father has long died and her mother has remarried.
According to the novel, Mulan's mother was surnamed Yuan (袁) and remarried a man named Wei (魏).
Even worse, the Khan has summoned her to the palace to become his concubine.
Rather than to suffer this fate, she commits suicide.
But before she dies, she entrusts an errand to her younger sister, Youlan (), which was to deliver Xianniang's letter to her fiancé, Luō Chéng.
This younger sister dresses as a man to make her delivery, but her disguise is discovered, and it arouses her recipient's amorous attention.
In the novel, Mulan's father was non-Han, a Xianbei (described as "a Hebei person of the people of the Northern Wei dynasty, ruled by the Tuoba clan"), while her mother was Han Chinese from the Central Plain.
But "even a Chinese woman would prefer death by her own hand to serving a foreign ruler," as some commentators have explained this Mulan character's motive for committing suicide.
Mulan's words before she committed suicide were, "I'm a girl, I have been through war and have done enough.
I now want to be with my father".
<EOS>
After the Huns, led by the ruthless Shan Yu, invade Han China, the Chinese emperor orders a general mobilization.
Conscription notices require one man from each family to join the Chinese army.
When Fa Mulan hears that her elderly father Fa Zhou, the only man in their family and an army veteran, is once more to go to war, she becomes anxious and apprehensive.
Taking her father's old armor she disguises herself as a man so that she can enlist instead of her parent.
The anxious family quickly learn of her departure and Grandmother Fa prays to the family ancestors for Mulan's safety.
The ancestors then order their "Great Stone Dragon" to protect Mulan.
Mushu, a small dragon, is sent to awaken the Stone Dragon, but accidentally destroys it in the process.
Mushu conceals this from the ancestors and resolves to protect Mulan himself.
Reporting to the training camp Mulan is able to pass as a man, although her military skills are initially poor.
Mushu provides clumsy guidance in how to behave as a man.
Under the command of Captain Li Shang, she and her fellow recruits Yao, Ling and Chien-Po, gradually become trained warriors.
Mushu, desiring to see Mulan succeed, creates a fake order from Shang's father, General Li, ordering Shang to follow the main Imperial Army into the mountains.
The reinforcements set out but arrive at a burnt-out encampment and discover that General Li and his troops have been massacred by the Huns.
As they solemnly leave the mountains, they are ambushed by the Huns, but Mulan cleverly uses a cannon to create an avalanche which buries most of the invaders.
An enraged Shan Yu slashes her in the chest, and her deception is revealed when the wound is bandaged.
Instead of executing Mulan as the law requires, Shang spares her life, but discharges her from the army.
Mulan is left to follow alone as the recruits depart for the Imperial City to report the news of the Huns' destruction.
However it is revealed that several Hun warriors including Shan Yu have survived the avalanche, and Mulan catches sight of them as they make their way to the City, intent on capturing the Emperor.
At the Imperial City, Mulan is unable to convince Shang about Shan Yu's intentions.
The Huns capture the Emperor, then seize the palace.
With Mulan's help, Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po pose as concubines and are able to enter the palace.
With the help of Shang, they defeat Shan Yu's men.
As Shang prevents Shan Yu from assassinating the Emperor, Mulan lures the Hun leader onto the roof where she engages him in solo combat.
Meanwhile, acting on Mulan's instructions and signal Mushu fires a bundle of fireworks rockets at Shan Yu.
The fireworks strike Shan Yu and kill him.
Mulan is praised by the Emperor and the assembled inhabitants of the city, who bow to her in an unprecedented honor.
While she accepts the Emperor's crest and Shan Yu's sword as gifts, she politely declines his offer to be his advisor and asks to return to her family.
She returns home and presents these gifts to her father, but he is more overjoyed to have Mulan back safely.
Having become enamored with Mulan, Shang soon arrives under the pretext of returning her helmet, but accepts the family's invitation to stay for dinner.
Mushu is granted a position as a Fa family guardian by the ancestors amid a returning celebration.
<EOS>
WhenS.
Coast Guard cutter Panache intercepts a yacht in the Caribbean Sea, the crew discovers two men cleaning up the vessel after murdering a man and his family.
Through a mock execution, the Coast Guardsmen force the killers to confess to the crime.
It is later learned that the murdered man was involved in a money laundering scheme for a drug cartel.
Upon hearing that the owner of the yacht was a long-time political ally and friend, the President of the United States, who is running for re-election, feels compelled to take drastic measures against drug trafficking; his challenger, Robert Fowler, has rallied the public behind the administration's failures in the War on Drugs.
The president initiates covert operations within Colombia and a step-up of operations against aircraft believed to be distributing narcotics.
Aiding the president areS.
National Security Advisor James Cutter, CIA Deputy Director of Operations Robert Ritter, and Director of Central Intelligence Arthur Moore.
The plan consists of four operations: Meanwhile, Félix Cortez, a former intelligence officer from Cuba employed by the cartel, feigns romantic interest in the aide of Emil Jacobs, the Director of the FBI.
The aide unknowingly reveals information regarding the date of Jacobs' official visit to the Attorney General of Colombia.
Cortez delivers this information to the cartel, which orders Jacobs' assassination as retaliation for theS.
seizure of cartel money.
During his visit, Jacobs and several other Americans in his delegation are killed.
Jack Ryan suspects the CIA's involvement in the situation in Colombia.
As acting Deputy Director of the Intelligence Directorate, Ryan should be privy to most operations, but he realizes he is being kept out of the loop.
After Robby Jackson, assigned to the Pentagon, makes an inquiry into activity in the region, Ryan goes to Moore to demand an explanation.
Moore is evasive, yet orders Ryan to withhold information about Colombia from a congressional oversight committee.
Cortez eventually uncovers theS.
operations.
He suppresses this information, planning to engineer a war within the cartel that will leave him in a position to seize power.
Cortez orders mercenaries to hunt down theS.
troops, and blackmails Cutter into ending SHOWBOAT, promising the intracartel war will slow drug imports to the States.
Cutter's meeting with Cortez is shadowed by the FBI.
Clark is outraged at Cutter's abandonment of the troops and, with Ryan, plans a rescue operation with personnel from the FBI andS.
Air Force.
Clark makes radio contact with two of the SHOWBOAT teams, ordering them to alternate pickup points to await extraction.
The other two teams encounter mercenaries and take casualties.
Clark makes radio contact with some survivors of these remaining teams—which include Domingo Chavez—then flies into Colombia to retrieve them.
Ryan uses an Air Force helicopter to pick up other survivors.
Together, Clark and Ryan launch a raid on the cartel's command post, capturing Cortez and extracting the remaining ground team.
Due to a hurricane and damage to the helicopter, they land on the deck of the Panache.
Cortez is returned to Cuba, where he is a marked as a traitor.
Upon being confronted by Clark with evidence of his treason, Cutter commits suicide.
Ryan confronts the defiant president, informing him that despite his classifying the drug cartel as a "clear and present danger", Ryan must brief Congress over the illegal operations.
After Ryan briefs the committee, the president deliberately loses the election to hide the covert operations and protect the honor of those involved.
Ryan realizes the president has more honor and dignity than he originally thought.
Clark recruits one distinguished soldier from the operation, Sgt.
Domingo "Ding" Chavez, into the CIA, and becomes his mentor.
<EOS>
At the beginning of the first series, we are introduced to the main characters, a group of mostly female and middle-aged canteen workers in Northern England: the main character is the kind and dependable Brenda 'Bren' Furlong (played by Victoria Wood), whose relationship with sarcastic and exhausted canteen manager Tony Martin (Andrew Dunn), develops through the show.
The prim and prudish Dolly Bellfield (Thelma Barlow) and her waspish friend Jean (Anne Reid) are also featured, as well as the younger pair of the snarky Twinkle (Maxine Peake), who is always late, and the ditzy but mild-mannered Anita (Shobna Gulati).
Stan Meadowcroft (Duncan Preston) is an opinionated and easily provoked (but well-meaning) maintenance man who is responsible for cleaning the factory and fixing equipment.
The new cheery but disorganised human resources manager Philippa Moorcroft (Celia Imrie) is from the South and doesn't fit in well with the rest of the staff; she moved to Manchester because of her relationship with senior member of staff Mr Michael (Christopher Greet).
Julie Walters also appears in nine episodes as Bren's disadvantaged, delusional and manipulative mother who lives in a caravan behind a petrol station.
She abandoned Bren at an orphanage, and often turns up to ask for favours.
In the first series, Bren and Tony's relationship begins to develop, and she supports him as he undergoes chemotherapy.
Philippa tries to organise team-building activities, the factory receives a royal visit, Bren's mother causes a scandal in the factory, the team bring their mothers to work, HWD Components merges with a Japanese company and Tony is temporarily replaced due to his treatment.
Throughout the second series, Bren and Tony's relationship develops further; the canteen takes on a work experience girl, Jean goes to stay with her sister after she is put in a foul mood by her unfaithful husband, a murderer escapes from a local prison and Bren's fear of needles is mistaken for pregnancy.
Jane (Sue Devaney) organises a holiday to Marbella, on which Bren and Tony want to go together.
After a mixup, Bren manages to get a place, but she ends up giving the money to her mother instead.
Their colleagues bet on when Bren and Tony will "get it on", and they finally get together after Tony puts on a surprise birthday party for Bren, who was born on Christmas Eve.
Later in the series, Philippa can't attend the Millennium Meal she organises, and Anita has a baby; after leaving it anonymously for Bren to care for, she takes it back and goes on maternity leave; she is replaced temporarily by Christine (Kay Adshead), who is disliked by the rest of the dinnerladies.
As the staff plan to move on with their lives, Bren goes on the game show Totally Trivial, but loses her chance to win after she can't attend due to her mother's death.
It is revealed that her mother left her a large amount of cash, and Bren and Tony use the money to move to Scotland.
<EOS>
Battle Angel Alita tells the story of Alita ("Gally" in the original Japanese version), an amnesiac female cyborg.
Her intact head and chest, in suspended animation, are found by cybermedic expert Daisuke Ido in the local dump.
Ido manages to revive her, and finding she has lost her memory, names her Alita after his deceased cat.
The rebuilt Alita soon discovers that she remembers the legendary martial art Panzer Kunst, although she does not recall anything else.
Alita uses her Panzer Kunst to first become a mercenary Hunter-Warrior, killing cyborg criminals in the Scrapyard, and then as a player in the brutal sport of Motorball.
While in combat, Alita awakens memories of her earlier life on Mars.
She becomes involved with the floating city of Tiphares as one of their agents, and is sent to hunt criminals down.
Foremost is the mad genius Desty Nova, who clashes with Alita before becoming her ally.
The futuristic dystopian world of Battle Angel Alita revolves around the city of Scrapyard, grown up around a massive scrap heap that rains down from Tiphares (Salem in the anime).
Ground dwellers have no access to Tiphares and are forced to make a living in the sprawl below.
Many are heavily modified by cybernetics to better cope with their hard life.
Tiphares exploits the Scrapyard and surrounding farms, paying mercenaries (called Hunter-Warriors) to hunt criminals and arranging violent sports to keep the population entertained.
Massive tubes connect the Scrapyard to Tiphares, and the city uses robots for carrying out errands and providing security on the ground.
Occasionally, Tiphareans (such as Ido Daisuke and Desty Nova) are exiled and sent to the ground.
Aside from the robots and exiles, there is little contact between the two cities.
The story takes place in the former United States.
According to a map, printed in the eighth volume, Scrapyard/Tiphares is near Kansas City, Missouri, and the Necropolis is Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Radio KAOS is at Dallas.
Figure's coastal hometown is Alhambra.
Desty Nova's Granite Inn is built out of a military base – NORAD at Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado.
Battle Angel Alita is eventually revealed to take place in the 26th century.
The sequel Battle Angel Alita: Last Order introduces a calendar era called "Era Sputnik" which has en epoch of AD 1957.
The original Battle Angel Alita series begins in es.
577 (AD 2533) and ends in es.
590 (AD 2546), Battle Angel Alita: Last Order is mostly set in es.
591 (AD 2547), and Gunnm Mars Chronicle currently alternates between es.
370 (AD 2326) and es.
594 (AD 2550).
<EOS>
Methods : As mentioned above, the Julia set can be found as the set of limit points of the set of pre-images of (essentially) any given point.
So we can try to plot the Julia set of a given function as follows.
Start with any point z we know to be in the Julia set, such as a repelling periodic point, and compute all pre-images of z under some high iterate formula_56 of  Unfortunately, as the number of iterated pre-images grows exponentially, this is not feasible computationally.
However, we can adjust this method, in a similar way as the "random game" method for iterated function systems.
That is, in each step, we choose at random one of the inverse images of  For example, for the quadratic polynomial f, the backwards iteration is described by  At each step, one of the two square roots is selected at random.
Note that certain parts of the Julia set are quite difficult to access with the reverse Julia algorithm.
For this reason, one must modify IIM/J ( it is called MIIM/J) or use other methods to produce better images.
As a Julia set is infinitely thin we cannot draw it effectively by backwards iteration from the pixels.
It will appear fragmented because of the impracticality of examining infinitely many startpoints.
Since the iteration count changes vigorously near the Julia set, a partial solution is to imply the outline of the set from the nearest color contours, but the set will tend to look muddy.
A better way to draw the Julia set in black and white is to estimate the distance of pixels (DEM) from the set and to color every pixel whose center is close to the set.
The formula for the distance estimation is derived from the formula for the potential function φ(z).
When the equipotential lines for φ(z) lie close, the number formula_58 is large, and conversely, therefore the equipotential lines for the function formula_59 should lie approximately regularly.
It has been proven that the value found by this formula (up to a constant factor) converges towards the true distance for z converging towards the Julia set.
We assume that f(z) is rational, that is, formula_1 where p(z) and q(z) are complex polynomials of degrees m and n, respectively, and we have to find the derivative of the above expressions for φ(z).
And as it is only formula_21 that varies, we must calculate the derivative formula_62 of formula_21 with respect to But as formula_64 (the k-fold composition), formula_62 is the product of the numbers formula_66, and this sequence can be calculated recursively by formula_67, starting with formula_68 (before the calculation of the next iteration formula_69).
For iteration towards ∞ (more precisely when m&nbsp;≥&nbsp;n&nbsp;+&nbsp;2, so that ∞ is a super-attracting fixed point), we have  (d = m&nbsp;−&nbsp;n) and consequently:  For iteration towards a finite attracting cycle (that is not super-attracting) containing the point z* and having order r, we have  and consequently:  For a super-attracting cycle, the formula is:  We calculate this number when the iteration stops.
Note that the distance estimation is independent of the attraction of the cycle.
This means that it has meaning for transcendental functions of "degree infinity" (eg.
sin(z) and tan(z)).
Besides drawing of the boundary, the distance function can be introduced as a 3rd dimension to create a solid fractal landscape.
<EOS>
The novel is set prior to the Constitution of 1782 and tells the story of four generations of Rackrent heirs through their steward, Thady Quirk.
The heirs are: the dissipated spendthrift Sir Patrick O'Shaughlin, the litigious Sir Murtagh Rackrent, the cruel husband and gambling absentee Sir Kit Rackrent, and the generous but improvident Sir Condy Rackrent.
Their sequential mismanagement of the estate is resolved through the machinations—and to the benefit—of the narrator's astute son, Jason Quirk.
<EOS>
The Munsters live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in the city of Mockingbird Heights, a fictional suburb in California.
The running gag of the series is that the family, while decidedly odd, consider themselves fairly typical working-class people of the era.
Herman, like many husbands of the 1960s, is the sole wage-earner in the family, though Lily and Grandpa make (short-lived) attempts to earn money from time to time.
While Herman is the head of household, Lily makes many decisions, too.
According to the episode in which Lily and Herman Munster were trying to surprise one another for their anniversary, they were married in 1865.
Despite the novel approach of the family's being (mostly) supernatural creatures (except for niece Marilyn, who is "normal"), the show followed the typical family sitcom formula of the era&mdash;the well-meaning father, the nurturing mother, the eccentric live-in relative, the naïve teenager and the precocious kid.
The costumes and appearances of the family members other than Marilyn were based on the classic monsters of Universal Studios films from the 1930s and 1940s.
Universal produced The Munsters as well and was thus able to use these copyrighted designs, including their iconic version of Frankenstein's monster for Herman.
Other studios were free to make films with the Frankenstein creature, for example, but could not use the costume and style of make-up originally created by Jack Pierce for the 1931 Universal Studios film Frankenstein.
The make-up for the show was created and applied to the actors by Bud Westmore, who pioneered many make-up effects and designs for many of the Universal monster movies.
<EOS>
Edina "Eddy" Monsoon (Saunders) and Patsy Stone (Lumley) are a pair of high-powered career women on the London fashion scene.
Eddy runs her own PR firm, and Patsy holds a sinecure position at a top British fashion magazine.
The two women use their considerable financial resources to indulge in alcohol, recreational drugs, and chasing the latest fads in an attempt to maintain their youth and recapture their glory days as Mods in Swinging London.
In 2011, they are still chain-smokers.
The partnership is largely driven by Patsy, who is both co-dependent and enabler to Eddy.
Their lifestyle inevitably leads to a variety of personal crises, which are invariably resolved by Eddy's daughter, Saffron Monsoon (Julia Sawalha), whose constant involvement in their exploits has left her increasingly bitter and cynical.
<EOS>
Emma Woodhouse has just attended the wedding of Miss Taylor, her friend and former governess, to Mr Weston.
Having introduced them, Emma takes credit for their marriage, and decides that she likes matchmaking.
After she returns home to Hartfield with her father, Emma forges ahead with her new interest against the advice of her brother-in-law, Mr Knightley, and tries to match her new friend Harriet Smith to Mr Elton, the local vicar.
First, Emma must persuade Harriet to refuse the marriage proposal from Robert Martin, a respectable, educated, and well-spoken young farmer, which Harriet does against her own wishes.
However, Mr Elton, a social climber, thinks Emma is in love with him and proposes to her.
When Emma tells him that she had thought him attached to Harriet, he is outraged.
After Emma rejects him, Mr Elton leaves for a stay at Bath and returns with a pretentious, nouveau-riche wife, as Mr Knightley expected.
Harriet is heartbroken and Emma feels ashamed about misleading her.
Frank Churchill, Mr Weston's son, arrives for a two-week visit to his father and makes many friends.
Frank was adopted by his wealthy and domineering aunt and he has had very few opportunities to visit before.
Mr Knightley suggests to Emma that, while Frank is clever and engaging, he is also a shallow character.
Jane Fairfax also comes home to see her aunt, Miss Bates, and grandmother, Mrs Bates, for a few months, before she must go out on her own as a governess due to her family's financial situation.
She is the same age as Emma and has been given an excellent education by her father's friend, Colonel Campbell.
Emma has not been as friendly with her as she might because she envies Jane's talent and is annoyed to find all, including Mrs Weston and Mr Knightley, praising her.
The patronising Mrs Elton takes Jane under her wing and announces that she will find her the ideal governess post before it is wanted.
Emma begins to feel some sympathy for Jane's predicament.
Emma decides that Jane and Mr Dixon, Colonel Campbell's new son-in-law, are mutually attracted, and that is why she has come home earlier than expected.
She shares her suspicions with Frank, who met Jane and the Campbells at a vacation spot a year earlier, and he apparently agrees with her.
Suspicions are further fueled when a piano, sent by an anonymous benefactor, arrives for Jane.
Emma feels herself falling in love with Frank, but it does not last to his second visit.
The Eltons treat Harriet badly, culminating with Mr Elton publicly snubbing Harriet at the ball given by the Westons in May.
Mr Knightley, who had long refrained from dancing, gallantly steps in to dance with Harriet.
The day after the ball, Frank brings Harriet to Hartfield, she having fainted after a rough encounter with local gypsies.
Harriet is grateful, and Emma thinks this is love, not gratitude.
Meanwhile, Mrs Weston wonders if Mr Knightley has taken a fancy to Jane but Emma dismisses that idea.
When Mr Knightley mentions the links he sees between Jane and Frank, Emma denies them, while Frank appears to be courting her instead.
He arrives late to the gathering at Donwell in June, while Jane leaves early.
Next day at Box Hill, a local beauty spot, Frank and Emma continue to banter together and Emma, in jest, thoughtlessly insults Miss Bates.
When Mr Knightley scolds Emma for the insult to Miss Bates, she is ashamed and tries to atone with a morning visit to Miss Bates, which impresses Mr Knightley.
On the visit, Emma learns that Jane had accepted the position of governess from one of Mrs Elton's friends after the outing.
Jane now becomes ill, and refuses to see Emma or accept her gifts.
Meanwhile, Frank was visiting his aunt, who dies soon after he arrives.
Now he and Jane reveal to the Westons that they have been secretly engaged since the autumn but Frank knew that his aunt would disapprove.
The strain of the secrecy on the conscientious Jane had caused the two to quarrel and Jane ended the engagement.
Frank's easygoing uncle readily gives his blessing to the match and the engagement becomes public, leaving Emma chagrined to discover that she had been so wrong.
Emma is certain that Frank's engagement will devastate Harriet, but instead Harriet tells her that she loves Mr Knightley, although she knows the match is too unequal, but Emma's encouragement and Mr Knightley's kindness have given her hope.
Emma is startled, and realizes that she is the one who wants to marry Mr Knightley.
Mr Knightley returns to console Emma from Frank and Jane's engagement thinking her heartbroken.
When she admits her own foolishness, he proposes and she accepts.
Now Harriet accepts Robert Martin's second proposal and they are the first couple to marry.
Jane and Emma reconcile, and Frank and Jane visit the Westons.
Once the period of deep mourning ends, they will marry.
Before the end of November, Emma and Mr Knightley are married with the prospect of "perfect happiness".
<EOS>
In December 1941, American expatriate Rick Blaine is the proprietor of an upscale nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca.
"Rick's Café Américain" attracts a varied clientele: Vichy French and German officials; refugees desperate to reach the still-neutral United States; and those who prey on them.
Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, it is later revealed he ran guns to Ethiopia during its war with Italy and fought on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War.
Petty crook Ugarte shows up and boasts to Rick of "letters of transit" obtained by murdering two German couriers.
The papers allow the bearers to travel freely around German-controlled Europe and to neutral Portugal, and are thus almost priceless to the refugees stranded in Casablanca.
Ugarte plans to sell them at the club that night, and asks Rick to hold them.
Before he can meet his contact, he is intercepted by the local police under the command of Captain Louis Renault, an unabashedly corrupt Vichy official.
Ugarte dies in custody without revealing that he entrusted the letters to Rick.
At this point, the reason for Rick's bitterness—former lover Ilsa Lund—walks into his establishment.
Upon spotting Rick's friend and house pianist, Sam, Ilsa asks him to play "As Time Goes By".
Rick storms over, furious that Sam has disobeyed his order never to perform that song, and is stunned to see Ilsa.
She is accompanied by her husband, Victor Laszlo, a renowned fugitive Czech Resistance leader.
They need the letters to escape to America to continue his work.
German Major Strasser has come to Casablanca to see that Laszlo does not succeed.
When Laszlo makes inquiries, Ferrari, a major underworld figure and Rick's friendly business rival, divulges his suspicion that Rick has the letters.
In private, Rick refuses to sell at any price, telling Laszlo to ask his wife the reason.
They are interrupted when Strasser leads a group of officers in singing "Die Wacht am Rhein".
Laszlo orders the house band to play "La Marseillaise".
When the band looks to Rick, he nods his head.
Laszlo starts singing, alone at first, then patriotic fervor grips the crowd and everyone joins in, drowning out the Germans.
In retaliation, Strasser has Renault close the club.
That night, Ilsa confronts Rick in the deserted café.
When he refuses to give her the letters, she threatens him with a gun, but then confesses that she still loves him.
She explains that when they met and fell in love in Paris in 1940, she believed her husband had been killed attempting to escape from a concentration camp.
Later, while preparing to flee with Rick from the imminent fall of the city to the German army, she learned that Laszlo was alive and in hiding.
She left Rick without explanation to nurse her sick husband.
Rick's bitterness dissolves.
He agrees to help, letting her believe that she will stay with him when Laszlo leaves.
When Laszlo unexpectedly shows up, having narrowly escaped a police raid on a Resistance meeting, Rick has waiter Carl spirit Ilsa away.
Laszlo, aware of Rick's love for Ilsa, tries to persuade him to use the letters to take her to safety.
When the police arrest Laszlo on a minor, trumped-up charge, Rick persuades Renault to release him by promising to set him up for a much more serious crime: possession of the letters.
To allay Renault's suspicions, Rick explains that he and Ilsa will be leaving for America.
When Renault tries to arrest Laszlo as arranged, Rick forces him at gunpoint to assist in their escape.
At the last moment, Rick makes Ilsa board the plane to Lisbon with her husband, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed—"Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life".
Strasser, tipped off by Renault, drives up alone.
Rick kills him when he tries to intervene.
When policemen arrive, Renault pauses, then orders them to "round up the usual suspects".
Renault suggests to Rick that they join the Free French in Brazzaville.
As they walk away into the fog, Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship".
<EOS>
An 11-year-old boy named Charlie Bucket lives in poverty in a tiny house with his parents and four grandparents.
His grandparents share the only bed in the house, located in the only bedroom.
Charlie and his parents sleep on a mattress on the floor.
Once a year, on his birthday, Charlie gets one Wonka Bar, which he keeps for many months.
Willy Wonka, the owner of the Wonka chocolate factory, has suddenly decided to open the doors of his factory to five children and their parents after 10 years of keeping it sealed because his rivals were stealing his recipes.
In order to choose who will enter the factory and also receive a lifetime supply of chocolate, mr Wonka hides five golden tickets in the wrappers of his Wonka chocolate bars.
The search for the five golden tickets is fast and furious.
Each ticket find is a media sensation and each finder becomes a celebrity.
The first four golden tickets are found by the gluttonous Augustus Gloop, the spoiled and petulant Veruca Salt, the gum-addicted Violet Beauregarde, and the TV-obsessed Mike Teavee.
One day, Charlie sees a fifty-pence coin (dollar bill in the US version) buried in the snow.
He decides to use a little of the money to buy himself some chocolate before turning the rest over to his mother.
He buys two bars, and after unwrapping the second chocolate bar, Charlie finds the fifth golden ticket.
The next day is the date that mr Wonka has set for his guests to enter the factory.
In the factory, Charlie and Grandpa Joe enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of the factory, and encounter the Oompa-Loompas, a race of small people who have been helping Wonka operate the factory since he rescued them from poverty and fear in their home country of Loompaland.
The other kids are ejected from the factory in comical, mysterious and painful fashions.
Augustus Gloop falls into the Chocolate River when he wants to drink it, and he is sucked up by one of the pipes.
Violet Beauregarde impetuously grabs an experimental piece of gum and turns into a giant blueberry.
Veruca Salt is determined to be a "bad nut" by nut-judging squirrels who throw her out with the trash.
The television lover, Mike Teavee, is shrunk to a tiny size and gets stuck inside a TV set.
At the end, the children are seen going home as follows: Augustus squeezed thin by the pipe; Violet purple all over; Veruca covered in trash; and Mike 10 feet tall and thin as a wire after efforts to restore his proper size went wrong.
With only Charlie remaining, Willy Wonka congratulates him for "winning" the factory and, after explaining his true age and the reason behind his golden tickets, names Charlie his successor.
They ride the great glass elevator to Charlie's house and bring the rest of Charlie's family to the factory.
The story continues in the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
<EOS>
On October 2, 1988, Donnie Darko, a troubled teenager living in suburban Virginia, is awakened and led outside by a figure in a monstrous rabbit costume, who introduces himself as "Frank" and tells him the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds.
At dawn, Donnie returns home to find a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom.
His older sister, Elizabeth, informs him that the FAA investigators do not know where it came from.
Donnie tells his psychotherapist, dr Thurman, about his continuing visits from Frank.
Acting under Frank's influence, he floods his school by damaging a water main.
He also begins dating a new student, Gretchen Ross, who has recently moved into town with her mother under a new identity to escape her violent stepfather.
Gym teacher Kitty Farmer blames the flooding on the influence of the short story "The Destructors", assigned by dedicated English teacher Karen Pomeroy, and begins teaching attitude lessons taken from motivational speaker Jim Cunningham.
Donnie rebels against these motivational lessons, leading to friction between Kitty and Rose, Donnie's mother.
Donnie asks his science teacher, dr Kenneth Monnitoff, about time travel after Frank brings up the topic, and is given the book The Philosophy of Time Travel, written by Roberta Sparrow, a former science teacher at the school who is now a seemingly senile old woman.
dr Thurman tells Donnie's parents that he is detached from reality, and that his visions of Frank are "daylight hallucinations", symptomatic of paranoid schizophrenia.
Donnie disrupts a speech being given by Jim Cunningham by insulting him in front of the student body, then burns down Cunningham's house on instructions from Frank.
When police find evidence of a child pornography operation in the house's remains, Cunningham is arrested.
During a hypnotherapy session, Donnie confesses his crimes to dr Thurman and says that Frank will soon kill someone.
Rose agrees to replace Kitty as chaperone for her daughter Samantha's dance troupe in Los Angeles, so Kitty can testify in Cunningham's defense; with her husband Eddie in New York on business, her older children are home alone.
Donnie and Elizabeth take the opportunity to throw a Halloween party to celebrate her acceptance to Harvard.
Gretchen arrives, distraught that her mother has disappeared.
Realizing that only hours remain before Frank's prophesied end of the world, Donnie takes Gretchen and two friends to seek Roberta Sparrow at her house.
They are attacked by two school bullies, Seth and Ricky, who are attempting to rob Sparrow's house, and the fight spills into the street.
An oncoming Pontiac Trans Am car swerves to avoid Sparrow, who went for her daily walk to check her mailbox, but runs over Gretchen, killing her.
The driver turns out to be Frank Anderson, wearing the same rabbit costume as the Frank of Donnie's visions.
Donnie shoots him in his eye with his father's gun.
As a vortex forms in dark clouds above his house, Donnie drives into the hills and watches as an airplane descends from above.
The plane, carrying Rose and the dance troupe, is wrenched violently as one of its engines detaches and falls into the vortex.
Events of the previous 28 days recapitulate in reverse order and action, until Donnie finds himself in bed back in the early hours of October 2.
As he lies in his bed, waiting and laughing, the jet engine crashes through his room, killing him.
Others with whom Donnie had interacted in the 28 days awaken, some looking disturbed.
Gretchen rides by Donnie's house and learns of his death from a neighborhood boy, David, but says she did not know him.
Gretchen and Rose exchange a glance and wave as if they know one another, but cannot remember from where.
<EOS>
In August 1939, a trade embargo imposed by the United States is depriving a belligerent Japan of raw materials.
Influential army figures and politicians push through an alliance with Germany and Italy in September 1940 and make preparations for war.
The newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto reluctantly orders the planning of a preemptive strike on theS.
Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, believing that Japan's best hope of achieving control of the Pacific Ocean is to annihilate the fleet at the outset of hostilities.
Air Staff Officer Minoru Genda is chosen to mastermind the operation while his old Naval Academy classmate Mitsuo Fuchida is selected to lead the attack.
Meanwhile, in Washington, American military intelligence has managed to break the Japanese Purple Code, allowing the Americans to intercept secret Japanese radio transmissions indicating increased Japanese naval activity.
Monitoring the transmissions areS.
Army Col.
Bratton andS.
Navy lt Commander Kramer.
At Pearl Harbor itself, Admiral Kimmel and General Short do their best to enhance defenses which include increasing naval patrols around Hawaii and calling for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers to patrol offshore to provide early warning of any enemy presence.
Short recommends parking all aircraft at the base on the runways and not in their hangars so as best to avoid sabotage by enemy agents.
Several months pass with diplomatic tensions continuing to escalate between theS.
and Japan.
As the Japanese ambassador continues negotiations to stall for time, the Japanese fleet sorties into the Pacific and soon is in position to begin the assault.
On the day of the attack, Bratton and Kramer learn from intercepts that the Japanese plan to commence a series of 14 radio messages from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in Washington with an instruction to destroy their code machines after receiving the final message.
Deducing that this indicates that the Japanese plan to launch a surprise attack on American forces after the messages are delivered, Bratton attempts to warn his superiors of his suspicions but encounters several obstacles – Chief of Naval Operations Harold Stark is indecisive over notifying Hawaii without first alerting the President while Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall's order that Pearl Harbor be alerted of an impending attack is stymied by poor atmospherics that prevent radio transmission and bungling when a warning sent by telegram is not marked urgent.
At dawn on December 7, the Japanese fleet launches its aircraft.
Their approach to Hawaii is detected by two radar operators but their concerns are dismissed as the duty officer receiving their alert assumes it is a group of American B-17 Flying Fortresses inbound from the mainland scheduled to land later that day.
As a result, the Japanese achieve complete surprise and a joyous commander Fuchida, riding in a Nakajima B5N "Kate", sends the code to begin the attack: "Tora.
Tora.
Tora.
" Meeting no opposition, the Japanese planes savage Pearl Harbor with a series of attacks.
General Short's anti-sabotage precautions prove a disastrous mistake that allows the Japanese aerial forces to destroy theS.
aircraft on the ground with ease, thereby preventing an effective aerial counter-attack.
The damage to the naval base is catastrophic with the Americans suffering severe casualties.
Seven battleships are either sunk or heavily damaged.
Hours after the attack is over, General Short and Admiral Kimmel finally receive Marshall's telegram warning of impending danger.
In Washington, the Secretary of State Cordell Hull is stunned on learning of the attack and urgently requests confirmation before receiving the Japanese ambassador.
The message that was transmitted to the Japanese embassy in 14 parts – a declaration of war – was meant to be delivered to the Americans at 1:00 pm, 30 minutes before the attack.
However, it was not decoded and transcribed in time, with the result that the attack took place while the two nations were technically still at peace.
The distraught Japanese ambassador, helpless to explain the late ultimatum and unaware of the ongoing attack, is bluntly rebuffed by a despondent Hull.
Back in the Pacific, the Japanese fleet commander, Vice-Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, refuses to launch a further air strike out of fear of exposing his force to American submarines which he believes are in the area.
Aboard his flagship, Admiral Yamamoto solemnly informs his staff that their primary targets – the American fleet's aircraft carriers – were not at Pearl Harbor and thus escaped unscathed before lamenting the fact that the Americans did not receive the declaration of war until after the attack began.
Noting that nothing would infuriate the Americans more he concludes, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve".
<EOS>
During the Korean War, the Soviets capture aS.
platoon and take them to Manchuria in Communist China.
Some days later, all but two of the soldiers return to theS.
lines and Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is credited with saving their lives in combat by his fellow platoon members.
Upon the recommendation of the platoon's commander, Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), Raymond is awarded the Medal of Honor.
When asked to describe him, Marco and the other soldiers automatically respond, "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life".
Deep down, however, they know that Shaw is a cold, sad, unsympathetic loner.
Following his return to America, Marco, who has since been promoted to major, suffers from a recurring nightmare in which a hypnotized Shaw blithely and brutally murders the two missing soldiers before an assembly of military brass from the Communist nations, during a practical demonstration of a revolutionary brainwashing technique.
Marco wants to investigate, but has no solid evidence to back his claims and thus receives no support from Army Intelligence.
However, Marco learns that another soldier from the platoon, Allen Melvin (James Edwards), has had the same nightmare.
When Melvin and Marco separately identify some of the men in the dream as leading figures in communist governments, Army Intelligence agrees to help Marco investigate.
Meanwhile, Shaw's mother, mrs Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury), drives the political career of her husband and Shaw's stepfather, Senator John Yerkes Iselin (James Gregory), a McCarthy-like demagogue who is widely dismissed as a fool.
Senator Iselin raises his political profile when he claims that varying numbers of communists work within the Department of Defense.
However, unknown to Raymond, mrs Iselin herself is actually a Communist agent with a plan intended to secure the presidency under Communist influence.
mrs Iselin is the American operator responsible for controlling Raymond, who was "brainwashed" in Manchuria to be an unwitting assassin whose programming is triggered by a Queen of Diamonds playing card.
When he sees it, he will blindly obey the next suggestion or order given to him and never have any memories of those actions.
It is revealed that Shaw's heroism was a "false memory" implanted in the platoon during their brainwashing, and that the actions for which Shaw was awarded his Medal of Honor never took place.
Shaw's conditioning is reinforced by Chunjin (Henry Silva), a North Korean agent who supervises him under the guise of his cook and houseboy.
When Marco visits Shaw's apartment, he becomes suspicious of the Korean and they engage in a fight using karate techniques.
Raymond briefly finds happiness when he rekindles a youthful romance with Jocelyn Jordan (Leslie Parrish), the daughter of Senator Thomas Jordan (John McGiver), one of his stepfather's political rivals.
mrs Iselin had previously broken up the relationship, but now facilitates the couple's reunion as part of her scheme to garner Jordan's support for her husband's bid for Vice President.
Jocelyn, wearing a Queen of Diamonds costume, inadvertently triggers Raymond's programming at a costume party and elopes with him.
Although pleased with the match, Jordan makes it clear that he will block Senator Iselin's nomination.
mrs Iselin triggers Raymond and sends him to kill Jordan; he also shoots Jocelyn when she happens upon the scene.
Afterwards, Raymond has no knowledge of his actions and is grief-stricken when he learns of the murders.
After discovering the card's role in Raymond's conditioning, Marco uses a forced deck to get the full story.
He then verbally drills into Raymond the suggestion or affirmation that the Queen of Diamonds no longer has any power over him.
mrs Iselin primes her son to assassinate their party's presidential nominee at the nomination convention so that Senator Iselin, as the vice-presidential candidate, will become the nominee by default and be elected with emergency powers that, in mrs Iselin's words, "will make martial law seem like anarchy".
mrs Iselin tells Raymond that she did not know that he was to be selected by the Communists, but vows that once in power she will "grind them into the dirt" in revenge.
Marco's attempt to free Raymond from his brainwashing appears to have failed, and Raymond enters Madison Square Garden disguised as a priest and takes position to carry out the assassination.
Marco and his supervisor, Colonel Milt (Douglas Henderson), arrive at the convention to stop him.
As the nominee makes his speech, Raymond, instead of assassinating him, shoots his stepfather and then his mother with the sniper rifle she gave him.
He then commits suicide in front of Marco while wearing his Medal of Honor.
Marco, in the film's final scene, reads the (real) Medal of Honor citations of Daniel Edwards and Nelson Holderman, before voicing a (putative) citation for Raymond's genuine act of heroism in stopping the Iselins.
<EOS>
A maniac Killer in red cape and hood is killing off American tourists on a tour bus by gouging out their eyeballs.
<EOS>
Anne Shirley, a young orphan from the fictional community of Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia (based upon the real community of New London, Prince Edward Island), is sent to live with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, siblings in their fifties and sixties after a childhood spent in strangers' homes and orphanages.
Marilla and Matthew had originally decided to adopt a boy from the orphanage to help Matthew run their farm at Green Gables, which is set in the fictional city of Avonlea.
Through a misunderstanding, the orphanage sends Anne instead.
Anne is highly imaginative, eager to please and quite dramatic at times.
However, she is very vain, despising her red hair and pale, thin frame, and is often quite talkative, especially when it comes to describing her fantasies and dreams.
At first, stern and sharp Marilla says Anne must return to the orphanage, but after much observation and considering, along with Matthew's newly-found strong liking to Anne, she decides to let her stay.
As a child of imagination, Anne takes much joy in life and adapts quickly, thriving in the close-knit farming village.
Her imagination and talkativeness soon brighten up Green Gables.
The book recounts Anne's adventures in making a home: the country school where she quickly excels in her studies; her friendship with Diana Barry, the girl living next door (her best or "bosom friend" as Anne fondly calls her); her budding literary ambitions; and her rivalry with her classmate Gilbert Blythe, who teased her about her red hair.
For that, he earns her instant hatred, although he apologized many times.
As time passes, Anne realizes she no longer hates Gilbert but cannot bring herself to speak to him.
The book also follows Anne's adventures with her new-found friends.
Episodes include her play-time with her friends Diana, a calm girl named Jane Andrews and a good-natured but often hysterical girl called Ruby Gillis, her run-ins with the unpleasant Pye sisters Gertie and Josie, and domestic mishaps such as dyeing her hair green while intending to dye it black or accidentally getting Diana drunk by giving her what she thought was raspberry cordial but turned out to be currant wine.
At fifteen, Anne goes to Queen's Academy to earn a teaching license, along with Gilbert, Ruby, Josie, Jane, and several other students, excluding Diana much to Anne's dismay.
She obtains her license in one year instead of the usual two and wins the Avery Scholarship for the top student in English.
Her attainment of this scholarship would allow her to pursue a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree at the fictional Redmond College (based on the real Dalhousie University) on the mainland in Nova Scotia.
Near the end of the book however, tragedy strikes when Matthew dies of a heart attack after learning that all of his and Marilla's money has been lost in a bank failure.
Out of devotion to Marilla and Green Gables, Anne gives up the scholarship to stay at home and help Marilla, whose eyesight is failing.
She plans to teach at the Carmody school, the nearest school available, and return to Green Gables on weekends.
In an act of friendship, Gilbert Blythe gives up his teaching position at the Avonlea School to work at the White Sands School instead, knowing that Anne wants to stay close to Marilla after Matthew's death.
After this kind act, Anne and Gilbert's friendship is cemented, and Anne looks forward to what life will bring next.
<EOS>
The story is told from the perspective of 16-year-old Frank Cauldhame.
Frank lives with his father on a small island in rural Scotland, and has not seen his mother in many years.
There is no official record of his birth, meaning his existence is largely unknown.
Frank occupies his time with rituals and maintaining an array of weapons (a small catapult, pipe bombs and a crude flame thrower) for killing small animals around the island and the coast line, and building dams.
He goes for long walks to patrol the island, and occasionally gets drunk with his only friend, a dwarf named Jamie, in the local pub.
Otherwise Frank has almost no contact with the outside world.
He is haunted by the memory of a dog attack in his youth, which resulted in the loss of his genitalia.
He resents others for his impotence, particularly women.
This is in part due to the mauling coinciding with the last time he saw his absentee mother, who had come back to the island to give birth to his younger brother, leaving immediately after.
His older brother Eric escapes a mental institution in the opening of the book, having being arrested some years prior for setting fire to the town's dogs and terrorizing local children by force-feeding them maggots and worms.
Eric often calls Frank from phone boxes to inform Frank of his progress back to the island.
Eric is extremely erratic and their conversations invariably end badly, with Eric exploding in fits of rage.
Frank is confused as to whether or not he is looking forward to seeing Eric, but it is clear Frank loves his brother dearly.
The "Wasp Factory" that the title refers to is a mechanism put together by Frank, made from a huge clock face, salvaged from the local dump, encased in a glass box.
Behind each of the 12 numerals on the clock face is a trap which leads to a different ritual death (for example burning, crushing, or drowning in Frank's urine) for the wasp that Frank puts into it via the hole at the centre of the clock face.
Frank believes the death "chosen" by the wasp predicts something about the future.
The Factory is in the house’s loft, which Frank’s father cannot access because of a leg injury.
There are also “Sacrifice Poles”.
The bodies and heads of animals, such as mice that Frank has killed, are stuck onto the poles for the purpose of attracting birds which will fly away and alert Frank of anybody approaching the island's borders.
It is revealed that when he was a lot younger, he killed three of his relatives; two of his cousins and his younger brother.
He also exhumed the skull of the dog that castrated him and uses it as part of his rituals.
Eric is described as having been extremely sensitive before the incident that drove him mad: a tragic case of neglect in a hospital where Eric was a volunteer when studying to become a doctor.
While attempting to feed a brain-damaged newborn with acalvaria, Eric notes that the child is unresponsive and smiling, despite usually appearing expressionless.
The child’s skull is held together by a metal plate over its head.
Eric checks underneath the plate to find the child's exposed brain tissue infested and being consumed by day-old maggots.
Frank’s father is distant and spends most of his time in his study, which he keeps locked at all times.
Frank longs to know what is inside the study and attempts to gain access to it each time his father leaves the house.
Frank is used to being lied to by his father, who seemingly often does it purely for his own amusement or interest.
At the end of the novel Frank is alerted of Eric's imminent return when he sees a dog that has been burned alive and discovers Eric’s camp site; This knowledge incites Frank’s father to get drunk and then forget to conceal the keys to his study, where Frank discovers male hormone drugs, tampons and what appears to be the remains of his own genitals in a jar.
Frank, who hates women, assumes that his findings mean that his father is actually female.
During the ensuing confrontation with his father, Eric returns and attempts to destroy the house and island with explosives and fire but is not successful.
After Eric flees, the father explains that it was Frank who was born a female; the hormones had been fed to him by his father since the dog attack in an experiment to see whether Frank would transition from female to male.
The remains of his genitals were fake and it is suggested that his father’s reasoning for doing this was to distance himself from the women he felt had ruined his life.
In the closing pages Frank finds Eric, half asleep, seemingly calm.
Frank sits with him and considers his life up to this point and whether he should leave the island.
<EOS>
The book tells the (fictional) story of the rise to fame of Dan Weir ('Weird'), a bass guitar player in a rock and roll band called Frozen Gold, and of his struggles to be happy now that he is rich and famous.
"Two days ago I decided to kill myself.
I would walk and hitch and sail away from this dark city to the bright spaces of the wet west coast, and there throw myself into the tall, glittering seas beyond Iona (with its cargo of mouldering kings) to let the gulls and seals and tides have their way with my remains, and in my dying moments look forward to an encounter with Staffa’s six-sided columns and Fingal’s cave; or I might head south to Corryvrecken, to be spun inside the whirlpool and listen with my waterlogged deaf ears to its mile-wide voice ringing over the wave-race; or be borne north, to where the white sands sing and coral hides, pink-fingered and hard-soft, beneath the ocean swell, and the rampart cliffs climb thousand-foot above the seething acres of milky foam, rainbow-buttressed.
Last night I changed my mind and decided to stay alive.
Everything that follows is.
just to try and explain".
Weird starts out in the Ferguslie Park area of Paisley in a very underprivileged Catholic family.
He is impressed by a group named Frozen Gold when he sees them live, in the Union of Paisley College of Technology, and auditions with them.
Christine Brice likes his songs, and he joins the band.
He ends up writing all their material and playing bass guitar (after trying unsuccessfully to get them to change their name), as the band rises in the drug- and booze-fuelled rock and roll of the 1970s, assisted by A&R man Rick Tumber of ARC Records.
In the Three Chimneys tour, singer Davey Balfour takes Dan along on an attempt to break an unofficial (and illegal) speed record for flying around three power station chimneys in Kent in his private aeroplane.
He reminisces about this from 1980s Glasgow, where he lives as a recluse in a Victorian folly (St Jutes), ever since the tragic events which led to the demise of the band.
He is posing as his own caretaker, and his friends McCann and Wee Tommy know him as Jimmy Hay.
After a memorable fight in a nightclub called 'Monty's', his real identity is revealed.
He has grown uncomfortable with fame and wealth, and eventually visits his first girlfriend, Jean Webb, now living in Arisaig.
<EOS>
A pivotal period in Prentice McHoan's life is described, seen through his preoccupations with death, sex, his relationship with his father, unrequited love, sibling rivalry, a missing uncle, relationships, cars, drink (and other intoxicants) and God, with the background a celebration of the Scottish landscape.
This Bildungsroman is set in the fictional Argyll town of Gallanach (by its description, reminiscent of Oban but on the north east shore of Loch Crinan), the real village of Lochgair, and in Glasgow where the adult Prentice McHoan lives.
Prentice's uncle Rory has disappeared eight years previously while writing a book called The Crow Road.
Prentice becomes obsessed with papers his uncle left behind and sets out to solve the mystery.
Along the way he must cope with estrangement from his father, unrequited love, sibling rivalry, and failure at his studies.
The estrangement from his father concerns belief in God or an afterlife.
Prentice cannot accept a universe without some higher power, some purpose; he can't believe that people can just cease to exist when they die.
His father dogmatically denies the existence of God, universal purpose, and the afterlife.
A parallel plot is Prentice's gradual transition from an adolescent fixation on one young woman to a more mature love for another.
Prentice's efforts to piece together Uncle Rory's fragmentary notes and the minimal clues surrounding his disappearance mirror his efforts to make sense of the world, love, and life in general.
The narrative is also fragmentary, leaping days, months, years, or decades back and forth with little or no warning, so the reader must also piece things together.
<EOS>
The Culture and the Idiran Empire are at war in a galaxy-spanning conflict.
A Culture Mind, fleeing the destruction of its ship in an Idiran ambush, takes refuge on Schar's World.
The Dra'Azon, godlike incorporeal beings, maintain Schar's World as a monument to its extinct civilisation, forbidding access to both the Culture and the Idirans.
Horza, a shape-changing mercenary, is rescued from execution by the Idirans who believe the Dra'Azon guardian may let him onto the planet as in the past he was part of a small group of Changers who acted as stewards.
They instruct him to retrieve the Mind.
During Horza's extraction, the Idirans also capture a Special Circumstances agent, Perosteck Balveda.
However, the Idiran starship on which he is travelling is soon attacked by a Culture vessel, and Horza is ejected.
He is picked up by a pirate ship, the Clear Air Turbulence (CAT).
He is forced to fight and kill one of the crew to earn a place.
The captain, Kraiklyn, leads them on two disastrous pirate raids in which several of the crew perish.
After the second raid Horza is taken prisoner by a cult living on an island on the orbital Vavatch.
He escapes after killing the cult leader and makes his way to the main city of Vavatch where he finds Kraiklyn, who is playing "Damage"—a high stakes card game.
Having now changed his appearance to mimic that of the CAT captain, Horza follows him back to the CAT, kills him and returns to the CAT meeting the few remaining original crew.
He is introduced to a newly recruited member, whom he recognises as a disguised Perosteck Balveda.
Culture agents outside try to capture the ship.
Horza manages to lift off and as the fugitives warp away from Vavatch, they see the Orbital destroyed by the Culture warships to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
Balveda, reveals Horza's identity and he convinces the crew to carry out his mission.
A Vavatch drone, Unaha-Closp, has been trapped on the ship and reluctantly joins the team.
They land on Schar's World and search for the Mind in the Command System, a complex of subterranean train stations.
They soon discover that the Mind is being hunted by a pair of Idiran soldiers who have killed all the Changers stationed on the planet, and who regard Horza and his crew as enemies, having no knowledge of the Changers' alliance with the Idirans.
Horza has kept Balveda alive, and she is taken into the complex.
The CAT's crew encounter the Idirans in one of the Command System stations, and after a firefight apparently kill one and capture the other.
After tracking the Mind to another station, the drone Unaha-Closp discovers it hiding in the reactor car of a Command System train.
The second Idiran, who had been mortally wounded but not killed, sets one of the trains for a collision course to the station.
The captured Idiran, Xoxarle, frees himself and in the ensuing impact and firefight the remaining members of the Clear Air Turbulence are killed.
Horza pursues Xoxarle and is fatally injured, but the Idiran is killed by Unaha-Closp and Balveda.
Horza dies soon after Balveda gets him to the surface and the Mind is returned to the Culture.
In an epilogue, the Mind becomes a starship, and names itself the Bora Horza Gobuchul.
<EOS>
The book takes place on a fictional planet resembling late-Middle Ages Europe.
A large empire broke up in the decade or so preceding the action, apparently from meteor or asteroid strikes that severely affected farming across much of the globe.
The remnants still war with one another.
The narrative alternates chapter-by-chapter between two concurrent story-lines, with alternating chapter headings of The Doctor and The Bodyguard.
The first storyline is presented as a written account from Oelph, publicly a doctor's assistant, but privately a spy for an individual identified only as "Master", to whom much of the account is addressed.
Oelph is the assistant to Vosill, the personal doctor to King Quience of Haspidus and a woman.
The latter is unheard of in the patriarchal kingdom, and is tolerated only because Vosill claims citizenship in the far-off country of Drezen.
The King himself is appreciative of her and her talents, but nonetheless her elevated position in defiance of the kingdom's social mores inspires hostility among others of the court.
Oelph's account follows Vosill as she attends to the King regularly, as well as more charitable ministrations to the impoverished and those in need.
Her methods are unconventional by kingdom standards, for example forgoing the use of leeches and instead using alcohol to "[kill] the ill humours which can infect a wound," but are more often than not successful.
This only serves to inspire more distrust amongst her detractors, notably including a number of Dukes as well as the King's Guard Commander, Adlain.
On this topic, Oelph includes a transcript he claims to have found in Vosill's journal, purported to be an exchange between Duke Walen and Adlain in which they make an agreement, "should it become necessary", to covertly kidnap the lady doctor and have Nolieti, the King's chief torturer, "put her to the question".
Oelph notes that while the transcript appears to have been obtained under impossible circumstances, he somehow does not doubt its veracity.
While Vosill attends to the King, Nolieti is murdered, nearly decapitated, presumably by his assistant Unoure.
Vosill examines the body and determines that Unoure could not have killed his master, but her explanation is disregarded.
Unoure is captured, but before he can be questioned he is found in his cell dead from a cut throat, apparently self-inflicted.
Following this account Oelph includes another found transcript, this time between Walen and Duke Quettil, though Walen is unable to obtain Quettil's agreement for the use of Ralinge, his own chief torturer, in Walen's kidnapping plan.
Some days later at a masked ball Walen is found murdered, this time by a stab to the heart.
The Duke's murder disquiets much of the royal house, as it occurred in a room no one entered or left.
Resentment towards Vosill continues to build, particularly after King Quience begins implementing somewhat radical reforms, such as permitting commoners to own farmland without the oversight of a noble and the creation of city councils, reforms which Vosill has discussed with the King publicly and at length.
Following these reforms Vosill confesses to the King that she loves him, a sentiment he rebuffs, and further informs her that he prefers "pretty, dainty, delicate women who [have] no brains".
Oelph finds her after this, drunk, and hints at his own feelings of love towards her; she rebuffs him as well, in what might be considered a more gentle way.
Some days later Vosill receives a note from Adlain, asking her to meet him and two other Dukes elsewhere in the castle.
She leaves alone, but Oelph opts to follow her in secret; after catching a glimpse of someone fleeing, he arrives in time to be arrested by the guard, who proceed to discover Vosill standing over the body of a murdered Duke, stabbed with one of her scalpels.
Vosill and Oelph are almost immediately delivered to Ralinge, who binds the two separately and then strips, intending to rape, Vosill.
The woman issues what sounds to Oelph like commands, albeit in a language he does not recognize even partially.
Oelph's eyes are closed at this point, and in his narrative he is unable to adequately describe what he hears next, other than an impression of wind and metal.
When he opens his eyes he finds Ralinge and his assistants dead, dispatched bloodily, and Vosill free and in the process of removing her bindings, no indication of how she was freed.
Later, she claims that Oelph fell unconscious and the three men fought over who would rape her first, though she indicates to him that this is what he "should" remember.
The two are taken from the torturer's chamber shortly thereafter, as the King has abruptly taken ill and appears to be dying.
Vosill is able to cure King Quience's condition, and is there to witness as the conspiracy against her is revealed to the King, inadvertently, when news of Ralinge's death reaches the conspirators: Commander Adlain and Dukes Quettil and Ulresile.
Ultimately the blame is publicly taken by Ulresile, who escapes with being exiled for several months; the King makes it clear that further plots against the doctor will not be tolerated.
Because Oelph is not present for these events, his account comes second-hand from servants present; during this scene he reveals his master to be Guard Commander Adlain.
Vosill requests the King release her from her duties, which he does.
She leaves just a few days later on a ship for Drezen, and is seen off at the dock by Oelph.
Oelph tries to suppress the urge to ask to accompany Vosill, since he knows that her answer will be in the negative, but in the end he does so anyway.
The ship leaves sometime later, Vosill nowhere to be seen on board.
The second, interleaved storyline is told by an initially unnamed narrator, remaining unnamed so as to provide a neutral context for the narrative.
The story focuses on DeWar, bodyguard to General UrLeyn, the Prime Protector of the Protectorate of Tassasen.
Protector UrLeyn is the leader of Tassasen, having killed the previous monarch in a revolt; subsequently he eliminated official terms such as "King" and "Empire" within Tassasen.
At the beginning of the story the Protectorate is fast approaching a war with the neighbouring land of Ladenscion, led by barons who initially supported UrLeyn's revolution but now intend to establish themselves as independent.
DeWar is the sometimes-confidant of UrLeyn, but the bodyguard also maintains a friendly, conversational relationship with Perrund, a member of the Tassasen harem.
Perrund was once the Protector's prized concubine, which changed following an assassination attempt on UrLeyn; Perrund shielded the Protector with her body, saving his life at the cost of crippling her left arm.
Though no longer as prized as a concubine, Perrund is highly regarded by UrLeyn, DeWar, and most of Tassasen society.
DeWar in particular finds her easy to confide in, and spends much of his off-time playing board games with her while the two tell each other stories.
DeWar is on high alert as the conflict with Ladenscion approaches, believing that someone within the court may be a traitor.
An attempt is made on UrLeyn's life by an assassin disguised as an ambassador, though DeWar anticipates the threat and kills the man before he can succeed.
Nonetheless, this act only reinforces DeWar's fears of a traitor.
A surprising, unwelcome turn comes when UrLeyn's young son, Lattens, has a seizure and subsequently falls ill.
While the boy slowly recovers, DeWar tells him stories of a "magical land" called Lavishia, a place where "every man was a king, every woman a queen".
Eventually the boy recovers, and UrLeyn and his bodyguard depart for the front lines, where the war with Ladenscion is flagging.
However, no sooner are they there than word arrives that Lattens has fallen ill again, prompting a distraught UrLeyn to rush back to the castle.
While DeWar is gone, Perrund tells Lattens a story about a girl named Dawn, who spent most of her life locked in a basement by her cruel family and was eventually rescued by a travelling circus.
When he returns, Perrund tells DeWar about the story, then tells him it was a shadow of the real story: her story.
Rather than her parents locking her in the basement to be cruel, they locked her in to hide her from Imperial soldiers—high-ranking men of the former King's regime.
Rather than being rescued, the soldiers found her, raped her, her mother and her sisters, and then forced her to watch as they murdered her father and brothers.
The soldiers were eventually killed, but Perrund still feels she is now dead inside.
DeWar attempts to in some way comfort her, but she quickly demands he return her to the harem.
Lattens' condition continues to worsen, causing UrLeyn to act more and more erratically, spending less time focusing on the war and more time at his son's bedside.
The Protector goes so far as to bar all visitors to his chambers, and even prohibits DeWar from speaking to him unless he is spoken to.
His only real contact is with Perrund, who spends most nights holding UrLeyn as he cries himself to sleep.
DeWar enlists Perrund's help in focusing UrLeyn on the war, but to no success.
An epiphany strikes DeWar when he finds he has drooled on his pillow in his sleep, and he proceeds to Lattens' room.
A guard restrains the boy's nurse while DeWar examines his comforter, finding it has been soaked in an unknown fluid, presumably poison.
Under threat of death the nurse reveals who has been orchestrating the poisoning: Perrund.
DeWar storms into the harem chambers, intent on revealing the conspiracy to UrLeyn, but arrives too late; Perrund has already killed the Protector, and calmly waits for the bodyguard.
Holding her at sword-point, DeWar tearfully demands to know why she conspired against the Protector.
Perrund replies that she did it for revenge, for killing her and her family.
The soldiers who raped her were not the former King's men at all, not even men allied to UrLeyn, but the man himself, as well as his current, closest advisers.
Afterwards she was taken in by men from Haspidus, and recruited as a spy by King Quience directly.
Saving UrLeyn from the assassin was simply to prevent him from dying while he was a strong leader; instead, her orders were to ensure he died in "utter ruin".
After her confession, Perrund demands DeWar kill her.
He silently refuses, lowering his sword.
Perrund grabs his knife and brings it to her own throat, but it is quickly knocked away by DeWar's blade, which he lowers once more.
Oelph gives a brief, personal epilogue for both stories.
The three conspirators who attempted to kill Vosill died of various diseases, only Adlain lasting longer than a few years.
King Quience reigned for forty years before his death, and was succeeded by one of his many daughters, giving the kingdom its first ruling Queen.
Vosill disappeared from the ship she departed on; her disappearance was only discovered after a sudden burst of wind and chain-fire struck the ship, then vanished as quickly.
Attempts to notify Vosill's family in Drezen were unsuccessful: nobody in the island country could be found who had ever met her.
Oelph himself became a doctor, eventually taking Vosill's post as the royal physician.
Tassasen endured a civil war after the death of Protector UrLeyn; eventually King Lattens took control of the Empire, ruling it quietly.
Oelph explains that he stopped DeWar's story as he did because that is where versions of the story differ dramatically.
The more popular version has DeWar personally execute Perrund, followed by a return to the Half-Hidden Kingdoms where he reclaims his hidden title as Prince, and eventually King.
A second version, supposedly written by Perrund herself, instead has DeWar telling the waiting guards and staff that UrLeyn is fine but sleeping, this and other distractions providing enough time for him and the former concubine to flee Tassasen before the Protector's body is discovered.
The two elude capture and arrive in the Half-Hidden Kingdoms, eventually marry, have several children, and die many years later in an avalanche in the mountains.
Finally, Oelph ends his epilogue by revealing that he expects his wife, whom he loves dearly, to return soon, quite possibly with his grandchildren accompanying her.
<EOS>
By the mid 1950s, the Commission that had held the peace for so many years was unraveling.
Vito Genovese and Frank Costello were fighting for control of the Luciano family.
Vincent Mangano had mysteriously disappeared in 1951; by nearly all accounts he'd been murdered by Albert Anastasia, one of the most feared men in the syndicate.
Anastasia took control of his family, but was gunned down in October 1957.
Then in November the New York State Police raided the infamous Apalachin Meeting in rural Apalachin, New York.
Dozens of capos – including Bonanno – were captured and charged with various crimes.
Then in 1963 Joseph Valachi, a soldier in the Genovese family, under indictment for murderering a fellow inmate, broke the code of omertà.
Valachi described in detail the organizational structure of the Mafia, unmasked many of the leaders and recalled old feuds and murders.
Although none of his testimony led to any actual prosecutions, it was nonetheless devastating to the mob.
After the death of Joe Profaci, a very good friend of Bonanno and leader of the Profaci crime family, he was succeeded by another good friend of Bonanno's, Joe Magliocco.
Soon, Magliocco began to have troubles with the rebellious Joe Gallo and his brothers Larry and Albert, who were now backed by Lucchese and Gambino.
Meanwhile, Bonanno was also feeling threatened by Lucchese and Gambino.
The two then planned to have Gambino and Lucchese killed, as well as Bonanno's cousin Magaddino and Frank DeSimone in Los Angeles.
Magliocco gave the contract to one of his top hit men, Joseph Colombo.
However, Colombo betrayed his boss and went instead to Gambino and Lucchese.
Gambino called an emergency meeting of the Commission.
They quickly realized that Magliocco could not have planned this by himself.
Remembering how close Magliocco (and before him, Profaci) had been with Bonanno, it did not take them long to conclude that Bonanno was the real mastermind.
At Gambino's suggestion, the Commission ordered Magliocco and Bonanno to appear for questioning.
Bonanno did not show up, but Magliocco did and confessed.
In light of Magliocco's failing health, the Commission imposed a very lenient punishment—a $43,000 fine and ordered him to hand over leadership of his family to Colombo.
Soon, Magliocco was dead from high blood pressure.
They intended to let Bonanno off easily as well, wanting to avoid a repetition of the bloodbaths of the 1930s.
Bonanno was already becoming unpopular with other Mafia bosses.
For instance, Magaddino was incensed that Bonanno was moving in on Toronto, long considered part of the Buffalo family's territory.
Some members of his family also thought he spent too much time away from New York, and more in Canada and Tucson, Arizona, where he had business interests.
After several months with no response from Bonanno, they removed him from power and replaced him with one of his capos, Gaspar DiGregorio.
Bonanno, however, would not accept this.
This resulted in his family breaking into two groups, the one led by DiGregorio, and the other headed by Bonanno and his son, Salvatore.
Newspapers referred to this as "The Banana Split".
In October 1964, Bonanno disappeared and was not heard from again for two years.
Bonanno later claimed that he was kidnapped in front of his lawyer's apartment at 36 East 37th Street in New York City by Buffalo Family members, Peter Magaddino and Antonino Magaddino.
According to Bonanno, he was held captive in upstate New York by his cousin, Stefano Magaddino.
Supposedly Magaddino represented the Commission, and told his cousin that he "took up too much space in the air", a Sicilian proverb for arrogance.
After six weeks, Bonanno was released and allowed to go to Texas.
Although this account has long been accepted as part of Mafia lore, it is almost certainly false based on contemporary accounts of the time.
For instance, it is not likely that Bonanno would have been walking the streets of New York unguarded, knowing that his fellow bosses had put a price on his head.
Additionally, FBI recordings of New Jersey boss Sam "the Plumber" Decavalcante revealed that the other bosses were taken by surprise when Bonanno disappeared, and other FBI recordings captured angry Bonanno soldiers saying, "That son-of-a-bitch took off and left us here alone".
Bonanno's hold on his family had become tenuous in any event, however.
Many family members complained that Bonanno was almost never in New York and spent his time at his second home in Tucson.
He was also facing pressure fromS.
Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who had served him with a subpoena to testify before a grand jury investigating organized crime.
The first round of questioning was to start on the day after he disappeared.
Bonanno thus faced two bad choices—testify and break his blood oath, or refuse and be jailed for contempt of court.
<EOS>
In 1985, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is working as a junior stockbroker in New York City at Jackson Steinem & Co.
He wants to work with his hero, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a legendary Wall Street player.
After calling Gekko's office 59 days in a row trying to land an appointment, Bud visits Gekko on his birthday with a box of Gekko's favorite, contraband Cuban cigars.
Impressed at his sheer boldness, Gekko grants Bud an interview.
Bud pitches him stocks, but Gekko is unimpressed.
Desperate, Bud provides him some inside information about Bluestar Airlines, which Bud learned in a casual conversation from his father, Carl (Martin Sheen), the union leader for the company's maintenance workers.
Intrigued, Gekko tells Bud he will think about it, but also that he "[looks] at a hundred deals a day," but "[chooses] one".
A dejected Bud returns to his office.
However, Gekko places an order for Bluestar stock and becomes one of Bud's clients.
Gekko gives Bud some capital to manage, but the other stocks Bud selects lose money.
Gekko gives Bud another chance, and tells him to spy on British CEO Sir Lawrence Wildman (Terence Stamp) and discern Wildman's next move.
Bud learns that Wildman is making a bid for a steel company.
Through Bud's spying, Gekko makes big money, and Wildman is forced to buy Gekko's shares off him to complete his takeover.
Bud becomes wealthy, enjoying Gekko's promised perks, including a penthouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side and a trophy girlfriend, interior decorator Darien (Daryl Hannah).
Bud is promoted to a senior stockbroker as a result of the large commission fees he is bringing in from Gekko's trading, and is given a corner office with a view.
He continues to maximize inside information and use friends as straw buyers to provide more income for him and Gekko.
Unknown to Bud, several of his trades attract the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bud pitches a new idea to Gekko: buy Bluestar Airlines and expand the company, with Bud as president, using savings achieved by union concessions and the overfunded pension.
Even though Bud is unable to persuade his father to support him and Gekko, he is able to get the unions to push for the deal.
Soon afterward, Bud learns that Gekko plans to dissolve the company and sell off Bluestar's assets in order to access cash in the company's pension plan, leaving Carl and the entire Bluestar staff unemployed.
Although this would leave Bud as a very rich man, he is angered by Gekko's deceit and racked with the guilt of being an accessory to Bluestar's impending destruction, especially after his father suffers a heart attack.
Bud resolves to disrupt Gekko's plans, and breaks up with Darien when she refuses to go against Gekko, her former lover.
Bud devises a plan to drive up Bluestar's stock before manipulating it back down.
He and the other union presidents then secretly meet with Wildman and arrange for him to buy controlling interest in Bluestar at a significant discount.
Gekko, realizing that his stock is plummeting, dumps his remaining interest in the company on Bud's advice.
However, when Gekko learns on the evening news that Wildman is buying Bluestar, he realizes that Bud engineered the entire scheme.
Bud triumphantly goes back to work at Jackson Steinem the following day, only to be arrested for insider trading.
Sometime later, Bud confronts Gekko in Central Park.
Gekko physically assaults Bud as he berates him for his role with Bluestar and accuses him of ingratitude for several of their illicit trades.
Following the confrontation, it is revealed that Bud has turned state's evidence and was wearing a wire to record his encounter with Gekko.
He turns the wire tapes over to the authorities, who suggest that he may get a lighter sentence in exchange for helping them make a case against Gekko.
Later on, Bud's parents drive him down FDR Drive towards the New York State Supreme Court Building downtown to answer for the crimes he committed under Gekko's influence.
Carl tells him he did right in saving the airline.
The film ends with Bud going up the steps of the courthouse, knowing that while he is likely going to prison and his career is ruined, he now has a clear conscience.
<EOS>
At the Birlings' home in April 1912, Arthur Birling - a wealthy mill owner and local politician - and his family are celebrating the engagement of daughter Sheila to Gerald Croft, the son of one of Birling's competitors, Croft Limited.
In attendance are Arthur's wife Sybil and their adult children Sheila and Eric.
Eric, the younger, has a drinking problem that is discreetly ignored.
After dinner, Arthur speaks about the importance of self-reliance.
He talks about his impending knighthood and about how "a man has to look after himself and his own".
Inspector Goole arrives immediately, interrupting the evening and explaining that a woman called Eva Smith has killed herself by drinking strong disinfectant.
He implies that she has left a diary naming names, including members of the Birling family.
Goole produces a photograph of Eva and shows it to Arthur, who acknowledges that she worked in one of his mills.
He admits that he dismissed her from Birling & Co.
18 months ago for her involvement in an abortive workers' strike.
He denies responsibility for her death.
Sheila enters the room and is drawn into the discussion.
After prompting from Goole, she admits to recognising Eva as well.
She confesses that Eva served her in a department store, Milwards, and Sheila contrived to have her fired for an imagined slight.
She admits that Eva's behaviour had been blameless and that the firing was motivated solely by Sheila's jealousy and spite towards a pretty working-class woman.
Sybil enters the room and Goole continues his interrogation, revealing that Eva was also known as Daisy Renton.
Gerald starts at the mention of the name and Sheila becomes suspicious.
Gerald admits that he met a woman by that name in the Palace Bar.
He gave her money and arranged to see her again.
Goole reveals that Gerald had installed Eva as his mistress, and gave her money and promises of continued support before ending the relationship.
Arthur and Sybil are horrified.
As an ashamed Gerald exits the room, Sheila acknowledges his nature and credits him for speaking truthfully but also signals that their engagement is over by handing the ring, that Gerald had bought for her, back to him.
Goole identifies Sybil as the head of a women's charity to which Eva had turned for help.
Despite Sybil's haughty responses, she eventually admits that Eva, pregnant and destitute, had asked the committee for financial aid.
Sybil had convinced the committee that the girl was a liar and that her application should be denied.
Despite vigorous cross-examination from Goole, Sybil denies any wrongdoing.
Sheila begs her mother not to continue, but Goole plays his final card, making Sybil declare that the "drunken young man" who had made Eva pregnant should give a "public confession, accepting all the blame".
Eric enters the room, and after brief questioning from Goole, he breaks down, admitting that he drunkenly slept with Eva before meeting up with her several times later and then stole £50 (~ £1570 in December 2016)from his father's business to help her when she became pregnant.
Arthur and Sybil are upset by this, and the evening dissolves into angry recriminations.
The implication resulting from Goole's questioning is that each of the people there that evening had contributed to Eva's despondency and suicide.
He reminds the Birlings that actions have consequences, and that all people are intertwined in one society, saying, "If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish", alluding to the impending World War.
Goole then leaves.
Gerald returns, telling the family that there may be no "Inspector Goole" on the police force.
Arthur makes a call to the Chief Constable, who confirms this.
Gerald points out that as Goole was lying about being a policeman, there may be no dead girl.
Placing a second call to the local infirmary, Gerald determines that no recent cases of suicide have been reported.
The elder Birlings and Gerald celebrate, with Arthur dismissing the evening's events as "moonshine" and "bluffing".
The younger Birlings, however, still realise the error of their ways and promise to change.
Gerald is keen to resume his engagement to Sheila, but she is reluctant, since he still admitted to having had an affair.
The play ends abruptly with a telephone call, taken by Arthur, who reports that a young woman has died, a suspected case of suicide by disinfectant, and that the local police are on their way to question the Birlings.
The true identity of Goole is never explained, but it is clear that the family's confessions over the course of the evening are true, and that they will be disgraced publicly when news of their involvement in Eva's demise is revealed.
<EOS>
Set in the near future of 2037, many of the levels and locations are reminiscent of their current day equivalents.
Banks, building sites, sewage works and other everyday recognizable buildings form the basis of many of the levels in Sin.
One major difference in the world of SiN is the lack of a police force.
Ten years prior to the game, the police force collapsed due to corruption and ineffectiveness against the rising tide of crime.
Private security companies have taken the police's place, with some of them patrolling the streets like the former police, some in charge of protecting their employer's assets.
One of the companies which employ their own armed security forces is SinTek, a large multi-national biotechnology corporation specializing in medical and chemical research, owned by the beautiful and charismatic Elexis Sinclaire.
Elexis took over the company following the mysterious disappearance of her father, dr Thrall Sinclaire, who founded it in 2005.
The protagonist of the game, Colonel John ("Rusty") Blade, is the commander of one of the largest security forces in the city of Freeport, HardCorps.
Prior to the beginning of the game, Blade is working to rid the streets of a potent new recreational drug named U4, which is rapidly gaining popularity in Freeport and is rumored to be able to cause genetic mutations to its users.
Yet the source of the drug is still unknown, and its effects not entirely studied.
As the game begins, the player is placed into the shoes of John Blade as he responds to a full scale bank heist and hostage situation perpetrated by a well known Freeport criminal boss, Antonio Mancini.
But as the player progresses and pursues the criminal behind the heist, further questions are raised: Who is really behind the heist.
And is this linked to the reported appearances of mutants in the city.
As the game progresses, it is gradually revealed that the whole bank robbery is funded by Elexis Sinclaire, who in fact only wanted Mancini to steal a safety deposit box from the bank's vault.
When she learns that he launched a full-scale bank heist instead, she injects him with concentrated U4 and turns him into a mutant, sending him after Blade.
John manages to defeat the huge creature, and afterwards learns that it was in fact Mancini himself.
Blade also finds out that the substance found in Mancini's body after his death is only manufactured by one company: SinTek.
All these unavoidable facts force Blade to embark onto an investigation into SinTEK's vast industrial area located in the outskirts of Freeport.
Later, Blade learns that Elexis Sinclaire's main goal is to poison the Freeport water system with vast quantities of U4, turning all of the city's inhabitants into mutants.
He manages to thwart that plan, but it turns out to be just a diversion, because in the meantime, SinTek's troops steal nuclear warheads from aS.
military base.
Elexis threatens to fill them with U4 and launch them at specific targets, turning the entire world's population into mutants.
As Blade becomes aware of that, he heads to SinTek's main base in order to stop Sinclaire.
Throughout the missions, Blade is aided via radio link by a computer expert working at HardCorps: JC, a skilled hacker, capable of breaking into even the tightest of networks.
In fact, Blade had first found out about JC when investigating a cracker who had broken into the HardCorps system.
After tracking down the hacker, Blade, recognizing the perpetrator's talents, decided to make him a job offer at HardCorps instead of arresting him.
Thus, JC became one of HardCorps most valuable assets and the only one able to assist them in hacking-based missions.
<EOS>
The apostle Judas Iscariot expresses his concern over Jesus's rising popularity as a "king" and the negative repercussions that will have.
He strongly criticises Jesus for accepting his followers' unrealistic views, and for not heeding his concerns ("Heaven on Their Minds").
While Judas still loves Jesus, he believes that Jesus is just a man, not God, and worries that Jesus's following will be seen as a threat to the Roman Empire which would then punish both Jesus and his associates.
Judas's warning falls on deaf ears, as Jesus's followers have their minds set on going to Jerusalem with Jesus.
As they ask Jesus when they will be going to Jerusalem, Jesus tells them to stop worrying about the future, since whatever will happen is determined by God ("What's the Buzz.
").
Recognizing that Jesus is irritated by the badgering and lack of understanding from his followers, Mary Magdalene tries to help Jesus relax.
Judas is concerned that Jesus is associating with a woman of "her profession",e, a prostitute.
It seems to Judas that Jesus is contradicting his own teaching, and he worries that this apparent lack of judgment will be used against Jesus and his followers ("Strange Thing Mystifying").
Jesus tells Judas that Mary is with him (Jesus) now, and unless Judas is without sin he should not judge the character of others.
Jesus then reproaches his apostles for being "shallow, thick and slow" and somewhat bitterly answers that not a single one of them cares about him.
Mary Magdalene tries to assure Jesus that everything is alright while anointing him with oil ("Everything's Alright").
Judas angrily insists that the money used to obtain the oil should have been used to help the poor instead.
Jesus sadly explains that he and his followers do not have the resources to alleviate poverty and that they should be glad for the privileges they have.
He claims that once his followers no longer have him, they will lose their path.
Meanwhile, Caiaphas (the high priest), Annas, and other Jewish priests (who have been studying Jesus's movements) meet to discuss Jesus and his disciples.
Jesus's growing following consists of Jews unwilling to accept the Romans as their rulers, and the priests believe that Jesus may become seen as a threat to the priesthood's integrity and the Roman Empire.
If the Romans retaliate, many Jews will suffer, even those who are not following Jesus.
Caiaphas tells them they are "fools" for not seeing the inevitable consequence of Jesus's activities.
He believes there could be great bloodshed and the stakes are "frighteningly high.
" For the greater good, he has to "crush him completely.
So like John before him, this Jesus must die.
" Annas and the other priests concur ("This Jesus Must Die").
As Jesus and his followers arrive exultantly in Jerusalem they are confronted by Caiaphas, who demands that Jesus disband them, which Jesus says would be futile and change nothing.
As the crowd cheers him on, they suddenly ask, "Hey JC, JC, won't you die for me.
" To this, Jesus visibly reacts with concern ("Hosanna").
Jesus is approached by Simon the Zealot, who suggests that Jesus lead his mob in a war against Rome and gain absolute power ("Simon Zealotes").
Jesus rejects this suggestion, stating that none of his followers understand what true power is, nor do they understand his true message ("Poor Jerusalem").
Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, has had a dream, in which he meets with a Galilean (Jesus) and that he, Pilate, will receive all of the blame for the man's violent and mournful death ("Pilate's Dream").
Jesus arrives at the Temple in Jerusalem and finds that it has become a haven of sin and debauchery as it is being used for selling everything from usury and weapons to prostitutes and drugs.
He is furious and demands that the merchants and money changers leave ("The Temple").
Angry, disconsolate, and tired by his burden, Jesus is confronted by lepers, cripples, and beggars, all wanting to be healed.
Even though he heals some, their number increases, and he is overwhelmed.
Unable to solve everyone's problems, Jesus tells the crowd to heal themselves and finds Mary Magdalene by his side.
She lays him to rest ("Everything's Alright (Reprise)").
While Jesus is asleep, Mary acknowledges that she is unconditionally in love with Jesus, unlike any man she has known before, and it frightens her ("I Don't Know How to Love Him").
Conflicted, Judas seeks out the priests and promises to help them arrest Jesus, while belaboring that he is acting with unselfish motives and that Jesus himself would approve if he knew those motives; he bids the priests not declare him damned.
Caiaphas demands that Judas reveal the location of Jesus so that the authorities can apprehend him.
In exchange for the information, Judas is offered money as a "fee" so that he can assuage his conscience by using the money charitably ("Damned for All Time/Blood Money").
Judas decides that it would be better to turn Jesus in before his popularity leads to the deaths of Jesus and his followers, Judas included.
He reveals that on Thursday night, Jesus will be at the Garden of Gethsemane.
At what Jesus knows will be the Last Supper, he pours wine and passes bread for his apostles ("The Last Supper").
Very aware of the ordeal he faces, he is stung when the others pay little attention to him; "For all you care this wine could be my blood / For all you care this bread could be my body," he remarks, alluding to (and anticipating) the Christian doctrine of the Eucharist.
He asks them to remember him when they eat and drink; he predicts that Peter will deny him three times "in just a few hours" and that one of them will betray him.
Judas, believing that Jesus already knows ("cut the dramatics, you know very well who"), admits he is the one and angrily accuses Jesus of acting recklessly and egotistically.
Claiming he does not understand Jesus's decisions, he leaves to bring the Roman soldiers.
The remaining apostles fall asleep, and Jesus retreats to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray ("Gethesemane (I Only Want to Say)").
He admits to God his doubts, fears and anger, that he is tired and has done all he can.
He asks powerfully if any of it has meaning and implores God not let him suffer the horrible death that portends for him.
He feels disillusioned with his quest as the Messiah, does not understand what it has achieved and wishes to give up.
Receiving no answer, Jesus realises that he cannot defy God's will, and surrenders to God.
His prayer ends with a request that God take him immediately, "before I change my mind".
Judas arrives with Roman soldiers and identifies Jesus by kissing him on the cheek ("The Arrest").
Jesus is arrested, and his apostles attempt to fight the soldiers.
Jesus tells them to let the soldiers take him to Caiaphas.
On the way, a mob (acting like—and sometimes represented as—modern-day news reporters) asks Jesus what he plans to do, but Jesus declines to comment.
When Jesus is brought to trial before the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas asks if he is the son of God.
Jesus responds: "That's what you say, you say that I am".
This answer is affirmative according to Jewish custom, and that provides enough justification for the high priests to send Jesus to Pontius Pilate.
Meanwhile, Jesus's apostle Peter is confronted by an old man, a soldier and a maid, and Peter denies to each that he knows Jesus ("Peter's Denial").
Mary asks Peter why he denied Jesus, and Peter responds that he had to do it in order to save himself.
Mary wonders how Jesus knew that Peter would deny him three times.
Pilate asks Jesus if he is the son of God.
Jesus gives the same answer that he gave Caiaphas: "that's what you say".
Since Jesus is from Galilee, Pilate says that he is not under his jurisdiction and sends him to King Herod ("Pilate and Christ").
As Jesus is dragged away, the chorus asks where Jesus's power has gone.
The decadent and flamboyant King Herod asks Jesus to prove his divinity by performing miracles, offering to free him if he complies; but Jesus ignores him ("King Herod's Song (Try It And See)").
Herod decides that Jesus is just another phony messiah and angrily sends him back to Pilate.
The apostles and Mary Magdalene remember when they first began following Jesus, and wish that they could return to a time of peace ("Could We Start Again, Please.
")  Judas is horrified upon beholding Jesus's harsh treatment by the authorities.
Feeling extreme guilt for this, and panicking that he will be seen as responsible, Judas expresses regret to the priests, fearing he will forever be remembered as a traitor.
Caiaphas and Annas say that what he has done will save everyone and that he should not feel remorse for his actions before throwing him out of their temple.
Left alone, recognition dawns that memories of this could haunt the rest of his life, that God chose him to be the one to betray Jesus, and that he has been used as a pawn for the "foul bloody crime.
" He suffers a mental breakdown during the epiphany, cursing God for his manipulative ways, and in a final attempt to detach himself from his destiny, he commits suicide by hanging himself from a tree ("Judas's Death").
At Jesus's trial Pilate asks the crowd if they would crucify Jesus, their king, and they declare: "We have no king but Caesar.
" Pilate remembers the dream he had about the crowd and the unjust execution of Jesus.
Pilate tells the crowd that, while Jesus should be imprisoned, he does not deserve to die.
Pilate demands that the crowd give him a reason to condemn Jesus, and the crowd breaks into a pep rally-style cheer about how Jesus is a blasphemer and has defied Rome.
After revealing Jesus as nothing more than a pathetic human being ("Behold the man.
"), Pilate calls the crowd hypocrites, as he knows they hate Roman rule.
He attempts to satisfy their bloodlust by having Jesus whipped, counting thirty-nine bloody strokes ("Trial Before Pilate, (Including The Thirty-Nine Lashes)").
Pilate, clearly disturbed by the whole ordeal, pleads with Jesus to defend himself; but Jesus says weakly that everything has been determined, by God, and Pilate cannot change it.
The crowd still screams for Jesus to be crucified, and Pilate recalls his duty to keep the peace.
He reluctantly agrees to crucify Jesus to keep the crowd from getting violent.
Pilate then washes his hands of Jesus's death: "I wash my hands of your demolition.
Die if you want to, you – innocent puppet.
".
As Jesus prepares to be crucified, he is mocked by the spirit of Judas.
Judas questions why Jesus chose to arrive in the manner and time that he did, and if what happened to him was really part of a divine plan, but Jesus does not say ("Superstar").
After reciting his final words and commending his spirit to God, Jesus slowly dies on the cross, his fate coming full circle ("The Crucifixion").
In the end, the Apostles and Mary, mourning the death of their fallen saviour, reflect on the impact he has had on their lives ("John Nineteen: Forty-One").
<EOS>
The novel is set in a dystopian version of 1988, following a Second Civil War which led to the collapse of the United States' democratic institutions.
The National Guard ("nats") and US police force ("pols") reestablished social order through instituting a dictatorship, with a "Director" at the apex, and police marshals and generals as operational commanders in the field.
Resistance to the regime is largely confined to university campuses, where radicalized former university students eke out a desperate existence in subterranean kibbutzim.
Recreational drug use is widespread, and the age of consent has been lowered to twelve.
Most commuting is undertaken by personal aircraft, allowing great distances to be covered in little time.
The novel begins with the protagonist, Jason Taverner, a singer, hosting his weekly TV show which has an audience of 30 million viewers.
His special guest is his girlfriend Heather Hart, also a singer.
Both Hart and Taverner are "Sixes", members of an elite class of genetically engineered humans.
While leaving the studio, Taverner is telephoned by a former lover, who asks him to pay her a visit.
When Taverner arrives at her apartment, the former lover attacks him by throwing a parasitic life-form at him.
Although he manages to remove most of the life-form, parts of it are left inside him.
After being rescued by Hart, he is taken to a medical facility.
Waking up the following day in a seedy hotel with no identification, Taverner becomes worried, as failure to produce identification at one of the numerous police checkpoints would lead to imprisonment in a forced labor camp.
Through a succession of phone calls made from the hotel to colleagues and friends who now claim not to know him, Taverner establishes that he is no longer recognized by the outside world.
He soon manages to bribe the hotel's clerk into taking him to Kathy Nelson, a forger of government documents.
However, Kathy reveals that both she and the clerk are police informants, and that the lobby clerk has placed a microscopic tracking device on him.
She promises not to turn Taverner over to the police on the condition that he spend the night with her.
Although he attempts to escape, Kathy confronts him again after he has successfully passed a police checkpoint using the forged identity cards.
Feeling in her debt, he accompanies Kathy to her apartment block, where Inspector McNulty, Kathy's police handler, is waiting.
McNulty has located Taverner via the tracking device the hotel lobby clerk placed on him, and instructs Taverner to come with him to the 469th Precinct police station so that further biometric identity checks can be performed.
At the station, McNulty erroneously reports the man's name as Jason Tavern, revealing the identity of a Wyoming diesel engine mechanic.
During questioning, Taverner goes along with McNulty's mistake, explaining that he no longer resembles Tavern due to extensive plastic surgery.
McNulty accepts this explanation and decides to release Taverner whilst lab checks are run on the rest of the documents.
He issues Taverner a seven-day police pass to ensure he can pass police checkpoints in the interim period.
Deciding to lie low, Taverner heads to a Las Vegas bar in the hopes of meeting a woman with whom he can stay.
Instead, he encounters a former lover, Ruth Gomen; although she no longer recognizes him, he succeeds in his bid to seduce her and is taken back to her apartment.
On the orders of Police General Felix Buckman, Gomen's apartment is raided and Taverner is taken into custody, being transported immediately to the Police Academy in Los Angeles.
Buckman personally interrogates Taverner, soon reaching the conclusion that Taverner genuinely does not know why he no longer appears to exist.
However, he suspects that Taverner may be part of a larger plot involving the Sixes.
He orders Taverner released, although ensuring that tracking devices are again placed on him.
Outside the police academy, Taverner is approached by Alys Buckman, Felix's hypersexual sister and lover.
Alys removes the tracking devices from Taverner and invites him to the home she shares with her brother.
On the way there, she tells Taverner that she knows he is a TV star and reveals copies of his records.
At the Buckmans' home, Taverner takes Alys up on an offer of mescaline.
When he has a bad reaction to the drug, Alys goes to find him a medicine to counteract it.
When she does not return, Taverner goes to search for her, only to find her skeletal remains on the bathroom floor.
Frightened and confused, he flees, unsuccessfully pursued by a private security guard.
To aid in his escape, he asks for the help of Mary Anne Dominic, a potter.
Heading to a cafe with her, they find that one of his records is on the jukebox.
When his song plays, people begin to recognize him as a celebrity.
After parting with Dominic, Taverner goes to the apartment of his celebrity girlfriend Heather Hart.
She returns home, horrified, and shows Taverner a newspaper mentioning that he is wanted in connection with Alys Buckman's death, the motive believed to have been his jealousy over Alys' purported relationship with Hart.
An autopsy reveals that Alys' death was caused by an experimental reality-warping drug called KR-3.
The coroner explains to Felix that, as Alys was a fan of Taverner, her use of the drug caused Taverner to be transported to a parallel universe where he no longer existed.
Her death then caused his return to his own universe.
The Police General decides to implicate Taverner in Alys' death to distract attention from his incest.
The press are informed that Taverner is a suspect in the case and, wishing to clear his name, Taverner surrenders himself to the police.
Heartbroken over the death of his sister, Felix returns home, suffering a nervous breakdown on the way.
In an epilogue, the final fates of the main characters are disclosed.
Buckman retires to Borneo where he is assassinated soon after writing an exposé of the global police apparatus.
Taverner is cleared of all charges and dies of old age, while Heather Hart abandons her celebrity career and becomes a recluse.
Dominic's pottery wins an international award and her works become of great value while she lives into her eighties.
KR-3 test trials are deemed too destructive and the project is abandoned.
Ultimately, the revolutionary students give up and voluntarily enter forced-labor camps.
The detention camps later dwindle away and close down, the government no longer posing a threat.
Though it is seemingly incidental, the epilogue ends with the word "loved", suddenly and cathartically closing all of the novel's thematic threads.
<EOS>
The story examines religion through the eyes of Alex, a Christian political activist who is corrupted by Margrethe, a Danish Norse cruise ship hostess &mdash; and who loves every minute of it.
Enduring a shipwreck, an earthquake, and a series of world-changes brought about by Loki (with Jehovah's permission), Alex and Marga work their way from Mexico back to Kansas as dishwasher and waitress.
Whenever they manage to make some stake, an inconveniently timed change into a new alternate reality throws them off their stride (once, the money they earned is left behind in another reality; in another case, the paper money earned in a Mexico which is an empire is worthless in another Mexico which is a republic).
These repeated misfortunes, clearly effected by some malevolent entity, make the hero identify with the Biblical Job.
On the way they unknowingly enjoy the Texas hospitality of Satan himself, but as they near their destination they are separated by the Rapture &mdash; Margrethe worships Odin, and pagans do not go to Heaven.
Finding that the reward for his faith, eternity as promised in the Book of Revelation, is worthless without her, Alex's journey through timeless space in search of his lost lady takes him to Hell and beyond.
Heinlein's vivid depiction of a Heaven ruled by snotty angels and a Hell where everyone has a wonderful, or at least productive, time &mdash; with Mary Magdalene shuttling breezily between both places &mdash; is a satire on American evangelical Christianity.
It owes much to Mark Twain's "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven".
The novel is linked to Heinlein's short story They by the term "the Glaroon", and to his earlier novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by referring to the Moon colonies "Luna City" and "Tycho Under".
<EOS>
The story is set in a future, overcrowded Earth, where food is carefully rationed.
Teenager William (Bill) Lermer lives with his widower father, George.
George decides to emigrate to the farming colony on Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons.
After marrying Molly Kenyon, George embarks with Bill and Molly's daughter Peggy on the 'torchship' Mayflower.
On the journey, Bill saves his bunkmates from asphyxiation by improvising a patch when a meteor punctures their compartment.
During the trip all the children attend class; also, to combat the boredom of the long trip, the Boy Scouts among the passengers form troops.
When they arrive on Ganymede, an unpleasant surprise awaits the newcomers.
The group is much larger than the colony can easily absorb and the farms they were promised do not yet exist.
In fact, the soil has to be created from scratch by pulverizing boulders and lava flows, and seeding the resulting dust with carefully formulated organic material.
While some whine about the injustice of it all, Bill accepts an invitation to live with a prosperous farmer and his family to learn what he needs to know, while his father signs on as an engineer in town.
Peggy is unable to adjust to the low pressure atmosphere and has to stay in a bubble in the hospital.
When the Lermers are finally reunited on their own homestead, they build their house with a pressurized room for Peggy.
One day, a rare alignment of all of Jupiter's major moons causes a devastating moon quake which damages most of the buildings.
Peggy is seriously injured when her room suffers an explosive decompression.
Even worse, the machinery that maintains Ganymede's "heat trap" is knocked out and the temperature starts dropping rapidly.
George quickly realizes what has happened and gets his family to the safety of the town.
Others do not grasp their peril soon enough and either stay in their homes or start for town too late; two-thirds of the colonists perish, either from the quake or by freezing.
The Lermers consider returning to Earth, but after Peggy dies and in true pioneer spirit, they decide to stay and rebuild.
The colony gradually recovers and an expedition is organized to survey more of Ganymede.
Bill goes along as the cook.
While exploring, he and a friend discover artifacts of an alien civilization, including a working land vehicle that has legs, like a large metal centipede.
This proves fortuitous when Bill's appendix bursts and they miss the rendezvous.
The shuttle picks up the rest of the group and leaves without the pair.
They travel cross country to reach the next landing site.
Bill is then taken to the hospital for a life-saving operation.
<EOS>
The book's protagonist is Friday Baldwin, a genetically engineered human (known as an Artificial Person or AP) who is in many ways both mentally and physically superior to ordinary humans.
Friday conceals her AP status as she faces great prejudice if discovered.
Employed as a highly self-sufficient combat courier for a shadowy private organization, her various missions take her across the globe and to some of the near-Earth space colonies.
Friday is returning from her latest mission when she is captured, tortured and interrogated by an enemy group.
She is then rescued by her own people, who tell her that her highly critical mission was in fact successful as her captors failed to find the data implanted in her body.
After recovering from the ordeal, Friday takes a vacation to visit her group family, composed of several husbands and wives and many children.
In an argument over racism, Friday reveals to her family that she is an AP, and they promptly divorce her.
On the way back to her company's headquarters, she meets and befriends the wealthy Tormey family.
Friday is their house-guest when a worldwide civil emergency known as Red Thursday occurs.
Various groups claim credit for the assassinations and sabotage, but Friday later learns that it is the result of a struggle between rival factions within the ultra-powerful Shipstone corporation.
Her last mission was to carry information about the attacks before they occurred.
Facing detention under martial law, Friday kills a policeman who attempts to arrest her and Georges (a member of the Tormey family) as non-citizens.
The two become fugitives, traveling across the various countries of a Balkanized North America as she attempts to return to her headquarters.
After several adventures, she succeeds in rejoining her company, leaving Georges to rejoin his family.
However, Friday's boss soon dies and the organization disbands, rendering her temporarily homeless and unemployed.
She learns that her boss left her money in trust, to be used only for the purpose of relocating to an off-Earth colony of her choosing.
Friday eventually finds another courier job which will incidentally allow her to visit and evaluate several of the colonies she wishes to explore.
However, after embarking on an interplanetary cruise ship for her mission, she learns that agents of her employers are watching her constantly, and that she is a virtual prisoner on the ship.
Realizing the top-secret nature of her mission, she fears that her employers will kill her when it is over.
While the ship is docked at a rustic colony world, she escapes with the Tormeys, who have been on the run since the policeman's death and happen to be fleeing Earth on the same ship.
After evading the ship's authorities, they all join the colony and settle down to lead a quiet life.
<EOS>
Clifford "Kip" Russell, enters an advertising jingle writing contest, hoping to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Moon.
He instead gets a used space suit.
Kip puts the suit (which he dubs "Oscar") back into working condition.
Kip reluctantly decides to return his space suit for a cash prize to help pay for college, but puts it on for one last walk.
As he idly broadcasts on his shortwave radio, someone identifying herself as "Peewee" answers and requests a homing signal.
He is shocked when a flying saucer lands practically on top of him.
A young girl (Peewee) and an alien being (the "Mother Thing") flee from it, but all three are quickly captured and taken to the Moon.
Their kidnapper ("Wormface") is a horrible-looking creature who contemptuously refers to all others as "animals".
Wormface has two human flunkies who assisted him in initially capturing the Mother Thing and Peewee, a preteen genius and the daughter of an eminent scientist.
The Mother Thing speaks like birdsong, with a few musical notations.
Kip and Peewee have no trouble understanding her.
Kip, Peewee, and the Mother Thing try to escape to the nearest human base by hiking across the lunar surface, but they are recaptured and taken to a base on Pluto.
Kip is thrown into a cell, later to be joined by the two human traitors, who have apparently outlived their usefulness.
Before they later disappear, one mentions to Kip that his former employers eat humans.
The Mother Thing, meanwhile, makes herself useful to their captors by constructing advanced devices for them.
She manages to steal enough parts to assemble a bomb and a transmitter.
The bomb takes care of most of the Wormfaces, but the Mother Thing freezes solid when she tries to set up the transmitter outside without a spacesuit.
Kip nearly freezes to death as well while activating the distress beacon, but help arrives almost instantly.
It turns out that the Mother Thing is far hardier than Kip had suspected.
Kip suffers severe frostbite and is kept in a state of cryopreservation while the Mother Thing's people figure out how to heal him.
Kip and Peewee are transported to Vega 5, the Mother Thing's home planet.
While Kip recuperates, "Prof Joe" learns about Earth from Peewee and Kip.
Once Kip is well, he, Peewee, and the Mother Thing travel to a planet in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, to face an intergalactic tribunal, composed of many advanced species which have banded together for self-protection.
The Wormfaces are put on trial first.
They promise to annihilate all other species, and are judged to be dangerous.
Their planet is "rotated" out of three-dimensional space without their star - effectively an act of genocide dooming them to freeze to death.
Then it is humanity's turn, as represented by Peewee, Kip, Iunio (an Ancient Roman centurion), and a Neanderthal man.
The Neanderthal is rejected as being of another species.
Iunio proves belligerent, but brave.
Peewee's and Kip's recorded remarks are then admitted into evidence.
In humanity's defense, Kip makes a stirring speech.
The Mother Thing and a representative of another race argue that the short-lived species are essentially children who should be granted more time to learn and grow.
It is decided to re-evaluate humanity after "a dozen half-deaths of radium" (19200 years).
Kip and Peewee are returned to Earth with devices and equations provided by the Vegans.
Kip passes the information along to Professor Reisfeld, Peewee's father.
Reisfeld arranges a full scholarship for Kip at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Kip wants to study engineering and spacesuit design.
<EOS>
—All You Zombies— chronicles a young man (later revealed to be intersex) taken back in time and tricked into impregnating his younger, female self (before he underwent sexual reassignment surgery); he thus turns out to be the offspring of that union, with the paradoxical result that he is his own mother and father.
As the story unfolds, all the major characters are revealed to be the same person, at different stages of her/his life.
The story involves an intricate series of time-travel journeys.
It begins with a young man speaking to the narrator, the Bartender, in 1970.
The two of them relate in that both of them are from unmarried parents.
The Bartender remarks that no one in his family ever gets married, including him.
He wears an Ourobouros ring.
The young man is called the Unmarried Mother, because he writes stories for confession magazines, many of them presumably from the point of view of an unmarried mother.
Cajoled by the Bartender, the Unmarried Mother explains why he understands the female viewpoint so well: he was born a girl, in 1945, and raised in an orphanage.
While a fairly ugly teenager in 1963, she was seduced, impregnated, and abandoned by an older man.
During the delivery of her child, doctors discovered she was intersex, with internalized male sex organs as well as female sex organs.
Complications during delivery rendered the female organs unviable and forced them to give her a gender reassignment.
The baby was kidnapped by a mysterious older gentleman, and not seen again.
The Unmarried Mother then had to adjust to life as a man, despite an upbringing which left him unqualified for "men's" jobs; he had planned to get into space as a sex worker for male workers and colonists.
Instead he used his secretarial skills to type manuscripts, and eventually began writing.
Professing sympathy, the Bartender offers to take him to the abandoning seducer, whom the Unmarried Mother wishes revenge on.
He guides him into a back room, where he uses a time machine to take them to 1963, and sets the young man loose.
The bartender goes forward eleven months, kidnaps a newborn baby and takes it to 1945, leaving it in an orphanage.
He returns to 1963 and picks up the Unmarried Mother, who was instinctively attracted to his younger female self and has seduced and impregnated her.
The Bartender nudges him to connect the dots, and realize that the seducer, the young woman, the baby, and the time traveler are all him.
The Bartender then drops the Unmarried Mother at an outpost of the Temporal Bureau, a time-traveling secret police force that manipulates events in history, to protect the human race.
He has just created and recruited himself.
Finally the Bartender returns to 1970, arriving a short time after he left the bar.
He allows a customer to play "I'm My Own Grandpa" on the jukebox, having yelled at the customer for playing the song before he left.
Closing the bar, he time travels again to his home base.
As he beds down for a much deserved rest, he contemplates the scar left over from the Caesarean section performed when he gave birth to his daughter, father, mother, and entire history.
He thinks, "I know where I came from—but where did all you zombies come from.
" The title of the story, which includes both the quotation marks and dashes, is actually a quotation from a sentence near the end of the story itself (taken from the middle of the sentence, hence the dashes indicating edited text before and after the title).
As the story is told as a disjointed point of view reference by several other points thereafter, this is the actual chronological history of "Jane" according to the story, although the story itself is still a classic example of a time paradox.
<EOS>
The story describes the tensions among the staff of a nuclear reactor.
Heinlein's concept of a nuclear reactor was one of a barely contained explosion, not the steady-state thermal plants developed later.
As a consequence the work is dangerous, and the slightest mistake could be catastrophic.
All the technical staff are monitored by psychologists who have the authority to remove them from the work at any time lest they crack under the pressure and precipitate a disaster.
Needless to say, the monitoring itself is part of the problem.
The supervisor calls up dr Lentz, a fictional student of Alfred Korzybski, to analyze the situation.
It turns out that the calculations on the stability of the reactor have greatly underestimated the scale of the reaction should the reactor go out of control.
The situation seems hopeless, as the energy produced by the reactor is sorely needed on Earth, oil having been monopolized by the military.
Using a method called "calculus of statement," Lentz helps the team to mitigate the pressure harming the plant operators.
Lentz's solution takes into account the social, psychological, physical, and economic variables.
One of the by-products of the reactor is a more stable nuclear fuel which can also be used as the basis for a rocket engine.
Armed with their theories and the new fuel, the protagonists undertake a campaign to have the reactor shut down, moved into space, and used as a source for the fuel, which will supply the needs of Earth and take humanity into space.
Their final card is a shame campaign which will subject the trustees of the reactor to public vilification.
The next story sequentially is "The Man Who Sold the Moon".
In that we find that the reactor exploded in space.
The actual cause was the detonation of the service rocket's fuel, caused by the effects of cosmic radiation on the supposedly stable nuclear material.
<EOS>
Bob Wilson locks himself in his room to finish his graduate thesis on a mathematical aspect of metaphysics, using the concept of time travel as a case in point.
Someone says, "Don't bother with it.
It's a lot of utter hogwash anyhow".
The interloper, who looks strangely familiar, calls himself "Joe" and explains that he has come from the future through a Time Gate, a circle about in diameter in the air behind Joe.
Joe tells Bob that great opportunities await him through the Gate and thousands of years in his future.
By way of demonstration, Joe tosses Bob's hat into the Gate.
It disappears.
Bob is reluctant.
Joe plies him with drink, which Joe (a stranger, from Bob's point of view) inexplicably retrieves from its hiding place in Bob's apartment, and Bob becomes intoxicated.
Finally, Joe is about to manhandle Bob through the Gate when another man appears, one who looks very much like Joe.
The newcomer does not want Bob to go.
During the ensuing fight, Bob gets punched, sending him through the Gate.
He recovers his senses in a strange place.
A somewhat older-looking, bearded man explains that he is 30,000 years in the future.
The man, calling himself Diktor, treats Bob to a sumptuous breakfast served by beautiful women.
Diktor explains that humans in the future are handsome, cultured in a primitive fashion, but have none of the spunk of their ancestors.
An alien race built the Gate and refashioned humanity into compliant slaves, but the aliens are gone now, leaving a world where a 20th-century go-getter can make himself king.
Diktor asks him to go back through the Gate and bring back the man he finds on the other side.
Bob agrees.
Stepping through, he finds himself back in his own room, watching himself typing his thesis.
Without much memory of what happened before, he reenacts the scene, this time from the other point of view, and calling himself "Joe" so as not to confuse his earlier self.
Just as he is about to shove Bob through the Gate, another version of himself shows up.
The fight happens as before, and Bob goes through the Gate.
His future self claims that Diktor is just trying to tangle them up so badly that they can never get untangled, but Joe goes through and meets Diktor again.
Diktor gives him a list of things to buy in his own time and bring back.
A little annoyed by Diktor's manner, Bob argues with him, but eventually returns to the past, back in his room once again.
He lives through the same scene for the third time, then realizes that he is now free.
He collects the items on Diktor's list, which seem to be things a 20th-century man could find useful in making himself king in the future.
After returning to the future, he adjusts the Gate to send himself back to a point ten years earlier, to give himself time to establish himself as the local chieftain.
Thus he hopes to preempt Diktor's influence, charting his own course instead.
While setting the Gate, he finds two things beside the controls: his hat, and a notebook containing translations between English words and the language of Diktor's slaves.
He sets himself up as chief, taking precautions against the arrival of Diktor.
He adopts the name, which is simply the local word for "chief" (the etymology is not explained - "Diktor" might be derived from "doctor", "director" and/or "dictator").
He experiments with the Time Gate, hoping to see its makers.
Once, he does catch a glimpse of one and has a brief mental contact with it.
The experience is so traumatizing that he runs away screaming.
He forces himself to return long enough to shut down the Gate, then stays away from it for more than two years.
He does not notice that his hair has begun to whiten prematurely, as a result of the stress and shock.
Having worn out the notebook through long use, he copies its text into a new, identical, one.
One day, upon setting the Gate to view his old room in the past, he sees three versions of himself in a familiar arrangement.
Shortly, his earliest self comes through.
The circle has closed.
He is Diktor—the only Diktor there ever was.
Wondering who actually compiled the notebook, Diktor prepares to brief Bob, who has to orchestrate events to ensure his own future.
<EOS>
The protagonist, David MacKinnon, is a romantic idealist on trial for assault.
Since the federal government fears he will repeat his action, he is given a choice: either allow trained psychologists to fix him, or be sent to an area known as Coventry.
MacKinnon chooses to emigrate to escape what he sees as the boredom of a too-civilized society.
He is sent to the rugged outland beyond the Barrier that separates Coventry from the rest of the world, where people who refuse to abide by social norms are exiled, rather than submit to radical psychotherapy.
MacKinnon discovers that the peaceful anarchy he envisioned is in reality a bleak dystopia split into three separate "countries:" He is jailed on arrival in New America, losing everything he had brought through the Barrier with him.
Befriended by a man David knows only as "Fader" Magee, he breaks out of jail.
He learns that New America and the Free State are combining forces to attack the outside civilization.
He and Fader break out of Coventry separately to warn the country from which he had emigrated of the imminent attack.
Back in the world he had left, MacKinnon learns that Fader is actually an agent of the United States Army, and that by risking his life to warn the rest of the country, he has redeemed himself and no longer needs therapy.
<EOS>
The story tells of a visit to a tunnel on the surface of the moon which goes awry when a pressure seal fails, trapping three men (a supervisor, a reporter, and a tunnel worker).
The title of the story derives from the way they plug an air leak while awaiting rescue: by sitting on it.
The phrase "Gentlemen, Be Seated.
" is the opening line of the interlocutor in a traditional minstrel show.
It was also, at the time the story was written and while Heinlein attended, the opening line for all classes at the military and naval academies (as well as classes for officers at the various service schools) in the United States.
The story might have been inspired by an episode in "Baron Munchausen": (.
) The ship sprung a leak.
It was my good fortune to discover it first.
I found it a large hole about a foot diameter.
(.
) This noble vessel was preserved, with all its crew, by a most fortunate thought.
in short, I sat down over it.
(.
) My situation, while I sat there, was rather cool, but the carpenter's art soon relieved me.
<EOS>
The story is set in a future theocratic American society, ruled by the latest in a series of fundamentalist Christian “Prophets.
” The First Prophet was Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher turned President (elected in 2012), then dictator (no elections were held in 2016 or later).
John Lyle, a junior army officer under the Prophet, is stationed at the Prophet's capital of New Jerusalem.
Devout at this point, he finds himself questioning his faith when he falls for one of the Prophet's Virgins, Sister Judith.
Judith, new to the vocation, faints when she is called upon to render sexual service to the Prophet and is confined to her quarters until she sees the light.
John confides in his far more worldly roommate, Zeb Jones, who is not only not shocked, but who assists John.
A clandestine meeting with Judith goes awry when they are forced to kill a spy, leaving them no choice but to seek aid from the Cabal, an underground revolutionary movement (Judith's friend, Sister Magdalene, is a member).
The two men are inducted into the Cabal, while remaining on duty in their army posts.
Judith is arrested and tortured as part of the investigation into the death of the spy, and John and Zeb rescue her, though leaving enough clues that John is soon arrested and tortured himself.
He gives little away, and is himself rescued by the Cabal.
Zeb and Magdalene have evaded arrest, thanks to a clandestine distress signal that John manages to leave for Zeb while being arrested.
Judith is spirited out of the country before John regains consciousness, and John is given a false identity in order to make his way to Cabal headquarters.
He is detected en route, forced to flee, and arrives safely after several misadventures.
He finds that Zeb and Magdalene, who he assumes are a couple, have made their way there before him.
All take on significant roles in bringing to fruition the revolutionary plot, John as an aide to the commander, General Huxley.
While working there, John receives a literal "Dear John" letter from Judith, informing him of her impending marriage to a Mexican man she met while getting refuge in his country.
He learns that Zeb and Magdalene have no marriage plans, and begins a romance with Magdalene.
The revolutionary plot is mostly successful, and the country, other than New Jerusalem, is seized.
But the capital must also be conquered lest it serve as a rallying point for loyalists.
Even as constitutional discussions go on, tempered to provide the greatest possible individual freedom (this is the origin of the 'Covenant' mentioned in other Heinlein works), the new regime's troops prepare to take New Jerusalem.
John and Magdalene are married just before the assault.
During the fight, Huxley is wounded, and John must take over temporary command, though not entitled by rank to do so.
He gives the orders that bring victory.
He then turns over command to the senior unwounded general, and leads a squad invading the Prophet's private quarters.
They find that he has been viciously killed by his own Virgins.
<EOS>
A physical chemist and his wife (the MacRaes), who have been in residence in Luna City on the Moon for some time, spend much of their time volubly regretting having ever left Earth.
When this attitude results in social conflict with "Loonies" who love their home, the pair feel isolated, misunderstood, and put-upon.
They decide to return "dirt-side", only to discover that the Earth of their imaginations bears only the faintest of resemblances to the actuality, which includes things unheard of in Luna, like smog, unpleasant weather, the common cold, and repairmen who refuse to make house calls.
Ultimately, they discover that all they really want is to go back to Luna City, where they are welcomed with open arms by their peers (now that they have realized that the Moon is "home" after all) and settle down to be happy "Lunatics".
<EOS>
Two well-off Earth men are arguing about whether there is slavery on Venus, and one of them gets shanghaied there—or so he believes; they later find out that they've bet one another about the topic, gotten drunk, and signed on.
Upon his arrival, he finds his contract sold to a farmer.
His discovery that it will take him years to work off his debt is compounded by his realization that he cannot get to sleep at night without rhira, an expensive local narcotic, thus increasing his debt every day.
<EOS>
The story concerns Andrew Jackson Libby (here nicknamed Pinky, for his red hair, but later nicknamed Slipstick), a boy from Earth with extraordinary mathematical ability but meager education.
Finding few opportunities on Earth, he joins the Cosmic Construction Corps, a future military-led version of the Civilian Conservation Corps employing out-of-work youth to colonize the Solar System.
With a group of other inexperienced young men he is assigned to a ship traveling to the asteroid belt where their task is to move an asteroid into a more convenient orbit between Mars and Earth.
Pinky comes to the Captain's attention during the process of blasting holes in the asteroid for rocket engines when Pinky realizes that a mistake has been made in calculating the size of the charge, preventing a catastrophic blast.
He is assigned to the ship's astrogation computer.
During the trip back to Earth the computer malfunctions and Libby takes over, performing all the complex calculations in his head.
The asteroid is settled successfully into its final orbit.
"Slipstick" Libby became one of Heinlein's recurring characters, and would later appear in several works associated with Lazarus Long, among them Methuselah's Children and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.
The short story includes one of the first examples of the phrase "space marine".
<EOS>
The story centers around Delos David Harriman, the lead character of The Man Who Sold the Moon.
Harriman, a tycoon and latter-day robber baron, had always dreamed of going to the Moon, and had spent much of his career and resources making space flight a practical commercial enterprise.
Unfortunately, his business partners prevented him from taking the early flights because they could not risk the public face of their company.
Now an old man, Harriman has still not been to the Moon, a fact that frustrates him, since he lives in a world where space travel is so commonplace that carnivals have their own barnstorming spacecraft.
Although no longer bound by his contractual obligations, he is now too old to pass the medical examination needed for space travel.
Very wealthy, Harriman bribes two spacemen to help him get to the Moon after encountering them at a funfair in Butler, a small town outside Kansas City, Missouri (Heinlein's birthplace), where they sell rides on their old, somewhat run-down ship.
The three of them fight many obstacles, including Harriman's heirs, who want him declared mentally incompetent or senile before he can spend their inheritance.
In the end, Harriman finally makes it to the Moon, only to die on the surface soon after landing, content at finally having reached his goal.
His body is left there, with his epitaph scrawled on the tag from an oxygen bottle.
It is Robert Louis Stevenson's "Requiem", which is inscribed on his own headstone in Samoa.
<EOS>
It is the story of "Noisy" Rhysling, the blind space-going songwriter whose poetic skills rival Rudyard Kipling's.
Heinlein (himself a medically retiredS.
naval officer) spins a yarn about a radiation-blinded spaceship engineer crisscrossing the solar system writing and singing songs.
The story takes the form of a nonfiction magazine article.
Heinlein credited the title of the song, "The Green Hills of Earth", to the short story "Shambleau" by Moore (first published in 1933).
In the story Moore's character, a spacefaring smuggler named Northwest Smith, hums the tune of "The Green Hills of Earth".
Moore and Henry Kuttner also have Northwest Smith hum the song in their 1937 short story "Quest of the Starstone," which quotes several lines of lyrics.
The events of the story concern the composition of the titular song.
An aged Rhysling realizes that his death of old age is near, and hitchhikes on a spaceship headed to Earth so he can die and be buried where he was born.
A malfunction threatens the ship with destruction, and Rhysling enters an irradiated area to perform repairs.
Upon completing the repairs, he knows that he will soon die of radiation poisoning, and asks that they record his last song; he dies just moments after speaking the final, titular verse.
<EOS>
In 1999, Lieutenant John Ezra Dahlquist is a member of the Space Patrol, an international organization with the custody of all Earth's remaining nuclear weapons.
A young bomb officer and physicist at the Patrol's lunar base, he is apolitical and is devoted to his wife and young daughter.
The base's executive officer Colonel Towers asks to meet with him.
Towers and others want to overthrow the Earth government, and plan to use the bombs to destroy "an unimportant town or two" so Earth takes them seriously.
Dahlquist leads Towers to believe that he will cooperate, but he does not want his family to live under a dictatorship and plans to stop the coup by preventing the bombs' use.
Dahlquist locks himself in the bomb bunker, modifies a bomb to detonate by hand, and threatens to blow up himself and the bombs.
He negotiates with Towers, pretending to be still naïve; he hopes to give the government time to stop the coup.
Dahlquist is growing tired, however, and if he falls asleep the conspirators may regain control.
He decides to disable the bombs beyond the plotters' ability to repair them, despite the danger.
The only way to do so is to open them up and break the plutonium core of each bomb.
Dahlquist does so, but in the process exposes himself to a fatal dose of radiation.
He dies "very happy".
The coup collapses and Towers shoots himself.
The Patrol recovers Dahlquist's radioactive body and places it in a lead coffin.
As Earth mourns the hero, his body is entombed in a marble monument, with an honor guard beyond the limit of safe approach.
<EOS>
Delos David "D".
Harriman, "the last of the Robber Barons", is obsessed with being the first to travel to&mdash;and possess&mdash;the moon.
He asks his business partner, George Strong, and other tycoons to invest in the venture.
Most dismiss Harriman's plans as foolhardy: Nuclear rocket fuel is scarce as the space station that produces it blew up, also destroying the only existing spaceship.
The necessary technology for a chemical-fueled rocket stretches the boundaries of current engineering.
The endeavor is both incredibly costly and of uncertain profitability.
One skeptic offers to sell "all of my interest in the Moon.
for fifty cents"; Harriman accepts and tries to buy the other associates' interests as well.
Strong and two others agree to back his plans.
The technical problems are solvable with money and talent.
To solve the tougher financial problems, Harriman exploits commercial and political rivalries.
He implies to the Moka-Coka company, for example, that rival soft drink maker 6+ plans to turn the Moon into a massive billboard, using a rocket to scatter black dust on the surface in patterns.
To an anti-Communist associate, he suggests that the Russians may print the hammer and sickle across the face of the Moon if they get to it first.
To a television network, he offers the Moon as a reliable and uncensorable broadcasting station.
Harriman seeks to avoid government ownership of the Moon.
As it passes directly overhead only in a narrow band north and south of the equator, he uses a legal principle that states that property rights extend to infinity above a land parcel.
On that basis, Mexico, Central and parts of South America, and other countries in those latitudes around the world, have a claim on the Moon.
The United States also has a claim due to Florida and Texas.
By arranging for many countries to assert their rights Harriman persuades the United Nations to, as a compromise, assign management of the Moon to his company.
Money remains the main difficulty.
Harriman liquidates his assets, risks bankruptcy, damages his marriage, and raises funds in numerous legitimate and semi-legitimate ways; "I", he says, "would cheat, lie, steal, beg, bribedo anything to accomplish what we have accomplished".
Children donate money for a promise of all contributors' names engraved on a plaque left on the Moon.
The names, however, will be microscopic in size.
Harriman sells land and naming rights to craters, and plans to sell postal covers canceled on the Moon to collectors.
He starts rumors that diamonds exist in moondust, intending to secretly place gems in the rocket to convince people that the rumors are true.
Harriman will strenuously deny that the diamonds are from the Moon, being merely part of a scientific experiment; he expects people not to believe him, but he will not be guilty of actual fraud.
Harriman wants to be on the first flight of the Pioneer but the ship only has room for one pilot, Leslie LeCroix.
The multistage rocket launches from Peterson Field, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, lands on the Moon, and returns to Earth.
Harriman is the first to open the rocket's hatch; the canceled postal covers were left behind to save weight and he needs to get them aboard surreptitiously.
While doing so, he asks LeCroix for the "lunar" diamonds.
The pilot complies, then produces real lunar diamonds as well.
As Harriman predicted, once the first flight succeeds, many seek to invest in his venture to make more flights using a catapult launcher built on Pikes Peak.
The next flight will begin a lunar colony.
Harriman intends to be on the ship, but the majority owners of the venture object to his presence on the flight; he is too valuable to the company to risk in space.
The rocket leaves without Harriman, who "looks as Moses must have looked, when he gazed out over the promised land".
<EOS>
The story is set in the near future, when the Moon is colonized with people living in underground cities.
The "menace" of the title is a beautiful woman tourist who visits the Moon colony and is assigned a young guide named Holly, a 15-year-old girl and aspiring starship designer who is the first-person narrator of the story.
Her best friend Jeff develops a crush on the "groundhog" visitor, Ariel.
As Jeff spends more time with Ariel, Holly becomes jealous and begins to doubt his friendship.
Living in an underground city on the Moon, Holly and Jeff's hobby is flying with strap-on wings in a great cavern, made possible because the gravity field is one sixth the strength of Earth's and the air pressure in the cavern is kept high enough.
Ariel wants to try flying, and Holly, in order not to appear jealous, offers to teach her.
However, during her first flight, Ariel loses control at a great height, falling toward the ground.
Holly swoops down and saves her life, breaking both arms in the process as she cushions Ariel's fall.
In the hospital afterward, Ariel gently explains some things to Holly.
She, Ariel, could never be interested in Jeff, being twice their age.
In addition, Jeff is not in love with her but with Holly.
After the accident, Jeff rushed up, stepping over and ignoring Ariel to cradle the unconscious Holly in his arms, sobbing.
Ariel tactfully leaves when Jeff arrives.
After some embarrassed banter, he kisses Holly for the first time.
<EOS>
Larry Gaines, Chief Engineer of the Diego-Reno roadtown, is dining in a moving restaurant on the road when one of the moving sidewalk strips unexpectedly stops, causing injuries to the thousands of commuters on it.
Gaines learns that it was sabotage.
The technicians who maintain the Stockton section of the road have been persuaded by a radical social theory, Functionalism, that their role in maintaining the nation's transport infrastructure is more important than that of any other workers and that they should therefore be in control.
The roads are managed by the Transport Cadets, an elite paramilitary organization formed by the US Military to keep this crucial infrastructure running.
The rebels have stopped the strip as a demonstration to encourage their fellow technicians around the country to rebel against the Cadets, and start the Functionalist Revolution.
Going into the machinery under the roadway that runs it, Gaines takes command of the response.
He doesn't order the Road stopped, since that would leave millions of commuters stranded, but instead has the military evacuate the riders, a time-consuming procedure.
In command of a hastily gathered corps of armed cadets, he proceeds up the underground access tunnel toward Stockton, on "tumblebugs," motorized and gyroscopically stabilized unicycles much like the later real-life Segway.
As the military advance proceeds, they arrest rebel technicians and cross connect the wiring of the machinery, motor by motor, to take control away from the rebels in the Stockton office.
Gaines calls the Stockton office and learns that the leader of the rebellion is "Shorty" Van Kleeck, the chief deputy engineer of the Sacramento sector.
Over the videophone Shorty threatens to kill millions of people with a button that he has rigged to blow up the Road if Gaines doesn't capitulate.
Gaines doesn't understand how Shorty has gotten so many technicians to side with him; psychological screening tests are supposed to guarantee that technicians don't have the temperament to revolt.
Then Gaines realizes that Deputy Shorty was able to move revolution-prone workers into his sector because, as deputy, Shorty had access to the psychological files on the technicians.
Gaines accesses Shorty's psychological profile and studies the neurotic traits that have made him a demagogue.
Asking for a parley, Gaines is taken to the Stockton office and faces Shorty.
There he uses his knowledge of Shorty's psychology to push him into a nervous breakdown, and overpowers him, gaining control of the 'suicide' button.
The Cadets attack the office and the rebellion is ended.
Later, Gaines ponders the changes that will have to be made to make sure there is never a recurrence of these events: more psychological testing, more careful oversight, and more esprit de corps.
He concludes that the price of high tech transportation like the Roadways is eternal vigilance.
<EOS>
'General Services', a very successful company that provides various personal services such as shopping for you or walking your dogs or supplying a host for a party, but also proudly advertises that no job is too large (One ad campaign idea the staff discusses: "Want somebody murdered.
Then DON'T call General Services.
But for anything else, call.
It Pays.
"), is asked to do the impossible: enable an interplanetary conference to be held on Earth, whose strong gravity is inhospitable to many of the native races of other planets in the solar system.
Much of the action of the story is not, as one might expect, about the science or engineering of creating an antigravity device to allow the conference to take place, but about how to persuade the world’s leading physicist to undertake the job.
It turns out he is fond of a museum piece, a porcelain bowl called "The Flower of Forgetfulness," which humanizes all the participants.
<EOS>
On Mars, Jim Marlowe and Frank Sutton travel to the Lowell Academy boarding school for the start of the academic year.
Jim takes along his native, volleyball-sized pet, Willis the Bouncer, who is about as intelligent as a human child and has a photographic memory for sounds, which he can also reproduce perfectly.
At a rest stop, Willis wanders off and encounters one of the adult sentient Martians.
The three-legged alien takes the two boys and Willis to join a ritual called "growing together" with a group of its fellows.
They also share water, making Jim and Frank "water friends" with the Martian, who is named Gekko.
At school, Jim gets into trouble with the authoritarian headmaster, mr Howe, who confiscates Willis, claiming that it is against the new rules to have pets.
When Jim and Frank sneak into Howe's office and rescue Willis, the bouncer repeats two overheard conversations between Howe and Beecher, the unscrupulous colonial administrator of Mars, detailing Beecher's plans for Willis and the colony.
When Beecher learns Howe has a bouncer, he is ecstatic, since the London Zoo is willing to pay a hefty price for a specimen.
Worse, Beecher is secretly planning to prevent the annual migration of the colonists (necessary to avoid 12 months of life-threatening winter weather) in order to save money.
The boys run away from school to warn their parents and the colony.
The boys set out to skate the thousands of miles to their homes on the frozen Martian canals.
During the trip, Frank gets sick.
On the third night, they are forced to take shelter inside a giant Martian cabbage plant (nearly suffocating when it folds up at night).
The next day, they meet some native Martians, who accept Jim because of his relationship to Willis and water-friendship with Gekko.
The Martians treat Frank's illness and send the two boys home by a swift subway.
Once warned, Jim's father quickly organizes the migration, hoping to catch Beecher off guard.
The colonists take over the boarding school, and they turn it into a temporary shelter.
Howe locks himself in his office, while Beecher sets up automatic, photosensor-controlled weapons outside to stop the malcontents (as he calls them) from leaving.
After two colonists are killed trying to surrender, and the power to the building is cut, the colonists decide they have no choice but to fight back.
The colonists organize a raiding party, with the boys taking part, capture Beecher's office and proclaim the colony's independence from Earth.
Several Martians enter the school area, and one of them shows up in the door leading to Howe's office, hiding him from sight.
When the Martian turns away, Howe is nowhere to be found.
The Martians then go to Beecher's building, and when they leave, he has also vanished.
The Martians had been content to allow humans to share their planet, but Beecher's threat to Willis has made them reconsider.
They present the colonists with an ultimatum: leave the planet or else.
dr MacRae negotiates with the Martians, and is able to persuade them to let the colonists stay, mainly because of Jim's strong friendship with Willis.
MacRae theorizes that Martians start life as bouncers, metamorphose into adults, then continue to exist after their deaths as the "old ones".
In the end, Jim resigns himself to giving Willis up so he can undergo the transformation to adulthood.
As with Podkayne of Mars, there are two versions of the ending.
As originally written (and published much later) it is made clear that Willis will not emerge as an adult for forty years.
This was edited and changed by Heinlein's publishers, as was a discussion early in the novel in which MacRae expresses strong support for adults and older children being free to carry handguns, and opposition to any government which would restrict that.
<EOS>
The book is a series of diary entries by each of the four main characters: Zebadiah John Carter, programmer Dejah Thoris "Deety" Burroughs Carter, her mathematics professor father Jacob Burroughs, and an off-campus socialite Hilda Corners.
The names "Dejah Thoris", "Burroughs", and "Carter" are overt references to John Carter and Dejah Thoris, the protagonists of the Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
The four travel in Zebadiah's modified air car Gay Deceiver, which is equipped with the professor's "continua" device and armed by the Australian Defence Force.
The continua device was built by Professor Burroughs while he was formulating his theories on n-dimensional non-euclidean geometry.
The geometry of the novel's universe contains six dimensions; the three spatial dimensions known to the real world, and three time dimensions - t, the real world's temporal dimension, τ (tau), and т (teh).
The continua device can travel on all six axes.
The continua device allows travel into various fictional universes, such as the Land of Oz, as well as through time.
An attempt to visit Barsoom takes them to an apparently different version of Mars seemingly under the colonial rule of the British and Russian empires; but near the end of the novel, Heinlein's recurring character Lazarus Long hints that they had traveled to Barsoom, and that its "colonial" status was an illusion imposed on them by the telepathically adept Barsoomians: In the novel, the biblical number of the beast turns out to be not 666 but formula_1 or 10,314,424,798,490,535,546,171,949,056, the initial number of parallel universes accessible through the continua device.
It is later theorized by the character Jacob that the number may be merely the instantly accessible universes from a given location, and that there is a larger structure that implies an infinite number of universes.
<EOS>
The plot of the original Escape Velocity involves disputes between the Confederation government and a Rebellion against it.
As noted earlier, the player may choose sides (or not) based on who they believe is right, who they believe is stronger, who they believe it is more profitable to support, or any other criteria.
The player begins with a shuttlecraft resembling those from Star Trek.
The Confederation is one of two main governments in the original game.
According to the game, as humanity expanded into the Milky Way Galaxy, the new colonies operated independently of each other.
However, an invasion by an unknown alien race forced the colonies to unify under Earth's leadership.
This became known as the Confederation.
The Confederation and the aliens fought a bloody war, with millions of humans being killed.
Eventually the Confederation prevailed.
At the start of the game, the Confederation and the Rebellion are locked in a bloody stalemate.
The Confederation uses four ships in its military, namely the Confederate Patrol Ship, the Confederate Gunboat, the Confederate Frigate and the Confederate Cruiser.
The Rebellion is the other main government in Escape Velocity.
According to the game, after winning the war with the aliens, the Confederation did not relinquish its naval power and began exploiting the resources of the outer worlds.
Those worlds eventually seceded, provoking a civil war.
The Rebellion is in turn criticized for its aggressive nature, support of quasi-criminal organizations, and attacks on civilian shipping and liners.
The Rebellion uses four ships in their campaign against the Confederation, namely the Manta, the Rebel Destroyer, the Rebel Cruiser and the Escort Carrier, the last of which is seen only when the player is working for the Confederation.
The Cydonians of New Cydonia and Letheans of Lethe Prime occupy two systems in the galactic southeast of the galaxy and are also locked in a war over water rights at the start of the game; more specific information regarding the conflict is never provided.
Both sides utilize the Defender, the Argosy, and the Corvette when fighting in space.
The Cydonians also use the Lightning, whereas the Letheans supplement these ships with the Rapier.
The game also includes several trading corporations, including Starbound Shipping, Consolidated Express, and United Galactic Express.
Starbound Shipping and United Galactic Express are both in direct (and sometimes violent) competition with Consolidated Express, and are therefore de facto allies.
Astex Mining Corporation is a mining company that works exclusively for the Confederation, and as a result is often targeted by the Rebellion and its sympathizers.
The Artemis Group are a family run organization devoted to eliminating pirates as well as ensure the galactic order remains balanced.
They attempt to prevent either the Confederation or Rebellion from winning the civil war.
The starting planet, Levo, which is in a system by the same name, has a militia patrolling it to defend it from Pirates, though Pirates never appear in the system except when following the player because of valuable cargo in his possession.
There are a number of Pirates in the game, who immediately attempt to destroy any non-Pirate ship they spot, with the exception of the player once they have achieved a high combat rating.
The Pirates do not plunder their targets due to limitations in the game; the player, however, is allowed to board ships, and may from there steal money, cargo, fuel, or ammunition, or attempt to capture the ship for use as their own or as an escort.
Another key detail, Pirates may board your ship if they disable you.
In EV Nova, Pirates do board and plunder ships, including the player.
<EOS>
Five hundred years after the establishment of the Foundation, the Mayor of Terminus, Harla Branno, is basking in a political glow, her policies having been vindicated by the recent successful resolution of a Seldon Crisis.
Golan Trevize, a former officer of the Navy and now a member of Council, believes the Second Foundation (which is almost universally thought to be extinct) still exists and is controlling events.
He attempts to question the continued existence of the Seldon Plan during a Council session and Branno has him arrested on a charge of treason.
She orders him to leave Terminus to search for the Second Foundation.
As a cover, he is to be accompanied by Janov Pelorat, a professor of Ancient History and mythologist, who is interested in the location of Earth, the fabled homeworld of humanity.
They are provided a highly advanced computer-controlled 'gravitic' ship with which to carry out their mission.
Branno also sends out Munn Li Compor in another similar vessel to follow and monitor Trevize.
On Trantor, Stor Gendibal, a rising intellect in the Second Foundation hierarchy, discovers a secret he reveals to Quindor Shandess, the current First Speaker &mdash; that the Seldon Plan, which the Second Foundation diligently protects and furthers along, is being manipulated by some unknown group, one possibly more powerful than the Second Foundation, and whose reasons for so doing are not known.
(This group is dubbed the "Anti-Mules" by Shandess, as they seem to possess powers similar to the Mule but to be using them not to destroy the Seldon Plan, but to preserve it) Gendibal concludes that Trevize is a "lightning rod" sent out to locate and expose the Second Foundation.
His ideas are not well received by the other Speakers, but he has the support of Shandess.
Trevize never intends to go to Trantor, believing that, once at the library, Pelorat will never leave.
Trevize and Pelorat discuss Pelorat's interest in Earth and its legends, and Trevize realizes that Seldon's phrase "at the other end of the Galaxy" (the phrase he used to describe the Second Foundation's location) could mean Earth.
His logic being that Terminus (at the time of Hari Seldon) was the last planet to be inhabited (one end of the metaphorical galaxy) and, by definition, Earth was the first (the other end of the metaphorical galaxy).
However, there is no planet named Earth in the galactic table of planets.
Pelorat, through his previous research, established characteristics that Earth must have: a 24-hour day, a 365-day year, and a large satellite.
Once again no planet on file has these characteristics, but the galactic table of planets is missing a lot of information about a lot of planets.
Nonetheless, Pelorat has a guess.
The table mentions a planet called Gaia, which Pelorat discovered, previously, to mean Earth.
Its exact coordinates are unknown but it is listed as being in the Sayshell Sector.
Trevize decides that they must go there to follow up on this lead.
Gendibal demonstrates to the Speaker's Table that the brain of Sura Novi, a Hamishwoman (the farming population of Trantor are known as the Hamish), shows a very subtle change in her mind that could only have been done by an agency more powerful than the Second Foundation; he believes this to be the "Anti-Mules" and that they have a separate agenda with the Second Foundation as their unwitting pawn.
Gendibal and Novi are sent to track Trevize and to determine the goals of the "Anti-Mules".
On Sayshell, Trevize and Pelorat meet Professor Quintesetz, who is able to give them the co-ordinates to the mysterious planet known as Gaia.
Traveling to Gaia, they discover that it is a 'superorganism', where all things, both living and inanimate, participate in a larger, group consciousness, while still retaining any individual awareness they might have, such as among the Gaian humans.
Pelorat slowly falls in love with a Gaian woman named Blissenobiarella (commonly called Bliss), who explains that Trevize will be forced to decide the future of the galaxy &mdash; whether it will be ruled by the First Foundation, the Second Foundation, or by Gaia (who envisions an eventual extension of its group consciousness to the entire galaxy, thus forming the new entity Galaxia).
Gendibal is met by a First Foundation warship, commanded by Mayor Branno.
As Gendibal's mental powers stalemate with Mayor Branno's force shield, Novi reveals herself as an agent of Gaia.
Once she joins the stalemate, the three are locked until Trevize can join them.
Bliss explains to Trevize that he had been led to Gaia so that his untouched mind, a mind with remarkable intuition, can decide the Galaxy's fate.
He also learns that the stalemate between the First Foundation (Branno), the Second Foundation (Gendibal), and Gaia (Novi) was intentional, and that through the ship's computer, he can decide who shall ultimately prove victorious.
Trevize decides upon Gaia, and through mental adjustments, Gaia makes Branno and Gendibal believe they have won minor victories, and that Gaia does not exist.
But Trevize is troubled by one final piece of missing information: who or what has removed all reference to Earth from the Galactic Library at Trantor, and why.
He announces his intention to find Earth, since without knowing the answers to those questions he cannot be certain his choice was the right one.
Trevize also mentions that he chose Gaia because that was the only choice of the three that was reversible (in case his choice should prove to be wrong), due to the large length of time required for the formation of Galaxia.
<EOS>
In this novel, Isaac Asimov introduces Elijah Baley and Daneel Olivaw, later his favorite protagonists.
They live roughly three millennia in Earth's future, a time when hyperspace travel has been discovered, and a few worlds relatively close to Earth have been colonized—fifty planets known as the "Spacer worlds".
The Spacer worlds are rich, have low population density (average population of one hundred million each), and use robot labor heavily.
Meanwhile, Earth is overpopulated (with a total population of eight billion, three times that of Asimov's 1950s), and strict rules against robots have been passed.
The eponymous "caves of steel" are vast city complexes covered by huge metal domes, capable of supporting tens of millions each: the New York City of that era (wherein much of the story is set), encompasses present-day New York City, as well as large tracts of New Jersey.
Asimov imagines the present day's underground transit connected to malls and apartment blocks, until no one ever exits the domes, and most of the population suffer from extreme agoraphobia.
Even though the Robot and Foundation series were not considered part of the same fictional universe until much later, the "caves of steel" resemble the planet Trantor.
In The Caves of Steel and its sequels (the first of which is The Naked Sun), Asimov paints a grim situation of an Earth dealing with an extremely large population, and of luxury-seeking Spacers who limit birth to permit great wealth and privacy.
Asimov, who described himself as a claustrophile, mentioned that a reader asked him how he could have imagined such an existence with no sunlight, and related that it had not struck him until then that living perpetually indoors might be construed as unpleasant.
The book's central crime is a murder, which takes place before the novel opens.
(This is an Asimovian trademark, which he attributed to his own squeamishness and John Campbell's advice of beginning as late in the story as possible) The victim is Roj Nemmenuh Sarton, a Spacer Ambassador who lives in Spacetown, the Spacer outpost just outside New York City.
For some time, he has tried to convince the Earth government to loosen its anti-robot restrictions.
One morning, he is discovered outside his home, his chest imploded by an energy blaster.
The New York police commissioner charges Elijah with finding the murderer, in cooperation with a highly advanced robot named Daneel Olivaw who is visually identical to a human, and is equipped with a scanner that is able to detect human emotions through their encephalographic waves.
A faction of Spacers have come to the realization that Spacer culture is stagnating due to population negative growth and longevity, and feels that the solution is to encourage further space exploration and colonization by Earthmen in concert with robots.
However, Earthmen would first need to overcome their antagonism of robots.
To this end, they have established habitations on Earth through which they hope to introduce humanoid robots to Earth.
New York City Police Commissioner Julius Enderby is secretly a member of the Medievalists, a subversive anti-robot group which pines for the 'olden days' where men did not live in the 'caves of steel'.
He uses his position to engineer meetings with Spacer dr Sarton under the guise of further cooperation, but he actually intends to destroy Daneel - who lives with and resembles dr Sarton.
Enderby orders Sammy to bring a blaster through the unmonitored 'open air' (something that no Earthman could countenance), but in the heat of the moment Enderby drops his glasses and fails to distinguish between the human and robot, accidentally shooting the human.
Knowing that Baley's wife is also a Medievalist, he assigns Baley to the case, working with Daneel who represents the Spacers, and spreads a rumour about humanoid robots amongst the subversives to throw suspicion on Baley when Enderby later destroys Sammy with radiation.
Furthermore, Daneel rules out Enderby as the murderer as his brain patterns show him incapable of deliberately killing.
The novel follows Baley and Olivaw as Baley begins to suspect Olivaw but is proved wrong twice.
Olivaw gradually learns more about Earth humans and starts to display curiosity in aspects of human behaviour and Earth technology.
As part of the investigation, Baley makes a visit to Spacetown where he meets with dr Falstofe, who injects him with a mildly suggestive drug while speaking about the relative merits and shortcomings of Earth and Spacer society.
Baley is converted to the cause of spreading humanity throughout the galaxy.
Although the Spacers deem Baley inadequate to convert enough Earthmen, they find their target when Baley arrests Clousarr on suspicion of inciting a riot and Olivaw provides him with suggestive statements.
Their job accomplished, the Spacers make plans to leave Earth as their continued presence would be to the detriment of their cause and accept dr Sarton's unsolved death as a necessary sacrifice; this leaves Baley with 90 minutes to find the killer which he is convinced will also clear him of the destruction of Sammy.
Baley has a flash of inspiration when he connects Enderby's emotional highs and lows to how close or far away Baley was to solving the murder, and obtaining a recording of the crime scene, manages to demonstrate that fragments of Enderby's glasses remain in situ.
Given that the Spacers have already accepted that Sarton's death is unsolved, they are willing to not prosecute Enderby for the accident if he agrees to work with them to promote colonization of other worlds amongst the Medievalists.
<EOS>
Prelude to Foundation is set in the year 12,020E.
(Galactic era), during the rocky reign of the Emperor Cleon It starts with Seldon's presentation of a paper at a mathematics convention detailing how practical use of psychohistory might theoretically make it possible to predict the future.
The Emperor of the Galactic Empire learns of this and wants to use Seldon for political gain.
In a face-to-face interview, Seldon emphasizes that psychohistory is something that he has not even begun developing or even has a clear idea how to do so, but Cleon is not wholly convinced that Hari is of no use to the Empire.
Seldon then meets reporter Chetter Hummin, who convinces him that Cleon's first minister, Eto Demerzel, is attempting to capture him, and that it is therefore imperative for Seldon to escape and try to make psychohistory practical.
He is taken by Hummin to Streeling University, one of the top ranked of the Empire and introduced to Dors Venabili by Hummin.
Seldon theorizes that the first development of psychohistory requires a smaller, yet still significant sample than the entire Empire, possibly just the original world where humans originated.
which is now lost, along with much of the older historical records.
Hari and Dors narrowly evade capture at Streeling University, and Hummin arranges for them to be sheltered in the reclusive Mycogen sector, which supposedly values its ancient history.
Seldon and Venabili are welcomed by Sunmaster Fourteen, the leader of Mycogen.
Seldon obtains the Mycogenians' treasured religious/historical book, but finds it disappointing except for the revelation of what the Mycogenians call their home planet, Aurora, and references to "robots" (which do exist in the Empire).
Seldon and Venabili face execution when Seldon insists on entering the Mycogenian "temple", the Sacratorium, in disguise in hopes of interviewing a robot supposed housed there.
They are easily detected, but Hummin arrives in the nick of time to save them.
The action then shifts to the Dahl sector, where Seldon and Venabili rent rooms from a middle-class family.
While in Dahl, they meet a guttersnipe named Raych, whom Seldon later adopts.
Also in Dahl, they are told by an old wise woman that the Aurora of the Mycogenians is not the original world, but actually the "enemy" of the original human planet, called Earth.
(This links with the Robot series)  Towards the end of the novel, Seldon, Venabili, and Raych are kidnapped and taken to Rashelle, the Mayor of Wye, a powerful and vital sector situated at Trantor's south pole.
Rashelle and her father have long been plotting to overthrow the Emperor and take his place.
Seldon has the revelation that he could to try to develop psychohistory using Trantor itself as a test case because of the great cultural diversity of its sectors.
Rashelle launches her coup attempt, but it quickly collapses due to Demerzel's skillful subversion of Wye's forces.
The finale reveals that "Hummin" is actually Eto Demerzel.
Seldon then gets Demerzel to admit he is a robot; Demerzel is in fact Daneel Olivaw, who can influence humans mentally.
He wants the development of psychohistory to help him better protect humanity, as per "The Zeroth Law Of Robotics".
Seldon also suspects that Venabili is a robot, too.
This theme would later be picked up in Forward the Foundation.
<EOS>
Several centuries after the events of Second Foundation, two citizens of the Foundation seek to find Earth, the legendary planet where humans are said to have originated.
Even less is known about Earth than was the case in Foundation, when scholars still seem to know the location of 'Sol'.
The story follows on from Foundation's Edge, but can be read as a complete work in itself.
(It does, however, give away most of the mysteries around which Foundation's Edge is built) Councilman Golan Trevize, historian Janov Pelorat, and Blissenobiarella of the planet Gaia (introduced in Foundation's Edge) set out on a journey to find humanity's ancestral planet&mdash;Earth.
The purpose of the journey is to settle Trevize's doubt of his decision, at the end of Foundation's Edge, to embrace the all-encompassing noosphere of Galaxia.
First, they visit Comporellon, which claims to be the oldest currently inhabited planet in the galaxy.
Upon arrival, they are imprisoned, but negotiate their way out.
While there, a historian gives them the coordinates of three Spacer planets, surmised to be fairly close to Earth.
The first Spacer planet they visit is Aurora, where Trevize is nearly killed by a pack of wild dogs, presumed to be the descendants of household pets reverted to wolf-like savagery.
They escape when Bliss manipulates the dogs' emotions to psychologically compel a retreat, while Trevize uses his neuronic whip on them.
Next, they visit Solaria, where they find that the Solarians, who have survived the Spacer-Settler conflicts by clever retreat detailed in Asimov's novel Robots and Empire, have engineered themselves into self-reproducing hermaphrodites, generally intolerant of human physical presence or contact.
They have also given themselves a natural ability to mentally channel ("transduce") great amounts of energy, and use this as their sole source of power.
The Solarians intentionally avoid ever having to interact with each other, except by holographic apparatus ("viewing"), and reproduce only when necessary to replace the dead.
Bliss, Pelorat, and Trevize are nearly killed by the Solarian Sarton Bander; but Bliss deflects the transduction at the moment Bander uses it as a weapon, accidentally killing Bander.
While escaping, they acquire Bander's immature child, Fallom, in a state of panic because its robotic nursemaid, like all other robots on the estate, has lost power and stopped functioning due to the death of its master, and carry her (Bliss, by preference, uses a feminine pronoun on Fallom) aboard their ship to prevent her execution by the Solarians as she would be surplus to their population requirements - a more mature child would be chosen to take over Bander's estate.
The crew now visit Melpomenia, the third and final Spacer coordinate they have, where the atmosphere has become reduced to a few thousandths of normal atmospheric pressure.
Wearing space suits, they enter a library, and find a plaque listing the names and coordinates of all fifty Spacer worlds.
On the way back to the ship, they notice a moss has begun to grow around the seals of their space suits, and just in time, surmise that the moss is feeding on miniscule leakages of carbon dioxide.
Thus, they are able to eradicate the moss with a blaster and heavy UV-illumination so that no spores are unintentionally carried off the planet.
They then plot the Spacer worlds on the ship's map, which form a rough sphere and conclude that the location of Earth must be near to the center of the sphere.
This area turns out to have a binary star system.
They arrive on Alpha Centauri, which is all ocean except for an island 250&nbsp;km long and 65&nbsp;km wide on which live a small group of humans.
In a reference to the radioactive Earth of Asimov's novel Pebble in the Sky, the restoration of Earth's soil was eventually abandoned in favour of resettling the population to "New Earth", which the First Galactic Empire had already been terraforming.
The natives appear friendly, but secretly intend to kill the visitors with a microbiological agent, to prevent them from informing the rest of the galaxy of their existence.
They are warned to escape before the agent can be activated, by a native woman who has formed an attraction to Trevize and was impressed by Fallom's ability to play a flute with just her mind.
Now certain that Alpha Centauri is not Earth but near it, they approach a system close by, and are puzzled by the very strong similarities between this star and the larger sun of the Alpha Centauri system.
Asimov here is drawing attention to an astronomical curiosity: the nearest star system to Sol contains a star that has the same spectral type, G2 V, though Alpha Centauri A is a little larger and brighter.
On the approach to Earth, they detect it to be highly radioactive and not capable of supporting life; but, while trying to use the ship's computer to locate Solaria, Fallom calls Trevize's attention upon the moon, which is large enough to serve as a hideout for the forces that lived on Earth.
There, they find Daneel Olivaw, who explains he has been paternalistically manipulating humanity since Elijah Baley's time, long before the Galactic Empire or Foundation: thus having caused the settlement of Alpha Centauri, the creation of Gaia, and the creation of psychohistory (detailed in Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation), and manipulated Trevize into making his decision at the end of Foundation's Edge (although he did not manipulate the decision itself).
It is revealed that Daneel's positronic brain is deteriorating, and he is unable to design a new brain; wherefore he wishes to merge Fallom's brain with his own, allowing him time to oversee Galaxia's creation.
Daneel continues to explain that human internal warfare or parochialism was the reason for his causing the creation of psychohistory and Gaia.
Trevize then confirms his decision that the creation of Galaxia is the correct choice, and gives his reason as the likelihood of advanced life beyond the galaxy eventually attacking humanity.
This danger is part of the conclusion to Asimov's book The End of Eternity, in which "Project Eternity" (which manipulated human history to maintain human comfort) is destroyed to undo that same extraterrestrial disaster-&mdash;extraterrestrials giving humanity no hope of expansion, at which point the birth rate fell, and humanity became extinct.
<EOS>
Prelude to Foundation opens on the planet Trantor, the empire's capital planet, the day after Hari Seldon has given a speech at a conference.
Several parties become aware of the content of his speech (that using mathematical formulas, it may be possible to predict the future course of human history).
Seldon is hounded by the Emperor and various employed thugs who are working surreptitiously, which forces him into exile.
Over the course of the book, Seldon and Dors Venabili, a female companion, are taken from location to location by an aide, Chetter Hummin, who introduces them to various Trantorian walks of life in his attempts to keep Seldon hidden from the Emperor.
Throughout their adventures all over Trantor, Seldon continuously denies that psychohistory is a realistic science.
Even if feasible, it may take several decades to develop.
Hummin, however, is convinced that Seldon knows something, so he continuously presses him to work out a starting point to develop psychohistory.
Eventually, after much traveling and introductions to various, diverse cultures on Trantor, Seldon realizes that using the entire known galaxy as a starting point is too overwhelming, then decides to use Trantor as a model to work out the science, with a goal of using the applied knowledge on the rest of the galaxy.
Eight years after the events of Prelude, Seldon has worked out the science of psychohistory and has applied it on a galactic scale.
His notability and fame increase and he is eventually promoted to First Minister to the Emperor.
As the book progresses, Seldon loses those closest to him, including his wife, Dors Venabili, as his own health deteriorates into old age.
Having worked his entire adult life to understand psychohistory, Seldon instructs his granddaughter, Wanda, to set up the Second Foundation.
Called forth to stand trial on Trantor for allegations of treason (for foreshadowing the decline of the Galactic Empire), Seldon explains that his science of psychohistory foresees many alternatives, all of which result in the Galactic Empire eventually falling.
If humanity follows its current path, the Empire will fall and 30,000 years of turmoil will overcome humanity before a second Empire arises.
However, an alternative path allows for the intervening years to be only one thousand, if Seldon is allowed to collect the most intelligent minds and create a compendium of all human knowledge, entitled Encyclopedia Galactica.
The board is still wary but allows Seldon to assemble whomever he needs, provided he and the "Encyclopedists" be exiled to a remote planet, Terminus.
Seldon agrees to set up his own collection of Encyclopedists, and also secretly implements a contingency plan—a second Foundation—at the "opposite end" of the galaxy.
Once on Terminus, the inhabitants find themselves at a loss.
With four powerful planets surrounding their own, the Encyclopedists have no defenses but their own intelligence.
The Mayor of Terminus City, Salvor Hardin, proposes to play the planets against each other.
His plan is a success; the Foundation remains untouched, and he is promoted to Mayor of Terminus (the planet).
Meanwhile, the minds of the Foundation continue to develop newer and greater technologies which are smaller and more powerful than the Empire's equivalents.
Using its scientific advantage, Terminus develops trade routes with nearby planets, eventually taking them over when its technology becomes a much-needed commodity.
The interplanetary traders effectively become the new diplomats to other planets.
One such trader, Hober Mallow, becomes powerful enough to challenge and win the seat of Mayor and, by cutting off supplies to a nearby region, also succeeds in adding more planets to the Foundation's reach.
The current Emperor of the Galaxy perceives the Foundation as a growing threat and orders an attack on it, using the Empire's still-mighty fleet of war vessels.
However, eventually convinced, as foretold by psychohistory, that his power would be most vulnerable to that of his own successful general (a possible analogy with that of the Roman empire at various times), the Emperor finally orders withdrawal of his fleet.
In spite of its undoubted inferiority in purely military terms, the Foundation emerges as the victor and the Empire itself is defeated.
More than a century later, an unknown outsider called the Mule has begun taking over planets belonging to the Foundation at a rapid pace.
When the Foundation comes to realize the Mule was not foreseen in Seldon's plan, and there is no predicted way of defeating him, Toran and Bayta Darell, accompanied by Ebling Mis—the galaxy's current greatest psychologist—and a court jester named Magnifico (whom they agree to protect, as his life is under threat from the Mule himself), set out to find the Second Foundation, hoping they bring an end to the Mule's reign.
Eventually, working in the still-functional Great Library of Trantor, Mis comes to learn of the Second Foundation's whereabouts.
Mis also deduces that the Mule's success stems from his mutation; he is able to change the emotions of others, a power he used to first instill fear in the inhabitants of his conquered planets, then to make his enemies devoutly loyal to him.
Having worked out that the Mule is also attempting to find the location of the Second Foundation, Bayta Darell kills Mis before he can reveal where the Second Foundation is.
Bayta explains that she regrets her actions, but that the secret had to be kept from the Mule at all costs.
Magnifico reveals that Bayta's suspicions about him are correct and that he is the Mule and has been laboring to find the Second Foundation in order to start his own Second Empire, hundreds of years before the Seldon Plan is to be complete.
Dismayed at having made a mistake which allowed Bayta to see through his disguise, he leaves Trantor to rule over his conquered planets while continuing his own search.
As the Mule comes closer to finding it, the mysterious Second Foundation comes briefly out of hiding to face the threat directly.
It is revealed to be a collection of the most intelligent humans in the galaxy, the descendants of Seldon's psychohistorians.
While the first Foundation has developed the physical sciences, the Second Foundation has been developing the mental sciences.
Using the might of its strongest minds, the Second Foundation ultimately wears down the Mule.
His destructive attitude is adjusted to a benevolent one.
He returns to rule over his kingdom peacefully for the rest of his life, without any further thought of conquering the Second Foundation.
The first Foundation, learning of the implications of the Second, who will be the true inheritor of Seldon's promised future Empire, greatly resents it—and seeks to find and destroy it, believing it can manage without it.
After many attempts to unravel the only clue Seldon had given as to the Second Foundation's whereabouts ("at Star's End"), the Foundation is led to believe the Second Foundation is located on Terminus.
By developing a technology which causes great pain to telepaths, the Foundation uncover a group of 50 of them, and destroys them, believing it has thereby won.
However, the Second Foundation has planned for this eventuality, and has sent 50 of its members to their deaths as martyrs to preserve its anonymity.
At the very end, the Second Foundation is revealed to be located on the former Imperial Homeworld of Trantor itself.
The clue "at Star's End" was not a physical clue, but instead based on an old saying, "All roads lead to Trantor, and that is where all stars end".
Seldon, being a social scientist and not a physical one, placed the two Foundations at "opposite ends" of the galaxy, but not in a physical sense.
Foundation was located on Terminus, out in the Periphery of the galaxy, where the Empire's influence was minimal.
Second Foundation was hidden on Trantor, where, even in its dying days, the Empire's power and culture was strongest.
Believing the Second Foundation still exists (despite the common belief that it has been extinguished), a young politician Golan Trevize is sent by the current Mayor of the Foundation, Harla Branno, to uncover the group while accompanied by a scholar named Janov Pelorat.
The reason for their belief is the Seldon Plan appears to be proceeding fully on course, despite all the disruptions caused by the Mule.
They attribute this fact to unknown interventions by the Second Foundation.
After a few conversations with Pelorat, Trevize comes to believe the Second Foundation lies on the mythical planet of Earth.
No such planet exists in any database, yet several myths and legends all refer to it, and it is Trevize's idea that the planet is deliberately being kept hidden.
Meanwhile, Stor Gendibal, a prominent member of the Second Foundation, discovers a simple local—who lives on the same planet as the Second Foundation—has had a minor alteration made to her mind.
This alteration is far more delicate than anything the Second Foundation can do and, as a result, he determines a greater force of Mentalics is operating in the Galaxy—a force as powerful as the Mule himself.
Having shown interest in Trevize earlier (as he is an individual who has spoken out against the Second Foundation frequently), Gendibal endeavors to follow Trevize, reasoning that he could find out who has altered the mind of the native.
Using the few scraps of reliable information within the various myths, Trevize and Pelorat discover a planet called Gaia which is inhabited solely by Mentalics, to such an extent that every organism and inanimate object on the planet shares a common mind.
Both Branno and Gendibal, who have separately followed Trevize, also reach Gaia at the same time.
Gaia reveals that it has engineered this situation because it wishes to do what is best for humanity but cannot be sure what is best.
Trevize's purpose, faced with the leaders of both foundations and Gaia, is to be trusted to make the best decision between the three main alternatives for the future of the human race: the First Foundation's path, based on mastery of the physical world and its traditional political organization (ie, empire), the Second Foundation's path, based on mentalics and probable rule by an elite using mind control, or Gaia's path of absorption of the entire Galaxy into one shared, harmonious living entity in which all beings, and the galaxy itself, would be a part.
After Trevize makes his decision for Gaia's path, the intellect of Gaia adjusts both Branno and Glendibal's minds so that each believe they have succeeded in a significant task (Branno believes she has successfully negotiated a treaty tying Sayshell to the Foundation, and Gendibal believes that the Second Foundation is victorious and should continue as normal).
Trevize remains, but is uncertain as to why he has intuited that Gaia is the correct outcome for the future.
Still uncertain about his decision, Trevize continues on with the search for Earth along with Pelorat and a local of Gaia, advanced in Mentalics, known as Blissenobiarella (usually referred to simply as Bliss).
Eventually, Trevize finds three sets of co-ordinates which are very old.
Adjusting them for time, he realises that his ship's computer does not list any planet in the vicinity of the co-ordinates.
When he physically visits each location, he discovers an uncharted planet: Aurora, Solaria, and finally Melpomenia.
After searching and facing different dilemmas on each planet, none has given him the answers he seeks.
Aurora and Melpomenia are long deserted, but Solaria contains a small population which is extremely advanced in the field of Mentalics.
When their lives are threatened, Bliss uses her abilities (and the shared intellect of Gaia) to destroy the Solarian who is about to kill them.
This leaves behind a small child, who will be put to death if left alone, so Bliss makes the decision to keep the child as they quickly escape the planet.
Eventually, Trevize discovers Earth, but it, again, contains no satisfactory answers for him (it is also long-since deserted).
However, it dawns on Trevize that the answer may not be on Earth, but on Earth's satellite—the Moon.
Upon approaching the planet, they are drawn closer and then to inside the Moon's core, where they meet a robot named Daneel Olivaw.
Olivaw explains that he has been guiding human history for thousands of years, and this is the reason the Seldon plan had remained on course, despite the interventions by the Mule.
Olivaw also states he is at the end of his run-time and, despite replacement parts and more advanced brains (which contain 20,000 years of memories), he is going to die shortly.
He explains that no robotic brain can be developed to replace his current one, and to continue assisting with the benefit of humanity—which may come under attack by beings from beyond our Galaxy—he must meld his mind with an organic intellect.
Once again, Trevize is put in the position of deciding if having Olivaw meld with the child's superior intellect would be in the best interests of the galaxy.
The decision is left ambiguous (though likely a 'yes') as it is also implied that the melding of the minds may be to the child's benefit and that she may have sinister intentions about it.
<EOS>
The book covers several periods from the life of Lazarus Long (birth name: Woodrow Wilson Smith), the oldest living human, now more than two thousand years old.
The first half of the book takes the form of several novellas connected by Lazarus's retrospective narrative.
In the framing story, Lazarus has decided that life is no longer worth living, but (in what is described as a reverse Arabian Nights scenario) agrees not to end his life for as long as his companion, chief executive of the Howard families, and descendant Ira Weatherall, will listen to his stories.
This story concerns a 20th-century United States Navy cadet named David Lamb who rises in the ranks while avoiding any semblance of real work by applying himself enthusiastically to the principle of "constructive laziness".
Shortly after telling the story Lazarus mistakenly calls David "Donald", which is intended to make the reader think the story is fallacious, while actually pertaining to Lazarus directly.
Lazarus tells of his visit as an interplanetary cargo trader to a planet, where he bought a pair of slaves, brother and sister, and immediately manumitted them.
Because they had no knowledge of independent living, nor any education, Lazarus teaches them "how to be human" during the voyage.
The two were the result of an experiment in genetic recombination in which two parent cells were separated into complementary haploid gametes, and recombined into two embryos.
The resulting zygotes were implanted in a woman and gestated by her, with the result that although both have the same mother and genetic parents, they are no more closely related genetically than any two people taken at random.
They have been prevented from sexual relations by a chastity belt; but having confirmed that there is no risk of genetic disease in their offspring (described as the only valid reason against incest), Lazarus solemnizes their marriage and later establishes them as the owners and operators of a thriving business.
At the end of the story, he reveals a belief that they were his own descendants, from an earlier period when he had been a slave on the same planet.
A short scene-setter introduces a planet where Lazarus has led a group of pioneering colonists.
Lazarus, now working as a banker and shopkeeper and keeping his true age secret, saves a young girl named Dora from a burning building and becomes her guardian.
When she grows up, he marries her, and the two become founders of a new settlement where Lazarus' long life is less likely to be noticed.
They are successful and eventually build a thriving community.
Because Dora is not a descendant of the Howard Families, the source of their longevity, she eventually dies of old age, leaving Lazarus distraught.
At the beginning of this story, Lazarus has regained his enthusiasm for life, and the remainder of the book is told in a conventional linear manner.
Accompanied by some of his descendants, Lazarus has now moved to a new planet and established a polyamorous family consisting of three men, three women, and a larger number of children, two of whom are female clones of Lazarus.
In the concluding tale, Lazarus attempts to travel backward in time to 1919 in order to experience it as an adult, but an error in calculation places Lazarus in 1916 on the eve of America's involvement in World War An unintentional result is that Lazarus falls in love with his own mother.
To retain her esteem and that of his grandfather, Lazarus enlists in the army.
Eventually Lazarus and his mother, Maureen, consummate their mutual attraction before Lazarus leaves for the war.
In the trenches of the Western Front in France, he is mortally wounded, but rescued at the last moment by his future companions from the framing story and returned to his own time.
There are also two "Intermission" sections, each some six or eight pages long, taking the form of lists of provocative phrases and aphorisms not obviously related to the main narrative.
These were later published independently, with illustrations, as The Notebooks of Lazarus Long.
<EOS>
The Stones, a family of "Loonies" (residents of the Moon, known as "Luna" in Latin), purchase and rebuild a used spaceship, and go sightseeing around the Solar System.
The twin teenage boys, Castor and Pollux, buy used bicycles to sell on Mars, their first stop, where they run afoul of import regulations and are freed by their grandmother Hazel Stone.
While on Mars, the twins buy their brother Buster a native Martian creature called a flat cat, born pregnant and producing a soothing vibration, as a pet.
In the asteroid belt, where the equivalent of a gold rush is in progress prospecting for radioactive ores, the twins obtain supplies and luxury goods, on the principle that it is mostly shopkeepers, not miners, who get rich during gold rushes.
En route, the flat cat and its offspring overpopulate the ship so the family places them in hibernation and later sells them to the miners.
Subsequently, the family sets out to see the rings of Saturn.
<EOS>
The novel opens in 1970 with Daniel Boone Davis, an engineer and inventor, well into a long drinking binge.
He has lost his company, Hired Girl, Inc, to his partner Miles Gentry and the company bookkeeper, Belle Darkin.
She had been Dan's fiancée, deceiving him into giving her enough voting stock to allow her and Miles to seize control.
Dan's only friend in the world is his cat, "Pete", a feisty tomcat who hates going outdoors in the snow.
Hired Girl, Inc.
manufactures robot vacuum cleaners, but Dan had been developing a new line of all-purpose household robots, Flexible Frank, when Miles announces his intention to sell the company (and Flexible Frank) to Mannix Enterprises in which Miles would become a vice-president.
Wishing to stay independent, Dan opposes the takeover, but is outvoted and then fired as Chief Engineer.
Left with a large financial settlement, and his remaining Hired Girl stock, he elects to take "cold sleep" (suspended animation), hoping to wake up thirty years later to a brighter future.
The examining doctor at the cold sleep facility immediately sees that Dan has been drinking.
He warns him to show up sober or not at all 24 hours later for the actual procedure.
After becoming sober, Dan decides instead to mount a counter-attack.
First he mails his Hired Girl stock certificate to the one person he trusts, Miles' stepdaughter Frederica "Ricky" Virginia Gentry.
Dan confronts Miles and finds Belle in Miles' home.
Belle injects him with an illegal "zombie" drug, reducing him to somnolent compliance.
(It is during this sequence that we learn, from a line by Belle, that she'd injected Miles with the same drug some time before, bending him to her will and turning him against Dan) Belle and Miles discover Dan's plans to go into cold sleep and have him committed.
Dan wakes up in the year 2000 with no money to his name and no idea how to find the people he once knew.
What little money Belle let him keep went with the collapse of Mannix in 1987.
He has lost Pete the cat, who fled Miles' house after Dan was drugged, and has no idea how to find a now middle-aged Ricky.
Dan begins rebuilding his life.
He persuades Geary Manufacturing, which now owns Hired Girl, to take him on as a figurehead.
He discovers that Miles died in 1972, while Belle has become a shrill and gin-sodden wreck.
All she recalls is that Ricky went to live with her grandmother about the time Dan went into cold sleep.
Her scheme with Miles collapsed, as Flexible Frank disappeared the same night she shanghaied Dan.
Dan finds Flexible Frank in use everywhere, acting as hospital orderly, bellhop, and a thousand other menial jobs once filled by people.
It is called "Eager Beaver", made by a company called "Aladdin Auto-engineering," but Dan can see that someone has taken his prototype and developed it.
He is even more baffled to find that the patent is credited to a "D.
Davis".
His friend Chuck at Geary lets slip that he once saw time travel working, in a lab in Colorado.
At that point Dan finds that Ricky has been awakened from cold sleep and left Los Angeles for Brawley, California.
Dan tracks her to Yuma, Arizona, where she was apparently married.
When Dan looks at the marriage register, he finds that she married "Daniel Boone Davis".
He immediately empties his bank account and heads for Colorado.
In Boulder, he befriends dr Twitchell, a once-brilliant scientist reduced to drinking away his frustrations.
Eventually, just as Chuck had told him, Twitchell admits to having created a time machine of sorts.
With the machine powered up, Dan goads Twitchell into sending him back to 1970, some months before his confrontation with Miles and Belle.
Working rapidly, Dan creates "Drafting Dan", which he then uses to design "Protean Pete", the first version of Eager Beaver.
He sets up a new corporation called "Aladdin Auto-engineering," returns to Los Angeles, and stakes out Miles' house on the fateful night.
Watching himself arrive, he lets events unfold until Pete the cat emerges, then takes his own car and uses it to remove Flexible Frank and all his engineering drawings from Miles's garage.
Destroying the drawings and scattering machine parts across the landscape, he heads out to meet Ricky at her Girl Scout summer camp.
Dan assigns his stock in Hired Girl to Ricky and suggests that she takes cold sleep when she is 21 so they can meet again.
Ricky asks Dan if he will marry her after their cold sleep and Dan agrees.
With Pete in his arms, he sleeps for the second time until 2001.
He greets Ricky, now a twenty-something beauty, when she awakes.
They leave for Brawley to retrieve her possessions from storage, and then are married in Yuma.
Setting himself up as an independent inventor, he uses Ricky's Hired Girl stock to make changes at Geary, settling back to watch the healthy competition with Aladdin.
<EOS>
Hugh Farnham, a white middle-aged man, holds a bridge club party for his alcoholic wife Grace, law-graduate son Duke, college-student daughter Karen, and Karen's friend Barbara.
During the bridge game, Duke berates Hugh for frightening Grace by preparing for a possible Russian nuclear attack.
When the attack actually occurs the group, along with Joe, the family's African American servant, retreat to the fallout shelter beneath the house.
After several distant nuclear explosions rock the shelter, Hugh and Barbara become sexually intimate, after which the largest explosion of all hits the shelter.
With only minor injuries, but with their bottled oxygen running low, the group decides to ensure that they will be able to leave the shelter when necessary.
After exiting through an emergency tunnel, they find themselves in a completely undamaged, semi-tropical region apparently uninhabited by humans or other sentient creatures.
Several of the group speculate that the final explosion somehow forced them into an alternate dimension.
The group struggles to stay alive by reverting to the ways of the American pioneers, with Hugh as the leader—despite friction between Hugh and Duke.
Karen announces that she is pregnant and had returned home the night of the attack to tell her parents.
Barbara also announces that she is pregnant, but without mentioning that her pregnancy resulted from her sexual encounter with Hugh during the attack.
Karen eventually dies during her labor, due to complications, along with her infant daughter the next day.
Grace, whose sanity has been challenged by all these events, demands that Barbara be forced from the group or she will leave.
Duke convinces Hugh that he will go with Grace to ensure her safety, but before they can leave, a large aircraft appears overhead.
The group is taken captive by people of African ancestry, but is spared execution when Joe intervenes by conversation with their captives' leader in French.
The group finds that it has not been transported to another world, but instead is in the distant future of their own world.
A decadent but technologically advanced African culture keeps either uneducated or castrated whites as slaves.
Each of the characters adapts to the sudden change in black/white roles in different and sometimes shocking ways.
In the end, Hugh and Barbara reject the new era of slavery they find themselves in and attempt to escape, but are captured.
Rather than execute them, Ponse, "Lord Protector" of the house to which they have been enslaved, asks them to volunteer for a time-travel experiment that will send them back to their own time.
They return just prior to the original nuclear attack, and flee in Barbara's car.
As they drive they realize that while Barbara had driven a car with an automatic transmission, this car—the same car in every other respect—has a manual transmission, and Farnham deduces that the time-travel experiment worked but sent them into an alternate universe.
<EOS>
The story is set in New York City in the 1890s.
A bawdy singer, Lady Lou (Mae West), works in the Bowery barroom saloon of her boss and benefactor, Gus Jordan (Noah Beery), who has given her many diamonds.
But Lou is a lady with more men friends than anyone might imagine.
What she does not know is that Gus trafficks in prostitution and runs a counterfeiting ring to help finance her expensive diamonds.
He also sends young women to San Francisco to be pickpockets.
Gus works with two other crooked entertainer-assistants, Russian Rita (Rafaela Ottiano) and Rita's lover, the suave Sergei Stanieff (Gilbert Roland).
One of Gus's rivals and former "friend" of Lou's, named Dan Flynn (David Landau), spends most of the movie dropping hints to Lou that Gus is up to no good, promising to look after her once Gus is in jail.
Lou leads him on, hinting at times that she will return to him, but eventually he loses patience and implies he'll see her jailed if she doesn't submit to him.
A city mission (a thinly disguised Salvation Army) is located next door to the bar.
Its young director, Captain Cummings (Cary Grant), is in reality an undercover Federal agent working to infiltrate and expose the illegal activities in the bar.
Gus suspects nothing; he worries only that Cummings will reform his bar and scare away his customers.
Lou's former boyfriend, Chick Clark (Owen Moore), is a vicious criminal who was convicted of robbery and sent to prison for trying to steal diamonds for her.
In his absence, she becomes attracted to the handsome young psalm-singing reformer.
Warned that Chick thinks she's betrayed him, she goes to the prison to try to reassure him.
All the inmates greet her warmly and familiarly as she walks down the cellblock.
Chick becomes angry and threatens to kill her if she double-crosses or two-times him before he gets out.
She lies and claims she has been true to him.
Gus gives counterfeit money to Rita and Sergei to spend.
Chick escapes from jail, and police search for him in the bar.
He comes into Lou's room and starts to strangle her, breaking off only because he still loves her and cannot harm her.
Lou calms him down by promising that she will go with him when she finishes her next number.
After Sergei gives Lou a diamond pin belonging to Rita, Rita starts a fight with Lou, who accidentally stabs her to death.
Lou calmly combs the dead woman's long hair to hide the fact Rita is dead while the police search the room for Chick Clark.
She has her bodyguard Spider (Dewey Robinson), who "would do anything for you, Lou" dispose of Rita's body.
She then tells Spider to bring Chick, who's hiding in an alley, back to her room upstairs.
Then, while she sings "Frankie and Johnny", she silently signals to Dan Flynn that he should go to her room to wait for her, even though she knows Chick is in there with a gun.
Chick shoots Dan dead and the gunfire draws a police raid.
Cummings shows his badge and reveals himself as "The Hawk", a well-known Federal agent, as he arrests Gus and Sergei.
Chick, still lurking in Lou's room, is about to kill Lou for double-crossing him, when Cummings also apprehends him.
Cummings then takes Lou away in an open horse-drawn carriage instead of the paddywagon into which all the other criminals have been loaded.
He tells her she doesn't belong in jail and removes all her other rings and slips a diamond engagement ring onto her marriage finger.
<EOS>
In pre-World War I northern China, a young farmer Wang Lung (Paul Muni) marries O-Lan (Luise Rainer), a lowly servant at the Great House, the residence of the most powerful family in their village.
O-Lan proves to be an excellent wife, hard working and uncomplaining.
Wang Lung prospers.
He buys more land, and O-Lan gives birth to two sons and a daughter.
Meanwhile, the Great House begins to decline.
All is well until a drought and the resulting famine drive the family to the brink.
Desperate, Wang Lung considers the advice of his pessimistic, worthless uncle (Walter Connolly) to sell his land for food, but O-Lan opposes it.
Instead, they travel south to a city in search of work.
The family survives by begging and stealing.
When a revolutionary gives a speech to try to drum up support for the army approaching despite rain in the north, Wang Lung and O-Lan realize the drought is over.
They long to return to their farm, but they have no money for an ox, seed, and food.
The city changes hands, and O-Lan joins a mob looting a mansion.
However, she is knocked down and trampled upon.
When she comes to, she finds a bag of jewels overlooked in the confusion.
This windfall allows the family to go home and prosper once more.
O-Lan asks only to keep two pearls for herself.
Years pass.
Wang Lung's sons grow up into educated young men, and he has grown so wealthy that he purchases the Great House.
Then, Wang Lung becomes besotted with Lotus (Tilly Losch), a pretty, young dancer at the local tea house, and makes her his second wife.
He begins to find fault with the worn-out O-Lan.
Desperate to gain affection from Lotus, he gives O-Lan's pearls to Lotus.
When Wang Lung discovers that Lotus has seduced Younger Son (Roland Lui), he orders his son to leave.
Then a swarm of locusts threatens the entire village.
Using a strategy devised by Elder Son (Keye Luke), everyone unites to try to save the crops.
Just when all seems lost, the wind shifts direction, taking the danger away.
The near-disaster brings Wang Lung back to his senses.
He reconciles with Younger Son.
On the latter's wedding day, Wang Lung returns the pearls to O-Lan before she dies, exhausted by a hard life.
Without disturbing the wedding festivities, Wang Lung quietly exits the house and regards a flowering peach tree planted by O-Lan on their marriage day.
Reverently he murmurs, "O-Lan, you are the earth".
<EOS>
Note: the story is told entirely in external third-person narrative; there is no description whatever of any character's internal thoughts or feelings, only what they say and do, and how they look.
In 1928, Samuel "Sam" Spade is a private detective in San Francisco, in partnership with Miles Archer.
A beautiful young woman, "Miss Wonderly", hires them to follow Floyd Thursby, and find her sister, who ran off with him.
Archer takes the first stint.
That night, Archer is found shot to death.
A few hours later, Thursby is also killed and Spade is a suspect.
Spade refuses to tell the police about the client.
The next morning, Spade coolly tells his office secretary, Effie Perine, to have the office door repainted to read simply "Samuel Spade".
"Miss Wonderly" is soon revealed as adventuress Brigid O'Shaughnessy, involved with the title object, a foot-high black statuette of unknown but substantial value.
Others are after the falcon, including Joel Cairo, an effeminate Greek homosexual, and Casper Gutman, a fat man accompanied by vicious young gunman Wilmer Cook.
O'Shaughnessy begs for Spade's protection, putting on a great show of fear and weakness while telling him as little as possible.
Spade responds cynically "You're good.
You're very good".
They meet with Cairo at Spade's apartment.
While they are waiting, Spade tells O'Shaughnessy of the Flitcraft case, an odd story from his early years as a detective.
After Cairo leaves, Spade again presses O'Shaughnessy; again she stalls.
Instead she kisses Spade.
The next morning, she is asleep in his bed.
While she is asleep, Spade slips out to search her apartment.
Effie says O'Shaughnessy "is all right" and Spade should help her.
Effie agrees to hide O'Shaughnessy at her home - but O'Shaughnessy disappears again instead.
Spade meets Gutman in his hotel room; neither will tell what he knows.
Spade implies he is looking out for himself, not O'Shaughnessy.
Red herrings abound.
The police suspect Spade in the shootings because he was bedding Archer's wife Iva.
The District Attorney ties the shootings to Dixie Monahan, a Chicago gambler who employed Thursby as a bodyguard in the Far East.
At a second meeting, Gutman tells Spade the history of the falcon, citing various obscure historical sources.
It was made of gold and jewels by the 16th-century Knights of Malta, as a gift to the King of Spain.
But it was captured by pirates, and passed from owner to owner around Europe for centuries.
At some time it was coated with black enamel to conceal its value.
It turned up in Paris in 1911, and then disappeared again.
Gutman thinks it could be worth two million dollars.
Gutman traced the falcon to General Kemidov, a Russian exile in Constantinople, and hired O'Shaughnessy to get it; she brought in Cairo to help.
They got the falcon, but O'Shaughnessy and Thursby fled with it to Hong Kong and then San Francisco.
During this conversation, Gutman drugs Spade, who passes out on the floor.
Spade awakens alone, and returns to his office.
A wounded man staggers in and dies: Captain Jacobi, of the ship La Paloma, just arrived from Hong Kong.
Jacobi has a package containing the falcon.
O'Shaughnessy calls the office, begging for Spade's help.
Spade stashes the falcon, then goes to an address in Burlingame to help O'Shaughnessy, but it is a "wild goose chase".
When he returns, O'Shaughnessy is waiting in front of Spade's apartment building.
When they enter the apartment, Gutman, Wilmer, and Cairo are waiting with guns drawn.
They want the falcon.
Gutman presents $10,000 in cash.
But Spade notes that the police must arrest someone for the murders of Thursby and Jacobi.
Spade suggests Wilmer as the fall guy; it was he who shot Thursby and Jacobi.
Gutman balks, but Wilmer loses control under Spade's taunting, and Spade knocks him out.
Gutman agrees to give up Wilmer.
Spade has Effie fetch the falcon.
But Gutman discovers it is a fake (a decoy made by General Kemidov).
During the excitement, Wilmer escapes.
Gutman decides to go to Constantinople for the real falcon; Cairo joins him.
Gutman forces Spade to return the $10,000, but lets him keep $1,000 "for expenses".
He and Cairo leave.
Spade calls the police and tells them the story, adding that he has Wilmer's guns and other evidence.
Then he bullies O'Shaughnessy into confessing her real role.
Archer was shot with Thursby's gun (a distinctive English Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver, found at the scene) - but not by Thursby.
Spade says Archer would never have followed Thursby into a blind alley with his gun buttoned up – but he would have gone there with O'Shaughnessy.
She weeps and pleads, but he is implacable.
He says she planned the whole thing to get rid of Thursby, by getting him into a fight.
Either Archer would kill him, or he would kill Archer and be arrested, and she could vanish.
But Thursby backed off, so she killed Archer with Thursby's gun.
Then Thursby was killed, so she came back to Spade for protection.
She's lied to him and double-crossed him.
O'Shaughnessy admits all this, but pleads that she is in love with Spade and he loves her.
Spade refuses to protect her, listing several reasons.
Maybe he does care for her; but he says "I won't play the sap for you".
If she (a pretty young woman) can get off with a long prison term, he'll wait for her.
But if she hangs, so be it.
She kisses him one last time, just before the police arrive.
He turns her in.
The police tell him Wilmer has killed Gutman.
At the office the next day, Effie is shocked that O'Shaughnessy was a ruthless killer, but also that Spade cold-bloodedly turned her in.
Then Iva Archer comes in, and the story ends.
<EOS>
On Christmas Eve 1945, in Bedford Falls, New York, George Bailey is suicidal.
Prayers for him reach Heaven, where Clarence Odbody, Angel 2nd Class, is assigned to save George in order to earn his angel wings.
To prepare, Clarence is shown flashbacks of George's life.
The first is in 1919, when 12-year-old George saves his younger brother Harry, who falls through the ice on a frozen pond, from drowning; George loses his hearing in one ear as a result.
While working after school at the local drug store, George sees that his employer, mr Gower, distraught over his son's death from the flu, has accidentally added poison to a child's prescription drug, and intervenes to stop it from causing harm.
On Harry's graduation night in 1928, George talks to Mary Hatch, who has had a crush on him from an early age.
They are interrupted by news of his father's death.
George postpones his travel plans in order to sort out the family business, Bailey Brothers' Building and Loan, a longtime competitor to Henry Potter, the local banker and the richest man in town.
Potter wishes to dissolve the Building and Loan to take over its business.
George convinces the board of directors to vote against Potter.
They agree, on condition that George runs the business, along with his absent-minded uncle Billy.
George and Mary get married.
On their way to their honeymoon, they witness a run on the bank and use their honeymoon savings to lend financial support at the Building and Loan until the bank reopens.
Over time George establishes Bailey Park, a housing development with small houses financed by loans from Bailey Building and Loan, which allows people to own their own homes rather than pay rent to live in Potter's overpriced slums.
Potter, frustrated at losing control of the housing market, attempts to lure George into becoming his assistant; George is momentarily tempted, but rejects the offer.
During World War II, George is ineligible for service because of his bad ear.
Harry becomes a Navy pilot and shoots down a kamikaze plane that would have bombed an amphibious transport; he is awarded the Medal of Honor.
On Christmas Eve morning 1945, the town prepares a hero's welcome for Harry.
Uncle Billy goes to Potter's bank to deposit $8,000 for the Building and Loan.
(The $8,000 was worth over $100,000 in 2017 dollars) He teases Potter, taking his newspaper and bragging about Harry being on the front page; the banker angrily grabs the newspaper, inside of which Billy has unintentionally tucked the envelope containing the money.
Upon seeing the money, Potter realizes the potential scandal could lead to the Building and Loan's downfall.
Potter hides the money, knowing its loss will cause severe financial problems for the Building and Loan.
When Uncle Billy cannot find the money, he and George frantically search for it.
When the bank examiner arrives to review their records, George berates his uncle for endangering the Building and Loan, goes home and takes out his frustration on his family.
He apologizes to his wife and children, then leaves.
George desperately appeals to Potter for a loan.
When George offers his life insurance policy as collateral, Potter says George is worth more dead than alive and phones the police to have him arrested.
George gets drunk at a local bar and is involved in a fight before he leaves and goes to a nearby bridge, thinking of suicide.
The film's narrative catches up to the time of the opening scene.
Before he can jump, Clarence dives into the river just before George does, causing George to rescue Clarence rather than killing himself.
George does not believe Clarence's subsequent claim to be his guardian angel.
When George says he wishes he had never been born, Clarence decides to grant his wish and show George an alternate timeline in which he never existed.
Bedford Falls is named Pottersville and is a less congenial place.
mr Gower has recently been released from prison for manslaughter, because George was not there to stop him from putting poison in the pills.
The Building and Loan has closed down, as George never took over after mr Bailey's passing.
George's mother does not recognize him; she reveals that Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the collapse of the Building and Loan.
In the cemetery where Bailey Park would have been, George discovers the grave of his brother.
Clarence tells him all the soldiers on the transport died, as Harry was never there to save them, because George had never saved Harry from drowning.
Mary never married; when George says he is her husband, she screams for the police, causing George to flee and the local policeman to give chase.
George, now convinced that Clarence is really his guardian angel, runs back to the bridge and begs for his life back; the alternate timeline changes back to the original reality.
George runs home to await his arrest.
Mary and Uncle Billy arrive, having rallied the townspeople, who donate more than enough to cover the missing $8,000 and for Potter's warrant to be torn up.
Harry arrives and toasts George.
A bell on the Christmas tree rings, and his daughter recalls a story that says the sound means that an angel has just earned his wings, signifying Clarence's promotion.
<EOS>
At a performance by the Ballet Lermontov at Covent Garden, three music conservatory students, Julian Craster, Terry and Ike are in attendance to hear the ballet score Heart of Fire, composed by their teacher, Professor Palmer.
Separately present is Victoria 'Vicky' Page, a young, unknown dancer from an aristocratic background, with her aunt, Lady Neston.
As Heart of Fire progresses, Julian recognises the music as one of his own compositions, and Ike notices another passage as another of Julian's works.
During the performance, Boris Lermontov, the company impresario, receives an invitation to an after-ballet party at Lady Neston's residence.
Lermontov initially declines, but Professor Palmer persuades Lermontov to attend, saying that 'she's a great patron of the arts'.
Julian leaves the performance in disillusionment at his professor's plagiarism of his music, followed by Terry and Ike.
Lady Neston has arranged the after-ballet party as a surreptitious audition, to introduce her niece to Lermontov.
Lermontov and Vicki meet, and he invites her to a rehearsal of the company.
Julian has written to Lermontov to explain the circumstances behind Heart of Fire, but then tries to retrieve the letter.
Lermontov's assistant Dimitri thwarts all attempts by Julian to gain entry to Lermontov's suite, but finally Lermontov gives Julian an audience.
Julian says that he wishes to retrieve his letter before Lermontov has seem it, except that Lermontov has already read the letter.
Lermontov asks Julian to play one of his own works at the piano.
After hearing Julian play, he hires Julian as a repetiteur for the company orchestra and assistant to the company's conductor, Livingstone Montague (known colloquially to the company as 'Livy').
Lermontov fully realises that Julian was the true composer of Heart of Fire.
Julian and Vicky arrive for work at the Ballet Lermontov on the same day.
After Lermontov ignores Vicky's 'good morning' greeting, the company's production designer, Sergei Ratov, mollifies her disappointment.
Livy is initially disdainful of Julian, after the latter has summoned the orchestra an hour early for rehearsal and noted an error in the score, and tells Julian that as a result, the company must pay the musicians for the extra rehearsal.
Later, Vicky dances in a matinee performance of Swan Lake at the Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate, in a production with a company led by Marie Rambert (who appears in the film as herself in a wordless cameo).
Lermontov is in attendance, which Vicky does not realise until the midst of her performance.
He realises her potential and invites Vicky to go with the company to Paris and Monte Carlo, with Grisha Ljubov, the company's chief choreographer, to guide her.
When his prima ballerina Irina Boronskaya announces that she is to be married, Lermontov strongly disapproves, and she leaves the company.
Lermontov begins to see Vicky as a possible successor to Irina.
Lermontov decides to create a starring role for her in a new ballet, The Red Shoes, for which Julian is to provide the music.
When Julian plays selections from the piano score for the ballet, Ratov and Ljubov are impressed, and Livy begins to change his attitude to Julian more favourably.
As the premiere of the ballet approaches, Vicky and Julian bicker artistically.
The Red Shoes ballet is a great success, and Lermontov talks with Vicky about her future.
Lermontov revitalizes the company's repertoire with Vicky in the lead roles, with Julian composing some of the most successful scores.
In the meantime, Vicky and Julian have fallen in love, but keep their relationship a secret from Lermontov.
Lermontov begins to have personal feelings toward Vicky, and becomes resentful of the relationship between Vicky and Julian after he learns of their romance for the first time.
Lermontov rejects Julian's latest ballet score as childish and vulgar, which Julian knows to be untrue.
Lermontov fires Julian, and Vicky decides to leave the company with him.
They marry and live in London where Julian works on composing a new opera.
Initially enforcing Vicky's contract, which prevents her dancing with other companies, Lermontov later relents his decision to enforce Vicky's contract, and permits her to dance where and when she pleases, except for The Red Shoes, where he retains the rights to the ballet and ownership of Julian's music.
Lermontov refuses to mount it again or allow anyone else to produce the ballet.
Lermontov recruits Irina back to the company in the interim.
Some time later, whilst on holiday with her aunt in Monte Carlo, Vicky receives a visit on the train from Lermontov, who convinces her to return to the company to dance in a revival of The Red Shoes.
On opening night, as she is preparing to perform, Julian appears in her dressing room; he has left the premiere of his opera at Covent Garden to take her back with him.
Lermontov arrives, and he and Julian contend for Vicky's affections.
Torn between her love for Julian and her need to dance, she cannot decide what to do.
Julian, realising that he has lost her, leaves for the railway station, and Lermontov consoles her, urging her to dance.
While being escorted to the stage by her dresser, and wearing the red shoes, Vicky, apparently under the influence of the red shoes, runs out of the theatre.
Julian, on the platform of the train station, sees her and runs towards her.
Vicky jumps from a balcony and falls in front of an approaching train.
Shaken by the events and broken in spirit, Lermontov appears before the audience to announce that "Miss Page is unable to dance tonight – nor indeed any other night".
As a mark of respect, the company performs The Red Shoes with a spotlight on the empty space where Vicky would have been.
While lying close to death on a stretcher, bloody and battered, Vicky asks Julian to remove the red shoes, just as in the end of The Red Shoes ballet.
<EOS>
Three down-and-out Americans Curtin, Dobbs, and Howard meet by chance in the Mexican city of Tampico and discuss how to overcome their financial distress.
They then set out to discover gold in the remote Sierra Madre mountains.
Once in the desert, experienced old-timer Howard quickly proves to be the toughest and most knowledgeable; he is the one who discovers the gold they are seeking.
A mine is dug and much gold is extracted, but Dobbs soon becomes greedy and begins to lose both his trust and his mind, lusting to possess the entire treasure.
One day, another prospector named Lacaud follows Curtin from a nearby village back to the men's camp.
Although the men do not initially trust Lacaud, they decide to allow him to stay and camp with them.
Bandits appear and pretend, very crudely, to be Federales.
After a gunfight, real Federales arrive and drive the bandits away.
The prospectors soon decide to leave the mine and head to Durango to sell the gold that they have mined.
Lacaud decides to stay behind, because he believes there is more gold in the mountain.
On the way, Howard is called to assist some local villagers help a sick boy, and Dobbs and Curtin have a final confrontation.
Dobbs shoots Curtin, leaving him lying shot and bleeding.
Dobbs continues on alone but is soon confronted and killed by the leader of the bandits and two of his remaining henchmen, who had apparently been wandering the desert without weapons or horses after somehow escaping the Federales.
The bandits, thinking the gold dust is just worthless sand used to make the bundles of skins they were hidden in seem heavier, scatter the paydirt; they are later captured and executed by the Federales.
Curtin survives Dobbs' attack and meets up with Howard.
When they hear the story, they can do nothing but laugh at their misfortunes.
<EOS>
In 1850, backwoodsman Adam Pontipee comes into a town in the Oregon Territory to search for a bride.
Met with ridicule by some locals, he comes upon the local tavern where he meets Milly.
Convinced of her worth by the quality of her cooking and her insistence on finishing her chores before she would leave with him, he proposes and she accepts despite knowing each other for only a few hours.
On the journey home Milly talks about how she is excited to be cooking and taking care of only one man, visibly upsetting Adam.
When they arrive at his cabin in the mountains, Milly is surprised to learn that Adam is one of seven brothers living under the same roof.
The brothers have been named alphabetically from the Old Testament in order of birth: Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank (short for frankincense, the Old Testament having no names beginning with F), and Gideon.
All of the brothers have red hair and all but Gideon are well over six feet tall.
Milly teaches Adam's rowdy, ill-behaved younger brothers manners and social mores.
She also shows them how to dance.
At first, the brothers have a hard time changing from their "mountain man" ways, but eventually each comes to see that the only way he will get a woman of his own is to do things Milly's way.
They try out their new manners at a barn-raising, where they meet six women they like — Dorcas, Ruth, Martha, Liza, Sarah, and Alice.
The girls take a fancy to the brothers as well.
However, they already have suitors among the young men of the town, who jealously taunt the brothers into fighting during the barn-raising.
At first the six brothers remember Milly's teaching and try to resist being drawn into a fight by accepting physical indignities.
Adam refuses to let himself be pushed around by the rival suitors and calls his younger brothers cowards for letting them get away with their behavior.
The girls' suitors from the town finally go too far when they attack Adam, provoking Gideon into fighting back.
A free-for-all ensues in which the brothers dominate their physically weaker townie rivals.
Although the Pontipees did not start the fight, they are banished from the town after demolishing the barn they were raising in the course of the brawl.
Winter finds the six younger brothers pining for the girls for whom they had fallen fast and hard.
Milly asks Adam to talk to the brothers as she fears they will want to leave because of missing the girls.
Adam reads his brothers the story of "The Sobbin' Women" (taken from Plutarch's story of the Sabine Women), one of the books Milly brought to the homestead.
He tells them that they should stop moping around and take whatever action is necessary to get their women.
Aided by Adam, the brothers kidnap the six girls, then cause an avalanche in Echo Pass so that they cannot be followed by the townspeople.
The only problem: they forgot to bring the parson to perform the marriages.
Milly is furious with Adam, as are the six kidnapped women.
Milly consigns the brothers to the barn "with the rest of the livestock" while the women live in the house.
Adam, feeling betrayed by Milly's reaction, leaves for the trapping cabin farther up the mountain to live out the winter by himself, unknowingly hurting Milly's feelings.
Soon after, Milly realizes that she is pregnant by Adam.
The winter months slowly pass.
The women vent their frustration and resentment by playing pranks on the brothers, such as hitting them with rock-filled snowballs and dumping basins of wash water on them.
By spring, the women have forgiven their "kidnappers" and fallen in love with the brothers, who are now allowed to court them.
Milly gives birth to a daughter, Hannah.
Gideon rides to the cabin to inform Adam of his daughter's arrival and asks him to come home.
Adam refuses, saying that he had said he would return home only when the snow had melted enough that the pass was open to traffic.
Having time to think about his baby daughter, Adam returns home in the spring just as Echo Pass is opening and reconciles with Milly.
As a newly responsible father, he has become aware of how worried the townspeople would be about what has happened to the six abducted girls.
Adam realizes he was wrong to tell his brothers to kidnap them.
He tells his brothers they need to take the women back to their homes in town, but his brothers are unwilling.
The six women also do not want to return to their homes; they all want to stay at the farm with their new suitors and hide so they will not be taken back home.
When Milly discovers that the women are not in the house, Adam tells his brothers to go after them and bring them back.
The townspeople arrive with the intention of lynching the Pontipee brothers for the kidnappings.
Upon finding the brothers trying to force the women to return, the fathers believe their daughters are being assaulted and charge to their rescue.
Alice's father (Ian Wolfe), a preacher, hears baby Hannah cry in the distance, and worries that the baby might belong to one of the kidnapped girls.
The fathers and other townsmen round up the Pontipees and announce they intend to hang them.
Alice's father, the Reverend Alcott, asks the women whose baby he had heard.
They all decide, simultaneously, to claim the baby as their own.
This misinformation gives the women and the brothers their wish: the townspeople, including the girls' fathers, insist that all six couples marry at once in a shotgun wedding, performed by the parson while Adam and Milly watch and the fathers stand behind their daughters' grooms, shotguns over their arms.
<EOS>
The unnamed protagonist is ordered to Helsinki by Dawlish, his boss, to suppress a newspaper article, potentially embarrassing to theK.
government, about to be published by a Finnish journalist.
He finds the journalist murdered and coincidentally meets a young woman who attempts to recruit him into the British Intelligence.
This woman, Signe Lane, is both romantically connected to and working for the protagonist's old American friend Harvey Newbegin (who also appeared in Funeral in Berlin).
Newbegin in turn attempts to recruit him into a private intelligence outfit, whose network is operated by 'The Brain', a billion dollar super-computer owned by eccentric Texan billionaire General Midwinter.
Midwinter is using his agency and private army to start an uprising in Latvia, at the time a part of the USSR, in an attempt to end Communism in the Eastern bloc and tip the balance of the Cold War in favour of the West.
After discovering this and also the fact that a package Newbegin wants delivered from England to Finland contains virus-contaminated eggs, stolen from a British research institute, the protagonist treks from Finland through Riga, Leningrad, New York City, Texas and back to London.
He infiltrates Midwinter's organization, braving unforgiving environments, violence and shifting loyalties, eventually to return to the Baltic to stop the virus from falling into the hands of the Soviets and the madman billionaire and protect British reputations in the process.
<EOS>
Kim (Kimball O'Hara) is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and a poor Irish mother who have both died in poverty.
Living a vagabond existence in India under British rule in the late 19th century, Kim earns his living by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore.
He occasionally works for Mahbub Ali, a Pashtun horse trader who is one of the native operatives of the British secret service.
Kim is so immersed in the local culture, few realise he is a white child, though he carries a packet of documents from his father entrusted to him by an Indian woman who cared for him.
Kim befriends an aged Tibetan Lama who is on a quest to free himself from the Wheel of Things by finding the legendary River of the Arrow.
Kim becomes his chela, or disciple, and accompanies him on his journey.
On the way, Kim incidentally learns about parts of the Great Game and is recruited by Mahbub Ali to carry a message to the head of British intelligence in Umballa.
Kim's trip with the lama along the Grand Trunk Road is the first great adventure in the novel.
By chance, Kim's father's regimental chaplain identifies Kim by his Masonic certificate, which he wears around his neck, and Kim is forcibly separated from the lama.
The lama insists that Kim should comply with the chaplain's plan because he believes it is in Kim's best interests, and the boy is sent to a top English school in Lucknow.
The lama funds Kim's education.
Throughout his years at school, Kim remains in contact with the holy man he has come to love.
Kim also retains contact with his secret service connections and is trained in espionage (to be a surveyor) while on vacation from school by Lurgan Sahib, at his jewellery shop in Simla.
As part of his training, Kim looks at a tray full of mixed objects and notes which have been added or taken away, a pastime still called Kim's Game, also called the Jewel Game.
After three years of schooling, Kim is given a government appointment so that he can begin his role in the Great Game.
Before this appointment begins however, he is granted time to take a much-deserved break.
Kim rejoins the lama and at the behest of Kim's superior, Hurree Chunder Mookherjee, they make a trip to the Himalayas.
Here the espionage and spiritual threads of the story collide, with the lama unwittingly falling into conflict with Russian intelligence agents.
Kim obtains maps, papers and other important items from the Russians working to undermine British control of the region.
Mookherjee befriends the Russians under cover, acting as a guide and ensures that they do not recover the lost items.
Kim, aided by some porters and villagers, helps to rescue the lama.
The lama realises that he has gone astray.
His search for the "River of the Arrow" should be taking place in the plains, not in the mountains, and he orders the porters to take them back.
Here Kim and the lama are nursed back to health after their arduous journey.
Kim delivers the Russian documents to Hurree, and a concerned Mahbub Ali comes to check on Kim.
The lama finds his river and achieves Enlightenment.
The reader is left to decide whether Kim will henceforth follow the prideful road of the Great Game, the spiritual way of Tibetan Buddhism, or a combination of the two.
Kim himself has this to say: "I am not a Sahib.
I am thy chela".
(Meaning, "I am not a master.
I am your servant".
).
<EOS>
Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) are comic book artists and lifelong friends.
They meet fellow comic book artist Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams) at a comic book convention in New York City, where they are promoting their comic Bluntman and Chronic.
Holden is attracted to Alyssa, but soon learns that she is a lesbian.
The two begin hanging out, and a deep friendship develops.
Eventually, Holden is no longer able to contain his feelings, and confesses his love to Alyssa.
She is initially angry with him, but that night, the two begin a romantic relationship.
This new development worsens the tension between Holden and Banky, who hates and mistrusts Alyssa and is disturbed by her and Holden's relationship.
Banky investigates and uncovers dirt on Alyssa's past, and he reports to Holden that Alyssa participated in a threesome with two guys during high school, which gave her the nickname "Finger Cuffs".
Holden is deeply upset by this revelation, having previously believed that he is the first man Alyssa had ever slept with.
He angrily confronts Alyssa while attending a hockey game, and clumsily attempts baiting her into confessing.
During a tearful argument, she tells Holden about her "many" youthful sexual experimentations.
She apologizes for letting him believe that he was the only man she had been with.
However, she refuses to apologize for her past, and Holden leaves feeling disillusioned and furious.
Later, during lunch with Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith), Silent Bob reveals that he was once in a relationship similar to Holden's.
Despite the fact that he was in love with his girlfriend, Amy, his neurosis about her adventurous sexual past caused him to sabotage the relationship and leave her.
Angry at himself for letting her go, he has "spent every day since then chasing Amy, so to speak".
Moved by Silent Bob's story, Holden devises a plan to fix both his relationship with Alyssa and his estranged friendship with Banky.
He invites them both over and tells Alyssa that he would like to get over her past and remain her boyfriend.
He also tells Banky that he realizes that Banky is in love with him—kissing him passionately to prove the point.
Holden suggests a threesome.
Though initially shocked, Banky agrees to participate, whereas Alyssa explains to Holden that it will not save their relationship.
Before leaving, she states that she loves him, but she will not be his "whore".
Banky also leaves the apartment, instantly ending their friendship.
One year later, both Banky and Holden are busy promoting their own respective comics at a convention in New York.
It is revealed that Holden has dissolved their partnership over Bluntman and Chronic, leaving the viewer with the assumption that he sold the publishing and creative rights over to Banky (which is corroborated in the beginning of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back).
Banky smiles sadly at seeing his old friend, who silently congratulates him for his success on his own comic.
Banky gestures over to a booth hosted by Alyssa, and provides wordless encouragement to Holden to go talk to her.
He has a brief, quietly emotional conversation with Alyssa, and gives her a copy of Chasing Amy, his new comic based on their failed relationship.
After Holden leaves, Alyssa's new girlfriend (Virginia Smith) arrives and asks who she was talking to.
A shaken, misty-eyed Alyssa feigns indifference and replies, "Oh, just some guy I knew".
<EOS>
Isis, otherwise The Blessed Very Reverend Gaia-Marie Isis Saraswati Minerva Mirza Whit of Luskentyre, Beloved Elect of God III, is the 19-year-old granddaughter and designated spiritual heir of Salvador Whit, patriarch of the Luskentyrians.
They are a religious cult who live in a commune in Stirlingshire and reject most technology.
They run their lives according to a collection of beliefs and rituals "revealed" to Salvador after he washed ashore on Harris in the Western Isles and "married" two young Asian ladies (Aasni and Zhobelia Asis).
(Haggis pakora becomes a staple of the cult's cuisine)  The novel opens shortly before the Luskentyrian Festival of Love, held every four years, about nine months before every leap year day (29 February).
The Luskentyrians believe that those born on that day have special power.
This includes Isis herself, Elect of God, and expected to take over leadership of the cult.
The bulk of the novel tells of Isis' voyages in the world of "the Unsaved" (also known as "the Obtuse", "the Wretched", "the Bland" and "the Asleep"), through Scotland and southern England in search of Morag, who is feared to have rejected the cult.
While searching for her cousin, Isis meets Rastas, policemen, white power skinheads, and other characters of a sort she has never encountered before, and tells the story of the cult and the rationale behind its rules.
Isis' maternal grandmother, Yolanda, a feisty Texan woman, appears and lends her support to Isis' quest.
Isis' friend Sophi, although not part of the cult, is very close to her.
Isis meets her whenever she goes to her house to use the Luskentyrian method of free (if laborious) telephone communication, using coded rings.
Returning with enhanced maturity and a lot more information, Isis must decide what to tell the other members of the cult.
<EOS>
Arthur Dent plans to sightsee across the Galaxy with his girlfriend Fenchurch, but she disappears during a hyperspace jump, a result of being from an unstable sector of the Galaxy.
Depressed, Arthur continues to travel the galaxy using his biological donations to DNA banks to fund his travels, and knowing that he cannot die until he visits Stavromula Beta, as told to him by the insane Agrajag who had been repeatedly killed in various ways by Arthur before being reincarnated.
During one trip, he ends up stranded on the homely planet Lamuella, and decides to stay to become a sandwich maker for the local population.
Meanwhile, Ford Prefect has returned to the offices of the Hitchhiker's Guide, and is annoyed to find out the original publishing company, Megadodo Publications, has been taken over by InfiniDim Enterprises, which are run by the Vogons.
Fearing for his life, he escapes the building, along the way stealing the yet-unpublished, seemingly sentient Hitchhiker's Guide Mk.
II.
He goes into hiding after sending the Guide to himself, care of Arthur, for safekeeping.
On Lamuella, Arthur is surprised by the appearance of Trillian with a teenage daughter, Random Dent.
Trillian explains that she wanted a child, and could use the only human DNA she could find, thus claiming that Arthur is Random's father.
She leaves Random with Arthur to allow her to better pursue her career as an intergalactic reporter.
Random is frustrated with Arthur and life on Lamuella; when Ford's package to Arthur arrives, she takes it and discovers the Guide.
The Guide helps her to escape the planet on Ford's ship after Ford arrives on the planet looking for Arthur.
Discovering Random, the Guide, and Ford's ship missing, the two manage to find a way to leave Lamuella and head for Earth, where they suspect Random is also heading to find Trillian.
Ford expresses concern on the Guide's manipulation of events.
Reporter Tricia McMillan is an alternate version of Trillian living on Earth who never took Zaphod Beeblebrox's offer to travel in space.
She is approached by an extraterrestrial species, the Grebulons, who have created a base of operations on the planet Rupert, a recently discovered tenth planet in the Solar System.
However, due to damage to their ship in arriving, they have lost most of their computer core and their memories, with the only salvageable instructions being to observe something interesting with Earth.
They ask Tricia's help to adapt astrology charts for Rupert in exchange for allowing her to interview them.
Tricia conducts the interview, but the resulting footage looks fake.
She is called away from editing the footage to report on a spaceship landing in the middle of London.
As Tricia arrives, Random is leaving the ship.
Random yells at Tricia, believing Tricia to be her mother.
Arthur, Ford, and Trillian arrive and help Tricia to calm Random.
They remove her from the chaos surrounding the spacecraft and take her to a bar.
Trillian tries to warn the group that the Grebulons, having become bored of their mission, are about to destroy the Earth.
Random disrupts the discussion by producing a laser gun she took from her ship.
Arthur, still believing he cannot die, tries to calm Random's nerves, but a distraction causes her to flinch.
She fires the weapon, sending the bar into a panic.
Arthur tends to a man hit by the blast, and learns he is another reincarnation of Agrajag.
He also discovers that the bar is named "Stavro Mueller – Beta".
Arthur makes out Ford laughing wildly at this turn of events.
Arthur, despite the panic beginning around him, experiences a "tremendous feeling of peace".
The Grebulons, having determined that removing Earth from the astrological charts will improve their horoscopes, destroy it.
It is revealed that the Vogons designed the Guide Mk.
II with the ability to see the potential outcome of any event, enabling it to ensure that every version of the Earth in all realities is destroyed.
With its mission complete, the Guide collapses into nothingness.
<EOS>
In 1862, a strong-willed, widowed schoolteacher, Anna Leonowens, arrives in Bangkok, Siam (later known as Thailand) at the request of the King of Siam to tutor his many children.
Anna's young son, Louis, fears the severe countenance of the King's prime minister, the Kralahome, but Anna refuses to be intimidated ("I Whistle a Happy Tune").
The Kralahome has come to escort them to the palace, where they are expected to live – a violation of Anna's contract, which calls for them to live in a separate house.
She considers returning to Singapore aboard the vessel that brought them, but goes with her son and the Kralahome.
Several weeks pass, during which Anna and Louis are confined to their palace rooms.
The King receives a gift from the king of Burma, a lovely slave girl named Tuptim, to be one of his many wives.
She is escorted by Lun Tha, a scholar who has come to copy a design for a temple, and the two are secretly in love.
Tuptim, left alone, declares that the King may own her, but not her heart ("My Lord and Master").
The King gives Anna her first audience.
The schoolteacher is a part of his plan for the modernization of Siam; he is impressed when she already knows this.
She raises the issue of her house with him, he dismisses her protests and orders her to talk with his wives.
They are interested in her, and she tells them of her late husband, Tom ("Hello, Young Lovers").
The King presents her new pupils; Anna is to teach those of his children whose mothers are in favor with him – several dozen – and is to teach their mothers as well.
The princes and princesses enter in procession ("March of the Royal Siamese Children").
Anna is charmed by the children, and formality breaks down after the ceremony as they crowd around her.
Anna has not given up on the house, and teaches the children proverbs and songs extolling the virtues of home life, to the King's irritation.
The King has enough worries without battling the schoolteacher, and wonders why the world has become so complicated ("A Puzzlement").
The children and wives are hard at work learning English ("The Royal Bangkok Academy").
The children are surprised by a map showing how small Siam is compared with the rest of the world ("Getting to Know You").
As the crown prince, Chulalongkorn, disputes the map, the King enters a chaotic schoolroom.
He orders the pupils to believe the teacher but complains to Anna about her lessons about "home".
Anna stands her ground and insists on the letter of her contract, threatening to leave Siam, much to the dismay of wives and children.
The King orders her to obey as "my servant"; she repudiates the term and hurries away.
The King dismisses school, then leaves, uncertain of his next action.
Lun Tha comes upon Tuptim, and they muse about having to hide their relationship ("We Kiss in a Shadow").
In her room, Anna replays the confrontation in her mind, her anger building ("Shall I Tell You What I Think of You.
").
Lady Thiang, the King's head wife, tells Anna that the King is troubled by his portrayal in the West as a barbarian, as the British are being urged to take over Siam as a protectorate.
Anna is shocked by the accusations – the King is a polygamist, but he is no barbarian – but she is reluctant to see him after their argument.
Lady Thiang convinces her that the King is deserving of support ("Something Wonderful").
Anna goes to him and finds him anxious for reconciliation.
The King tells her that the British are sending an envoy to Bangkok to evaluate the situation.
Anna "guesses" – the only guise in which the King will accept advice – that the King will receive the envoy in European style, and that the wives will be dressed in Western fashion.
Tuptim has been writing a play based on a book that Anna has lent her, Uncle Tom's Cabin, that can be presented to the guests.
News is brought to the King that the British are arriving much earlier than thought, and so Anna and the wives are to stay up all night to prepare.
The King assembles his family for a Buddhist prayer for the success of the venture and also promises before Buddha that Anna will receive her own house "as provided in agreement, etc, etc".
The wives are dressed in their new European-style gowns, which they find confining ("Western People Funny").
In the rush to prepare, the question of undergarments has been overlooked, and the wives have practically nothing on underneath their gowns.
When the British envoy, Sir Edward Ramsay, arrives and gazes at them through a monocle, they are panicked by the "evil eye" and lift their skirts over their heads as they flee.
Sir Edward is diplomatic about the incident.
When the King is called away, it emerges that Sir Edward is an old flame of Anna's, and they dance in remembrance of old times, as Edward urges her to return to British society.
The King returns and irritably reminds them that dancing is for after dinner.
As final preparations for the play are made, Tuptim steals a moment to meet with Lun Tha.
He tells her he has an escape plan, and she should be ready to leave after the performance ("I Have Dreamed").
Anna encounters them, and they confide in her ("Hello, Young Lovers", reprise).
The play ("Small House of Uncle Thomas", narrated ballet) is presented in a Siamese ballet-inspired dance.
Tuptim is the narrator, and she tells her audience of the evil King Simon of Legree and his pursuit of the runaway slave Eliza.
Eliza is saved by Buddha, who miraculously freezes a river and conceals her in snow.
Buddha then causes the river to melt, drowning King Simon and his hunting party.
The anti-slavery message is blunt.
After the play, Sir Edward reveals that the British threat has receded, but the King is distracted by his displeasure at Tuptim's rebellious message.
After Sir Edward leaves, Anna and the King express their delight at how well the evening went, and he presents her with a ring.
Secret police report that Tuptim is missing.
The King realizes that Anna knows something; she parries his inquiry by asking why he should care: Tuptim is just another woman to him.
He is delighted; she is at last understanding the Siamese perspective.
Anna tries to explain to him the Western customs of courtship and tells him what it is like for a young woman at a formal dance ("Shall We Dance.
").
He demands that she teach him the dance.
She does, and in that dance they experience and express a love for each other that they can never speak aloud.
They are interrupted by the Kralahome.
Tuptim has been captured, and a search is on for Lun Tha.
The King resolves to punish Tuptim, though she denies she and Lun Tha were lovers.
Anna tries to dissuade him, but he is determined that her influence shall not rule, and he takes the whip himself.
He turns to lash Tuptim, but under Anna's gaze is unable to swing the whip, and hurries away.
Lun Tha is found dead, and Tuptim is dragged off, swearing to kill herself; nothing more is heard about her.
Anna asks the Kralahome to give her ring back to the King; both schoolteacher and minister state their wish that she had never come to Siam.
Several months pass with no contact between Anna and the King.
Anna is packed and ready to board a ship leaving Siam.
Chulalongkorn arrives with a letter from the King, who has been unable to resolve the conflicts within himself and is dying.
Anna hurries to the King's bedside and they reconcile.
The King persuades her to take back the ring and to stay and assist the next king, Chulalongkorn.
The dying man tells Anna to take dictation from the prince, and instructs the boy to give orders as if he were King.
The prince orders the end of the custom of kowtowing that Anna hated.
The King grudgingly accepts this decision.
As Chulalongkorn continues, prescribing a less arduous bow to show respect for the king, his father dies.
Anna kneels by the late King, holding his hand and kissing it, as the wives and children bow or curtsey, a gesture of respect to old king and new.
<EOS>
Bigger Thomas wakes up in a dark, small room at the sound of the alarm clock.
He lives in one room with his brother Buddy, his sister Vera, and their mother.
Suddenly, a rat appears.
The room turns into a maelstrom and after a violent chase, Bigger claims the life of the animal with an iron skillet and terrorizes Vera with the dead rodent.
Vera faints and mrs Thomas scolds Bigger, who hates his family because they suffer and he cannot do anything about it.
That evening, Bigger has to see mr Dalton for a new job.
Bigger's family depends on him.
He would like to leave his responsibilities forever but when he thinks of what to do, he only sees a blank wall.
He walks to the poolroom and meets his friend, Gus.
Bigger tells him that every time he thinks about whites, he feels something terrible will happen to him.
They meet other friends,H.
and Jack, and plan a robbery of the white wealth.
They are all afraid of attacking and stealing from a white man, but none of them wants to admit their concerns.
Before the robbery, Bigger and Jack go to the movies.
They are attracted to the world of wealthy whites in the newsreel and feel strangely moved by the tom-toms and the primitive black people in the film, but they also feel that they are equal to those worlds.
After the cinema, Bigger returns to the poolroom and attacks Gus violently, forcing him to lick his blade in a demeaning way to hide his own cowardice.
The fight ends any chance of the robbery occurring; Bigger is obscurely conscious that he has done this intentionally.
When he finally gets the job, Bigger does not know how to behave in the large and luxurious house.
mr Dalton and his blind wife use strange words.
They try to be kind to Bigger, but they actually make him very uncomfortable; Bigger does not know what they expect of him.
Then their daughter, Mary, enters the room, asks Bigger why he does not belong to a union, and calls her father a "capitalist".
Bigger does not know that word and is even more confused and afraid to lose the job.
After the conversation, Peggy, an Irish cook, takes Bigger to his room and tells him that the Daltons are a nice family, but that he must avoid Mary's communist friends.
Bigger has never had a room for himself before.
That night, he drives Mary around and meets her Communist boyfriend Jan.
Throughout the evening, Jan and Mary talk to Bigger, oblige him to take them to the diner where his friends are, invite him to sit at their table, and tell him to call them by their first names.
Bigger does not know how to respond to their requests and becomes very frustrated, as he is simply their chauffeur for the night.
At the diner, they buy a bottle of rum.
Bigger drives throughout Washington Park, and Jan and Mary drink the rum and have sex in the back seat.
Jan and Mary part, but Mary is so drunk that Bigger has to carry her to her bedroom when they arrive home.
He is terrified someone will see him with her in his arms; however, he cannot resist the temptation of the forbidden, and he kisses her.
Just then, the bedroom door opens, and mrs Dalton enters.
Bigger knows she is blind but is terrified she will sense him there.
He silences Mary by pressing a pillow into her face.
Mary claws at Bigger's hands while mrs Dalton is in the room, trying to alert Bigger that she cannot breathe.
mrs Dalton approaches the bed, smells alcohol in the air, scolds her daughter, and leaves.
As Bigger removes the pillow, he realizes that Mary has suffocated.
Bigger starts thinking frantically, and decides he will tell everyone that Jan, her Communist boyfriend, took Mary into the house that night.
Thinking it will be better if Mary disappears and everyone thinks she has left Chicago, he decides in desperation to burn her body in the house's furnace.
Her body would not originally fit through the furnace opening, but after decapitating her, Bigger finally manages to put the corpse inside.
He adds extra coal to the furnace, leaves the corpse to burn, and goes home.
Bigger's current girlfriend Bessie suspects him of having done something to Mary.
Bigger goes back to work.
mr Dalton has called a private detective, mr Britten.
Britten interrogates Bigger accusingly, but mr Dalton vouches for Bigger.
Bigger relates the events of the previous evening in a way calculated to throw suspicion on Jan, knowing mr Dalton dislikes Jan because he is a Communist.
When Britten finds Jan, he puts the boy and Bigger in the same room and confronts them with their conflicting stories.
Jan is surprised by Bigger's story but offers him help.
Bigger storms away from the Daltons.
He decides to write a false kidnapping note when he discovers that the owner of the rat-infested flat his family rents is mr Dalton.
Bigger slips the note under the Daltons' front door and then returns to his room.
When the Daltons receive the note, they contact the police, who take over the investigation from Britten, and journalists soon arrive at the house.
Bigger is afraid, but he does not want to leave.
In the afternoon, he is ordered to take the ashes out of the furnace and make a new fire.
He is terrified and starts poking the ashes with the shovel until the whole room is full of smoke.
Furious, one of the journalists takes the shovel and pushes Bigger aside.
He immediately finds the remains of Mary's bones and an earring in the furnace, and Bigger flees.
Bigger goes directly to Bessie and tells her the whole story.
Bessie realizes that white people will think he raped the girl before killing her.
They leave together, but Bigger has to drag Bessie around because she is paralyzed by fear.
When they lie down together in an abandoned building, Bigger rapes Bessie and falls asleep.
In the morning, he decides that he has to kill her in her sleep.
He hits Bessie on the head with a brick before throwing her through a window and into an air shaft.
He quickly realizes that the only money he had was in her pocket.
Bigger runs through the city.
He sees newspaper headlines concerning the crime and overhears different conversations about it.
Whites hate him and blacks hate him because he brought shame on the black race.
After a wild chase over the rooftops of the city, the police catch him.
During his first few days in prison, Bigger does not eat, drink, or talk to anyone.
Then Jan comes to visit him.
He says Bigger has taught him a lot about black-white relationships and offers him the help of a communist lawyer named Max.
In the long hours Max and Bigger spend talking, he starts understanding his relationships with his family and with the world.
He acknowledges his fury, his need for a future, and his wish for a meaningful life.
He reconsiders his attitudes about white people, whether they are aggressive like Britten, or accepting like Jan.
Bigger is found guilty in front of the court and sentenced to death for murder; however, at the end of the novel, he appears to come to terms with his fate.
<EOS>
Jack Powell and David Armstrong are rivals in the same small American town, both vying for the attentions of pretty Sylvia Lewis.
Jack fails to realize that "the girl next door", Mary Preston, is desperately in love with him.
The two young men both enlist to become combat pilots in the Air Service.
When they leave for training camp, Jack mistakenly believes Sylvia prefers him.
She actually prefers David and lets him know about her feelings, but is too kindhearted to turn down Jack's affection.
Jack and David are billeted together.
Their tent mate is Cadet White, but their acquaintance is all too brief; White is killed in an air crash the same day.
Undaunted, the two men endure a rigorous training period, where they go from being enemies to best friends.
Upon graduating, they are shipped off to France to fight the Germans.
Mary joins the war effort by becoming an ambulance driver.
She later learns of Jack's reputation as the ace known as "The Shooting Star" and encounters him while on leave in Paris.
She finds him, but he is too drunk to recognize her.
She puts him to bed, but when two military police barge in while she is innocently changing from a borrowed dress back into her uniform in the same room, she is forced to resign and return to America.
The climax of the story comes with the epic Battle of Saint-Mihiel.
David is shot down and presumed dead.
However, he survives the crash landing, steals a German biplane, and heads for the Allied lines.
By a tragic stroke of bad luck, Jack spots the enemy aircraft and, bent on avenging his friend, begins an attack.
He is successful in downing the aircraft and lands to retrieve a souvenir of his victory.
The owner of the land where David's aircraft crashed urges Jack to come to the dying man's side.
He agrees and becomes distraught when he realizes what he has done.
David consoles him and before he dies, forgives his comrade.
At the war's end, Jack returns home to a hero's welcome.
He visits David's grieving parents to return his friend's effects.
During the visit he begs their forgiveness for causing David's death.
mrs Armstrong says it is not Jack who is responsible for her son's death, but the war.
Then, Jack is reunited with Mary and realizes he loves her.
<EOS>
Lady Isabel Carlyle, a beautiful and refined young woman, leaves her hard-working lawyer-husband, Carlyle, and her infant children to elope with an aristocratic suitor, Francis Levison, after wrongfully suspecting and becoming jealous of her husband's friendship with Barbara Hare.
However once abroad with Levison she realises he has no intention of marrying her, despite her having borne their illegitimate child.
He deserts her, Lady Isabel is disfigured in a train accident and the child is killed.
Following this Isabel is able to take the position of governess in the household of her former husband and his new wife allowing her to be close to her children but which also becomes a source of great misery.
The pressure of keeping up a façade and being constantly reminded that her husband has moved on eventually physically weakens her.
On her deathbed she tells all to Carlyle who forgives her.
<EOS>
Skippy (Jackie Cooper) is the feisty son of the strict dr Herbert Skinner (Willard Robertson) and his wife Ellen (Enid Bennett).
Skinner forbids his son Skippy to play in the pauperized Shantytown, because of the unhygenical and criminal surroundings there.
But Skippy and his friend Sidney (Jackie Searl) still go to Shantytown where Sidney meets a new boy named Sooky (Robert Coogan, Jackie Coogan's little brother).
He saves the small boy Sooky from the much bigger bully Harley Nubbins (Donald Haines).
Skippy and Sooky become friends.
One day Harley accidentally breaks the windshield of his father's car with Skippy's yo-yo.
Harley, who has a very aggressive and brute father, blames it on Skippy and Sooky.
mr Nubbins (Jack Rube Clifford), who works as a dog catcher, takes Sooky's dog and demands that they pay him for the damages if they want their dog back.
The boys gather three dollars by breaking Skippy's savings bank, but mr Nubbins accepts it only for his windshield.
He gives them three days to get another three dollars for a dog license and he threatens that he'll kill their dog if they don't get the money.
Sooky and Skippy spend the next two days selling bottles, lemonade and wood, and staging a performance to earn money.
Skippy's father doesn't want to lend them the remaining thirty cents.
Then mr Dubbins kills their dog and Skippy blames his father for it.
The next morning, Skippy gets a new bicycle from his father.
But he trades the bicycle to his friend, Eloise (Mitzi Green), for her new dog.
Skippy takes the dog to Sooky.
dr Skinner has a change of heart and buys Sooky a licensed dog, finds his mother a job, and refrains from ordering Shantytown destroyed, instead offering assistance to its citizens.
For the first time, dr Skinner plays with Skippy in Shantytown.
There they accidentally break mr Nubbins' new windshield.
dr Skinner wins a fight against mr Nubbins and shows that he is a good father.
<EOS>
The film depicts the adventures of real-life trader and adventurer Alfred Aloysius "Trader" Horn, while on safari in Africa.
The fictional parts of the plot include the discovery of a white blonde jungle queen, the lost daughter of a missionary, played by Miss Booth.
The realistic part includes a scene in which Carey as Horn swings on a vine across a river filled with genuine crocodiles, one of which comes very close to taking his leg off.
<EOS>
Dorothy Haley (Sally Eilers) and Edna Driggs (Minna Gombell) are store models, first seen in bridal clothes at work one afternoon.
After the job Dorothy fends off her boss, who wants to take her for a ride, by claiming to be married to a prize fighter.
The girls then go to Coney Island.
On the return steamboat trip, the women make a bet about attracting a certain man's attention, and proceed to annoy him by playing a ukulele.
This man is Eddie Collins (James Dunn), and after reacting to the women grouchily, he slowly forms a connection with Dorothy and sees her home.
Eddie works in a radio shop and dreams of having a shop on his own, for which he has been saving.
On a subsequent date, Eddie keeps Dorothy in his apartment past 4m, and she fears the reaction of her abusive older brother, who has been her guardian.
Eddie proposes marriage as a solution and Dorothy joyfully accepts.
Dorothy's brother calls her a tramp and evicts her from her home.
After Dorothy suffers some anxiety the next day when Eddie seems to have disappeared, he turns up, having made arrangements for a new place to live, and the two are happily married.
Ten weeks later Dorothy confides to Edna that she is pregnant, but is reluctant to tell Eddie the news when she learns that he is ready to open his new shop, an expensive commitment.
Instead she tells Eddie that she'd like to return to work, to which he objects.
Wrongly guessing that she wants a larger place to live, Eddie cancels his plans for the shop in favor of a lavish new building and new furnishings, increasing Dorothy's worries.
By the time Eddie finally finds out he's going to be a father, the two mutually misunderstand that the other is unhappy about the pregnancy, resulting in a strain on their marriage.
The strain intensifies when Eddie stays away from home while earning extra money and arranging for the best possible doctor, all without telling Dorothy.
After the child is born, Dorothy plans to leave Eddie until the misunderstanding is joyfully cleared up on.
<EOS>
Andy "Champ" Purcell (Wallace Beery) is the former world heavyweight champion, now down on his luck and living in squalid conditions with his eight-year-old son "Dink" in Tijuana, Mexico.
Champ attempts to train and to convince promoters to set up a fight for him, but his efforts are consistently stymied by his alcoholism.
Dink is repeatedly disappointed and let down by his father's irresponsible actions and frequent broken promises to quit drinking, but his utter devotion to his father nonetheless never wavers.
In addition to his drinking problem, Champ is also a compulsive gambler, another vice which he repeatedly promises Dink he will surrender (but never does).
After a winning streak, he fulfills a previous promise to buy Dink a horse, whom they subsequently name "Little Champ" and decide to enter into a race.
At the track, Dink happens across a woman who, unknown to either of them, is actually his mother Linda.
She is now remarried to Tony, a wealthy man who owns one of the other horses in the race.
Linda and Tony observe Dink and Champ together and realize that Dink is her son.
Champ allows Linda to see Dink, who accepts that she is his mother.
But Dink feels no emotion toward her, as she has never been part of his life.
Linda resolves to remove Dink from the negative atmosphere in which he's growing up and have him live with her family.
Catching Champ during an all-night gambling binge, Tony asks him to turn Dink over so that Tony and Linda can put Dink into school.
Champ refuses.
As the exhausted Dink sleeps on a nearby table, Tony bluntly observes that Champ is not a good father.
The night of gambling ends with Champ having lost Little Champ, which devastates Dink.
Champ asks Linda for enough money to buy the horse back, and she gives it to him.
But before he can buy the horse back, he starts gambling again and loses the money Linda loaned him.
He also winds up in jail, breaking Dink's heart once more.
Ashamed of his actions and with his spirit broken, Champ finally agrees to send an unwilling Dink to live with Tony and Linda.
On the train ride home, Tony and Linda try their best to welcome Dink into their family.
Dink does not dislike them, but he is consumed only by thoughts of his father.
He runs away back to Tijuana, where he finds that Champ has a fight scheduled with the Mexican heavyweight champion.
When he sees Dink, Champ immediately returns to good spirits.
He trains hard for the fight and, for the first time, really does stay away from drinking and gambling.
Champ is determined to win the fight, make Dink proud of him, and use his prize money to buy back Little Champ.
Tony and Linda attend the fight, bringing genuine best wishes and assurances that they will make no further efforts to separate Dink from Champ.
The match is brutal, and Champ is seriously injured.
Dink and the others in his corner urge him to throw in the towel, but Champ refuses to allow that.
He musters a last burst of energy, and knocks out his opponent.
After the fight, he triumphantly presents Little Champ to Dink.
But after witnessing his son's overjoyed reaction, Champ collapses.
Champ is brought into his dressing room, where a doctor determines that his injuries are mortal.
Champ urges Dink to cheer up and then dies, leaving Dink inconsolable.
Despite the best efforts of all of the men and boys in the room, who one by one attempt to calm him, Dink continually wails, "I want the Champ.
" Finally, Dink spots Linda enter the room.
Dink looks at her, cries out, "Mother.
" and runs into her arms.
She picks him up and he sobs, "The Champ is dead, mama".
She turns and carries him out of the room as he buries his face in her shoulder, crying.
<EOS>
Joseph Randall (Edward Robinson), the city editor of a tabloid newspaper, reluctantly agrees when publisher Bernard Hinchecliffe (Oscar Apfel) plans to boost circulation with a restrospective series on a 20-year-old murder and scandal, involving a secretary, Nancy Voorhees (Frances Starr), who shot the man who got her pregnant and then refused to marry her.
Nancy is now married to Michael Townsend (H.
Warner), an upstanding member of society, and has a daughter, Jenny (Marian Marsh), about to marry the son of a socially prominent family, Philip Weeks (Anthony Bushell).
She reacts with horror at the renewed interest in the scandal she had put behind her.
To dig up dirt about Nancy, Randall assigns an unscrupulous reporter, "Reverend" Vernon Isopod (Boris Karloff), who masquerades as a minister and wins the confidence of the bride's parents on the eve of the wedding.
They confess to him their concerns that Nancy's past will come out, and he uses their information to write a story that Randall prints.
Nancy tries to get Randall to back away from the story, but when he refuses she kills herself, as does her husband shortly afterwards.
Phillip's parents pressure him to call off the wedding to Nancy's daughter Jenny, but he refuses and stands up to them.
An enraged Jenny threatens Randall at gun point, attempting to force him to take responsibility for the deaths of her mother and father, but Philip shows up and calms her down.
A guilty Randall denounces Hinchecliffe as a hypocrite and decides to quit the paper, as does his secretary Miss Taylor (Aline MacMahon), who's been in love with him for years.
<EOS>
Parisian doctor Andre Bertier (Maurice Chevalier) is faithful to his loving wife, Colette (Jeanette MacDonald), much to the surprise of his lovely female patients.
But when Colette's best friend Mitzi Olivier (Genevieve Tobin) insists upon being treated by dr Bertier, it looks to many of those concerned that Mitzi may succeed where the other willing ladies failed.
<EOS>
In 1931, China is embroiled in a civil war.
Friends of British Captain Donald "Doc" Harvey (Clive Brook) envy him because the fabulously notorious Shanghai Lily (Marlene Dietrich) is a fellow passenger on the express train from Beiping to Shanghai.
Since the name means nothing to him, they inform him that she is a "coaster" or "woman who lives by her wits along the China coast" – in other words, a courtesan.
On the journey, Harvey encounters Lily, who turns out to be his former lover, Magdalen.
Five years earlier, she had played a trick on Harvey to gauge his love for her, but it backfired and he left her.
She frankly informs him that, in the interim, "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily".
When Lily makes it clear that she still cares deeply for him, it becomes apparent that his feelings also have not changed, and he shows her the watch she gave him with her photograph still in it.
Among the other passengers are fellow coaster Hui Fei (Anna May Wong), Lily's companion; Christian missionary mr Carmichael (Lawrence Grant), who at first condemns the two "fallen women"; inveterate gambler Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette); opium dealer Eric Baum (Gustav von Seyffertitz); boarding house keeper mrs Haggerty (Louise Closser Hale); French officer Major Lenard (Emile Chautard) and a mysterious Eurasian, Henry Chang (Warner Oland).
Chinese government soldiers board and search the train and apprehend a high-ranking rebel agent.
Chang then makes his way to a telegraph office and sends a coded message.
Later, the train is stopped and taken over by the rebel army and its powerful warlord, who turns out to be Chang.
Chang begins to question the passengers, looking for someone important enough to exchange for his valued aide.
He finds what he wants in Harvey, who is on his way to perform brain surgery on the Governor-General of Shanghai.
Chang offers to take Shanghai Lily to his palace, but she claims she has reformed.
When Chang refuses to accept her answer, Harvey breaks in and knocks him down.
Because Chang needs Harvey alive, he swallows (but does not forget) the insult.
Chang then has Hui Fei brought to him in his quarters, where he forces himself on her.
The government releases Chang's man, but Chang decides to blind Harvey for his insolence.
Out of love, Lily offers herself in return for Harvey's safe release.
Harvey remains unaware of the danger he is in and Lily's reason for going with Chang.
Chang is stabbed to death by Hui Fei who tells Harvey what has transpired.
Finding Lily, the trio boards the train and depart before the body is discovered.
The missionary Carmichael, trusting his instincts, gets Lily to reveal the truth about saving Harvey.
She insists that he not enlighten Harvey, because love must go hand in hand with faith.
When the train finally reaches Shanghai safely, Lily offers Harvey her love unconditionally, but demands the same in return.
Harvey finally breaks down and embraces her.
<EOS>
In Vienna, Lieutenant Nikolaus "Niki" von Preyn (Maurice Chevalier) meets Franzi (Claudette Colbert), the leader of an all-female-orchestra.
They soon fall in love with each other.
While standing in formation before a parade honoring the visiting royal family of Flausenthurm, Niki takes the opportunity to wink at Franzi in the crowd.
Unfortunately the gesture is intercepted by Anna, the Princess of Flausenthurm (Miriam Hopkins).
The naive Princess assumes offense, leading the lieutenant to convince her that he slighted her because she is thought to be very beautiful.
Besotted, the Princess demands she has to marry the lieutenant, or, she'll marry an American instead.
The international incident is narrowly averted by having them get married.
The Lieutenant sneaks away from his bride to wander the streets of Flausenthurm to find his girlfriend.
The princess learns of this and decides to confront Franzi.
After the initial confrontation, Franzi sees that the princess is in fact deeply in love with the lieutenant, and decides to save the marriage by giving the princess a makeover, singing "Jazz up your lingerie.
"  The results are a complete success as the Lieutenant follows his satin-clad, cigarette-puffing bride into the bedroom and closes the door – only to open it and give the audience a last song and a suggestive wink.
<EOS>
The show's star was Skippy, a wild female eastern grey kangaroo befriended by Sonny Hammond, younger son of the Head Ranger of Waratah National Park.
The stories revolved around events in the park, including its animals, the dangers arising from natural hazards, and the actions of visitors.
The boy's mother is said (in Episode 48 "The Mine") to have died shortly after Sonny was born.
The series was shot in northern Sydney at the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the adjacent Waratah Park (now known as Waratah Park Earth Sanctuary).
Permission to film and build structures in the park was given by the then NSW Minister for Lands, Tom Lewis, before shooting of the series began in 1967, to showcase the new NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service government department he had just established.
The clicking sounds made by Skippy are vocal sound effects, rather than the natural vocalisations of a kangaroo, with chocolate, chewing gum or grass and in some cases, an elastic band around the lower jaw, used to make Skippy move her mouth.
Between nine and fifteen kangaroos were used for each show.
The apparent manual dexterity was often achieved by using separate arms in the hands of human operators.
In 1969 a movie-length Skippy and The Intruders was released.
<EOS>
The novel is divided into five books.
In the first book, Frederic Henry, an American paramedic serving in the Italian Army is introduced to Catherine Barkley, an English nurse, by his good friend and roommate, Rinaldi, a surgeon.
Frederic attempts to seduce her, and their relationship begins.
Frederic doesn't want a serious relationship, but his feelings for Catherine slowly start to grow.
On the Italian front, Frederic is wounded in the knee by a mortar and sent to a hospital in Milan, where Catherine is also sent.
The second book shows the growth of Frederic and Catherine's relationship as they spend time together in Milan over the summer.
Frederic and Catherine fall in love as Frederic slowly heals.
After his knee heals, he is diagnosed with jaundice but is soon kicked out of the hospital and sent back to the front after being discovered with alcohol.
By the time he is sent back, Catherine is three months pregnant.
In the third book, Frederic returns to his unit, and soon discovers morale has severely dropped.
Not long afterwards the Austrians break through the Italian lines in the Battle of Caporetto, and the Italians retreat.
Due to a slow and hectic retreat, Frederic and his men go off trail and quickly get lost, and a frustrated Frederic kills a sergeant for insubordination.
After catching up to the main retreat, Frederic is taken to a place by the "battle police," where officers are being interrogated and executed for the "treachery" that supposedly led to the Italian defeat.
However, after seeing and hearing that everyone interrogated has been killed, Frederic escapes by jumping into a river.
He heads to Milan to find Catherine only to discover that she has been sent to Stresa.
In the fourth book, Catherine and Frederic reunite and spend some time in Stresa before Frederic learns he will soon be arrested.
He and Catherine then flee to Switzerland in a rowboat.
After interrogation by Swiss authorities, they are allowed to stay in Switzerland.
In the final book, Frederic and Catherine live a quiet life in the mountains until she goes into labor.
After a long and painful birth, their son is stillborn.
Catherine begins to hemorrhage and soon dies, leaving Frederic to return to their hotel in the rain.
<EOS>
Sergeant James Allen (Paul Muni) returns to civilian life after World War I but his war experience makes him restless.
His family feels he should be grateful for a tedious job as an office clerk, and when he announces that he wants to become an engineer, they react with outrage.
He leaves home to find work on any sort of project, but unskilled labor is plentiful and it's hard for him to find a job.
Wandering and sinking into poverty, he accidentally becomes caught up in a robbery and is sentenced to ten years on a brutal Southern chain gang.
He escapes and makes his way to Chicago, where he becomes a success in the construction business.
He becomes involved with the proprietor of his boardinghouse, Marie Woods (Glenda Farrell), who discovers his secret and blackmails him into an unhappy marriage.
He then meets and falls in love with Helen (Helen Vinson).
When he asks his wife for a divorce, she betrays him to the authorities.
He is offered a pardon if he will turn himself in; Allen accepts, only to find that it was just a ruse.
He escapes once again.
In the end, Allen visits Helen in the shadows on the street and tells her he is leaving forever.
She asks, "Can't you tell me where you're going.
Will you write.
Do you need any money.
" James repeatedly shakes his head in answer as he backs away.
Finally Helen says, "But you must, Jim.
How do you live.
" James' face is barely seen in the surrounding darkness, and he replies, "I steal," as he backs into the black.
<EOS>
The story focuses on Apple Annie, an aging and wretched fruit seller in New York City, whose daughter Louise has been raised in a Spanish convent since she was an infant.
Louise has been led to believe her mother is a society matron named mrs Worthington Manville who lives at the Hotel Marberry.
Annie discovers her charade is in danger of being uncovered when she learns Louise is sailing to New York with her fiancé Carlos and his father, Count Romero.
Among Annie's patrons are Dave the Dude, a gambling gangster who believes her apples bring him good luck, and his henchman Happy McGuire.
Annie's friends ask Dave to rent her an apartment at the Marberry and, although he initially declines, he has a change of heart and arranges for her to live in the lap of luxury in a palatial residence belonging to a friend.
His girlfriend, nightclub owner Missouri Martin, helps transform Annie from a dowdy street peddler to an elegant dowager.
Dave arranges for pool hustler Henry Blake to pose as Annie's husband, the dignified Judge Manville.
At the pier, Annie tearfully reunites with Louise.
When three society reporters become suspicious about mrs Worthington Manville, of whom they can find no public records, they are kidnapped by members of Dave's gang, and their disappearance leads the local newspapers to accuse the police department of incompetence.
A few days later, Blake – in the role of Judge Manville – announces he is planning a gala reception for Louise, Carlos, and Count Romero before they return to Spain, and he enlists Dave's guys and Missouri's dolls to pose as Annie's society friends.
On the night of the reception, the police – certain Dave is responsible for the missing reporters – surround Missouri's club, where the gang has assembled for a final rehearsal.
Dave calls Blake to advise him of their predicament, and Annie decides to confess everything to Count Romero.
But fate – in the form of a sympathetic mayor and governor and their entourages – unexpectedly steps in and allows Annie to maintain her charade and keep Louise from learning the truth.
<EOS>
Four sisters live with their mother, facing Christmas without their father as the American Civil War is underway.
The family is settled in a new neighborhood, living in genteel poverty after the father lost their money.
Meg and Jo March, the elder sisters, both work outside the home for money to support the family.
Meg teaches four children in a nearby family, while Jo aids her grand-aunt March, a wealthy widow whose strength is failing.
Beth helps with housework, and Amy attends school.
Their nearest neighbor is a wealthy man whose orphaned grandson lives with him.
The sisters introduce themselves to the handsome shy boy, Laurie, who is the age of Jo.
Meg is the beautiful sister; Jo is the tomboy; Beth is the musician; and Amy is the charming artist with blond curls.
Jo is impulsive and quick to anger.
One of her challenges in growing up is to control acting out of anger, a challenge that also faced her mother, Marmee.
Marmee advises Jo on speaking with forethought.
The boy Laurie enjoys his neighbors, joining the family often in play and home theatrics written by Jo.
His grandfather, mr Laurence, is charmed by Beth, and gives her the piano used by Laurie’s dead sister.
Beth contracts scarlet fever after tending to a family where three children died of it.
Her poor condition forces her sisters and the Laurences to call Marmee back from Washington, where she has gone to tend her husband, who contracted pneumonia.
Beth recovers, but never fully.
Jo tends Beth in her illness.
Amy, not yet exposed to scarlet fever, is sent to live with Aunt March, replacing Jo after Beth recovers.
Jo has success earning money with her writing.
Meg spends two weeks with friends, where there are parties for the girls to dance with boys and improve social skills.
Laurie is invited to one of the dances, as her friends incorrectly think Meg is in love with him.
Meg is more interested in the young tutor for Laurie, John Brooke.
Brooke traveled to Washington to help mr March, staying there when Marmee comes back to tend Beth.
While with both March parents, Brooke confesses his love for Meg.
The parents agree, but suggest they are both too young to marry, as Meg is just seventeen.
They agree to wait.
In the interim, Brooke serves a year in the war, is wounded, returns home and finds work so he can get a house for their upcoming marriage.
Laurie’s need for a tutor ends, as he goes off to college.
The war ends.
Meg and John marry and settle in the house, close to the March home.
They learn how to live together, and soon have twins.
Meg is a devoted mother that first year, and John begins to feel left out.
Marmee advises Meg on how to balance caring for her children and being with her husband.
Meg accepts help in watching them from the March family cook, and sees that John is a good father, rejuvenating their marriage.
Laurie graduates from college, putting in effort to do well in his last year, at Jo’s prompting.
Jo decides she needs a break, and spends six months with a friend of her mother in New York City, serving as governess for her two children.
The family runs a boarding house, with new people for Jo, the writer, to consider.
She takes lessons in German from Professor Bhaer, who lives in the house.
He has come to America from Berlin to care for the orphaned sons of his sister.
For extra money, Jo writes stories without a moral, which disappoints Bhaer.
Amy goes on a European tour with her aunt, uncle and cousin.
Jo returns home, where Laurie proposes marriage to her, and she turns him down.
He is heartbroken; both he and his grandfather go to Europe.
Beth’s health has seriously deteriorated, as Jo sees on her return.
She devotes herself to the care of her sister, until Beth dies.
In Europe, Laurie encounters Amy, who is growing up.
On news of Beth’s death, the two meet for consolation, and their romance grows strong, as Amy learns how to manage him.
They marry in Europe, as Amy’s aunt will not allow Amy to return with Laurie and his grandfather and no other chaperone.
The day they return home, Professor Bhaer shows up at the March home.
He spends two weeks there, on the last day proposing marriage to Jo.
Their marriage is deferred as Bhaer teaches at a college in the west.
Aunt March dies, leaving her large home, Plumfield, to Jo.
She and Bhaer marry, turning the house into a school for boys.
They have two sons of their own, and Amy and Laurie have a daughter.
In the fall at apple-picking time, Marmee’s 60th birthday is celebrated at Jo’s place, with her three daughters, their husbands, her husband, and her five grandchildren.
<EOS>
The film begins 20 years into King Henry's reign.
In May 1536, in the immediate aftermath of the execution of his second wife, Anne Boleyn (Merle Oberon), King Henry VIII (Charles Laughton) marries Jane Seymour (Wendy Barrie), who dies in childbirth eighteen months later.
He then weds a German princess, Anne of Cleves (played by Laughton's real-life wife Elsa Lanchester).
This marriage ends in divorce when Anne deliberately makes herself unattractive so she can be free to marry her sweetheart.
(In an imaginative and high-spirited scene, Anne "wins her freedom" from Henry in a game of cards on their wedding night).
After this divorce, Henry marries the beautiful and ambitious Lady Katherine Howard (Binnie Barnes).
She has rejected love all her life in favour of ambition, but after her marriage, she finally falls in love with Henry's handsome courtier Thomas Culpeper (Robert Donat) who has attempted to woo her in the past.
Their liaison is discovered by Henry's court and the two are executed.
The weak and ageing Henry consoles himself with a final marriage to Catherine Parr (Everley Gregg) who proves domineering.
In the final scene, while Parr is no longer in the room, the king breaks the fourth wall, saying "Six wives, and the best of them's the worst".
<EOS>
Seven-year-old Johnny (Bobby Driscoll) is excited about what he believes to be a vacation at his grandmother's Georgia plantation with his parents, John Sr.
(Erik Rolf) and Sally (Ruth Warrick).
When they arrive at the plantation, he discovers that his parents will be living apart for a while, and he is to live in the country with his mother and grandmother (Lucile Watson) while his father returns to Atlanta to continue his controversial editorship in the city's newspaper.
Johnny, distraught because his father has never left him or his mother before, leaves that night under cover of darkness and sets off for Atlanta with only a bindle.
As Johnny sneaks away from the plantation, he is attracted by the voice of Uncle Remus (James Baskett) telling tales "in his old-timey way" of a character named Br'er Rabbit.
Curious, Johnny hides behind a nearby tree to spy on the group of people sitting around the fire.
By this time, word has gotten out that Johnny is gone and some plantation residents, who are sent out to find him, ask if Uncle Remus has seen the boy.
Uncle Remus replies that he's with him.
Shortly afterwards, he catches up with Johnny, who sits crying on a nearby log.
He befriends the young boy and offers him some food for the journey, taking him back to his cabin.
As Uncle Remus cooks, he mentions Br'er Rabbit again and the boy, curious, asks him to tell him more.
After Uncle Remus tells a tale about Br'er Rabbit (Johnny Lee) and his attempt to run away from home only to change his mind after an encounter with Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear (James Baskett and Nick Stewart), Johnny takes the advice and changes his mind about leaving the plantation, letting Uncle Remus take him back to his mother.
Johnny makes friends with Toby (Glenn Leedy), a little black boy who lives on the plantation, and Ginny Favers (Luana Patten), a poor white girl.
However, Ginny's two older brothers Joe (Gene Holland) and Jake (George Nokes) are not friendly at all; they constantly bully Ginny and Johnny.
When Ginny gives Johnny a puppy, her brothers want to drown it.
A rivalry breaks out among the three boys.
Heartbroken because his mother refuses to let him take care of the puppy, Johnny takes the dog to Uncle Remus and tells him of his troubles.
Uncle Remus takes the dog in and delights Johnny and his friends with the fable of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar-Baby, stressing that people shouldn't go messing around with something they have no business with in the first place.
Johnny heeds the advice of how Br'er Rabbit used reverse psychology on Br'er Fox and begs the Favers Brothers not to tell their mother (Mary Field) about the dog, which is precisely what they do, but this lesson ends in failure when they get a good spanking for it.
Enraged, the boys vow revenge.
They go to the plantation and tell Sally, who is upset that Uncle Remus kept the dog despite her order (which was unknown to Uncle Remus).
She orders the old man not to tell any more stories to her son.
The day of Johnny's birthday arrives and Johnny picks up Ginny to take her to his party.
Ginny's mother has used her wedding dress to make her daughter a beautiful dress for the party.
On the way there, Joe and Jake pick another fight.
Ginny gets pushed and ends up in a mud puddle.
With her dress ruined, the upset Ginny refuses to go to the party.
Johnny, enraged with the way Joe and Jake treat Ginny, attacks them.
Uncle Remus breaks up the fight.
While Johnny goes to comfort Ginny, Uncle Remus scolds Joe and Jake, telling them not to pester Johnny and Ginny anymore.
Johnny doesn't want to go either, especially since his father won't be there.
Uncle Remus discovers the two dejected children and cheers them up by telling the story of Br'er Rabbit and his "Laughing Place".
When Uncle Remus returns to the plantation with the children, Sally meets them on the way and is angry at Johnny for not having attended his own birthday party.
Ginny mentions that Uncle Remus told them a story and Sally reluctantly draws a line, warning him not to spend any more time with Johnny.
Uncle Remus, saddened by the misunderstanding of his good intentions, packs his bags and leaves for Atlanta.
Seeing Uncle Remus leaving from a distance, Johnny rushes to intercept him, taking a shortcut through the pasture, where he is attacked and seriously injured by the resident bull.
While Johnny hovers between life and death, his father returns and reconciles with Sally.
Johnny calls for Uncle Remus who has returned amidst all the commotion.
Uncle Remus begins telling a tale of Br'er Rabbit and the Laughing Place, and the boy miraculously survives.
Johnny, Ginny and Toby are next seen skipping along and singing while Johnny's returned puppy runs alongside them.
Uncle Remus is also in the vicinity and he is shocked when Br'er Rabbit and several of the other characters from his stories appear in front of them and interact with the children.
Uncle Remus rushes to join the group, and they all skip away singing.
<EOS>
The bulk of the story takes place in the lavish home of Edward Barrett (Charles Laughton) and his adult children.
Upstairs, Elizabeth (Norma Shearer), called "Ba", the oldest girl, consults with her doctor.
She is recovering from an undisclosed illness and is extremely weak – standing and walking are painful – but the doctor advises that a full recovery is possible.
She has a vivacious and brilliant mind, her poetry is frequently published, she has a cute Cocker spaniel named Flush, and she loves fooling around with her siblings, especially her youngest sister, Henrietta (Maureen O'Sullivan).
However, Edward – her father – is displeased by the rambunctiousness in Elizabeth's room.
He wastes no opportunity to remind Elizabeth that she is very ill and possibly in danger of death.
Perversely, he seems determined to keep her confined, as though he does not want to allow her to make a full recovery; he even goes so far as to defy the doctor's orders.
When she complains that the porter which she has been advised by the doctor to take is making her feel worse, the doctor takes her off it and puts her on hot milk instead, but Edward forces her to continue drinking porter.
His tyranny over the boys is more sketchily shown, but clearly, they are just as terrified of him as the girls.
Meanwhile, Henrietta is interested in marrying her brothers' friend Surtees (Ralph Forbes), who has a promising career in the military.
But she discourages him.
She cannot see any way around her insanely possessive father, who has forbidden any of his children – including his six boys – to marry.
Robert Browning (Fredric March) arrives in a snowstorm, and immediately sweeps Ba off her feet.
Her poetry has caused him to fall madly in love with her.
When she expresses her fear that death may be at hand, he laughs it off and encourages her to seize the day.
When he leaves her room, she rises from her settee for the first time and drags herself to the window so she can see him as he departs.
Months pass; Ba is able to walk slowly and to go downstairs to see Robert.
Edward warns her not to overdo it and tells her it's just a temporary recovery.
The doctors prescribe a trip to Italy for the winter.
Edward is considering it, when chatty Cousin Bella (Marion Clayton) spills the beans that Ba's relationship with Robert isn't just a meeting of minds.
Edward immediately vetoes the trip and leaves the house, saying he's got another idea that may help her get the fresh air and sunshine she needs without having to leave the country.
While he's out, Robert and Ba meet in Kensington Gardens.
He assures her that he will take her himself to Italy and that she should be ready by the end of the month.
She says she'll think about it.
Edward's plan turns out to be a scheme to get Ba out of London, away from friends and activity (all for the good of her health, of course).
He writes, bidding her tell her siblings that he's about to sell the house and move them all out to Surrey, six miles from the nearest railway station.
Ba relays the message but doesn't tell Henrietta, who is now firmly committed to Surtees.
Unexpectedly, Edward returns early, catching Henrietta and Surtees modeling his dress uniform for Ba in her room.
Brutally grasping her wrists, he forces Henrietta to confess her secret affair.
Denouncing her as a whore, he makes her swear on the Bible never to see Surtees again and to lock herself in her room.
Ba witnesses all of this.
When Edward starts in on the blame game against her, for aiding and abetting Henrietta's illicit relationship, she reveals her true feelings, smashing the facade that has allowed her father to keep a dictatorial control over every minute of her waking life – she says that, far from obeying him out of love, she hates him, and denounces him as a tyrant.
Unrepentant, her father walks out of the room, saying she can send for him when she has repented of her sins.
Ba conspires with her maid Wilson to let Robert know she will elope with him and Wilson is coming along.
Henrietta, when set free, runs to Ba and exclaims that she will break her Bible oath, lie to her father if necessary, and run away with Surtees if she must.
Edward enters and dismisses Henrietta to speak to Ba alone.
He opens up to her and confesses his real feelings and the motivation for his "dragon" behavior.
Edward apparently thinks of himself as having a sex addiction, and although the language in this scene is extremely euphemistic, we can gather that he tyrannized his wife as well, and that some of the children may actually have been conceived through marital rape.
Edward now suppresses all his desires, equating all sex with sin, and he wants his children never to fall prey to carnal passion.
As he goes into detail about how he wants Ba all to himself, to have her confide in him all her thoughts and feelings, he embraces her and actually comes close to making a sexual pass.
Horrified by his inhuman behavior, Ba repulses him, and cries out that he must leave her.
He apologizes and leaves, saying he'll pray for her.
Ba summons Wilson, puts on her cloak and hat, takes her little dog Flush and departs.
As the two sneak down the stairs, we hear Edward saying grace over dinner.
A few moments later, we hear the hysterical laughter of Ba's sister Arabel (Katharine Alexander).
The boys rush upstairs, followed by Henrietta, to find that Ba has left one letter for each of the siblings and Edward.
Edward reads his letter and staggers to the window.
As if drunk, he insanely mutters "I'll have her dog", and bids his son Octavius take Flush to the vet and have her killed.
Octavius cries out that it is unjust, and Henrietta triumphantly drives the final blow; "In her letter to me Ba writes that she has taken Flush with her.
".
The film closes with a brief scene of Elizabeth's and Robert's marriage, with Wilson as a witness and Flush waiting patiently by the church door.
<EOS>
Mimi Glossop (Ginger Rogers) arrives in England to seek a divorce from her geologist husband Cyril, whom she has not seen for several years.
Under the guidance of her domineering and much-married aunt Hortense (Alice Brady), she consults incompetent and bumbling lawyer Egbert Fitzgerald (Edward Everett Horton), once a fiancé of her aunt.
He arranges for her to spend a night at a seaside hotel and to be caught in an adulterous relationship, for which purpose he hires a professional co-respondent, Rodolfo Tonetti (Erik Rhodes).
But Egbert forgets to arrange for private detectives to "catch" the couple.
By coincidence, Guy Holden (Fred Astaire) an American dancer and friend of Egbert's, who briefly met Mimi on her arrival in England, and who is now besotted with her, also arrives at the hotel, only to be mistaken by Mimi for the co-respondent she has been waiting for.
While they are in Mimi's bedroom, Tonetti arrives, revealing the truth, and holds them "prisoner" to suit the plan.
They contrive to escape and dance the night away.
In the morning, after several mistakes with the waiter, Cyril Glossop (William Austin) arrives at the door, so Guy hides in the next room, while Mimi and Tonetti give a show of being lovers.
When Cyril does not believe them, Guy comes out and embraces Mimi in an attempt to convince him that he is her lover, but to no avail.
It is an unwitting waiter (Eric Blore) who finally clears the whole thing up by revealing that Cyril himself is an adulterer, thus clearing the way for Mimi to get a divorce and marry Guy.
<EOS>
Riveter "Chesty" O'Conner (James Cagney) and his best friend, "Droopy" (Frank McHugh), join the US Navy to annoy O'Connor's nemesis, Chief Petty Officer "Biff" Martin (Pat O'Brien).
O'Conner gets himself court-martialled for being AWOL while visiting Martin's sister Dorothy (Gloria Stuart).
Disgruntled at his treatment, O'Connor angrily derides the Navy and finds himself ostracized by his fellow sailors.
During gunnery practice, O'Conner helps put out a fire in a gun room and receives the Navy Cross medal, but is still determined to get out of the Navy.
Later.
O'Conner transfers to the US Naval Air Service and is assigned to the rigid airship.
When the Macon tries to dock, Martin is accidentally caught on a guide rope and is hoisted into the air.
Despite orders, O'Conner climbs down the rope and saves Martin's life by parachuting both of them to the ground.
Later, at the wedding of O'Conner to Dorothy, Martin finds out that O'Conner has been promoted to boatswain and now outranks him.
<EOS>
In 1780 in Frankfort, Prussia, youngster Nathan Rothschild warns his parents Amschel and Guttle that the taxman is coming.
They hurry and hide their wealth, including currency, silver, etc.
The taxman demands 20,000 gulden, an exorbitant sum, but accepts a bribe of 5000 in exchange for assessing 2000 in taxes.
Nathan's satisfaction is short-lived, however; a courier bringing him 10,000 gulden is intercepted and the money confiscated by the taxmen.
Nathan tells his sons that he tries to be as honest as possible, but the antisemitic authorities will not let him; he admonishes his children to acquire money, for "money is power" and a defense for their people.
Later, as Mayer Rothschild is lying on his deathbed, he instructs his five sons to start banks in different countries across Europe: Amschel in Frankfort, Salomon Mayer von Rothschild in Vienna, Nathan in London, Carl in Rome, and James in Paris.
That way, they can avoid having to send gold back and forth as the need arises, for in war they are in danger of being robbed by the enemy and in peace by their own countrymen.
Instead, they can draw on each other's banks.
Thirty-two years later, the sons have established banking houses.
Then France overruns Europe in the Napoleonic Wars.
Austrian Prince Metternich asks Salomon to raise 15 million florins to help defeat Napoleon.
The other brothers are approached with similar requests.
Even in France itself, Talleyrand asks for 50 million francs.
Nathan refuses to loan the British Government five million pounds (on top of previous loans) to hold off the enemy, but offers the Duke of Wellington twice that amount to smash him.
After the war is won, Wellington is disappointed to find that Nathan Rothschild has not even been invited to a party in the duke's honour.
He insists on going to see Nathan.
His aide, Captain Fitzroy, knows the address, as he is in love with Nathan's daughter, Julie, and vice versa.
While there, Wellington tells Nathan that the victorious powers are going to make a very large loan to France to help it recover from the war.
The winning underwriter will become the most powerful and prestigious bank in Europe.
Nathan's bid is the best, but is rejected in favor primarily of Barings Bank.
When Nathan demands to know the reason, Prussian Count Ledrantz (despite having himself sought a war loan from the Rothschilds) explains it was discarded on a "technicality", because Nathan is a Jew.
Nathan surmises that the quarter of the loan not awarded to Barings will fall to Ledrantz, Metternich and Talleyrand, who stand to make enormous profits.
Nathan outmanoeuvres them financially, bringing them to the brink of ruin and dishonour; they capitulate and surrender to him the entire loan.
However, this has somewhat embittered him.
Where once he accepted Julie's choice, he now tells the non-Jewish Fitzroy to stay away from her.
Anti-Jewish riots break out all over Prussia, instigated by Ledrantz.
Nathan returns to Frankfort and, under pressure from his own people, agrees to submit to Ledrantz.
However, before he can, he receives word that Napoleon has escaped from exile.
Nathan's brothers, fearful of their positions, want to support the restored French dictator.
However, Nathan refuses to do so.
With Ledrantz and others once again desperately in need of financial support, he extracts a treaty from them granting Jews rights, freedoms and dignity long denied them.
He also tells Fitzroy that he can once again see Julie.
With Napoleon seemingly invincible, Nathan determines to risk all in support of the allies.
Just before he is bankrupted, he receives word that Wellington has won the Battle of Waterloo, and he is not only saved, he becomes the richest man in the world and a baron.
<EOS>
Set in the 1910s at "the Shore" of New Jersey, the novel explores issues of race and class in early 20th-century America.
Bea Chipley is a quiet, mousey, Atlantic City teenage girl whose mother dies, leaving her to keep house for her father (Mr.
Chipley) and Benjamin Pullman, a boarder who peddles ketchup and relish on the boardwalk and sells maple syrup door-to-door.
Within a year, her father and Pullman decide that she should marry Pullman; she soon becomes pregnant and has a daughter named Jessie.
Her father suffers an incapacitating stroke, confining him to a wheelchair, and Pullman is killed in a train accident.
Bea is left to fend for her father and Jessie by herself.
She takes in boarders to defray expenses, as well as peddling Pullman's maple syrup door-to-door, using his "B.
Pullman" business cards to avoid the ubiquitous sexism of the 1910s.
To care for her infant daughter and disabled father, Bea Pullman hires Delilah, an African-American mammy figure, who has an infant daughter Peola.
The girl has "light skin" (as described then; it shows her partial European descent, which is not as obvious in her mother)  As Delilah is a master waffle-maker, Bea capitalizes on Delilah's skills to open a "B.
Pullman" waffle restaurant.
It attracts many of the tourists at the Shore.
She eventually builds a nationwide and then international chain of highly successful restaurants from this start.
Frank Flake, a young man intent on entering medical school, becomes Bea's business manager.
Jessie and Peola have grown up side by side.
Peola is painfully aware of the tension between her white appearance and black racial identity (as imposed by society).
She continually attempts to pass as white to gain wider advantages.
Disturbed by her daughter's unhappiness, Delilah encourages the girl to take pride in her black "race".
Eventually, after living in Seattle for several years as a white woman, Peola severs all local ties.
She marries a white man and moves to Bolivia to pass permanently.
Heartbroken, Delilah dies soon after.
Bea falls in love with Flake, who is eight years her junior.
Jessie, by now in her late teens, comes home for a visit just as Bea is planning on selling the "B.
Pullman" chain to marry Flake.
The three are mired in a love triangle in the last dozen or so pages, resulting in a tragic ending.
<EOS>
Opera singer Mary Barrett (Grace Moore) leaves to study music in Milan, Italy to the disappointment of her family in New York City.
Mary gets a job at the Cafe Roma, where Giulio Monteverdi (Tullio Carminati), a famous vocal coach, hears her sing.
Giulio promises to make Mary a star if she will allow him to control her life.
He also tells her that there cannot be any romance between the two of them, as that would distract from the process of growing her talent.
Mary discovers she has stagefright as she prepares for a tour of provincial opera houses, however Giulio helps her overcome it.
Years later, still under Giulio's tutelage, Mary begins to tire of his dominance and discipline.
The two meet one of Giulio's old pupils, Lally (Mona Barrie), while in Vienna.
Lally once tried to be romantic with Giulio, but was rejected.
This past history renders Mary jealous and she pretends to have laryngitis.
Mary thinks Giulio has gone to Lally to rekindle a romance, and so visits Bill Houston (Lyle Talbot), a longtime friend who has proposed marriage.
In a jealous huff, Mary decides not to sing that night in order to punish Giulio.
Giulio realizes what is going on and tells Mary that Lally will replace her on stage, but then proposes to Mary.
She decides to go on, and Mary's performance of Bizet's Carmen wins her an invitation to the Metropolitan Opera, her dream venue.
Giulio, however, still does not believe that she is ready for such a venue.
Later at dinner, Lally lies to Mary by telling her that she is still involved with Bill, who has actually returned to New York.
On the night of her debut in Madame Butterfly, Mary is too nervous to go on stage until she sees Giulio in his usual place in the prompter's box.
<EOS>
Nick Charles (William Powell), a retired detective, and his wife Nora (Myrna Loy) are attempting to settle down.
They are based in San Francisco but decide to spend the Christmas holidays in New York.
There Nick is pressed back into service by Dorothy Wynant (Maureen O'Sullivan), a young woman whose father was an old client of Nick's.
The man, Clyde Wynant (the title's "thin man"), was supposed to be on a secret business trip and promised to be home before his daughter's wedding, but has mysteriously vanished.
She convinces Nick to take the case, much to the amusement of his socialite wife.
It starts out as a missing person case, but when Wynant's former secretary and love interest, Julia Wolf, is found dead, evidence points to Wynant as the prime suspect, but Dorothy refuses to believe that her father is guilty.
The detective begins to uncover clues and eventually solves the mystery of the disappearance through a series of investigative steps.
The murderer is finally revealed in a classic dinner-party scene that features all of the suspects.
A skeletonized body, found during the investigation, had been assumed to be that of a "fat man" because it is wearing oversize clothing.
The clothes are revealed to be planted, and the identity of the body is accurately determined by an old war wound to the leg.
It turns out that the body belongs to a "thin man": the missing Wynant.
The double murder has been disguised in such a way as to make it seem that Wynant is the killer and still alive.
The real killer is uncovered at the dinner party, before he almost takes the life of someone who knows too much.
<EOS>
After seeing his poor father lose his land and be whipped to death for protesting, young Pancho Villa stabs one of the killers, then heads off into the hills of Chihuahua, Mexico during the 1880s.
As a grown man, Villa and a band of rebel bandits, including his trusted ally Sierra, kill wealthy landowners and become heroes to their fellow "peons".
A wealthy aristocrat, Don Felipe, arranges an introduction for Villa to the distinguished and eloquent Francisco Madero, who resents what has become of Mexico under the rule of president Porfirio Díaz and persuades Villa to help him fight for liberty, not just for personal gain.
The coarse and illiterate Villa is humbled in the presence of Madero and agrees to fight for his cause.
He also is attracted to Don Felipe's beautiful sister Teresa, although there are many women in Villa's life, including one he is married to, Rosita.
Villa's exploits are made even more colorful by an American newspaper reporter, Johnny Sykes, to whom Villa has taken a great liking.
While drunk, Sykes is misinformed and reports that Villa has already overtaken the village of Santa Rosalia in a great victory for his men.
Disobeying the orders of Madero and the arrogant General Pascal, simply to help his newspaper friend, Villa stages a raid on Santa Rosalia, as well as on Juarez.
Madero ultimately assumes office in Mexico City, then commands Villa to disband his personal army.
Villa agrees, but when Sierra kills a bank teller just so Villa can withdraw his money, Villa himself ends up sentenced to death.
A gloating General Pascal mocks the way Villa pleads for his life, then reads a telegram from Madero, ordering that Villa instead be exiled from the country.
Alone and drunk in El Paso, Texas, feeling forsaken by his homeland, Villa is visited by Sykes, who informs him that Madero has been assassinated by the power-mad Pascal and his men.
Villa returns to Mexico and rebuilds his own army, recruiting tens of thousands to ride by his side.
Together they storm the capital, where Pascal is subjected to a particularly gruesome death.
Villa takes what he wants, but when Teresa resists and he physically assaults her, she draws a gun that her brother Don Felipe has given her for protection.
Sierra intervenes and murders her.
Villa appoints himself president but is ineffectual, unable to restore Madero's dream of land reform for Mexico's poor.
He ultimately agrees to step aside and go back to where he belongs, including to his wife.
Before he can, with Sykes by his side, Villa is gunned down by Don Felipe out of revenge for his sister.
Sykes vows to keep Villa's memory alive, telling his dying friend that he is no longer news, but history.
<EOS>
The book is set a month after Dark Force Rising.
Now emboldened by his recent capture of the Katana fleet and staffing them with clone personnel, Grand Admiral Thrawn launches his offensive against the New Republic with great success.
Through certain deception techniques (such as faking a turbolaser barrage using cloaked ships to fire underneath planetary shields), several planets quickly capitulate to the Empire.
He ups the ante when the Imperial fleet deploys 22 cloaked asteroids over Coruscant and fakes the presence of over 260 asteroids to immobilize the planet and the Republic leadership.
By this time, Mon Mothma finally reconciles with Sen Garm Bel Iblis, whom she lets lead Coruscant's defenses.
Elsewhere, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Talon Karrde work to form an alliance of smugglers to assist with the New Republic defense.
Although the smugglers consider staying in the sidelines, an Imperial raid on their meeting place (set up by turncoat smuggler Niles Ferrier without Thrawn's permission) finally unites them against the Empire.
Mara Jade, who was knocked out in the climax of the previous novel, joins Princess Leia and Han in stopping an Imperial commando force sent to Coruscant to kidnap Leia's newborn twins for Joruus C'baoth.
The Jedi Master wants to turn Leia, Luke and the twins to the Dark Side.
The raid's sole survivor points to Mara as their mole and she is arrested, but she comes clean to Leia about the Wayland cloning facility.
As they slip out of Coruscant, Republic security shuts down an Imperial eavesdropping system located in the former Imperial Palace.
Mara, Luke, Han, Lando, Chewie, the droids, and Karrde travel to Wayland.
They slip past Imperial forces in the area with help from the Noghri and two local alien races.
Han, Lando, and Chewie rig the base to explode.
Mara, Luke, Karrde and Leia face C'baoth, who produced his own Skywalker clone named Luuke (using Luke's hand that was lost at Bespin during the events of The Empire Strikes Back, intact with Anakin Skywalker's own lightsaber) to attack them.
After a fierce battle, Mara kills C'baoth and fulfills the Emperor's orders - by killing Luuke.
Having learned of Thrawn's deception strategy, the Republic fleet organizes an assault on the Imperial shipyards at Bilbringi to capture a device that can find the cloaked asteroids over Coruscant.
A feint operation at Tangrene will draw Imperial forces away from Bilbringi.
However, Thrawn sees through the deception and marshals his forces at the shipyards.
When the Republic fleet and the smugglers attack, the Imperial forces severely maul them.
Things nearly go the Empire's way - until Capt.
Gilad Pellaeon receives word of the attack on Wayland.
When he reads that Noghri were among the attackers, Thrawn's own Noghri bodyguard Rukh stuns him and kills the admiral himself before disappearing.
With all hopes of victory now dashed by Thrawn's death, Pellaeon orders all Imperial forces to retreat.
Back in Coruscant, Luke gives Mara Jade his father's lightsaber and invites her to train as a Jedi.
<EOS>
The story is narrated by Overton, godfather to the central character.
The novel takes its beginnings in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to trace Ernest's emergence from previous generations of the Pontifex family.
John Pontifex was a carpenter; his son George rises in the world to become a publisher; George's son Theobald, pressed by his father to become a minister, is manipulated into marrying Christina, the daughter of a clergyman; the main character Ernest Pontifex is the eldest son of Theobald and Christina.
The author depicts an antagonistic relationship between Ernest and his hypocritical and domineering parents.
His aunt Alethea is aware of this relationship, but dies before she can fulfill her aim of counteracting the parents' malign influence on the boy.
However, shortly before her death she secretly passes a small fortune into Overton's keeping, with the agreement that once Ernest is twenty-eight, he can receive it.
As Ernest develops into a young man, he travels a bumpy theological road, reflecting the divisions and controversies in the Church of England in the Victorian era.
Easily influenced by others at university, he starts out as an Evangelical Christian, and soon becomes a clergyman.
He then falls for the lures of the High Church (and is duped out of much of his own money by a fellow clergyman).
He decides that the way to regenerate the Church of England is to live among the poor, but the results are, first, that his faith in the integrity of the Bible is severely damaged by a conversation with one of the poor he was hoping to redeem, and, second, that under the pressures of poverty and theological doubt, he attempts a sexual assault on a woman he has incorrectly believed to be of loose morals.
This assault leads to a prison term.
His parents disown him.
His health deteriorates.
As he recovers he learns how to tailor and decides to make this his profession once out of prison.
He loses his Christian faith.
He marries Ellen, a former housemaid of his parents; they have two children and set up shop together in the second-hand clothing industry.
However, in due course he discovers that Ellen is both a bigamist and an alcoholic.
Overton at this point intervenes and pays Ellen a stipend, and she happily leaves with another for America.
He gives Ernest a job, and takes him on a trip to Continental Europe.
In due course Ernest becomes 28, and receives his aunt Alethea's gift.
He returns to the family home until his parents die; his father's influence over him wanes as Theobald's own position as a clergyman is reduced in relative stature, though to the end Theobald purposefully finds small ways to annoy him.
Ernest becomes an author of controversial literature.
<EOS>
Eddie Kearns (Charles King) sings "The Broadway Melody", and tells some chorus girls that he brought the Mahoney Sisters vaudeville act to New York to perform it with him in the latest revue being produced by Francis Zanfield (Eddie Kane).
Harriet "Hank" Mahoney (Bessie Love) and her sister Queenie Mahoney (Anita Page) are awaiting Eddie's arrival at their apartment.
Hank, the older sister, prides herself on her business sense and talent, while Queenie is lauded for her beauty.
Hank is confident they will make it big while Queenie is less eager to put everything on the line to become a star.
Hank declines the offer of their Uncle Jed (Jed Prouty) to join a 30-week traveling show, but consents to think it over.
Eddie, who is engaged to Hank, arrives and sees Queenie for the first time since she was a girl and is instantly taken with her.
He tells them to come to a rehearsal for Zanfield's revue to present their act.
A blond woman sabotages their performance by placing a bag in the piano, which causes a fight with Hank.
Zanfield isn't interested in it, but says he might have a use for Queenie, who begs him to give Hank a part as well, saying both will work for one wage.
She also convinces him to pretend Hank's business skills won him over.
Eddie witnesses this exchange and becomes even more enamored of Queenie for her devotion to her sister.
During a dress rehearsal for the revue, Zanfield says the pacing is too slow for "The Broadway Melody" and cuts Hank and Queenie from the number.
Meanwhile, another woman is injured after falling off a set prop and Queenie is selected to replace her.
Nearly everyone is captivated by Queenie, particularly notorious playboy Jacques "Jock" Warriner (Kenneth Thomson).
While Jock begins to woo Queenie, Hank is upset that Queenie is building her success on her looks rather than her talent.
Over the following weeks, Queenie spends a lot of time with Jock, of which Hank and Eddie fervently disapprove.
They forbid her to see him, which results in Queenie pushing them away and the deterioration of the relationship between the sisters.
Queenie is only with Jock to fight her growing feelings for Eddie, but Hank thinks she's setting herself up to be hurt.
Eventually, Eddie and Queenie confess their love for each other, but Queenie, unwilling to break her sister's heart, runs off to Jock once again.
Hank, after witnessing Queenie's fierce outburst toward Eddie and his devastated reaction to it, finally realizes they are in love.
She berates Eddie for letting Queenie run away and tells him to go after her.
She claims to never have loved him and that she'd only been using him to advance her career.
After he leaves, she breaks down and alternates between sobs and hysterical laughter.
She composes herself enough to call Uncle Jed to accept the job with the 30-week show.
There's a raucous party at the apartment Jock had recently purchased for Queenie, but he insists they spend time alone.
When she resists his advances, he says it's the least she could do after all he's done for her.
He begins to get physical, but Eddie bursts in and attempts to fight Jock, who knocks him through the door with one punch.
Queenie runs to Eddie and leaves Jock and the party behind.
Sometime later, Hank and Uncle Jed await the return of Queenie and Eddie from their honeymoon.
The relationship between the sisters is on the mend, but there is obvious discomfort between Hank and Eddie.
Queenie announces she's through with show business and will settle down in their new house on Long Island.
She insists that Hank live with them when her job is over.
After Hank leaves with her new partner and Uncle Jed, Queenie laments the fact that she wasn't able to help her sister find the happiness she deserves.
Ironically, Hank's new partner is the blond who tried to sabotage the act when the sisters first arrived in New York.
The final scene shows Hank on her way to the train station.
She promises her new partner they'll be back on Broadway within six months.
<EOS>
Joan Manning, the daughter of a police sergeant, secretly marries Chick Williams, a gangleader who convinces her that he is leading an honest life.
Chick attends the theater with Joan and, at the intermission, sneaks away, committing a robbery during which a policeman is killed.
Chick is suspected of the crime but is able to use Joan to substantiate his alibi.
The police plant Danny McGann, an undercover agent, in Chick's gang; but he is discovered, and Chick murders him.
Chick is later cornered by the police in his own home.
<EOS>
During the American Revolution in 1776, Benjamin Martin, a veteran of the French and Indian War and a widower with seven children, is called to Charleston to vote in the South Carolina General Assembly on a levy supporting the Continental Army.
Fearing war against Great Britain, Benjamin abstains; the vote is nonetheless passed and, against his father's wishes, Benjamin's eldest son Gabriel joins the Continental Army.
Two years later Charleston falls to the British and a wounded Gabriel returns home carrying dispatches.
The Martins care for both British and American wounded from a nearby battle, before British Dragoons, led by the ruthless Colonel William Tavington, arrive, arrest Gabriel, and take captive the African American free men and women who work Benjamin's land.
When Benjamin's second son Thomas tries to free Gabriel, he is shot and killed by Tavington, who then orders the Martins' house burned, and wounded Americans executed.
After the British leave, Benjamin gives his next two eldest sons rifles, and they ambush the British unit escorting a tied Gabriel.
Benjamin skillfully, yet brutally, kills many soldiers with his tomahawk.
A British survivor tells Tavington of the attack, earning Benjamin the moniker of the "Ghost".
Benjamin and Gabriel resolve to fight the British, leaving the younger children in the care of Benjamin's sister-in-law, Charlotte.
On their way to the Continental Army's camp, they witness the southern Continental Army under General Horatio Gates engaging the British Army.
Benjamin recognizes the foolishness of the action; sure enough, the Continentals are decisively routed.
Benjamin meets his former commanding officer, Colonel Harry Burwell, who makes him colonel of the local colonial militia due to his combat experience.
Benjamin is tasked with keeping Lord Cornwallis's regiments pinned south through guerrilla warfare.
French Major Jean Villeneuve helps train the militia and promises more French aid.
Gabriel asks why Villeneuve and others mention Benjamin's role in something called "Fort Wilderness".
Benjamin says that when he was fighting in the royal British army in the French and Indian war he and several other soldiers were sent on a mission to assault a French fort called "Fort Wilderness" where he and his comrades literally cut the defending French soldiers apart slowly, revealing why Benjamin is always hesitant when asked about the event and why he is haunted by his past.
Benjamin's militia harass British supply lines, even capturing some of Cornwallis' personal effects and his two Great Danes, and burn half the bridges and ferries leading to Charleston.
Lord Cornwallis blames Tavington for creating this reaction with his brutal tactics.
However, irritated at the lack of progress, and insulted by Benjamin's clever ploy to free some of the captured militia, Cornwallis reluctantly allows Tavington to stop Benjamin by any means necessary.
With the reluctant aid of the Loyalist Captain Wilkins, Tavington learns the identities of some militia members and proceeds to attack their families and burn their homes.
Benjamin's family flees Charlotte's plantation as it is burned to live in a Gullah settlement with former black slaves.
There, Gabriel marries his betrothed Anne.
Tavington's brigade rides into the town that supplies the militia.
He assembles all the townspeople, including Anne, into the church promising freedom in exchange for the whereabouts of the rebels.
However, after the location is given the doors are barricaded, trapping the people as Tavington orders the church burned.
After discovering the tragedy, Gabriel races to attack Tavington's encampment.
In the ensuing fight, Tavington mortally wounds Gabriel before fleeing.
Benjamin arrives soon after, only to have another of his sons die in his arms.
Benjamin mourns and wavers in his commitment to continue fighting, but is resolved when reminded of his son's dedication to the cause by finding an American flag he repaired personally.
Martin's militia, along with a larger Continental Army regiment, confronts Cornwallis' regiment in a decisive battle at the Battle of Cowpens.
The British appear to have the upper hand until Benjamin rallies the troops forward against their lines and Tavington rushes to personally target him.
The two duel and Tavington gains the upper hand, delivering several wounds to Benjamin.
A beaten Benjamin slumps to his knees, and Tavington prepares to deliver the coup de grâce.
At the last second, however, Benjamin dodges the attack and stabs Tavington to death, avenging his sons' deaths.
The battle is a Continental victory and Cornwallis is forced to retreat.
After many eventual retreats, Cornwallis is besieged at Yorktown, Virginia where he surrenders to the surrounding Continental Army and the long-awaited French naval force.
After the conflict ends, Benjamin returns with his family and discovers his militia men rebuilding his homestead in their new nation.
<EOS>
Kent (Robert Montgomery), a young law-abiding man kills someone while driving drunk, is sentenced to ten years for manslaughter.
In an overcrowded prison designed for 1800 and actually holding 3000, he is placed in a cell with Butch (Wallace Beery) and Morgan (Chester Morris), the two leaders of the inmates.
Butch is alternately menacing and friendly, while Morgan tries to help out the frightened, inexperienced youngster, but Kent rebuffs his overtures.
When Butch is ordered into solitary confinement for sparking a protest over the prison food, he passes along his knife before being searched.
It ends up in Kent's hands.
Meanwhile, Morgan is notified that he is to be paroled.
Prior to a search of their cell, Kent hides the knife in Morgan's bed.
When it is found, Morgan's parole is canceled, and he is put in solitary as well.
He vows to make Kent pay for what he has done.
When Morgan is let out of solitary, he escapes by switching places with a corpse on the way to the morgue.
He makes his way to the bookstore run by Kent's beautiful sister, Anne (Leila Hyams).
She, however, recognizes him.
She manages to get his gun and starts to call the police, but then changes her mind and gives him back his pistol.
Morgan (who has been attracted to Anne since he saw Kent's photograph of her) gets a job and becomes better acquainted with Anne and her family.
They all like him, especially Anne.
However, he is caught and sent back to prison.
When Butch tells Morgan of his plan for a jailbreak on Thanksgiving, Morgan tells him that he is going straight.
In return for a promise of freedom, Kent informs the warden (Lewis Stone) of the attempt, though he is not privy to the details.
Despite the warning, the inmates succeed in taking over the prison, capturing many of the guards, though they are unable to force their way out.
Thwarted, Butch threatens to shoot the guards one by one unless they are allowed to escape.
When the warden stands firm, Butch shoots the warden's right-hand man in cold blood, then tosses the dying man out for all to see.
Army tanks are called to break down the entrance.
Morgan grabs a pistol from the prisoner assigned to watch the guards.
He finds Kent cowering with the guards, but spares him.
Kent panics and flees before Morgan locks the guards in to save their lives.
When Kent tries to open the front doors, he is killed in the crossfire.
Butch is told that Morgan was the "stoolie" who tipped off the warden and learns he has put the guards out of danger.
He sets out to kill his former friend.
In the ensuing gunfight, both are wounded, Butch fatally.
Before he dies, he learns that Kent was actually the informer, and he and Morgan reconcile.
For his efforts, Morgan is given a full pardon.
When he exits the prison, Anne rushes to embrace him.
<EOS>
In 1874, Disraeli's ambitious foreign policy, aimed at creating a British empire, is voted down by the House of Commons after a speech by his great rival, William Gladstone.
Later, Disraeli receives the welcome news that the spendthrift Khedive of Egypt is in dire need of money and is willing to sell the controlling shares in the Suez Canal.
The purchase of the canal would secure control of India, but Michael Probert, head of the Bank of England, makes it clear to Disraeli that he is vehemently opposed to any such plan.
Disraeli then summons Hugh Myers, a leading Jewish banker.
Meanwhile, Lord Charles Deeford proposes to Lady Clarissa Pevensey.
Although she is in love with him, she turns him down.
He is content to enjoy his wealth and high social standing, and lacks the ambition she wants in a husband; further, she is a great admirer of the Prime Minister and Charles has no strong opinion about him.
Disraeli, seeing promise in the young man and wanting Clarissa to be happy, convinces Charles to come work for him, and tells him about the canal purchase.
But he does not tell him about the spies.
Russia, eager to seize India for itself, has assigned two spies to watch Disraeli: mrs Travers, who has entree to the highest social circles, and mr Foljambe.
Disraeli was not fooled; he has hired Foljambe as his personal government secretary, the better to deceive him.
When Foljambe asks Charles if Myers is there to provide financial backing for the purchase of the canal, Charles says nothing, but his manner makes it clear that Foljambe has guessed correctly.
mrs Travers orders Foljambe to leave the country and warn their masters.
Disraeli soon discovers what has happened.
When he decides to send an agent to the khedive immediately, Clarissa suggests he send Charles.
Charles persuades the khedive to accept Myers' check in exchange for the shares, also proving his own worth to Clarissa.
Disraeli is elated when he receives the news.
However, Myers comes and informs him that his banking house has been driven into bankruptcy by sabotage; the check is worthless.
Disraeli tells him to keep his situation secret for the moment.
When the prying mrs Travers arrives, Disraeli allows her to learn of the purchase, and she exultantly admits to her key part in sabotaging Myers.
Thinking quickly, Disraeli summons Probert.
Though the banker initially refuses to help, Disraeli forces him to sign a paper giving unlimited credit to Myers by threatening to have Parliament revoke the bank's charter.
(After Probert leaves, Disraeli confesses to his wife and Clarissa that he was bluffing) Myers' solvency is restored, the deal is completed, and as a result of Disraeli's success, Queen Victoria can add Empress of India to her other titles.
<EOS>
Ted (Chester Morris), Jerry (Norma Shearer), Paul (Conrad Nagel), and Dorothy (Helen Johnson) are part of the New York in-crowd.
Jerry's decision to marry Ted crushes Paul.
He gets drunk and is involved in an accident that leaves Dorothy's face disfigured.
Out of pity, Paul marries Dorothy.
Ted and Jerry have been married three years when she discovers he had a brief affair with another woman — and when she confronts him on their third anniversary, he tells her it did not "mean a thing".
Upset, and with Ted out on a business trip, Jerry spends the night with his best friend, Don.
Upon Ted's return, she tells him she "balanced [their] accounts," withholding Don's name.
Ted is hypocritically outraged and they argue, ending with Ted leaving her and the couple filing for a divorce.
While Jerry turns to partying to forget her sorrows, Ted becomes an alcoholic.
Paul and Jerry run into each other and she discovers he still loves her and is willing to leave Dorothy to be with her.
Only after she meets Dorothy is Jerry forced to evaluate her decision.
Norma Shearer won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Also starring in the film are Robert Montgomery, Conrad Nagel, and Florence Eldridge.
<EOS>
Count Alfred (Maurice Chevalier), military attaché to the Sylvanian Embassy in Paris, is ordered back to Sylvania to report to Queen Louise for a reprimand following a string of scandals, including an affair with the ambassador's wife.
In the meantime Queen Louise (Jeanette MacDonald), ruler of Sylvania in her own right, is royally fed-up with her subjects' preoccupation with whom she will marry.
Intrigued rather than offended by Count Alfred's dossier, Queen Louise invites him to dinner.
Their romance progresses to the point of marriage when, despite his qualms, for love of Louise Alfred agrees to obey the Queen.
<EOS>
The novel begins with Virgil Adams confined to bed with an unnamed illness.
There is tension between Virgil and his wife over how he should go about recovering, and she pressures him not to return to work for Lamb once he is well.
Alice, their daughter, attempts to keep peace in the family (with mixed results) before walking to her friend Mildred Palmer's house to see what Mildred will wear to a dance that evening.
After Alice's return, she spends the day preparing for the dance, going out to pick violets for a bouquet, as she cannot afford to buy flowers for herself.
Her brother, Walter, initially refuses to accompany her to the dance, but as Alice cannot go without an escort, mrs Adams prevails upon Walter, and he rents a "Tin Lizzie" to drive Alice to the dance.
Walter's attitude towards the upper class is one of obvious disdain—he would rather spend his time gambling with the African-American servants in the cloakroom than be out in the ballroom at the dance.
Alice forces him to dance with her at first, as it will be a grave embarrassment for her to stand alone, but Walter eventually abandons her.
Alice uses every trick in her book to give the impression that she is not standing by herself, before dancing with Frank Dowling (whose attentions she does not welcome) and Arthur Russell (a rich newcomer to town who is rumored to be engaged to Mildred), who she believes danced with her out of pity and at Mildred's request.
She leaves the dance horribly embarrassed after Arthur discovers Walter's gambling with the servants.
The next day, Alice goes on an errand for her father into town, passing Frincke's Business College on the way with a shudder (as she sees it as a place that drags promising young ladies down to "hideous obscurity").
On the walk back home, she encounters Arthur Russell, who shows an obvious interest in her.
As she assumes he is all but spoken for, she doesn't know how to handle the conversation—while warning him not to believe the things girls like Mildred will say about her, she tells a number of lies to obscure her family's relatively humble economic status.
Arthur returns, several days later, and his courtship of Alice continues.
All seems well between them until he mentions a dance being thrown by the young Miss Henrietta Lamb; Arthur wants to escort Alice to the dance, and she lies to cover for the fact that she is not invited to the event.
mrs Adams uses Alice's distress to finally goad Virgil into setting up a glue factory (which she has long insisted would be the family's ticket to success).
It is eventually revealed that the glue recipe was developed by Virgil and another man under the direction and in the employ ofA.
Lamb, who over the years declined to take up its production despite repeated proddings from Virgil.
Although initially reluctant to "steal" from mr Lamb, Virgil finally persuades himself that his improvements to the recipe over the years has made it "virtually" his.
As Arthur continues his secret courtship of Alice (he never talks about her nor tells anyone where he spends his evenings), Alice continues spinning a web of lies to preserve the image of herself and her family that she has invented.
This becomes especially difficult when she and Arthur encounter Walter in a bad part of town, walking with a young woman who gives the appearance of being a prostitute.
At home, Walter is confronted by his father, who demands that Walter quit Lamb's to help in setting up the glue factory.
Walter refuses to help his father without a $300 cash advance, which Virgil cannot afford.
Virgil arranges to resign from Lamb's employ without speaking to him face-to-face, as he fears the old man's reaction, and puts the glue factory into operation.
Meanwhile, Alice works frantically to convince Arthur that the things other people will say about her won't be true, and continues to press the point even when Arthur insists that no one has spoken about her behind her back, and that nothing anyone else could say would change his opinion of her.
mrs Adams decides to arrange a dinner so that Arthur can meet the family, and sets about planning an elaborate meal and hiring servants for the day, so that Arthur will be impressed.
Walter again demands cash from his father (the amount has now risen to $350) without explaining why he needs it, and is again rebuffed.
While these events occur at the Adams house, Arthur finally overhears things about Alice, which strikes a chord, and her family, including the fact that Virgil Adams has "stolen" from Lamb in setting up a factory with Lamb's secret recipe for glue.
The dinner itself is a total disaster: the day is unbearably hot, the food far too heavy, the hired servants surly and difficult to manage, capped by Virgil unwittingly acting like his lower-middle-class self, not the well-to-do businessman his wife and daughter wish him to act.
Arthur, still reeling from what he heard about the Adamses earlier in the day, is stiff and uneasy throughout the evening, and Alice feels increasingly uncomfortable.
By the end of the night, it's apparent to her that he will not come courting again, and she bids him farewell.
That night, word reaches the family that Walter has skipped town, leaving behind him a massive debt to his employer, Lamb, which will have to be paid to keep Walter out of jail.
The following morning, Virgil arrives at work to see that Lamb is opening his own glue factory on such a huge scale that Adams will not be able to compete, and will never make enough money to either pay his son's debts or pay off the family's mortgage.
Virgil confronts Lamb about this state of affairs, working himself into such a state that he collapses, and returns to the same sickbed at home where he began the book.
Lamb takes pity on the man, and arranges to buy the Adams glue factory for a sufficient price to pay off Walter's debts and the family's mortgage.
The Adams family takes in boarders to help keep the family afloat economically, and Alice heads downtown to Frincke's Business College to train herself in employable skills so that she can support the family.
She encounters Arthur Russell on the road, and is pleased that their conversation is both polite and brief—there is no possibility of renewed romance between them, which she accepts peacefully.
<EOS>
Irene Foster (Eleanor Powell) tries to convince her high school sweetheart, Broadway producer Robert Gordon (Robert Taylor), to give her a chance to star in his new musical, but he is too busy with the rich widow (June Knight) backing his show.
Irene tries to show Gordon that she has the talent to succeed, but he will not hire her.
Things become complicated when she begins impersonating a French dancer, who was actually the invention of a gossip columnist (Jack Benny).
<EOS>
In 17th-century England, Irish doctor Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is summoned to aid Lord Gildoy, a wounded patron who participated in the Monmouth Rebellion.
Arrested while performing his duties as a physician, he is convicted of treason against the King and sentenced to death by the infamous Judge Jeffreys.
By the whim of King James II, who sees an opportunity for profit, Blood and the surviving rebels are transported to the West Indies to be sold into slavery.
In Port Royal, Blood is purchased by Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland), the beautiful niece of local military commander Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill).
Attracted by Blood's rebellious nature, Arabella does her best to improve his situation by recommending him as the personal physician of the colony's governor, who suffers from painful gout.
Outwardly resentful towards Arabella, yet silently appreciative for her efforts on his behalf, Blood develops an escape plan for himself and his fellow slaves.
The plan is almost uncovered by the suspicious Colonel Bishop, who has one of Blood's men flogged and interrogated.
Blood is spared a similar fate when a Spanish man-o-war attacks Port Royal.
During the raid, Blood and his fellow slaves seize the Spanish ship from its drunken night watch, and sail away to begin lives of piracy.
Blood and his men quickly achieve great fame among the brotherhood of buccaneers.
When the old governor is unable to contain the pirate menace, Colonel Bishop is appointed governor.
He sends Arabella to England on an extended holiday, but three years later she returns to the Caribbean.
Her ship, also carrying royal emissary Lord Willoughby (Henry Stephenson), is captured by Blood's treacherous partner, Captain Levasseur (Basil Rathbone), who plans to hold them for ransom, but Blood forces Levasseur to sell them to him, relishing the opportunity to turn the tables on Arabella.
When Levasseur vehemently objects, Blood is forced to kill him in a duel.
Blood offers Arabella valuable jewelry from his conquests as a sign of his love for her.
Ungrateful for her "rescue", Arabella is indignant at having been purchased by Blood, and calls him thief and pirate.
Angered by her rejection, he orders his men to set sail for Port Royal where he will deliver Arabella and Lord Willoughby, despite the danger to himself and his crew.
As they approach Port Royal, they sight two French warships attacking the city; Bishop has left it undefended in his single-minded pursuit of Blood.
With England now at war with France, Lord Willoughby pleads with Blood to save the colony, but the captain and his crew refuse to fight for the corrupt king.
Willoughby reveals that James II has been deposed in the Glorious Revolution; England's new king, William of Orange, has sent Willoughby to offer Blood and his men full pardons and commissions in the Royal Navy.
This startling news quickly changes the pirates' minds, and they prepare for battle with the French.
After ferrying Arabella ashore, Blood and his men approach Port Royal flying French colors, but soon that ensign is replaced with the British Union Jack.
A pitched ship-to-ship battle ensues, leading to frenzied hand-to-hand deck combat.
Blood and his men defeat the French frigates, saving the colony, but not before losing their ship in the battle.
As a reward, Blood is appointed the new governor of Port Royal by Lord Willoughby and has the pleasure of dealing with his hostile predecessor, now returned from his pirate hunt and under arrest for dereliction of duty in a time of war.
As Arabella playfully pleads with the new governor to spare her Uncle's life, Peter Blood reveals his face to the astonished Colonel.
With a sly smile of triumph, he greets Bishop with, "Good morning, Uncle", having won the hand and heart of Arabella.
<EOS>
In Dublin in 1922, Gypo Nolan (Victor McLaglen) has been kicked out of the outlaw Irish Republican Army (IRA) for not executing a Black and Tan who killed an IRA man.
He becomes angry when he sees his streetwalker girlfriend Katie Madden (Margot Grahame) trying to pick up a customer.
After he throws the man into the street, Katie laments that she does not have £10 for passage to America to start afresh.
Gypo later runs into his friend and IRA comrade Frankie McPhillip (Wallace Ford), a fugitive with a £20 bounty on his head.
Frankie, tired of hiding for six months, is on his way home to visit his mother (Una O'Connor) and sister Mary (Heather Angel) under cover of the foggy night.
The slow-witted Gypo decides to turn informer for the £20 reward, enough for passage to America for the both of them.
The Black and Tans find Frankie at his house, and Frankie is killed in the ensuing gunfight.
The British contemptuously give Gypo his blood money and let him go.
Gypo subsequently buys a bottle of whiskey and tells Katie that he obtained money by beating up an American sailor.
He goes to Frankie's wake, and acts suspiciously when coins fall out of his pocket.
The men there tell him that they do not suspect Gypo of informing, but he then meets with several of his former IRA comrades, who wonder who informed on Frankie.
Gypo claims it was a man named Mulligan (Donald Meek).
Though Gypo is drunk and talking nonsense, the others begin to suspect him but do not have enough evidence as yet.
Gypo leaves and give out £1 notes to a blind man (D'Arcy Corrigan) and some bar patrons, but people wonder why he had such a sudden influx of cash.
Meanwhile, Mary tells the IRA that the only person Frankie talked to that day was Gypo, and the men intend to hold an inquest into the death.
Gypo goes to an upper-class party to look for Katie, but gets drunk and buys rounds of drinks.
Gypo is then taken away by his former IRA comrades when they figure out it was he.
He is taken to a kangaroo court, where Mulligan is questioned and is accused once again by Gypo.
However, the comrades do not believe Gypo, and give him a detailed accounting of where he spent his entire £20 reward.
Gypo then confesses to ratting out Frankie.
Gypo is locked up, but before he can be executed, he escapes through a hole in the ceiling.
He runs to Katie's apartment, where he tells her that he informed on Frankie.
Katie goes to see the commissioner who presided over the trial, Dan Gallagher (Preston Foster), to beg him to leave Gypo alone.
The rigid Gallagher says he cannot do anything, and Gypo might turn in the entire organization to the police if he is allowed to live.
However, other IRA members, having overheard Katie, go to her apartment and shoot Gypo much to Katie's horror who hears the shots.
Gypo wanders into a church where Frankie's mother is praying and begs forgiveness as he confesses to her.
She does forgive him, telling him that he did not know what he was doing, and the absolved Gypo dies content on the floor of the church after calling out to Frankie with joy.
<EOS>
On the northwest frontier of India during the British Raj, Scottish Canadian Lieutenant Alan McGregor (Gary Cooper), in charge of newcomers, welcomes two replacements to the 41st Bengal Lancers, Lieutenant John Forsythe (Franchot Tone) and Lieutenant Donald Stone (Richard Cromwell), the son of the unit's commander, Colonel Tom Stone (Guy Standing).
Lieutenant Stone volunteered to serve on the Indian front solely in the belief that his father specifically sent for him, while Lieutenant Forsythe, an experienced cavalrymen and somewhat of a teasing character, is simply sent off as a replacement for an officer who recently died.
After the formal introduction, Lieutenant Stone realizes his father never actually sent for him during a heated argument, a discovery that breaks his heart.
In attempt to show impartiality, the colonel treats his son very coldly, which is misinterpreted and causes frustration and resentment in the young officer.
Lieutenant Barrett (Colin Tapley) has been disguised as a native rebel in order to spy on Mohammed Khan (Douglass Dumbrille), and reports that Khan has been preparing an uprising against the British and is planning to intercept and steal a future military transport of two million rounds of ammunition.
When Khan discovers the British regiment knows of his plan, he orders his beautiful slave to seduce and then kidnap Lieutenant Stone, in an attempt to extract sensitive information about the ammunition caravan from him.
When the colonel refuses to attempt his rescue, McGregor and Forsythe, appalled by the "lack of concern" the colonel has for his own son, leave the camp at night without orders.
Disguised as common natives trying to sell blankets, they are recognized by the beautiful slave, who has met the two men before at a civil event, and are captured.
During a seemingly friendly interrogation, Khan says "we have ways of making men talk" and proceeds to have the prisoners tortured; their nails are ripped off and the sensitive skin underneath is burned.
While McGregor and Forsythe, despite the agonizing pain, refuse to speak, Stone cracks and reveals what he knows.
As a result, the ammunition is captured.
After receiving news about the stolen ammunition, Colonel Stone prepares his regiment for battle.
From their cell, the captives see the outmatched Bengal Lancers deployed to assault Khan's fortress.
They manage to escape and ultimately destroy the ammunition tower, and young Stone redeems himself by killing Khan with a dagger.
With their ammunition gone and headquarters in ruins as a result of the battle, the remaining rebels surrender.
However, McGregor, who was mainly responsible for the destruction of the ammunition tower, is killed in the assault.
To recognize their battlefield bravery and military effort, Forsythe and Lieutenant Stone are awarded the Distinguished Service Order and McGregor posthumously receives the prestigious Victoria Cross, with McGregor's horse awarded the medal on his behalf.
<EOS>
The story begins in 1815 in Digne, as the peasant Jean Valjean, just released from 19 years' imprisonment in the Bagne of Toulon—five for stealing bread for his starving sister and her family and fourteen more for numerous escape attempts—is turned away by innkeepers because his yellow passport marks him as a former convict.
He sleeps on the street, angry and bitter.
Digne's benevolent Bishop Myriel gives him shelter.
At night, Valjean runs off with Myriel's silverware.
When the police capture Valjean, Myriel pretends that he has given the silverware to Valjean and presses him to take two silver candlesticks as well, as if he had forgotten to take them.
The police accept his explanation and leave.
Myriel tells Valjean that his life has been spared for God, and that he should use money from the silver candlesticks to make an honest man of himself.
Valjean broods over Myriel's words.
When opportunity presents itself, purely out of habit, he steals a 40-sous coin from 12-year-old Petit Gervais and chases the boy away.
He quickly repents and searches the city in panic for Gervais.
At the same time, his theft is reported to the authorities.
Valjean hides as they search for him, because if apprehended he will be returned to the galleys for life as a repeat offender.
Six years pass and Valjean, using the alias Monsieur Madeleine, has become a wealthy factory owner and is appointed mayor of a town identified only as M____-sur-M__ (ie, Montreuil-sur-Mer).
Walking down the street, he sees a man named Fauchelevent pinned under the wheels of a cart.
When no one volunteers to lift the cart, even for pay, he decides to rescue Fauchelevent himself.
He crawls underneath the cart, manages to lift it, and frees him.
The town's police inspector, Inspector Javert, who was an adjutant guard at the Bagne of Toulon during Valjean's incarceration, becomes suspicious of the mayor after witnessing this remarkable feat of strength.
He has known only one other man, a convict named Jean Valjean, who could accomplish it.
Years earlier in Paris, a grisette named Fantine was very much in love with Félix Tholomyès.
His friends, Listolier, Fameuil, and Blachevelle were also paired with Fantine's friends Dahlia, Zéphine, and Favourite.
The men abandon the women, treating their relationships as youthful amusements.
Fantine must draw on her own resources to care for her and Tholomyès' daughter, Cosette.
When Fantine arrives at Montfermeil, she leaves Cosette in the care of the Thénardiers, a corrupt innkeeper and his selfish, cruel wife.
Fantine is unaware that they are abusing her daughter and using her as forced labor for their inn, and continues to try to meet their growing, extortionate and fictitious demands.
She is later fired from her job at Jean Valjean's factory, because of the discovery of her daughter, who was born out of wedlock.
Meanwhile, the Thénardiers' monetary demands continue to grow.
In desperation, Fantine sells her hair and two front teeth, and she resorts to prostitution to pay the Thénardiers.
Fantine is slowly dying from an unspecified disease.
A dandy named Bamatabois harasses Fantine in the street, and she reacts by striking him.
Javert arrests Fantine.
She begs to be released so that she can provide for her daughter, but Javert sentences her to six months in prison.
Valjean (Mayor Madeleine) intervenes and orders Javert to release her.
Javert resists but Valjean prevails.
Valjean, feeling responsible because his factory turned her away, promises Fantine that he will bring Cosette to her.
He takes her to a hospital.
Javert comes to see Valjean again.
Javert admits that after being forced to free Fantine, he reported him as Valjean to the French authorities.
He tells Valjean he realizes he was wrong, because the authorities have identified someone else as the real Jean Valjean, have him in custody, and plan to try him the next day.
Valjean is torn, but decides to reveal himself to save the innocent man, whose real name is Champmathieu.
He travels to attend the trial and there reveals his true identity.
Valjean returns to M____-sur-M__ to see Fantine, followed by Javert, who confronts him in her hospital room.
After Javert grabs Valjean, Valjean asks for three days to bring Cosette to Fantine, but Javert refuses.
Fantine discovers that Cosette is not at the hospital and fretfully asks where she is.
Javert orders her to be quiet, and then reveals to her Valjean's real identity.
Weakened by the severity of her illness, she falls back in shock and dies.
Valjean goes to Fantine, speaks to her in an inaudible whisper, kisses her hand, and then leaves with Javert.
Later, Fantine's body is unceremoniously thrown into a public grave.
Valjean escapes, is recaptured, and is sentenced to death.
The king commutes his sentence to penal servitude for life.
While imprisoned in the Bagne of Toulon, Valjean, at great personal risk, rescues a sailor caught in the ship's rigging.
Spectators call for his release.
Valjean fakes his own death by allowing himself to fall into the ocean.
Authorities report him dead and his body lost.
Valjean arrives at Montfermeil on Christmas Eve.
He finds Cosette fetching water in the woods alone and walks with her to the inn.
He orders a meal and observes how the Thénardiers abuse her, while pampering their own daughters Éponine and Azelma, who mistreat Cosette for playing with their doll.
Valjean leaves and returns to make Cosette a present of an expensive new doll which, after some hesitation, she happily accepts.
Éponine and Azelma are envious.
Madame Thénardier is furious with Valjean, while her husband makes light of Valjean's behaviour, caring only that he pay for his food and lodging.
The next morning, Valjean informs the Thénardiers that he wants to take Cosette with him.
Madame Thénardier immediately accepts, while Thénardier pretends to love Cosette and be concerned for her welfare, reluctant to give her up.
Valjean pays the Thénardiers 1,500 francs, and he and Cosette leave the inn.
Thénardier, hoping to swindle more out of Valjean, runs after them, holding the 1,500 francs, and tells Valjean he wants Cosette back.
He informs Valjean that he cannot release Cosette without a note from the child's mother.
Valjean hands Thénardier Fantine's letter authorizing the bearer to take Cosette.
Thénardier then demands that Valjean pay a thousand crowns, but Valjean and Cosette leave.
Thénardier regrets that he did not bring his gun and turns back toward home.
Valjean and Cosette flee to Paris.
Valjean rents new lodgings at Gorbeau House, where he and Cosette live happily.
However, Javert discovers Valjean's lodgings there a few months later.
Valjean takes Cosette and they try to escape from Javert.
They soon find shelter in the Petit-Picpus convent with the help of Fauchelevent, the man whom Valjean once rescued from being crushed under a cart and who has become the convent's gardener.
Valjean also becomes a gardener and Cosette becomes a student at the convent school.
Eight years later, the Friends of the ABC, led by Enjolras, are preparing an act of anti-Orléanist civil unrest on the eve of the Paris uprising on 5–6 June 1832, following the death of General Lamarque, the only French leader who had sympathy towards the working class.
Lamarque was a victim of a major cholera epidemic that had ravaged the city, particularly its poor neighborhoods, arousing suspicion that the government had been poisoning wells.
The Friends of the ABC are joined by the poor of the Cour des miracles, including the Thénardiers' eldest son Gavroche, who is a street urchin.
One of the students, Marius Pontmercy, has become alienated from his family (especially his grandfather Gillenormand) because of his liberal views.
After the death of his father Colonel Georges Pontmercy, Marius discovers a note from him instructing his son to provide help to a sergeant named Thénardier who saved Pontmercy's life at Waterloo – in reality Thénardier was looting corpses and only saved Pontmercy's life by accident; he had called himself a sergeant under Napoleon to avoid exposing himself as a robber.
At the Luxembourg Garden, Marius falls in love with the now grown and beautiful Cosette.
The Thénardiers have also moved to Paris and now live in poverty after losing their inn.
They live under the surname "Jondrette" at Gorbeau House (coincidentally, the same building Valjean and Cosette briefly lived in after leaving the Thénardiers' inn).
Marius lives there as well, next door to the Thénardiers.
Éponine, now ragged and emaciated, visits Marius at his apartment to beg for money.
To impress him, she tries to prove her literacy by reading aloud from a book and by writing "The Cops Are Here" on a sheet of paper.
Marius pities her and gives her some money.
After Éponine leaves, Marius observes the "Jondrettes" in their apartment through a crack in the wall.
Éponine comes in and announces that a philanthropist and his daughter are arriving to visit them.
In order to look poorer, Thénardier puts out the fire and breaks a chair.
He also orders Azelma to punch out a window pane, which she does, resulting in cutting her hand (as Thénardier had hoped).
The philanthropist and his daughter enter—actually Valjean and Cosette.
Marius immediately recognizes Cosette.
After seeing them, Valjean promises them he will return with rent money for them.
After he and Cosette leave, Marius asks Éponine to retrieve her address for him.
Éponine, who is in love with Marius herself, reluctantly agrees to do so.
The Thénardiers have also recognized Valjean and Cosette, and vow their revenge.
Thénardier enlists the aid of the Patron-Minette, a well-known and feared gang of murderers and robbers.
Marius overhears Thénardier's plan and goes to Javert to report the crime.
Javert gives Marius two pistols and instructs him to fire one into the air if things get dangerous.
Marius returns home and waits for Javert and the police to arrive.
Thénardier sends Éponine and Azelma outside to look out for the police.
When Valjean returns with rent money, Thénardier, with Patron-Minette, ambushes him and he reveals his real identity to Valjean.
Marius recognizes Thénardier as the man who "saved" his father's life at Waterloo and is caught in a dilemma.
He tries to find a way to save Valjean while not betraying Thénardier.
Valjean denies knowing Thénardier and tells him that they have never met.
Valjean tries to escape through a window but is subdued and tied up.
Thénardier orders Valjean to pay him 200,000 francs.
He also orders Valjean to write a letter to Cosette to return to the apartment, and they would keep her with them until he delivers the money.
After Valjean writes the letter and informs Thénardier of his address, Thénardier sends out Mme.
Thénardier to get Cosette.
Mme.
Thénardier comes back alone, and announces the address is a fake.
It is during this time that Valjean manages to free himself.
Thénardier decides to kill Valjean.
While he and Patron-Minette are about to do so, Marius remembers the scrap of paper that Éponine wrote on earlier.
He throws it into the Thénardiers' apartment through the wall crack.
Thénardier reads it and thinks Éponine threw it inside.
He, Mme.
Thénardier and Patron-Minette try to escape, only to be stopped by Javert.
He arrests all the Thénardiers and Patron-Minette (except Claquesous, who escapes during his transportation to prison; Montparnasse, who stops to run off with Éponine instead of joining in on the robbery; and Gavroche, who was not present and rarely participates in his family's crimes, a notable exception being his part in breaking his father out of prison).
Valjean manages to escape the scene before Javert sees him.
After Éponine's release from prison, she finds Marius at "The Field of the Lark" and sadly tells him that she found Cosette's address.
She leads him to Valjean's and Cosette's house on Rue Plumet, and Marius watches the house for a few days.
He and Cosette then finally meet and declare their love for one another.
Thénardier, Patron-Minette and Brujon manage to escape from prison with the aid of Gavroche.
One night, during one of Marius's visits with Cosette, the six men attempt to raid Valjean's and Cosette's house.
However, Éponine, who has been sitting by the gates of the house, threatens to scream and awaken the whole neighbourhood if the thieves do not leave.
Hearing this, they reluctantly retire.
Meanwhile, Cosette informs Marius that she and Valjean will be leaving for England in a week's time, which greatly troubles the pair.
The next day, Valjean is sitting in the Champ de Mars.
He is feeling troubled about seeing Thénardier in the neighbourhood several times.
Unexpectedly, a note lands in his lap, which says "Move Out".
He sees a figure running away in the dim light.
He goes back to his house, tells Cosette they will be staying at their other house on Rue de l'Homme Arme, and reconfirms to her that they will be moving to England.
Marius tries to get permission from Gillenormand to marry Cosette.
His grandfather seems stern and angry, but has been longing for Marius's return.
When tempers flare, he refuses his assent to the marriage, telling Marius to make Cosette his mistress instead.
Insulted, Marius leaves.
The following day, the students revolt and erect barricades in the narrow streets of Paris.
Gavroche spots Javert and informs Enjolras that Javert is a spy.
When Enjolras confronts him about this, he admits his identity and his orders to spy on the students.
Enjolras and the other students tie him up to a pole in the Corinth restaurant.
Later that evening, Marius goes back to Valjean's and Cosette's house on Rue Plumet, but finds the house no longer occupied.
He then hears a voice telling him that his friends are waiting for him at the barricade.
Distraught to find Cosette gone, he heeds the voice and goes.
When Marius arrives at the barricade, the "revolution" has already started.
When he stoops down to pick up a powder keg, a soldier comes up to shoot Marius.
However, a man covers the muzzle of the soldier's gun with his hand.
The soldier fires, fatally wounding the man, while missing Marius.
Meanwhile, the soldiers are closing in.
Marius climbs to the top of the barricade, holding a torch in one hand, a powder keg in the other, and threatens to the soldiers that he will blow up the barricade.
After confirming this, the soldiers retreat from the barricade.
Marius decides to go to the smaller barricade, which he finds empty.
As he turns back, the man who took the fatal shot for Marius earlier calls Marius by his name.
Marius discovers this man is Éponine, dressed in men's clothes.
As she lies dying on his knees, she confesses that she was the one who told him to go to the barricade, hoping they would die together.
She also confesses to saving his life because she wanted to die before he did.
The author also states to the reader that Éponine anonymously threw the note to Valjean.
Éponine then tells Marius that she has a letter for him.
She also confesses to have obtained the letter the day before, originally not planning to give it to him, but decides to do so in fear he would be angry at her about it in the afterlife.
After Marius takes the letter, Éponine then asks him to kiss her on the forehead when she is dead, which he promises to do.
With her last breath, she confesses that she was "a little bit in love" with him, and dies.
Marius fulfills her request and goes into a tavern to read the letter.
It is written by Cosette.
He learns Cosette's whereabouts and he writes a farewell letter to her.
He sends Gavroche to deliver it to her, but Gavroche leaves it with Valjean.
Valjean, learning that Cosette's lover is fighting, is at first relieved, but an hour later, he puts on a National Guard uniform, arms himself with a gun and ammunition, and leaves his home.
Valjean arrives at the barricade and immediately saves a man's life.
He is still not certain if he wants to protect Marius or kill him.
Marius recognizes Valjean at first sight.
Enjolras announces that they are almost out of cartridges.
When Gavroche goes outside the barricade to collect more ammunition from the dead National Guardsmen, he is shot by the troops.
Valjean volunteers to execute Javert himself, and Enjolras grants permission.
Valjean takes Javert out of sight, and then shoots into the air while letting him go.
Marius mistakenly believes that Valjean has killed Javert.
As the barricade falls, Valjean carries off the injured and unconscious Marius.
All the other students are killed.
Valjean escapes through the sewers, carrying Marius's body.
He evades a police patrol, and reaches an exit gate but finds it locked.
Thénardier emerges from the darkness.
Valjean recognizes him, but his filthy appearance prevents Thénardier from recognizing him.
Thinking Valjean a murderer lugging his victim's corpse, Thénardier offers to open the gate for money.
As he searches Valjean and Marius's pockets, he surreptitiously tears off a piece of Marius's coat so he can later find out his identity.
Thénardier takes the thirty francs he finds, opens the gate, and allows Valjean to leave, expecting Valjean's emergence from the sewer will distract the police who have been pursuing him.
Upon exiting, Valjean encounters Javert and requests time to return Marius to his family before surrendering to him.
Javert agrees, assuming that Marius will be dead within minutes.
After leaving Marius at his grandfather's house, Valjean asks to be allowed a brief visit to his own home, and Javert agrees.
There, Javert tells Valjean he will wait for him in the street, but when Valjean scans the street from the landing window he finds Javert has gone.
Javert walks down the street, realizing that he is caught between his strict belief in the law and the mercy Valjean has shown him.
He feels he can no longer give Valjean up to the authorities but also cannot ignore his duty to the law.
Unable to cope with this dilemma, Javert commits suicide by throwing himself into the Seine.
Marius slowly recovers from his injuries.
As he and Cosette make wedding preparations, Valjean endows them with a fortune of nearly 600,000 francs.
As their wedding party winds through Paris during Mardi Gras festivities, Valjean is spotted by Thénardier, who then orders Azelma to follow him.
After the wedding, Valjean confesses to Marius that he is an ex-convict.
Marius is horrified, assumes the worst about Valjean's moral character, and contrives to limit Valjean's time with Cosette.
Valjean accedes to Marius' judgment and his separation from Cosette.
Valjean loses the will to live and retires to his bed.
Thénardier approaches Marius in disguise, but Marius recognizes him.
Thénardier attempts to blackmail Marius with what he knows of Valjean, but in doing so, he inadvertently corrects Marius's misconceptions about Valjean and reveals all of the good he has done.
He tries to convince Marius that Valjean is actually a murderer, and presents the piece of coat he tore off as evidence.
Stunned, Marius recognizes the fabric as part of his own coat and realizes that it was Valjean who rescued him from the barricade.
Marius pulls out a fistful of notes and flings it at Thénardier's face.
He then confronts Thénardier with his crimes and offers him an immense sum to depart and never return.
Thénardier accepts the offer, and he and Azelma travel to America where he becomes a slave trader.
As they rush to Valjean's house, Marius tells Cosette that Valjean saved his life at the barricade.
They arrive to find Valjean near death and are reconciled with him.
Valjean tells Cosette her mother's story and name.
He dies content and is buried beneath a blank slab in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
<EOS>
To avoid an arranged marriage to Don Carlos, an elderly Spanish duke, Princess Marie masquerades as her uncle's former servant, Marietta, and escapes from France on a ship with casquette girls who are traveling to New Orleans to marry colonists.
On board, Marietta befriends Julie.
En route, the women discuss what type of man they want to marry.
"Marietta" shocks the other girls by stating that she does not intend to get married to anyone.
Shortly after, the ship is boarded by pirates, who kill the entire crew and take the girls ashore.
After the pirates divide the loot, they turn their attention to the girls.
Just then, singing is heard ("Tramp.
Tramp.
Tramp.
").
The pirates extinguish their torches and fire to try to avoid detection, but Marietta takes one of the torches and runs towards the sound of the singing, crying out "help, help".
Mercenaries rout the pirates and rescue the women.
The mercenaries' leader, Captain Richard Warrington, sings "Neath a Southern Moon" to Marietta.
Despite his attraction to her, however, Warrington declares that he does not intend to get married.
Warrington and his men take the casquette girls to New Orleans, where they are welcomed by the Governor.
The women are housed in the convent while they get to know their potential husbands.
When some men approach Marietta, she declares that she does not want to marry any of them.
The Governor feels that he has seen Marietta before in Paris, but she denies it.
When she pretends to have a disreputable past, the Governor orders a pair of soldiers to escort her away in disgrace.
Warrington relieves them of their duty and finds her a place to stay, even paying the first month's rent.
Though Marietta tries to rid herself of Warrington, he is undaunted.
Just then, a group of gypsies stroll by, advertising their Marionette Theater.
The gypsy leader, Rodolpho, has his daughter sing, and Warrington joins in ("Italian Street Song").
Stung by Warrington's remark that she might not be able to sing as well as the gypsy, Marietta surprises him by doing so beautifully.
While he is distracted getting rid of three would-be suitors, she slips away.
The following day, Warrington discovers that Marietta is working at the Marionette Theater.
When he visits her after the performance, Marietta tells him that his presence is "most unwelcome".
The captain asks her if he would be welcome "somewhere else"; Marietta answers "yes".
As she goes out for lunch, Warrington joins her, noting that he is "somewhere else", and "Here I am – welcome me".
She is unable to suppress a smile, indicating she has changed her opinion of him.
Soon after, however, a large award is offered for information about her whereabouts.
Warrington persuades her to trust him, and takes her away by boat.
During this time together, they discover that they are falling in love with each other ("I'm Falling in Love with Someone").
When Warrington asks Marietta to sing the song back to him, she says that she has a song she knows better.
Later, however, they are found by French soldiers, and her true identity is revealed.
Her uncle and Don Carlos are expected on the next ship to take her back.
Marietta is to attend a ball arranged by the Governor in her honor.
Julie comes to see her; she tells Marietta that Warrington had been ordered to leave New Orleans that day, but intends to come to the ball.
Her uncle warns her that "if Warrington attempted to see her again, he would be arrested for treason and shot".
Marietta asks Julie to stop Warrington from coming, but they realize it is too late when they hear him and his men singing ("Tramp.
Tramp.
Tramp.
").
When Warrington enters the ballroom, the Governor tries to get him to leave in order to save his life.
After the captain dances with Marietta, she tells him that she will sing her song to him the following evening.
She pretends to have been toying with him to deceive her uncle.
When Warrington is leaving, Marietta sings "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life", joined by Warrington.
The lovers then flee to the wild frontier.
<EOS>
In 1908 the Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young) gambles away his eminently correct English manservant, Marmaduke Ruggles (Charles Laughton).
Ruggles' new masters, crude nouveau riche American millionaires Egbert and Effie Floud (Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland), bring Ruggles back to Red Gap, Washington, a remote Western boomtown.
When Ruggles is mistaken for a wealthy retired Englishman colonel, he becomes a celebrity in the small town.
As Ruggles attempts to adjust to his rough new community, he learns to live life on his own terms, achieving a fulfilling independence as a result.
The climax of the film is Laughton’s recitation of the Gettysburg Address in a saloon filled with rough Western characters who are held spellbound by the speech.
Newly imbued with the spirit of democracy and self-determination, Ruggles becomes his own man, giving up his previous employment and opening a restaurant in Red Gap.
<EOS>
An American dancer, Jerry Travers (Fred Astaire) comes to London to star in a show produced by the bumbling Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton).
While practicing a tap dance routine in his hotel bedroom, he awakens Dale Tremont (Ginger Rogers) on the floor below.
She storms upstairs to complain, whereupon Jerry falls hopelessly in love with her and proceeds to pursue her all over London.
Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace, who is married to her friend Madge (Helen Broderick).
Following the success of Jerry's opening night in London, Jerry follows Dale to Venice, where she is visiting Madge and modelling/promoting the gowns created by Alberto Beddini (Erik Rhodes), a dandified Italian fashion designer with a penchant for malapropisms.
Jerry proposes to Dale, who, while still believing that Jerry is Horace, is disgusted that her friend's husband could behave in such a manner and agrees instead to marry Alberto.
Fortunately, Bates (Eric Blore), Horace's meddling English valet, disguises himself as a priest and conducts the ceremony; Horace had sent Bates to keep tabs on Dale.
On a trip in a gondola, Jerry manages to convince Dale and they return to the hotel where the previous confusion is rapidly cleared up.
The reconciled couple dance off into the Venetian sunset, to the tune of "The Piccolino".
<EOS>
In 1773, young English beauty Maria Bonnyfeather (Anita Louise) is the new bride of the cruel and devious middle-aged Spanish nobleman Marquis Don Luis (Claude Rains).
However, she is pregnant by Denis Moore (Louis Hayward), the man she loved before being forced to marry Don Luis.
After the marquis learns of his wife's affair, Don Luis takes her across Europe but Denis tracks them down at an inn, where Don Luis treacherously kills him in a sword duel.
Months later Maria dies giving birth to her son at a chalet in the Alps in northern Italy.
Don Luis leaves the infant in the foundling wheel of a convent near the port city of Leghorn (Livorno), Italy, where the nuns christen him Anthony, as he was found on January 17, the feast day of st Anthony the Great.
Don Luis lies to Maria's father, wealthy Leghorn-based merchant John Bonnyfeather (Edmund Gwenn), telling him that the infant is also dead.
Ten years later, completely by coincidence, Anthony (Billy Mauch) is apprenticed to Bonnyfeather, his real grandfather, who discovers his relationship to the boy but keeps it a secret from him.
He gives the boy the surname Adverse in acknowledgement of the difficult life he has led.
As an adult, Anthony (Fredric March) falls in love with Angela Giuseppe (Olivia de Havilland), the cook's daughter, and the couple wed.
Soon after the ceremony, Anthony is asked by Bonnyfeather to depart for Havana to save Bonnyfeather's fortune from a laggard debtor, the merchant trading firm Gallego & Sons.
On the day his ship is supposed to set sail he and Angela are supposed to meet at the convent before departing together, but she arrives first while he is late.
Unable to wait any longer, she leaves a note outside the convent to inform him that she is leaving for Rome with her opera company.
But the note Angela leaves Anthony is blown away and he is unaware that she has gone to Rome.
Confused and upset, he departs on the ship without her.
Meanwhile, assuming he has abandoned her, she departs and continues her career as an opera singer.
Learning that Gallego has quit Havana, Anthony leaves to take control of Gallego & Sons only remaining asset&mdash;a slave trading post on the Pongo River in Africa.
Three years in the slave trade (so he can recover Bonnyfeather's debt) corrupts him, and he takes slave girl Neleta into his bed as he believes Angela has abandoned him.
Anthony is eventually redeemed by his friendship with Brother François (Pedro de Córdoba).
After the monk is crucified and killed by the natives, Anthony returns to Italy to find Bonnyfeather has died.
His housekeeper, Faith Paleologus (Gale Sondergaard) (Don Luis' longtime co-conspirator, and now wife), has inherited Bonnyfeather's fortune.
Anthony reaches Paris to rectify the situation and claim his inheritance.
In Paris, Anthony is reunited with his friend, prominent banker Vincent Nolte (Donald Woods), whom he saves from bankruptcy by giving him his fortune, having learned from Brother François that "there's something besides money and power".
Through the intercession of impresario Debrulle (Ralph Morgan), Anthony finds Angela and discovers she bore him a son.
His wife fails to reveal she is now Mademoiselle Georges, a famous opera star and the mistress of Napoleon Bonaparte.
When Anthony learns her secret, she sends him their son, stating that he is better suited to raise the boy.
Anthony departs for America with his son, Anthony Jr.
(Scotty Beckett), in search of a better life.
<EOS>
The novel is set in the period between late 1925 and late 1927.
Samuel ('Sam') Dodsworth is an ambitious and innovative automobile designer, who builds his fortunes in Zenith, Winnemac.
In addition to his success in the business world, he had also succeeded as a young man in winning the hand of Frances 'Fran' Voelker, a beautiful young socialite.
While the book provides the courtship as a backstory, the real novel begins upon his retirement.
At the age of fifty and facing retirement as a result of his selling of his successful automobile company (The Revelation Motor Company) to a far larger competitor, he sets out to do what he had always wanted to experience: a leisurely trip to Europe with his wife.
His forty-one-year-old wife, however, motivated by her own vanity and fear of lost youth, is dissatisfied with married life and small town Zenith, wants to live in Europe permanently as an expatriate, not just visit for a few months to allow Dodsworth to visit some manufacturing plants looking for his next challenge.
Passing up advancement in his recently sold company, Dodsworth leaves for Europe with Fran, but her motivations to get to Europe become quickly known.
On their extensive travels across Europe, they are soon caught up in vastly different lifestyles.
Fran falls in with a crowd of frivolous socialites, while Sam plays more of an independent tourist.
'With his red Baedeker guide book in hand, he visits such well-known tourist attractions as Westminister Abbey, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sanssouci Palace, and the Piazza San Marco.
But the historic sites that he sees prove to be far less significant than the American expatriates that he meets on his extensive journeys across Great Britain and continental Europe' He eventually meets Edith Cortright, an expatriate American widow in Venice, who is everything his wife is not: self-assured, self-confident, unselfish and able to take care of herself.
As Sam and Fran follow their own pursuits, their marriage is strained to the breaking point.
Both are forced to choose between marriage and the new lifestyles they have pursued.
The novel includes detailed descriptions of Sam and Fran's tours across Europe.
In the beginning,g they leave their mid-Western hometown of Zenith, board a steam liner in New York and cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Their first stop is England.
They visit the sights in London and are invited by Major Clyde Lockert to join a weekend trip to the countryside.
Later on, when Lockert has made an indecent proposal to Fran, they depart for Paris, where she soon engages in a busy social life and he takes up sightseeing.
When Sam decides to go back to America for his college reunion in New Haven, Fran spends the summer months on the lakes near Montreux and Stresa, where she has a romance with Arnold Israel.
Once Sam has picked her up in Paris, they agree to continue their travels together, touring France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Hungary and Germany.
Their marriage comes to an end, when she falls in love with Kurt von Obersdorf in Berlin.
Whereas she stays on with her new love, he criss-crosses Europe in an attempt to cope with his new situation.
When Sam happens to run into Edith in Venice, she persuades him to accompany her on a visit to a village in the vicinity of Naples.
As Fran's fiancé calls off the wedding, Sam joins his former wife on her voyage back to New York.
Three days later, he is back on the next ship to meet Edith in Paris.
<EOS>
Wealthy Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) is falsely accused of breaking up a marriage and sues the New York Evening Star newspaper for $5,000,000 for libel.
Warren Haggerty (Spencer Tracy), the managing editor, turns in desperation to former reporter and suave ladies' man Bill Chandler (William Powell) for help.
His scheme is to maneuver Connie into being alone with him when his wife shows up, so the suit will have to be dropped.
Chandler is not married, so Warren volunteers his long-suffering fiancée, Gladys Benton (Jean Harlow), over her loud protests.
Bill arranges to return to America from England on the same ocean liner as Connie and her father (Walter Connolly).
He pays some men to pose as reporters and harass Connie at the dock, so that he can "rescue" her and become acquainted.
On the voyage, Connie initially treats him with contempt, assuming that he is just the latest in a long line of fortune hunters after her money, but Bill gradually overcomes her suspicions.
Complications arise when Connie and Bill actually fall in love.
They get married, but Gladys decides that she prefers Bill to a marriage-averse newspaperman and interrupts their honeymoon to reclaim her husband.
Bill reveals that he found out that Gladys' Yucatán divorce was not valid, but Gladys states she got a second divorce in Reno, so she and Bill are actually man and wife.
Fortunately, Connie and Bill manage to show Gladys that she really loves Warren.
<EOS>
During the Great Depression, Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), the co-owner of a tallow works, part-time greeting card poet, and tuba-playing inhabitant of the (fictional) hamlet of Mandrake Falls, Vermont, inherits 20 million dollars from his late uncle, Martin Semple.
Semple's scheming attorney, John Cedar (Douglass Dumbrille), locates Deeds and takes him to New York City.
Cedar gives his cynical troubleshooter, ex-newspaperman Cornelius Cobb (Lionel Stander), the task of keeping reporters away from Deeds.
Cobb is outfoxed, however, by star reporter Louise "Babe" Bennett (Jean Arthur), who appeals to Deeds' romantic fantasy of rescuing a damsel in distress by masquerading as a poor worker named Mary Dawson.
She pretends to faint from exhaustion after "walking all day to find a job" and worms her way into his confidence.
Bennett proceeds to write a series of enormously popular articles mocking Longfellow's hick ways and odd behavior, giving him the nickname "Cinderella Man".
Cedar tries to get Deeds' power of attorney in order to keep his own financial misdeeds secret.
Deeds, however, proves to be a shrewd judge of character, easily fending off Cedar and other greedy opportunists.
He wins Cobb's wholehearted respect and eventually Babe's love.
She quits her job in shame, but before she can tell Deeds the truth about herself, Cobb finds it out and tells Deeds.
Deeds, who has been in love with her, is left heartbroken, and in disgust he decides to return to Mandrake Falls.
After he has packed and is about leave, a dispossessed farmer (John Wray) stomps into his mansion and threatens him with a gun.
He expresses his scorn for the seemingly heartless, ultra-rich man, who will not lift a finger to help the multitudes of desperate poor.
After the intruder comes to his senses, Deeds realizes what he can do with his troublesome fortune.
He decides to provide fully equipped 10-acre farms free to thousands of homeless families if they will work the land for three years.
Alarmed at the prospect of losing control of the fortune, Cedar joins forces with Deeds' only other relative (and the man's grasping, domineering wife) in seeking to have Deeds declared mentally incompetent.
Along with Babe's betrayal, this finally breaks Deeds' spirit and he sinks into a deep depression.
A sanity hearing is scheduled to determine who should control the Deeds' fortune.
During the hearing.
Cedar calls an expert who diagnoses manic depression based on Babe's articles and Deeds' current behavior; he gets Deeds' Mandrake Falls tenants, eccentric elderly sisters Jane and Amy Faulkner (Margaret Seddon and Margaret McWade), to testify that Deeds is "pixilated".
Deeds is too depressed to defend himself and the situation looks bleak when Babe finally speaks up passionately on his behalf, castigating herself for what she did to him.
When he realizes that she truly loves him, he begins speaking, systematically punching holes in Cedar's case—when he asks the Faulkners who else is pixilated, they reply, "Why everyone, but us"—before actually punching Cedar in the face.
In the end the judge declares him to be "the sanest man who ever walked into this courtroom".
<EOS>
In nineteenth century chemist Louis Pasteur (Paul Muni) believes that diseases are caused by unseen microbes.
His radical theory is dismissed by most doctors, particularly his most vocal critic, Dr Charbonnet (Fritz Leiber, Sr).
Nonetheless, Pasteur carries on, with the assistance of a small group of loyal researchers, and finds a cure for anthrax.
He also campaigns to have doctors wash their hands and sterilize their instruments before operating.
Charbonnet is so certain that Pasteur is a quack that he injects himself with some of the rabies virus.
When a triumphant Charbonnet shows no sign of contracting rabies, Pasteur is puzzled, until his wife suggests that the sample may have gotten weak with age.
This sets him on the right path to finding a cure.
When a frantic mother begs him to try his untested treatment on her son (Dickie Moore), who has been bitten by a rabid dog, Pasteur risks imprisonment and possibly the guillotine to save the child.
Even Charbonnet finally concedes that he is right.
In the end Pasteur is honored for his scientific accomplishments by the very doctors who scoffed at his discoveries.
<EOS>
On the eve of the French Revolution, Lucie Manette (Elizabeth Allan) is informed that her father (Henry Walthall) is not dead, but has been a prisoner in the Bastille for many long years before finally being released.
She travels to Paris to take her father to her home in England.
dr Manette has been taken care of by a friend, Ernest Defarge (Mitchell Lewis), and his wife (Blanche Yurka).
The old man's mind has given way during his long ordeal, but Lucie's tender care begins to restore his sanity.
On the trip across the English Channel, Lucie meets Charles Darnay (Donald Woods), a French aristocrat who, unlike his unfeeling uncle, the Marquis de st Evremonde (Basil Rathbone), is sympathetic to the plight of the downtrodden French masses.
Darnay is framed for treason, but is saved by the cleverness of the dissolute lawyer Sydney Carton (Ronald Colman).
Carton goes drinking with Barsad (Walter Catlett), the main prosecution witness, and tricks him into admitting that he lied.
When Barsad is called to testify, he is horrified to discover that Carton is one of the defense attorneys and grudgingly allows that he might have been mistaken.
Darnay is released.
Carton is thanked by Lucie, who had been a witness at the trial.
He quickly falls in love with her, but realizes it is hopeless.
Lucie eventually marries Darnay, and they have a daughter.
By this time, the Reign of Terror has engulfed France.
The long-suffering commoners vent their fury on the aristocrats, condemning scores daily to Madame Guillotine.
Darnay is tricked into returning to Paris and arrested.
dr Manette pleads for mercy for his son-in-law, but Madame Defarge, seeking revenge against all the Evremondes, regardless of guilt or innocence, convinces the tribunal to sentence him to death with a letter dr Manette wrote exposing the guilt of Darnay's uncle, Marquis de st Evremonde.
While trying to comfort the family, Carton knows that they are themselves in grave danger.
When Lorry tries to convince him otherwise, Carton tells him that he is aware that Madame Defarge will stop at nothing just to get the vengeance she craves for.
This is evident when Carton noticed her behavior in having the Vengeance give Lucie's daughter a miniature guillotine during their trip at Defarge's and which he confiscated.
He comes up with a desperate rescue plan to stop her.
He first persuades Lucie and her friends to leave Paris by promising to save Darnay.
Next he confronts an old acquaintance, Barsad, now an influential man in the French government, to enable him to visit Darnay in jail.
When he refuses to cooperate, Carton blackmails him into doing what he asks by threatening to reveal his secret about being a paid spy for the Marquis to the tribunal if he doesn't allow him to see Darnay.
There, Carton drugs the prisoner unconscious, switches places with him, and finishes the letter to Lucie to be put in his jacket pocket.
Barsad and the guard has Darnay carried out to be reunited with his family.
Madame Defarge, her thirst for vengeance still unsatisfied, goes to have Lucie and her daughter arrested, only to find that they have fled with dr Manette.
When she finds out they're gone after searching the rooms, Madame Defarge tries to flee.
She is confronted by Miss Pross (Edna May Oliver), Lucie's devoted servant who locks her inside in an attempt to prevent her from warning the populace.
In the ensuing struggle, Madame Defarge is killed by Miss Pross.
She clutches her ear and runs from the scene.
Meanwhile, only a condemned seamstress (Isabel Jewell) notices Carton's substitution, but keeps quiet.
She draws comfort in his heroism as they ride in the same cart to the execution place.
As the camera rises just before the blade falls, Carton's voice is heard, saying, "It's a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done.
It's a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known".
<EOS>
Jerry Warriner (Cary Grant) returns home from a trip, which he falsely says was to Florida, to find that his wife, Lucy (Irene Dunne), is not at home.
When she returns in the company of her handsome music teacher, Armand Duvalle (Alexander D'Arcy), Jerry learns that Lucy spent the night in the country with Armand, after his car, they claim, broke down unexpectedly.
Lucy then discovers that Jerry did not actually go to Florida, though he went so far as to get an artificial tan and write multiple fake letters home to convince her that he did.
Mutual suspicions result in divorce.
During the divorce proceedings, Lucy moves into an apartment with her Aunt Patsy (Cecil Cunningham) and becomes engaged to a neighbor, Oklahoma native Dan Leeson (Ralph Bellamy), while Jerry is seen on a date with singer Dixie Belle Lee (Joyce Compton).
However, Leeson's mother (Esther Dale) does not approve of her.
Eventually, Lucy realizes that she still loves Jerry and decides to break off the engagement.
However, before she can inform Dan, Armand shows up at her apartment to discuss Jerry's earlier interruption of Lucy's singing recital.
When Jerry knocks on the door, Armand decides it would be prudent to hide in the bedroom.
Jerry wants to reconcile, much to Lucy's delight, but then Dan and his mother make an appearance.
Wanting to avoid complications, Jerry slips into Lucy's bedroom, too.
A fight erupts when he finds Armand already there.
When Jerry chases Armand out of the apartment in front of the Leesons, Dan and his mother stalk out.
Afterwards, Jerry is seen around town with heiress Barbara Vance (Molly Lamont).
To break up this relationship, on the night before the final divorce decree, Lucy crashes a party at the Vance mansion, pretending to be Jerry's sister.
She acts like a showgirl (recreating a risqué musical number she had seen performed by Dixie Belle) and lets on that Jerry's father ("their" father) had been a gardener at Princeton University, not a student athlete as Jerry had claimed.
Realizing that his chances with Barbara have been effectively sabotaged, Jerry drives Lucy away in her car.
Motorcycle policemen stop them on the road, and Lucy, plotting to spend more time with Jerry, wrecks the car.
The couple get a lift to her aunt's cabin from the policemen.
Once there, Jerry admits having made a fool of himself and the Warriners are happily reconciled, just before the clock strikes midnight.
<EOS>
In the filthy slums of New York, wealthy people have built luxury apartments there because of the view of the picturesque East River.
While they live in opulence, the destitute and dirt poor live nearby in crowded, filthy tenements.
At the end of the street is a dock on the East River; to the left are the luxury apartments and to the right are the slums.
The Dead End Kids, led by Tommy Gordon (Billy Halop), are a petty gang of street urchins who are already well onto a path to a life of crime.
Members of the gang besides Tommy include, Dippy (Huntz Hall), Angel (Bobby Jordan), Spit (Leo Gorcey),B.
(Gabriel Dell), and Milty (Bernard Punsly), the new kid on the block in search of friends.
Spit is a bit malicious with a cruel streak and initially bullies the newcomer and takes his pocket change.
However, Tommy eventually lets Milty join the gang, and he turns out to be both a loyal and generous friend.
Tommy's sister, Drina (Sylvia Sidney), dreams of marrying some dashing, rich stranger who will save her and Tommy from this miserable life of poverty and help prevent Tommy from growing up to be a mobster like Hugh "Baby Face" Martin (Humphrey Bogart), who has returned to the neighborhood to visit his mother and childhood girlfriend.
Dave Connell (Joel McCrea), raised on the same street as Martin, recognizes him and warns him to stay away, but Martin contemptuously ignores him.
Dave, a frustrated architect who currently works odd jobs, is Drina's childhood friend.
He is having an affair with a rich man's mistress, Kay Burton (Wendy Barrie).
Although Dave and Kay love each other, they know they can't be together because Dave cannot provide Kay with the kind of lifestyle she desires.
Meanwhile, the kids lure Philip (Charles Peck), a rich kid from the apartments, into a cellar where they beat and rob him.
When the boy's father tries to intervene, Tommy winds up stabbing him in the arm.
He escapes the police and goes into hiding.
Martin is subsequently rejected by his mother (Marjorie Main), who denounces him as a murderer, and repulsed by his ex-girlfriend, Francie (Claire Trevor), who is now a prostitute and "sick" (a coded reference to her suffering late term stages of syphilis).
Despondent over the failed visit, he decides to kidnap the rich child for ransom to make the trip back worthwhile.
Dave sees Martin and his accomplices planning the kidnapping and again warns him to leave.
Martin knifes him and Hunk (Allen Jenkins) pushes him into the river.
Managing to pull himself out of the river, Dave pursues the hoodlums, knocking out Hank and chasing Martin on the rooftops before cornering him on a fire escape.
Among a hail of bullets, he manages to kill Martin who falls onto the street below.
As the police and a crowd of people gather around Martin's body, the doorman (Ward Bond) recognizes Spit as being a member of the gang that attacked the rich kid's father and identifies him to Officer Mulligan (James Burke).
Spit exonerates himself by informing the police that the man was cut by Tommy, who has returned to say goodbye to Drina before running away.
Meanwhile, Kay approaches Dave asking him to go away with her, using the reward money that he received for killing Martin.
Dave refuses, and Kay returns to the man whom she doesn't love, but can provide her with financial security.
Tommy hears of Spit's betrayal and tries to give him the mark of the "squealer", which is a knife wound across the cheek.
Before he can do so, Dave intervenes, and he and Drina convince Tommy to surrender to the police.
Dave then offers to use his reward money to pay for Tommy's defense.
As Drina, Dave, and Tommy leave with Mulligan, the rest of the Dead End Kids meander off into the night, singing "If I had the wings of an angel, over these prison walls I would fly".
<EOS>
The O'Leary family are traveling to Chicago to start a new life when Patrick O'Leary tries to race a steam train in his wagon.
He is killed when his horses bolt.
His wife Molly and their three boys are left to survive on their own.
In town she agrees to prove her skills as a laundress when a woman's dress is accidentally spattered with mud.
She quickly proves herself and builds up a laundry business in an area known as "the Patch".
Her sons are educated.
One, Jack, becomes a reforming lawyer, but another, Dion, is involved in gambling.
While washing a sheet, Mrs O'Leary discovers a drawing, apparently created by Gil Warren, a devious local businessman.
Her sons realize that it reveals that he has a plan to run a tramline along a street that he and his cronies intend to buy up cheaply.
Dion becomes enamored with a feisty saloon-bar singer, Belle, who works for Warren.
After a stormy courtship they become lovers.
Meanwhile, Bob, the youngest O'Leary son, who helps his mother, is in love with Gretchen, an innocent German girl.
They meet in the barn watched by the O'Leary's cow Daisy and plan to marry.
Mrs O'Leary approves of the match, but expresses disdain for the loose-living Belle.
Dion and Belle bribe the local politicians to set up a saloon on the street where the tramline will pass.
Dion makes a deal to support Warren's political career and carve up business in the town.
However, Dion's dishonest practices lead to conflict with his brother Jack when one of Dion's cronies is arrested for multiple voting.
Dion later decides to support his brother rather than Warren in the election, convinced he can cut out Warren altogether and reign-in Jack's reformist zeal.
He is increasingly attracted by the daughter of the corrupt local senator, leading to conflicts with Belle.
Bob and Gretchen marry and have a baby.
At a Warren election rally a fight breaks out, arranged by Dion.
All Warren's election workers are arrested.
Jack is elected mayor.
He soon announces a campaign against corruption, targeting his brother's fiefdom in the Patch, which he intends to demolish.
Belle and Dion separate when Jack asks her to support him.
When he realizes Belle might testify against him, Dion asks her to marry him, making her testimony inadmissible.
As mayor, Jack marries the couple, but knocks Dion out in a fist fight as soon he realizes he has been deceived.
Mrs O'Leary is told about the fight while helping Daisy's calf to suckle.
In her distress, she leaves a lamp in the barn, and Daisy knocks it over.
A fire breaks out.
Soon the whole of the Patch is on fire.
Dion, Warren and their cronies are convinced that Jack has set the fire.
Warren's men look for Jack, seeking revenge.
Advised by Philip Sheridan, Jack plans to create a firebreak by dynamiting buildings to stop the fire reaching the gasworks, but Warren's gang try to stop him.
When Dion learns from Bob how the fire really started, he rushes to Jack's aid.
In the struggle Jack and Dion fight off the gang and set off the dynamite, but Jack is shot by one of Warren's thugs and then killed by a falling building.
Warren attempts to flee but is trampled to death by stampeding cattle from the stockyards.
Dion and Bob help to save Gretchen and the baby, while Belle rescues Mrs O'Leary.
They all manage to escape to the river.
Belle and Dion are reconciled, while Mrs O'Leary predicts that the city will be rebuilt and flourish after her son's sacrifice for its future.
<EOS>
Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, finds inner peace, love and a sense of purpose in Shangri-La, whose inhabitants enjoy unheard-of longevity.
Among the book's themes is an allusion to the possibility of another cataclysmic world war.
It is said to have been inspired at least in part by accounts of travels in Tibetan borderlands, published in National Geographic by the explorer and botanist Joseph Rock.
The remote communities he visited, such as Muli, show many similarities to the fictional Shangri-La.
The town of Zhongdian, has renamed itself Shangri La (Chinese: 香格里拉 Xiānggélǐlā) because of its claim to be the inspiration for the novel.
The book notes that, having made war on the ground, man would fill the skies with death and all precious things were in danger of being lost, like the histories of Rome (Lost books of Livy).
It was hoped that, overlooked by the violent, Shangri-la would preserve them and reveal them later to a receptive world exhausted by war.
That was the real purpose of the lamasery: study, inner peace and long life were merely a side benefit to living there.
Conway is a veteran of the trench warfare of WWI, with the emotional state frequently cited after that war, a sense of emotional exhaustion or accelerated emotional ageing.
This harmonises with the existing residents of the lamasery and he is strongly attracted to life at Shangri-La.
The origin of the eleven numbered chapters of the novel is explained in a prologue and epilogue, whose narrator is a neurologist.
This neurologist and a novelist friend, Rutherford, are given dinner at Tempelhof, Berlin, by their old school-friend Wyland, a secretary at the British embassy.
A chance remark by a passing airman brings up the topic of Hugh Conway, a British consul in Afghanistan, who disappeared under odd circumstances.
Later in the evening, Rutherford reveals to the narrator that, after the disappearance, he discovered Conway in a French mission hospital in Chung-Kiang (probably Chongqing), China, suffering from amnesia.
Conway recovered his memory and told Rutherford his story, then slipped away again.
Rutherford wrote down Conway's story; he gives the manuscript to the neurologist and that manuscript becomes the heart of the novel.
In May 1931, during the British Raj in India, the 80 white residents of Baskul are being evacuated to Peshawar, owing to a revolution.
In the aeroplane of the Maharajah of Chandrapore are Conway, the British consul, aged 37; Mallinson, his young vice-consul; an American, Barnard and a British missionary, Miss Brinklow.
The plane is hijacked and flown instead over the mountains to Tibet.
After a crash landing, the pilot dies but not before telling the four (in Chinese, which only Conway speaks) to seek shelter at the nearby lamasery of Shangri-La.
The location is unclear but Conway believes the plane has "progressed far beyond the western range of the Himalayas towards the less known heights of the Kuen-Lun".
The four are taken there by a party directed by Chang, a postulant at the lamasery who speaks English.
The lamasery has modern conveniences, like central heating, bathtubs from Akron, Ohio, a large library, a grand piano, a harpsichord and food from the fertile valley below.
Towering above is Karakal, literally translated as "Blue Moon" a mountain more than 28,000 feet high.
Mallinson is keen to hire porters and leave but Chang politely puts him off.
The others eventually decide they are content to stay: Miss Brinklow wants to teach the people a sense of sin; Barnard, because he is really Chalmers Bryant (wanted by the police for stock fraud) and because he is keen to develop the gold-mines in the valley; and Conway, because the contemplative scholarly life suits him.
A seemingly young Manchu woman, Lo-Tsen, is another postulant at the lamasery.
She does not speak English but plays the harpsichord.
Mallinson falls in love with her, as does Conway, though more languidly.
Conway is given an audience with the High Lama, an unheard-of honor.
He learns that the lamasery was constructed in its present form by a Catholic monk named Perrault from Luxembourg, in the early eighteenth century.
The lamasery has since then been joined by others who have found their way into the valley.
Once they have done so, their ageing slows; if they then leave the valley, they age quickly and die.
Conway guesses correctly that the High Lama is Perrault, now 250 years old.
In a later audience, the High Lama reveals that he is finally dying and that he wants Conway to lead the lamasery.
Mallinson has arranged to leave the valley with porters and Lo-Tsen.
They are waiting for him 5 kilometers outside the valley but he cannot traverse the dangerous route by himself, so he convinces Conway to go along and assist him.
This ends Rutherford's manuscript.
The last time Rutherford saw Conway, it appeared he was preparing to make his way back to Shangri-La.
Rutherford completes his account by telling the neurologist that he attempted to track Conway and verify some of his claims of Shangri-La.
He found the Chung-Kiang doctor who had treated Conway.
The doctor said Conway had been brought in by a Chinese woman who was ill and died soon after.
She was old, the doctor had told Rutherford, "Most old of anyone I have ever seen", implying that it was Lo-Tsen, aged drastically by her departure from Shangri-La.
<EOS>
It is 1935.
Before returning to England to become the new Foreign Secretary, writer, soldier, and diplomat Robert Conway (Ronald Colman) has one last task in China: to rescue 90 white Westerners in the city of Baskul.
He flies out with the last few evacuees, just ahead of armed revolutionaries.
Unbeknownst to the passengers, the pilot has been replaced and their aircraft hijacked.
It eventually runs out of fuel and crashes deep in the Himalayan Mountains, killing their abductor.
The group is rescued by Chang (HB.
Warner) and his men and taken to Shangri-La, an idyllic valley sheltered from the bitter cold.
The contented inhabitants are led by the mysterious High Lama (Sam Jaffe).
Initially anxious to return to civilization, most of the newcomers grow to love Shangri-La, including paleontologist Alexander Lovett (Edward Everett Horton), swindler Henry Barnard (Thomas Mitchell), and bitter, terminally-ill Gloria Stone (Isabel Jewell), who miraculously seems to be recovering.
Conway is particularly enchanted, especially when he meets Sondra (Jane Wyatt), who has grown up in Shangri-La.
However, Conway's younger brother George (John Howard), and Maria (Margo), another beautiful young woman they find there, are determined to leave.
Conway eventually has an audience with the High Lama and learns that his arrival was no accident.
The founder of Shangri-La is said to be hundreds of years old, preserved, like the other residents, by the magical properties of the paradise he has created, but is finally dying and needs someone wise and knowledgeable in the ways of the modern world to keep it safe.
Having read Conway's writings, Sondra believed he was the one; the Lama had agreed with her and arranged for Conway's abduction.
The old man names Conway as his successor and then peacefully passes away.
George refuses to believe the Lama's fantastic story and is supported by Maria.
Uncertain and torn between love and loyalty, Conway reluctantly gives in to his brother and they leave, taking Maria with them, despite being warned that she is much older than she appears.
After several days of grueling travel, she becomes exhausted and falls face down in the snow.
When they turn Maria over, they discover that she had become extremely old and died, as her departure from Shangri-La had restored her to her true age.
Horrified, George loses his sanity and jumps to his death.
The Sherpa porters accompanying them were earlier swept away by an avalanche, triggered by one of them who carelessly fires a handgun.
Conway continues on and eventually meets up with a search party sent to find him, although the ordeal has caused him to lose his memory of Shangri-La.
On the voyage back to England, he remembers everything; he tells his story and then jumps ship.
The searchers track him back to the Himalayas, but are unable to follow him any further.
Conway manages to return to Shangri-La.
<EOS>
John Cardwell (Adolphe Menjou), a trombone player, is only one of a large group of unemployed musicians.
He tries unsuccessfully to gain an interview and audition with Leopold Stokowski, but not to disappoint his daughter, Patricia (Patsy) (Deanna Durbin), he tells her that he has managed to get the job with Stokowski's orchestra.
Patsy soon learns the truth, and also learns that her father, desperate for rent money, has used some of the cash in a Lady's evening bag he has found, to pay his debts.
The irrepressible and willful Patsy seeks an interview with mrs Frost, whose bag it was, and admits her father's actions.
mrs Frost (Alice Brady), a society matron and wife of rich radio station owner John Frost (Eugene Pallette), lightheartedly offers to sponsor an orchestra of unemployed musicians.
Taking her at her word, Patsy and her father recruit 100 musicians, rent a garage space and start to rehearse.
Realizing that Patsy took her seriously, Mrs Frost flees to Europe.
mr Frost tells John and his friends that he will not sponsor them, as they had supposed, unless they can attract a well-recognized guest conductor to give them a 'name' and launch them on their opening night.
Patsy, undaunted, sets out to recruit none other than Leopold Stokowski to be that conductor.
Stokowski at first definitely refuses—though when Patsy sings as the orchestra is rehearsing Mozart's "Alleluia" from Exsultate, jubilate, he strongly suggests that she seek professional voice training and eventual representation.
By mistake, Patsy conveys the story to a newspaper music critic that Stokowski will conduct an orchestra of unemployed musicians, and that John Frost would broadcast the concert on the radio.
When the story breaks, Frost protests his embarrassment to his friends, but they suggest valuable publicity would result.
Frost immediately signs the one-hundred-man orchestra to a contract, though Patsy tries to tell them that Stokowski has not agreed.
Stokowski is astonished and offended at the news, but Patsy enters Stokowski's palatial house surreptitiously, along with the entire orchestra.
She apologizes to him, and insists that he listen to the players.
The conductor is so moved by their performance of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.
2 that he postpones a European tour and agrees to the engagement.
The concert is a rousing success for everyone, especially when Patsy, called upon to make a speech, instead agrees to sing the "Brindisi" (Drinking Song) from Verdi's opera La traviata.
<EOS>
Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) moves into the Footlights Club, a theatrical rooming house in New York.
Her polished manners and superior attitude make her no friends among the rest of the aspiring actresses living there, particularly her new roommate, flippant, cynical dancer Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers).
From Terry's expensive clothing and her photograph of her elderly grandfather, Jean assumes she has obtained the former from her sugar daddy, just as fellow resident Linda Shaw (Gail Patrick) has from her relationship with influential theatrical producer Anthony Powell (Adolphe Menjou).
In truth however, Terry comes from a very wealthy, upper class, Midwest family.
Over the strong objections of her father, Henry Sims (Samuel Hinds), she is determined to try to fulfill her dreams on her own.
In the boarding house, Terry's only supporter is aging actress Anne Luther (Constance Collier), who appoints herself Terry's mentor and acting coach.
When Powell sees Jean dancing, he decides to dump Linda.
He arranges for Jean and her partner Annie (Ann Miller) to get hired for the floor show of a nightclub he partly owns.
He then starts dating Jean, who, despite her initial reluctance, starts falling for the man.
Meanwhile, well-liked Kay Hamilton (Andrea Leeds) had a great success and rave reviews in a play the year before, but has had no work since, and is running out of money.
She clings desperately to the hope of landing the leading role in Powell's new play, Enchanted April.
She finally gets an appointment to see Powell, only to have him cancel at the last minute.
She faints in the reception area, the result of malnutrition and disappointment.
Seeing this, Terry barges into Powell's private office and berates him for his callousness.
As a result, the other boarding house residents start to warm to the newcomer.
Terry's father secretly finances Enchanted April on condition that Terry be given the starring role, hoping she will fail and return home.
Powell invites Terry to his penthouse to break the news.
When Jean shows up unannounced, Terry sees the opportunity to save her friend from the philandering Powell.
She pretends that Powell is trying to seduce her.
It works.
However, it makes things uncomfortable around the boarding house.
Terry's landing of the plum part breaks Kay's heart.
The totally inexperienced Terry is so woodenly bad during rehearsals that Powell tries desperately to get out of his contract with Sims.
On opening night, after she learns from Jean that the depressed Kay has committed suicide, Terry decides she cannot go on.
Anne Luther tells her that she must, not just for herself and the tradition of the theatre, but also for Kay.
"You've got to give the performance that she wanted you to give.
Then perhaps, wherever she is, you may bring her peace".
She does, and gives a heartfelt performance.
She and the play are a hit, much to the chagrin of her father, who is in the audience.
At her curtain call, Terry gives a speech in tribute to her dead friend, and Terry and Jean are reconciled.
The play remains a success after months, but Terry continues to board at the Footlights Club.
A newcomer shows up looking for a room.
<EOS>
The film centers on Manuela, an Argentine nurse who oversees donor organ transplants in Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid and single mother to Esteban, a teenager who wants to be a writer.
On his seventeenth birthday, Esteban is hit by a car and killed while chasing after actress Huma Rojo for her autograph following a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which she portrays Blanche DuBois.
Manuela has to agree with her colleagues at work that her son's heart be transplanted to a man in A Coruña.
After travelling after her son's heart, Manuela quits her job and journeys to Barcelona, where she hopes to find her son's father, Lola, a transvestite she kept secret from her son, just as she never told Lola they had a son.
In Barcelona, Manuela reunites with her old friend Agrado, a warm and witty transsexual prostitute.
She also meets and becomes deeply involved with several characters: Rosa, a young nun who works in a shelter for battered prostitutes, but is pregnant by Lola and is HIV positive; Huma Rojo, the actress her son had admired; and the drug-addicted Nina Cruz, Huma's co-star and lover.
Her life becomes entwined with theirs as she cares for Rosa during her pregnancy and works for Huma as her personal assistant and even acts in the play as an understudy for Nina during one of her drug abuse crises.
On her way to the hospital, Rosa asks the taxi to stop at a park where she spots her father's dog, Sapic, and then her own father, who suffers from Alzheimer's; he does not recognize Rosa and asks for her age and height, but Sapic is cleverer and knows Rosa.
Rosa dies giving birth to her son, and Lola and Manuela finally reunite at Rosa's funeral.
Lola (whose name used to be Esteban), who is dying from AIDS, talks about how she always wanted a son, and Manuela tells her about her own Esteban and how he died in an accident.
Manuela then adopts Esteban, Rosa's child, and stays with him at Rosa's parents' house.
The father does not understand who Manuela is, and Rosa's mother says it's the new cook, who is living there with her son.
Rosa's father then asks Manuela her age and height.
Manuela introduces Esteban (Rosa's son) to Lola and gives her a picture of their own Esteban.
Rosa's mother spots them from the street and then confronts Manuela about letting strangers see the baby.
Manuela tells her that Lola is Esteban's father; Rosa's mother is appalled and says: "That is the monster that killed my daughter.
"  Manuela flees back to Madrid with Esteban; she cannot take living at Rosa's house any longer, since the grandmother is afraid that she will contract AIDS from the baby.
She writes a letter to Huma and Agrado saying that she is leaving and once again is sorry for not saying goodbye, like she did years before.
Two years later, Manuela returns with Esteban to an AIDS convention, telling Huma and Agrado, who now run a stage show together, that Esteban had been a miracle by not inheriting the virus.
She then says she is returning to stay with Esteban's grandparents.
When Manuela asks Huma about Nina, Huma becomes melancholic and leaves.
Agrado tells Manuela that Nina went back to her town, got married, and had a fat, ugly baby boy.
Huma then rejoins the conversation briefly before exiting the dressing room to go perform.
<EOS>
A vacationing Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston) lingers in a lakeside town for weeks.
After dark, she goes to a farmhouse where the Man (George O'Brien) and the Wife (Janet Gaynor) live with their child.
She whistles from the fence outside.
The Man is torn, but finally departs, leaving his wife with the memories of better times when they were deeply in love.
The man and woman meet in the moonlight and kiss passionately.
She wants him to sell his farm—which has not done well recently—to join her in the city.
When she suggests that he solve the problem of his wife by drowning her, he throttles her violently, but even that dissolves in a passionate embrace.
The Woman gathers bundles of reeds so that when the boat is overturned, the Man can stay afloat.
The Wife suspects nothing when her husband suggests going on an outing, but when they set off across the lake, she soon grows suspicious.
He prepares to throw her overboard, but when she pleads for his mercy, he realizes he cannot do it.
He rows frantically for shore, and when the boat reaches land, the Wife flees.
She boards a trolley, and he follows, begging her not to be afraid of him.
The trolley brings them to the city.
Her fear and disappointment are overwhelming.
He plies her with flowers and cakes and finally she stops crying and accepts his gifts.
Emerging back on the street, they are touched to see a bride enter a church for her processional, and follow her inside to watch the wedding.
The Man breaks down and asks her to forgive him.
After a tearful reconciliation, they continue their adventure in the city, having their photograph taken together and visiting a funfair.
As darkness falls, they board the trolley for home.
Soon they are drifting back across the lake under the moonlight.
A sudden storm causes their boat to begin sinking.
The Man remembers the two bundles of reeds he placed in the boat earlier and ties the bundles around the Wife.
The boat capsizes, and the Man awakes on a rocky shore.
He gathers the townspeople to search the lake, but all they find is a broken bundle of reeds floating in the water.
Convinced the Wife has drowned, the grief-stricken Man stumbles home.
The Woman From the City goes to his house, assuming their plan has succeeded.
The Man begins to choke her.
Then the Maid calls to him that his wife is alive, so he releases the Woman and runs to the Wife, who survived by clinging to one last bundle of reeds.
The Man kneels by the Wife's bed as she slowly opens her eyes.
The Man and the Wife kiss, while the Woman From the City's carriage rolls down the hill toward the lake, and the film dissolves to the sunrise.
<EOS>
On a cold day the fictional 304th New York Regiment awaits battle beside a river.
Eighteen-year-old Private Henry Fleming, remembering his romantic reasons for enlisting as well as his mother's resulting protests, wonders whether he will remain brave in the face of fear, or turn and run.
He is comforted by one of his friends from home, Jim Conklin, who admits that he would run from battle if his fellow soldiers also fled.
During the regiment's first battle, Confederate soldiers charge, but are repelled.
The enemy quickly regroups and attacks again, this time forcing some of the unprepared Union soldiers to flee.
Fearing the battle is a lost cause, Henry deserts his regiment.
It is not until after he reaches the rear of the army that he overhears a general announcing the Union's victory.
Ashamed, Henry escapes into a nearby forest, where he discovers a decaying body in a peaceful clearing.
In his distress, he hurriedly leaves the clearing and stumbles upon a group of injured men returning from battle.
One member of the group, a "tattered soldier", asks Henry where he is wounded, but the youth dodges the question.
Among the group is Jim Conklin, who has been shot in the side and is suffering delirium from blood-loss.
Jim eventually dies of his injury, defiantly resisting aid from his friend, and an enraged and helpless Henry runs from the wounded soldiers.
He next joins a retreating column that is in disarray.
In the ensuing panic, a man hits Henry on the head with his rifle, wounding him.
Exhausted, hungry, thirsty, and now wounded, Henry decides to return to his regiment regardless of his shame.
When he arrives at camp, the other soldiers believe his injury resulted from a grazing bullet during battle.
The other men care for the youth, dressing his wound.
The next morning Henry goes into battle for the third time.
His regiment encounters a small group of Confederates, and in the ensuing fight Henry proves to be a capable soldier, comforted by the belief that his previous cowardice had not been noticed, as he "had performed his mistakes in the dark, so he was still a man".
Afterward, while looking for a stream from which to obtain water with a friend, he discovers from the commanding officer that his regiment has a lackluster reputation.
The officer speaks casually about sacrificing the 304th because they are nothing more than "mule drivers" and "mud diggers".
With no other regiments to spare, the general orders his men forward.
In the final battle, Henry acts as the flag-bearer after the color sergeant falls.
A line of Confederates hidden behind a fence beyond a clearing shoots with impunity at Henry's regiment, which is ill-covered in the tree-line.
Facing withering fire if they stay and disgrace if they retreat, the officers order a charge.
Unarmed, Henry leads the men while entirely escaping injury.
Most of the Confederates run before the regiment arrives, and four of the remaining men are taken prisoner.
The novel closes with the following passage:.
<EOS>
Richard the Lionheart (Ian Hunter), the King of England, is taken captive in 1191 by Leopold V, Duke of Austria while returning to England.
Richard’s treacherous brother Prince John (Claude Rains) usurps the throne and proceeds to oppress the Saxons, raising taxes to secure his own position.
Only the Saxon nobleman Sir Robin of Locksley (Errol Flynn) opposes him.
Robin acquires a loyal follower when he saves Much the Miller's Son (Herbert Mundin) from being arrested for poaching by Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone).
At Gisbourne's castle, Robin boldly tells Prince John and his followers and a contemptuous Lady Marian Fitzwalter (Olivia DeHavilland) that he will do all in his power to restore Richard to the throne.
Robin escapes, despite attempts by John's men to stop him.
Robin and friend Will Scarlet (Patric Knowles) take refuge in Sherwood Forest and recruit Little John (Alan Hale, Sr), while other men join their growing band, including the rotund Friar Tuck (Eugene Pallette), one of the best swordsmen in all England.
Now known as the outlaw Robin Hood, he binds his men by an oath: to fight for a free England until the return of Richard, to rob the rich and give to the poor, and treat all women with courtesy, "rich or poor, Norman or Saxon".
Robin and his band immediately begin guerrilla warfare against Prince John and his minions, systematically killing the Prince's tax collectors, rapists, and any nobleman who abuses his power over the people of his lands.
Robin and his men capture a large party of Normans transporting tax money extorted from the people of England.
Among Robin's "guests" are Sir Guy of Gisbourne, the cowardly Sheriff of Nottingham (Melville Cooper) and the Lady Marian.
At first disdainful of Robin, Marian comes to accept his good intentions and begins to see the reality of Norman brutality.
Robin allows the humiliated Sir Guy and the Sheriff to leave Sherwood, telling them that they have Marian's presence to thank for his sparing their lives.
The Sheriff comes up with a cunning scheme to capture Robin by announcing an archery tournament with the prize of a golden arrow to be presented by the Lady Marian, sure that Robin will be unable to resist the challenge.
All goes as planned: Robin wins the match, is taken prisoner, and is sentenced to hang.
Marian helps Robin's men rescue Robin, and he later scales a castle wall to thank her.
Each pledges their love for each other but Marian declines to leave, believing she can best help the rebellion as a spy by staying where she is.
King Richard and several trusted knights have returned, disguised as monks.
At an roadside inn, the Bishop of the Black Canons (Montagu Love) discovers their presence and alerts Prince John and Gisbourne.
Dickon Malbete (Harry Cording), a degraded former knight, is given the task of disposing of Richard in return for the restoration of his rank, with Robin's manor and estate to support it.
Marian overhears their plot and writes a note to Robin, but Sir Guy finds it and has her arrested, pending trial and execution.
Marian's nurse, Bess (Una O'Connor), romantically involved with Much, sends her paramour to warn Robin.
On his way, Much intercepts and kills Dickon, being wounded in the process.
King Richard and his liegemen journey through Sherwood Forest and are soon stopped by Robin and his men.
Richard assures him that he is traveling on the King's business; when asked if he supports Richard, the incognito King replies, "I love no man better".
He accepts Robin's invitation to eat with him and the Merry Men, and humbly accepts Robin's rebuke of the King for not staying at home to give justice to his people instead of traveling to fight in foreign lands.
Will finds the injured Much, who tells Robin of Marian's peril and that Richard is now in England.
Robin orders a thorough search to find Richard and bring him to Robin for safety.
Now certain of Robin's loyalty, Richard reveals himself to the outlaws.
Robin devises a plan to sneak his men into Nottingham Castle.
He coerces the Bishop of the Black Canons to include his men, disguised as monks, in his entourage.
During John's coronation in the great hall, Richard reveals himself to the assembled nobles to their shock, and a huge melee breaks out between the outlaws and the noblemen who support John.
Robin and Sir Guy engage in a prolonged swordfight, ending with Gisbourne's death.
Robin releases Marian from her prison cell and Prince John's men, defeated, throw down their swords, shields, and banners in token of surrender.
Richard exiles John and his followers for his lifetime and pardons the outlaws.
He elevates Robin Hood to be Baron of Locksley and Earl of Sherwood and Nottingham, and commands that Robin marry the Lady Marian.
With Marian by his side, from across the great hall Robin replies with enthusiasm, "May I obey all your commands with equal pleasure, Sire.
".
<EOS>
The Lemp sisters, Emma (Gale Page), Thea (Lola Lane), Kay (Rosemary Lane), and Ann (Priscilla Lane) are prodigies in a musical family headed by their father, Adam (Claude Rains).
The Lemps also run a boarding house, and among the tenants is Felix Deitz (Jeffrey Lynn), a young composer whom the four daughters want to attract.
Emma, the oldest daughter, is the object of affection of a neighbor, Ernest (Dick Foran), but she rebuffs his attentions.
Thea, a pianist and the second eldest, is courted by wealthy Ben Crowley (Frank McHugh), another neighbor, but she is not sure she loves him.
Kay, the third daughter, is a talented singer and has a chance at a music school scholarship but doesn't want to leave home.
The youngest daughter is Ann, a violinist.
Mickey (John Garfield), an orchestral arranger and friend of Felix, falls for Ann, but Felix also has had his eyes on her and proposes marriage.
<EOS>
During the First World War, two French aviators, the aristocratic Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin), set out on a flight to examine the site of a blurred spot found on photographs from an earlier air reconnaissance mission.
They are shot down by a German aviator and aristocrat, Rittmeister von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), and both are taken prisoner by German ground forces.
Upon returning to base, Rauffenstein sends a subordinate to find out if the aviators are officers and, if so, to invite them to lunch.
During the meal, Rauffenstein and Boeldieu discover they have mutual acquaintances—a depiction of the familiarity, if not solidarity, within the upper classes that crosses national boundaries.
Boeldieu and Maréchal are then taken to a prisoner-of-war camp, where they meet a colorful group of French prisoners and stage a vaudeville-type performance just after the Germans have taken Fort Douaumont in the epic Battle of Verdun.
During the performance, word arrives that the French have recaptured the fort.
Maréchal interrupts the show, and the French prisoners spontaneously burst into "La Marseillaise".
As a result of the disruption, Maréchal is placed in solitary confinement, where he suffers badly from lack of human contact and hunger; ironically, the fort changes hands once more while he is imprisoned.
Boeldieu and Maréchal also help their fellow prisoners to finish digging an escape tunnel.
However, just before it is completed, everyone is transferred to other camps.
Because of the language barrier, Maréchal is unable to pass word of the tunnel to an incoming British prisoner.
Boeldieu and Maréchal are moved from camp to camp, finally arriving in Wintersborn, a mountain fortress prison commanded by Rauffenstein, who has been so badly injured in battle that he has been promoted, but given a posting away from the front, much to his regret.
Rauffenstein tells them that Wintersborn is escape-proof.
At Wintersborn, the pair are reunited with a fellow prisoner, Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), from the original camp.
Rosenthal is a wealthy French Jew, a naturalized French citizen, the son of a Polish father and a Danish mother, who generously shares the food parcels he receives.
Boeldieu comes up with an idea, after carefully observing how the German guards respond to an emergency.
He volunteers to distract the guards for the few minutes needed for Maréchal and Rosenthal to escape.
After a commotion staged by the prisoners, the guards are ordered to assemble them in the fortress courtyard.
During the roll call, it is discovered that Boeldieu is missing.
He makes his presence known high up in the fortress, drawing the German guards away in pursuit.
Maréchal and Rosenthal take the opportunity to lower themselves from a window by a homemade rope and flee.
Rauffenstein stops the guards from firing at Boeldieu with their rifles and pleads with his fellow aristocrat to give himself up.
Boeldieu refuses, and Rauffenstein reluctantly shoots at him with his pistol, aiming for his legs but hitting him in the stomach.
Nursed in his final moments by a grieving Rauffenstein, Boeldieu laments that their usefulness to society (as aristocrats) will end with this war.
He also pities Rauffenstein, who will have to find a new purpose in the emerging social order.
Maréchal and Rosenthal journey across the German countryside, trying to get to nearby Switzerland.
Rosenthal injures his foot, slowing Maréchal down.
They quarrel and part, but then Maréchal returns to help his comrade.
They take refuge in the modest farmhouse of a German woman, Elsa (Dita Parlo), who has lost her husband at Verdun, along with three brothers, at battles which, with quiet irony, she describes as "our greatest victories".
She generously takes them in, and doesn't betray them to a passing German army patrol.
Maréchal begins to fall in love with her, and she with him, but he and Rosenthal eventually leave from a sense of duty to the war effort after Rosenthal recovers from his injury.
Maréchal declares his intention to come back for Elsa and her daughter, Lotte, after the war.
A German patrol sights the two fugitives crossing a snow-covered valley.
The soldiers fire a few rounds, but then the patrol leader orders them to cease fire, saying the pair have crossed into Switzerland.
We last glimpse them from a distance, trudging through deep snow, their future uncertain.
<EOS>
Reckless test pilot Jim Lane (Clark Gable) is forced to land on a Kansas farm in his aircraft, the "Drake Bullet", where he meets Ann "Thursday" Barton (Myrna Loy).
They spend the day together and fall in love.
Once Jim's best friend and mechanic, Gunner Morris (Spencer Tracy), arrives, Jim ignores Ann.
To spur him, she gets engaged to her sweetheart.
Jim leaves in the morning, but soon comes back for her.
They quickly get married.
Jim loses his job at Drake, when he clashes with the owner (Lionel Barrymore), and takes a job with another outfit, flying a very experimental aircraft.
Ann soon finds out how dangerous her husband's occupation is, but she promises Gunner that she will stick to her man.
Jim wins the race, but Benson, the man Drake sends in Jim's place, dies, leaving a wife and three children behind.
Jim tries to reform his ways and begins by taking a job testing aircraft, even conducting dangerous flights as he wants to give Ann a real home.
Gunner remains true to his friend.
One day, Gunner accompanies Jim on a test flight of a new bomber (an early Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress prototype).
Upon reaching 30,000 feet, something goes wrong; the bomber goes into a spin and sandbags (substituting for the weight of bombs) break loose, pinning Gunner.
Unwilling to bail out without his buddy, Jim manages to crash land, and pulls a badly injured Gunner out of the wreckage right before it burst into flames; but it is too late for Gunner.
When Jim realizes the toll his job has taken on his wife, he gives it up.
<EOS>
Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is a young, carefree, hedonistic Long Island socialite and heiress with a passion for horses, fast cars, and too much smoking and drinking.
She initially ignores severe headaches and brief episodes of dizziness and double vision, but when she uncharacteristically takes a spill while riding, and then tumbles down a flight of stairs, her secretary and best friend Ann King (Geraldine Fitzgerald) insists she see the family doctor, who refers her to a specialist.
dr Frederick Steele (George Brent) is in the midst of closing his New York City office in preparation of a move to Brattleboro, Vermont, where he plans to devote his time to brain cell research and scientific study on their growth.
He reluctantly agrees to see Judith, who is cold and openly antagonistic toward him.
She shows signs of short-term memory loss, but dismisses her symptoms.
Steele convinces her the ailments she is experiencing are serious and potentially life-threatening, and puts his career plans on hold to tend to her.
When diagnostic tests confirm his suspicions, Judith agrees to surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor.
Steele discovers the tumor cannot be completely removed, and realizes she has less than a year to live.
The end will be painless but swift—shortly after experiencing total blindness, Judith will die.
In order to allow her a few more months of happiness, Steele opts to lie to Judith and Ann and assures them the surgery was a success.
As a poor liar, Ann is suspicious and confronts Steele, who admits the truth.
Steele tells Ann, "she must never know" she is going to die soon.
She agrees to remain silent and continue the lie.
Judith and Steele become involved romantically and eventually engaged.
While helping his assistant pack the office prior to their departure for Vermont, Judith discovers her case history file containing letters from several doctors, all of them confirming Steele's prognosis.
Assuming Steele was marrying her out of pity, Judith breaks off the engagement and reverts to her former lifestyle.
One day, her stablemaster Michael O'Leary (Humphrey Bogart), who for years has loved her from afar, confronts her about her unruly behavior and she confesses she is dying.
Their conversation convinces her she should spend her final months happy, dignified, and with the man she loves.
She apologizes to Steele, she and Steele marry, and move to Vermont.
(Throughout the film Judith and O'Leary engage in arguments about the prospects of a colt, Challenger.
O'Leary insists Challenger will never make a racehorse while Judith sees him as a future champion, and just before her death O'Leary admits she was correct)  Three months later, Ann comes to visit.
She and Judith are in the garden planting bulbs when Judith comments on how odd it is she still feels the heat of the sun under the rapidly darkening skies.
She realizes she actually is losing her vision and approaching the end.
Steele is scheduled to present his most recent medical findings &ndash; which hold out the long-term prospect of a cure for this type of cancer &ndash; in New York, and Judith, making an excuse to remain home, helps him pack and sends him off.
Then, after bidding Ann, her housekeeper Martha (Virginia Brissac), and her dogs farewell, she climbs the stairs and enters her bedroom.
She kneels briefly at the side of her bed, apparently praying, then lies down on the bed.
Martha, who has followed her, drapes a blanket over her.
Judith asks to be left alone, and Martha withdraws.
The camera focuses on the motionless Judith as the screen becomes blurry, fades to black, and the film ends.
<EOS>
The novella tells the story of a beloved schoolteacher, Mr Chipping, and his long tenure at Brookfield School, a fictional minor British boys' public boarding school located in the fictional village of Brookfield, in the Fenlands.
Mr Chips, as the boys call him, is conventional in his beliefs, and exercises firm discipline in the classroom.
His views broaden and his pedagogical manner loosens after he marries Katherine, a young woman whom he meets on holiday in the Lake District.
Katherine charms the Brookfield teachers and headmaster and quickly wins the favour of Brookfield's pupils.
Despite Chipping's mediocre credentials and his view that Greek and Latin (his academic subjects) are dead languages, he is an effective teacher who becomes highly regarded by students and the school's governors.
In his later years, he develops an arch sense of humour that pleases everyone.
Although the book is unabashedly sentimental, it also depicts the sweeping social changes that Chips experiences throughout his life: he begins his tenure at Brookfield in September 1870, at the age of 22, as the Franco-Prussian War was breaking out; he dies at the age of 85 in November 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler's rise to power.
<EOS>
French painter Michel Marnet (Charles Boyer) meets American singer Terry McKay (Irene Dunne) aboard a liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
They are both already engaged, he to heiress Lois Clarke (Astrid Allwyn), she to Kenneth Bradley (Lee Bowman).
They begin to flirt and to dine together on the ship, but his notoriety and popularity on the ship make them conscious that others are watching.
Eventually, they decide that they should dine separately and not associate with each other.
At a stop at Madeira, they visit Michel's grandmother Janou (Maria Ouspenskaya), who approves of Terry and wants Michel to settle down.
As the ship is ready to disembark at New York City, the two make an appointment to meet six months later on top of the Empire State Building.
Michel chooses six months because that is the amount of time he needs to decide whether he can drop the life of a playboy and start making money to support a relationship with Terry.
When the rendezvous date arrives, they both head to the Empire State Building.
However, Terry is struck by a car right as she arrives, and is told that she may not be able to walk, though that will not be known for certain for six months.
Not wanting to be a burden to Michel, she does not contact him, preferring to let him think the worst.
Meanwhile, Terry recovers at an orphanage teaching the children how to sing.
Six months go by, and during Terry's first outing since the accident, the two couples meet by accident at the theater, though Terry manages to conceal her condition.
Michel then visits her at her apartment and finally learns the truth.
He assures her that they will be together no matter what the diagnosis will be.
<EOS>
The governor of an unnamed western state, Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee), has to pick a replacement for recently deceasedS.
Senator Sam Foley.
His corrupt political boss, Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), pressures Hopper to choose his handpicked stooge, while popular committees want a reformer, Henry Hill.
The governor's children want him to select Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), the head of the Boy Rangers.
Unable to make up his mind between Taylor's stooge and the reformer, Hopper decides to flip a coin.
When it lands on edge – and next to a newspaper story on one of Smith's accomplishments – he chooses Smith, calculating that his wholesome image will please the people while his naïveté will make him easy to manipulate.
Junior Senator Smith is taken under the wing of the publicly esteemed, but secretly crooked, Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), who was Smith's late father's friend.
Smith develops an immediate attraction to the senator's daughter, Susan (Astrid Allwyn).
At Senator Paine's home, Smith has a conversation with Susan, fidgeting and bumbling, entranced by the young socialite.
Smith's naïve and honest nature allows the unforgiving Washington press to take advantage of him, quickly tarnishing Smith's reputation with ridiculous front page pictures and headlines branding him a bumpkin.
To keep Smith busy, Paine suggests he propose a bill.
With the help of his secretary, Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur), who was the aide to Smith's predecessor and had been around Washington and politics for years, Smith comes up with a bill to authorize a federal government loan to buy some land in his home state for a national boys' camp, to be paid back by youngsters across America.
Donations pour in immediately.
However, the proposed campsite is already part of a dam-building graft scheme included in an appropriations bill framed by the Taylor political machine and supported by Senator Paine.
Unwilling to crucify the worshipful Smith so that their graft plan will go through, Paine tells Taylor he wants out, but Taylor reminds him that Paine is in power primarily through Taylor's influence.
Through Paine, the machine in his state accuses Smith of trying to profit from his bill by producing fraudulent evidence that Smith already owns the land in question.
Smith is too shocked by Paine's betrayal to defend himself, and runs away.
Saunders, who looked down on Smith at first, but has come to believe in him, talks him into launching a filibuster to postpone the appropriations bill and prove his innocence on the Senate floor just before the vote to expel him.
In his last chance to prove his innocence, he talks non-stop for about 24 hours, reaffirming the American ideals of freedom and disclosing the true motives of the dam scheme.
Yet none of the Senators are convinced.
The constituents try to rally around him, but the entrenched opposition is too powerful, and all attempts are crushed.
Owing to the influence of Taylor's machine, newspapers and radio stations in Smith's home state, on Taylor's orders, refuse to report what Smith has to say and even distort the facts against the senator.
An effort by the Boy Rangers to spread the news in support of Smith results in vicious attacks on the children by Taylor's minions.
Although all hope seems lost, the senators begin to pay attention as Smith approaches utter exhaustion.
Paine has one last card up his sleeve: he brings in bins of letters and telegrams from Smith's home state, purportedly from average people demanding his expulsion.
Nearly broken by the news, Smith finds a small ray of hope in a friendly smile from the President of the Senate (Harry Carey).
Smith vows to press on until people believe him, but immediately collapses in a faint.
Overcome with guilt, Paine leaves the Senate chamber and attempts to commit suicide by gunshot, but is stopped by onlooking senators.
He then bursts back into the Senate chamber, shouting a confession to the whole scheme; Paine further insists that he should be expelled from the Senate and affirms Smith's innocence, to the delight of Clarissa.
The President of the Senate observes the ensuing chaos with amusement.
<EOS>
Three Russians, Iranov (Sig Ruman), Buljanov (Felix Bressart), and Kopalsky (Alexander Granach), are in Paris to sell jewelry confiscated from the aristocracy during the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Upon arrival, they meet Count Leon d'Algout (Melvyn Douglas), on a mission from the Russian Grand Duchess Swana (Ina Claire), who wants to retrieve her jewelry before it is sold.
He corrupts them and talks them into staying in Paris.
The Soviet Union then sends Nina Ivanovna "Ninotchka" Yakushova (Greta Garbo), a special envoy whose goal is to go through with the jewelry sale and bring back the three men.
Rigid and stern at first, she slowly becomes seduced by the West and the Count, who falls in love with her.
The three Russians also accommodate themselves to capitalism, but the last joke of the film is that one of them carries a sign protesting that the other two are unfair to him.
<EOS>
Two migrant field workers in California on their plantation during the Great Depression—George Milton, an intelligent but uneducated man, and Lennie Small, a bulky, strong man but mentally disabled—are in Soledad on their way to another part of California.
They hope to one day attain the dream of settling down on their own piece of land.
Lennie's part of the dream is merely to tend and pet rabbits on the farm, as he loves touching soft animals, although he always kills them.
This dream is one of Lennie's favorite stories, which George constantly retells.
They had fled from Weed, after Lennie touched a young woman's dress and wouldn't let go, leading to an accusation of rape.
It soon becomes clear that the two are close and George is Lennie's protector, despite his antics.
After being hired at a farm, the pair are confronted by Curley—The Boss's small, aggressive son with a Napoleon complex who dislikes larger men, and starts to target Lennie.
Curley's flirtatious and provocative wife, to whom Lennie is instantly attracted, poses a problem as well.
In contrast, the pair also meets Candy, an elderly ranch-hand with one hand and a loyal dog, and Slim, an intelligent and gentle jerkline-skinner whose dog has recently had a litter of puppies.
Slim gives a puppy to Lennie and Candy, whose loyal, accomplished sheep dog was put down by fellow ranch-hand Carlson.
In spite of problems, their dream leaps towards reality when Candy offers to pitch in $350 with George and Lennie so that they can buy a farm at the end of the month, in return for permission to live with them.
The trio are ecstatic, but their joy is overshadowed when Curley attacks Lennie, who defends himself by easily crushing Curley's fist while urged on by George.
Nevertheless, George feels more relaxed, to the extent that he even leaves Lennie behind on the ranch while he goes into town with the other ranch hands.
Lennie wanders into the stable, and chats with Crooks, the bitter, yet educated stable buck, who is isolated from the other workers racially.
Candy finds them and they discuss their plans for the farm with Crooks, who cannot resist asking them if he can hoe a garden patch on the farm albeit scorning its possibility.
Curley's wife makes another appearance and flirts with the men, especially Lennie.
However, her spiteful side is shown when she belittles them and threatens Crooks to have him lynched.
The next day, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy while stroking it.
Curley's wife enters the barn and tries to speak to Lennie, admitting that she is lonely and how her dreams of becoming a movie star are crushed, revealing her personality.
After finding out about Lennie's habit, she offers to let him stroke her hair, but panics and begins to scream when she feels his strength.
Lennie becomes frightened, and unintentionally breaks her neck thereafter and runs away.
When the other ranch hands find the corpse, George realizes that their dream is at an end.
George hurries to find Lennie, hoping he will be at the meeting place they designated in case he got into trouble.
George meets Lennie at the place, their camping spot before they came to the ranch.
The two sit together and George retells the beloved story of the dream, knowing it is something they'll never share.
He then shoots Lennie, with Curley, Slim, and Carlson arriving seconds after.
Only Slim realizes what happened, and consolingly leads him away.
Curley and Carlson look on, unable to comprehend the subdued mood of the two men.
<EOS>
Two migrant field workers in California during the Great Depression—George Milton (Burgess Meredith), an intelligent and quick-witted man (despite his frequent claims of being "not that smart"), and Lennie Small (Lon Chaney, Jr), an ironically-named man of large stature and immense strength who, due to his mental disability, has a mind of a younger child—hope to one day attain their shared dream of settling down on their own piece of land.
Lennie's part of the dream, which he never tires of hearing George describe, is merely to tend to (and touch) soft rabbits on the farm.
George protects Lennie at the beginning by telling him that if Lennie gets into trouble George won't let him "tend them rabbits".
They are fleeing from their previous employment in Weed where they were run out of town after Lennie's love of stroking soft things resulted in an accusation of attempted rape when he touched and held onto a young woman's dress (not shown, but mentioned).
While on a bus en route to the new ranch, Lennie — who, because of his mental disability, is prone to forget the simplest things or phrases but can only remember about the rabbits—asks George where they are going.
George is aggravated about this and instead tells him about the work cards they got at the bus entrance, which Lennie does remember, but incorrectly remembers having them in his pocket, since George has both of them.
After being dropped off 10 miles from their destination, George and Lennie decide to camp for the night by the Salinas River.
When George points to Lennie the river, he runs to the river and dunks his whole head in it, drinking from it like an animal.
George soon catches Lennie petting a dead bird, takes it away from him and throws it to the other side of the river for safety reasons.
When Lennie hears that they are going have beans for dinner, he requests ketchup, to which George responds that they do not have any.
At night, as George and Lennie are eating beans for dinner, Lennie requests for the same thing, with George responding angrily, stating that whatever they do not have is what Lennie always wants to have.
This leaves Lennie puzzled, as he forgot that first response from earlier.
This also causes George to have a long speech about Lennie's ungratefulness, childlike behavior and why they had to escape from Weed.
Eventually, George eases the tensions by telling Lennie his favorite story about their future farm before going to sleep.
The next day, they arrive at the ranch near Soledad.
They meet Candy (Roman Bohnen), the aged, one-handed ranch-hand with his ageing dog he raised since he was a puppy.
After meeting with the ranch boss, Jackson (Oscar O'Shea), the pair are confronted by Curley, the small-statured jealous and violent son of the ranch owner, who threatens to beat Lennie to a pulp because of his height, as Curley has a huge hatred against men who are of large stature.
To make matters worse, Curley's seductive, yet sadistic and conniving wife, Mae (Betty Field), to whom Lennie is instantly attracted, flirts with the other ranch hands.
George orders Lennie not to look at, or even talk to, her, as he senses the troubles that Mae could bring to the men.
One night, Mae enters the barn in an attempt to talk with Slim (Charles Bickford).
Even when Mae explains how her life has been during the Depression, Slim refuses to listen to her and shuns her, saying "You got no troubles, except what you bring on yourself" and tells her to go back to the house.
When this statement causes Mae to sob, Slim is forced to give in and let her talk.
Back at the bunkhouse, Candy offers to join with George and Lennie after Carlson kills his dog, so they can buy the farm and the dream appears to move closer to reality.
Curley appears and makes a scene in the bunkhouse as the workers mock him after he accused Slim of keeping company with his wife.
George and Lennie's dream is over-shadowed when Curley catches Lennie laughing, grabs him from his bunk and starts punching him in the face repeatedly.
Instead of fighting back, Lennie asks for help from George, who tells him to fight back.
Upon hearing George say this, Lennie catches Curley's hand and crushes it, not letting go until he finds out what he did.
Slim gives Curley an ultimatum: not to tell anyone what exactly happened.
If Curley does tell his father in retribution to get Lennie and George fired, Slim will tell everyone what happened.
Curley is told, for this reason, to say that he got his hand caught in a piece of machinery.
On Saturday night, everyone, except Lennie, Candy and Crooks (Leigh Whipper) (because of his race), are in town, enjoying themselves.
Crooks asks Lennie to stay in his room and Lennie explains to him about the farm that he, George and Candy are going to own, forgetting his promise to George not to tell this to anyone.
Candy gets into the conversation too, and when George comes back first, he sees Lennie smoking a cigar and takes it away, guessing what Lennie had done.
At that moment, Mae enters the bunkhouse, trying to ask Crooks who crushed Curley's hand.
When Crooks refuses to respond, Mae callously calls the four "bindlestiffs" in an attempt to belittle them.
When Candy responds with proof of what they are going to do in the future, Mae refuses to accept their American dream, calling him an "old goat".
When Mae tries to get Crooks to explain what happened to Curley's hand (despite the fact that he was not present), George mentions that nobody did it, briefly leading Mae to believe that George was the one who crushed his hand.
George tries to explain what they are going to do in the future, and that, if Mae keeps constantly flirting with them, she is going to cause the dream to crash.
The callous Mae refuses to listen, and, while looking for the person who crushed her husband's hand, sees Lennie's bloodied and bruised face, and she finds out that he is the one responsible.
When Mae tries to be kind to Lennie and to "thank" him for what he did, George grabs her by the shoulder, berates her and tells her to return to the house.
Mae refuses to do so, saying that she has the right to talk to and flirt with whomever she comes across.
Jackson, who happened to be standing by Crooks' door, catches George with his hand raised, with the intention to slap Mae across the face because of her arrogance and negligence.
Holding a horsewhip in his hand, Jackson silently dissuades him from doing so and to let Mae go back to the house unharmed.
The next morning, Mae confronts Curley, who repeats the same statement Slim gave him earlier, but because Mae knows the truth, she taunts him, calling him "a punk with a crippled hand.
" The aggravated Curley then tells her that their marriage is over, and that she is going to be kicked out of the ranch due to her carnal behavior with the ranch hands.
She continues to laugh hysterically until she starts to weep, realizing she is now done for.
Before she can leave, Mae enters the barn to pet a few of Slim's puppies, when she spots Lennie sobbing, after he killed his puppy stroking it too hard.
When Lennie tries to leave, knowing he should not be talking to Mae as ordered by George, she stops him from leaving and forces him to talk to her.
Because there is a horseshoe tournament going on until dusk, Mae plans to talk with him until then.
Mae explains to Lennie what she wanted to be before Curley shattered her dream.
When Lennie tells Mae that he loves to stroke soft things, Mae allows him to stroke her hair, telling him not to "muss it up".
Mae starts to resist and scream when Lennie strokes her hair too hard.
However, when Lennie tries to silence Mae, he accidentally kills her by recklessly breaking her neck unintentionally.
This incidental situation crashes their own American dream.
When Candy and George find Mae's body, they tell the others, including Curley, who grows infuriated.
As a result, a lynch mob gathers to kill Lennie.
However, George and Slim go off alone to find Lennie.
George tells Slim that he has Carlson's Luger after he and Candy see Mae's dead body.
George and Slim separate and go off to find Lennie.
George finds him first and, realizing he is doomed to a life of loneliness and despair like the rest of the migrant workers, wants to spare Lennie a painful death at the hands of the furious and cold-hearted Curley.
After giving Lennie one last retelling of their dream of buying their own land, George shoots Lennie in the back of the head with Carlson's Luger before the mob can find him.
When the mob arrives too late, only Slim realizes what George has done, and hands the Luger to a local police officer as they leave the river.
<EOS>
In 1880, a motley group of strangers boards the east-bound stagecoach from Tonto, Arizona Territory to Lordsburg, New Mexico Territory.
These travelers are unremarkable and ordinary at first glance.
Among them are Dallas (Claire Trevor), a prostitute who is being driven out of town by the moralistic "Law and Order League"; an alcoholic doctor, Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell); pregnant Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt), who is traveling to meet her cavalry officer husband; and whiskey salesman Samuel Peacock (Donald Meek).
When the stage driver, Buck (Andy Devine), looks for his normal shotgun guard, Marshal Curly Wilcox (George Bancroft) tells him that the guard is off searching for the fugitive Ringo Kid.
Ringo broke out of prison after hearing that his father and brother had been murdered by Luke Plummer (Tom Tyler).
Buck tells Curly that Plummer is in Lordsburg.
Knowing that Ringo has vowed to avenge his father and brother, Curly decides to ride along as guard.
As the stage sets out,S.
Cavalry Lieutenant Blanchard (Tim Holt) announces that Geronimo and his Apaches are on the warpath; his small troop will provide an escort to Dry Fork.
At the edge of town, two more passengers flag down the stage and board: gambler and Southern gentleman Hatfield (John Carradine), and banker Henry Gatewood (Berton Churchill), who is absconding with $50,000 embezzled from his bank.
Further along the road, the stage comes across the Ringo Kid (John Wayne), whose horse went lame and left him afoot.
Even though they are friends, Curly has no choice but to take Ringo into custody.
As the trip progresses, Ringo takes a strong liking to Dallas.
Doc Boone gets drunk on Peacock's samples.
When Doc Boone tells Peacock that he served as a doctor in the Union Army during the "War of the Rebellion," Hatfield quickly uses a Southern term, the "War for the Southern Confederacy".
The stage reaches Dry Fork, but the expected cavalry detachment has gone to Apache Wells.
Buck wants to turn back, but Curly demands that the group vote.
With only Buck and Peacock objecting, they decide to proceed on to Apache Wells.
At lunch before departing, the group is taken aback when Ringo invites Dallas to sit at the main table, and mrs Mallory is clearly uncomfortable having lunch with a prostitute.
Hatfield gives mrs Mallory a drink from his silver folding cup, rather than have her drink from the canteen directly.
She recognizes the family crest on the cup, and asks Hatfield whether he was ever in Virginia.
He says he won the flask in a card game, but also that he served in the Confederate Army under her father's command.
When the stage reaches Apache Wells, mrs Mallory learns that her husband had been wounded in battle and has left; she faints and goes into labor.
Doc Boone has to sober up and deliver the baby, and later Dallas emerges holding a healthy baby girl.
Later that night, Ringo asks Dallas to marry him, and live on a ranch he owns in Mexico.
Afraid to reveal her checkered past, she does not answer immediately.
The next morning, she accepts, if he will give up vengeance on the Plummers.
He agrees.
But she does not want to leave mrs Mallory and the new baby, so she tells him to go alone, and that she will meet him later.
Encouraged, Ringo escapes - but then sees smoke signals heralding an Apache attack, and returns.
The passengers quickly gather their belongings and leave.
The stage reaches Lee's Ferry, where Apaches have burned the station and ferry, and killed the station-keeper and his family.
Curly uncuffs Ringo to help lash logs to the stagecoach and float it across the river.
Just when they think that danger has passed, the Apaches attack.
A long chase scene follows, with stunt work staged by Yakima Canutt.
Peacock and Buck are hit, and the party all run out of ammunition.
As Hatfield is about to use his last bullet to save mrs Mallory from being taken alive, he is mortally wounded.
Just then, the 6thS.
Cavalry rides up to rescue the stage.
The stage finally arrives in Lordsburg.
Gatewood is arrested by the local sheriff, and mrs Mallory learns that her husband's wound is not serious.
Peacock invites everyone to visit him in Kansas City.
mrs Mallory thanks Dallas, who gives mrs Mallory her shawl.
As he dies, Hatfield asks mrs Mallory to tell his family that he died bravely.
Dallas begs Ringo not to confront the Plummers, but he is determined to settle matters.
Curly lets him go (with a gun, but with just three bullets left after the Indian fight).
Luke Plummer, hearing that Ringo is in town, gets up from a poker game, leaving a hand of aces and eights.
Plummer takes up a shotgun (an unfair weapon), but Doc Boone blocks his path, demanding that he leave it - or kill Doc first.
Plummer leaves the shotgun, to Doc's relief, and joins his two brothers.
A shootout follows, which is heard but not seen.
Ringo reappears, having killed the three Plummers, and surrenders to Curly, expecting to go back to prison.
He asks Curly to take Dallas to his ranch.
Ringo boards a wagon and says goodbye to Dallas, and Curly invites Dallas to ride with them to the edge of town.
After she climbs aboard, Curly and Doc laugh and start the horses moving, letting Ringo "escape" with Dallas.
<EOS>
Left alone with a governess one snowy afternoon (Alice's sister does not appear in this version), Alice is supremely bored.
She idly starts to wonder what life is like on the other side of the drawing room mirror, when she suddenly feels a surge of confidence and climbs upon the mantelpiece to look.
She discovers that she can pass through the looking glass and finds herself in a strange room where many things seem to be the exact reverse of what is in the drawing room.
Strangely, through all of this, the governess does not seem to notice what has happened.
Alice looks out the window and suddenly sees a White Rabbit.
She follows it to a rabbit hole and falls in.
Seeing nobody else there, she comes upon a table with a key to a locked door, and a bottle that bears the sign "Drink Me".
In a situation exactly reversed from the book, she grows to enormous size after drinking the bottle's contents.
Unable to pass into the room beyond the locked door, she begins to cry.
A cake with a sign saying "Eat Me" appears.
She eats the cake, shrinks to a tiny size, and is immediately swept along into a flood caused by her own tears.
Many more of her adventures follow, combining sections of Through the Looking Glass with the original Alice.
At the end, Alice is awakened from her dream, not by the "pack of playing cards", but by a riotous celebration that goes completely haywire after she is crowned Queen.
<EOS>
The film takes place in 1936, at the height of the Great Depression.
Johnny Hooker, a grifter in Joliet, Illinois, cons $11,000 in cash ($ today) in a pigeon drop from an unsuspecting victim with the aid of his partners Luther Coleman and Joe Erie.
Buoyed by the windfall, Luther announces his retirement and advises Hooker to seek out an old friend, Henry Gondorff, in Chicago to teach him "the big con".
Unfortunately, their victim was a numbers racket courier for vicious crime boss Doyle Lonnegan.
Corrupt Joliet police Lieutenant William Snyder confronts Hooker, revealing Lonnegan's involvement and demanding part of Hooker’s cut.
Having already spent his share, Hooker pays Snyder in counterfeit bills.
Lonnegan's men murder both the courier and Luther, and Hooker flees for his life to Chicago.
Hooker finds Henry Gondorff, a once-great con-man now hiding from the FBI, and asks for his help in taking on the dangerous Lonnegan.
Gondorff is initially reluctant, but he relents and recruits a core team of experienced con men to con Lonnegan.
They decide to resurrect an elaborate obsolete scam known as "the wire", using a larger crew of con artists to create a phony off-track betting parlor.
Aboard the opulent 20th Century Limited, Gondorff, posing as boorish Chicago bookie Shaw, buys into Lonnegan's private, high-stakes poker game.
Shaw infuriates Lonnegan with his obnoxious behavior, then out-cheats him to win $15,000.
Hooker, posing as Shaw's disgruntled employee, Kelly, is sent to collect the winnings and instead convinces Lonnegan that he wants to take over Shaw's operation.
Kelly reveals that he has a partner named Les Harmon (actually con man Kid Twist) in the Chicago Western Union office, who will allow them to win bets on horse races by past-posting.
Meanwhile, Snyder has tracked Hooker to Chicago, but his pursuit is thwarted when he is summoned by undercover FBI agents led by Agent Polk, who orders him to assist in their plan to arrest Gondorff using Hooker.
At the same time, Lonnegan has grown frustrated with the inability of his men to find and kill Hooker.
Unaware that Kelly is Hooker, he demands that Salino, his best assassin, be given the job.
A mysterious figure with black leather gloves is then seen following and observing Hooker.
Kelly's connection appears effective, as Harmon provides Lonnegan with the winner of one horse race and the trifecta of another race.
Lonnegan agrees to finance a $500,000 ($ today) bet at Shaw's parlor to break Shaw and gain revenge.
Shortly thereafter, Snyder captures Hooker and brings him before FBI Agent Polk.
Polk forces Hooker to betray Gondorff by threatening to incarcerate Luther Coleman's widow.
The night before the sting, Hooker sleeps with Loretta, a waitress from a local restaurant.
As Hooker leaves the building the next morning, he sees Loretta walking toward him.
The black-gloved man appears behind Hooker and shoots her dead – she was Lonnegan's hired killer, Loretta Salino, and the gunman was hired by Gondorff to protect Hooker.
Armed with Harmon’s tip to "place it on Lucky Dan", Lonnegan makes the $500,000 bet at Shaw’s parlor on Lucky Dan to win.
As the race begins, Harmon arrives and expresses shock at Lonnegan's bet, explaining that when he said "place it" he meant, literally, that Lucky Dan would "place" (ie, finish second).
In a panic, Lonnegan rushes the teller window and demands his money back.
As this happens, Agent Polk, lt Snyder, and a half dozen FBI officers storm the parlor.
Polk confronts Gondorff, then tells Hooker he is free to go.
Gondorff, reacting to the betrayal, shoots Hooker in the back.
Polk then shoots Gondorff and orders Snyder to get the ostensibly respectable Lonnegan away from the crime scene.
With Lonnegan and Snyder safely away, Hooker and Gondorff rise amid cheers and laughter.
Agent Polk is actually Hickey, a con man, running a con atop Gondorff's con to divert Snyder and provide a solid "blow off".
As the con men strip the room of its contents, Hooker refuses his share of the money, saying "I'd only blow it", and walks away with Gondorff.
<EOS>
Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) is the elder daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia Main Line socialite family.
She was married toK.
Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), a yacht designer and member of her social set, but divorced him two years ago, because he did not measure up to the exacting standards she sets for all her friends and family: he drank too much for her taste, and as she became critical of him, he drank more.
Now she is about to marry nouveau riche "man of the people" George Kittredge (John Howard).
Spy magazine publisher Sidney Kidd (Henry Daniell) is eager to cover the wedding, and assigns reporter Macaulay "Mike" Connor (James Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey).
He can get them into the affair with the assistance of Dexter Haven, who has been working for Spy in South America.
Dexter will introduce them as friends of Tracy's brother Junius (aS.
diplomat in Argentina).
Tracy is not fooled, but Dexter threatens her with an innuendo-laden article about her father Seth's (John Halliday) affair with a dancer.
Tracy deeply resents her father's infidelity, which has caused her parents to live separately.
To protect her family's reputation, she agrees to let Mike and Liz stay.
Dexter is welcomed back with open arms by Tracy's mother Margaret (Mary Nash) and teenage sister Dinah (Virginia Weidler), much to her annoyance.
In addition, she gradually discovers that Mike has admirable qualities, and she even takes the trouble to find his book of short stories in the public library.
As the wedding nears, she finds herself torn between George, Dexter, and Mike.
The night before the wedding, Tracy gets drunk for only the second time in her life and takes an innocent midnight swim with Mike.
When George sees Mike carrying an intoxicated Tracy into the house afterward, he thinks the worst.
The next day, he tells her that he was shocked and feels entitled to an explanation before going ahead with the wedding.
She takes exception to his lack of faith in her and breaks off the engagement.
Then she realizes that all the guests have arrived and are waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Mike volunteers to marry her (much to Liz's distress), but she graciously declines.
She also realizes, for the first time, that she isn't perfect and shouldn't constantly condemn others for their weaknesses.
At this point, Dexter offers to marry her again, and she accepts.
<EOS>
During a sleepover, two high school students, Katie and Becca, discuss an urban legend surrounding a cursed videotape that was rumoured to kill the viewer 7 days after watching it.
Katie confesses to Becca that she watched the tape with her friends one week earlier.
Katie witnesses supernatural phenomena downstairs and flees to her bedroom, where she sees an image of a water well on her TV screen just as an unseen force rushes towards her and kills her.
Katie's aunt Rachel Keller, a Seattle journalist, is asked by her sister Ruth to investigate Katie's mysterious death.
Suspicions arise in Rachel when it is revealed that Katie died of a heart attack despite being a healthy teenager; Rachel soon discovers that Katie's friends who watched the cursed videotape with her last week all died in bizarre accidents on the same night at the same time.
Rachel also discovers that Becca has been institutionalized as a result of witnessing Katie's death.
Rachel eventually travels to Shelter Mountain Inn, the place where Katie and her friends initially watched the cursed videotape, and decides to watch the tape herself in Cabin 12.
Disturbed by the tape's otherworldly and gruesome imagery, Rachel suddenly receives a phone call from an unknown caller who utters "7 days".
Rachel enlists the help of her ex-boyfriend Noah Clay, a video analyst, and they investigate the imagery (including a mysterious woman and hidden imagery of a lighthouse in Moesko Island) of the cursed videotape together.
Noah asks Rachel to make a copy for further study, which she does.
Both experience supernatural symptoms of the curse during their 7-day deadline and Rachel soon discovers that the mysterious woman in the tape was Anna Morgan, an ill-fated horse breeder in Moesko Island whose prize-winning horses were involved in a highly publicized mass suicide, which led to her depression and ultimately, her suicide, which was also recorded on the tape.
Rachel is later horrified to discover Aidan watching the copy of the cursed videotape one night and tearfully informs Noah about it.
Leaving Aidan in Ruth's care, Rachel sails to Moesko Island on a ferry whilst Noah tries to search for information in Anna's medical files in Eola Psychiatric Hospital, which contains missing medical footage.
Rachel later discovers that Anna had an adoptive daughter named Samara, who possessed nensha, enabling her to burn images onto objects and into the minds of people and animals, which heavily tormented them.
A horse on the ferry is suddenly provoked by Rachel's cursed presence and frenziedly leaps off the ferry, where it is mangled to death by the propellers.
Rachel visits the Morgan ranch in Moesko Island and meets Richard Morgan but he becomes agitated when she asks him about his wife and the cursed videotape.
She later discovers the missing medical footage, which was revealed to be a footage of Samara eerily explaining her nensha powers and her motives to her psychiatrist during a psychotherapy session.
After she finishes watching the footage, Richard strikes Rachel in the head, causing her to believe that he abused and killed Samara.
However, it is revealed that Richard was a past victim of Samara's powers and not wanting to relive the terror again, especially after knowing about the existence of the cursed videotape, he decides to electrocute himself in the bathtub.
Noah arrives at the scene and he takes a shocked Rachel to the barn, where Richard isolated Samara to prevent her from harming anyone.
They discover a burnt image of a tree behind the wallpaper and they realise that it is the same tree in the cursed videotape and Shelter Mountain Inn.
Returning to Shelter Mountain Inn, they stumble upon an old well that is located beneath the floorboards of Cabin 12.
Rachel accidentally falls into the well, where she receives a flashback of Anna suffocating Samara with a garbage bag before throwing her into the well, where she survived for 7 days.
Regaining her consciousness, Rachel finds Samara's coprse and offers it a proper burial in an attempt to appease her spirit.
However, Aidan warns Rachel that "she never sleeps", which implies that the curse is neverending.
Rachel soon realises that Noah is next to die and rushes to his apartment.
Meanwhile, Noah suddenly witnesses an image of a well being displayed on his TV screen.
Samara, as a vengeful ghost, emerges from the well and crawls out of the TV screen, where she reveals her waterlogged face to Noah, frightening and ultimately killing him via a heart attack.
Rachel later discovers his disfigured corpse and returns home, angrily destroying the cursed videotape as she realises that Samara was evil all along.
She also realises that she was spared since she made a copy of the cursed videotape and sent it to Noah and rushes to make a copy for Aidan in order to save his life.
Aidan asks her what will happen to the person they show the copy to as Rachel remains silent.
<EOS>
Mademoiselle Henriette Deluzy-Desportes (Bette Davis), a French woman, starts teaching at an American girls school.
She is confronted by the tales and gossip about her that circulate among her pupils and, thus provoked, she decides to tell them her life story.
Deluzy-Desportes is governess to the four children of the Duc de Praslin (Charles Boyer) and the Duchesse de Praslin (Barbara O'Neil) in Paris during the last years of the Orleans monarchy.
As a result of the Duchesse's constantly erratic and temperamental behavior, all that remains is an unhappy marriage, but the Duc remains with his wife for sake of their children.
Her warmth and kindness wins her the love and affection of the children and their father, but also the jealousy and hatred of their mother.
She is forced to leave and the Duchess refuses to give her a letter of recommendation to future employers.
The Duc confronts his wife and she invents alternate letters taking opposite attitudes, which in fact she has not written and does not intend to write.
Her account enrages him and, at the breaking point, he kills her.
The Duc de Praslin is in a privileged position; as a peer his case can only be heard by other nobles.
He refuses to confess his guilt or openly to admit his love for Henriette Deluzy-Desportes, knowing that his fellow nobles wish to use such an admission to blame her for the murder by declaring that he was acting at her bidding.
Ultimately the Duc takes poison to prevent himself from ever publicly proclaiming his love for Henriette, since he knows that would convict her; however, he lives long enough to reveal it to another of his servants, Pierre (Harry Davenport), a kindly old man who had warned the governess to leave the de Praslin household.
With the Duc's death, the authorities accept that they have no evidence upon which to base a judgment that Henriette solicited the murder and she is released.
Deluzy-Desportes had been recommended for the teaching position "in the land of the free" by an American minister, Rev.
Henry Field (Jeffrey Lynn), to whom she had expressed a loss of faith while in prison.
He proposes marriage, and it is implied that Henriette will accept.
<EOS>
In mid-August 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, the editor of the New York Globe, mr Powers (Harry Davenport), is concerned about the crisis in Europe, the growing power of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and the inability of celebrated foreign correspondents to get answers about whether war will ensue.
After searching for a good, tough crime reporter for a fresh viewpoint, he appoints Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) as a foreign correspondent, under the pen name Huntley Haverstock.
The reporter's first assignment is Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall), leader of the Universal Peace Party, at an event held by Fisher in honour of a Dutch diplomat named Van Meer (Albert Bassermann).
On the way to the party, Haverstock sees Van Meer entering the car that is to take him to the party, and runs to interview him; Van Meer invites him to ride along, but diplomatically evades his questioning.
At the party, Haverstock meets Fisher's daughter, Carol (Laraine Day).
Van Meer disappears mysteriously.
Later, Fisher informs the guests that Van Meer, who was supposed to be the guest of honor, will not be attending the party; instead he will be at a political conference in Amsterdam.
At the conference, Van Meer is shot in front of a large crowd by a man disguised as a photographer.
Haverstock commandeers a car to follow the assassin's getaway car.
The car he jumps into happens to have in it Carol and Scott ffolliott (styled lowercase and played by George Sanders), another reporter, who explains that the capital letter in his surname was dropped in memory of an executed ancestor.
The group follows the assassin to a windmill in the countryside.
While Carol and ffolliott go for help, Haverstock searches the windmill and finds a live Van Meer; the man who was killed was an impostor substituted to make the world believe Van Meer was killed.
The old man has been drugged and is unable to tell Haverstock anything.
Haverstock is forced to flee when the kidnappers become aware of him.
By the time the police arrive, the villains have escaped with Van Meer in an aircraft.
Later, back at Haverstock's hotel room, two spies dressed as policemen arrive to kidnap him.
When he suspects who they really are, he escapes out the window and into Carol Fisher's room.
Haverstock and Carol board a British boat to England, and while a furious storm thunders overhead, he proposes marriage to her which she accepts.
In England, they go to Carol's father's house, where Haverstock sees a man whom he recognizes as one of the men at the windmill.
He informs Fisher and Fisher promises that he will send a bodyguard to protect him.
The bodyguard, Rowley (Edmund Gwenn), repeatedly tries to kill Haverstock.
When the assassin tries to push him off the top of the Westminster Cathedral tower, Haverstock steps aside and Rowley plunges to his death.
Haverstock and ffolliott are convinced that Fisher is a traitor, so they come up with a plan: Haverstock will take Carol to the countryside, and ffolliott will pretend she has been kidnapped to force Fisher to divulge Van Meer's location.
After a misunderstanding with Haverstock, Carol returns to London.
Just as Fisher is about to fall for ffolliott's bluff, he hears her car pull up.
Fisher heads to a hotel where Van Meer is being held with ffolliott on his tail.
Van Meer is being interrogated using sleep deprivation to discover a secret clause in a treaty he signed.
Just as he is being forced to divulge the information the organization wants, ffolliott distracts the interrogators.
When Haverstock arrives, Fisher and his bodyguards escape, leaving Van Meer behind.
Van Meer is rushed to the hospital in a coma.
England and France declare war on Germany.
While Haverstock, ffolliott and the Fishers are on a Short30 Empire aircraft to America, Fisher confesses his misdeeds to his daughter.
Carol believes Haverstock does not really love her but only used her to pursue her father.
Haverstock protests that he was just doing his job as a reporter.
Seconds later, the aircraft is shelled by a German destroyer and crashes into the ocean.
The survivors perch on the floating wing of the downed aircraft.
Realizing that it cannot support everyone, Fisher sacrifices himself by allowing himself to drown.
Jones and ffolliott attempt to save him, but are unsuccessful.
They are rescued by an American ship, the Mohican.
The captain refuses to allow the reporters to file their story using the ship's communications citing American neutrality, but Jones, ffolliott, and Carol surreptitiously communicate the story by radio-telephone to mr Powers.
Later, back in London and now a successful war correspondent, Haverstock, with Carol at his side, describes London being bombed in a live radio broadcast to the United States, urging Americans to fortify their country and "keep the lights burning" as they go dark in the studio.
<EOS>
The action starts in 1918, with the defeat of the Tomainian army.
A Jewish barber saves the life of a wounded pilot, Schultz (Reginald Gardiner), but loses his own memory through concussion.
Twenty years later, still suffering from amnesia, the barber escapes from his care-home to return to the ghetto.
The ghetto is now governed by Schultz, who has been promoted in the Tomainian regime under the ruthless dictator Adenoid Hynkel, who looks like an identical twin of the barber (both played by Chaplin).
The barber falls in love with a neighbor's daughter Hannah (Paulette Goddard), and together they try to resist persecution by storm troopers.
The storm troopers capture the barber and are about to hang him, but Schultz remembers that the barber had saved his life during the war, and restrains them.
Hynkel tries to finance his military forces by borrowing money from a Jewish banker, but the banker refuses to lend him the money.
Furious, Hynkel orders a purge of the Jews.
Schultz protests this inhumane policy, and is removed from office and sent to a concentration camp.
He escapes and hides in the ghetto with the barber.
Schultz tries to persuade the Jewish family to mount an assassination attempt against Hynkel, but they sensibly decline to participate in his violent plan.
Stormtroopers search the ghetto, arresting Schultz and the barber.
They are sent to a concentration camp.
Hannah and her family flee to freedom in the neighboring country of Osterlich.
Hynkel has a dispute with the dictator of the nation of Bacteria, a man named Napaloni (a spoof of Mussolini played by Jack Oakie), over which country should invade Osterlich.
After signing a treaty with Napaloni, Hynkel invades Osterlich.
The Jewish family is trapped by the invading force.
Escaping from the camp in stolen uniforms, Schultz and the barber, dressed as Hynkel, arrive at the Osterlich frontier, where a huge victory-parade is waiting to be addressed by Hynkel.
The real Hynkel is mistaken for the barber while out duck-shooting in civilian clothes, and is arrested.
Schultz tells the barber to go up to the platform and impersonate Hynkel, as the only way to save their lives once they reach Osterlich's capital.
The barber has never given a public speech in his life, but he has no other choice.
The terrified barber mounts the steps, but is inspired to seize the initiative.
Announcing that he (apparently Hynkel) has had a change of heart, he makes an impassioned plea for brotherhood and goodwill.
"You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventureThen - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite.
Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security.
By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power.
But they lie.
They do not fulfill that promise.
They never will.
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people.
Now let us fight to fulfill that promise.
Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance.
Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.
Soldiers.
in the name of democracy, let us all unite.
"Finally, he addresses a message of hope to Hannah, in case she can hear him.
Look up, Hannah.
The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly.
He is flying into the rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us.
Hannah hears the barber's voice on the radio.
She turns her face, radiant with joy and hope, toward the sunlight, and says to her fellows, "Listen".
<EOS>
The film tells the story of the crew aboard a British tramp steamer named the SS Glencairn on the long voyage home from the West Indies to Baltimore and then to England.
The crew is a motley, fun-loving, hard-drinking lot.
Among them is their consensus leader, a middle-aged Irishman named Driscoll ("Drisk") (Thomas Mitchell), a young Swedish ex-farmer Ole Olsen (John Wayne), a spiteful steward nicknamed Cocky (Barry Fitzgerald), a brooding Lord Jim-like Englishman Smitty (Ian Hunter), and a burly, thoroughly dependable bruiser Davis (Joseph Sawyer), among others.
The film opens on a sultry night in a port in the West Indies where the crew have been confined to their ship by order of the captain, yet they yearn as ever for an opportunity to drink and have fun with the ladies.
Drisk has arranged to import a boat-load of local ladies, who along with baskets of fruit, have agreed to smuggle bottles of rum on board where, with the acquiescence of the captain, the crew carouse until a minor drunken brawl breaks out and the ladies are ordered off the ship and denied any of their promised compensation.
The next day the ship sails to pick up its cargo for its return trip to England.
When the crew discovers that the cargo is high explosives, they at first rebel and grumble among themselves that they won't crew the ship if it is carrying such a cargo.
But they are easily cowed into submission by the captain and the ship sails, crossing the Atlantic and passing through what they all know is a war zone and potential disaster.
After the ship leaves Baltimore with its load of dynamite, the rough seas they encounter become nerve-racking to the crew.
When the anchor breaks loose, Yank (Ward Bond) is injured in the effort to secure it.
With no doctor on board, nothing can be done for his injury, and he dies.
They're also concerned that Smitty might be a German spy because he's so aloof and secretive.
After they assault Smitty and restrain and gag him, they force him to give up the key to a small metal box they have found in his bunk which they at first think is a bomb.
Opening the box against Smitty's vigorous protests, they discover a packet of letters.
When Drisk reads a few, it becomes clear that they are letters from Smitty's wife revealing the fact that Smitty has been an alcoholic, disgraced and perhaps dishonorably discharged from his service with the British navy, and that he is now too ashamed to show himself before his family even though his wife urges him to come home.
In the war zone as they near port, a German plane attacks the ship, killing Smitty in a burst of machine gun fire.
Reaching England without further incident, the rest of the crew members decide not to sign on for another voyage on the Glencairn and go ashore, determined to help Ole return to his family in Sweden, whom he has not seen in ten years.
In spite of their determination to help the simple, gullible Ole get on his ship for Stockholm, the crew is incapable of passing up the opportunity for a good time drinking and dancing in a seedy bar to which they have been lured by an agent for ships in port looking for crew members.
He has his eye on Ole because he is the biggest and strongest of the lot.
He drugs Ole's drink, and calls his confederates in to shanghai Ole aboard another ship, the Amindra.
Driscoll and the rest of the crew, even though drunk and almost too late, rescue Ole from the Amindra, but Driscoll is clubbed and left on board as the crew makes its escape with Ole.
The next morning, the crew straggles back somewhat dejectedly and resignedly to the Glencairn to sign on for another voyage.
A newspaper headline reveals that the Amindra has been sunk in the Channel by German torpedoes, killing all on board.
<EOS>
As early as September 1942 von Stauffenberg was considering Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt , author of Unser Weg zum Meer, as a replacement for Hitler.
From the beginning of September 1943 until 20 July 1944, von Stauffenberg was the driving force behind the plot to assassinate Hitler and take control of Germany.
His resolve, organisational abilities, and radical approach put an end to inactivity caused by doubts and long discussions on whether military virtues had been made obsolete by Hitler's behaviour.
With the help of his friend Henning von Tresckow, he united the conspirators and drove them into action.
Stauffenberg was aware that, under German law, he was committing high treason.
He openly told young conspirator Axel von dem Bussche in late 1943, "ich betreibe mit allen mir zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln den Hochverrat.
".
("I am committing high treason with all means at my disposal.
".
).
He justified himself to Bussche by referring to the right under natural law ("Naturrecht") to defend millions of people's lives from the criminal aggressions of Hitler.
Only after the conspirator General Helmuth Stieff on 7 July 1944 had declared himself unable to assassinate Hitler on a uniforms display at Klessheim castle near Salzburg, Stauffenberg decided to personally kill Hitler and to run the plot in Berlin.
By then, Stauffenberg had great doubts about the possibility of success.
Tresckow convinced him to go on with it even if it had no chance of success at all, "The assassination must be attempted.
Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin", as this would be the only way to prove to the world that the Hitler regime and Germany were not one and the same and that not all Germans supported the regime.
Stauffenberg's part in the original plan required him to stay at the Bendlerstraße offices in Berlin, so he could phone regular army units all over Europe in an attempt to convince them to arrest leaders of Nazi political organisations such as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and the Gestapo.
Unfortunately, when General Helmuth Stieff, Chief of Operation at Army High Command, who had regular access to Hitler, backtracked from his earlier commitment to assassinate Hitler, Stauffenberg was forced to take on two critical roles: kill Hitler far from Berlin and trigger the military machine in Berlin during office hours of the very same day.
Beside Stieff, he was the only conspirator who had regular access to Hitler (during his briefings) by mid-1944, as well as being the only officer among the conspirators thought to have the resolve and persuasiveness to convince German military leaders to throw in with the coup once Hitler was dead.
This requirement greatly reduced the chance of a successful coup.
After several unsuccessful tries by Stauffenberg to meet Hitler, Göring and Himmler when they were together, he went ahead with the attempt at Wolfsschanze on 20 July 1944.
Stauffenberg entered the briefing room carrying a briefcase containing two small bombs.
The location had unexpectedly been changed from the subterranean Führerbunker to Albert Speer's wooden barrack/hut due to it being a hot summer's day.
He left the room to arm the first bomb with specially adapted pliers, a task made difficult because he had lost his right hand and had only three fingers on his left.
A guard knocked and opened the door, urging him to hurry as the meeting was about to begin.
As a result, Stauffenberg was able to arm only one of the bombs.
He left the second bomb with his aide-de-camp, Werner von Haeften, and returned to the briefing room, where he placed the briefcase under the conference table, as close as he could to Hitler.
Some minutes later, he excused himself and left the room.
After his exit, the briefcase was moved by Colonel Heinz Brandt.
When the explosion tore through the hut, Stauffenberg was convinced that no one in the room could have survived.
Although four people were killed and almost all survivors were injured, Hitler himself was shielded from the blast by the heavy, solid-oak conference table leg and was only slightly wounded.
Stauffenberg and Haeften quickly left and drove to the nearby airfield.
After his return to Berlin, Stauffenberg immediately began to motivate his friends to initiate the second phase: the military coup against the Nazi leaders.
When Joseph Goebbels announced by radio that Hitler had survived and later, after Hitler himself personally spoke on the state radio, the conspirators realised that the coup had failed.
They were tracked to their Bendlerstrasse offices and overpowered after a brief shoot-out, during which Stauffenberg was wounded in the shoulder.
In an attempt to save his own life, co-conspirator Generaloberst Friedrich Fromm, Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army present in the Bendlerblock (Headquarters of the Army), charged other conspirators in an impromptu court martial and condemned the ringleaders of the conspiracy to death.
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, his aide 1st Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, General Friedrich Olbricht, and Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim were executed before 1:00 in the morning (21 July 1944) by a makeshift firing squad in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, which was lit by the headlights of a truck.
Stauffenberg was third in line to be executed, with Lieutenant von Haeften after.
However, when it was Stauffenberg's turn, Lieutenant von Haeften placed himself between the firing squad and Stauffenberg, and received the bullets meant for Stauffenberg.
When his turn came, Stauffenberg spoke his last words, "Es lebe unser heiliges Deutschland.
" ("Long live our sacred Germany.
") Others say the last words were: "Es lebe das geheime Deutschland.
" ("Long live the secret Germany.
") Fromm ordered that the executed officers (his former co-conspirators) receive an immediate burial with military honours in the Alter st-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin's Schöneberg district.
The next day, however, Stauffenberg's body was exhumed by the SS, stripped of his medals and insignia, and cremated.
Stauffenberg's family had already fled the country.
Another central figure in the plot was Stauffenberg's eldest brother, Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.
On 10 August 1944, Berthold was tried before Judge-President Roland Freisler in the special "People's Court" (Volksgerichtshof).
This court was established by Hitler for political offences.
Berthold was one of eight conspirators executed by slow strangulation (reputedly with piano wire used as the garrote) in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, later that day.
Before he was killed, Berthold was strangled and then revived multiple times.
The entire execution and multiple resuscitations were filmed for Hitler to view at his leisure.
More than 200 were condemned in show trials and executed.
Hitler used the 20 July Plot as an excuse to destroy anyone he feared would oppose him.
The traditional military salute was replaced with the Nazi salute also known as the Hitler salute.
Eventually, over 20,000 Germans were killed or sent to concentration camps in the purge.
<EOS>
The extent of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's involvement in the military's resistance against Hitler or the 20 July plot is difficult to ascertain, as people most directly involved did not survive and limited documentation on the conspirators' plans and preparations exists.
Thus, Rommel's participation remains ambiguous and the perception of it largely has its source in the subsequent events (especially Rommel's forced suicide) and the accounts by surviving participants.
According to a post-war account by Karl Strölin, the Oberbürgermeister of Stuttgart at that time, he and two other conspirators, Alexander von Falkenhausen and Carl Heinrich von Stülpnagel began efforts to bring Rommel into the anti-Hitler conspiracy in early 1944.
On 15 April 1944 Rommel's new chief of staff, Hans Speidel, arrived in Normandy and reintroduced Rommel to Stülpnagel.
Speidel had previously been connected to Carl Goerdeler, the civilian leader of the resistance, but not to the plotters led by Stauffenberg, and only came to the attention of Stauffenberg due to his appointment to Rommel's headquarters.
The conspirators felt they needed the support of a field marshal on active duty.
Witzelben was a field marshal, but had not been on active duty since 1942.
The conspirators gave instructions to Speidel to bring Rommel into their circle.
Speidel met with former foreign minister Konstantin von Neurath and Strölin on 27 May in Germany, ostensibly at Rommel's request, although the latter was not present.
Neurath and Strölin suggested opening immediate surrender negotiations in the West, and, according to Speidel, Rommel agreed to further discussions and preparations.
Around the same timeframe, however, the plotters in Berlin were not aware that Rommel had reportedly decided to take part in the conspiracy.
On 16 May, they informed Allen Dulles, through whom they hoped to negotiate with the Western Allies, that Rommel could not be counted on for support.
Three days before the assassination attempt, on 17 July, Rommel's staff car was strafed by an Allied aircraft in France; he was hospitalised with major injuries and incapacitated on 20 July.
Rommel opposed assassinating Hitler.
After the war, his widow maintained that he believed an assassination attempt would spark a civil war.
According to journalist and author William Shirer, Rommel knew about the conspiracy and advocated that Hitler be arrested and placed on trial.
The historian Ian Becket argues that "there is no credible evidence that Rommel had more than limited and superficial knowledge of the plot" and concludes that he would not have acted to aid the plotters in the aftermath of the attempt on 20 July, while the historian Ralf Georg Reuth contends that "there was no indication of any active participation of Rommel in the conspiracy".
Historian Richard Evans concluded that he knew of a plot, but was not involved.
What is not debated are the results of the failed bomb plot of 20 July.
Many conspirators were arrested and the dragnet expanded to thousands.
Consequently, it did not take long for Rommel to come under suspicion.
He was primarily implicated through his connection to Kluge.
Rommel's name also came up in forced confessions by Stülpnagel and Hofacker, and was included in Goerdeler's papers on a list of potential supporters.
Hitler knew it would cause a major scandal on the home front to have the popular Rommel publicly branded as a traitor.
With this in mind, he opted to give Rommel the option of suicide via cyanide or a public trial by Freisler's People's Court.
Rommel was well aware that being hauled before the People's Court was tantamount to a death sentence.
He also knew that if he chose to stand trial, his family would have been severely punished even before the all-but-certain conviction and execution.
With this in mind, he committed suicide on 14 October 1944.
He was buried with full military honours and his family was spared from persecution; his cause of death did not come to light until after the war.
Involvement of the plotters in war crimes and atrocities has been studied by historians such as Christian Gerlach.
Gerlach proved that plotters like Tresckow or Gersdorff were aware of mass murder happening in the East from at least 1941.
He writes: "Especially with reference to the murder of the Jews, [it is said that] 'the SS' had deceived the officers by killing in secret, filing incomplete reports or none at all; if general staff offices protested, the SS threatened them".
Gerlach concludes: "This is, of course, nonsense".
Tresckow also "signed orders for the deportation of thousands of orphaned children for forced labor in the Reich" (the so-called Heu-Aktion).
Such actions lead historians to question the motives of the plotters, which seemed more concerned with the military situation than with Nazi atrocities and German war crimes.
However some others assert that, in such actions, Tresckow had to act out of principle to continue with his coup plans.
Gerlach pointed out that the plotters had "selective moral criteria" and while they were concerned about Jews being exterminated in the Holocaust, they were far less disturbed about mass murder of civilians in the East.
To Gerlach, the primary motivation of the plotters was to ensure German victory in the war or at least not to lose it.
Gerlach's arguments were later supported by historian Hans Mommsen, who stated that the plotters were interested above all in military victory.
But Gerlach's arguments were also criticized by some scholars, among them Peter Hoffmann from McGill University and Klaus Jochen Arnold from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.
The overall goals towards Poland were mixed within the plotters.
Most of the plotters found it desirable to restore the old German borders from 1914, while others pointed out that the demands were unrealistic and amendments had to be made.
Some like Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg even saw all of Poland annexed to Germany.
To Poland, which was fighting as an ally with both its army and government in exile, the vast territorial demands and traditional nationalistic visions of resistance made the plotters lose all credibility, and Poles saw little difference between them and racist policies of Hitler.
Stauffenberg, as one of the leaders of the plot, stated five years before the coup in 1939 during the Poland campaign about Poles and Poland: "It is essential that we begin a systemic colonisation in Poland.
But I have no fear that this will not occur".
<EOS>
Ishmael begins with a newspaper ad: "Teacher seeks pupil.
Must have an earnest desire to save the world.
Apply in person".
The nameless narrator and protagonist begins his story, telling how he first reacted to this ad with scorn because of the absurdity of "wanting to save the world," a notion he feels that once he foolishly embraced himself as an adolescent during the counterculture movement of the 1960s.
However, he responds to the ad anyway and, upon arriving at the address, finds himself in a room with a gorilla.
He notices a polysemous sign that reads "With man gone, will there be hope for gorilla.
"  To the narrator's surprise, he finds that the gorilla, calling himself Ishmael, can communicate telepathically.
At first baffled by this, the man learns the story of how the gorilla came to be here and soon accepts Ishmael as his teacher, regularly returning to Ishmael's office throughout the plot.
The novel continues from this point mainly as a Socratic dialogue between Ishmael and his new student as they hash out what Ishmael refers to as "how things came to be this way" for mankind.
Ishmael's life, which began in the African wilderness, was spent mostly in a zoo and a menagerie, and since had been spent in the gazebo of a man that extricated him from physical captivity.
He tells his student that it was at the menagerie that he learned about human language and culture and began to think about things that he never would have pondered in the wild.
Subsequently, Ishmael tells his student that the subject for this learning experience will be captivity, primarily the captivity of man under a distorted civilizational system.
The narrator claims to Ishmael that he has a vague notion of living in some sort of cultural captivity and being lied to in some way but he can not explain his feelings.
Before proceeding Ishmael lays some ground definitions for his student.
He defines: Ishmael proceeds to tease from his pupil the premises of the story (ie.
myth) being enacted by the Takers: that they are the pinnacle of evolution, that the world was made for man, and that man is here to conquer and rule the world.
This rule is meant to bring about a paradise, as man increases his mastery of the world, however, he is always failing because he is flawed.
Man doesn't know how to live and never will because that knowledge is unobtainable.
So, however hard he labors to save the world, he is just going to go on defiling and spoiling it.
Ishmael points out to his student that when the Takers decided there is something fundamentally wrong with humans, they took as evidence only their own culture's history- "They were looking at a half of one-percent of the evidence taken from a single culture-- Not a reasonable sample on which to base such a sweeping conclusion".
Ishmael says:  There's nothing fundamentally wrong with people.
Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world.
But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world.
Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act as the lords of the world.
And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now.
Ishmael goes on to help his student discover that, contrary to what the Takers think, there are immutable laws that life is subject to and it is possible to discern them by studying the biological community.
Together, Ishmael and his student identify one set of survival strategies which appear to be evolutionarily stable for all species (later dubbed the "Law of Limited Competition"): In short, "you may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food.
In other words, you may compete but you may not wage war".
All species inevitably follow this law, or as a consequence go extinct.
The Takers believe themselves to be exempt from this Law and flout it at every point.
He explains how the Takers rendered themselves above the laws governing life, using the story of The Fall of Man as an example.
Ishmael's version of why the fruit was forbidden to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is: eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil provides the gods with the knowledge of who shall live and who shall die—knowledge which they need to rule the world.
The fruit nourishes only the gods, though.
If Adam ("man") were to eat from this tree, he might think that he gained the gods' wisdom (without this actually happening) and consequently destroy the world and himself through his arrogance.
"And so they said to him, you may eat of every tree in the garden, save the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day you eat of that tree, you will certainly die".
Ishmael makes the point that this story of the Fall of Man, which the Takers have adopted as their own, was in fact developed by Leavers to explain the origin of the Takers.
If it were of Taker origin, the story would be of liberating ascent instead of a sinful fall.
Ishmael and his student go on to discuss how, for the ancient herders among whom the tale originated, the story of Cain killing Abel symbolizes the Leaver being killed off and their lands taken so that it could be put under cultivation.
These ancient herders realized that the Takers were acting as if they were gods themselves, with all the wisdom of what is good and evil and how to rule the world.
And as a result the gods banished these people from the Garden and they were brought from a life of bounty in the hands of the gods to one of being the accursed tillers of the soil.
To begin discerning the Leavers' story, Ishmael proposes to his student a hypothesis: the Takers' Agricultural Revolution was a revolution against the Leavers' story.
The Leavers take what they need from the world and leave the rest alone.
Living in this manner ("in the hands of the gods"), Leavers thrive in times of abundance and dwindle in times of scarcity.
The Takers however, practicing their uniquely envisioned form of agriculture (dubbed by Quinn "totalitarian agriculture" in a later book) produce enormous food surpluses, which allows them to thwart the gods when they decide it's the Takers' time to go hungry.
"When you have more food than you need, then the gods have no power over you".
Thus, Ishmael points out that the Takers revolution was not just a technological change, but also serves a mythological function.
So we have a new pair of names for you: The Takers are 'those who know good and evil' and the Leavers are 'those who live in the hands of the gods'.
Ishmael goes on to point out that by living in the hands of the gods, man is subject to the conditions under which evolution takes place.
Australopithecus became Homo by living in the hands of the gods—Man became man by living in the hands of the gods-- "by living the way the bushmen of Africa live; by living the way the Krenakarore of Brazil live.
Not the way the Chicagoans live, not the way Londoners live".
"In the hands of the gods is where evolution happens".
According to the Takers' story, creation came to an end with man.
"In order to make their story come true, the Takers have to put an end to creation itself-- and they're doing a damn good job of it.
" Ishmael brings together his synopsis on human culture by examining the story enacted by Leaver cultures, which provides a model of how to live—an alternative story for the Takers to enact.
The premise of the Takers' story is 'The world belongs to man.
'.
The premise of the Leavers' story is 'Man belongs to the world.
' For three million years, man belonged to the world and because he belonged to the world, he grew and developed and became brighter and more dexterous until one day, he was so bright and so dexterous that we had to call him Homo sapiens sapiens-- which means he was us.
The Leavers' story is 'the gods made man for the world, the same way they made salmon and sparrows for the world.
This seems to have worked well so far so we can take it easy and leave the running of the world to the gods'.
Ishmael emphasizes that "not in any sense is the Takers story 'chapter two' of the story which was being enacted here during the first three million years of human life.
The Leavers' story has its own 'chapter two'".
In evolution, observes Ishmael's student, there seems to be a tendency toward complexity, and towards self-awareness and intelligence.
Perhaps the gods intend the world to be filled with intelligent, self-aware creatures and man's destiny following the Leavers' story is "to be the first- without being the last"; to learn and then to be a role-model and teacher for all those capable of becoming what he's become.
Ishmael finishes with a summary of what his student can do if he earnestly desires to save the world: The story of Genesis must be undone.
First, Cain must stop murdering Abel.
This is essential if you're to survive.
The Leavers are the endangered species most critical to the world - not because they're humans but because they alone can show the destroyers of the world that there is more than one right way to live.
And then, of course, you must spit out the fruit of the forbidden tree.
You must absolutely and forever relinquish the idea that you know who should live and who should die on this planet.
Teach a hundred what I've taught you, and inspire each of them to teach a hundred.
The student loses track of Ishmael's whereabouts and in his search for the gorilla ultimately discovers that he was secretly falling ill and has since died of pneumonia.
The student collects Ishmael's belongings and among them he finds the sign that he saw before ("With man gone, will there be hope for gorilla.
") has a backside with another message: "With gorilla gone, will there be hope for man.
".
<EOS>
The story follows the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity.
David was born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, England, six months after the death of his father.
David spends his early years in relative happiness with his loving, childish mother and their kindly housekeeper, Peggotty.
When he is seven years old his mother marries Edward Murdstone.
During the marriage, partly to get him out of the way and partly because he strongly objects to the whole proceeding, David is sent to lodge with Peggotty's family in Yarmouth.
Her brother, fisherman Mr Peggotty, lives in a house built in an upturned boat on the beach, with his adopted relatives Emily and Ham, and an elderly widow, Mrs Gummidge.
"Little Em'ly" is somewhat spoilt by her fond foster father, and David is in love with her.
On his return, David is given good reason to dislike his stepfather and has similar feelings for Murdstone's sister Jane, who moves into the house soon afterwards.
Between them they tyrannise his poor mother, making her and David's lives miserable, and when, in consequence, David falls behind in his studies, Murdstone attempts to thrash him – partly to further pain his mother.
David bites him and soon afterwards is sent away to a boarding school, Salem House, under a ruthless headmaster, mr Creakle.
There he befriends an older boy, James Steerforth, and Tommy Traddles.
He develops an impassioned admiration for Steerforth, perceiving him as something noble, who could do great things if he would.
David goes home for the holidays to learn that his mother has given birth to a baby boy.
Shortly after David returns to Salem House, his mother and her baby die, and David returns home immediately.
Peggotty marries the local carrier, Mr Barkis.
Murdstone sends David to work for a wine merchant in London – a business of which Murdstone is a joint owner.
David's landlord, Wilkins Micawber, is arrested for debt and sent to the King's Bench Prison, where he remains for several months, before being released and moving to Plymouth.
No one remains to care for David in London, so he decides to run away.
He walks from London to Dover, to his only relative, his eccentric yet kind-hearted great-aunt Betsey Trotwood.
She had come to Blunderstone at his birth, only to depart in ire upon learning that he was not a girl.
However, she takes pity on him and agrees to raise him, despite Murdstone's attempt to regain custody of David, on condition that he always tries to 'be as like his sister, Betsey Trotwood' as he can be, meaning that he is to endeavour to emulate the prospective namesake she was disappointed of.
David's great-aunt renames him "Trotwood Copperfield" and addresses him as "Trot", and it becomes one of several names which David is called by in the course of the novel.
David's aunt sends him to a far better school than the last he attended.
It is run by Dr Strong, whose methods inculcate honour and self-reliance in his pupils.
During term, David lodges with the lawyer Mr Wickfield, and his daughter Agnes, who becomes David's friend and confidante.
Wickfield has a secretary, the 15-year-old Uriah Heep.
By devious means Uriah Heep gradually gains a complete ascendancy over the aging and alcoholic Wickfield, to Agnes' great sorrow.
Heep hopes, and maliciously confides to David, that he aspires to marry Agnes.
Ultimately with the aid of Micawber, who has been employed by Heep as a secretary, his fraudulent behaviour is revealed.
At the end of the book, David meets him in a prison, for attempting to defraud the Bank of England.
After completing school, David learns to be a proctor.
During this time, due to Heep's fraudulent activities, his aunt's fortune has gone down.
David begins struggle for his life.
He joins in employment under his former teacher Doctor Strong, as a secretary and also starts to learn shorthand, with the help of his former school-friend Traddles.
Upon learning shorthand, he joins in a newspaper for parliementary debate reporting.
With considerable help from Agnes and his own great diligence, hard work and discipline, David ultimately finds fame and fortune as an author, by writing fiction.
David's romantic but self-serving school friend, Steerforth, seduces and dishonours Emily, offering to marry her off to one of his servants before finally deserting her.
Her uncle Mr Peggotty manages to find her with the help of London prostitute Martha, who had grown up in their county.
Ham, who had been engaged to marry her before the tragedy, died in a storm off the coast in attempting to succour a ship; Steerforth was aboard the same and also died.
Mr Peggotty takes Emily to a new life in Australia, accompanied by mrs Gummidge and the Micawbers, where all eventually find security and happiness.
David marries the beautiful but naïve Dora Spenlow, but their marriage proves unhappy for David.
Dora dies early in their marriage.
After Dora's death, Agnes encourages David to return to normal life and his profession of writing.
While living in Switzerland, David realizes that he loves Agnes.
Upon returning to England, after a failed attempt to conceal his feelings, David finds that Agnes loves him too.
They quickly marry and in this marriage he finds true happiness.
David and Agnes then have at least five children, including a daughter named after his great-aunt, Betsey Trotwood.
<EOS>
Cannibalistic zombies have overrun the entire world.
The remaining fragments of theS.
government and military hide out in fortified military bases and colonies, attempting to find a solution to the zombie pandemic.
dr Sarah Bowman (Lori Cardille), Private Miguel Salazar (Anthony Dileo Jr), radio operator Bill McDermott (Jarlath Conroy), and helicopter pilot John (Terry Alexander) fly from their underground base to Fort Myers, Florida, in an attempt to locate additional survivors.
They encounter a large horde of the undead, and return to their army base in the Everglades, where a small group of scientists, supported by a skeleton crew of soldiers, is searching for a way to cope with the zombie problem.
dr Logan (Richard Liberty), the lead scientist&nbsp;– also known as "Frankenstein" due to his grisly surgical dissections of zombies &nbsp;– believes that the zombies can be trained to become docile, and accordingly has amassed a collection of test subjects, which are kept in a large underground corral in the compound, in spite of the objections of Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato).
The tension between soldiers and scientists worsens in the face of dwindling supplies, loss of communication with other survivors, and slow progress in research.
During a meeting between the scientists and the soldiers, Rhodes announces that, following the death of the previous base commander Major Cooper, he is taking command of the base, that the scientists henceforth will work under his orders, and that anyone who objects will instantly be killed.
dr Logan hopes to secure Rhodes' cooperation by showing him the results of his research.
He is especially proud of "Bub", a docile zombie who remembers some parts of his past life and engages in rudimentary human behavior: listening to music, aiming a pistol, and saluting Captain Rhodes.
"Civility must be rewarded," Logan says.
"If it's not rewarded, there's no use for it.
There's just no use for it at all.
" Rhodes is not impressed.
During a zombie roundup mission, two of the soldiers, Miller and Johnson, are killed after a zombie escapes its harness; whereupon Miguel attempts to kill the creature, but is bitten on the arm.
Sarah amputates the arm and cauterizes it to stop the spreading infection.
Rhodes then calls off the experiments and demands that all captive zombies be destroyed.
Sarah and Bill later discover a crude form of dr Logan's experimentation involving the bodies of Miller and Johnson and an audio tape in which a crazed Logan talks to his "Father" and "Mother"; horrified, both Sarah and Bill plan to leave in the helicopter immediately before someone else does.
Conditions worsen further when Rhodes finds out that Logan has been feeding the flesh of his dead soldiers to Bub as a reward for his docility and positive behavior.
Enraged, Rhodes kills Logan and his assistant dr Fisher.
He then locks Sarah and Bill inside the zombie corral and attempts to force John to fly him and his men away from the base, which John refuses to do.
Bub manages to escape from his chain and finds dr Logan's corpse.
In a display of human emotion, he expresses sadness and then becomes enraged.
He finds a pistol discarded on the floor and goes in search of revenge.
Meanwhile, Miguel, who has become suicidal, opens the gates to the compound, allowing the horde of zombies lurking outside to enter onto the elevator, devouring him.
While Miguel is doing this, John overcomes his captors, knocking both Rhodes and Torrez out before stealing their weapons and going into the zombie corral to rescue Sarah and Bill.
The zombies rapidly enter the complex; Pvt Rickles and Pvt Torrez are torn apart by the horde.
Pvt Steel attempts to shoot Bub through a covered window, but gets bitten by another zombie and chooses to kill himself rather than be eaten alive.
Rhodes attempts to escape, but is shot and wounded by Bub and then violently torn apart into pieces by a crowd of zombies, killing him.
John reunites with Sarah and McDermott inside the zombie corral.
They escape together to the surface, board the helicopter, and fly to a deserted island with no dead people or zombies on it.
The film ends with Sarah crossing off a day on her calendar which counts the days since their escape from the compound.
<EOS>
The novel is divided into three parts, following a third-person omniscient narrative with no main character.
In the late 20th century, the United States and the Soviet Union are competing to launch the first spaceship into orbit, for military purposes.
When vast alien spaceships suddenly position themselves above Earth's principal cities, the space race ceases.
After one week, the aliens announce they are assuming supervision of international affairs, to prevent humanity's extinction.
They become known as the Overlords.
In general, they let humans go on conducting their affairs in their own way.
They overtly interfere only twice: in South Africa, where sometime before their arrival Apartheid had collapsed and was replaced with savage persecution of the white minority; and in Spain, where they put an end to bull fighting.
Some humans are suspicious of the Overlords' benign intent, as they never visibly appear.
The Overlord Karellen, the "Supervisor for Earth," who speaks directly only to Rikki Stormgren, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, tells Stormgren that the Overlords will reveal themselves in 50 years, when humanity will have become used to their presence.
Stormgren smuggles a device onto Karellen's ship in an attempt to see Karellen's true form.
He succeeds, is shocked, and chooses to keep silent.
Humankind enters a golden age of prosperity at the expense of creativity.
Five decades after their arrival, the Overlords reveal their appearance, resembling the traditional Christian folk images of demons: large bipeds with cloven hooves, leathery wings, horns, and tails.
The Overlords are interested in psychic research, which humans suppose is part of their anthropological study.
Rupert Boyce, a prolific book collector on the subject, allows one Overlord, Rashaverak, to study these books at his home.
To impress his friends with Rashaverak's presence, Boyce holds a party, during which he makes use of a Ouija board.
Jan Rodricks, an astrophysicist and Rupert's brother-in-law, asks the identity of the Overlords' home star.
George Greggson's future wife Jean faints as the Ouija board reveals a star-catalog number consistent with the direction in which Overlord supply ships appear and disappear.
With the help of an oceanographer friend Jan Rodricks stows away on an Overlord supply ship and travels 40 light-years to their home planet.
Due to the time dilation of special relativity at near-light speeds, the elapsed time on the ship is only a few weeks, and he arranges to endure it in drug-induced hibernation.
Although humanity and the Overlords have peaceful relations, some believe human innovation is being suppressed and that culture is becoming stagnant.
One of these groups establishes New Athens, an island colony in the middle of the Pacific Ocean devoted to the creative arts, which George and Jean Greggson join.
The Overlords conceal a special interest in the Greggsons' children, Jeffrey and Jennifer Anne, and intervene to save Jeffrey's life when a tsunami strikes the island.
The Overlords have been watching them since the incident with the Ouija board, which revealed the seed of the coming transformation hidden within Jean.
Sixty years after the Overlords' arrival, human children, beginning with the Greggsons', begin to display clairvoyance and telekinetic powers.
Karellen reveals the Overlords' purpose; they serve the Overmind, a vast cosmic intelligence, born of amalgamated ancient civilizations, and freed from the limitations of material existence.
The Overlords themselves are unable to join the Overmind, but serve it as a bridge species, fostering other races' eventual union with it.
As Karellen explains, the time of humanity as a race composed of single individuals with a concrete identity is coming to an end.
The children's minds reach into each other and merge into a single vast group consciousness.
If the Pacific were to be dried up, the islands dotting it would lose their identity as islands and become part of a new continent; in the same way, the children cease to be the individuals which their parents knew and become something else, completely alien to the "old type of human".
For the transformed children's safety - and also because it is painful for their parents to see what they had become - they are segregated on a continent of their own.
No more human children are born, and many parents die or commit suicide.
The members of New Athens destroy themselves with a nuclear bomb.
Jan Rodricks emerges from hibernation on the Overlord supply ship and arrives on their planet.
The Overlords permit him a glimpse of how the Overmind communicates with them.
When Jan returns to Earth (approximately 80 years after his departure by Earth time) he finds an unexpectedly altered planet.
Humanity has effectively become extinct, and he is now the last man alive.
Hundreds of millions of children – no longer fitting what Rodricks defines as "human" – remain on the quarantined continent, having become a single intelligence readying themselves to join the Overmind.
Some Overlords remain on Earth to study the children from a safe distance.
When the evolved children mentally alter the Moon's rotation and make other planetary manipulations, it becomes too dangerous to remain.
The departing Overlords offer to take Rodricks with them, but he chooses to stay to witness Earth's end, and transmit a report of what he sees.
Before they depart, Rodricks asks Rashaverak what encounter the Overlords had with humanity in the past, according to an assumption that the fear that humans had of their "demonic" form was due to a traumatic encounter with them in the distant past; but Rashaverak explains that the primal fear experienced by humans was not due to a racial , but a racial of the Overlords' role in their metamorphosis.
The Overlords are eager to escape from their own evolutionary dead end by studying the Overmind, so Rodricks's information is potentially of great value to them.
By radio, Rodricks describes a vast burning column ascending from the planet.
As the column disappears, Rodricks experiences a profound sense of emptiness when the Overlords have gone.
Then material objects and the Earth itself begin to dissolve into transparency.
Jan reports no fear, but a powerful sense of fulfillment.
The Earth evaporates in a flash of light.
Karellen looks back at the receding Solar System and gives a final salute to the human species.
<EOS>
The narrator explains that, as a young boy, he once drew a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant in its stomach; however, every adult who saw the picture would mistakenly interpret it as a drawing of a hat.
Whenever the narrator would try to correct this confusion, he was ultimately advised to set aside drawing and take up a more practical or mature hobby.
The narrator laments the crass materialism of contemporary society and the lack of creative understanding displayed by adults.
As noted by the narrator, he could have had a great career as a painter, but this opportunity was crushed by the misunderstanding of the adults.
Now an adult himself, the narrator has become a pilot as he was told, and, one day, his plane crashes in the Sahara, far from civilization.
Here, the narrator is greeted by a young boy whom he refers to as "the little prince".
Upon encountering the narrator, the little prince asks him to draw a sheep.
The narrator first shows him his old picture of the elephant inside the snake, which, to the narrator's surprise, the prince interprets correctly.
After three failed attempts at drawing a sheep, the frustrated narrator simply draws a box, claiming that the box holds a sheep inside.
Again, to the narrator's surprise, the prince exclaims that this is exactly the picture he wanted.
The prince has a strange habit of avoiding directly answering any of the narrator's questions.
The prince is described as having golden hair, a scarf, and a lovable laugh.
Over the course of eight days stranded in the desert, as the narrator attempts to repair his plane, the little prince recounts the story of his life, often caused by his discussion of the sheep.
The prince begins by describing life on his tiny home planet: in effect, an asteroid the size of a house (the asteroid was "named" B-612 by people on Earth, but the Prince called it "asteroid 325"; a real asteroid was named after the fictional asteroid).
The asteroid's most prominent features are three minuscule volcanoes (two active, and one dormant or extinct) as well as a variety of plants.
The prince describes spending his earlier days cleaning the volcanoes and weeding unwanted seeds and sprigs that infest his planet's soil; in particular, pulling out baobab trees that are constantly trying to grow and overrun the surface.
"Catastrophe," the little prince would call it.
The prince wants a sheep to eat the undesirable plants until the narrator informs him that a sheep will even eat roses with thorns.
Upon hearing this, the prince tells of his love for a mysterious rose that began growing on the asteroid's surface some time ago.
The prince says he nourished the rose and listened to her when she told him to make a screen or glass globe to protect her from the cold wind.
Although the prince fell in love with the rose, he also began to feel that she was taking advantage of him, and he resolved to leave the planet to explore the rest of the universe.
Although the rose finally apologized for her vanity, and the two reconciled, she encouraged him to go ahead with his journey and so he traveled onward.
The prince misses his rose and claims that he only needs to look at the millions of stars to be reminded of his rose, since his rose is among one of them.
The prince has since visited six other asteroids, each of which was inhabited by a single, irrational, narrow-minded adult, each meant to critique an element of society.
They include: a king with no subjects; a vain man who believes himself the most admirable person on his otherwise uninhabited planet; a drunkard who drinks to forget the shame of being a drunkard; a businessman who is blind to the beauty of the stars and instead endlessly counts them in order to "own" them all (critiquing materialism); a lamplighter who wastes his life blindly following orders and extinguishing and relighting a lamp once a minute; and an elderly geographer.
Like the others, the geographer is closed-minded, providing a caricature of specialization in the contemporary world.
The prince tells him: "Your planet is very beautiful.
Has it any oceans.
""I couldn't tell you," said the geographer.
"But you are a geographer.
""Exactly," the geographer said.
"But I am not an explorer.
I haven't a single explorer on my planet.
It is not the geographer who goes out to count the towns, the rivers, the mountains, the seas, the oceans, and the deserts.
The geographer is much too important to go loafing about.
He does not leave his desk"Similarly, when the geographer asked the prince to describe his home, the prince mentioned the rose, and the geographer explained that he does not record "ephemeral" things, such as roses, suggesting again the tendency of adults in general and specialists in particular to overlook the most important aspects of life.
This reinforces the prince's convictions that grown-ups are a sad, dull, unimaginative, lot.
The geographer recommended that the prince next visit the planet Earth.
Since the prince landed in a desert, he believed that Earth was uninhabited.
He then met a yellow snake that claimed to have the power to return him to his home, if he ever wished to return.
The prince next met a desert flower, who told him that she had only seen a handful of men in this part of the world and that they had no roots, letting the wind blow them around and living hard lives.
After climbing the highest mountain he had ever seen, the prince hoped to see the whole of Earth, thus finding the people; however, he saw only the enormous, desolate landscape.
When the prince called out, his echo answered him, which he interpreted as the mocking voices of others.
Eventually, the prince encountered a whole row of rosebushes, becoming downcast at having once thought that his own rose was unique.
He began to feel that he was not a great prince at all, as his planet contained only three tiny volcanoes and a flower that he now thought of as common.
He lay down on the grass and wept, until a fox came along.
The fox desired to be tamed and explained to the prince that his rose was indeed unique and special because she was the object of the prince's love.
The fox also explained that, in a way, the prince had tamed the rose, and that this is why the prince was now feeling so responsible for her.
The prince then took the time to tame the fox, though the two were sad to have to part ways.
The prince next came across a railway switchman, who told him how passengers constantly rushed from one place to another aboard trains, never satisfied with where they were and not knowing what they were after; only the children among them ever bothered to look out the windows.
A merchant then talked to the prince about his product, a pill that eliminated thirst, which was very popular, saving people fifty-three minutes a week.
The prince replied that he would instead gladly use that extra time to go around finding fresh water, again underscoring the materialism of a world that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Back in the present moment, it is the eighth day after the narrator's plane crash and the narrator is dying of thirst; miraculously, he and the prince find a well.
The narrator later finds the prince talking to the snake, discussing his return home and eagerness to see his rose again, who he worries has been left to fend for herself.
The prince bids an emotional farewell to the narrator and states that if it looks as though he has died, it is only because his body was too heavy to take with him to his planet.
The prince warns the narrator not to watch him leave, as it will make him upset.
The narrator, realizing what will happen, refuses to leave the prince's side; the prince consoles the narrator by saying that he only need to look at the stars to think of the prince's lovable laughter, and that it will seem as if all the stars are laughing.
The prince then walks away from the narrator and allows the snake to bite him, falling without making a sound.
The next morning, the narrator tries to look for the prince, but is unable to find his body.
He finally manages to repair his airplane and leave the desert.
The story ends with the narrator's drawing of the landscape where the prince and the narrator met and where the snake took the prince's life.
The narrator requests that anyone in that area encountering a small young man who refuses to answer questions should contact the narrator immediately.
<EOS>
In a Mexican town along theS.
–Mexico border, a time bomb is planted in a car.
Rudy Linnekar (Jeffrey Green) and woman Zita enter the vehicle and make a slow journey through town to theS.
border, the woman (Joi Lansing) insisting that she hears something ticking.
Newlyweds Miguel "Mike" Vargas (Charlton Heston), a drug enforcement official in the Mexican government, and his wife Susie (Janet Leigh) pass the car several times on foot.
The car crosses the border, then explodes.
Realizing the implications of a Mexican bomb exploding on American soil, Vargas takes an interest in the investigation.
Police Chief Pete Gould (Harry Shannon) and District Attorney Adair (Ray Collins) arrive on the scene, followed by the game-legged police captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles) and Quinlan's longtime partner, Pete Menzies (Joseph Calleia)—who clearly worships Quinlan.
The obese and disheveled Captain nostalgically visits a brothel run by Tanya (Marlene Dietrich), who barely recognizes him.
Quinlan's and Menzies' prime suspect is Sanchez, a young Mexican secretly married to the victim's daughter (Joanna Moore).
They interrogate Sanchez in his apartment with Vargas present.
Vargas visits the bathroom and accidentally knocks over an empty shoebox.
Moments later, Menzies enters the bathroom and announces that two sticks of dynamite were found in the same shoebox.
Vargas accuses Quinlan of planting the evidence and begins to suspect that he may have been doing so for years, to help win convictions.
Quinlan dismisses the Vargas claim, saying he is just biased in favor of fellow Mexicans.
The stress of these accusations, along with pressure from "Uncle" Joe Grandi (Akim Tamiroff), the brother of a man Vargas has been investigating, to strike a deal to discredit Vargas, causes Quinlan—who has been sober for 12 years—to fall off the wagon.
With assistance from District Attorney's Assistant Al Schwartz (Mort Mills), Vargas studies the public records on Quinlan's previous cases, revealing his findings to Gould and Adair.
Quinlan arrives in time to overhear the discussion and angrily threatens to resign.
Susie Vargas is moved from her Mexican hotel to a remote American motel to escape the unwanted attention of Grandi.
The motel, which Menzies recommended to her, has no other guests and is staffed only by a very peculiar night manager (Dennis Weaver), and, unknown to Susie, is owned by Grandi himself.
Grandi's family members take over the motel and terrorize Susie.
Vargas becomes concerned when his attempts to telephone Susie at the motel are blocked.
Quinlan conspires with Grandi, arranging for Susie to be knocked unconscious, kidnapped, and made to look like she had overdosed on drugs by placing drugs around her unconscious body.
Quinlan then double-crosses Grandi, strangles him, and leaves Susie, still unconscious, in the room with Grandi's body, all in order to discredit the narcotics officer Vargas.
However, exhausted, drunk, and shaken from killing Grandi, Quinlan carelessly leaves his cane at the scene of the murder, implicating himself.
When Susie wakes up, she sees Grandi's body, screams for help, and is arrested on suspicion of murder.
Vargas confronts Menzies about the history of evidence "discovered" by Quinlan.
When he goes to Susie's motel, but can't find her, Vargas learns the motel is owned by Grandi, and that his handgun has been stolen.
He rushes back to town and enters a bar, where he confronts the gang members who attacked his wife.
When they refuse to answer his questions, Vargas violently beats them down, destroying the bar in the process.
Schwarz then informs a shocked Vargas that Susie has been arrested for murder.
At the lockup, Vargas finds her barely conscious.
Menzies reveals to Vargas that he discovered Quinlan's cane at the murder scene.
Vargas fits Menzies with a wire.
Near an oil field, Menzies meets Quinlan, while being tracked on foot by Vargas, who is recording the conversation.
Quinlan admits to Menzies that he planted evidence on people, but insists that he did so only because he knew they were guilty.
Quinlan hears an echo from the secret microphone and says his "game leg" has informed him of Menzies' betrayal.
Quinlan demands that Vargas show himself.
Quinlan then shoots Menzies with Vargas's gun, which he had earlier stolen from Vargas's briefcase.
Quinlan prepares to shoot Vargas (saying that he can claim Vargas was resisting arrest) but is, instead, shot in the final act of the dying Menzies.
Quinlan staggers backwards into a filthy pool of wastewater and dies.
Schwartz arrives at the scene and tells Vargas that the planted dynamite was unnecessary because Sanchez confessed to the crime.
Schwartz asks Tanya, as she walks away, what she has to say about Quinlan.
Tanya replies, "He was some kind of a man.
What does it matter what you say about people.
".
<EOS>
As Aragorn searches for Frodo, he suddenly hears Boromir's horn.
Aragorn finds Boromir mortally wounded by arrows and his assailants are gone.
Before Boromir dies, Aragorn learns that Saruman's Uruk-hai soldiers have kidnapped some of the hobbits, in spite of his efforts to defend them, that Frodo had vanished after Boromir had attempted to take the Ring from him and that he truly regretted his actions.
In his last moments, Boromir charges Aragorn to defend Minas Tirith from Sauron.
With Legolas and Gimli, who had been fighting Orcs by themselves, Aragorn pays his last tributes to Boromir and sends him down the Great River Anduin on a funeral boat, the usual methods of burial being impractical.
Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli later resolve to follow the Uruk-hai captors and save Merry and Pippin.
Meanwhile, after some hardship, Merry and Pippin escape when the Uruk-hai are attacked by the horsemen of Rohan, called the Rohirrim or "Riders of Rohan".
Merry and Pippin escape into the nearby Fangorn Forest, where they encounter the giant treelike Ents.
The Ents resemble actual trees, except they are able to see, talk, and move.
These guardians of the forest generally keep to themselves, but after a long contemplation on whether or not the Hobbits were friends, or foes, their leader Treebeard persuades the Ent council to oppose the menace posed to the forest by the wizard Saruman, as suggested by Merry and Pippin, as Treebeard realizes that Saruman's minions have been cutting down large numbers of their trees to fuel the furnaces needed for Saruman's arming of his dark army.
Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas come across the Riders of Rohan led by Éomer, nephew of King Théoden.
The trio learn that the horsemen had attacked a band of Orcs the previous night, and that they had left no survivors.
However, Aragorn is able to track a small set of prints that lead into Fangorn, where they see an old man who disappears almost as soon as they see him — they assume him to be Saruman.
Shortly afterward, the three meet Gandalf (again, they at first take him to be Saruman), whom they believed had perished in the mines of Moria.
He tells them of his fall into the abyss, his battle to the death with the Balrog and his resurrection and his enhanced power.
Gandalf tells them that Merry and Pippin are safe, and the four ride to Rohan's capital Edoras.
There Gandalf rouses King Théoden from inaction against the threat Saruman poses.
In the process, Saruman's spy in Rohan (and King Théoden's trusted advisor) Gríma Wormtongue, is expelled from Rohan.
Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas then travel with Théoden's troops to the fortress of Hornburg, in the valley of Helm's Deep.
Gandalf rides away before the battle begins, though he gives no reason for doing so.
At the Hornburg, the army of Rohan led by King Théoden and Aragorn resist a full-scale onslaught by the hosts of Saruman.
Yet, things begin to go ill with Rohan, until Gandalf arrives with the remains of the army of Westfold that Saruman's forces had previously routed.
The tide now turns in Rohan's favour, and Saruman's orcs flee into a forest of Huorns, creatures similar to Ents, and none escape alive.
Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, along with King Théoden and Éomer, head to Saruman's stronghold of Isengard.
Here, they reunite with Merry and Pippin and find Isengard overrun by Ents, who had flooded it by breaking a nearby dam of the river Isen, and the central tower of Orthanc besieged, with Saruman and Wormtongue trapped inside.
Gandalf offers Saruman a chance to repent, but is refused, and so casts Saruman out of the Order of Wizards and the White Council.
Gríma throws something from a window at Gandalf but misses, and it is picked up by Pippin.
This object turns out to be one of the palantíri (seeing-stones).
Pippin, unable to resist the urge, looks into it and encounters the Eye of Sauron, but emerges unscathed from the ordeal.
Gandalf and Pippin then head for Minas Tirith in Gondor in preparation for the imminent war against Mordor, while Théoden, Merry, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas remain behind to begin the muster of Rohan, to ride to the aid of Gondor.
Frodo and Sam discover and capture Gollum, who has been stalking them in their quest to reach Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring, as Gollum attempts to reclaim the Ring for himself.
Sam loathes and distrusts him, but Frodo pities the poor creature.
Gollum promises to lead the pair to the Black Gate of Mordor, and for a time appears to be like his old self Sméagol.
He leads them through a hidden passage of the Dead Marshes in order to avoid being spied by Orcs.
Frodo and Sam learn that the Dead Marshes were once part of an ancient battlefield, upon which the War of the Last Alliance was fought.
Upon reaching the Black Gate, Gollum persuades Frodo and Sam not to enter, where they would have been surely caught.
Gollum tells them of a secret entrance to Mordor.
Thus, they head south into Gondor's province of Ithilien, where they are accosted by a group of Gondorian rangers led by Faramir, the brother of Boromir.
Frodo learns from Faramir of Boromir's death.
Faramir and the Rangers lead Frodo and Sam into a secret hideout where Sam accidentally reveals to Faramir that Frodo carries the One Ring.
As a result of this, Frodo reveals the plan to destroy the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.
Later that night, Gollum is captured diving for fish into the sacred pool.
Frodo negotiates Gollum's freedom with Faramir.
The following morning Faramir allows them to go on their way, but warns them that Gollum may know more about the secret entrance than he has been telling them.
Gollum leads them past the city of Minas Morgul and up a long, steep staircase of the Cirith Ungol and into the lair of an enormous spider named Shelob.
Gollum hopes to get the Ring from Frodo's bones after Shelob is done with him.
The hobbits escape Shelob in her lair and mistakenly assume that they are safe.
However, Shelob sneaks up on Frodo.
Sam attempts to warn Frodo but is attacked by Gollum.
Shelob stings Frodo in the back of the neck and he collapses to the ground.
Sam fends off Gollum, who runs off back towards Shelob's cave.
Sam then fights Shelob, and eventually drives her off by wounding her with Frodo's blade, Sting.
After seeing Frodo lifeless and pale, Sam assumes that Frodo is dead and debates chasing Gollum and abandoning the Quest in favour of vengeance.
Sam resolves to finish the Quest himself and takes the Ring, but when Orcs take Frodo's body, Sam follows them, aided by the invisibility of wearing the Ring.
He learns that Frodo is not dead, but only unconscious, and is now a prisoner.
Sam falls into a swoon as the orcs reach the undergate of the Tower of Cirith Ungol.
The book ends with the line, "Frodo was alive but taken by the Enemy".
<EOS>
Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Minas Tirith in the kingdom of Gondor, and there Pippin gets to view for the first time the mighty city built on seven levels and with the Tower of Echtelion high above the Pelennor Fields.
They meet Denethor, the Lord and Steward of Gondor, and deliver the news to him of Boromir's death; but Denethor already knows of his son's death because he holds Boromir's cloven horn in his lap, as well as the fact that a devastating attack on his city by Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor is imminent.
Stung by the scorn of Denethor, Pippin enters the service of the Steward as repayment of a debt he owes to Boromir, Denethor's dead son and preferred heir.
Pippin then meets Beregond a guard of the Citadel, who tutors him in his duties, and his young son Bergil, who guides him around Minas Tirith.
In the middle of night, Gandalf returns to their room, frustrated that Faramir has not yet returned.
Meanwhile, in Rohan, King Théoden and his Rohirrim are recovering from the Battle of the Hornburg, in which they defended Rohan against the forces of Saruman at great cost.
On their way back from Isengard, Aragorn, the king, and his company are met by the Company of Rangers from Arnor in the north (the "Grey Company"), led by Elladan and Elrohir, the sons of Elrond, and Halbarad, a leader of Rangers from the North.
They had answered the summons of Galadriel to join Aragorn in his cause.
When they return to Hornburg, Aragorn informs the king that he shall not ride with the Rohirrim, having confronted Sauron through the palantír (seeing-stone) of Isengard.
Instead, able to see a new threat to Gondor, he decides to go travel the Paths of the Dead and find the lost army of the undead oathbreakers who dwell under the Dwimorberg, the Haunted Mountain.
These spirits were cursed because they did not help Isildur during the War of the Last Alliance.
Helped by his companions Legolas and Gimli as well as the Grey Company, they ride to Dunharrow.
When they arrive, Éowyn, tries to dissuade Aragorn from going and then--desperate to stay with him--tries to go as well.
Aragorn cannot release Eowyn from her duties and cannot return the love she has for him and reluctantly sets out the next morning to recruit the Army of the Dead to his cause.
The company then passes under the Haunted Mountain where they come across the bones of a missing prince of Rohan, who had foolishly ventured on the Paths of the Dead.
They company then comes out on the other side of the mountain into the valley of the Morthond River in Gondor and then proceed to the Stone of Erech.
There, the Oathbreakers gather around the Grey Company in the middle of the night and resolve to fulfill their oath.
They all then ride east to the great port of Pelargir and vanish into the storm of Mordor.
After Aragorn departs on his seemingly impossible task, King Théoden, Eomer, and Merry arrive in Dunharrow to muster the Rohirrim (mounted cavalry) and come to the aid of Gondor.
They enter the upper hold of Dunharrow via a narrow switchback path where they see old "Pukel-Men" guarding the turns.
Merry is so moved by the kindness of Théoden that he enters his service and is made a Knight of the Mark.
Seeing Éowyn grieved by Aragorn's departure, Merry then asks about the Paths of Dead and is told the story by Théoden of how King Brego and his son Baldor discovered the entrance to the chambers under the Haunted Mountain and how Baldor rashly spoke an oath to travel the Paths of the Dead.
The next morning was dominated by the darkness of Mordor and two riders from Gondor showing Théoden the Red Arrow, which was Gondor's official call for aid from Rohan.
The King and Eomer then gather the riders and set out from Dunharrow and then Edoras.
Eager to go to war with his allies, Merry is refused by Théoden several times.
Finally Dernhelm, one of the Rohirrim, secretly takes Merry up on his horse so that he can accompany the rest of the Rohirrim.
Back in Minas Tirith, Pippin is now clad in the uniform of the tower guard and watches the fortunes of war unfold.
Faramir, Boromir's younger brother, returns from his campaign with the shattered remnants of his company from Ithilien where he reveals that he has met Frodo and Sam and allowed them to continue on their mission.
When Gandalf hears that they are heading for Cirith Ungol, he becomes afraid, and Denethor becomes angry at Faramir for what he thinks was a foolish decision.
The next day, Denethor orders Faramir to ride out and continue the hopeless defence of Osgiliath against a horde of orcs.
Osgiliath is soon overrun and a gravely wounded Faramir is carried back to Denethor.
Denethor then descends into madness as the hosts of Mordor press ever closer to Gondor's capital city of Minas Tirith, burning the Pelennor Fields and then the first circle of the city.
His people seemingly lost and his only remaining son all but dead, Denethor orders a funeral pyre built that is to claim both him and his dying son.
A fearful Pippin witnesses all this and runs down to the first circle to find Gandalf.
There, the hosts of Mordor, led by the dreaded Witch-king of Angmar, have succeeded in breaking through the gates of Minas Tirith--using a terrifying battering ram named Grond, and only Gandalf is left sitting on his horse Shadowfax to oppose him.
Just as the Witch-King raises his sword to strike the wizard, the horns of Rohan can be heard coming to the aid of Gondor.
Aided by a tribe of Wild Men of the Woods who resemble the Pukel-Men of Dunharrow, Théoden's forces travel through the long-forgotten path to avoid an Orc ambush on the main road and reach Minas Tirith by stealth.
At first it seems that they are too late, but then the winds change and begin to dispel the darkness.
Revived, the Rohirrim charge into the enemy on the Pelennor.
Théoden is mortally wounded when the Nazgul cause his horse to go mad and fall on him and placing him at the mercy of the Witch-King.
In the following Battle of the Pelennor Fields the Witch-king is slain by Dernhelm, revealed to be Éowyn the niece of King Théoden, with help from Merry.
The battle is also joined by a "black fleet with black sails".
The forces of Mordor initially rejoice at its arrival; and then are horrified to see the banner of the King upon the ships.
Aragorn has succeeded in using the Oathbreakers to defeat the Corsairs of Umbar; the men of Gondor who were once slaves on the ships are brought back to fight the host of Mordor.
Thus the siege is broken, but at heavy cost: many warriors of Gondor and Rohan fall, among them King Théoden.
While the battle is raging, Denethor attempts to immolate himself and Faramir on his funeral pyre, but Gandalf and Pippin succeed in saving Faramir, aided by Beregond, who has deserted his post and killed several of Denethor's servants in order to save Faramir.
When Gandalf advises Denethor to put aside his madness and go out into battle, Denethor reveals that he has used the palantír of Minas Tirith and declares the situation hopeless.
Denethor also reveals that he knows of Aragorn and his claim to the kingship but will not accept him.
He then burns himself with the palantír on the pyre.
Gandalf realizes that Denethor—in his desperation—had looked into the seeing-stone several times.
Unlike Saruman, Denethor was too noble of purpose and too great of will to submit to the will of Sauron, but the Dark Lord duped the Steward into despairing of the situation.
The resulting madness kept Gandalf from joining the battle and perhaps saving Théoden and keeping Éowyn and Merry from harm.
Faramir, though, is brought to the Houses of Healing where Gandalf awaits the wounded and Pippin and Beregond guard Faramir, the new Steward of Gondor.
In the Houses of Healing, Aragorn heals Faramir, using athelas or kingsfoil (the same weed he used to ease Frodo's pain at Weathertop and outside of Moria).
Aragorn also heals Merry and Éowyn, who were hurt by the Witch-king before he fell, and he then turns his attention to the numerous wounded, showing the true skill of a king is that of a healer and earning him the love and admiration of the people of Minas Tirith.
Legolas and Gimli are reunited with Merry and Pippin and tell of their great journey on the Paths of the Dead and how Aragorn could even command the spirits of the Dead.
They then tell the story of the capture of the Black Fleet and the rescue of Minas Tirith.
The kings and warriors then hold a final council with Gandalf, who has been chosen as the leader of the forces opposed to Sauron.
Knowing that it is only a matter of time before Sauron rebuilds his forces for another attack, Gandalf and Aragorn decide to draw out the hosts of Mordor with an assault on the Black Gate, providing a distraction so that Frodo and Sam may have a chance of reaching Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring, unseen by the Eye of Sauron.
They realize that it may be a suicide mission, but they also know it is the only hope for the Ringbearer.
Gandalf, Aragorn and the other Captains of the West lead an army to the Black Gate of Mordor and lay siege to Sauron's army.
The Mouth of Sauron, a messenger from the Black Gate, displays Frodo's mithril shirt, his elven-cloak and Sam's barrow-blade and then demands the surrender of the Captains and their obeisance to Sauron as conditions for Frodo's release.
Despite the shock of seeing the objects and the complete loss of hope, Gandalf perceives that the emissary is lying, seizes the items, and rejects the terms.
The battle begins and Pippin kills a Troll, which then falls onto him, and he loses consciousness just as the Great Eagles arrive.
Bearing the One Ring in Frodo's place, Sam resolves to rescue his master from torture and death by Orcs in the Tower of Cirith Ungol.
He enters the tower through the front gate and overcomes the silent sentinels using the Phial of Galadriel.
He discovers that the orcs have mostly killed each other over Frodo's mithril coat and then confronts the orc-captain Shagrat, who has just finished off his rival Gorbag.
Shagrat escapes with the mithril coat, the eleven cloak, and the Barrow-sword.
Sam goes up to the top chamber of the tower, kills a small orc hurting Frodo, and then discovers his master lying naked on the floor.
Sam reveals that he has saved the Ring, and Frodo becomes nearly insane demanding it back from him.
They are forced to disguise themselves in Orcish armour and manage to escape the tower and the Watchers just as the Nazgul flies in to take over command of the tower.
Frodo and Sam navigate the barren wasteland of Mordor.
Unable to cross directly to Mount Doom, they travel north, are nearly discovered by two orcs and tracking them, and realize that Gollum is still on their trail.
Just as they are about to reach the pass into the Morannon, they are overtaken by a company of Orcs.
They escape, but the burden of the Ring and the torrid conditions begin to break Frodo's will.
Gandalf's plan to distract Sauron from the Ring is successful: Mordor is almost empty as all the remaining Orcs have been summoned to defend the land against the assault of the army led by Gandalf and Aragorn.
After a weary and dangerous journey on the road to the Dark Tower itself, Frodo and Sam finally reach their final destination of Mount Doom.
As they climb up the Mountain, Gollum attacks them once more; but Frodo is easily able to throw off the starving and emaciated creature.
Sam spares Gollum's life in one last show of pity and kicks him down the Mountain.
As Frodo is preparing to throw the Ring into the Crack of Doom, he succumbs to the Ring's power and claims it as his own.
Just then, Gollum, who had been following Frodo and Sam still, attacks Frodo and bites off his finger and the Ring.
Gollum gloats over getting his precious back, but he ends up losing his balance and falls to death and takes the Ring with him.
The Ring is finally destroyed, freeing Middle-earth from Sauron's power.
Mount Doom erupts violently, trapping Frodo and Sam among the lava flows until the Great Eagles rescue them.
Upon Sauron's defeat, his armies at the Gate flee.
Sauron finally appears as a gigantic shadow trying to reach out for the armies of men, but is now powerless and is blown away by a wind.
The men under Sauron's command that surrender are forgiven and allowed to return to their lands in peace.
Frodo and Sam are saved from the lava, meet again with the other surviving members of the Fellowship, and then honoured on the Field of Cormallen in Ithilien.
In Minas Tirith, Faramir and Éowyn meet in the Houses of Healing and fall in love with each other, with Éowyn choosing to eschew any further hopes of glory with Argorn.
Aragorn comes to Minas Tirith and is crowned King of Gondor outside the walls of the city in a celebration during which Frodo brings Aragorn the ancient crown of Gondor, and Gandalf places the crown on Aragorn.
A healed Faramir is appointed Prince of Ithilien, and Beregond—who saved Faramir's life from the madness of Denethor—is named captain of Faramir's guard.
Gandalf and Aragorn go off high above the city and find a seedling of the White Tree, which Aragorn then plants in Minas Tirith in place of the dead tree.
Soon after, Arwen, daughter of Elrond of Rivendell, as well as Celeborn and Galadriel come to Minas Tirith, and Aragorn marries Arwen.
A series of goodbyes then takes place, with many riding to Rohan for the burial of Théoden and the wedding of Faramir and Éowyn.
They then return to Isengard and find that Treebeard has removed the stone circle, planted trees, and created a lake out of which Orthanc still stands.
He informs Gandalf that he let Saruman and Gríma go out of pity, but Gandalf says that Saruman might still be capable of doing some harm.
Aragorn says farewell at Isengard.
They then overtake Saruman and find that he has completely devolved into meanness and Wormtongue barely able to act human.
Elrond, Gandalf, and the hobbits return to Rivendell and find that Bilbo has aged tremendously now that the Ring has been destroyed.
Elrond advises Frodo that he should be ready to meet them on one last journey soon.
They then leave Rivendell and arrive at Bree and find that the little town is in a great state of fear.
The innkeeper Butterbur informs the travellers that evil men had come up the Greenway and started trouble, even killing some of the inhabitants, while others like Bill Ferny had joined in with the vagabonds.
Butterbur is put at ease and finally understands when they tell him that things will soon improve because Strider is the new king and will come north to stabilize the region.
They leave Bree and come to the borders of the Shire where Gandalf leaves them to go and visit Bombadil.
The Hobbits finally return home to the Shire, only to find that the Shire was in ruins, its inhabitants oppressed by Lotho Sackville-Baggins (usually called "The Chief" or "The Boss") who is in reality controlled by a shadowy figure called "Sharkey".
Sharkey has taken complete control of the Shire using corrupt Men and half-orcs, and had begun felling trees in a gratuitous programme of industrialization (which actually produces nothing except destruction and misery for the locals).
The worst area was around the villages of Bywater and Hobbiton, leading the hobbits to realize that Mordor had come home to them.
Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam make plans to set things right once more.
With the help of the Cotton family, they lead an uprising of Hobbits and are victorious at the Battle of Bywater which effectively frees the Shire.
At the very doorstep of Bag End, they meet Sharkey, who is revealed to be the fallen wizard Saruman, and his much-abused servant Gríma.
After Saruman reveals that Gríma has murdered (and probably cannibalized) Lotho, Gríma then jumps on his back and cuts his throat.
Gríma is himself slain by hobbit archers as he attempts to escape.
Saruman's soul is blown away into the east, and his body decays instantly into a skeleton.
Over time, the Shire is healed.
The many trees that Saruman's men cut down are replanted with Galadriel's gift of dust used to facilitate growth and a small nut that is planted to replace the party tree; buildings are rebuilt and peace is restored.
Sam marries Rosie Cotton, with whom he had been entranced for some time.
Merry and Pippin become the Master of Buckland and the Thain of Tuckborough respectively and become renowned as heroes throughout the Shire along with Sam, who will eventually become the Mayor.
Frodo, however, recedes from the picture and also cannot escape the pain of his wounds, having been stabbed by the Witch-king and poisoned by Shelob in addition to losing a finger.
Furthermore, his long burden of carrying the Ring has left him with post-traumatic stress.
Frodo departs for the Undying Lands in the West with Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, and many Elves, including Elrond, and Galadriel.
Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel all carry with them the Three Eleven Rings out of Middle-Earth.
With their departure, the Third Age ended.
Sam, Merry, and Pippin watch Gandalf, Bilbo, Frodo, and the Elves depart and return home.
Now heir to all of Frodo's possessions, Sam returns to Bag End, saddened by Frodo's departure.
When Sam returns home at the end of the book, though, he is greeted by Rosie and his daughter, Elanor.
<EOS>
The book begins less than seven hours after the end of after The Man in Black has described The Gunslinger's fate using tarot cards.
Roland wakes up on a beach, where he is suddenly attacked by a strange, lobster-like creature, which he dubs a "lobstrosity".
He kills the creature but not before losing the index and middle finger of his right hand, and most of his right big toe; his untreated wounds soon become infected.
Feverish and losing strength, Roland continues to trek north along the beach, where he eventually encounters three doors.
Each door opens onto New York City at different periods in time (1987, 1964 and 1977, respectively) and, as Roland passes through these doors, he brings back the companions who will join him on his quest to the Dark Tower.
The first door (labeled "The Prisoner") brings Eddie Dean, a young heroin addict who is in the process of smuggling cocaine into New York for the drug lord Enrico Balazar.
Roland brings Eddie back through the door so he can hide the cocaine and get through a customs inspection, but the agents become suspicious and subject him to a lengthy interrogation and surveillance.
Balazar learns of these events and kidnaps Eddie's heavily addicted, older brother Henry in order to force Eddie to deliver the drugs.
At Balazar's bar, Eddie claims he can produce the drugs from the bathroom.
Eddie is strip-searched and the bathroom torn apart, but while no drugs are found, Eddie is eventually allowed to enter the bathroom completely naked and accompanied by one of Balazar's henchmen to attempt to produce the drugs.
In the bathroom, Eddie forcably drags the henchmen into the Gunslinger's world.
During the brief scuffle, the henchmen is injured by Roland and then eaten alive by the lobstrosities.
Eddie and Roland, re-enter the bathroom and overhearing that Henry has died from an accidental heroin overdose given by Balazar's men, engage in a lengthy but victorious shoot-out.
While still mourning the death of his brother, Eddie decides to throw his lot in with Roland.
Before the pair return through the door, they acquire some antibiotics Balazar kept in his bathroom for junkies with infected arms.
With Eddie tending to him, Roland slowly recovers from his infection.
The second door (labeled "The Lady of Shadows") reveals Odetta Holmes, a black woman with dissociative identity disorder (that Eddie incorrectly labels as schizophrenia) who is active in the civil rights movement.
She is wealthy and missing her legs below the knees after being pushed in front of a subway train.
Odetta is completely unaware that she has an alternate personality; a violent, predatory woman named Detta Walker.
Roland and Eddie are forced to contend with both of these personalities when Roland forcibly abducts Odetta's body into their world, with Detta suppressing Odetta during most of their travels.
Eventually Odetta returns and she and Eddie venture alone towards the final door after Roland's infection returns even stronger than before.
The pair eventually find the third door (labeled "The Pusher") where Eddie leaves Odetta, armed with one of Roland's revolvers, and hurries back with her wheelchair to retrieve Roland.
When they return, Odetta is gone, and Detta hides waiting to strike.
After Roland enters the third door, Detta captures Eddie and uses him as bait for the lobstrosities, hoping to force Roland to come back and return her to her own world.
Instead of revealing a new companion, the third door leads Roland to Jack Mort, a sociopath who takes sadistic pleasure in injuring and killing random strangers &mdash; and the man responsible for the head trauma that created Odetta Holmes's alternate personality, the loss of Odetta/Detta's legs, and the death of Jake Chambers.
Roland arrives in Jack's body just as he is about to push Jake into traffic (the event that leads to Jake's appearance in ), and stops him from doing so.
Under Roland's control, Jack acquires medicine and ammunition that Roland needs to survive, then jumps in front of the same subway that hit Odetta/Detta years earlier.
Roland returns to his world just before impact, having made sure that Odetta/Detta sees Jack's death in order to force the two personalities to confront each other.
As they attempt to cancel each other out, they merge into a third, stronger personality, Susannah Dean, and she stops the lobstrosities from trying to eat Eddie.
As the group travels away from the beach, Eddie - having broken his drug addiction after a painful withdrawal - begins to fall in love with Susannah.
Both owe their lives to Roland, but he is acutely aware that he may eventually need to sacrifice them to reach the Tower.
<EOS>
As Roland travels across the desert in search of the man in black whom he knows as Walter, he encounters a farmer named Brown, and Zoltan, his black crow.
Roland spends the night there, and recalls his time spent in Tull, a small town which Roland passed through not long before the start of the novel.
The man in black had also stayed in the town; he brought a dead man back to life and left a trap for Roland.
Roland meets the leader of the local church who reveals to him that the man in black has impregnated her with a demon.
She turns the entire town against Roland; men, women, and children.
Roland is forced to kill every resident of the town.
When he awakens the next day, his mule is dead, forcing him to proceed on foot.
Roland arrives at an abandoned way station and first encounters Jake Chambers, a young boy.
Roland collapses from dehydration and Jake brings him water.
Jake does not know how long he has been at the way station, nor exactly how he got there and hid when the Walter passed through.
Roland hypnotizes Jake to determine the details of his death and discovers that he died in his a different universe (which appears much closer to our own) when he is pushed in front of a car, whilst walking to school in Manhattan.
Before they leave, Roland and Jake search for food in a cellar and encounter a demon.
Roland masters it and takes a jawbone from the hole from where it spoke to him.
Roland and Jake eventually make their way out of the desert.
Roland rescues Jake from an encounter with a succubus and tells him to hold on to the jawbone as a protective charm.
Roland couples with the succubus, who is also an oracle, to learn more about his fate and the path to the Dark Tower.
In a flashback, we learn that Roland was the son of Steven Deschain, a Gunslinger and lord of Gilead; and of the brutal training Roland received at the hand of his teacher Cort.
Roland reveals how he was tricked into demanding to prematurely declare his manhood by duelling with Cort at the age 14, earlier than any other apprentice.
He was provoked by Marten who served as Steven's wizard, who cuckolded Roland's father by sleeping with Roland's mother, Gabrielle Deschain.
It is established that this was a time of instability and revolution.
Roland succeeded in defeating Cort in battle through weapon selection - sacrificing his hawk, David, to distract Cort.
Jake and Roland see the man in black at the mountain and he tells them he will meet just one of them on the other side which aggravates Jake's fears that Roland will either kill him or abandon him.
They make their way into the twisting tunnels within the mountain, travelling on an old railway handcar.
They are attacked by "Slow Mutants", monstrous subterranean creatures.
At the tunnels exist, as the track on which they are travelling begins to break Roland decides to let Jake fall into an abyss, and continue his quest.
After sacrificing Jake in the mountain, Roland makes his way down to speak to Walter.
He reads Roland's fate from a pack of cards, including "the sailor", "the prisoner", "the lady of shadows", "death", and the Tower itself.
Walter states that he is a pawn of Roland's true enemy, the one who now controls the Dark Tower itself.
The man in black also reveals he was also Marten.
He then sends Roland a vision of the universe (zooming out past a red planet covered in canals, a ring of rocks, a large stormy planet, a ringed planet and then to galaxies etc), attempting to frighten Roland by showing him how truly insignificant he is, and asks him to renounce his quest.
Roland refuses, and the man in black tells him to go west, before sending him to sleep.
When Roland awakens ten years have passed, and there is a skeleton next to him — what he assumes to be the Walter.
Roland takes the jawbone from the skeleton before travelling to the shore of the Western Sea.
<EOS>
Andy Dufresne, a banker from Maine, is tried and convicted for the double murder of his wife and her lover.
He is sent to Shawshank State Penitentiary to serve a double life sentence.
There, he meets Red, a prisoner who smuggles items from the outside world.
Andy, who had been an amateur geologist before being jailed, asks Red to get him a rock hammer for shaping rocks he collects from the exercise yard into small sculptures.
One of the next items he orders from Red is a large poster of Rita Hayworth.
Over the ensuing years, Andy regularly requests more posters from Red, including pin-ups of Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch.
When asked, Andy tells Red that he likes to imagine he can step through the pictures and be with the actresses.
One day, Andy and other prisoners are tarring a roof when Andy overhears a guard complaining about the amount of tax he will have to pay on a sum of money bequeathed to him.
Andy approaches the guard, and tells him a way that he can legally shelter the money from taxation.
Later, a gang of prison rapists called "The Sisters", led by Bogs Diamond, assault Andy.
However, when Andy makes himself useful to the guards, they protect him from "The Sisters".
One night, Bogs is found in his cell unconscious and severely beaten.
Andy is also allowed to stay alone in his cell instead of having a cellmate, like most other prisoners.
Andy's work assignment is later shifted from the laundry to the prison's library.
The new assignment also allows Andy to spend more time doing financial paperwork for the staff.
Andy applies to the Maine State Senate for funding to expand the library.
For years, he gets no response to his weekly letters until the Senate finally sends him $200, thinking Andy will stop requesting funds.
Instead of ceasing his letter writing, he starts writing twice as often.
His diligent work results in a major expansion of the library's collection, and he also helps a number of prisoners earn equivalency diplomas.
The corrupt warden of Shawshank, Norton, realizes that a man of Andy's skills is useful.
He has started a program called "Inside-Out" where convicts do work outside the prison for slave wages.
Normal companies outside cannot compete with the cost of Inside-Out workers, so they offer Norton bribes not to bid for contracts.
Andy helps Norton launder the money.
One day, Andy hears from another prisoner, Tommy Williams, whose former cellmate had bragged about killing a rich golfer and a lawyer's wife (Andy latches onto the idea that the word "lawyer" could easily have been mixed up with "banker", the professions being similarly viewed by the uneducated public), and framing the lawyer for the crime.
Upon hearing Tommy's story, Andy realizes that this evidence could possibly result in a new trial and a chance at freedom.
Norton scoffs at the story, however, and as soon as possible, he makes sure Tommy is moved to another prison.
Andy is too useful to Norton, and he knows details about Norton's shady dealings.
Andy eventually resigns himself to the fact that his legal vindication has become nonexistent.
Before he was sentenced to life, Andy managed to sell off his assets and invest the proceeds under a pseudonym.
This alias, Peter Stevens, has a driver's license, Social Security card, and other credentials.
The documents required to claim Stevens' assets and assume his identity are in a safe deposit box in a Portland bank; the key to the box is hidden under a rock along a wall lining a hay field in the small town of Buxton, not far from Shawshank.
After 18 years in prison, Andy shares the information with Red, describing exactly how to find the place and how one day "Peter Stevens" will own a small seaside resort hotel in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.
Red, confused about why Andy has confided this information in him, reflects on Andy's continued ability to surprise.
One morning, after he has been incarcerated for nearly 27 years, Andy disappears from his locked cell.
After searching the prison grounds and surrounding area without finding any sign of him, the warden looks in Andy's cell and discovers that the current poster pasted to his wall (Linda Ronstadt) covers a man-sized hole.
Andy had used his rock hammer not just to shape rocks, but also to slowly chip away at the wall.
Once through the wall, he broke into a sewage pipe, crawled through it, emerged into a field beyond the prison's outer perimeter, and vanished.
His prison uniform is found two miles away from the outfall.
A few weeks later, Red gets a blank postcard from a small Texas town near the Mexican border, and surmises that Andy crossed the border there.
Shortly afterwards, Red is paroled.
After nearly 40 years' imprisonment, he finds the transition to life "outside" a difficult process.
On the weekends, he hitchhikes to Buxton, searching for suitable hay fields from Andy's "directions".
After several months of wandering the rural town roads, he finds a field with a rock wall on the correct side, with a black rock in it.
Under this rock, he finds a letter addressed to him from "Peter Stevens" inviting him to join Peter in Mexico.
With the letter is $1,000 in cash.
The story ends with Red violating his parole to follow Andy to Mexico.
<EOS>
Vern Tessio informs his three friends that he has overheard his older brother Billy talking with his friend Charlie Hogan, about the location of the corpse of Ray Brower, a boy from Chamberlain, a town 40 miles or so east of Castle Rock, who has gone missing while going out to pick blueberries.
The four friends decide to find it so as to be famous.
Gordie explains how he and each of his friends come from either abusive or dysfunctional homes: The boys walk along the railroad tracks toward the presumed location of the corpse.
Along the way, they trespass at the town dump and are chased by Chopper, the dump custodian Milo Pressman's dog.
Milo insults Teddy's father, which causes Teddy to unleash his anger on Milo.
Gordie and Vern are nearly run over by a train while crossing a trestle.
While at a resting point, Chris predicts that Gordie will grow up to become a famous writer – perhaps he will even write about his friends one day.
When the boys finally find the body, a gang of bullies arrives just after they do.
The gang is composed of Vern's older brother Billy, Charlie Hogan, Chris's older brother Richard "Eyeball" Chambers, Norman "Fuzzy" Bracowicz, John "Ace" Merrill, Vince Desjardins, and Jack Mudgett.
The older boys are upset to see the four friends, and during an argument, Chris pulls a gun belonging to his father from his bag and fires into the air.
Chris then threatens Ace; the leader of the gang.
After a brief standoff Ace realizes that Chris is serious, and the teenagers leave.
Having seen the body, the boys realize that there is nothing else to be done with it and return home without further incident.
The older boys ultimately decide to phone in the location of the body as an "anonymous tip", and it is eventually found by the authorities as a result.
Some days after the confrontation, Ace and Fuzzy break Gordie's nose and fingers, and kick him in the testicles, and are on the verge of harming him more seriously when they are run off by Gordie's neighbor, Aunt Evvie Chalmers.
"Eyeball" Chambers breaks his brother's arm and "leaves his face looking like a Canadian sunrise".
Teddy and Vern get less severe beatings.
The boys refuse to identify their assailants to the authorities, and there are no further repercussions.
The narration then goes into fast-forward.
Gordie describes the next year or so briefly, stating that Teddy and Vern drift off, befriending some younger boys.
In high school, just as Chris predicted, Gordie begins taking college-preparation courses.
Unexpectedly, so does Chris.
In spite of abuse from his father, taunts from his classmates, and distrust from teachers and school counselors, he manages to be successful with help from Gordie.
The final two chapters describe the fates of Gordie's three friends, none of whom survive past young adulthood: Gordie, the only survivor, continues to write stories through college, and publishes a number of them in small literary journals and men's magazines.
His first novel becomes a best-seller and a successful film.
Since writing about the events in 1960, he has written seven novels about the supernatural.
Gordie has a wife and three children, and is revealed to be a veteran of the Vietnam War and the counter-culture of the 1960s, occasionally referred to in the flash-forward narratives during the main story.
The story ends with Gordie visiting Castle Rock and seeing Ace, realizing that he managed to escape the town and is finally able to make peace with the painful memories of his childhood.
<EOS>
In Southern California in 1984, 16-year-old high school student Todd Bowden (Renfro) discovers that his elderly neighbor, Arthur Denker (McKellen), is in reality Kurt Dussander&nbsp;— a former Sturmbannführer in the SS who is now a fugitive war criminal hiding from justice.
Todd blackmails Dussander by threatening to turn him in to the police.
However, the teenager is fascinated with Nazi atrocities perpetrated during World War II, and forces Dussander to share disturbing stories of what it was like working at Nazi extermination camps, and how it felt to participate in genocide.
Todd purchases an SS uniform from a costume shop, and forces Dussander to wear it.
When he spends more time with the old man, his grades suffer, he loses interest in his girlfriend, and he conceals his bad grades from his parents.
In turn, the Nazi blackmails the young boy into studying to restore his grades, threatening to expose the boy's subterfuge and his dalliance with Nazism to his parents.
Dussander even poses as Todd's grandfather and goes to an appointment with Todd's school counselor Edward French (David Schwimmer).
Talking about the war crimes affects both the old man and the young boy, and an intoxicated Dussander attempts to kill a cat in his gas oven but fails when it attacks him and escapes.
Dussander also takes great pride in Todd's unbelievable turnaround, going from near dropout to straight A's in a matter of weeks.
One night, Dussander tries to kill a hobo who earlier had seen him in the uniform.
When Dussander has a heart attack, he calls Todd, who finishes the job, cleans up, and calls an ambulance for Dussander.
At the hospital, Dussander is recognized by a death camp survivor sharing his room and he is arrested, prior to being extradited to Israel.
Todd graduates as his school's valedictorian and gives a speech about Icarus, saying, "All great achievements arose from dissatisfaction.
It is the desire to do better, to dig deeper, that propels civilization to greatness".
The scene is juxtaposed in a montage with Dussander's home being searched and the hobo's corpse being found in the basement.
Todd is briefly questioned about his relationship with Dussander, but he manages to convince the police that he knew nothing of the old man's true identity.
At the hospital, Dussander hears a group of Neo-Nazis demonstrating outside the hospital; realizing his identity has been hopelessly compromised, he commits suicide by giving himself an air embolism.
When French learns that the man who met Todd at school was not Todd's grandfather but a war criminal, he confronts Todd, who then blackmails him into silence by threatening to accuse him of making inappropriate sexual advances towards him, and to thereby expose him publicly as a homosexual and pederast.
<EOS>
The story begins five weeks after the end of.
Roland, Susannah, and Eddie have moved east from the shore of the Western Sea, and into the woods of Out-World.
After an encounter with a gigantic cyborg bear named Shardik, they discover one of the six mystical Beams that hold the world together.
The three gunslingers follow the Path of the Beam inland to Mid-World.
Roland now reveals to his ka-tet that his mind has become divided and is slowing losing his sanity.
Roland remembers meeting Jake Chambers in the way station and letting him fall to his death in the mountains (as depicted in ).
However, he also remembers passing through the desert alone and never meeting Jake.
It's soon discovered that when Roland saved Jake from being killed by Jack Mort in 1977 (in The Drawing of the Three), he inadvertently created a paradox; Jake did not die and thus did not appear in Mid-World and travel with Roland.
In 1977 New York, Jake Chambers is experiencing exactly the same crippling mental divide, which is causing alarm at his private school, and angering Jake's cocaine-abusing father.
Roland burns Walter's jawbone and the key to his and Jake's dilemma is revealed—but to Eddie Dean, not Roland.
Eddie must carve a key that will open the door to New York in 1977.
Jake abruptly leaves school and finds a key in a littered vacant lot where grows a single red rose.
Jake is able to pass into Roland's world using the key to open a door in an abandoned haunted house on Dutch Hill in his place and time.
This portal ends in a 'speaking ring' in Roland's world.
During this crossing over, Susannah has sex with the demon of the speaking ring to keep it from attacking Eddie.
Once the group is reunited, Jake's and Roland's mental anguish ends.
Roland has now completed the task of bringing companions into his world, which he started in The Drawing of the Three.
Following the path of the Beam again, the ka-tet befriends an unusually intelligent billy-bumbler (which looks like a combination of badger, raccoon and dog with parrot-like speaking ability, long neck, curly tail, retractable claws and a high degree of animal intelligence) named Oy, who joins them on their quest.
In a small, almost deserted town called River Crossing, Roland is given a silver cross and a courtly tribute by the town's last, ancient citizens.
The ka-tet continues on the Path of the Beam to Lud.
Before arriving at Lud, the ka-tet hear the drum beat from the song "Velcro Fly" by ZZ Top playing from the city, although Eddie at first can't remember where it is he has heard these drums before.
Later the drums are revealed as "War Drums" which Lud's citizens fight to.
The ancient, high-tech city has been ravaged by decades of war, and one of the surviving fighters, Gasher, kidnaps Jake by taking advantage of the near-accident the team faced while crossing a decaying bridge that looks like the George Washington Bridge of NYC.
Roland and Oy must then trace them through a man-made labyrinth in the city and then into the sewers in order to rescue the boy from Gasher and his leader, the Tick-Tock Man.
Jake manages to shoot the Tick-Tock Man, leaving him for dead.
The ka-tet is eventually reunited at the Cradle of Lud, a train station which houses a monorail that the travelers use to escape Lud before its final destruction brought about by the monorail's artificial intelligence known as Blaine the Mono.
The "Ageless Stranger" (an enemy whom the Man in Black warned Roland that he must slay) arrives to recruit the badly-injured Tick-Tock Man as his servant.
Once aboard Blaine, a highly intelligent, computerized train which is insane due to system degradation, it announces its intention to derail itself with them aboard unless they can defeat it in a riddle contest.
The novel ends with Blaine and Roland's ka-tet speeding through the Waste Lands, a radioactive land of mutated animals and ancient ruins created by something that is claimed to have been far worse than a nuclear war, on the way to Topeka, the end of the line.
<EOS>
The Eyes of the Dragon takes place entirely within the realm of Delain (which itself is located within In-World from The Dark Tower series, as established in "The Little Sisters of Eluria").
It is told from the perspective of an unnamed storyteller/narrator, who speaks casually and frankly to the reader, frequently adding his own commentary on characters' motivations and the like.
King Roland's magician, Flagg, seeking to destroy the Kingdom of Delain, sees his plans being ruined by the good heart of Queen Sasha.
After Sasha gives birth to Peter, a noble and worthy future king, Flagg realizes that his position, his plans, and his life may be in danger because of Peter.
When Sasha is pregnant with a second son, Flagg seizes the opportunity.
He forces the Queen's midwife to cut Sasha as the second son, Thomas, is born.
Sasha bleeds to death and Flagg begins plotting to remove Peter.
As Peter becomes a teenager, he begins the custom of bringing a glass of wine to his father before bed each night.
Flagg decides to use this as a means of framing Peter.
He dissolves a poison called "Dragon Sand" in a glass of wine and delivers it to the king after Peter leaves.
Previously, in an attempt to win Thomas' friendship, Flagg had shown him a secret passage where Thomas could spy on his father.
Unbeknownst to Flagg, when he delivers the poison, Thomas is watching through the glass eyes of the mounted head of Roland's greatest trophy, the dragon.
Flagg plants evidence incriminating Peter.
After a brief trial, during which the judge decides Peter is guilty, he is locked up in the enormous tower called the Needle in the center of the city.
Thomas is then crowned King, although he is only twelve years old; due to his youth and his fearful inexperience, he allows Flagg enormous amounts of power.
At the start of his long stay in the Needle, Peter manages to send a note to the judge who convicted him, Anders Peyna, with the seemingly innocuous requests to have his mother's old dollhouse and napkins with his meals.
Peyna is puzzled by the requests, but, seeing no harm in them, grants them.
Five years later, Peter escapes from the Needle, having used the toy loom in the dollhouse and threads from the napkins to make a rope.
After the escape he and his allies rush to get Roland's bow and arrow.
However, it is not to be found because Thomas had it once they got into the king's "sitting room".
Flagg, now revealed as a demonic being, is about to kill them when Thomas reveals himself and tells Flagg that he (Thomas) watched Flagg poison Roland.
Thomas shoots Flagg in the eye, but Flagg uses magic to disappear and escape.
At the end of the novel, Peter is declared to be the rightful king.
Thomas, who has become deeply hated in Delain, sets off alongside his butler, Dennis, to find Flagg.
They find him and confront him, but the narrator does not reveal the outcome.
<EOS>
The story begins as a Raymond Chandler pastiche, and follows a private investigator named Clyde Umney as he goes about what he thinks is just another morning in 1930s Los Angeles.
He soon discovers that his life as he knows it is falling apart.
All of his lifelong friends and associates are abruptly departing in one fashion or other, for reasons ranging from winning the lottery to terminal cancer, and many of them express disdain towards Umney in place of farewells.
He is brooding alone in his office when he receives his final client: Landry, the crime-fiction author who created him.
Having suffered the loss of his wife and child as well as a severe case of shingles, Landry took an overdose of medication and found himself in the world of his creation.
He demonstrates that his will is law in this world, and explains to a helpless Umney that he intends to take Umney's place to live a life of eternal adventure and excitement.
Umney is cast into oblivion—or so it seems.
Instead, Umney finds himself in the year 1994, occupying the vacated body of his creator.
Although he realizes his previous existence was a sham, he also despises the ugly, bland, and generally inadequate nature of the "real" world.
He announces that he has begun to practice the craft of writing so that he might return to his fictional home in order to take back his world and his life, and end Landry's.
<EOS>
Alan Parker is a student at the University of Maine who is trying to find himself.
He gets a call from a neighbor in his hometown, Lewiston, Maine, telling him that his mother has been taken to the hospital after having a stroke.
Lacking a functioning car, Parker decides to hitchhike the 120 miles (200 km) south to visit his mother.
His first ride is with an old man who continually tugs at his crotch in a car that stinks of urine.
Eventually frightened and glad to escape the vehicle, Alan starts walking, thumbing his next ride.
Coming upon a graveyard, he begins to explore it and notices a headstone for a stranger named George Staub (in German, Staub means dust), which reads: "Well Begun, Too Soon Done".
Sure enough, the next car to pick him up is George Staub, complete with black stitches around his neck where his head had been sewn on after being severed and wearing a button saying, "I rode The Bullet at Thrill Village, Laconia".
During the ride, George talks to Alan about the amusement park ride he was too scared to ride as a kid: The Bullet in Thrill Village, Laconia, New Hampshire.
George tells Alan that before they reach the lights of town, Alan must choose who goes on the death ride with George: Alan or his mother.
In a moment of fright, Alan saves himself and tells him: "Take her.
Take my Mother".
George shoves Alan out of the car.
Alan reappears alone at the graveyard, wearing the "I Rode the Bullet at Thrill Village" button.
He eventually reaches the hospital, where he learns: despite his guilt and the impending feeling that his mother is dead or will die any moment, she is fine.
Alan takes the button and treasures it as a good (or bad) luck charm.
His mother returns to work and to smoking.
Alan graduates and takes care of his mother for several years, and she suffers another stroke.
One day Alan, loses the button and receives a phone call; he knows what the call is about.
He finds the button underneath his mother's bed, and after a final moment of sadness, guilt, and meditation, decides to carry on.
<EOS>
While being interrogated, Dolores Claiborne wants to make clear to the police that she did not kill her wealthy employer, an elderly woman named Vera Donovan whom she has looked after for years.
She does, however, confess to orchestrating the death of her husband, Joe st George, almost 30 years before, after finding out that he sexually molested their fourteen-year-old daughter, Selena.
Dolores's "confession" develops into the story of her life, her troubled marriage, and her relationship with her employer.
<EOS>
The story begins with Jessie Burlingame and her husband Gerald in the bedroom of their secluded cabin in western Maine, where they have gone for an off-beat romantic day off.
Gerald, a successful lawyer with an aggressive personality, has been able to reinvigorate the couple's sex life by handcuffing Jessie to the bed.
Jessie has been into the game before, but suddenly balks.
As Gerald starts to crawl on top of her, knowing her protests are real but ignoring them anyway, she kicks him in the stomach and in the groin.
He falls from the bed to the floor, cracks his head, has a heart attack, and quickly dies.
Jessie is alone in the cabin, unable to move off the bed, or summon help.
The only things that show up are a hungry stray dog named Prince that starts feeding on Gerald's body and a terrifying, deformed apparition that may or may not be real, whom Jessie first mistakes for the ghost of her long-dead father but dismisses it later.
Jessie begins to think of this bizarre visitor as "The Space Cowboy" (after a line from a Steve Miller song, "The Joker").
A combination of panic and thirst eventually causes Jessie to hallucinate.
She hears voices in her head, each one ostensibly the voice of a person in her life, primarily "The Goodwife" or "Goody Burlingame" (a somewhat Puritanical version of Jessie), Ruth Neary (an old college friend), and Nora Callighan (her ex-psychiatrist), both of whom Jessie hasn't spoken to in years.
These voices represent different parts of her personality which help her extract a painful childhood memory she has kept suppressed for many years.
She was sexually abused by her father at age ten during a solar eclipse that occurred in her Maine hometown.
She also begins to realize how unhappy her marriage had been, and that she sacrificed a potentially happy life for the security of Gerald's paycheck by being a trophy wife without children.
This internal dialogue is mixed with descriptions of Jessie's more and more desperate attempts to get out of the handcuffs, first by trying to break the headboard she was cuffed to then by trying to slip off the bed and pushing the bed to the bureau where the keys were placed.
Finally, she does escape after one of the voices in her head tells her that if she stays another night, The Space Cowboy, who she dreamed of as a manifestation of Death, will more than likely take a part of her to add to its trophy "fishing creel" filled with jewelry and human bones, killing her in the process.
Jessie escapes the handcuffs by slicing her wrist open all the way around on a broken glass and giving herself a degloving injury in order to lubricate her skin enough for the cuffs, which were made for men and not women and thus almost loose enough for her to slip out normally, to slide off her right hand.
She is then able to move behind the bed, push it over to the bureau and use one of the keys to unlock her left handcuff.
However, she has lost a lot of blood and passes out shortly after.
When she awakens, it is now nighttime, and the Space Cowboy has made his way back into the house.
Jessie confronts him and throws her wedding ring at his box of jewelry and bones, thinking that is what he wanted all along, then turns and runs out of the house.
She is able to make it into her car and finally escape the house, but is terrified to discover the Space Cowboy sitting in the backseat of the car.
Jessie crashes out of fear and is knocked unconscious, and it is later revealed that she only imagined the Space Cowboy in the backseat.
The story cuts to months later with Jessie recuperating from the incident and being looked after by a nurse.
An ambitious associate attorney at Gerald's law firm assists her in covering up the real incident to protect her and the law firm from scandal, as well as assisting her in her recuperation.
At the end, we get to read the letter that Jessie writes to Ruth Neary, detailing what happened after the incident and her recuperation process, which is slow but very meaningful.
One of the passages in the letter revolves around a serial necrophile and murderer named Raymond Andrew Joubert making his way through Maine; it turns out he was the Space Cowboy, confirmed when Jessie confronted him in a court hearing and Joubert mimicked Jessie's arm positions while she was in the handcuffs.
He also repeated her frightened exclamations that Joubert was "not anyone," and that he was only "made of moonlight".
Jessie also mentions what became of Prince who gnawed on Gerald.
Prince was shot and killed by the police.
Initially, his owner had abandoned him in Maine and driven back to Massachusetts, simply because he didn't want to pay for the dog's license.
<EOS>
The story is set in motion by a family hiking trip, during which Trisha's brother, Pete, and mother constantly squabble about the mother's divorce from their father, as well as other topics.
Trisha falls back to avoid listening and is therefore unable to find her family again after she wanders off the trail to take a bathroom break.
Trying to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she slips and falls down a steep embankment and ends up hopelessly lost, heading deeper into the heart of the forest.
She is left with a bottle of water, two Twinkies, a boiled egg, a tuna sandwich, a bottle of Surge, a poncho, a Game Boy, and a Walkman.
Now and then she listens to her Walkman to keep her mood up, either to learn of news of the search for her, or to listen to the baseball game featuring her favorite player, and "heartthrob," Tom Gordon.
As she starts to take steps to survive by conserving what little food she has with her and consuming edible flora, her mother and brother return to their car without her and call the police and start a search.
The rescuers search in the area around the path, but not as far away as Trisha has gone.
The girl decides to follow a creek because of what she read in Little House on the Prairie (though it soon turns into a swamp-like river), rationalizing that all bodies of water lead eventually to civilization.
As the cops stop searching for the night, she huddles up underneath a tree to rest.
Eventually, a combination of fear, hunger, and thirst causes Trisha to hallucinate.
She imagines several people from her life, as well as her hero, Tom Gordon, appearing to her.
It is left unclear whether increasingly obvious signs of supernatural events in the woods are also hallucinations.
Hours and soon days begin to pass, with Trisha wandering further into the woods.
Eventually she begins to believe that she is headed for a confrontation with the God of the Lost, a wasp-faced, evil entity who is hunting her down.
Her trial becomes a test of a 9-year-old girl's ability to maintain sanity in the face of seemingly certain death.
Racked with pneumonia and near death, she comes upon a road, but just as she discovers signs of civilization, she is confronted by a bear, which she interprets as the God of the Lost in disguise.
Facing down her fear, she realizes it is the bottom of the ninth, and she must close the game.
In imitation of Tom Gordon, she takes a pitcher's stance and throws her Walkman like a baseball, hitting the bear in the face, and startling it enough to make it back away.
A hunter who has come upon the confrontation between girl and beast frightens the beast away and takes Trisha to safety, but Trisha knows that she earned her rescue.
Trisha wakes up in a hospital room.
She finds her divorced parents and older brother waiting near her bedside.
A nurse tells the girl's family that they must leave so that Trisha can rest because "her numbers are up and we don't want that".
Her father is the last to leave.
Before he does Trisha asks him to hand her a Red Sox hat (autographed by Tom Gordon) and she points towards the sky, just as Tom Gordon does when he closes a game.
<EOS>
David, the narrator of the frame tale, is a middle-aged Manhattan lawyer.
At the invitation of a senior partner, he joins a strange men's club where the members, in addition to reading, chatting and playing pool and chess, like to tell stories, some of which range into the bizarre and macabre.
The club and its butler are also featured in King's short story "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands".
One Thursday before Christmas, the elderly physician dr Emlyn McCarron tells a story about an episode that took place early in his long and varied career: that of a patient, Sandra Stansfield, who was determined to give birth to her illegitimate child, no matter what, despite financial problems and social disapproval.
McCarron comes to admire her bravery and humor, and the implication is that he has even fallen a bit in love with her.
Sandra masters dr McCarron's novel (for the 1930s) breathing method intended to help her through childbirth.
However, when she goes into labor and is on the way to the hospital on an icy winter night, her taxi crashes and she is decapitated.
McCarron arrives at the crash site and realizes that Sandra is somehow still alive.
Her lungs in her decapitated body are still pumping air, as her head, some feet away, is working to sustain the breathing method so that the baby can be born.
McCarron manages to deliver the infant alive and well.
On a sweet but haunting end note, Sandra whispers "Thank you"—her severed head mouthing the words, which are distortedly heard from the throat jutting from her headless body.
McCarron is able to tell her that her baby is a boy and to see that she has registered this before she dies.
McCarron and his office nurse pay for the woman's burial, for she has no one else.
The child is adopted, but despite the confidential nature of adoption records, McCarron is able to keep track of him over the years.
When the man is "not yet 45", and an accomplished college professor, McCarron arranges to meet him socially.
"He had his mother's determination, gentlemen," he tells the club members, "and his mother's hazel eyes".
<EOS>
A first-person narrative told by Paul Edgecombe, the novel switches between Paul as an old man in the Georgia Pines nursing home sharing his story with fellow resident Elaine Connelly in 1996, and his time in 1932 as the block supervisor of the Cold Mountain Penitentiary death row, nicknamed "The Green Mile" for the color of the floor's linoleum.
This year marks the arrival of John Coffey, a 6&nbsp;ft 8 in powerfully built black man who has been convicted of raping and murdering two small white girls.
During his time on the Mile, John interacts with fellow prisoners Eduard "Del" Delacroix, a Cajun arsonist, rapist, and murderer, and William Wharton ("Billy the Kid" to himself, "Wild Bill" to the guards), a wild-acting and dangerous multiple murderer who is determined to make as much trouble as he can before he is executed.
Other inhabitants include Arlen Bitterbuck, a Native American convicted of killing a man in a fight over a pair of boots (also the first character to die in the electric chair); Arthur Flanders, a real estate executive who killed his father to perpetrate insurance fraud, and whose sentence is eventually commuted to life imprisonment (while serving his sentence, he is killed by another inmate in the laundry room); and mr Jingles, a mouse, to whom Del teaches various tricks.
Paul and the other guards are antagonized throughout the book by Percy Wetmore, a sadistic guard who enjoys antagonizing the prisoners.
The other guards have to be civil to him despite their dislike of him because he is the nephew of the Governor's wife.
When Percy is offered a position at the nearby Briar Ridge psychiatric hospital as a secretary, Paul thinks they are finally rid of him.
However, Percy refuses to leave until he is allowed to supervise an execution, so Paul hesitantly allows him to run Del's.
Percy deliberately avoids soaking a sponge in brine that is supposed to be tucked inside the electrode cap to ensure a quick death in the electric chair.
When the switch is thrown, the current causes Del to catch fire in the chair and suffer a prolonged, agonizing demise.
Over time, Paul realizes that John possesses inexplicable healing abilities, which he uses to cure Paul's urinary tract infection and revive mr Jingles after Percy stomps on him.
Simple-minded and shy, John is very empathic and sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others around him.
One night, the guards drug Wharton, then put a straitjacket on Percy and lock him in the padded restraint room so that they can smuggle John out of the prison and take him to the home of Warden Hal Moores.
Hal's wife Melinda has an inoperable brain tumor, which John cures.
When they return to the Mile, John passes the "disease" from Melinda into Percy, causing him to go mad and shoot Wharton to death before falling into a catatonic state from which he never recovers.
Percy is committed to Briar Ridge.
Paul's long-simmering suspicions that John is innocent are proven right when he discovers that it was actually William Wharton who raped and killed the twin sisters and that John was trying to revive them.
Later John tells Paul what he saw when Wharton grabbed his arm one time, how Wharton had coerced the sisters to be silent by threatening to kill one if the other made a noise, using their love for each other.
Paul is unsure how to help John, but John tells him not to worry, as he is ready to die anyway, wanting to escape the cruelty of the world.
John's execution is the last one in which Paul participates.
He introduces mr Jingles to Elaine just before the mouse dies, having lived 64 years past these events, and explains that those healed by John gained an unnaturally long lifespan.
Elaine dies shortly after, never learning how Paul's wife died in his arms immediately after they suffered a bus accident, and that he then saw John Coffey's ghost watching him from an overpass.
Paul seems to be all alone, now 104 years old, and wondering how much longer he will live.
<EOS>
One hundred teenage boys participate in an annual walking contest called "The Long Walk" or just "The Walk".
Each contestant, called a "Walker", must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour; if he drops below that speed for 30 seconds, he receives a verbal warning.
A Walker who slows down again after receiving three warnings is shot dead by soldiers riding in half-tracks along the roadside.
Walkers may be shot immediately for certain serious violations, such as trying to leave the road or attacking the half-track, and are given warnings for minor violations such as interfering with one another.
A Walker clears one warning for every hour that he stays above the minimum speed.
There is no established finish line, and the Walk does not pause for any reason, ending only when one last Walker is left alive.
The winner receives "The Prize": anything he wants for the rest of his life.
The protagonist of the novel is Raymond Davis Garraty, a 16-year-old boy from the town of Pownal in Androscoggin County, Maine.
Early on, he falls in with several other boys — including Peter McVries, Arthur Baker, Hank Olson, Collie Parker, Pearson, Harkness, and Abraham — who refer to themselves as "The Musketeers".
Another Walker, Gary Barkovitch, quickly establishes himself as an external antagonist, as he quickly angers his fellow walkers with multiple taunts of "dancing on their graves".
This results in the death of a fellow Walker, Rank, who is killed after repeatedly trying to assault Barkovitch.
The most alluring Walker is a boy named Stebbins.
Throughout the Walk, Stebbins establishes himself as a loner, observing the ground beneath him as he listens to fellow Walkers' complaints, seemingly unaffected by the mental and physical strains.
Along the road, the Walkers learn that one of their number, Scramm — initially the heavy odds-on favorite to win the Walk — is married.
When Scramm gets pneumonia, the remaining Walkers agree that the winner will use some of the Prize to take care of his pregnant widow, Cathy.
Members of the public interfering with the Walkers can also be executed.
This nearly occurs when the mother of a Walker named Percy tries, on several occasions, to get onto the road and find her son; only the intervention of the local police keeps her from being executed.
The second instance is when a spectator's dog runs across the road in front of the Walkers and is shot.
However, one man is able to throw the Walkers watermelon slices before being hauled away by the police rather than the soldiers.
Garraty becomes closest to McVries, a boy with a prominent facial scar who speculates that his own reason for joining the Walk is a subconscious death wish.
When Garraty suffers a short mental breakdown following the death of one of his other friends, McVries takes several warnings in order to get him moving again.
By the evening of the fifth day, the Walk has progressed into Massachusetts, the first time in 17 years that it has done so.
There are only nine Walkers left.
Earlier, Stebbins revealed to Garraty and McVries that he is the illegitimate son of the Major, the organizer of the walk.
Stebbins states he used to think the Major was unaware of his existence, but it turns out that the Major has numerous illegitimate children nationwide.
Stebbins' plan, upon winning the Walk, is to ask to be "taken into [his] father's house" as his Prize.
McVries sits down, resigning to his fate, and is shot.
Garraty decides to give up after realizing that Stebbins has shown almost no weaknesses over the duration of the Walk.
Garraty catches up with Stebbins to tell him this, but before he can speak, Stebbins collapses and dies; thus Garraty is declared the winner.
Unaware of the celebration going on around him, Garraty gets up from Stebbins' side and keeps on walking, believing the race to still continue, as he hallucinates a dark figure not far ahead that he thinks is another competitor.
He ignores a jeep coming towards him in which the Major comes to award him the victory, and when a hand touches his shoulder, Garraty runs.
<EOS>
Solaris chronicles the ultimate futility of attempted communications with the extraterrestrial life on a far-distant planet.
Solaris is almost completely covered with an ocean that is revealed to be a single, planet-encompassing organism.
Terran scientists concluded it is a sentient being and are attempting communication with it.
Kris Kelvin arrives aboard Solaris Station, a scientific research station hovering near the oceanic surface of the planet Solaris.
The scientists there have studied the planet and its ocean for many decades, mostly in vain.
A scientific discipline known as Solaristics over the years has degenerated to simply observing, recording and categorizing the complex phenomena that occur upon the surface of the ocean.
Thus far, they have only compiled an elaborate nomenclature of the phenomena — yet do not understand what such activities really mean.
Shortly before psychologist Kelvin's arrival, the crew has exposed the ocean to a more aggressive and unauthorized experimentation with a high-energy X-ray bombardment.
Their experimentation gives unexpected results and becomes psychologically traumatic for them as individually flawed humans.
The ocean's response to their intrusion exposes the deeper, hidden aspects of the personalities of the human scientists — while revealing nothing of the ocean’s nature itself.
To the extent that the ocean’s actions can be understood, the ocean then seems to test the minds of the scientists by confronting them with their most painful and repressed thoughts and memories.
It does this via the materialization of physical simulacra, including human ones; Kelvin confronts memories of his dead lover and guilt about her suicide.
The torments of the other researchers are only alluded to.
The ocean’s intelligence expresses physical phenomena in ways difficult for the protagonists to explain using conventional scientific method, which deeply upsets the scientists.
The alien mind of Solaris is so greatly different from the human mind that attempts at inter-species communications are a dismal failure.
<EOS>
The film jumps between various sections of Bruce's life, including scenes of when he was in his prime and the burned-out, strung-out performer who, in the twilight of his life, used his nightclub act to pour out his personal frustrations.
We watch as up-and-coming Bruce courts his "Shiksa goddess", a stripper named Honey.
With family responsibilities, Lenny is encouraged to do a "safe" act, but he cannot do it.
Constantly in trouble for flouting obscenity laws, Lenny develops a near-messianic complex which fuels both his comedy genius and his talent for self-destruction.
Worn out by a lifetime of tilting at Establishment windmills, Lenny Bruce dies of a morphine overdose in 1966.
<EOS>
Henry Hill says, "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster", referring to his idolization of gangsters in his 1950s blue-collar, predominantly Italian-American neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn.
Wanting to be part of something significant, Henry quits school and goes to work for them.
He is able to make a living for himself and learns the two most important lessons in life: "Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut", the advice given to him after being acquitted of criminal charges early in his career.
Henry is taken under the wing of local mob leader, Paul "Paulie" Cicero and his associates: James "Jimmy the Gent" Conway, who loves hijacking trucks; and Tommy DeVito, an aggressive armed robber with a temper.
In April 1967, they commit the Air France robbery.
Enjoying the perks of their criminal life, they spend most of their nights at the Copacabana nightclub carousing with women.
Henry meets and later marries Karen, a Jewish woman from the Five Towns area of Long Island.
Karen is initially troubled by Henry's criminal activities but is soon seduced by his glamorous lifestyle.
On June 11, 1970, Billy Batts, a mobster in the Gambino crime family, insults Tommy with a remark about him having been a shoeshine boy in his younger days.
Enraged, Tommy and Jimmy attack and kill him.
Knowing their murder of a made man would mean retribution from the Gambino crime family, which could possibly include Paulie himself being ordered to kill them, Jimmy, Henry, and Tommy cover up the murder.
They transport the body in the trunk of Henry's car and bury it in upstate New York.
Six months later, Jimmy learns that the burial site is slated for development, forcing them to exhume the decomposing corpse and move it.
Henry sets up his mistress, Janice Rossi, in an apartment.
When Karen finds out about their relationship, she tries to confront Janice at the apartment building, and then threatens Henry at gunpoint at home.
Henry moves out to live in the apartment with Janice, but Paulie gets involved, mediates between the couple and directs him to return to Karen after completing a job for him; Henry and Jimmy are sent to collect debt from a gambler in Florida.
However, they are arrested after being turned in by the gambler's sister, a typist for the FBI.
Jimmy and Henry receive ten-year prison sentences.
In prison, Henry sells drugs smuggled in by Karen to support his family on the outside.
After his early release in 1978, Henry further establishes himself in the drug trade, ignoring Paulie's ban on drug trafficking, and convinces Tommy and Jimmy to join him.
Jimmy and a lot of Henry's associates commit the Lufthansa heist at John Kennedy International Airport, stealing $6 million.
However, after a few members buy expensive items and the getaway car is found by police, Jimmy has most of the crew killed.
Tommy is eventually killed in retribution for Batts' murder, having been fooled into thinking he would become a made man.
By May 11, 1980, Henry is a nervous wreck from cocaine use and insomnia.
He tries to organize a drug deal with his associates in Pittsburgh, but he is arrested by narcotics agents and jailed.
After he is bailed out, Karen tells him she flushed $60,000 worth of cocaine down the toilet to prevent FBI agents from finding it during their raid, leaving the family virtually penniless.
Feeling betrayed by Henry's dealing of drugs, Paulie gives him $3,200 and ends any association with him.
Facing federal charges, and realizing Jimmy plans to have him killed, Henry decides to enroll in the Witness Protection Program.
He gives sufficient testimony to have Paulie and Jimmy arrested and convicted.
Forced out of his gangster life, Henry now has to face living in the real world.
He narrates: "I'm an average nobody.
I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook".
Subtitles explain that Henry was subsequently arrested on drug charges in Seattle, but has been clean since 1987.
He and Karen separated in 1989 after twenty five years of marriage.
Paul Cicero died in Fort Worth Federal Prison of respiratory illness in 1988 at age 73.
Jimmy, in 1990, was serving a twenty-year-to-life sentence in a New York State prison.
<EOS>
The story takes place entirely in the large house of a slightly batty New York City family.
Various characters in the lives of the Vanderhof-Sycamore-Carmichael clan are introduced in the first act.
The patriarch of the family, Grandpa Vanderhof, an eccentric old man who keeps snakes and has never paid his income tax.
Penelope "Penny" Vanderhof Sycamore is his daughter (a writer of adventure- and sex-filled melodrama plays), who is married to Paul Sycamore, a tinkerer who manufactures fireworks in the basement with the help of his assistant mr De Pinna, who used to be the family's iceman.
One of Paul and Penny's two daughters is Essie Sycamore Carmichael, a childish candymaker who dreams of being a ballerina (but in reality is terrible at dancing).
Essie is married to Ed Carmichael, a xylophone player who lives with them and helps distribute Essie's candies.
Ed is an amateur printer who prints any phrase that sounds catchy.
Paul and Penny's other daughter Alice Sycamore is quite obviously the only "normal" family member.
She has an office job and is sometimes embarrassed by the eccentricities of her family, yet deep down, she still loves them.
In addition, the Vanderhof-Sycamore-Carmichael clan employs a maid Rheba, who is dating Donald, who performs odd jobs for the Sycamores.
Essie tells Grandpa Vanderhof that some letters have arrived for him from the "United States Government," but that she misplaced them.
Shortly afterwards, Alice comes home and announces that she has fallen in love with a young man with whom she works, Tony Kirby, the son of the company's executive.
Before going upstairs to change, Alice tells her family that he will be coming over shortly to take her on a date.
The entire family is still joyfully discussing her boyfriend when the doorbell rings.
Penny answers the door and greets the man standing there, thinking he must be Tony, but only after forcing the stranger to shake hands with the entire family do they realize that he is not Alice's boyfriend: he is a tax investigator.
His name is Wilbur Henderson, and he is investigating Grandpa for his evasion of income tax.
When Henderson asks Grandpa why he owed twenty-four years of back income tax, Grandpa states he never believed in it, and that the government wouldn't know what to do with the money if he did pay it.
Henderson becomes infuriated by Grandpa's answers to his questions.
Henderson spots Grandpa's snakes, and runs out of the house in fear, but not before promising Grandpa that he will hear, one way or another, from the United States government.
The real Tony Kirby arrives, and Alice is nervous that her eccentric family will scare him away, so she attempts to leave with him on their date.
As they attempt to leave, mr Boris Kolenkhov, Essie's extremely eccentric Russian ballet instructor, arrives and makes chitchat with the family, complaining about the Revolution.
During this discussion, Alice and Tony make their escape.
Then the rest of the family sit down for dinner.
Later that night, Alice and Tony come back very late from their date and have a glass of wine and Tony makes a toast.
Though it is revealed that they both love each other very, very much, Alice has doubts as to whether a marriage of Tony and Alice's families could ever work out well.
Tony insists that, if they love each other, it shouldn't matter, but Alice ignores him and tearfully shouts that it just would never work.
She divulges how Grandpa could have been "a very rich man," but instead, he had an epiphany one day and rode the elevator right back down to the lobby of his building and quit work.
Alice explains that her family is too odd to get along with any other.
In the course of their conversation, which is interrupted by Essie and Ed (who come home from a Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire movie) and then Donald at one point, Tony wins Alice over, and they agree to get married.
Paul comes up from the basement and tells Alice to watch his latest firework masterpiece, and she lovingly says: "It's the most beautiful red fire in the world.
".
The second act takes place a few days later.
Alice has invited Tony, his father, and his mother over for dinner the next evening, and it is the only thing on the entire family's mind.
Alice runs around the house telling her family to try to act as normal as possible.
Penny has brought actress Gay Wellington over to read over Penny's latest play, but Gay becomes very drunk, and passes out onto the living room couch after looking at the snakes.
Ed returns from distributing Essie's candies, worried that he is being followed by someone.
When mr De Pinna looks out the window, he sees no one other than a man walking away.
Ed is still sent out by Essie to deliver more candies.
Paul and mr De Pinna are downstairs the whole time making fireworks.
mr De Pinna comes up from the basement carrying a painting that Penny had started of him as a discus thrower.
mr De Pinna asks if Penny would finish it and she agrees.
She leaves to put on her painting gear and mr De Pinna leaves to put on his costume.
At the same time, mr Kolenkhov arrives and begins Essie's ballet lesson.
Ed provides accompanying music on the xylophone.
Rheba runs in and out of the kitchen cleaning.
Grandpa takes this time to practice darts and feed the snakes.
In the midst of all this hullabaloo, Tony appears in the doorway with mr Kirby and mrs Kirby.
Before them is the entire eccentric spectacle.
Apparently, Tony has forgotten for which night dinner was planned, and Alice is incredibly embarrassed.
Penny tells Alice not to worry, and that they can manage a nice dinner easily.
She gives a list of things to Donald and tells him to run down to the store.
Grandpa tries desperately to keep the party normal and under control for the sake of his granddaughter.
mr Kirby reveals himself to be a very straightlaced fat-cat, who raises orchids as a hobby.
mr Kirby investigates a child's model and finds it is Paul's "hobby".
mrs Kirby tells them that her true passion is spiritualism, to which Penny mocks as a "fake".
During a discussion of hobbies, mr Kolenkhov brings up that the Romans' hobby was wrestling, and demonstrates on mr Kirby by throwing him on the floor.
To pass the time after the awkward incident, Penny suggests they play a free association game.
Alice imagines what is coming and immediately tries to quash the suggestions, but Penny shrugs her off and instructs everyone to write down "the first thing that pops into their heads" after she says certain words.
Penny offers the words "potato, bathroom, lust, honeymoon, and sex".
Penny reads mr Kirby's list first, with reactions of, respectively: "steak, toothpaste, unlawful, trip, male".
mrs Kirby's list, however, causes much controversy.
"Starch" is her response to potatoes, which is not that bad, but her response for "bathroom" is "Mr.
Kirby," and she covers it up with the fact that mr Kirby spends a lot of time in there "bathing and shaving".
Her response to "lust" is "human," claiming it is a perfectly human emotion.
mr Kirby disagrees, saying "it is depraved".
"Honeymoon"'s reply is "dull," as mrs Kirby explains that there was "nothing to do at night".
The shocker comes when mrs Kirby says her reply to "sex" was "Wall Street".
She at first claims she doesn't know what she meant by it, but once provoked she yells at mr Kirby "You're always talking about Wall Street, even when--" and then stops.
Wholly embarrassed and humiliated, mr Kirby and mrs Kirby order Tony home with them immediately but Tony refuses to go.
Alice finally decides that their marriage will never work and ends their engagement, and also decides to resign her job at Kirby's company.
Before the Kirbys can leave, Department of Justice agents come through the door.
The head agent tells them that Ed's pamphlets from the candy boxes, on which he has printed anything that "sounds nice," read "DYNAMITE THE CAPITOL," "DYNAMITE THE WHITE HOUSE," "DYNAMITE THE SUPREME COURT," and "GOD IS THE STATE, THE STATE IS GOD".
Grandpa tries to explain to the head agent, but he informs them they are all under arrest.
The agents discover enormous amounts of gunpowder in the basement and think it is for dynamiting Washington, and one agent returns from the basement dragging mr De Pinna with him, who was in the basement the whole time.
De Pinna desperately tries to explain to the agent that he had left his lit pipe downstairs and must go and get it, but the agent disregards him.
Meanwhile, another agent brings down Gay Wellington from upstairs, singing drunkenly.
At that point, the fireworks in the basement go off, lit by De Pinna's discarded pipe, and everyone (aside from Grandpa and Wellington) panics, leaving the whole house in an uproar as Act II ends.
The next day, Donald and Rheba sit in the kitchen reading the paper, which focuses on the story of both families being arrested, with mr Kirby's presence causing the story to make headlines.
Also, Paul and mr De Pinna's fireworks are completely destroyed.
Meanwhile, Alice has decided to leave for a prolonged trip to the Adirondack Mountains to think things over.
When the family forgets to call for a cab, she finally shows her exasperation, angered that her family can't be "normal" at all.
Tony then arrives, and tries to reason with Alice, but she refuses, heading upstairs with Tony following.
Soon, mr Kolenkhov appears with the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina, in all of her former glory.
After discussing the sad fate of former Russian royalty now working menial jobs in New York, the Grand Duchess soon insists upon going into the kitchen to cook the dinner for the family.
mr Kirby arrives to pick up Tony and to settle his score with Grandpa.
Soon, mr Kirby and Tony get into a heated argument, the pinnacle of which finds Tony admitting that he had purposely brought his family on the wrong night, the night before.
He explains that he wanted each family to see each other as they really were, and that he sees the Sycamores as "normal", that they are a family that loves and understands one another, saying that mr Kirby never had time to understand Tony.
Grandpa tells mr Kirby that he's happy with no longer working and getting to enjoy life every day, and that has made him happy ever since, though mr Kirby is not convinced, especially as Grandpa suspects that mr Kirby doesn't like his job.
Tony affirms this by pointing out that he found letters that mr Kirby had written to his father, expressing desires to be a trapeze artist and later a saxophone player, and that mr Kirby still has a saxophone in his closet.
Grandpa tells mr Kirby that he should get to enjoy his life and riches now while he can, pointing out, "you can't take it with you".
Tony agrees with this, deciding to leave the family business to do something he wants to do, and mr Kirby finally gives in, giving his blessings to Alice and Tony getting back together, which they do.
Essie then brings a letter to Grandpa that's from the government.
Grandpa had lied to the government that he was actually Martin Vanderhof Jr, and that the Martin Vanderhof the government was looking for was his father.
This is confirmed because the family had buried the deceased milkman who had lived with them prior to De Pinna under Grandpa's name, since they never knew the milkman's real name.
Grandpa's trick works, as the government tells him that they now owe him a refund, instead of him owing them taxes.
The play comes to a conclusion as the family, along with Tony and mr Kirby, sit down to dinner with the Grand Duchess.
Grandpa says a touching prayer, and then they dive into the food.
<EOS>
Two children, Jacques Mayol (Jean-Marc Barr) and Enzo Molinari (Jean Reno), have grown up on the Greek island of Amorgos in the 1960s.
They challenge each other to collect a coin on the sea floor and Jacques loses.
Later Jacques' father — who harvests shellfish from the seabed using a pump-supplied air hose and helmet — goes diving for shellfish.
His breathing apparatus and rope gets caught and punctured by rocks on the reef and weighed down by water, he drowns.
Jacques and Enzo can do nothing but watch in horror as he is killed.
By the 1980s, both are well known freedivers, swimmers who can remain underwater for great times and at great depths.
Enzo is on Sicily now, where he rescues a trapped diver from a shipwreck.
He is a world champion freediver with a brash and strong personality, and now wishes to find Mayol and persuade him to return to no limits freediving in order to prove he is still the better of the two, in a friendly sports rivalry.
Mayol himself works extensively with scientific research as a human research subject, and with dolphins, and is temporarily participating in research into human physiology in the iced-over lakes of the Peruvian Andes, where his remarkable and dolphin-like bodily responses to cold water immersion are being recorded.
Insurance broker Johana Baker (Rosanna Arquette) visits the station for work purposes and is introduced to Jacques.
She secretly falls in love with him.
When she hears that Jacques will be at the World Diving Championships in Taormina, Sicily, she fabricates an insurance problem that requires her presence there, in order to meet him again.
She and Jacques fall in love.
However none of them realize the extent of Jaques' allurement with the depths.
Jacques beats Enzo by 3 feet (1 meter) at this, their first competition and Enzo offers them a glass dolphin as a gift, and a tape measure to show the small difference between Jacques' and Enzo’s records.
Johana goes back home to New York but is fired after her deception is discovered; she leaves New York and begins to live with Jacques.
She hears the story that if one truly loves the deep sea, then a mermaid will appear at the depths of the sea, and will lead a diver to an enchanted place.
At the next World Diving Championships, Enzo beats Jacques' record.
The depths at which the divers are competing enter new territory and the dive doctor suggests they should cease competing, but the divers decide to continue.
Jacques is asked to look at a local dolphinarium where a new dolphin has been placed, and where the dolphins are no longer performing; surmising that the new dolphin is homesick, the three of them break in at night to liberate the dolphin and transport her to the sea again.
Back at the competition, other divers attempt to break Enzo’s new record but all fail.
Jacques then attempts his next dive and reaches 400&nbsp;ft (122m) breaking Enzo's world record.
Angered by this, Enzo prepares to break Jacques' new world record.
The doctor supervising the dive warns that the competitors must not go deeper - based upon Jacques' bodily reactions, at around 400&nbsp;ft, conditions, and in particular the pressure, will become lethal and divers will be killed if they persist in attempting such depths.
Enzo dismisses the advice and attempts the dive anyway, but is unable to make his way back to the surface.
Jacques dives down to rescue him.
Enzo, dying, tells Jacques that the doctor was right and also that it is better down there, and begs Jacques to help him back down to the depths, where he belongs.
Jacques is grief-stricken and refuses, but after Enzo dies in his arms, finally honors his dying wish and takes Enzo's body back down to 400feet, leaving him to drift to the ocean floor.
Jacques - himself suffering from cardiac arrest after the dive - is rescued and brought back to the surface by supervising scuba divers and requires his heart to be restarted with a defibrillator before being placed in medical quarters to recover.
Jacques appears to be recovering from the diving accident, but later experiences a strange hallucinatory dream in which the ceiling collapses and the room fills with water, and he finds himself in the ocean depths surrounded by dolphins.
Johana, who has just discovered she is pregnant, returns to check up on Jacques in the middle of the night, but finds him lying awake yet unresponsive in his bed with bloody ears and a bloody nose.
Johana attempts to help him, but Jacques begins to get up and walk to the empty diving boat and gets suited up for one final dive.
Desperately, Johana begs Jacques not to go, saying she is alive but whatever has happened at the depths is not, but he says he has to.
She tells Jacques that she is pregnant, and sorrowfully begs him to stay, but finally understands he feels he must go.
The two embrace and Johana breaks down crying.
Jacques then places the release cord for the dive ballast in her hand, and - still sobbing - she pulls it, sending him down to the depths he loves.
Jacques descends and floats for a brief moment staring into the darkness.
A dolphin then appears and - dreamlike - Jacques lets go of his harness and swims away with it into the darkness.
The original ending was intentionally ambiguous, though considering the depth Jacques has swum to, it would seem he is unlikely to regain the surface alive, and he dies.
In the US version the ending is extended with an additional scene.
After swimming away with the dolphin, Jacques is brought back to the surface.
<EOS>
The story chronicles the disillusionment of a number of young intellectuals as they encounter the realities of the higher education establishment parodied in the story.
Over time their lives and sanity disintegrate in different ways through a series of escalating events that culminates with a full-scale civil war raging on the campus of American Megaversity.
Told in first person from the perspective of Bud, a lecturer in Remote Sensing new to the university, the book attacks and makes fun of just about every conceivable group at university, though its portraits of the nerds/computer scientists/role players tend to be more detailed than those of other factions.
The events take place at a fictitious big university consisting of a single building (a central complex with eight towers containing student housing), making the university an enclosed universe of its own.
Stephenson uses this fact to take what starts as a mostly realistic satire and move it further and further into the realm of improbability, with giant radioactive rats, hordes of bats and a lab-made railgun.
<EOS>
Richard Mayhew, a Scot living in London, encounters an injured girl named Door on the street one night.
Despite his fiancée's protests he decides to help her; upon doing so he ceases to exist on Earth and becomes real only to the denizens of 'London Below', whose inhabitants are generally invisible and non-existent to the people of 'London Above'.
He loses his house, his job and nearly his mind as he travels London Below in an attempt to make sense out of it all, find a way back, and help Door survive as she is hunted down by hired assassins.
In London Below the various familiar names of London all take on a new significance: for example Knightsbridge becomes "Night's Bridge", a stone bridge whose darkness takes its toll in human life; The Angel, Islington is an actual angel.
London Below is a parallel world in and beneath the sewers.
Its inhabitants are the homeless, but also people from other times, such as Roman legionaries and medieval monks, as well as fictional and fantastical characters.
broadcast on BBC Two from 12 September 1996.
There are six half-hour episodes:.
<EOS>
The United States is devastated by a mysterious phenomenon which reanimates recently deceased human beings as flesh-eating zombies.
Despite the best efforts by theS.
government and local authorities to control the situation, millions of people are killed and reanimate; social order is collapsing.
Some rural communities and the military have been effective in fighting the zombie hordes in open country, but urban centers are helpless and largely overrun.
Confusion reigns at the WGON television studio in Philadelphia by the phenomenon's third week, where staff members Stephen Andrews and Francine Parker are planning to steal the station's traffic helicopter to escape the city.
Meanwhile, police SWAT officer Roger DiMarco and his team raid a housing project where the residents are defying the martial law of delivering their dead to National Guardsmen.
Some residents fight back with handguns and rifles, and are killed by both the overzealous SWAT team and their own reanimated dead.
During the raid, Roger meets Peter Washington, part of another SWAT team, and they partner up together.
Roger tells Peter that his friend Stephen intends to steal his workplace's helicopter and flee, and suggests that Peter come with them.
They are informed of a group of zombies trapped in the basement, which they assist in the grim job of destroying.
That night, Roger and Peter rendezvous with Francine and Stephen and leave Philadelphia in the helicopter.
Following some close calls while stopping for fuel, the group comes across a shopping mall, which they decide to make their sanctuary.
Francine reveals that she is pregnant.
Peter offers to abort the child, but this is rejected.
To make the mall safe for habitation, they block the entrances with trucks to keep the undead masses outside from building up enough cumulative force to break through; they also craft a wooden "false wall" to hide the access to their living space.
During the blockade operation, Roger becomes reckless and is bitten by the zombies.
After clearing the interior of zombies, the four are able to enjoy a hedonistic lifestyle with all the goods in every store available to them.
Roger eventually succumbs to his wounds, soon reanimates and is shot in the head by Peter.
After several months, all emergency broadcast transmissions cease, suggesting that the government has collapsed and a large portion of the population has been killed and reanimated.
Francine, now visibly showing her pregnancy, looks around the group's now-lavishly appointed living space, barely enjoyed, and asks, "What have we done to ourselves.
" Thereafter, Francine presses to be prepared to leave the shopping mall.
Ammo and other stores are loaded into the helicopter, and Stephen teaches Francine how to operate the helicopter in case of emergency.
A gang of nomadic motorcyclists, having seen the helicopter during one of Francine's flying lessons, break into and start looting the mall, destroying the barriers and allowing hundreds of zombies inside.
While Peter suggests they let the bikers take what they want and move on, Stephen foolishly starts a gun battle with the bikers and is shot in the arm.
He tries to escape through an elevator shaft, but is cornered by the undead and bitten several times.
As some of the bikers, shot by Peter, are consumed by the zombies, the rest retreat with their stolen goods.
A reanimated Stephen, apparently acting on a remnant of his former memories, breaks through the false wall and leads the undead to Francine and Peter.
As Stephen enters their hideout, Peter kills him while Francine escapes to the roof.
Peter then locks himself in a room and contemplates suicide.
When zombies burst into the room, he has a change of heart and fights his way up to the roof, where he joins Francine.
The two then fly away in the partially fueled helicopter to an uncertain future.
<EOS>
At a jousting tournament in 14th-century Europe, young squires William Thatcher, Roland, and Wat discover that their master, Sir Ector, has died.
If he had completed one final pass he would have won the tournament.
Destitute, William wears Ector's armour to impersonate him, winning the tournament and taking the prize.
Although only nobles are allowed in tournaments, William is now inspired to compete and win more prizes.
Roland and Wat would rather take their share of coins and leave, but William convinces them to stay and train him to joust.
Along the way to his first tournament in Rouen, the trio encounters a young Geoffrey Chaucer, who is also destitute and agrees to forge the patent of nobility that will allow William to enter under the assumed name of "Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein" from Gelderland.
At the tournament, William is brought before Simon the Summoner and Peter the Pardoner: Chaucer has a gambling problem and is in their debt.
William demands Chaucer be released and promises payment.
In the course of competition, William's armour is damaged.
He goads Kate, a blacksmith, to repair it without payment and goes on to win the sword event at the tournament.
In the joust, he faces a Sir Thomas Colville, who withdraws from the tournament after being injured by William, though they exchange a ceremonial pass so that Colville can retain the honour of never having failed to complete a match.
The proceedings are observed by Jocelyn, a noblewoman with whom William has become infatuated, and Count Adhemar, a rival both in the joust and for Jocelyn's heart.
In the final joust of the tournament, Adhemar defeats William.
Kate joins William's party and forges new lightweight armour allowing him greater mobility.
In the following tournament, Adhemar and William are both assigned to tilt against Sir Thomas Colville, but they learn that he is actually Edward, the Black Prince.
Adhemar withdraws, but William continues the match and then addresses the prince by name, further earning Edward's respect.
Adhemar is called away to the battlefield, and William achieves several victories in his absence.
William proves his love for Jocelyn by complying when she first asks him to deliberately lose (in contrast to the countless knights who promise to win in her name), and then, just before he would be eliminated, to win the tournament in her name after all.
The group travels to London for the World Championship.
William recalls leaving his father to squire for Sir Ector and learn to become a knight hoping to "change his stars".
Adhemar has also arrived in London and announces that he is in negotiations with Jocelyn's father for her hand in marriage.
William dominates at the tournament and he returns to visit his father, now blind and living alone in Cheapside, but is discovered by Adhemar, who alerts the authorities to William's false identity.
William is placed in the pillory, but is defended from the hostile crowd by his friends.
Just as the mob reaches its frenzy, Prince Edward emerges from the crowd, noting that his friends' dedication to him reflects an ability to inspire others that is in the best traditions of knighthood.
In acknowledgement of William's honour, Edward announces that, William is in fact, "beyond contestation", descended from a noble lineage, and knights him "Sir William".
William returns to the tournament to face Adhemar in the final match, but Adhemar cheats with an illegal sharpened lance, piercing William's shoulder and seriously injuring him.
Entering the final pass, William is losing by two lances and must unhorse Adhemar to win.
He demands to be stripped of his armour while Chaucer buys time by performing the introduction of William that he omitted earlier.
Finally he tilts against Adhemar, with his father and Jocelyn in attendance.
Bellowing his true name as he tilts, he knocks Adhemar to the ground with a crushing blow.
In the ensuing celebration, as Jocelyn and William embrace, Chaucer remarks that he should write this whole story down.
<EOS>
In Kraków during World War II, the Germans had forced local Polish Jews into the overcrowded Kraków Ghetto.
Oskar Schindler, an ethnic German, arrives in the city hoping to make his fortune.
A member of the Nazi Party, Schindler lavishes bribes on Wehrmacht (German armed forces) and SS officials and acquires a factory to produce enamelware.
To help him run the business, Schindler enlists the aid of Itzhak Stern, a local Jewish official who has contacts with black marketeers and the Jewish business community.
Stern helps Schindler arrange financing for the factory.
Schindler maintains friendly relations with the Nazis and enjoys wealth and status as "Herr Direktor", and Stern handles administration.
Schindler hires Jewish workers because they cost less, while Stern ensures that as many people as possible are deemed essential to the German war effort, which saves them from being transported to concentration camps or killed.
SS-Untersturmführer (second lieutenant) Amon Göth arrives in Kraków to oversee construction of Płaszów concentration camp.
When the camp is completed, he orders the ghetto liquidated.
Many people are shot and killed in the process of emptying the ghetto.
Schindler witnesses the massacre and is profoundly affected.
He particularly notices a tiny girl in a red coat – one of the few splashes of color in the black-and-white film – as she hides from the Nazis, and later sees her body (identifiable by the red coat) among those on a wagon load of corpses.
Schindler is careful to maintain his friendship with Göth and, through bribery and lavish gifts, continues to enjoy SS support.
Göth brutally mistreats his Jewish maid Helen Hirsch and randomly shoots people from the balcony of his villa, and the prisoners are in constant fear for their lives.
As time passes, Schindler's focus shifts from making money to trying to save as many lives as possible.
To better protect his workers, Schindler bribes Göth into allowing him to build a sub-camp.
As the Germans begin to lose the war, Göth is ordered to ship the remaining Jews at Płaszów to Auschwitz concentration camp.
Schindler asks Göth to allow him to move his workers to a new munitions factory he plans to build in his home town of Zwittau-Brinnlitz.
Göth agrees, but charges a huge bribe.
Schindler and Stern create "Schindler's List" – a list of people to be transferred to Brinnlitz and thus saved from transport to Auschwitz.
The train carrying the women and children is accidentally redirected to Auschwitz-Birkenau; Schindler bribes Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, with a bag of diamonds to win their release.
At the new factory, Schindler forbids the SS guards to enter the production rooms and encourages the Jews to observe the Jewish Sabbath.
He spends much of his fortune bribing Nazi officials and buying shell casings from other companies; his factory does not produce any usable armaments during its seven months of operation.
Schindler runs out of money in 1945, just as Germany surrenders, ending the war in Europe.
As a Nazi Party member and war profiteer, Schindler must flee the advancing Red Army to avoid capture.
The SS guards in Schindler's factory have been ordered to kill the Jews, but Schindler persuades them not to, so that they can "return to [their] families as men, instead of murderers".
He bids farewell to his workers and prepares to head west, hoping to surrender to the Americans.
The workers give Schindler a signed statement attesting to his role saving Jewish lives, together with a ring engraved with a Talmudic quotation: "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire".
Schindler is touched but is also deeply ashamed, as he feels he should have done even more.
As the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) wake up the next morning, a Soviet soldier announces that they have been liberated.
The Jews leave the factory and walk to a nearby town.
Following scenes depicting Göth's execution after the war and a summary of Schindler's later life, the black-and-white frame changes to a color shot of actual Schindlerjuden at Schindler's grave in Jerusalem.
Accompanied by the actors who portrayed them, the Schindlerjuden place stones on the grave.
In the final shot, Neeson places a pair of roses on the grave.
<EOS>
Rigoletto stars Joseph Paur as Ari Ribaldi and Ivey Lloyd as Bonnie Nelson, a singer.
Bonnie reads a part of Rigoletto each night to her younger brother.
The film time shifts to the 1930s, during America's Great Depression.
The following scene shows an old house which newcomer mr Ribaldi purchases.
The next day, Bonnie performs in a singing contest.
While Bonnie does not win, she manages to attract the attention of a mysterious man.
He says nothing to her and only nods and leaves.
That night as the children walk home, they spot the old house which has been renovated.
The townspeople also spot the house and think it is unusual for a house to be renovated so fast.
The same moment, the town banker sells the mortgage on one of his houses and the Nelson family are evicted.
Bonnie's mother immediately leaves to locate the person who bought their house.
She knocks on the door only to find the same man who was watching Bonnie's contest: Hans the Butler.
He is tense, but welcomes mrs Nelson inside and shows her to The Master of the home (Mr.
Ribaldi), when she is sternly instructed to stop at the rug.
The man remains seated in the darkness.
He answers to mrs Nelson's demands by returning their home directly to them in exchange for an agreement in which Bonnie would "work" for him.
mrs Nelson asks why she can't do the job instead of her daughter.
He evades the question which alarms mrs Nelson.
She refuses, which enrages Ribaldi and he has her thrown out of the mansion, but not before she catches a glimpse of Ribaldi's scarred face.
Later, she tells Bonnie the bad news but Bonnie asks her permission to accept the job.
mrs Nelson reluctantly agrees and sends Bonnie to the mansion.
For the moment, her only chores are to assist Hans.
He informs Bonnie that she is free to go into any room in the house, except for the master suite, though he has to resort to bribery to keep from explaining why.
However, she walks into the forbidden area once she hears a woman taking singing lessons from mr Ribaldi.
He angrily grabs Bonnie but the woman (Gabriella) sends him away "to pout".
Meanwhile, many in the town are risking foreclosure as a result of the Depression and suspect the mysterious Ribaldi, who initially did the very same thing to The Nelsons.
The people in town also begin receiving unknown sources of financial assistance.
Some receive checks to pay for expensive medical procedures to heal crippling illnesses and others find employment.
The townspeople suspect nothing of any of this.
The children become curious and decide to prowl the mansion late at night.
Their pranks are halted when the "bloodsucker" abducts a young girl who had walked with a limp.
A riot occurs over the missing child, who reappears unharmed (and with no limp)  Trouble still plagues the citizens who place the blame on Ribaldi and his apparent antisocial behavior.
They manage to disqualify Bonnie from the competition unless she stops visiting him.
She refuses but Ribaldi insists she goes and casts her out of the mansion.
However, both Ribaldi and Hans are astonished at her choice.
Hans takes Bonnie to the competition at the state capital and prepares to sing a song written by Ribaldi.
Georgie walks into the mansion and finds Ribaldi by himself.
She asks for singing lessons, but Ribaldi says it is not a good day.
He offers to take her part of the way home but Georgie insists on taking a dangerous shortcut near a hyrdoelectric dam.
She slips by a torrent and falls in the water.
The film returns to the competition, and it is now Bonnie's turn to sing.
Later, mr Ribaldi has an unconscious Georgie in his arms as he limps into town to find help.
The townspeople think he caused her injury and so attack him.
The town banker manages to stop the attack, but not before Ribaldi is badly battered.
They proceed to the mansion in search of his bank book, leaving behind Ribaldi, mrs Nelson, and a few bystanders.
The film cuts to Bonnie, who finishes singing.
She receives a standing ovation and first place.
In the next scene, the angry mob breaks into the completely empty house, trashing it, only leaving once they find the bank book, to their delight.
Upon reading it, however, they are shocked, disappointed, and saddened.
The only transactions they find show that he has paid their medical bills.
The banker then admits to increasing their house payments, and the mob leaves in disgust.
The banker and his son take mr Ribaldi to the hospital.
Bonnie and Hans return only to find that mr Ribaldi died a few hours before.
They hold a funeral.
Afterward, Hans says that he is returning home to a "former employer".
After Hans departs, some of the people walk past the mansion.
They hear familiar piano music.
Bonnie walks in to discover a man who resembles Ribaldi, but with no scars.
The man seems to have no knowledge of previous events, but then returns something Porter has left behind, despite them apparently having never met before.
Hans and Gabriella appear, and Bonnie asks for the man's name.
He says, "Some people call me Rigoletto.
But you probably don't believe that, do you.
"  The movie ends with Bonnie reading the final lines of the story Rigoletto, and her brother asks, "Do you believe that, Bonnie.
" "I do," she replies, and the film ends on a close-up of the book.
<EOS>
Earth astronaut John Crichton is unexpectedly hurled to an unknown part of the Milky Way galaxy via a wormhole.
He is dropped into the middle of an escape attempt by Moya, a living spaceship, from the militaristic Peacekeepers, who had been using it as a prison transport.
In the chaos he has an accidental collision with a Peacekeeper fighter, resulting in the death of its pilot.
Although the escape is successful, the Peacekeeper Captain, Bialar Crais, fixates on Crichton as the murderer of the pilot&nbsp;– his brother&nbsp;– and begins a campaign to chase Crichton down.
The various crew have no common goal, each only wishing to go home.
Unfortunately to avoid Crais's pursuit they have to travel into the Uncharted Territories, and thus have no idea how to get home.
The other crew also have little respect for Crichton, seeing him only as a "primitive hoo-man" who does not understand even the basic tenets of life in space.
Various episodes explore the characters’ back stories.
Aeryn begins to learn that the Peacekeepers are not always as correct as she had believed.
Zhaan is forced to bring up the dark side she had worked to suppress.
D’Argo admits he was framed for his wife's murder and has no idea where his child is.
Rygel confronts his former jail keeper and torturer.
A new character joins the crew&nbsp;– Chiana, a teenage thief on the run from her own repressive culture.
And Moya herself becomes pregnant after a Peacekeeper experiment is accidentally activated.
Meanwhile, Crichton continues to research the wormhole that brought him here.
He is forced to sell what little progress he has made to an alien mechanic as payment for repairs on the Farscape module.
He is also lured into a wormhole that seems to lead directly back to Earth, only to find the entire situation is a construct created by mysterious aliens called the Ancients who are testing to see if Earth is suitable for colonization.
Towards the end of the season, Aeryn is injured and the crew is forced to go to a Peacekeeper base to seek medical help.
Crichton disguises himself as a Peacekeeper to gain access, but the base's commander, Scorpius, instantly sees through the ruse and imprisons Crichton, calling Crais to come and get him.
Under torture Crichton discovers that the Ancients placed specialized knowledge of wormholes in his subconscious mind&nbsp;– knowledge that Scorpius is particularly eager to access.
The other Moya crew launch a rescue attempt.
Meanwhile Moya gives birth to her baby, discovering that the child&nbsp;– named Talyn&nbsp;– is a volatile hybrid warship designed by the Peacekeepers instead of the usual peaceful Leviathan.
Upon Crais's arrival, Scorpius takes over his command.
Crais defects to Moya to save himself, accepting along the way that Crichton had not meant to kill his brother.
But this is only a cover to steal Talyn and escape on his own.
Having grown much closer over the course of the season, the crew work together to escape Scorpius&nbsp;– a plan which ends with Crichton and D'Argo floating in space, running out of air.
The crew of Moya are now on the run from Scorpius, who wants the wormhole knowledge locked in Crichton's brain for his own purposes.
To avoid him the crew are forced into some unwise decisions and alliances, which often result in wacky, mind-altering hijinks for the crew.
Moya encounters an independent Sebacean colony (Sebaceans being the race from which Peacekeepers are drawn), where the heir to the throne has been genetically poisoned by her younger brother so that she cannot procreate with any Sebacean male, which would allow him to take the throne instead.
Recognising Crichton as a possible substitute to ensure the continued independence of her world, the Empress insists he , or else she will hand him over to Scorpius.
Terrified of Scorpius after his experiences on the base, Crichton is.
Aeryn, who has been growing attached to Crichton, finds herself jealous.
Despite various plots by Peacekeepers and an agent of their enemies the Scarrens, the Moya crew manage to wheedle their way out once again, although the Princess is indeed left pregnant.
Meanwhile, D’Argo and Chiana begin a relationship based mostly on sex, and Zhaan is tasked with protecting Moya by the Leviathian's creator-gods.
Crichton to kill Scorpius, but finds himself unable to do it, blocked by some unknown cause.
That cause is revealed when Crichton is kidnapped by Scarrens&nbsp;– during his torture on the base, Scorpius had implanted Crichton with a neural chip that contains a clone of his personality, designed to track down the wormhole knowledge and protect Crichton and Scorpius both until that knowledge is found.
Crichton nicknames the clone Harvey and it begins to manifest as hallucinations to him.
The half-crazed mystic Stark&nbsp;– whom Crichton had met while jailed at the base&nbsp;– returns with information about D’Argo's son, Jothee.
The boy is one of a lot of slaves, and they can rescue him by buying the entire lot.
To afford to do that they will need to.
The crew put a plan into action, which is complicated when Scorpius arrives.
Scorpius has captured the slaves, but promises to give them Jothee if Crichton will turn himself in.
Under intense pressure from the neural clone, Crichton does so.
D’Argo is , and the crew move into action to save Crichton.
Even Crais and Talyn.
The rescue is successful, although Moya is severely damaged and Crichton is nearly insane from the effects of the neural clone.
At the medical colony to fix them both, the clone takes control of Crichton, seemingly killing Aeryn just as she admits her love for him.
With Aeryn dead, Crichton wants the chip removed once and for all.
At the same time, Scorpius catches up with them again, killing the doctor and announcing that the chip has completed its work and found the wormhole knowledge.
He removes the chip and leaves Crichton incapacitated at the hospital.
Having survived Scorpius’ attack, the doctor saves Crichton by using biological material from a suitable donor&nbsp;– an alien called an Interon which may be a cousin species to humans.
Scorpius fools Crais into thinking he is dead to cover his escape with the neural chip, and Zhaan revives Aeryn, but at the cost of her own life.
Feeling guilty over the death of the Interon donor, Crichton has the donors still living relative brought aboard&nbsp;– an arrogant scientist called Jool.
Investigating another wormhole, Moya belonging to a race called Pathfinders, experts in wormholes.
the last of her life to separate the ships, adding more guilt to Crichton's conscience.
He also discovers that despite the chip's removal, the personality clone Harvey remains in his mind.
Due to a harrowing encounter with another escaped prisoner with a cloning device, Crichton ends up twinned&nbsp;– a duplicate created so that there are two Crichtons, both equal and original.
Talyn is attacked by the new Peacekeeper Commando chasing the crew – Xhalax Sun, Aeryn's mother.
To escape her, Moya and Talyn starburst in opposite directions, splitting the crew, with one Crichton on each ship.
On Moya, tensions rise over D’Argo's breakup with Chiana, Jool's grating personality, and Crichton's increasing obsession with wormholes.
An encounter with an alien Energy Rider also instils precognitive abilities in Chiana (or possibly only activates already present abilities).
Meanwhile Scorpius tries to access the wormhole data, but finds that the chip now contains a neural clone of Crichton, who refuses to allow Scorpius access.
On Talyn, Crais explains that Xhalax wants to recapture him as a renegade Peacekeeper, and to recapture Talyn as a powerful warship.
After a vicious battle, Aeryn allows Crais to kill her mother.
Crichton discovers that the mechanic, Furlow, has the wormhole data he gave her in the first season, and intends to sell it to the Scarrens.
With the help of the Ancients, Crichton unlocks the wormhole knowledge just enough to destroy the Scarren ship, but suffers radiation exposure and.
When the two crews finally reunite, Aeryn cannot face the remaining Crichton, and Talyn is becoming increasingly violent and uncontrollable.
Crichton resolves to destroy the wormhole information that Scorpius has by and then crippling the project from within.
In return for his help, Scorpius grants the Moya crew leniency for their crimes.
But high-ranking Peacekeeper Commandant Grayza interferes, claiming that the Moya crew's continued freedom is an embarrassment and Scorpius’ own obsession with wormhole tech does not outweigh their criminal record.
Crichton finally decides that the only way to end Scorpius’ project is to.
Crais orders Talyn to starburst inside the ship, killing them both and destroying the entire Command Carrier.
Believing they are finally free from pursuit, the crew buries Talyn's remains and splits up to go their own ways.
But at the last second, a strange old woman formerly imprisoned on the Command Carrier informs Crichton that Aeryn is pregnant, and Moya is sucked into a wormhole, leaving Crichton once again alone in space.
Alone for months, Crichton has had nothing to do but obsess over Aeryn and wormholes.
He finally makes a breakthrough on the latter when he meets a supposed Leviathan specialist, Sikozu, on the run from her employers.
When Chiana and Rygel also return, they , where Jool, D’Argo, and the old woman – Noranti – have joined an Interon archaeological dig.
They find artifacts that suggest a connection between humans, Sebaceans and Interons.
Commandant Grayza interrupts, having taken Scorpius prisoner, and "kills" him to show good faith to Crichton.
Crichton, however wants nothing to do with her, and.
Crichton finds that Aeryn has made a deal with Scorpius to let him on Moya after he saved her life.
Crichton keeps Scorpius imprisoned, but remains paranoid that his former enemy is planning something.
Despite Aeryn's desire to reconcile, he pushes her away, even going so far as to suppress his feelings with drugs.
A Scarren agent invades Moya, since the Scarrens and Peacekeepers are in an arms race to acquire Crichton's wormhole knowledge.
Crichton is instead kidnapped by an Ancient whom he nicknames Einstein, who explains to him the catastrophic danger if wormhole tech falls into the wrong hands.
Returning from that meeting, the entire Moya crew accidentally ends up on Earth, providing humans with their first confirmed contact with extraterrestrials.
Crichton is finally home, but finds that the world is too paranoid and distrustful to accept his alien friends.
He has also been so affected by his experiences that he cannot relax there – a situation not helped when an agent of Grayza attacks and kills several of Crichton's friends.
He decides the only thing he can do is leave again.
The crew comes across a secret meeting between Grayza and a Scarren minister, at which Grayza sells out D’Argo's people in return for peace.
In disrupting the meeting Aeryn is captured.
Desperate to rescue her, Crichton promises to give Scorpius the wormhole tech in return for his help.
They successfully and rescue Aeryn, but Scorpius is captured in the attempt.
Crichton is happy to leave him there, but the neural clone Harvey informs them that Scorpius already has the wormhole tech, and may reveal it to the Scarrens under torture.
The crew of Moya are forced to launch yet another attempt to either rescue or kill Scorpius.
To do so, they at the Scarrens’ most important base, Katratzi, claiming to want to sell the tech to the highest bidder.
Instead they start a riot between the Scarrens’ various servant races, using a nuclear bomb and escape again.
The Scarrens launch an attack against Earth - partly in retaliation, but also to secure a source of Strelitzia plants.
The plants are vital to a Scarren augmentation process, and Crichton had inadvertently revealed to the Scarrens that they can be found on Earth.
Crichton's only option to save his home world is to destroy the wormhole that leads there, leaving him stranded in space forever.
That done, Scorpius returns to the Peacekeepers and the Moya crew go to the ocean planet Qujaga to recover.
While there, Aeryn reveals that the pregnancy – formerly kept in stasis – has now been released and they are going to have a baby.
Crichton proposes to her, and she agrees.
However, at the last second they are attacked by random aliens, who appear to kill them both.
Thinking that Crichton is dead and the wormhole tech gone with him, Scorpius deliberately starts a war with the Scarrens in the hope that the element of surprise will be on their side.
The tactic is unsuccessful, and the Scarrens are on the verge of overwhelming the Peacekeepers.
When the Peacekeeper Grand Chancellor considers surrender, Grayza kills him and takes over to make sure the war continues.
On Qujaga the aliens, called Eidolons, realize that killing Crichton and Aeryn was a mistake and reanimate them.
Scorpius instantly realizes this and abandons the war to track him down, hoping to acquire the wormhole tech once and for all as the only way of stopping the Scarrens.
Crichton again refuses.
Meanwhile the crew discover that the Eidolons are in fact a lost colony of the people of Arnessk, and have an innate ability to bring peace to others.
If they can find more of their people, they will be able to stop the war.
Moya, with Scorpius and Sikozu in tow, heads back to Arnessk, where the ancient people have been revived and are working with Jool.
They agree to help, but Scarren Emperor Staleek attacks, destroying the base and killing Jool.
Staleek doesn’t want peace – he wants victory.
Only one Eidolon remains, who is able to transmit the ability to Stark, and the crew escape the Scarrens with the help of D’Argo's son Jothee.
They return to Qujaga to find that the Peacekeeper-Scarren war has reached the planet.
Crichton and the others must get through the battle to reach the remaining Eidolons on the planet and pass the techniques of peace to them, all while both sides are still after him for wormhole technology.
Once there, Crichton and Aeryn are finally able to marry and Aeryn gives birth, but D’Argo is fatally wounded in the escape and dies offscreen.
Realising that neither side will take no for an answer, Crichton returns to Einstein and convinces him to unlock the knowledge, which Crichton then uses to launch a wormhole weapon – a black hole that will grow and grow until it destroys everything in the universe.
Both Grayza and Staleek finally realise that this weapon is too dangerous for anyone to possess, and they agree to a ceasefire.
Crichton is able to stop the black hole, but falls into a coma as a result.
With the war finally over, the Eidolons help to broker a peace treaty between the two sides, but Crichton is still in a coma.
He is finally brought out of it when Aeryn places his new baby in his arms.
The new family looks out onto the now peaceful galaxy, naming the baby D’Argo in honour of their friend, and promising the universe belongs to him.
<EOS>
The series is set in a future age of interstellar travel and concerns the exploits of a group of renegades and convicted criminals.
Gareth Thomas played the eponymous character Roj Blake, a political dissident who is arrested, tried and convicted on false charges, and then deported from Earth to a prison planet.
He and two fellow prisoners, treated as expendable, are sent to board and investigate an abandoned alien spacecraft.
They get the ship working, commandeer it, rescue two more prisoners, and are joined by an alien guerrilla with telepathic abilities.
In their attempts to stay ahead of their enemies and inspire others to rebel, they encounter a great variety of cultures on different planets, and are forced to confront human and alien threats.
The group performs a campaign against the totalitarian Terran Federation until an intergalactic war occurs.
Blake disappears and Kerr Avon then commands the group.
When their spacecraft is destroyed and one group member dies, they commandeer an inferior craft and a base on a distant planet, from which they continue their campaign.
In the final episode Avon finds Blake and, suspecting him of betraying the group, kills him.
The group is then shot by Federation guards, who surround Avon in the final scene.
Roj Blake, a worker of high social status classified as "alpha-grade", lives in a domed city.
Similar domes house most of the Earth's population.
Blake is approached by a group of political dissidents who take him outside the city to meet their commander, Bran Foster.
According to Foster, Blake was once the commander of an influential group of political activists opposed to the Federation's Earth Administration.
Blake was arrested, brainwashed and coerced into making a confession denouncing the rebellion.
His memory of those years was then blocked.
Foster wants Blake to rejoin the dissidents.
Suddenly, the meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Federation security forces, who shoot and kill the crowd of rebels.
Blake, the only survivor, returns to the city, where he begins to remember his past.
He is arrested, tried on false charges of child molestation and sentenced to deportation to the prison planet Cygnus Alpha.
On the prison ship, London, Blake meets thief Vila Restal, smuggler Jenna Stannis, murderer Olag Gan and computer engineer Kerr Avon.
The London encounters a battle between two alien space fleets and Londons crew plot a course to avoid the combat zone and continue their voyage.
They encounter a strange alien craft, board it and attempt to salvage it but are thwarted by the alien ship's defence mechanism.
The captain of the London sends the expendable Blake, Avon, and Jenna across to the ship.
Blake defeats the defence system when it tries to use memories he recently discovered were false.
With Jenna as pilot, the three convicts escape in the alien craft.
Blake and his crew follow the London to Cygnus Alpha in their captured ship, which they have named Liberator.
They retrieve Vila and Gan, while Blake leaves the other prisoners.
Blake wants to use Liberator and its new crew to attack the Federation with the others, especially Avon, as reluctant followers.
Blake's first target is a communications station on the planet Saurian Major.
Blake infiltrates the station and is assisted by Cally, a telepathic guerrilla soldier from the planet Auron.
Blake invites Cally to join the crew.
With this new arrival, and including Liberators computer, Zen, Liberator has a crew of seven.
Blake meets a man named Ensor and discovers a plot by Servalan and Travis to seize a powerful computer named Orac, which is capable of communicating with any computer that uses a component called a Tariel Cell.
Blake's crew are suffering from radiation sickness, but capture the device before Servalan arrives.
Blake offers to perform the operation to save Ensor's life aboard the Liberator, but Ensor dies when the power cells for his artificial heart are depleted before they are able to reach Liberator.
Aboard Liberator, Orac predicts the craft's destruction in the near future.
The alien race that built Liberator recaptures it.
Orac's prophecy is fulfilled when it destroys an identical space vehicle.
Blake wants to attack the heart of the Federation and he targets the main computer control facility on Earth.
Avon agrees to help on condition that Blake gives him Liberator when the Federation has been destroyed.
Blake, Avon, Vila and Gan reach the control facility and find an empty room.
Travis reveals that the computer facility was secretly relocated years before and the old location was left as a decoy.
Blake and his crew escape but Travis explodes a grenade and Gan is killed by falling rubble.
After Gan's death, Blake considers the future of the rebellion and Travis is convicted of war crimes by a Federation court martial at Space Command Headquarters based aboard a space station.
Blake decides to restore his group's reputation and attacks the space station but Travis escapes and continues his vendetta against Blake.
Meanwhile, Blake seeks the new location of the computer control facility.
He learns that it is now named Star One.
When Star One begins to malfunction, Servalan also becomes desperate to find its location.
The facility's failure causes many problems across the Federation.
Star One controls a large defensive barrier that has prevented extra-galactic incursions.
Blake discovers Star One's location and finds that, with help from Travis, aliens from the Andromeda galaxy have infiltrated it.
Vila discovers a fleet of alien spacecraft beyond the barrier.
Travis partially disables the barrier.
Blake and his crew overcome the aliens at Star One and kill Travis, but the gap in the barrier allows the aliens to invade.
Jenna calls for help from the Federation, where Servalan has conducted a military coup, imposed martial law and declared herself President.
Servalan dispatches the Federation's battle fleets to repel the invaders, who begin to breach the barrier.
With Blake badly wounded, Liberator by Avon's direction, alone until Servalan's battle fleets arrive, fights against the aliens.
Liberator is damaged severely during the battle with the Andromedans, forcing the crew to abandon ship.
The Federation defeats the alien invaders but has sustained heavy casualties and its influence in the galaxy is considerably reduced.
Blake and Jenna go missing and Avon takes control of Liberator.
Two new additions, weapons expert Dayna Mellanby and mercenary Del Tarrant, join the remaining crew.
Avon is less inclined than Blake to attack the Federation but Servalan realises that if she captures Liberator, the Federation would quickly restore its former power.
Servalan attempts to create clones of herself but is thwarted when the embryos are destroyed.
Avon decides to find the Federation agent who killed Anna Grant, his former lover.
The group interrupts an attempt to eliminate Servalan and Avon discovers that Anna is alive and was previously a Federation agent named Bartolemew.
Anna tries to shoot Avon in the back but Avon kills her and frees Servalan.
Servalan lures Avon into a trap using a faked message from Blake.
Servalan finally captures Liberator and maroons the crew on an artificial planet named Terminal.
However, Liberator and Zen have been irreparably damaged after flying through a cloud of corrosive fluid particles and, as Servalan leaves Terminal, the ship explodes and Servalan is apparently killed as she attempts to escape by teleporting away.
Booby traps, set by Servalan in her underground complex on Terminal, explode and kill Cally.
Avon, Tarrant, Vila, and Dayna escape with Orac and are rescued by Dorian, a salvage operator.
Dorian takes the crew in his spacecraft, Scorpio, to his base on the planet Xenon, where they meet his partner, Soolin.
Dorian plans to drain the crew's life-force and take Orac, but he is foiled by Vila.
Avon completes a new teleport system for Scorpio using the technology left behind by Dorian.
Soolin joins the crew and they commandeer Scorpio and occupy the Xenon base.
Avon gains control of Slave, Scorpios main computer.
The crew acquires an experimental new stardrive that vastly increases Scorpio's speed, making it even faster than Liberator was.
The Scorpio crew become concerned about the speed at which the Federation is reclaiming its former territory and discover that Servalan survived the destruction of Liberator.
Now deposed as President of the Federation, she is using the pseudonym Commissioner Sleer and is enacting a pacification programme using a drug named Pylene 50.
The Scorpio crew gain the formula for an antidote to Pylene-50, but this cannot reverse the drug's effects.
Avon finds a way to synthesise the antidote and the crew attempt to create an alliance between independent worlds to resist the Federation in order to obtain the resources and manpower to mass produce it.
They plan large-scale manufacture of the Pylene 50 antidote.
One of the alliance members, Zukan, betrays the alliance to Servalan and detonates explosives on Xenon base, which is damaged and the Scorpio crew are forced to abandon it.
Avon tells the rest of the group that Orac has traced Blake to Gauda Prime, an agricultural planet.
Blake is masquerading as a bounty hunter; his latest quarry is Arlen, whom he hopes to recruit for his rebellion.
Scorpio approaches Gauda Prime and is attacked.
The crew, except Tarrant, use the teleport to abandon the damaged craft.
Slave is rendered non-functional and Tarrant remains aboard to pilot Scorpio and is injured during a crash landing.
Blake arrives, rescues and takes Tarrant to his base and purportedly captures Tarrant as bounty.
Tarrant thinks that Blake has betrayed the group, and Blake lets Tarrant escape.
Tarrant is nearly killed by Blake's colleagues when Avon and his crew save him, giving credence to Tarrant's accusation that Blake has betrayed them to the Federation.
Becoming very suspicious of Blake, Avon kills him.
Arlen reveals that she is a Federation officer and Federation guards arrive.
Tarrant, Soolin, Vila, and Dayna are apparently killed by Federation troops, who slowly surround Avon.
Avon steps over Blake's body, raises his gun and smiles.
Shots are heard.
<EOS>
At the beginning of the novel, Mr Lewisham is an 18-year-old teacher at a boys' school in Sussex, earning forty pounds a year.
He meets and falls in love with Ethel Henderson, who is paying a visit to relatives.
His involvement with her makes him lose his position, but he is unable to find her when he moves to London.
After a two-and-a-half-year break in the action, Mr Lewisham is in his third year of study at the Normal School of Science in South Kensington.
He has become a socialist, declaring his politics with a red tie, and is an object of interest to Alice Heydinger, an older student.
However, chance brings him together again with his first love at a séance.
Ethel's stepfather, Mr Chaffery, is a spiritualist charlatan, and Mr Lewisham is determined to extricate her from association with Chaffery's dishonesty.
They marry, but Mr Lewisham is forced to abandon his plans for a brilliant scientific career followed by a political ascent.
<EOS>
A group of children are playing an elimination game in the courtyard of an apartment building in Berlin using a chant about a murderer of children.
A woman sets the table for dinner, waiting for her daughter to come home from school.
A wanted poster warns of a serial killer preying on children, as anxious parents wait outside a school.
Little Elsie Beckmann leaves school, bouncing a ball on her way home.
She is approached by Hans Beckert, who is whistling "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg.
He offers to buy her a balloon from a blind street-vendor and walks and talks with her.
Elsie's place at the dinner table remains empty, her ball is shown rolling away across a patch of grass and her balloon is lost in the telephone lines overhead.
In the wake of Elsie's disappearance, anxiety runs high among the public.
Beckert sends an anonymous letter to the newspapers, taking credit for the murders and promising that he will commit others; the police extract clues from the letter, using the new techniques of fingerprinting and handwriting analysis.
Under mounting pressure from city leaders, the police work around the clock.
Inspector Karl Lohmann instructs his men to intensify their search and to check the records of recently released psychiatric patients, focusing on any with a history of violence against children.
They stage frequent raids to question known criminals, disrupting underworld business so badly that (The Safecracker) calls a meeting of the city's crime lords.
They decide to organize their own manhunt, using beggars to watch the children.
Meanwhile, the police search Beckert's rented rooms, find evidence that he wrote the letter there, and lie in wait to arrest him.
Beckert sees a young girl in the reflection of a shop window and begins to follow her, but stops when the girl meets her mother.
He encounters another girl and befriends her, but the blind vendor recognizes his whistling.
The blind man tells one of his friends, who tails the killer with assistance from other beggars he alerts along the way.
Afraid that Beckert will get away, one man chalks a large M (for , murderer in German) on his palm, pretends to trip, and bumps into Beckert, marking the back of his overcoat.
Once Beckert realizes that the beggars are following him, he hides inside a large office building just before the workers leave for the evening.
The beggars call , who arrives at the building with a team of other criminals.
They capture and torture one of the watchmen for information and, after capturing the other two, search the building and catch Beckert in the attic.
When one of the watchmen trips the silent alarm, the criminals narrowly escape with their prisoner before the police arrive.
Franz, one of the criminals, is left behind in the confusion and captured by the police; Lohmann tricks him into admitting that the gang only broke into the building to find Beckert and revealing where he will be taken.
The criminals drag Beckert to an abandoned distillery to face a kangaroo court.
He finds a large, silent crowd awaiting him.
Beckert is given a "lawyer", who gamely argues in his defense but fails to win any sympathy from the improvised "jury".
Beckert delivers an impassioned monologue, saying that he cannot control his homicidal urges, while the other criminals present break the law by choice, and further questioning why they as criminals believe they have any right to judge him by stating: "What right have you to speak.
Criminals.
Perhaps you're even proud of yourselves.
Proud of being able to crack into safes, or climb into buildings or cheat at cards.
All of which, it seems to me, you could just as easily give up if you'd learned something useful, or if you had jobs, or if you weren't such lazy pigs.
I can't help myself.
I have no control over this evil thing that's inside me - the fire, the voices, the torment.
" Beckert pleads to be handed over to the police, asking: "Who knows what it's like to be me.
" His "lawyer" points out that the presiding "judge" is wanted on three counts of (manslaughter, a form of homicide in German law), and that it is unjust to execute an insane man.
Just as the enraged mob is about to kill Beckert, the police arrive to arrest both him and the criminals.
As a panel of judges prepares to deliver a verdict at Beckert's real trial, the mothers of three of his victims weep in the gallery.
Elsie's mother says that no sentence will bring the dead children back, and that "One has to keep closer watch over the children".
The screen fades to black as she adds, "All of you".
<EOS>
Jeff Slade is a detective with the CID department of the local police force led by Kate Grisham; although unusually for such a position he is an armed officer, carrying a handgun as routine.
Slade is a good detective who gets results although his approach is somewhat maverick and his methods do leave a lot to be desired and have more than once landed him in trouble.
Amongst Slade's colleagues at the department is science officer Holly Turner who has a secret that Slade manages to uncover.
Holly owns a working time machine that was built by her late father.
The machine is able to take Slade and Holly back far enough in time to witness a crime as it happens and discover who committed it.
As a result, Slade's track record with crime solving goes through the roof with case after case being solved in record time.
<EOS>
The Stardroppers is about an undercover United Nations agent investigating a new fad, "stardropping", whereby physics-violating equipment is used to listen to sounds believed to be alien or paranormal signals.
Superficially a harmless but expensive hobby, stardropping reins in a fanaticism resembling addiction, where some users assemble in semi-social communes and spend all of their money on increasingly improved equipment.
The fad gains an additional aspect of risk when users begin disappearing into thin air, in cases of increasing profile and witnessing.
<EOS>
One thousand years before the events in the game, on a floating continent hovering high above the surface of an unnamed planet, a technologically advanced civilization sought to harness the power of the four elemental crystals of light.
They did not realize that they could not control such fundamental forces of nature.
This power of light would have consumed the world itself had the light crystals not had their natural counterparts: the four dark elemental crystals.
Disturbed by the sudden interruption of the careful balance between light and dark, four warriors were granted the power of the dark crystals to recapture the power of the light crystals.
These so-called Dark Warriors succeeded in their quest, and restored harmony to the world.
But their victory came too late to save the doomed civilization, whose culture was reduced to ruin, though their floating continent remained.
On that continent, the circle of Gulgans, a race of blind soothsayers and fortune-tellers, predicted that these events will ultimately repeat.
Final Fantasy III focuses around four orphans from the remote village of Ur, each starting off as an Onion Knight in the original game, but as Freelancers in the Nintendo DS remake, which also individualized the party members, giving them unique appearances (designed by Akihiko Yoshida), backstories, personalities and names: An earthquake opens up a previously hidden cavern in Altar Cave near the village of Ur on the floating continent.
Four young orphans under the care of Topapa, the village elder, explore the earthquake's impact and come across a crystal of light.
The crystal grants them a portion of its power, and instructs them to go forth and restore balance to the world.
Not knowing what to make of the crystal's pronouncements, but nonetheless recognizing the importance of its words, the four inform their adoptive family of their mission and set out to explore an overworld outside the area in which they were brought up, in order to bring balance back to the world.
Their adventures lead them to discover that there lies a whole world beyond the boundaries of the floating continent upon which they were living.
In the world below, they discover a warlock named Xande, one of three apprentices to the legendary Archmage Noah, is trying to possess the crystals of light, so as to bring forth chaos and disorder.
The four warriors eventually arrive at the Crystal Tower where they discover that the Cloud of Darkness is the source of the recent events.
The Cloud attempts to create a similar situation to the Flood of Light a millennia earlier so that the world is pulled into the void.
The Light Warriors traverse into the domain of the dark crystals to free the imprisoned Dark Warriors and defeat the Cloud of Darkness, thereby restoring the crystals and balance to the world.
In the DS remake, there are also several "side quests" that can also be completed.
The story is virtually the same in the DS version, but with some major differences in the introductory sequence: Luneth goes to the Altar Cave alone, but while exploring he trips and falls into a hole created by the earthquake.
He is then beset by goblins, and while he is frantically searching for a way out, he comes upon the wind crystal.
It tells him that he has been chosen as a Warrior of Light, destined to restore balance to the world, and there are three others like him, but before Luneth can ask it to elaborate, he is teleported to the surface.
He returns to Ur, but Elder Topapa does not elucidate much on the matter.
Going to a corner of town, Luneth finds his friend Arc being bullied by some of the kids.
When Luneth intervenes, Arc runs away, heading for the village of Kazus.
Luneth chases Arc to Kazus and, upon reuniting with Arc, discovers that the rumors of a curse on Kazus are not false.
The people there are see-through, and one such person, Cid of Canaan, instructs the two boys to take his airship and look for Refia, the mythril smith Takka's adoptive daughter.
They find her on the airship, and accompany her to Castle Sasune as per her suggestion.
There, they meet Ingus, a soldier of Sasune who has somehow escaped the curse.
He joins the trio after an audience with the king, who instructs them to find his daughter, Sara.
They catch up to her in the Sealed Cave, and with her, battle the monster who cast the curse: the Djinn.
Just as Sara seals the Djinn away, however, Luneth, Arc, Refia and Ingus all disappear before her eyes.
As it transpires, the wind crystal had summoned the four youths in order to grant them a portion of its power.
After this, Luneth's party reunites with Sara at Castle Sasune.
She completes the process of dispelling the Djinn's curse, but becomes depressed when Luneth reveals that he and his companions must leave at once.
After Sara stops crying long enough to see them off, they go back to Kazus, where Takka drags Refia home.
The three boys consult with Cid, and then Takka, who builds a mythril ram on the ship.
It should be noted that Refia is not with him when he returns, and when the party once more finds her aboard Cid's airship, the player would be able to piece together why: she had told Takka that she is a Warrior of Light like the boys, and therefore has to leave.
The new introductory sequence ends with the airship being used to demolish the boulder in Nelv Valley.
<EOS>
The play's focus is Southerner Regina Hubbard Giddens, who struggles for wealth and freedom within the confines of an As a result of this practice, her avaricious brothers Benjamin and Oscar are independently wealthy, while she must rely upon her sickly, wheelchair-bound husband Horace for financial support.
Regina's brother Oscar married Birdie, his much-maligned alcoholic wife, solely to acquire her family's plantation and its cotton fields.
Oscar now wants to join forces with his brother, Benjamin, to construct a cotton mill.
They need an additional $75,000 and approach their sister, asking her to invest in the project.
Oscar initially proposes marriage between his son Leo and Regina's daughter Alexandra—first cousins—as a means of getting Horace's money, but Horace and Alexandra are repulsed by the suggestion.
Horace refuses when Regina asks him outright for the money, so Leo, a bank teller, is pressured into stealing Horace's railroad bonds from the bank's safety deposit box.
Horace, after discovering this, tells Regina he is going to change his will in favor of their daughter, and also will claim he gave Leo the bonds as a loan, thereby cutting Regina out of the deal completely.
When he suffers a heart attack during this chat, she makes no effort to help him.
He dies within hours, without anyone knowing his plan and before changing his will.
This leaves Regina free to blackmail her brothers by threatening to report Leo's theft unless they give her 75% ownership in the cotton mill (it is, in Regina's mind, a fair exchange for the stolen bonds).
The price Regina ultimately pays for her evil deeds is the loss of her daughter Alexandra's love and respect.
Regina's actions cause Alexandra to finally understand the importance of not idly watching people do evil.
She tells Regina she will not watch her be "one who eats the earth," and abandons her.
Having let her husband die, alienated her brothers, and driven away her only child, Regina is left wealthy but completely alone.
<EOS>
After her mother dies in a car accident, 13-year-old Amy Alden (Anna Paquin) is brought from New Zealand to Ontario, Canada, by her estranged father Thomas Alden (Jeff Daniels), a sculptor and inventor, to live with him and his girlfriend Susan (Dana Delany).
When a construction crew destroys a small wilderness area near the Alden home, Amy finds a nest of goose eggs.
Without Thomas, Susan, or her uncle David (Terry Kinney) knowing, she takes the eggs and keeps them in a dresser in her father’s old barn to incubate.
When the eggs have hatched, she is allowed to keep the goslings as pets.
Thomas asks for help from local game warden Glen Seifert (Jeremy Ratchford) on how to care for the geese.
Seifert comes over to the Alden house, and explains that the geese have imprinted on Amy as their mother.
He explains that geese learn everything from their parents including migratory routes, but also warns Thomas that all domestic geese must have their wings pinioned (clipped) to render them flightless, which upsets Amy.
Thomas throws Seifert off his property, only for Seifert to threaten the Aldens that if the birds start flying, he will have to confiscate them.
Thomas decides to use an ultralight aircraft to teach the birds to fly and show them their migratory routes, but quickly realizes the birds will only follow Amy.
Aided by his friend Barry (Holter Graham), Thomas teaches Amy how to fly an ultralight aircraft of her own, so she can teach the geese.
David mentions knowing someone running a bird sanctuary in North Carolina, and arranges for the geese to go to the sanctuary.
The birds have to arrive before November 1, or the sanctuary will be torn down by developers who plan to turn it into a coastal housing development.
Amy and Thomas practice flying the aircraft, but Igor, the weakest of the geese, who has a limp, accidentally hits the front of Amy’s aircraft and lands in an isolated forest.
While the group goes off to search for the bird, Glen Seifert returns to the Alden farm and confiscates the other geese.
The next day, an elaborate plan is staged to free the geese and start their migration to North Carolina.
Making an emergency landing at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station in upstate New York on the south shore of Lake Ontario, Amy and Thomas almost get arrested.
They become national news, with residents cheering them on and offering the two a place to stay at night at each of their stops.
Thirty miles before reaching the bird sanctuary, Thomas’s aircraft suffers a structural failure and crashes in a cornfield; he tells Amy to finish the journey by herself.
After Amy takes off and begins to head toward the sanctuary, Thomas hitchhikes to the bird sanctuary.
While waiting for the geese, Thomas, Susan, David, Barry and many animal enthusiasts stand up to developers who are waiting to start the excavation of the site.
Amy eventually appears with the geese, much to the joy of the townspeople and Amy’s family, but to the dismay of the developers.
The townspeople and the Aldens celebrate their victory.
The following spring, all 16 geese safely return to the Aldens' farm on their own.
<EOS>
Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is a surveillance expert who runs his own company in San Francisco.
He is highly respected by others in the profession.
Caul is obsessed with his own privacy; his apartment is almost bare behind its triple-locked door and burglar alarm, he uses pay phones to make calls, claims to have no home telephone and his office is enclosed in wire mesh in a corner of a much larger warehouse.
Caul is utterly professional at work but finds personal contact extremely difficult because he is intensely secretive about even the most trivial aspects of his life.
Dense crowds make him feel uncomfortable and he is withdrawn and taciturn in more intimate social situations.
He is also reticent and obsessively secretive with colleagues.
His appearance is nondescript, except for his habit of wearing a translucent grey plastic raincoat almost everywhere he goes, even when it is not raining.
Despite Caul's insistence that his professional code means that he is not responsible for the actual content of the conversations he records or the use to which his clients put his surveillance activities, he is wracked by guilt over a past wiretap job which resulted in the murder of three people.
This sense of guilt is amplified by his devout Catholicism.
His one hobby is playing along to jazz records on a tenor saxophone in the privacy of his apartment.
Caul, his colleague Stan (John Cazale) and some freelance associates have taken on the task of bugging the conversation of a couple (Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest) as they walk through crowded Union Square in San Francisco, surrounded by a cacophony of background noise.
Amid the small-talk, the couple discuss fears that they are being watched, and mention a discreet meeting at a hotel room in a few days.
The challenging task of recording this conversation is accomplished by multiple surveillance operatives located in different positions around the square.
After Caul has worked his magic on merging and filtering different tapes, the final result is a sound recording in which the words themselves become crystal clear, but their actual meaning remains ambiguous.
Although Caul cannot understand the true meaning of the conversation, he finds the cryptic nuances and emotional undercurrents contained within it deeply troubling.
Sensing danger, Caul feels increasingly uneasy about what may happen to the couple once the client hears the tape.
He plays the tape again and again throughout the movie, gradually refining its accuracy.
He concentrates on one key phrase hidden under the sound of a street musician: "He'd kill us if he got the chance".
Caul constantly reinterprets the speakers' subtle emphasis on particular words in this phrase, trying to figure out their meaning in the light of what he suspects and subsequently discovers.
Caul avoids handing in the tape to the aide (Harrison Ford) of the man who commissioned the surveillance (Robert Duvall).
Afterwards, he finds himself under increasing pressure from the client's aide and is himself followed, tricked, and bugged.
The tape of the conversation is eventually stolen from him in a moment when his guard is down.
Tormented by guilt over what he fears will happen to the couple, Caul's desperate efforts to forestall tragedy fail.
To Caul's surprise, it turns out that the conversation he had obsessed over might not mean what he thought it did: the tragedy he had anticipated is not the one which eventually occurs.
He is led to believe that his own apartment has been bugged and goes on a frantic search for the listening device, tearing up walls and floorboards and destroying his apartment to no avail.
He sits among the wreckage, playing the only thing in his apartment left intact: his saxophone.
<EOS>
The comedian Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) is trying to understand why his relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) ended a year ago.
Growing up in New York, he vexed his mother with impossible questions about the emptiness of existence, but he was precocious about his innocent sexual curiosity.
Annie and Alvy, in a line for The Sorrow and the Pity, overhear another man deriding the work of Federico Fellini and Marshall McLuhan; McLuhan himself steps in at Alvy's invitation to criticize the man's comprehension.
That night, Annie shows no interest in sex with Alvy.
Instead, they discuss his first wife (Carol Kane), whose ardor gave him no pleasure.
His second marriage was to a New York writer who didn't like sports and was unable to reach orgasm.
With Annie, it is different.
The two of them have fun making a meal of boiled lobster together.
He teases her about the unusual men in her past.
He met her playing tennis doubles with friends.
Following the game, awkward small talk led her to offer him first a ride up town and then a glass of wine on her balcony.
There, what seemed a mild exchange of trivial personal data is revealed in "mental subtitles" as an escalating flirtation.
Their first date follows Annie's singing audition for a night club ("It Had to be You").
He suggests they kiss first, to get it out of the way.
After their lovemaking that night, Alvy is "a wreck", while she relaxes with a joint.
Soon Annie admits she loves him, while he buys her books on death and says that his feelings for her are more than just love.
When she moves in with him, things become very tense.
Eventually, he finds her arm in arm with one of her college professors and the two begin to argue whether this is the "flexibility" they had discussed.
They eventually break up, and he searches for the truth of relationships, asking strangers on the street about the nature of love, questioning his formative years, until he casts himself in Snow White opposite Annie's Evil Queen.
Alvy returns to dating, but the effort is marred by neurosis, bad sex, and finally an interruption from Annie, who insists he come over immediately.
It turns out she needs him to kill a spider.
A reconciliation follows, coupled with a vow to stay together come what may.
However, their separate discussions with their therapists make it evident there is an unspoken divide.
When Alvy accepts an offer to present an award on television, they fly out to Los Angeles, with Alvy's friend, Rob (Tony Roberts).
However, on the return trip, they agree that their relationship is not working.
After losing her to her record producer, Tony Lacey (Paul Simon), he unsuccessfully tries rekindling the flame with a marriage proposal.
Back in New York, he stages a play of their relationship but changes the ending: now she accepts.
The last meeting for them is a wistful coda on New York's Upper West Side, when they have both moved on to someone new.
Alvy's voice returns with a summation: love is essential, especially if it is neurotic.
Annie sings "Seems Like Old Times" and the credits roll.
<EOS>
Carietta "Carrie" White is a 16-year-old girl from Chamberlain, Maine.
Her widowed mother Margaret, a fanatical Christian fundamentalist, has a vindictive and unstable personality and over the years has ruled Carrie harshly with repeated threats of damnation, as well as frequent physical abuse.
Carrie does not fare much better at her school where her frumpy looks and lack of friends make her the subject of ridicule.
At the beginning of the novel, Carrie has her first period while showering after a physical education class; she has no understanding of menstruation as her mother never told her about it, believing it to be sin.
Her classmates use the event as an opportunity to taunt her; led by Chris Hargensen, they throw tampons and sanitary napkins at her.
When gym teacher Miss Desjardin happens upon the scene, she at first berates Carrie for her stupidity but is horrified when she realizes that Carrie has no idea what is happening to her.
In the midst of the commotion a lightbulb shatters above Carrie's head.
Miss Desjardin excuses this and helps Carrie clean up and tries to explain.
Carrie's mother shows no sympathy for her; she beats her and locks her into a closet, insisting that her first period is a punishment for some sort of sin.
Miss Desjardin, still incensed over the locker room incident and ashamed at her initial disgust with Carrie, wants all the girls who taunted Carrie suspended and banned from attending the school prom, but the principal instead punishes the girls by giving them several detentions.
When Chris, after an altercation with Miss Desjardin, refuses to appear for the detention, she is suspended and barred from the prom and tries to get her father, a prominent local lawyer, to intimidate the school principal into reinstating her privileges.
Carrie gradually discovers her dormant telekinetic powers which she had apparently possessed since birth.
They were once again awoken during the period incident which caused her to unknowingly shatter the light bulb.
She also begins to really understand that she is telepathic.
Meanwhile, Sue Snell, another popular girl who had earlier teased Carrie, begins to feel remorseful about her participation in the locker room antics.
With the prom fast approaching, Sue convinces her boyfriend, Tommy Ross, one of the most popular boys in the school, to ask Carrie to the prom.
Carrie is suspicious but accepts his offer, and makes a red velvet gown.
Carrie's mother won't hear of her daughter doing anything so "carnal" as attending a school dance, as she believes that sex in any form is sinful, even after marriage.
She also reveals that she knows about Carrie's telekinetic powers, which she considers a form of witchcraft; it seems that they appear every third generation in her family.
Carrie, however, is tired of hearing that everything is a sin; she wants a normal life and sees the prom as a new beginning.
The prom initially goes well for Carrie; Tommy's friends are welcoming and Tommy finds himself attracted towards her.
Chris Hargensen, still furious, devises her own revenge with her boyfriend Billy Nolan: they fill two buckets full of pig's blood and suspend the buckets over the stage.
They rig Carrie's election as prom queen and empty the buckets on Carrie's and Tommy's heads.
Tommy is knocked unconscious by one of the buckets and dies within minutes, and he and Carrie are both drenched in blood.
Nearly everyone in attendance, even some of the teachers, begin laughing at Carrie, who is finally pushed over the edge.
She leaves the building in agonized humiliation, remembers her telekinesis, and decides to use it for vengeance.
Initially planning only to lock all the doors and turn on the sprinklers, Carrie remembers the electrical equipment set up for the sound system but turns the sprinklers on anyway.
Watching through the windows, she witnesses the deaths of two students and a school official by electrocution, and decides to kill everyone, causing a massive fire that destroys the school and traps almost everyone inside.
Walking home, she burns almost all of downtown Chamberlain by breaking power lines and exploding gas stations.
A side-effect of her telekinesis is "broadcast" telepathy, which causes the city's inhabitants to become aware that the carnage was caused by Carrie White, even if they do not know who she is.
Carrie returns home to her mother, who believes that Carrie has been possessed by Satan and that the only way to save her is to kill her.
Margaret reveals that Carrie's conception was a result of a marital rape, and then stabs Carrie in the shoulder with a kitchen knife, but Carrie kills her mother by stopping her heart.
Mortally wounded but still alive, Carrie makes her way to destroy the roadhouse wherein she was conceived.
She sees Chris and Billy leaving; after Chris attempts to run her over, she telekinetically takes control of the vehicle and wrecks the car, killing them both.
Sue Snell, who has been following Carrie's telepathic "broadcast," finds Carrie collapsed in the parking lot.
The two have a brief telepathic conversation.
Though Carrie had believed that Sue and Tommy had set her up for the prank, Carrie realizes that Sue is innocent and has never felt any real animosity towards her.
Carrie forgives her and dies crying out for her mother.
Miss Desjardin, one of the few survivors of the prom, resigns due to her guilt for not reaching out to Carrie sooner, even stating that she would rather kill herself than teach again.
Director Henry Grayle also resigns.
The surviving seniors attend a grim graduation ceremony.
The "Black Prom" is regarded in the book as one of the worst disasters in American history.
Carrie's story becomes a controversial and highly discussed subject.
Scientists begin to take the concept of telekinesis more seriously.
With over 440 people dead and so much destroyed, Chamberlain becomes a virtual ghost town and a popular tourist attraction because of Carrie's actions.
Fictional transcripts of Congressional hearings and a final "White Committee" report are shown; at the end, the report concludes that at least there are no others like Carrie White, so events like these will not happen again.
However, the final document in the book is a cheery letter from an Appalachian woman to her sister in Georgia, talking about her baby daughter's telekinetic abilities.
Unlike Margaret White, she expresses fascination and hope, even reminisces about her grandmother, who had similar abilities.
<EOS>
In the Sandleford warren, Fiver, a young runt rabbit who is a seer, receives a frightening vision of his warren's imminent destruction.
When he and his brother Hazel fail to convince their chief rabbit of the need to evacuate, they set out on their own, accompanied by nine other rabbits who choose to go with them.
The first challenge in the small band's search for a new home comes immediately, as they are forced to elude the Owsla, the warren's military caste.
Once out in the world, the travelling group of rabbits finds itself following the leadership of Hazel, who, until now, has been just another unimportant member of the warren.
The group travels far and through dangerous territory.
Bigwig and Silver, both former Owsla and the strongest rabbits among them, do well to keep the others protected, along with Hazel's keen observations and good judgement.
Eventually they meet a rabbit named Cowslip, who invites them to join his warren.
At first Hazel's group are relieved to finally be able to sleep and feed well - all except for Fiver who senses only death there.
When Bigwig is nearly killed in a snare, the group realize that the new warren is managed by a farmer who protects and feeds the rabbits, but also harvests a number of them for his own purposes.
The residents of the new warren are simply using Hazel and the others to increase their own odds of survival.
Fiver and the rest of the group work together to rescue Bigwig from the snare, then continue on their journey, along with a rabbit from the new warren called Strawberry, who asks to join them.
Fiver's visions have promised them a safe place in which to settle, and the group eventually finds Watership Down, which matches Fiver's description of the perfect home exactly.
There they are soon reunited with Holly and Bluebell, who were with Bigwig in the Owsla.
The two are nursing severe injuries which, they reveal, were inflicted as they escaped the violent human destruction of Sandleford and then later at Cowslip's warren.
Holly also confesses that it was he who had tried to stop them leaving that first night, but Fiver's vision coming true has left him a changed rabbit and he is there to join them in whatever way they will have him.
Although Watership Down is a peaceful habitat, Hazel realizes there are no does (female rabbits), thus making the future of the warren certain to end with the inevitable death of the rabbits present.
With the help of their useful new friend, a black-headed gull named Kehaar, they locate a nearby warren called Efrafa, which is overcrowded and has many does.
Hazel sends a small embassy, led by Holly, to Efrafa to present their request for does.
Meanwhile, Hazel and Pipkin, the smallest member of the group, scout the nearby Nuthanger Farm, where they find two pairs of hutch rabbits.
Despite their uncertainty about living wild, the hutch rabbits are willing to come to Watership.
Hazel leads a raid on the farm the next day, during which he rescues both does but only one of the bucks.
When the emissary returns soon after, Hazel and his rabbits learn that Efrafa is a police state led by the despotic General Woundwort.
Holly and the other rabbits dispatched there have managed to return with little more than their lives intact.
However, Holly's group has managed to identify an Efrafan doe named Hyzenthlay who wishes to leave the warren and can recruit other does to join in the escape.
Hazel and Bigwig devise a plan to rescue Hyzenthlay's group and bring them to Watership Down, after which the Efrafan escapees start their new life of freedom.
Shortly thereafter, however, the Owsla of Efrafa, led by Woundwort himself arrives to attack the newly formed warren at Watership Down.
Through Bigwig's bravery and loyalty, and Hazel's ingenuity, the Watership Down rabbits seal the fate of the Efrafan general by unleashing the Nuthanger Farm watchdog.
A formidable fighter by rabbit standards, Woundwort fearlessly stands his ground when the dog closes on him for the kill.
Woundwort's body, however, is never found, and at least one of his former followers continues to believe in his survival.
Hazel is nearly killed by a cat, but he is saved by the farm girl Lucy, the owner of the escaped hutch rabbits.
The story's epilogue tells the reader of how Hazel, dozing in his burrow one "chilly, blustery morning in March" some years later, is visited by El-ahrairah, the spiritual overseer of all rabbits, and hero of many rabbit stories.
El-ahrairah invites Hazel to join his own Owsla.
Leaving his friends and no-longer-needed body behind, Hazel departs Watership Down with the spirit-guide, "running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom".
<EOS>
In 1954 New England, six strangers are invited to a party at a secluded New England mansion known as Hill House.
After being met at the door by the butler, Wadsworth, the guests are reminded that they have been given a pseudonym to protect their true identity and asks that they only use that name with the other guests.
During dinner, Wadsworth admits a seventh attendee, mr Boddy, and announces that each of the guests is being blackmailed: Finally, Wadsworth reveals mr Boddy's secret to the guests: he is the one who has been blackmailing them.
As the guests begin to shout at mr Boddy, Wadsworth explains that he has gathered all the guests together to confront mr Boddy and turn him over to the police.
Confronted by Wadsworth's revelation, mr Boddy reminds the guests that, if turned over to the police, he can reveal their secrets while in police custody.
mr Boddy then distributes to each guest a wrapped gift box which, when opened, reveal one of six weapons: a wrench, a candlestick, a lead pipe, a knife, a revolver, and a rope with a hangman's knot.
mr Boddy suggests that they use the weapons provided to kill Wadsworth and destroy the evidence, keeping their secrets safe.
mr Boddy turns out the lights in the room, creating a moment of chaos in which someone shoots the revolver.
When the lights come back on, mr Boddy is lying on the ground and is pronounced dead by Professor Plum.
Everyone denies killing mr Boddy, and Wadsworth reveals that he arranged the event in revenge for his wife who had committed suicide after being blackmailed by mr Boddy for having Socialist friends.
While trying to decide how to proceed, Wadsworth and the guests check on mrs Ho, the Cook, who is found dead in the kitchen with the knife.
Upon returning to The Study, mr Boddy is gone and is later found dead by mrs Peacock in the bathroom from the candlestick.
Wadsworth and the guests assume there must be another person in the house that killed The Cook and mr Boddy, so they split up in pairs and search the house with the weapons locked in the cupboard.
Over the course of search, three weapons (the wrench, the lead pipe, and the revolver) are used to a kill stranded motorist found dead in the lounge, a police officer (after he investigate the motorist's abandoned car) in the Library, and a singing telegram girl in the Hall.
Yvette, the maid, is found dead in the Billiard Room with the rope.
Wadsworth announces to the other guests that he deduced the identity of the murderer and runs through a frantic re-enactment of the entire evening, scene by scene, with the guests in tow.
Wadsworth points out that each of the victims had a connection to one of the guests and were actually accomplices that enabled mr Boddy to find out the secrets he later used to blackmail the guests.
The accounting is interrupted by an evangelist at the front door warning "the 'Kingdom of Heaven' is at hand", who is encouraged to leave.
Wadsworth then flips the electricity to the house.
At this point, the story proceeds to one of three endings: A, B, or Having used her former call girl Yvette to murder mr Boddy and the cook, Miss Scarlet killed her and the others to keep her true business of "secrets" safe, planning on using the information learned tonight for her own benefit.
While Miss Scarlet holds Wadsworth at gunpoint with the revolver, Wadsworth tells her that there are no more bullets in the gun, but Miss Scarlet insists she still has one left and threatens to kill him.
Wadsworth reveals himself to be an undercover FBI agent and arrests Miss Scarlet as police arrive and secure the house.
The evangelist is revealed to be the chief.
Although still insisting to Miss Scarlet the revolver is empty, Wadsworth realizes she was right when he accidentally fires the last bullet into the air, hitting a chandelier and causing it to crash closely behind Colonel Mustard.
mrs Peacock is revealed as the murderer of all the victims and escapes after holding the others at gunpoint.
However, Wadsworth reveals himself as an FBI agent with the night's activities set up to spy on mrs Peacock's activities, believing her to be taking bribes by foreign powers.
As mrs Peacock makes her way to her car, she is captured by the police, and the evangelist is revealed to be the chief.
This ending is dubbed by the movie as "the way it really happened".
Each murder was committed by a different person: Professor Plum killed mr Boddy in the hall with the candlestick, mrs Peacock killed the cook in the kitchen with the knife, Colonel Mustard killed the motorist in the lounge with the wrench, mrs White killed Yvette in the billiard room with the rope, and Miss Scarlet killed the cop in the library with the lead pipe.
mr Green is accused of shooting the singing telegram girl in the hall with the revolver.
Wadsworth then reveals not only did he kill her himself, but that he is in fact the real mr Boddy and the man Professor Plum killed was simply his butler.
He had brought the other victims, who were his accomplices in the blackmail scheme, to the house to be killed by the guests and thus plans to continue blackmailing them now that there's no evidence against him.
mr Green then draws another revolver and kills the blackmailer.
mr Green reveals to the others that he is actually an undercover FBI agent and the whole evening was a set-up to catch the criminals.
The police and FBI arrive and arrest all the guests for murder as the evangelist is revealed to be the chief.
At this point, mr Green says "I'm gonna go home and sleep with my wife.
".
<EOS>
Sergeant Nico Toscani, a native of Palermo, is a detective in the Chicago Police Department’s vice squad.
At an early age he became interested in martial arts, and moved to Japan to study.
In 1969, Nico was recruited into the CIA by Special Agent Nelson Fox and was involved in covert operations on the Vietnamese-Cambodian border during the Vietnam War.
There, he became disgusted with station chief Kurt Zagon, who tortured prisoners.
A stand-off occurred when Nico tried to stop a torture session, and he left the CIA.
Nico returned to Chicago, joined the CPD, and got married.
Nico and his new partner Detective Delores "Jacks" Jackson, are now investigating a drug ring, and after busting two of the dealers, including Salvadorian drug dealer Tony Salvano, Nico finds C4 explosives.
Shortly afterward, the men that Nico and Jacks arrested are released at the request of Federal officials, and Nico is asked to stand down.
Later, the priest of Nico’s parish is killed in an explosion during Mass.
Fox calls Nico and tells him to move his family to a safer location, saying that Nico is in danger.
Under pressure from the Feds, Nico is asked to turn in his badge.
Nico eventually finds that the dealers he busted are linked to Zagon, who is still with the CIA, and who is accused of human rights violations by a Central American priest who was being sheltered by Nico's priest.
While Zagon is torturing the priest, Nico bursts in and a gun battle ensues.
Detective Lukich and Jacks are wounded during the shoot-out, and Nico has to flee.
Senator Ernest Harrison is investigating Zagon's group to reveal their covert operations and drug dealing.
When Nico finds out that Zagon killed the priest and is planning to kill Harrison, he goes after Zagon.
Nico confronts Fox, but they are interrupted by Zagon's men.
Fox is killed and Nico is captured.
Nico is held in the kitchen of a hotel during a Harrison campaign rally.
Before Zagon can kill Harrison, Nico breaks free and kills Zagon and all of his remaining men.
After, Nico meets Sen.
Harrison, who has been informed of everything.
Harrison promises justice for what they did and Nico says he is now willing to testify on his experiences with Zagon and covert operations in the CIA.
<EOS>
Chicago DEA agent John Hatcher returns from Colombia, where drug dealers killed his partner Chico.
As a result of Chico's death and years of dead end work, John retires and heads to his family's home in suburban Chicago.
He visits the local school to meet his old friend and formerS.
Army buddy Max (Keith David) who works there as a football coach and physical education teacher.
As John and Max celebrate their reunion, a gunfight breaks out between local drug dealers and a Jamaican gang at the bar where they celebrate.
The gang, known as the Jamaican Posse, is led by a notorious psychotic drug kingpin named Screwface (Basil Wallace) full of West African Vodun and sadism.
John arrests one of Screwface's henchmen as the gunfight ends.
News that Posse crimes occurring in Chicago and across the United States spread as the Posse increases their crime and members.
The next day, Screwface and his henchmen do a drive-by shooting on the house where John, his sister Melissa, and Melissa's 12-year-old daughter Tracey live.
Tracey is injured and hospitalized in critical condition.
John encounters a gangster named Jimmy whom he is forced to kill.
A Jamaican gangster named Nesta arrives and is subdued by John, who asks about Screwface.
Nesta gives information but tells him to go after Screwface alone and jumps out the window to his death.
The next day, John discovers a strange symbol engraved on a carpet, and with the help of Jamaican voodoo and gang expert Leslie, a detective for the Chicago Police Department, he learns that it is an African blood symbol used to mark their crimes.
John decides to come out of retirement to join Max in a battle against Screwface.
At the same night of their rendezvous, John gets a phone call from Melissa, which is cut short when Screwface and his men invade the Hatcher household, but they leave upon his arrival.
The next day, John and Max encounter another batch of Screwface's henchmen which results in a car chase wherein one of the henchmen is killed.
The henchmen's car crashes into a mall wherein they are subsequently killed by the duo amidst the chaos of shoppers fleeing the scene.
During a meeting with Leslie, John realizes that the only way to stop the Jamaican Posse is to bring down Screwface.
That evening, Screwface ambushes John under the guise of a construction crew; John escapes and survives after Screwface plants a molotov cocktail in his car.
The two team up with Charles, a Jamaican-American detective of the Chicago police, who has been trailing Screwface for five years, and trying to get to the root of the drug problem in the city.
They acquire weaponry from a local weapons dealer, and, after testing the arsenal, they head for Kingston, Jamaica to find Screwface.
Upon arrival, Max and Charles ask people in the streets information about Screwface's and his hideout.
A Jamaican local presents them a photo of a woman who is acquainted with Screwface.
John meets her in a nightclub, and she describes hanging out with Screwface, his drug business, and his hideout.
The woman also informs John of a cryptic clue: the secret of Screwface's power is that he has two heads and four eyes.
By nightfall, John, Max, and Charles (disguised as members of the Posse) head for Screwface's mansion, where there is a party in progress.
Secretly infiltrating the premises through a nearby plantation, John assassinates three henchmen on the balcony with a silenced sniper, plants a bomb at a nearby power station and infiltrates the inner grounds by climbing across roofs.
While Max and Charles keep a lookout, John detonates the bomb, causing the party to erupt in violence and gunfire.
With Max and Charles opening fire on the ambushing Posse gang, John enters the building and disposes of many henchmen.
He finds a sacrificial area but is captured by Screwface and his remaining henchmen.
John manages to break free and kills every henchman before decapitating Screwface in a sword fight.
Upon returning in Chicago, the trio displays Screwface's severed head to the Jamaican Posse to get them to end their crimes and leave.
However, Screwface's identical twin brother, who runs the Chicago Posse crime business, arrives and kills Charles, causing the gang (as well as the audience) to think that Screwface has returned from the dead.
At this point, it is revealed that the twin brother was the real mastermind of all Posse crimes in Chicago and the entire United States while the real Screwface supplies him with drugs and money.
The meeting erupts in chaos, and the gang members open fire on the duo.
During the gunfight, Max holds off the henchmen despite being shot in the leg while John kills more gang members before he engages Screwface's twin brother in a sword fight.
The fight moves to a nightclub owned by the twin himself wherein Hatcher gives him more fatal injuries by gouging his eyes and breaks his spine before dropping him down an elevator shaft, impaling the twin in the process.
With both the Screwface brothers dead, the surviving Posse members are presumably arrested by law enforcement.
The final scene shows John carrying Charles' body with Max limping next to him before ending with Jimmy Cliff's song "John Crow" being played in the credits.
<EOS>
In 1983, Mason Storm, a Los Angeles police detective, investigates a mob meeting that takes place by a pier.
He records a shadowy figure who assures the mob they can rely on his political support.
Storm is spotted, but escapes.
Unaware that he is monitored by corrupt cops, Mason informs his partner and then his friend lt O'Malley that he has evidence of corruption.
While he goes shopping, a store is robbed, and one of the robbers shoots the clerk.
Mason stops them and goes home, intent on celebrating with his wife, Felicia.
Mason hides the videotape in his house.
When he goes upstairs, a hit squad composed of corrupt policemen, including Jack Axel and Max Quentero, break in and proceed to murder Mason's wife and shoot him.
Mason's young son, Sonny, hides until the danger passes.
The corrupt policemen frame Mason, making it look like a murder-suicide.
At the same time, assassins kill Storm's partner.
At the hospital, Mason is first pronounced dead, but is then discovered to be alive, although unconscious.
To prevent the assassins from finishing the job, Lieutenant O'Malley tells the medics to keep Mason's status a secret.
Seven years later, Mason wakes from his coma.
Andy, one of his nurses, makes a phone call, which is intercepted by corrupt police officers.
They send Axel to finish the job and kill the nurses to whom Mason might have talked.
Mason realizes that he is still in danger, but his muscles have atrophied to where he can barely use his arms.
He staggers to an elevator, and when Andy sees her colleagues killed, she helps Mason escape.
Needing time to recuperate, Andy brings Mason to a friend's house, where Mason uses his knowledge of acupuncture, moxibustion and other meditation techniques to recover his strength.
While training, Mason hears a commercial for Senator Vernon Trent and recognizes the voice from the pier.
Mason contacts O'Malley, who supplies him with weapons and tells him that his son is still alive—O'Malley adopted Mason's son and sent him to a private school so that he would be out of danger.
After O'Malley leaves, Senator Trent's men find the house and attempt to kill Andy and Mason, but Mason gets them both out.
Posing as a real estate agent, Mason recovers the hidden videotape from his old house.
He meets O'Malley in a train station, where O'Malley brings Mason's now-teenage son.
They do not see each other, because as Mason arrives, O'Malley is already dead, having been shot by Max after giving the tape to Andy for safe-keeping while having provided a distraction for Sonny to get away.
When Mason arrives, he sees his son running away from Quentero and Nolan, another corrupt cop working for Trent.
Mason catches up with the men, subdues Nolan by breaking his leg and throwing him in a trash bin and fights with Quentero.
Mason beats up Quentero and recognizes him as one of the men who took part in the assault on Mason's home and the murder of his wife.
Mason then proceeds to snap Quentero's neck, killing him and saving his son.
Mason decides to go after Senator Trent at his home.
At the Senator's mansion, Mason sneaks in and manages to eliminate the Senator's men one by one.
Mason fights with Axel in the billiard room and avenges Felicia by jamming a piece of pool stick into Axel's neck, killing him.
Next, Mason leaves a death taunt to Capt.
Hulland, another corrupt cop who betrayed Storm to Trent, and stalks Hulland through the house before cornering the corrupt captain near the fireplace.
Mason then strangles Hulland with his necktie, killing him.
Mason finally confronts Senator Trent and holds him at gunpoint when the police storm the mansion.
However, they reveal that they had already seen the film and knew that Mason was set up, and they arrest Trent instead.
Mason is then reunited with Andy and his son and walks off as the image from the videotape is played on the news, showing Trent coming out of the shadows briefly, wondering who is taping him.
Originally, the movie ended with Mason actually killing Trent, and some time later Mason, Andy and Sonny attending a funeral for O'Malley.
The theatrical trailer shows parts of the original ending.
<EOS>
The battleship arrives at Pearl Harbor, where George Bush announces that the ship will be decommissioned in California, making the trip her final voyage.
Casey Ryback, a Chief Petty Officer assigned as a cook, prepares meals in celebration of the birthday of Captain Adams, against the orders of Commander Krill, who is having food and entertainment brought by helicopter.
Krill and other officers provoke a brawl with Ryback.
Unable to imprison Ryback in the brig without clearance from the captain, Krill detains Ryback in a freezer and places a Marine, Private Nash, on guard.
A helicopter lands on the ship's deck with a musical band, along with Playmate Jordan Tate and a group of caterers who are really a band of mercenaries led by ex-CIA operative William "Bill" Strannix, who was unsuccessfully targeted by his boss, Tom Breaker, for elimination prior to the film after the CIA had realized that Strannix was dangerously unreliable.
Strannix' forces seize control of the ship with Krill's help.
Several officers are killed, including Adams.
Ryback hears the gunshots and begs Nash to free him, but Nash refuses, thinking it is fireworks.
The surviving ship's company are imprisoned in the forecastle, except for some stragglers in unsecured areas.
Strannix intends to sell the ship's Tomahawks by unloading them onto a submarine he previously stole from North Korea.
Strannix and his men take over the ship's weapon systems, shooting down a jet sent to investigate, and plan on covering their escape by using missiles to obliterate tracking systems in Pearl Harbor.
When Ryback's constant insistence causes Private Nash to finally contact the bridge, Krill realizes they forgot about Ryback, and Strannix sends two mercenaries to eliminate Ryback and Nash.
Nash is killed, but Ryback eliminates the assassins and also leaves a time bomb for any hostiles investigating their fellows mercenaries' disappearance.
During his search of the Missouri, he picks up Tate, an innocent decoy in Strannix's plan, and allows her to tag along.
He contacts Admiral Bates at the Pentagon on satellite phone, whereupon the Navy informs him about them sending a SEAL team to retake the ship.
After discovering their dead operatives and Ryback's escape, Krill finds out that Ryback is not just a Chief Petty Officer, but a former Navy SEAL with extensive training in anti-terrorism tactics who lost his status after his entire team was eliminated in a botched operation due to poor intelligence and Ryback retaliated against his commanding officer.
To keep the missile-theft plan in place, Krill activates the fire suppression system in the forecastle, leaving the crew members to drown.
The terrorists expect that Ryback will try to save his colleagues, and set up an ambush.
Ryback and Tate hear six sailors banging on pipes in Morse code and rescue them.
Together, they overcome the ambush, shut off the water in the forecastle, and eliminate several terrorists.
Ryback shuts down Missouris weapon systems to allow the incoming Navy SEALs to land, but the submarine crew shoots down the helicopter carrying the Navy SEALs with shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
The Pentagon responds by ordering an air strike that will sink Missouri.
Strannix regains control of the ship's weapon systems and loads the Tomahawks onto the submarine.
With the aid of a retired World War II Gunner's Mate, who was among the six sailors rescued earlier, Ryback uses the battleship's 16&nbsp;inch guns to sink the submarine, killing Krill and everyone on board.
Strannix, suffering from a major concussion from being in the proximity of Missouris guns as they were fired, and from a breakdown from Ryback continually thwarting his scheme, launches two nuclear-tipped Tomahawks towards Honolulu.
As the sailors recapture the ship, Ryback finds his way into the control room, where he is surprised by Strannix, both of whom recognizing each other from prior covert experiences.
Ryback disarms Strannix, and the two engage in a knife melee.
Ryback gains the upper hand, kills Strannix, and takes the launch code disk needed to self-destruct the Tomahawk missiles.
A fighter jet destroys one of the missiles, and the other is deactivated just in time; the Navy calls off its airstrike.
The remaining crew members are freed as the ship sails towards San Francisco harbor.
A funeral ceremony for Captain Adams is held on the deck of Missouri, showing Ryback saluting the captain's coffin in his formal dress uniform with full decorations.
<EOS>
Gino Felino is an NYPD detective from Brooklyn who has strong ties within his neighborhood.
Gino and his partner Bobby Lupo wait to bust up a multimillion-dollar drug deal.
However, Gino sees a pimp violently assaulting one of his girls and intervenes.
Shortly afterward, Richie Madano murders Bobby in broad daylight in front of his wife, Laurie, and his two children.
Richie is a crack addict who grew up with Gino and Bobby.
He has become psychotic and homicidal due to rage and drug use, and seems not to care about the consequences of his actions.
Richie then murders a woman at a traffic stop because she abruptly tells him to move the car.
He heads off into Brooklyn alongside his goons, who are horrified by what he does but continue to work alongside him.
Gino knows Richie is not going to leave the neighborhood.
Ronnie Donziger, his captain, gives him the clearance for a manhunt and provides him with an shotgun and an unmarked car.
Gino visits his mob connection Frankie and his boss Don Vittorio, and he tells them he will not get out of the way of their own plans to take out Richie, whom they view as a loose cannon.
While driving, Gino sees a fellow driver discard something moving from his car.
Upon investigating, Gino rescues an abandoned German Shepherd puppy.
Gino starts the hunt for Richie at a bar run by Richie's brother Vinnie Madano.
Vinnie and his friends all refuse to provide information, so Gino beats up all of them.
He still does not find out where Richie is, but his concern about getting an attitude problem has been taken care of.
Richie later comes back to the bar and beats up Vinnie for not killing Gino when it was one cop against a bar full of armed men.
He also has info leaked to the mob that he is at the bar, then emerges from hiding and ambushes the mob's hitmen in a shoot-out.
After visiting a number of local hangouts and establishments trying to find information, Gino discovers Richie killed Bobby because Bobby was having an affair with two women – Richie's girlfriend, Roxanne Ford, and a waitress named Terry Malloy.
When Gino goes to Roxanne's home, he finds she is dead.
Gino believes that Richie killed Roxanne before he killed Bobby.
Gino goes to Laurie's house and tells the widow what is going on.
In Laurie's purse, Gino finds the picture that Richie dropped on Bobby's body after killing him.
It turns out that Bobby was a corrupt cop who had wanted a money-making lifestyle like Richie's, and Laurie knew Bobby was corrupt.
Laurie had found a picture of Bobby and Roxanne having sex.
She had given Richie the picture out of jealousy, never expecting Richie to kill Bobby for sleeping with Roxanne.
Laurie took the picture away from where Richie dropped it on Bobby because she wanted to protect her husband's reputation.
Gino attempts to get Richie out of hiding by arresting his sister Pattie and by talking to his estranged, elderly father.
Following a tip from his local snitch Picolino, Gino eventually finds Richie in a house in the old neighborhood having a party.
Gino kills or wounds all of Richie's men.
Gino then finds Richie and fights him hand-to-hand.
After beating Richie senseless, Gino finally kills him by stabbing him in the forehead with a corkscrew.
The mobsters arrive soon after, also intent on killing Richie.
Gino uses the lead mobster's gun to shoot the already-dead Richie several times, then tells him to return to his boss and take credit for Richie's death.
Gino and his wife adopt the puppy as a family pet, naming him Coraggio (Italian for courage or bravery).
Whilst out walking, they encounter the same man who abandoned the puppy earlier, and Gino confronts him.
When the man attacks him, Gino defends himself, knocking the man down.
Gino and his wife laugh as the puppy urinates on the man's head.
<EOS>
Aegis Oil operates Aegis 1, an oil refinery and several oil rigs in Alaska.
They purchased the oil rights from the local Alaskan Natives 20 years ago, but stand to lose them if the refinery isn’t on-line by a certain deadline.
With 13 days to go, and billions of dollars at stake, the company cuts corners and uses faulty equipment.
Hugh Palmer, a rig foreman, is aware of this; as he predicts, his rig catches fire.
It takes Forrest Taft (Seagal), a specialist in dealing with oil drilling-related fires, to extinguish the fire.
Taft refuses to believe Hugh’s story of faulty equipment at first, but later discovers that it’s true after accessing the company’s computer records and finding that the next shipments of new, adequate equipment have been delayed way past the deadline.
Michael Jennings (Michael Caine), the ruthless CEO of Aegis, deludedly believes that Hugh's carelessness is to blame for the rig fire and, after discovering his efforts to alert the EPA about the use of substandard equipment, arranges for him to be ‘dealt with’ by his henchmen MacGruder (John McGinley) and Otto (Sven-Ole Thorsen).
Jennings is alerted to Taft's activities and orders that Taft be also removed.
MacGruder and Otto brutally ransack Palmer's cabin for the evidence against Jennings, and torture and murder Palmer without finding it.
Taft is set up for a trap by investigating a supposedly damaged pump station.
He is badly wounded by an explosion, but survives and is rescued by Masu (Joan Chen), the daughter of Silook, the chief of her tribe.
MacGruder and Otto are unable to locate Taft's body, and Jennings assumes that he is still alive.
Taft is being cared for by Silook's tribe.
After unsuccessfully trying to leave using a dogsled, Silook has Taft undergo a vision quest in which he sees the truth.
When made to choose between two women, Taft opts for the elderly, clothed grandmother, forgoing the erotically-charged nude Iñupiaq seductress.
The grandmother warns Taft that time is running out for those who pollute the world.
Taft realizes that his only option is to see the refinery closed.
He takes off, with MacGruder and Otto hot on his trail.
At Silook's village, they demand to know where Taft is.
Silook refuses to give the information and is fatally shot by MacGruder.
Jennings berates MacGruder for killing Silook.
They bring in a group of New Orleans-based mercenaries led by Stone (R.
Lee Ermey) to finish off Taft before he can stop Aegis 1 from going on-line.
They also have an FBI Anti-Terrorist Unit at the refinery.
Accompanied by Masu, Taft (who is probably ex-CIA and an expert on sabotage and demolition), collects weapons and explosives and manages to enter the refinery complex, and begins to effectively sabotage the refinery.
MacGruder (who is killed by Taft in the process of getting thrown into the helicopter's tail rotor blades for killing Hugh and Silook), Otto (who was killed earlier at Hugh's cabin) and Jennings’ ruthlessly efficient female assistant Liles (who crashes her truck into a gasoline tank in an escape attempt), are powerless to defeat him and are all killed in various gruesome ways; the FBI also pulls out, revealing in the process that Taft might be ex-CIA.
Taft and Masu confront Jennings, string him up, and drop him into a pool of oil, effectively drowning Jennings in his own wealth.
They then escape as a series of explosions destroy the rest of Aegis 1.
As an epilogue, Taft, far from being arrested for sabotage and multiple murders (self defense), is asked to deliver a speech at the Alaska State Capitol about the dangers of oil pollution, and the companies that are endangering the ecosystem.
During the speech they show a scene of one of the first commercial hydrogen fuel cell systems developed by Perry Energy Systems.
<EOS>
Lieutenant Colonel Austin Travis leads an unsuccessful raid on a Chechen mafia safe house in Italy by aS.
Army Special Forces team to recover a stolen Soviet nerve agent, DZ-5.
One of his men is killed during the raid.
dr David Grant, a United States Naval Academy graduate and now a consultant for theS.
Army's intelligence community, learns that terrorist El Sayed Jaffa has been arrested.
Shortly after, Oceanic Airlines Flight 343 a Boeing 747-200 leaves Athens, Greece, bound for Washington,C, withS.
Senator Mavros onboard.
Jaffa's lieutenant, Nagi Hassan, and his men hijack the flight.
Grant joins a team led by Travis to intercept the plane.
After listening to Hassan's demands, Grant disbelieves that Hassan wants Jaffa released.
Instead, he thinks Hassan engineered Jaffa's capture and plans to use the plane to detonate a bomb loaded with the nerve gas overS.
airspace in a suicide mission.
The Pentagon authorizes a mid-air transfer of an Army special operations team onto the hijacked airliner using an experimental version of the F-117 stealth aircraft.
Grant and DARPA engineer Dennis Cahill accompany the team.
The boarding is only partially successful.
When an operator, "Cappy," is seriously injured with a broken neck, Grant boards to assist Cappy.
The Oceanic Airlines 747 pulls up, though, putting too much stress on the boarding sleeve.
Unable to board, Travis sacrifices himself when he closes the 747's hatch.
The survivors enter the 747's lower deck, but with half their equipment and no communication.
The Pentagon assumes the team failed to board.
With limited options, the operators search for the supposed bomb.
Grant makes contact with a flight attendant, Jean, despite Hassan's suspicions, and recruits her.
S.
officials release Jaffa to resolve the situation.
Meanwhile, the team locates and begins dismantling the bomb.
Despite his injuries, Cappy aids Cahill in disarming the bomb.
The remaining team readies to take control of the aircraft, when the Cappy shortly discovers that the bomb's arming device is barometrically activated.
They have seemingly disarmed the bomb, but another trigger is revealed.
The team's attack is aborted while they determine the next move.
Jaffa calls Hassan from a private jet, telling him he is free and on his way to Algeria, but Hassan will not be swayed from his plan.
Grant realizes Hassan's men don't know about the bomb and his true intentions, which means that one of the passengers is a sleeper (the trigger man to the bomb).
Jean spots a man with an electronic device and informs Grant.
Mavros is called to speak to the President of the United States, only to realize he is to be sacrificed as a warning that Hassan is serious.
Hassan points a gun to Mavros' head as he tries in vain to get the President to listen, but is shot in the head.
Meanwhile, the soldiers use the plane's taillights via Morse code to signalS.
Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter jets that they are on board and not to shoot them down.
Grant and Jean enter the passenger cabin and take the suspected individual by surprise, but what Jean thought was an electronic device was merely a case of diamonds carried by a smuggler.
However, Grant spots the real sleeper: Jean-Paul Demou, the man who built the bomb.
Hassan attempts to fire at Grant, but is shot from behind by the onboard federal air marshal, who is then shot by another terrorist.
The operators kill the lights, make entry, and storm the cabin, where a firefight ensues.
Stray bullets strike and break passenger windows, causing explosive decompression which sucks three passengers and Demou out of the plane.
The remaining terrorists (other than Hassan) are killed during the exchange, the bomb is finally disarmed, and the plane regains its stability.
In a last act of desperation, a seriously wounded Hassan kills both pilots, hoping the bomb will detonate if the plane crashes.
Wounded operator "Rat" kills Hassan.
Grant assumes control of the 747 and attempts to land it at Washington Dulles International Airport despite his limited piloting experience.
He misses the approach, forcing him to pull the plane back up to circle around and try again.
As the plane begins to climb, Grant recognizes the area surrounding Frederick Field, which is where he normally practices flying.
Deciding to land the 747 there, with Jean's assistance, Grant makes a sloppy and fiery but safe landing.
The 747 is slowed to a stop by ramming into a sand berm at the runway's overrun area, where emergency workers are able to safely evacuate the remaining passengers.
<EOS>
Casey Ryback has retired from the United States Navy and now owns and operates the Mile High Cafe, where he is also a chef, in Denver, Colorado.
Casey is taking his estranged niece Sarah to Los Angeles to visit the grave of Sarah's father.
Sarah and Casey board the Grand Continental, a train traveling from Denver to Los Angeles through the Rocky Mountains.
Onboard the train, Sarah and Casey befriend a porter named Bobby Zachs.
As the train makes its approach to the Rocky Mountains, it is hijacked byarmed mercenaries, led by formerS.
government computer hacker and computer genius Travis Dane with his right-hand man and mercenary leader Marcus Penn.
Dane worked on Grazer One, a top-secret military satellite particle weapon designed to destroy underground targets.
The military fired Dane due to his mental instability; Dane later faked his suicide.
The mercenaries take the train's passengers and staff hostage, herding them into the last two cars.
Casey kills one mercenary, then slips away.
Among the hostages are two former US Department of Defense colleagues who worked with Dane.
Dane threatens them with torture unless they reveal the codes to take over Grazer.
Despite giving up the codes, they are thrown from the train into a deep valley.
During the course of events, Zachs becomes Casey's sidekick.
Middle Eastern terrorists have offered Dane $1 billion to destroy the Eastern seaboard by using Grazer to target a nuclear reactor located underneath the Pentagon.
Dane demonstrates Grazer to investors by destroying a Chinese chemical weapons plant.
After one investor offers an additional $100 million, Dane destroys an airliner carrying the investor's ex-wife.
TheS.
government has difficulty locating Dane or Grazer.
When officials destroy what they think is Grazer, Dane explains the NSA's premier intelligence satellite was destroyed instead.
As long as the train keeps moving, his location cannot be determined.
However, Casey faxes a message to the owner of the Mile High Cafe, who contacts Admiral Bates.
Bates reluctantly approves a stealth bomber strike to destroy the train.
Zachs discovers that they are on the wrong tracks and on a collision course with a Southern Pacific freight train hauling gasoline tank cars.
Since the trains are in dark territory, it was impossible for the train dispatchers to communicate with the trains' engineers to stop the trains to avoid collision.
Casey kills the mercenaries one by one and releases the hostages, but Dane uses his computer skills to locate the stealth bombers and re-targets Grazer to knock them out before they can complete their mission.
Meanwhile, Penn had previously captured Sarah and uses her as bait for Casey.
Casey confronts Penn and breaks his neck after a fight that spills into the kitchen.
Casey finds Dane about to depart in a chopper hovering over the train.
When Dane informs Casey that there is no way to stop Grazer from destroying Washington, Casey shoots him.
The bullet destroys Dane's computer and injures Dane.
Pentagon control of the satellite is restored and it is destroyed by remote control one second before it would have fired on the Pentagon.
The Grand Continental and freight train collide on a trestle.
Casey races through the exploding train and grabs a rope ladder dangling from the chopper.
Dane, who had survived Casey's bullet, also catches on to the ladder.
He attempts to climb into the helicopter, but falls to his death into the explosion when Casey shuts the helicopter door on his hands, severing his fingers.
The explosion causes the helicopter to spin out of control, but the pilot is able to regain control.
Casey, having previously detached the last two cars from the rest of the train, informs the Pentagon that the passengers are safe.
Later, Sarah and Casey pay their last respects at her father's grave.
<EOS>
Jack Cole (Steven Seagal) was once a government intelligence operative known as "The Glimmer Man," because he could move so quickly and quietly through the jungle that his victims would only see a glimmer before they died.
Having left the Glimmer Man job behind him, Cole—steeped in buddhism and not used to working with others has become a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Cole is partnered with Jim Campbell (Keenen Ivory Wayans), a tough, no-nonsense cop who has little patience for Cole's New Age philosophies and outsider attitude.
Cole and Campbell have to set aside their differences when they're assigned to track down a serial killer called "The Family Man," for his habit of killing entire households.
The Family Man's latest victims turn out to be Cole's former wife Ellen and her current husband Andrew Dunleavy—and Cole's fingerprints are found on Ellen's body.
Cole and Campbell think that Cole's former bosses in the government may somehow be involved in the killings.
Cole contacts his friend Smith (Brian Cox), unaware that he has been working with local crime boss Frank Deverell (Bob Gunton).
Cole and Campbell receive a tip that leads them to Christopher Maynard (Stephen Tobolowsky), who admits that he committed the Family Man murders that happened before Cole arrived in Los Angeles.
Someone else has been committing the more recent murders and making it look like Maynard's work.
Cole fatally shoots Maynard in self defense.
Cole, hoping to get a lead on the new killer, goes to the home of Deverell's Russian translator Celia Roslov (Susan Reno), who was a victim of the killer.
Cole finds out that the Roslovs had tickets to Russia paid by Deverell's company.
The killer attacks Cole, and later sets Campbell's home on fire after a discussion between Smith and Deverell to kill Campbell, Cole and Johnny(Johnny Strong), Deverell's stepson.
Cole and Campbell discover that Deverell's stepson Johnny (Johnny Strong) knows some important information.
Johnny tells Cole and Campbell that Deverell's right-hand man, Donald Cunningham (John Jackson), is the new killer who has been making his killings look like Maynard's work.
Johnny also tells them that Smith has been working with Deverell.
Cole and Campbell confront Smith, and torture him into revealing that Deverell is smuggling chemical weapons into the USA from Russia, with plans to sell the weapons to the Serbian mafia.
Smith made the contacts, with the deal being cut by a group of Russian terrorists known as the Russian Liberation Fighters.
The meeting for the deal is scheduled to take place at a downtown welfare hotel.
Cole and Campbell storm the hotel, where Cunningham fatally shoots Deverell, and Cole kills Cunningham by throwing him through a window and onto a wrought iron fence below.
Campbell, having been shot, tells Cole that, ever since he met him, he's been nothing but trouble.
Cole says he'll keep that in mind, as Campbell is taken away in an ambulance.
<EOS>
In the peaceful Appalachian hills of eastern Kentucky, toxins are being dumped into abandoned mines, causing environmental havoc, but the locals, mindful of their jobs and the power of the mine owners, can do nothing.
EPA CID agent Jack Taggart is sent to investigate, after a fellow agent is found dead, probably not by accident.
The EPA has received an anonymous letter from Jackson, Kentucky, and Taggart goes there undercover to continue his colleague's investigations.
It is discovered that Hanner Coal Company, owned by Orin Hanner Sr, is being paid to dump toxic waste into an abandoned coal mine shaft, so Jack is assigned to go to the small town of Jackson, where his cover is that of assistant and volunteer carpenter to a local church.
He stays in a room in the church's basement, and begins his cover work by repairing the roof at a house where one of the children is sick because of the pollution.
He attempts to question the family, but they do not have much to say.
He has little better results elsewhere; even the man who tipped off the EPA is decidedly taciturn.
While testing the water, Taggart wanders into a local marijuana field, and is accosted by the growers.
After disarming them, he tells them that he has no interest in arresting them.
The men responsible for the other agent's death soon notice Taggart's presence.
As a newcomer to the small local community, he is threatened by Hanner's son Orin, Jr.
(Brad Hunt), the incompetent local tool of the company, the corrupt local Sheriff Lloyd Foley, and several thugs that work for them.
The thugs in question start by leaving two rattlesnakes in his dwelling; Taggart responds by capturing the snakes alive and leaving them in the pickup that the thugs were driving, causing them to crash.
Soon after, five of them attack him while he is buying supplies, and receive a severe beating as a result.
Orin then orders one of his truck drivers to arrange an "accident" by running him off the road, but Taggart escapes alive while the driver is killed.
While these conflicts are occurring, Taggart strikes up a relationship with Sarah Kellogg, a young woman who lives in the town.
She is regarded as an outcast because of her father's murder, a crime of which she was accused but not convicted.
Eventually, she agrees to testify against Orin and his people, much to the anger of her brother Earl, who actually committed the crime, after their father found out about his sexual abuse against her.
He sets the church on fire, killing the preacher who was helping Taggart in the process, and then attempts to collapse the mine with Taggart inside it.
Taggart escapes, but several mercenaries are killed, including Earl.
With evidence and a witness, Taggart calls the FBI to take Sarah into protective custody.
However, they are revealed to be corrupt, and a firefight ensues.
Taggart kills one agent, then sends the second back to Orin with a message that he'll be coming for him next.
However, when Orin is arrested and charged, he gets off with a slap on the wrist for the environmental violations.
Taggart goes back into the town and fights his way past the last of Orin, Jr's thugs, then demands the truth from him.
Orin agrees to turn state's evidence, implicating his father on racketeering, conspiracy, and murder charges.
Taggart goes to a casino to arrest Orin, Sr.
Upon hearing about the reception awaiting him in federal prison, Orin produces a gun and resists, but Taggart shoots him in the shoulder and he is taken into custody.
Taggart then returns to Jackson, where he is reunited with Sarah.
<EOS>
12-year-oldJ.
Somerled (Frankie Nasso) runs away because his mother died and he has been placed in the care of an abusive foster mother.
He takes his electronic keyboard, and lives in Central Park in New York City.
He learns a lot, and meets a lot of people there including a person called "The Guardian" (Harvey Keitel).
<EOS>
The film begins with a SWAT team going into the house of a United States Senator.
Someone is holding the Senator hostage.
The bomb squad arrives in a helicopter and they rappel down into the house.
Frank Glass (Seagal) is in charge of the bomb squad.
Glass finds a bomb in the basement and works to disarm it while the SWAT team is in a shootout with some of the hostage takers.
Glass disarms the bomb but he thinks it was too easy, that it was designed to mislead him into thinking he had he disarmed it.
Everyone is ordered out of the house.
The elaborate bomb is shown just before it explodes.
A year later, in San Francisco, two narcotics cops—Ray Nettles (Sizemore) and his partner Art "Fuzzy" Rice (Nas) are driving around talking.
Nettles's wife and son were killed by a bomb and ever since then he has lost his enthusiasm for his job, hygiene, and life in general.
Fuzzy has been trying to cheer Nettles up, and "talk out his demons".
They stumble upon something suspicious and decide to investigate, ending up in an apartment building arresting a suspect.
They then go to a warehouse where Nettles runs into a scientist named Claire Manning (Pressly), and Fuzzy is fatally shot by Swan (Hopper), the IRA-connected terrorist who bombed the Senator's house.
Nettles and Swan have a stand-off until Swan and his men just leave.
Nettles arrests Claire but she refuses to say anything about Swan.
She is wearing an odd-looking bracelet which Nettles takes to the bomb squad for Glass to look over.
The bracelet is found to contain detonation cord and Semtex explosive.
The police decide to hold Claire in an effort to find out what Swan is up to.
An angry Swan rigs up a powerful bomb and calls in a threat to the police station—if Claire isn’t released within an hour, a large bomb will go off somewhere in the city.
Swan intends to continue setting off bombs until Claire is released.
Swan and the men who are working for him are in the city for a big job and Nettles becomes obsessed with nailing him.
Glass and the bomb squad are working on the case because bombs are involved so Nettles ends up working with Glass and the bomb squad.
Together, they attempt to stop Swan and try to figure out the big job that Swan is in town for, and how Claire is involved.
It turns out that Claire is out for revenge—her husband was murdered after discovering plans to build an elementary school on a toxic waste dumping area.
Claire blames the San Francisco City Government for her husband's murder, so she has enlisted Swan's help to get revenge by blowing up city hall.
That's the big job that Swan is in town for.
With the help of Glass, Nettles sets out to find and stop Swan.
and maybe exorcise the demons from his own tortured past.
<EOS>
Orin Boyd (Steven Seagal) is a cop in Detroit's 21st precinct, who saves the Vice President of the United States (Christopher Lawford) from a right-wing Michigan militant group trying to kill him.
As Boyd saved the Vice President's life by disobeying orders and killing all the militants, Captain Frank Daniels (Bruce McGill), who is also a long-time friend of Boyd, is forced to fire Boyd, but still tells him to talk with police chief Hinges (Bill Duke) who dislikes Boyd (because Boyd gives the police a bad name by disobeying orders) and has repeatedly tried to fire him, only for Boyd to be returned to duty by his friends in the trade union.
Despite Boyd once again being returned to duty, Hinges transfers Boyd to the 15th precinct — Detroit's arguably worst police precinct.
Boyd's new captain, former internal affairs officer Annette Mulcahy (Jill Hennessy), knows of his reputation, and she tells him that she will not tolerate it.
Annette sends Boyd to an anger management class, where he meets Henry Wayne (Tom Arnold), the high-strung host of a local talk show called Detroit AM.
While driving, Boyd comes across local drug dealer Latrell Walker (Earl "DMX" Simmons) and his fast-talking sidekickK.
Johnson (Anthony Anderson) doing a shady deal with a man named Matt Montini (David Vadim).
After a brief fight, Walker and Johnson escape, while Boyd arrests Montini and discovers to his surprise that Montini is a cop who has been working undercover trying to nail Walker and Boyd.
The incident has ruined the sting, which does not sit well with Montini's musclebound partner Useldinger (Matthew Taylor).
Sergeant Lewis Strutt (Michael Jai White) — one of the most decent and respected cops from the precinct — steps in to cool things down when Boyd gets in a fight with Useldinger.
After Boyd stumbles upon the theft of $5,000,000 worth of heroin from evidence storage, Boyd and his new partner George Clark (Isaiah Washington) begin focusing their efforts on Walker andK.
Intrigued by what little they have on Walker, they investigate why he has been visiting Shaun Rollins (Mel Jason "Drag-On" Smalls).
Henry discovers that Walker is not a drug dealer; instead he is a computer expert and billionaire whose real name is Leon Rollins — he is Shaun Rollins' brother.
While driving, Boyd is suddenly hit by a van and is captured by Montini, Useldinger and fellow cop/accomplice Fitz (Shane Daly).
While they are driving, Montini takes out a syringe, filled with lethal poison and tries to kill Boyd.
Boyd, however struggles with Montini and causes him to inject the poison in the van driver's neck, killing him.
After Boyd beats up Montini and Useldinger, Fitz tries to shoot Boyd, however Boyd kicks Fitz to the edge of the van, causing him to get crushed by another car, killing him as well.
Montini and Usedinger manage to jump out of the van and Boyd himself manages to escape as well before the van crashes.
Angered because of the attempt on his life, Orin confronts Leon, who explains that a group of corrupt cops needed a fall guy for a deal gone bad and pinned it on Shaun.
It is further revealed that Strutt himself is the leader of the group, which includes Montini, Useldinger and formerly Fitz.
Leon and his friend Trish (Eva Mendes) have been videotaping the activities of Strutt's gang, hoping that it might help prove Shaun's innocence and get him out of jail.
Boyd meets Mulcahy at a parking lot to inform her what he has uncovered.
However, Montini, Useldinger, and some other corrupt cops who were sent by Strutt try to kill Boyd and Annette.
Mulcahy is killed in the chase and Boyd escapes.
Boyd calls Frank and tells him that Strutt, Montini and Useldinger will be having a meeting at a warehouse, in about an hour, to sell the stolen heroin.
Strutt plans to sell it to Leon and, not knowing that Leon is working against him.
Frank promises that he will be there with some backup.
Boyd and Daniels show up, however with no backup as Frank did not know who to trust.
They enter the warehouse just in time as the deal goes sour because of Leon bringing only half of the money as insurance and Strutt revealing that he knows about Leon's true identity.
Although Boyd and Frank confront the group, Strutt isn't moved and calmly tells Frank to keep Boyd under control and Boyd realizes that it is Frank who is behind everything.
Frank reveals that the reason he became corrupt was because he felt that his annual 40,000 dollar salary wasn't enough because he risked his life everyday and he is about to shoot Boyd (to prove to a taunting Strutt that the entire operation is his) when Clark blows open the door and barges in with backup, including some non-corrupt cops and Hinges and a shootout ensues.
During the gunfight, Boyd is shot in the back (but survives due to wearing a bulletproof vest) by Useldinger, who is about to finish off Boyd, but George comes just in the nick of time and guns him down.
Frank unsuccessfully tries to escape and Hinges shoots him four times with a shotgun.
After taking out most of the corrupt cops, Boyd decides to go after Strutt, while Leon decides to go after Montini.
However, Boyd reaches Strutt and the two fight with cloth guillotines, after which Strutt grabs Leon's case full of money and runs up to the roof, where a helicopter is waiting for him.
As the helicopter is taking off with Strutt hanging on to the ladder, Boyd manages to hook the bottom of it onto a metal pipe protruding from the roof.
This causes the ladder to break and Strutt to fall from the helicopter, who lands upon another metal pipe that impales Strutt and kills him.
Leon finds Montini and the two start a brutal fight.
Montini gets the upper hand in his fight with Leon, after he damages Leon's vision with clothing dye powder.
However, Leon eventually wins the fight after he stabs Montini in the leg with a knife and kills him by stabbing him in the neck with a spike on a weight rack.
At dawn, Leon gives Hinges the videotape that proves the corruption, hoping that the tape will help prove Shaun's innocence.
Hinges thinks that the courts will not care about the tape, so Hinges had Shaun released from county about an hour before.
Boyd decides to stay with the 15th precinct with George as his partner, and becomes Henry's television co-host.
<EOS>
In San Francisco, Sasha Petrosevitch (Steven Seagal) is a Russian car thief who's brought in by criminal Nick Frazier (Ja Rule) to work for crime boss Sonny Eckvall (Richard Bremmer), who apparently shot and killed Sasha's wife.
After some time, FBI Special Agent Ellen "E".
Williams (Claudia Christian) and her team show up to nail Nick, but things go bad, and Sasha gets shot.
After eight months of recovery following his brief bout of being clinically dead from the shooting, Sasha is incarcerated along with Nick in the newly reopened Alcatraz prison.
Run by the charismatic warden, Juan Ruiz "El Fuego" Escarzaga (Tony Plana), the place is known for its new state of the art death chamber where the condemned can choose from five different ways to die: lethal injection, gas chamber, hanging, firing squad, or electric chair.
Lester McKenna (Bruce Weitz), is the first death row prisoner brought to the new Alcatraz and also the first prisoner scheduled to be executed.
An older man, he stole $200,000,000 worth of gold bricks in a heist that resulted in five deaths, and hid the loot at an unknown location.
Federal Bureau of Prisons head Frank Hubbard (Stephen Cannell) and Supreme Court Justice June McPherson (Linda Thorson) have arrived to witness the execution, which is a result of June sentencing Lester.
But she's not the only one interested in Lester.
A small but well equipped team of terrorists who call themselves the "49ers" have parachuted onto the Alcatraz island, and gained control of it.
Led by 49er One,ka.
Hubbard's assistant Donny Johnson (Morris Chestnut), and 49er Six (Nia Peeples), the team finds Lester, and they want him to give up the location of his hidden stash of gold.
When Lester will not tell them, Donny shoots a nearby priest (Eva-Maria Schönecker), and threatens to kill others if the information is not delivered.
Donny's plan is disrupted, however, when Sascha decides to step in and fight back.
It turns out that Sasha is actually an undercover FBI agent who has been trying to use Nick to get to Sonny Eckvall.
When Sasha rescues Lester, the 49ers strap June to the electric chair and threaten to kill her, all while Ellen and her team prepare a rescue plan from the mainland.
With the help of Nick and some of the other inmates such as Twitch (Kurupt) and Little Joe (Michael "Bear" Taliferro), Sasha sets out to rescue June and bring Donny down, before Alcatraz becomes everyone's final resting place.
<EOS>
Eleven-year-old Harriet Welsch is an aspiring writer who lives in New York City's Upper East Side.
A precocious and enthusiastic girl, Harriet enjoys writing and hopes to become a writer.
Encouraged by her nanny, Catherine "Ole Golly," Harriet carefully observes others and writes her thoughts down in a notebook as practice for her future career, to which she dedicates her life.
She follows an afternoon "spy route", during which she observes her classmates, friends, and people who reside in her neighborhood.
One subject that Harriet observes is a local store, where the younger son Fabio cannot make anything of his career in contrast to the hardworking and loyal Bruno, and where the stock boy Joe Curry or "Little Joe" is eating in the storeroom and feeding homeless kids instead of working.
Harriet's best friends are Simon "Sport" Rocque, a serious boy who wants to be a CPA or a ball player, and Janie Gibbs, who wants to be a scientist.
Harriet's enemies in her class are Marion Hawthorne, the teacher's pet and self-appointed queen bee of her class, and Marion's best friend and second-in-command, Rachel Hennessy.
Harriet enjoys having structure in her life.
For example, she regularly eats tomato sandwiches and adamantly refuses to consume other types of sandwiches.
However, Harriet's life changes abruptly after Ole Golly's suitor, mr Waldenstein, proposes and she accepts; when mrs Welsch exclaims, "You can't leave, what will we do without you.
" Ole Golly replies that she had planned to leave soon because she believes Harriet is old enough to care for herself.
Harriet is crushed by the loss of her nanny, to whom she was very close.
Her mother and father, who have been largely absentee parents during Ole Golly's tenure as nanny due to their obligations to work and social life, are at a loss to understand Harriet's feelings and are of little comfort to her.
Later at school, during her period game of tag, Harriet loses her notebook.
Her classmates find it and are appalled at her brutally honest documentation of her opinions of them.
For example, in her notebook she compares Sport to a "little old woman" for his continual worrying about his father.
The students form a "Spy Catcher Club" in which they think up ways to make Harriet's life miserable, such as stealing her lunch, passing nasty notes about her in class, and spilling ink on her, but that backfires when Harriet slaps Marion in revenge, leaving a blue hand print on her face.
Harriet regularly spies on them through a back fence and concocts vengeful ways to punish them.
She realizes the consequences of the mean things she wrote, and though she is hurt and lonely, she still thinks up special punishments for each member of the club.
After getting into trouble for carrying out some of her plans, Harriet tries to resume her friendship with Sport and Janie as if nothing had ever happened, but they both reject her.
Harriet spends all her time in class writing in her notebook as a part of her plan to punish the Spy Catcher Club.
As a result of never doing her schoolwork and of skipping school for days at a time and taking to her bed out of depression, her grades suffer.
This leads Harriet's parents to confiscate her notebook, which only depresses Harriet further.
Harriet's mother takes her daughter to see a psychiatrist, who advises Harriet's parents to contact Ole Golly and encourage Harriet's former nanny to write to her.
In her letter, Ole Golly tells Harriet that if anyone ever reads her notebook, "you have to do two things, and you don't like either one of them.
1: You have to apologize.
2: You have to lie.
Otherwise you are going to lose a friend".
Meanwhile, dissent is rippling through the Spy Catcher Club.
Marion, the teacher's pet and self-appointed queen bee of her class, and her best friend and second-in-command, Rachel, are calling all the shots, and Sport and Janie are tired of being bossed around.
When they quit the club, most of their classmates do the same.
Harriet's parents speak with her teacher and the headmistress, and Harriet is appointed editor of the class newspaper, replacing Marion.
The newspaper&mdash;featuring stories about the people on Harriet's spy route and the students' parents&mdash;becomes an instant success.
Harriet also uses the paper to make amends by printing a retraction, defeating Marion and is forgiven by Sport and Janie.
<EOS>
Robert "Dutch" Holland (James Stewart) is a professional baseball player with the st Louis Cardinals.
A B-29 bomber pilot during World War II, he is also an officer on inactive status in the United States Air Force Reserve.
During spring training in st Petersburg, Florida, he is recalled to active duty for 21 months.
He reports to his posting at Carswell AFB, a bomber base in Fort Worth, Texas to qualify in the Convair B-36.
He arrives in civilian clothing because his old uniforms are those of the oldS.
Army Air Forces, for which he is rebuked by General Hawkes (Frank Lovejoy), the commander of SAC.
The General's character is patterned after the real SAC commander of the time, General Curtis LeMay.
Dutch is given a staff job with the bombardment wing at Carswell that involves a lot of flying.
He soon has a B-36 crew of his own, selecting a former World War II colleague as his flight engineer, and becomes enamored with both flying and the role of SAC in deterring war.
He is joined by his wife, Sally (June Allyson), who had not bargained on being an Air Force wife, and who struggles with his repeated absences and the dangers of flying.
On any given night, Dutch might find his aircraft on airborne alert far from the continental United States, in secret, only telling his wife when he returns days later.
Even so, Sally tells Dutch that she is happy as long as they can be together, no matter what he decides to do with his life.
The B-36 is a complex aircraft when introduced, but improvements are being worked on all the time.
One challenge was leakage from the fuel tanks, but a new fix is introduced to address this once and for all.
On their next flight, Dutch's crew has to fly their B-36 from Carswell AFB to Thule Air Base, Greenland.
The fix does not work and one of the engines bursts into flame, causing the entire left wing to catch fire.
The crew is forced to abandon the aircraft and bail out over the ice and snow of Greenland before arriving at Thule.
Dutch and his Radar Navigator stay on board for a forced landing, which causes Dutch to injure his right shoulder.
Dutch becomes a favourite of General Hawkes and is rewarded with a revised assignment flying the new Boeing B-47 Stratojet at MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida, across the bay from st Petersburg where his old baseball team continues to conduct its spring training.
Promoted to full "Bird" colonel and made deputy wing commander of his B-47 wing at MacDill, Dutch decides, to Sally's displeasure, to remain in the Air Force, rather than return to baseball at the end of his active duty obligation.
On a full B-47 wing movement exercise that involves flying nonstop from MacDill to Yokota Air Base, Japan, they encounter severe wind and storms.
Low on fuel, they divert to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
As they prepare to land, Dutch realizes that his shoulder injury from the B-36 crash was worse than he thought, and it is almost immobile.
He is unable to operate the engine power levers (throttles) during final landing phase and has to rely on his co-pilot to do so while Dutch works the flight controls with his left arm and feet.
This injury not only bars him from further flying (he is discharged from the Air Force (USAF) shortly after the incident), but also appears to threaten his baseball career.
General Hawkes suggests he would make an excellent team manager.
<EOS>
Newly commissioned Ensign Willie Keith (Robert Francis) reports to the minesweeper USS Caine commanded by William De Vriess (Tom Tully), also meeting executive officer Stephen Maryk (Van Johnson) and communications officer Thomas Keefer (Fred MacMurray).
De Vriess, popular with the men but disliked by Keith, is relieved by Phillip Francis Queeg (Humphrey Bogart), who immediately attempts to instill strict discipline on the Caine's lax crew.
After a day of gunnery target towing, Queeg orders a turn to head back to Pearl Harbor, but then becomes distracted berating Keith and Keefer over a crewman's appearance, ignoring the helmsman's repeated warnings that the ship will steam over and cut the towline.
The target is set adrift.
Queeg tries to cover up the incident.
During an invasion, Queeg abandons under fire a group of landing craft long before he reaches the designated departure point and instead drops a yellow dye marker, leaving the landing craft to fend for themselves.
Queeg asks his officers for their support, but they remain silent and nickname him "Old Yellowstain," implying cowardice.
Keefer, believing Queeg to be paranoid, encourages Maryk to consider relieving Queeg for the basis of mental incapacity under Article 184 of Navy Regulations.
Maryk angrily rejects that possibility, but starts a log documenting the captain's behavior.
When strawberries go missing from the officers' mess, Queeg is convinced that a sailor has made a duplicate key to the food locker and orders the crew strip-searched to find it.
He recounts to Maryk and Keefer a similar situation (when he was an Ensign) where he earned a commendation for uncovering a food theft.
Maryk, Keefer, and Keith learn from the departing Ensign Harding (Jerry Paris) that he had already informed Queeg that the mess boys had eaten the strawberries, and that Queeg had threatened to revoke his leave if he revealed that knowledge to anyone else.
Queeg follows through with his plan to find the (known by Queeg to be non-existent) key.
Keefer convinces Maryk and Keith to go with him to personally see Admiral William Halsey, Jr.
about the matter, but upon reaching Halsey's flagship, Keefer realizes that Queeg's actions could be interpreted as attempts to instill discipline, leaving them open to a charge of conspiring to mutiny.
As they leave without seeing Halsey, an aide tells them that a typhoon is approaching.
At the height of the storm, which takes place on July 31st 1944, Maryk urges the captain to reverse course into the wind and take on ballast, but Queeg refuses, having received no order from the fleet to change course or maneuver-at-will.
When the ship begins to founder, and the officers and crew look to Queeg for guidance, he appears to be frozen, either by indecision or fear.
Maryk relieves Queeg with the concurrence of Keith.
The Caine returns to San Francisco, where Maryk and Keith face a court-martial.
Barney Greenwald (José Ferrer) becomes Maryk's defense counsel.
At the court-martial, Keefer denies ever observing signs of mental illness in Queeg or counseling Maryk to relieve him.
While a Navy psychiatrist testifies Queeg is not unfit for command, he admits Queeg shows symptoms of a paranoid personality.
Under Greenwald's relentless cross-examination, Queeg openly exhibits such behavior and Maryk is acquitted.
Keefer appears at a celebration of the Caine officers.
So does a drunken Greenwald, who berates the officers for not appreciating Queeg's long service and failing to give him the support he asked for.
He denounces Keefer as the real "author" of the mutiny, a man who "hated the Navy" and manipulated others, while keeping his own hands clean.
Then he throws champagne in Keefer's face.
The officers depart, leaving Keefer alone in the room.
Keith is assigned to a new ship that turns out to be commanded by De Vriess.
<EOS>
Joe Gideon is a theater director and choreographer trying to balance work on his latest Broadway musical with editing a Hollywood film he has directed.
He is a workaholic who chain-smokes cigarettes, and without a daily dose of Vivaldi, Visine, Alka-Seltzer, Dexedrine, and sex, he wouldn't have the energy to keep up the biggest "show" of all — his life.
His girlfriend Katie Jagger, his ex-wife Audrey Paris, and daughter Michelle try to pull him back from the brink, but it is too late for his exhausted body and stress-ravaged heart.
In his imagination, he flirts with an angel of death named Angelique.
Gideon's condition gets progressively worse.
He is rushed to a hospital after experiencing chest pains during a particularly stressful table read (with the penny-pinching backers in attendance) and admitted with severe attacks of angina.
Joe brushes off his symptoms, and attempts to leave to go back to rehearsal, but he collapses in the doctor's office and is ordered to stay in the hospital for three to four weeks to rest his heart and recover from his exhaustion.
The show is postponed, but Gideon continues his antics from the hospital bed, in brazen denial of his mortality.
Champagne flows, endless strings of women frolic around his hospital room and the cigarettes are always lit.
Cardiogram readings don't show any improvement as Gideon dances with death.
As the negative reviews for his feature film (which has been released without him) come in, Gideon has a massive coronary and is taken straight to coronary artery bypass surgery.
The backers for the show must then decide whether it's time to pack up or replace Gideon as the director.
Their matter-of-fact money-oriented negotiations with the insurers are juxtaposed with graphic scenes of (presumably Joe's) open heart surgery.
The producers realize that the best way to recoup their money and make a profit is to bet on Gideon dying — the insurance proceeds would result in a profit of over USD$500,000.
Meanwhile, elements from Gideon's past life are staged in dazzling dream sequences of musical numbers he directs from his hospital bed while on life support.
Realizing his death is imminent, his mortality unconquerable, Gideon has another heart attack.
In the glittery finale, he goes through the five stages of grief — anger, denial, bargaining, depression and acceptance - featured in the stand-up routine he has been editing.
As death closes in on Gideon, the fantasy episodes become more hallucinatory and extravagant, and in a final epilogue that is set up as a truly monumental live variety show featuring everyone from his past, Gideon himself takes center stage.
The final shot shows Joe Gideon's body being zipped up in a body bag.
<EOS>
Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and his sister Rose (Katharine Hepburn) are British Methodist missionaries in the village of Kungdu in German East Africa at the beginning of World War I in August/September 1914.
Their mail and supplies are delivered by a small tramp steamer named the African Queen, helmed by the rough-and-ready Canadian boat captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), whose coarse behavior they tolerate in a rather stiff manner.
When Charlie warns them that World War I has broken out between Germany and Britain, the Sayers choose to stay on, only to witness the Germans burn down the mission village and herd the villagers away.
When Samuel protests, he is beaten by a German soldier.
After the Germans leave, Samuel becomes delirious with fever and soon dies.
Charlie returns shortly afterward.
He helps Rose bury her brother, and they set off in the African Queen.
Charlie mentions to Rose that the Germans have a gunboat, the Königin Luise ("Queen Luise"), which patrols a large lake downriver, effectively blocking any British attacks.
Rose comes up with a plan to convert the African Queen into a torpedo boat and sink the Königin Luise.
Charlie points out that navigating the Ulanga River to get to the lake would be suicidal: to reach the lake they would have to pass a German fort and negotiate several dangerous rapids.
But Rose is insistent and eventually persuades him to go along with the plan.
During their journey down the river, Charlie, Rose and the African Queen encounter many obstacles, including the German fort and three sets of rapids.
The first set of rapids is rather easy; they get through with minimal flooding in the boat.
But when they pass the fortress and the soldiers begin shooting at them, the bullets pierce the top of the boiler and cause one of the steam pressure hoses to disconnect from the boiler.
This causes the boat's engine to stop.
Luckily, Charlie manages to reattach the hose to the boiler just as they are about to enter the second set of rapids.
The boat rolls and pitches crazily as it goes down the rapids, leading to more severe flooding in the boat.
However, they make it through.
While celebrating their success, the two find themselves in an embrace.
Embarrassed, they break off, but eventually succumb and strike up a relationship.
The third set of rapids comes up.
This time, there is a loud metallic clattering noise as the boat goes over the falls.
They dock on the river bank to check for damage.
When Charlie dives under the boat, he finds the propeller shaft hopelessly twisted "like a cork screw" and a blade missing from the propeller.
At first defeated, Charlie is finally roused by Rose's technically naive but determined prodding.
Rigging up a simple forge on shore, he straightens the shaft while Rose works the makeshift bellows, welds a new blade onto the prop, and they are off again.
All appears lost when Charlie and Rose "lose the channel" and the boat becomes mired in the sprawling delta's islets and mud amid dense reeds near the mouth of the river.
First, they try to tow the boat through the muck, only to have Charlie come out of the water covered with leeches.
All their efforts to free the African Queen fail.
With no supplies left and short of potable water, Rose and a feverish Charlie turn in, convinced they have no hope of survival.
Before going to sleep Rose prays that she and Charlie be admitted into Heaven.
As they sleep, exhausted and beaten, heavy rains falling upstream raise the river's level and float the African Queen off of the mud and into the lake which, it turns out, is just a short distance from their location.
Once on the lake, they narrowly avoid being spotted by the Königin Luise.
The Königin Luise departs, but Charlie believes that she will return as she makes her normal rounds of the lake.
Over the next two days, Charlie and Rose convert some oxygen cylinders into torpedoes using gelatin explosives and improvised detonators that use nails as the firing pins for rifle cartridges.
They then push the torpedoes through holes cut in the bow of the African Queen as improvised spar torpedoes.
The Königin Luise returns as Charlie predicted, and Charlie and Rose steam the African Queen out onto the lake in darkness, intending to set her on a collision course with the Königin Luise before diving overboard and making their way to safety to Kenya on the east side of the lake.
A strong storm strikes as they head toward the Königin Luise.
Unfortunately, the torpedo holes they cut are not sealed, which allows water to pour into the African Queen, causing her to sink lower and lower.
Eventually the African Queen capsizes, throwing them both into the water.
Charlie loses sight of Rose in the storm.
Charlie is captured and taken aboard the Königin Luise, where he is questioned by the captain.
Believing Rose to have drowned, he makes no attempt to defend himself against accusations of spying, and the German captain sentences him to death by hanging.
However, Rose is captured and brought to the Königin Luise just after Charlie's sentence is handed down.
Charlie hollers her name in excitement that she is actually alive, but then tries to protect her by pretending not to know her.
The captain questions her, and Rose confesses the whole plot proudly, deciding they have nothing to lose anyway.
The captain sentences her to be executed as a spy, too.
Charlie asks the German captain to marry them before executing them.
After a brief marriage ceremony, the Germans prepare to hang them, but there is a sudden explosion and the Königin Luise quickly capsizes and sinks.
The Königin Luise has struck the overturned hull of the African Queen and detonated the torpedoes.
Rose's plan has worked after all, if a little belatedly, and the newly married couple happily swims to safety on the east shore of the lake as the surviving Germans appear to make no effort to re-capture or shoot at them.
<EOS>
Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr) makes an urgent phone call from London to a Florida railway station where Chick Young (Bud Abbott) and Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) work as baggage clerks.
Talbot tries to impart to Wilbur the danger of a shipment due to arrive for "McDougal's House Of Horrors", a local wax museum.
The crates purportedly contain the remains of Count Dracula (Béla Lugosi) and the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange).
However, before Wilbur can understand, a full moon rises and Talbot transforms into a werewolf.
He proceeds to destroy his hotel room while Wilbur is on the line.
Wilbur thinks the call is a prank and hangs up.
Meanwhile, the museum owner, McDougal (Frank Ferguson), has arrived to claim the shipments.
When Wilbur badly mishandles the crates, McDougal demands that the boys deliver them to his museum so his insurance agent can inspect them.
Chick and Wilbur deliver the crates after hours.
They open the first one and find Dracula's coffin.
When Chick leaves the room to retrieve the second crate, Wilbur reads aloud the Dracula legend printed on an exhibit card.
The coffin slowly creaks open.
Wilbur is so frightened that his attempts to call Chick result in helpless sputtering.
Before Chick returns with the second crate, Dracula climbs unnoticed out of his coffin and hides in the shadows.
Wilbur claims that the coffin opened, but Chick shows him that it is in fact empty.
While the boys open the second crate containing the Monster, Chick leaves the room to greet McDougal and the insurance agent.
Dracula now hypnotizes Wilbur and re-animates the Monster.
They both leave, and by the time McDougal, the insurance agent, and Chick enter, both crates are empty.
McDougal accuses the boys of theft and has them arrested.
That night, dr Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert) welcomes Dracula and the Monster to her island castle.
Sandra, a gifted surgeon who has studied dr Frankenstein's notebooks, has seduced Wilbur as part of Dracula's plan to replace the Monster's brutish brain with a more pliable one — Wilbur's.
Wilbur and Chick are bailed out of jail.
They assume that Sandra posted bond, but Joan Raymond (Jane Randolph), an undercover investigator for the insurance company, did so.
Joan also feigns love for Wilbur, hoping he will lead her to the missing "exhibits".
Wilbur invites Joan to a masquerade ball that evening.
Meanwhile, Lawrence Talbot has tracked Dracula and the Monster from Europe and has taken the apartment across the hall from Wilbur and Chick.
Talbot asks Chick and Wilbur to help him find and destroy Dracula and the Monster.
Wilbur believes, but Chick remains skeptical.
That night, Wilbur, Chick and Joan go to Sandra's castle to pick her up for the ball.
Wilbur answers a telephone call from Talbot, who informs them that they are in fact in the "House of Dracula".
Wilbur reluctantly agrees to search the castle with Chick, and soon stumbles upon a basement staircase that leads to a boat and dock.
Chick insists they search for Dracula and the Monster to prove to Wilbur that they do not really exist.
Behind a revolving door, Wilbur experiences a few close calls with the monsters; whenever he tries to get Chick's attention, the monsters have disappeared.
Meanwhile, Joan discovers dr Frankenstein's notebook in Sandra's desk, and Sandra finds Joan's insurance company employee ID in her purse.
As the men and women prepare to leave for the ball, a suavely dressed dr Lejos (aka.
Dracula) introduces himself to Joan and the boys.
Also working at the castle is the naive Prof.
Stevens (Charles Bradstreet), who questions some of the specialized equipment that has arrived.
After Wilbur admits that he was in the basement, Sandra feigns a headache and tells Wilbur and the others that they will have to go to the ball without her.
In private, Sandra admits to Dracula that Stevens's suspicions, Joan's credentials, and Wilbur's snooping in the basement have made her nervous enough to put the experiment on hold.
Dracula asserts his will by hypnotizing her and biting her in the neck.
(In a continuity error, Dracula's reflection is visible in a mirror.
Vampires do not have a reflection, as stated in "Dracula" (1931).
)  Everyone is now at the masquerade ball.
Talbot arrives and confronts dr Lejos, who is in costume as Dracula.
Lejos easily deflects Talbot's accusations and takes Joan to the dance floor.
Sandra lures Wilbur to a quiet spot in the woods and attempts to bite him, but Chick and Larry approach and she flees.
While Talbot, Chick and Wilbur search for Joan, Talbot transforms into the Wolf Man and stalks Wilbur.
Wilbur escapes, but the Wolf Man attacks McDougal, who is also at the ball.
Since Chick's costume includes a wolf mask, McDougal accuses Chick of attacking him out of revenge.
Chick escapes, and witnesses Dracula hypnotizing Wilbur.
Chick is also hypnotized and rendered helpless while Dracula and Sandra bring Wilbur and Joan back to the castle.
The next morning, Chick and Talbot, both fugitives, meet up in the bayou.
Talbot confesses to Chick that he is indeed the Wolf Man.
Chick explains that Dracula has taken Wilbur and Joan to the island, and they agree to work together to rescue them.
Wilbur is held in a pillory in the cellar.
Sandra explains her plan to transplant his brain into the Monster.
When she and Dracula leave him to prepare the Monster for the operation, Chick and Talbot sneak in set Wilbur and Stevens free.
Dracula and Sandra return to the cellar and find Wilbur missing; Dracula easily recalls Wilbur, and he soon finds himself strapped to an operating table in the lab.
The Monster is on an adjacent table, receiving electric shocks.
As Sandra brings a scalpel to Wilbur's forehead, Talbot and Chick burst in.
Talbot pulls Sandra away from Wilbur, and Chick unintentionally knocks her out while fending off Dracula with a chair.
Chick flees the lab pursued by Dracula.
Talbot is about to untie Wilbur when he once again transforms into the Wolf Man.
Dracula returns to the lab and engages in a brief tug of war with the Wolf Man over Wilbur's gurney.
Dracula flees and the Wolf Man gives chase.
Chick returns to untie Wilbur just as the Monster, now at full power, breaks his restraints and climbs off his gurney.
Sandra attempts to command him, but the Monster picks her up and tosses her out the lab window to her death.
Chick and Wilbur escape the lab and run from room to room with the Monster following them.
Dracula, while fighting with the Wolf Man, attempts to escape by transforming into a bat.
The Wolf Man leaps, catches the bat, and tumbles off a balcony onto the rocks below.
Presumably, both are killed.
Joan abruptly wakes from her trance, and is rescued by Stevens.
The boys run out of the castle to the pier, with the Monster still in pursuit.
They climb into a small row boat while Stevens and Joan arrive and set the pier ablaze.
The Monster wheels around into the flames, succumbing as the pier collapses into the water.
Wilbur scolds Chick for not believing him.
Chick insists that now that all the monsters are dead, "there's nobody to scare us anymore".
They suddenly hear a disembodied voice (provided by an uncredited Vincent Price) and see a cigarette floating in the air.
The voice says, "Oh, that's too bad.
I was hoping to get in on the excitement.
Allow me to introduce myself--I'm the Invisible Man.
" The boys jump out of the boat and swim away while the Invisible Man laughs.
<EOS>
Doris Attinger (Judy Holliday) follows her husband (Tom Ewell) with a gun one day after suspecting he is having an affair with another woman (Jean Hagen).
In her rage, she fires at the couple multiple times.
One of the bullets hits her husband in the shoulder.
The following morning, married lawyers Adam and Amanda Bonner (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn) read about the incident in the newspaper.
They argue over the case.
Amanda sympathizes with the woman, particularly noting the double standard that exists for men and women regarding adultery.
Adam thinks Doris is guilty of attempted murder.
When Adam arrives at work, he learns that he has been assigned to prosecute the case.
When Amanda hears this, she seeks out Doris and becomes her defense lawyer.
Amanda bases her case on the belief that women and men are equal, and that Doris had been forced into the situation through her husband's poor treatment of her.
Adam thinks Amanda is showing a disregard for the law, since there should never be an excuse for such behavior.
Tension increasingly builds at home as the two battle each other in court.
The situation comes to a head when Adam feels humiliated during the trial when Amanda encourages one of her witnesses, a woman weightlifter, to lift him overhead.
Adam, still angry, later storms out of their apartment.
When the verdict for the trial is returned, Amanda's plea to the jury to "judge this case as you would if the sexes were reversed" proves successful, and Doris is acquitted.
That night, Adam sees Amanda and their neighbor Kip Lurie (David Wayne), who has shown a clear interest in Amanda, through the window.
He breaks into the apartment, pointing a gun at the pair.
Amanda is horrified, and says to Adam, "You've no right to do this -- nobody does.
" Adam feels he has proven his point about the injustice of Amanda's line of defense.
He then puts the gun in his mouth.
Amanda and Kip scream in terror.
Adam then bites down on the gun and chews off a piece; it is made of licorice.
Amanda is furious with this prank, and a three-way fight ensues.
Adam and Amanda, in the midst of a divorce, reluctantly reunite for a meeting with their tax accountant.
They talk about their relationship in the past tense.
They become emotional when talking about the farm they own and realize how much they love each other.
They go to the farm, where Adam announces that he has been selected as the Republican nominee for County Court Judge.
Amanda jokes about running for the post as the Democratic candidate.
<EOS>
A woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray hires private investigator "Jake" Gittes to surveil her husband, Hollis Mulwray, chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Gittes tails him, hears him publicly oppose the creation of a new reservoir, and shoots photographs of him with a young woman, which are published on the front page of the following day's paper.
Back at his office, Gittes is confronted by a woman who informs him she is the real Evelyn Mulwray, and that he can expect a lawsuit.
Realizing he was set up, Gittes assumes that Mulwray's husband is the real target.
Before he can question him, Lieutenant Lou Escobar fishes Mulwray, drowned, from a freshwater reservoir.
Under retainer to mrs Mulwray, Gittes investigates his suspicions of murder and notices that, although huge quantities of water are released from the reservoir every night, the land is almost dry.
Gittes is warned off by Water Department Security Chief Claude Mulvihill and a henchman, who slashes Gittes's nose.
Back at his office, Gittes receives a call from Ida Sessions, who identifies herself as the imposter mrs Mulwray.
She is afraid to identify her employer, but tells Gittes to check the day's obituaries.
Gittes learns that Mulwray was once the business partner of his wife's wealthy father, Noah Cross.
Over lunch at his personal club, Cross warns Gittes that he does not understand the forces at work, and offers to double Gittes's fee to search for Mulwray's missing mistress.
At the hall of records, Gittes discovers that much of the Northwest Valley has recently changed ownership.
Investigating the valley, he is attacked by angry landowners, who believe he is an agent of the water department attempting to force them out by sabotaging their water supply.
Gittes deduces that the water department is drying up the land so it can be bought at a reduced price, and that Mulwray was murdered when he discovered the plan.
He discovers that a former retirement home resident is one of the valley's new landowners, and seemingly purchased the property a week after his death.
Gittes and Evelyn bluff their way into the home and confirm that the real estate deals were surreptitiously completed in the names of several of the home's residents.
Their visit is interrupted by the suspicious retirement home director, who has called Mulvihill.
After fleeing Mulvihill and his thugs, Gittes and Evelyn hide at Evelyn's house and sleep together.
Early in the morning, Evelyn gets a phone call and has to leave suddenly; she warns Gittes that her father is dangerous.
Gittes follows her car to a house, where he spies her through the windows comforting Mulwray's mistress.
He accuses Evelyn of holding the woman against her will, but she confesses that the woman is her sister.
The next day, an anonymous call draws Gittes to Ida Sessions's apartment; he finds her murdered and Escobar waiting for his arrival.
Escobar tells him the coroner's report found salt water in Mulwray's lungs, indicating that he did not drown in the freshwater reservoir where his body was found.
Escobar suspects Evelyn of the murder and tells Gittes to produce her quickly.
At Evelyn's mansion, Gittes finds her servants packing her things.
He realizes her garden pond is salt water and discovers a pair of bifocals in it.
He confronts Evelyn about her "sister", whom Evelyn now claims is her daughter.
After Gittes slaps her, she admits that the woman, Katherine, is her sister and her daughter: her father raped her when she was fifteen.
She says that the eyeglasses are not Mulwray's, as he did not wear bifocals.
Gittes arranges for the women to flee to Mexico and instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's home in Chinatown.
He summons Cross to the Mulwray home to settle their deal.
Cross admits his intention to annex the Northwest Valley into the City of Los Angeles, then irrigate and develop it.
Gittes accuses Cross of murdering Mulwray.
Cross takes the bifocals at gunpoint, and he and Mulvihill force Gittes to drive them to the women.
When they reach the Chinatown address, the police are already there and detain Gittes.
When Cross approaches Katherine, Evelyn shoots him in the arm and drives away with Katherine.
The police open fire, killing Evelyn.
Cross clutches Katherine and leads her away, while Escobar orders Gittes released.
Lawrence Walsh, one of Gittes's associates, tells him: "Forget it, Jake.
It's Chinatown".
<EOS>
Ralph Meeker plays Mike Hammer, a tough Los Angeles private eye who is almost as brutal as the crooks he chases.
Mike and his assistant/secretary/lover, Velda (Maxine Cooper), usually work on "penny-ante divorce cases".
One evening on a lonely country road, Hammer gives a ride to Christina (Cloris Leachman), an attractive hitchhiker wearing nothing but a trench coat.
She has escaped from a mental institution, most probably the nearby Camarillo State Mental Hospital.
Thugs waylay them and Hammer awakens in some unknown location where he hears Christina screaming and being tortured to death.
The thugs then push Hammer's car off a cliff with Christina's body and an unconscious Hammer inside.
Hammer next awakens in a hospital with Velda by his bedside.
He decides to pursue the case, for vengeance, a sense of guilt (as Christina had asked him to "remember me" if she got killed), and because "she (Christina) must be connected with something big" behind it all.
The twisting plot takes Hammer to the apartment of Lily Carver (Gaby Rodgers), a sexy, waif-like woman who is posing as Christina's ex-roommate.
Lily tells Hammer she has gone into hiding and asks Hammer to protect her.
It turns out that she is after a mysterious box that, she believes, has contents worth a fortune.
"The great whatsit", as Velda calls it, at the center of Hammer's quest is a small, mysterious valise that is hot to the touch and contains a dangerous, glowing substance.
(It comes to represent the 1950s Cold War fear and paranoia about the atomic bomb that permeated American culture)  Later, at an isolated beach house, Hammer finds "Lily", who is revealed to be an imposter named Gabrielle, with her evil boss, dr Soberin (Albert Dekker).
Velda is their hostage, tied up in a bedroom.
Soberin and Gabrielle are vying for the contents of the box.
Gabrielle shoots Soberin, believing that she can keep the mysterious contents for herself.
She also shoots and wounds Hammer, who manages to find Velda.
As Gabrielle slyly opens the case, it is ultimately revealed to be stolen radionuclide material, which reaches explosive criticality when the box is fully opened.
Horrifying sounds emanate from the nuclear material as Gabrielle and the house burst into flames, just as Hammer and Velda escape.
The original American release of the film shows Hammer and Velda escaping from the burning house at the end, staggering into the ocean as the words "The End" come over them on the screen.
Sometime after its first release, the ending was altered on the film's original negative, removing more than a minute's worth of shots where Hammer and Velda escape and superimposing the words "The End" over the burning house.
This implied that Hammer and Velda perished in the atomic blaze, and was often interpreted to represent the apocalypse.
In 1997 the original conclusion was restored, where Velda and Mike survive.
The DVD release has the original ending, and offers the truncated ending as an extra.
The film is described as "the definitive, apocalyptic, nihilistic, science-fiction film noir of all time – at the close of the classic noir period".
<EOS>
Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is an affluent widow in suburban New England, whose social life involves her country club peers, college-age children, and a few men vying for her affection.
She becomes interested in Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), her gardener, an intelligent, down-to-earth and respectful yet passionate younger man.
Ron is content with his simple life outside the materialistic society and the two fall in love.
Ron introduces her to people who seem to have no need for wealth and status and she responds positively.
Cary accepts his proposal of marriage, but becomes distressed when her friends and college-age children are angry.
They look down upon Ron and his friends and reject their mother for this socially unacceptable arrangement.
Eventually, bowing to this pressure, she breaks off the engagement.
Cary and Ron continue their separate lives, both with many regrets, but Cary's children soon announce they are moving out.
Having destroyed her chance at happiness, her son buys her a television set to keep her company.
Before doing so, however, her daughter apologizes to her mother for her prior impulsive and foolish reaction to Ron, saying that there is still time if she really does love Ron.
Cary's doctor points out that Cary is now lonelier than she was before meeting Ron.
When Ron has a life-threatening accident, Cary realizes how wrong she had been to allow other people's opinions and superficial social conventions to dictate her life choices and decides to accept the life Ron offers her.
As he recovers, Cary is by his bedside telling him that she has come home.
<EOS>
The film begins in the late 1890s.
Cappadocian Greek Stavros Topouzoglou (Giallelis), lives in an impoverished village below Mount Argaeus in Ottoman Turkey.
Stavros witnesses the Hamidian massacres against Greek and Armenian Christians.
The life of the Cappadocian Greeks and Armenians of Kayseri is depicted, including the traditional cliff cave dwellings in which Stavros' grandmother lives.
Stavros is entrusted by his father with the family's financial resources in a mission of hope to the Turkish capital Constantinople (renamed Istanbul in 1930), where he is to work in the carpet business of his father's cousin (Harry Davis), although his own dream is to reach the faraway land of opportunity, America.
His odyssey begins with a long voyage on a donkey and on foot through the impoverished towns and villages on the way to Constantinople.
Due to his kind nature and naivete, he dissipates all the money and arrives at the cousin's home penniless.
The older man is deeply disappointed at this turn of events since he was counting on the infusion of funds to rescue his failing enterprise.
Nevertheless, he attempts to salvage the situation by proposing that Stavros marry a wealthy merchant's (Paul Mann) young daughter (Linda Marsh).
Stavros realizes that such a marriage would mean the end of his American dream and adamantly refuses, abruptly leaving the angry cousin.
Now homeless on the streets of the capital, Stavros survives by eating discarded food and working at backbreaking and hazardous jobs.
After nearly a year of scrimping and self-denial, he has some savings, but an encounter with an enticing beauty (Joanna Frank) leaves him, once again, penniless.
Sinking even lower, he now finds himself living in an overcrowded subterranean hovel, which becomes a scene of chaos and bloodshed when it is attacked with gunfire by authorities purportedly searching for anarchists and revolutionaries.
Severely injured in the mayhem, the unconscious Stavros is thrown among piles of dead bodies slated for disposal into the sea.
He subsequently topples from the cart transporting the bodies and painfully makes his way to the cousin's residence.
The relative takes pity on the young man and allows him to recover at his home.
Deprived now of all resistance, Stavros agrees to marry his intended bride.
Upon being questioned by her regarding his moodiness, however, he admits that he still plans to emigrate to America, using the dowry money to pay for his passage.
At this point Stavros becomes reacquainted with Hohannes (Gregory Rozakis), a young Armenian, whom Stavros aided with food and clothing during his original voyage to Istanbul.
Hohannes informs him that he is being sponsored to America by an employer seeking labor.
Stavros manages to secure his own passage with the aid of the middle aged wife (Katherine Balfour) of wealthy Armenian-American businessman Artoon Kegabian (Robert Harris), a client of his prospective father-in-law.
He tells his intended bride that he cannot marry her, and subsequently embarks on the voyage on board SS Kaiser Wilhelm.
There is, however, another major impediment&mdash; Stavros' shipboard affair with mrs Kegabian is discovered.
Her enraged husband lodges a criminal complaint against Stavros, and rescinds his offer of a job in America, which will result in deportation back to Turkey.
As everything looks bleak, however, the tubercular Hohannes exchanges documents with Stavros, allowing him to enter America in Hohannes' place.
With the climactic image of the Statue of Liberty as the boatload of immigrants docks in New York Harbor, Stavros puts his tribulations behind him, starting out as a shoeshine boy and gathering the pennies and dollars that will eventually bring his family to the land where their descendants, including Elia Kazan, will have the chance to fulfill their potential.
<EOS>
In early September 1962 in Modesto, California, on the last evening of summer vacation, recent high school graduates and longtime friends, Curt Henderson and Steve Bolander, meet John Milner, the drag-racing king of the town, and Terry "The Toad" Fields in the parking lot of the local Mel's Drive-In diner.
Curt and Steve are scheduled to travel the next morning to Northeastern United States to start college.
Despite receiving a $2,000 scholarship from the local Moose Lodge, Curt has second thoughts about leaving Modesto.
Steve gives Toad his 1958 Chevrolet Impala to watch while he's away at college until he returns at Christmas.
Steve's girlfriend, Laurie, who is also Curt's sister, arrives in her car.
Steve suggests to Laurie, who is already glum about him going to college, that they see other people while he is away in order to "strengthen" their relationship.
Though not openly upset, she is displeased with his proposal which affects their interactions the rest of the evening.
Curt accompanies Steve, last year's high school student class president, and Laurie, the current head cheerleader, to the back-to-high-school sock hop.
In one story line, Curt is desperate to find a beautiful blonde girl driving a white 1956 Ford Thunderbird that he sees en route to the dance: at a stoplight, she appears to say "I love you" before disappearing around the corner.
After leaving the hop, Curt is coerced by a group of greasers ("The Pharaohs") to participate in an initiation rite that involves hooking a chain to a police car and ripping out its back axle.
The Pharaohs tell Curt that "The Blonde" is a trophy wife or prostitute, but he refuses to believe either.
Determined to get a message to the blonde girl, Curt drives to the local radio station to ask DJ Wolfman Jack, who is omnipresent on the car radios, to announce a message for the blonde girl.
Inside the radio station, Curt encounters a bearded man who tells him that the voice of The Wolfman is pre-taped from afar.
The man still accepts the message from Curt to see what he could do.
As he is leaving the station, Curt sees the man talking into the microphone and hears the voice of The Wolfman, and realizes the man is the actual DJ himself.
Sure enough, The Wolfman eventually reads the message on the radio for "The Blonde" to meet Curt or call him at a number which happens to be a telephone booth.
Curt waits by the telephone booth and early the next morning, he is awakened by the phone ringing.
It turns out to be "The Blonde" who says she knows him and maybe she would see him cruising the coming night.
Curt replies probably not, intimating that he decided to go to college and will be leaving that morning.
Meanwhile The Toad, in Steve's car, and John, in his yellow 1932 Deuce Coupé hot rod, cruise the strip of Modesto.
Toad, who is normally socially inept with girls, successfully picks up a flirtatious, and somewhat rebellious, girl named Debbie.
John inadvertently picks up Carol, an annoying teenybopper who seems fond of him.
Another drag racer, the handsome and arrogant Bob Falfa, is searching out John in order to challenge him to a race.
Steve and Laurie have a series of arguments and make-ups through the evening.
They finally split and, as the story lines intertwine, Bob Falfa picks up Laurie in his black 1955 Chevrolet One-Fifty Coupé.
Bob finally finds John and goads him into racing.
A parade of cars follow them to "Paradise Road" to watch the race.
Laurie rides shotgun with Bob as Toad starts the race.
As Bob begins taking a lead in the race, he loses control of the car when a front tire blows, and the car plunges into a ditch and rolls over.
Steve and John leap out of their cars and rush to the wreck as a dazed Bob and Laurie stagger out of the car before it explodes.
Distraught, Laurie grips Steve tightly and begs him not to leave her.
He assures her that he will stay in Modesto.
At the airfield in the morning, Curt says goodbye to his parents, his sister Laurie, Steve, John and The Toad.
As the plane takes off, Curt, gazing out of the window, sees the white Ford Thunderbird belonging to the mysterious blonde driving down a country road.
An on-screen epilogue reveals that John was killed by a drunk driver in December 1964, Toad was reported missing in action near An Lộc in December 1965, Steve is an insurance agent in Modesto, California, and Curt is a writer living in Canada.
<EOS>
In a small rural village with an African American population, a church group is holding a riverside baptismal service, and one of the faithful being immersed is the recently married Martha (Cathryn Caviness).
However, Martha’s husband Ras (Spencer Williams) is absent from the service – he claims he was hunting, but he actually poached a neighbor’s boar.
At home, Ras accidentally shoots Martha when his rifle drops on the floor and discharges.
The church congregation gathers at Martha’s bedside to pray for her recovery, and during this period an angel (Rogenia Goldthwaite) arrives to take Martha’s spirit from her body.
She is brought to the Crossroads between Heaven and Hell, and initially she is tempted by the slick Judas Green (Frank McClennan), who is an agent for Satan (James Jones).
Judas takes Martha to a nightclub, where the floor show includes an acrobat and a jazz singer.
Judas arranges to have Martha employed by the roadhouse owner Rufus Brown, but the angel returns and advises Martha to flee.
As she is escaping, a nightclub patron mistakenly believes Martha is a pickpocket who robbed him.
A chase ensues and Martha races back to the Crossroads, where Satan (along with a jazz band on a flatbed truck) is waiting for her arrival.
The angel appears to protect Martha from the mob, who are driven away.
The sign at the Crossroad is transformed into the vision of Jesus Christ being crucified, and Christ’s blood drips down on Martha’s face.
She awakens to discover she is home and her health is restored.
Martha is reunited with her husband, who has now embraced religion.
The angel who took Martha on her journey returns to bless the marriage.
<EOS>
Cantor Rabinowitz wants his son to carry on the generations-old family tradition and become a cantor at the synagogue in the Jewish ghetto of Manhattan's Lower East Side.
But down at the beer garden, thirteen-year-old Jakie Rabinowitz is performing so-called jazz tunes.
Moisha Yudelson spots the boy and tells Jakie's father, who drags him home.
Jakie clings to his mother, Sara, as his father declares, "I'll teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him.
" Jakie threatens: "If you whip me again, I'll run away&nbsp;— and never come back.
" After the whipping, Jakie kisses his mother goodbye and, true to his word, runs away.
At the Yom Kippur service, Rabinowitz mournfully tells a fellow celebrant, "My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight&nbsp;– but now I have no son".
As the sacred Kol Nidre is sung, Jakie sneaks back home to retrieve a picture of his loving mother.
About 10 years later, Jakie has changed his name to the more assimilated Jack Robin.
Jack is called up from his table at a cabaret to perform on stage.
Jack wows the crowd with his energized rendition.
Afterward, he is introduced to the beautiful Mary Dale, a musical theater dancer.
"There are lots of jazz singers, but you have a tear in your voice," she says, offering to help with his budding career.
With her help, Jack eventually gets his big break: a leading part in the new musical April Follies.
Back at the family home Jack left long ago, the elder Rabinowitz instructs a young student in the traditional cantorial art.
Jack appears and tries to explain his point of view, and his love of modern music, but the appalled cantor banishes him: "I never want to see you again&nbsp;— you jazz singer.
" As he leaves, Jack makes a prediction: "I came home with a heart full of love, but you don't want to understand.
Some day you'll understand, the same as Mama does".
Two weeks after Jack's expulsion from the family home and 24 hours before opening night of April Follies on Broadway, Jack's father falls gravely ill.
Jack is asked to choose between the show and duty to his family and faith: in order to sing the Kol Nidre for Yom Kippur in his father's place, he will have to miss the big premiere.
That evening, the eve of Yom Kippur, Yudleson tells the Jewish elders, "For the first time, we have no Cantor on the Day of Atonement".
Lying in his bed, weak and gaunt, Cantor Rabinowitz tells Sara that he cannot perform on the most sacred of holy days: "My son came to me in my dreams—he sang Kol Nidre so beautifully.
If he would only sing like that tonight—surely he would be forgiven".
As Jack prepares for a dress rehearsal by applying blackface makeup, he and Mary discuss his career aspirations and the family pressures they agree he must resist.
Sara and Yudleson come to Jack's dressing room to plea for him to come to his father and sing in his stead.
Jack is torn.
He delivers his blackface performance ("Mother of Mine, I Still Have You"), and Sara sees her son onstage for the first time.
She has a tearful revelation: "Here he belongs.
If God wanted him in His house, He would have kept him there.
He's not my boy anymore—he belongs to the whole world now".
Afterward, Jack returns to the Rabinowitz home.
He kneels at his father's bedside and the two converse fondly: "My son—I love you".
Sara suggests that it may help heal his father if Jack takes his place at the Yom Kippur service.
Mary arrives with the producer, who warns Jack that he'll never work on Broadway again if he fails to appear on opening night.
Jack can't decide.
Mary challenges him: "Were you lying when you said your career came before everything.
" Jack is unsure if he even can replace his father: "I haven't sung Kol Nidre since I was a little boy".
His mother tells him, "Do what is in your heart, Jakie—if you sing and God is not in your voice&nbsp;— your father will know".
The producer cajoles Jack: "You're a jazz singer at heart.
"  At the theater, the opening night audience is told that there will be no performance.
Jack sings the Kol Nidre in his father's place.
His father listens from his deathbed to the nearby ceremony and speaks his last, forgiving words: "Mama, we have our son again".
The spirit of Jack's father is shown at his side in the synagogue.
Mary has come to listen.
She sees how Jack has reconciled the division in his soul: "a jazz singer—singing to his God".
"The season passes—and time heals—the show goes on".
Jack, as "The Jazz Singer," is now appearing at the Winter Garden theater, apparently as the featured performer opening for a show called Back Room.
In the front row of the packed theater, his mother sits alongside Yudleson.
Jack, in blackface, performs the song "My Mammy" for her and for the world.
<EOS>
In the middle of the Great Depression, Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) and Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) meet when Clyde tries to steal Bonnie's mother's car.
Bonnie, who is bored by her job as a waitress, is intrigued by Clyde, and decides to take up with him and become his partner in crime.
They pull off some holdups, but their amateur efforts, while exciting, are not very lucrative.
The duo's crime spree shifts into high gear once they hook up with a dim-witted gas station attendant,W.
Moss (Michael Pollard), then with Clyde's older brother Buck (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Blanche (Estelle Parsons), a preacher's daughter.
The women dislike each other on first sight, and their feud only escalates from there: shrill Blanche has nothing but disdain for Bonnie, Clyde andW, while gun-moll Bonnie sees Blanche's flighty presence as a constant danger to the gang's well-being.
Bonnie and Clyde turn from pulling small-time heists to robbing banks.
Their exploits also become more violent.
WhenW.
botches a bank robbery by parallel parking the getaway car, Clyde shoots the bank manager in the face after he jumps onto the slow-moving car's running board.
The gang is pursued by law enforcement, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer (Denver Pyle), whom they capture and humiliate before setting him free.
A raid later catches the outlaws off guard, mortally wounding Buck with a gruesome shot to his head and injuring Blanche.
Bonnie, Clyde andW.
barely escape with their lives.
With Blanche sightless and in police custody, Hamer tricks her into revealingW.
's name, who was up until now still only an "unidentified suspect".
Hamer locates Bonnie, Clyde andW.
hiding at the house ofW.
's father Ivan Moss (Dub Taylor), who thinks the couple—and an ornate tattoo—have corrupted his son.
The elder Moss strikes a bargain with Hamer: In exchange for leniency for the boy, he helps set a trap for the outlaws.
When Bonnie and Clyde stop on the side of the road to help mr Moss fix a flat tire, the police in the bushes open fire and riddle them with bullets.
Hamer and his posse then come out of hiding, looking pensively at the couple's bodies.
<EOS>
Private investigator Philip Marlowe is called to the home of the wealthy and elderly General Sternwood, in the month of October.
He wants Marlowe to deal with an attempt by a bookseller named Arthur Geiger to blackmail his wild young daughter, Carmen.
She had previously been blackmailed by a man named Joe Brody.
Sternwood mentions his other, older daughter Vivian is in a loveless marriage with a man named Rusty Regan, who has disappeared.
On Marlowe's way out, Vivian wonders if he was hired to find Regan, but Marlowe will not say.
Marlowe investigates Geiger's bookstore and meets Agnes, the clerk.
He determines the store is a pornography lending library.
He follows Geiger home, stakes out his house, and sees Carmen Sternwood enter.
Later, he hears a scream followed by gunshots and two cars speeding away.
He rushes in to find Geiger dead and Carmen drugged and naked, in front of an empty camera.
He takes her home but when he returns, Geiger's body is gone.
He quickly leaves.
The next day, the police call him and let him know the Sternwoods's car was found driven off a pier, with their chauffeur dead inside.
It appears that he was hit on the head before the car entered the water.
The police also ask if Marlowe is looking for Regan.
Marlowe stakes out the bookstore and sees its inventory being moved to Joe Brody's home.
Vivian comes to his office and says Carmen is being blackmailed with the nude photos from the previous night.
She also mentions gambling at the casino of Eddie Mars and volunteers that Eddie's wife, Mona, ran off with Rusty.
Marlowe revisits Geiger's house and finds Carmen trying to get in.
They look for the photos, but she plays dumb about the night before.
Eddie Mars suddenly enters; he says he is Geiger's landlord and is looking for him.
Mars demands to know why Marlowe is there; Marlowe takes no notice and states he is no threat to Mars.
Marlowe goes to Brody's home and finds him with Agnes, the bookstore clerk.
He tells them he knows they are taking over the lending library and blackmailing Carmen with the nude photos.
Carmen forces her way in with a gun and demands the photos, but Marlowe takes her gun and makes her leave.
Marlowe interrogates Brody further and pieces together the story: Geiger was blackmailing Carmen; the family driver, Owen Taylor, didn't like it, so he sneaked in and killed Geiger, then took the film of Carmen.
Brody was staking out the house too and pursued the driver, knocked him out, stole the film, and possibly pushed the car off the pier.
Suddenly the doorbell rings and Brody is shot dead; Marlowe gives chase and catches Geiger's male lover, who shot Brody thinking he killed Geiger.
He had also hidden Geiger's body, so he could remove his own belongings before the police got wind of the murder.
The case is over, but Marlowe is nagged by Regan's disappearance.
The police accept that he simply ran off with Mona Mars, since she is also missing, and since Eddie Mars wouldn't risk committing a murder in which he would be the obvious suspect.
Mars calls Marlowe to his casino and seems to be nonchalant about everything.
Vivian is also there, and Marlowe senses something between her and Mars.
He drives her home and she tries to seduce him, but he rejects her advances.
When he gets home, he finds Carmen has sneaked into his bed, and he rejects her, too.
A man named Harry Jones, who is Agnes's new partner, approaches Marlowe and offers to sell him the location of Mona Mars.
Marlowe plans to meet him later, but Mars's henchman Canino is suspicious of Jones and Agnes's intentions and kills Jones first.
Marlowe manages to meet Agnes anyway and receives the information.
He goes to the location in Realito, a repair shop with a home in back, but Canino, with the help of Art Huck, the garage man, jumps him and knocks him out.
When he awakens, he is tied up, and Mona Mars is there with him.
She says she hasn't seen Rusty in months; she only hid out to help Eddie and insists he didn't kill Rusty.
She frees him, and he shoots and kills Canino.
The next day, Marlowe visits General Sternwood, who remains curious about Rusty's whereabouts.
On the way out, Marlowe returns Carmen's gun to her, and she asks him to teach her how to shoot.
They go to an abandoned field, where she tries to kill him, but he has loaded the gun with blanks and merely laughs at her; the shock causes Carmen to have an epileptic seizure.
Marlowe brings her back and tells Vivian he has guessed the truth: Carmen came on to Rusty and he spurned her, so she killed him.
Eddie Mars, who had been backing Geiger, helped Vivian conceal it by first helping to dispose of Rusty's body, inventing a story about his wife running off with Rusty and then blackmailing her himself.
Vivian says she did it to keep it all from her father so he wouldn't despise his own daughters, and promises to have Carmen institutionalized.
With the case now over, Marlowe goes to a local bar and orders several double Scotches.
While drinking, he begins to think about Mona "Silver-Wig" Mars.
He never sees her again.
<EOS>
Harry Tasker leads a double life; while his wife Helen and daughter Dana believe him to be a run-of-the-mill computer salesman, he is actually a black operative for a covert counter-terrorism task force known as Omega Sector.
Harry and his partners Albert "Gib" Gibson and Faisal infiltrate a private function in Switzerland, where they learn of the existence of a Palestinian terrorist group known as the Crimson Jihad, led by Salim Abu Aziz.
Harry suspects that antiques dealer Juno Skinner has ties to Aziz, and visits her undercover as a corporate art consultant.
Though the initial investigation proves fruitless, Aziz correctly identifies Harry as a spy and tries to kill him.
Harry kills two of Aziz's men and pursues the leader through the streets of Washington,C, but loses him on a rooftop.
As a result, Harry misses the birthday party that Helen and Dana had arranged for him.
Harry heads to Helen's office the next day to surprise her for lunch, but overhears her talking on the phone to a man named Simon.
He uses Omega Sector resources to learn that Simon is a used car salesman, pretending to be a secret agent as a means to seduce Helen.
While masked, Harry and a team of agents kidnap Helen while she is at Simon's trailer and frighten the latter into staying away from her.
Using a voice masking device, Harry interrogates Helen and learns that, due to his constant absence, she is desperately seeking adventure.
Harry thus arranges for Helen to participate in a staged spy mission, where she is to seduce a mysterious figure in his hotel room and plant a bug on his phone.
The figure turns out to be Harry, who hopes to surprise Helen.
However, things take a turn for the worse when Aziz's men burst in, kidnap the couple, and take them to an island in the Florida Keys.
Aziz reveals he has smuggled stolen nuclear warheads into the country via antique statues shipped by Juno, and threatens to detonate them in majorS.
cities unless theS.
military withdraws from the Persian Gulf.
He then orders the couple to be tortured; Harry (under a truth serum) reveals his double life to an understandably shocked Helen.
The couple stage an escape, Harry fighting off Aziz's men with an improvised flamethrower.
Aziz preps one of the warheads to detonate in ninety minutes, and loads the rest onto trucks to be taken elsewhere.
During the ensuing chaos, Helen is captured by Juno and taken with the convoy on the Overseas Highway.
Having tracked Harry via Helen's tracker, he is rescued by agents led by Gib and together they begin pursuit the convoy, sending two Harrier Jump Jets.
The jets destroy part of the bridge to cut off the trucks' escape route, and Harry rescues Helen from Juno's limo before it careens into the ocean below.
Upon safely returning to the mainland, they learn that Aziz and his men have taken control of a Miami skyscraper via helicopter and have kidnapped Dana, threatening to detonate the remaining bomb.
Harry commandeers one of the jets to rescue his daughter.
Faisal poses as part of a news team requested by Aziz, providing enough distraction for Dana to steal the ignition key and flee the room.
Aziz chases Dana onto a tower crane when Harry arrives.
Harry is able to rescue Dana while he and Aziz struggle in the cockpit.
Aziz becomes ensnared on the end of one of the plane's missiles, which Harry fires at the passing terrorist helicopter — destroying it and the remaining bomb on board.
Harry, Helen, and Dana are then safely reunited.
A year later, the Tasker's family integrity has been restored, and it is revealed that Helen has become another Omega Sector agent.
Harry and Helen are called to embark on a new mission together at a formal party, where they encounter Simon attempting to seduce one of the female guests.
Helen and Harry intimidate Simon into fleeing, and the film ends with the couple dancing the tango (as Harry and Juno did at the beginning of the film) in celebration while Gib complains about always being stuck in the surveillance van.
<EOS>
Western & Atlantic Railroad train engineer Johnnie Gray (Keaton) is in Marietta, Georgia to see one of the two loves of his life, his fiancée Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack)—the other being his locomotive, The General—when the American Civil War breaks out.
He hurries to be first in line to enlist in the Confederate Army, but is rejected because he is too valuable in his present job; unfortunately, Johnnie is not told this reason and is forcibly ejected from the office when he tries to enlist surreptitiously.
On leaving, he runs into Annabelle's father and brother, who beckon to him to join them in line, but he sadly walks away, giving them the impression that he does not want to enlist.
Annabelle coldly informs Johnnie that she will not speak to him again until he is in uniform.
A year passes, and Annabelle receives word that her father has been wounded.
She travels north on the General to see him but still wants nothing to do with Johnnie.
When the train makes a stop, the passengers detrain for a quick meal.
As planned, Union spies led by Captain Anderson (Glen Cavender) use the opportunity to steal the train.
Annabelle becomes an inadvertent prisoner.
Johnnie gives chase, first on foot, then by handcar and boneshaker bicycle, before reaching a station in Chattanooga.
He alerts the army detachment there, which boards another train to give chase, with Johnnie manning the locomotive, the Texas.
However, the flatcars are not hooked up to the engine, and the troops are left behind.
By the time Johnnie realizes he is alone, it is too late to turn back.
The Union agents try a variety of methods to shake their dogged pursuer (convinced he is accompanied by Confederate soldiers), including disconnecting their trailing car and dropping railroad ties on the tracks.
As the unusual duel continues northward, the Confederate Army of Tennessee is ordered to retreat and the Northern army advances in its wake.
Johnnie finally notices he is surrounded by Union soldiers and the hijackers see that Johnnie is by himself.
Johnnie stops his locomotive and runs into the forest to hide.
At nightfall, Johnnie stumbles upon the Northern encampment.
Hungry, he climbs through a window to steal some food, but hides underneath the table when some officers enter.
He overhears their plan for a surprise attack and that the Rock River Bridge is essential for their supply trains.
He then sees Annabelle brought in; she is taken to a room under guard while they decide what to do with her.
Johnnie manages to knock out both guards and free Annabelle.
They escape into the woods.
The next day, Johnnie and Annabelle find themselves near a railway station, where Union soldiers and equipment are being organized for the attack.
Seeing the General, Johnnie devises a plan to warn the South.
After sneaking Annabelle onto a boxcar behind the General, Johnnie steals his engine back.
Two other trains, including the Texas, set out after the pair, while the Northern attack is immediately launched.
In a reversal of the first chase, Johnnie has to fend off his pursuers.
Finally, he starts a fire behind the General in the center of the Rock River Bridge.
Reaching friendly lines, Johnnie warns the local army commander of the impending attack.
Confederate forces rush to defend the bridge.
Meanwhile, Annabelle is reunited with her convalescing father.
The Texas drives onto the burning bridge, which collapses (in what would later come to be recognized as the most expensive stunt of the silent era).
Union soldiers try to ford the river, but Confederate fire drives them back.
Afterward, Johnnie returns to his locomotive to find the Union officer whom he had knocked out earlier, in order to escape, regaining consciousness.
He takes the officer captive and is spotted by the general leaving the locomotive with his prisoner.
As a reward for his bravery, he is commissioned a lieutenant and given the captured officer's sword.
He tries to kiss Annabelle, but has to return the salutes of soldiers.
Johnnie finally uses one hand to embrace his girlfriend while using his other to blindly salute passersby.
<EOS>
Industrialist John Hammond and his bioengineering company, InGen, have created a theme park called Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar, a Costa Rican island, populated with cloned dinosaurs.
After one of the dinosaur handlers is killed by a Velociraptor, the park's investors, represented by lawyer Donald Gennaro, say that experts must visit the park and certify it as safe.
Gennaro invites mathematician Ian Malcolm, while Hammond invites paleontologist dr Alan Grant and paleobotanist dr Ellie Sattler.
Upon arrival, the group is stunned to see a live Brachiosaurus.
At the park's visitor center, the group learns that the cloning was accomplished by extracting dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes that had been preserved in amber.
DNA from frogs was used to fill in gaps in the dinosaur genomes.
To prevent breeding, all the dinosaurs were made female.
Malcolm scoffs at the idea of such controlled breeding, declaring it impossible.
The crew witness the birth of a baby raptor and visit the raptor enclosure.
During a luncheon, the group debates the ethics of cloning and the creation of the park, with dr Malcolm giving a harsh warning about the implications of genetic engineering as a whole.
The group is then joined by Hammond's grandchildren, Lex and Tim Murphy, for a tour of the park, while Hammond oversees the trip from the park's control room.
The tour does not go as planned, with most of the dinosaurs failing to appear and the encounter of a sick Triceratops.
The tour is cut short as a tropical storm approaches Isla Nublar.
Most of the park employees depart on a boat for the mainland and the visitors return to their electric tour vehicles, except Ellie, who stays with the park's veterinarian to study the Triceratops.
Jurassic Park's computer programmer, Dennis Nedry, has been bribed by Dodgson, a man involved with a corporate rival, to steal dinosaur embryos.
Nedry deactivates the park's security system to gain access to the embryo storage room.
Nedry stores the embryos inside a canister disguised as Barbasol shaving cream, supplied by Dodgson.
Because of Nedry, the power goes out and the tour vehicles become stuck.
Most of the park's electric fences are deactivated as well, allowing the Tyrannosaurus to escape and attack the tour group.
Grant, Lex, and Tim escape, while the Tyrannosaurus injures Malcolm and devours Gennaro.
On his way to deliver the embryos to the island's docks, Nedry becomes lost in the rain, crashes his Jeep Wrangler, and is killed by a Dilophosaurus.
Sattler assists the park's game warden, Robert Muldoon, in a search for survivors, but they only find an injured Malcolm, before the Tyrannosaurus returns.
Grant, Tim, and Lex spend the night in a tree and befriend a Brachiosaurus.
Later, they discover the broken shells of dinosaur eggs.
Grant concludes that the dinosaurs have been breeding, which occurred because of their frog DNA—West African bullfrogs can change their sex in a single-sex environment, allowing the dinosaurs to do so as well, proving Malcolm right.
Unable to decipher Nedry's code to reactivate the security system, Hammond and the park's chief engineer Ray Arnold opt to reboot the entire park's system.
The group shuts down the park's grid and retreats to an emergency bunker, while Arnold heads to a maintenance shed to complete the rebooting process.
When Arnold fails to return, Sattler and Muldoon head to the shed.
They discover the shutdown has deactivated the remaining fences and released the raptors.
Muldoon distracts the raptors, while Sattler goes to turn the power back on, before being attacked by a raptor and discovering Arnold's severed arm.
Meanwhile, Muldoon is caught off-guard and killed by the other two raptors.
Grant, Tim and Lex finally reach the visitor center.
Grant heads out to look for Sattler, leaving Tim & Lex inside.
Tim and Lex are pursued by the raptors in an industrial kitchen, but they escape and join Grant and Sattler.
Lex restores full power from the control room, allowing the group to call Hammond, who in turn calls for help.
The group is cornered by the raptors, but they are able to escape when the Tyrannosaurus suddenly appears and kills the raptors.
Hammond arrives in a Jeep with Malcolm, and the entire group boards a helicopter to leave the island.
<EOS>
In 1902 Washington State, a gambler named John McCabe (Warren Beatty) arrives mysteriously and mumbling to himself in the town of Presbyterian Church (named after its only substantial building, a tall but mostly unused [in the film] chapel), in the Northwest United States.
McCabe quickly takes a dominant position over the town's simple-minded and lethargic miners, thanks to his aggressive personality and rumors that he is a gunfighter.
McCabe establishes a makeshift brothel, consisting of three prostitutes purchased for $200 from a pimp in the nearby town of Bearpaw.
British cockney Constance Miller (Julie Christie) arrives in town and tells him she could run a brothel for him more profitably; unknown to him she is addicted to opium.
The two become successful business partners, and open a higher class establishment, including a bathhouse for hygiene; both are financially successful.
A love interest develops between the two.
As the town becomes richer, Sears (Michael Murphy) and Hollander (Antony Holland), a pair of agents from the Harrison Shaughnessy mining company in Bearpaw, arrive to buy out McCabe's business, as well as the surrounding zinc mines.
Shaughnessy is notorious for having people killed when they refuse to sell.
McCabe does not want to sell at their initial price of $5,500, but he overplays his hand in the negotiations in spite of mrs Miller's warnings that he is underestimating the violence that will ensue if they do not take the money.
Three bounty hunters—Butler (Hugh Millais), Breed (Jace Van Der Veen) and Kid (Manfred Schulz)—are dispatched by the mining company to kill McCabe, as well as make an example of him, but he refuses to abandon the town.
Clearly afraid of the gunmen when they arrive in town, McCabe initially tries to appease them.
Reflecting back to early in the film when he's reputed to be a gunfighter (aka Pudgy McCabe), who shot someone in a card game, Butler confronts McCabe about the incident.
After hearing McCabe's story, with the addition that the gun was a Derringer, Butler proclaims that McCabe has never killed anyone in his life.
McCabe later tries to find Sears and Hollander to try to settle on a price, but upon learning that they have left the area, he visits lawyer Clement Samuels (William Devane) to try to obtain legal protection from Harrison Shaughnessy.
Although the lawyer agrees to help McCabe bust the mining company's monopoly on the area, McCabe returns to town convinced that he must face the bounty hunters on his own.
When a lethal confrontation becomes inevitable, McCabe arms himself and hides in the chapel during the early morning hours, but is evicted by the armed pastor, who is then shot by Butler in a case of mistaken identity.
A broken lantern starts a fire in the church and the townspeople rush to help extinguish it.
McCabe continues his evasion and, by shooting them in the back from hidden positions, kills two of the would be assassins, one of whom wounds McCabe as he falls.
As the townsfolk mobilize to fight the chapel fire, McCabe plays cat-and-mouse with the last gunman, Butler.
McCabe is shot in the back and mortally wounded but feigns death and kills Butler with a Derringer when he approaches to confirm McCabe's identity.
While the townspeople celebrate extinguishing the fire, McCabe dies alone in the snow and mrs Miller visits an opium den.
<EOS>
Bridget not only obsesses about her love life, but also details her various daily struggles with her weight, her over-indulgence in alcohol and cigarettes, and her career.
Bridget's friends and family are the supporting characters in her diary.
These friends are there for her unconditionally throughout the novel; they give her advice about her relationships, and support when problems arise.
Her friends are essentially her surrogate family in London.
Bridget's parents live outside of the city, and while they play a lesser role than her friends, they are important figures in Bridget's life.
Her mother is an overconfident, doting woman who is constantly trying to marry Bridget off to a rich, handsome man; and her father is considerably more down-to-earth, though he is sometimes driven into uncharacteristically unstable states of mind by his wife.
Bridget often visits her parents, as well as her parents' friends, primarily Geoffrey and Una Alconbury; Geoffrey creates a mildly uncomfortable situation for Bridget by insisting she call him "Uncle Geoffrey" despite his propensity for groping her rear end whenever they meet.
In these situations, Bridget is often plagued with that perennial question "How's your love life.
" and exposed to the eccentricities of middle class British society, manifested in turkey curry buffets and tarts and vicars parties at which the women wear sexually provocative ("tart") costumes, while the men dress as Anglican priests ("vicars").
The novel is based on Pride and Prejudice.
<EOS>
Jernau Morat Gurgeh, a famously skilful player of board games and other similar contests, lives on Chiark Orbital, and is bored with his successful life.
The Culture's Special Circumstances inquires about his willingness to participate in a long journey, though won't explain further unless Gurgeh agrees to participate.
While he is considering this offer, one of his drone friends, Mawhrin-Skel, which had been ejected from Special Circumstances due to its unstable personality, convinces him to cheat in one of his matches in an attempt to win in an unprecedented perfect fashion.
The attempt fails, but Mawhrin-Skel uses its recording of the event to blackmail Gurgeh into accepting the offer and insisting that Mawhrin-Skel be admitted back into Special Circumstances as well.
Gurgeh spends the next two years travelling to the Empire of Azad in the Small Magellanic Cloud, where a complex game (also named Azad) is used to determine social rank and political status.
The game itself is sufficiently subtle and complex that a player's tactics reflect his own political and philosophical outlook.
By the time he arrives, he has grasped the game but is unsure how he will measure up against opponents who have been studying it for their entire lives.
Gurgeh lands on the Empire's home planet of Eä, accompanied by another drone, Flere-Imsaho.
As a Culture citizen, he naturally plays with a style markedly different from his opponents, many of whom stack the odds against him one way or another, such as forming backroom agreements to cooperate against him (which is allowed by the game's rules).
As he advances through the tournament he is matched against increasingly powerful Azad politicians, and ultimately the Emperor himself in the final round.
The final contests take place on Echronedal, the Fire Planet, which undergoes a natural conflagration fueled by native plants that produce huge amounts of oxygen.
The final game is timed to end when the flames engulf the castle where the event takes place, symbolically renewing the Empire by fire.
However, faced with defeat, the Emperor orders his men to kill all the spectators, and then attempts to kill Gurgeh, but he is himself killed by a shot from his own weapon, deflected by Flere-Imsaho (who later refuses to tell Gurgeh if it was coincidental).
Flere-Imsaho reveals that Gurgeh's participation was part of a Culture plot to overthrow the corrupt and savage Empire from within, and that he, the player, was in fact a pawn in a much larger game.
Although Gurgeh never discovers the whole truth, in the final sentences of the novel the narrator is revealed to be Flere-Imsaho, who had been disguised as Mawhrin-Skel to manipulate Gurgeh into taking part in the game.
<EOS>
The Excession of the title is a perfect black-body sphere that appears mysteriously on the edge of Culture space, appearing to be older than the Universe itself and that resists the attempts of the Culture and technologically equivalent societies (notably the Zetetic Elench) to probe it.
The Interesting Times Gang (ITG), an informal group of Minds loosely connected with Special Circumstances, try to manage the Culture's response to the Excession.
The Affront, a rapidly expanding race named for its systematic sadism towards subject species and its own females and junior males, also try to exploit the Excession by infiltrating a store of mothballed Culture warships and using them to claim control of the mysterious object.
The Sleeper Service, an Eccentric GSV is instructed to head to the location of the Excession by the ITG.
As a condition the Sleeper Service demands that Genar-Hofoen, a human member of Contact, attend it to seek a resolution with his ex-lover who is the final human passenger on the GSV.
They had had an intense love-affair and, after a series of sex changes, had each become impregnated by the other until Genar-Hofoen was unfaithful and Dajeil attacked Genar-Hofoen, killing the unborn child.
Dajeil then suspended her pregnancy and withdrew from society for 40 years and the Sleeper Service hopes to effect a reconciliation between them.
As the stolen Affront fleet approaches the Excession, the Sleeper Service deploys a fleet of 80,000 remote controlled warships, neutralizing the threat.
It transpires that the Affront have been manipulated into their grab for power by members of the ITG who thought it was morally imperative to curb the Affront's cruelty by any means, and intend to use the Affront's theft of Culture warships as an excuse for war.
The Excession releases a wave of destructive energy towards the Sleeper Service.
In desperation, the Sleeper Service transmits a complete copy of its personality, its "Mindstate", into the Excession, including its knowledge of the conspiracy that has the effect of halting the attack.
The Excession then vanishes as mysteriously as it appeared and the brief war with the Affront is halted.
During these events, and after speaking with Genar-Hofoen, Dajeil decides to complete her pregnancy and remain on the Sleeper Service, which sets course for a distant Galaxy.
Genar-Hofoen returns to the Affront, having been rewarded by being physically transformed into a member of the Affront species (whose company he finds more stimulating than that of the Culture's people).
The book's epilogue reveals that the Excession is a sentient entity that was acting as a bridge for a procession of beings that travel between universes.
It also assesses whether the species and societies it encounters are suitable to be enlightened about some unknown further existence beyond the Universe; as a result of events in the story the Excession concludes that the civilisations it has encountered in this universe are not yet ready for enlightenment.
It also takes the name given to it by the Culture – The Excession – as its own.
<EOS>
Major Quilan has lost the will to live after the death of his wife, killed during the Chelgrian civil war that resulted from the Culture's interference.
Quilan is offered the chance to avenge the Chelgrians who died by taking part in a suicide mission to strike back at the Culture.
His "Soulkeeper" (a device normally used to store its owner's personality upon their death) is equipped with both the mind of a long-dead Chelgrian general and a device that can transport wormholes through which weapons can be delivered.
Quilan is then sent to the Culture's Masaq' Orbital, ostensibly to persuade the renowned composer Mahrai Ziller to return to his native Chel but in reality on a mission to destroy the Orbital's Hub Mind.
To protect him from detection at Masaq', Quilan's memory is selectively blanked until he reaches his target.
Ziller lives in self-imposed exile on Masaq', having renounced his privileged position in Chel's caste system.
He has been commissioned to compose music to mark a climactic event in the Idiran-Culture War.
Upon hearing of Quilan's visit, and suspicious of his reason for travel, Ziller scrupulously avoids him.
Quilan succeeds in placing the wormholes in the Orbital's Hub, but the Mind was already aware of the plot and, although not able to track the location of the other end of the wormholes, suggests that the Involved "aliens" assisting Quilan's mission may have been a group of Culture minds seeking to keep the Culture from being too complacent.
Having struggled with painful memories of the Idiran-Culture war, when it was the General Systems Vehicle Lasting Damage, the Mind reveals to Quilan that it intends to cease existing and offers to take Quilan with it.
They both die.
At the end of the novel, a nightmarishly efficient E-Dust Assassin is unleashed by the Culture in retribution against the Chelgrian priest who was responsible, as well as his immediate co-conspirators.
<EOS>
The narrative takes the form of a fractured biography of a man called Cheradenine Zakalwe, who was born outside of the Culture but was recruited into it by Special Circumstances agent Diziet Sma to work as an operative intervening in less advanced civilizations.
The novel recounts several of these interventions and Zakalwe's attempts to come to terms with his own past.
The book is made up of two narrative streams, interwoven in alternating chapters.
The numbers of the chapters indicate which stream they belong to: one stream is numbered forward in words (One, Two.
), while the other is numbered in reverse with Roman numerals (XIII, XII.
).
The story told by the former moves forward chronologically (as the numbers suggest) and tells a self-contained story, while the latter is written in reverse chronology with each chapter successively earlier in Zakalwe's life.
Further complicating this structure is a prologue and epilogue set shortly after the events of the main narrative, and many flashbacks within the chapters.
The forward-moving narrative stream deals with the attempts of Diziet Sma and a drone named Skaffen-Amtiskaw (of Special Circumstances, a division of Contact) to re-enlist Zakalwe for another job.
He must make contact with Beychae, an old colleague, in a politically unstable star system to further the aims of the Culture in the region.
The payment that Zakalwe demands is the location of a woman, named Livueta.
The backward-moving narrative stream describes earlier jobs that Zakalwe has performed for the Culture, ultimately returning to his pre-Culture childhood with his two sisters (Livueta and Darckense) and a boy his age named Elethiomel whose father has been imprisoned for treason.
As the two streams of the narrative conclude, it emerges that Elethiomel and Zakalwe commanded two opposing armies in a bloody civil war.
Elethiomel took Darckense hostage before finally having her killed and her bones and skin made into a chair, to be sent to Zakalwe, who attempted suicide upon receiving it.
After the successful extraction of Beychae, a severely wounded Zakalwe is taken back to his homeworld to see Livueta.
She rejects him and reveals that "Cheradenine Zakalwe" is in fact Elethiomel who had stolen the real Zakalwe's identity after he had killed himself during the civil war.
Elethiomel suffers an aneurysm and Skaffen-Amtiskaw performs surgery in an attempt to save him; it is left unspecified whether Elethiomel survives.
The epilogue is a continuation of the prologue.
It is unclear whether the story told by these "bookends" takes place prior to, or after, the final reveal of the forward-moving narrative in which Zakalwe/Elethiomel suffers an aneurysm.
<EOS>
While hitchhiking through the galaxy, Arthur Dent is dropped off on a planet in a rainstorm.
He appears to be in England on Earth, even though he saw the planet destroyed by the Vogons.
He has been gone for several years, but only a few months have passed on Earth.
He hitches a lift with a man named Russell and his sister Fenchurch (nicknamed "Fenny").
Russell explains that Fenny became delusional after worldwide mass hysteria, in which everyone hallucinated "big yellow spaceships" (the Vogon destructor ships that "demolished" the Earth).
Arthur becomes curious about Fenchurch, but they reach his home before he can ask more questions.
Inside his still-standing home, Arthur finds a gift-wrapped bowl inscribed with the words "So long and thanks", which he uses for his Babel Fish.
Arthur considers that Fenchurch is somehow connected to him and to the Earth's destruction.
He still has the ability to fly whenever he lets his thoughts wander.
Arthur puts his life in order, and then tries to find out more about Fenchurch.
He accidentally finds her hitchhiking and picks her up.
He obtains her phone number but loses it.
He haphazardly discovers her home when he searches for the cave he had lived in on prehistoric Earth; her flat is built on the same spot.
They find more circumstances connecting them.
Fenchurch reveals that, moments before her "hallucinations", she had an epiphany about how to make everything right, but then blacked out.
She has not been able to recall the substance of the epiphany.
Noticing that Fenchurch's feet do not touch the ground, Arthur teaches her how to fly.
They have sex in the skies over London.
In a conversation with Fenchurch, Fenchurch learns from Arthur about hitchhiking across the galaxy and Arthur learns that all the dolphins disappeared shortly after the world hallucinations.
He and Fenchurch travel to California to see John Watson, an enigmatic scientist who claims to know why the dolphins disappeared.
He has abandoned his original name in favour of "Wonko the Sane", because he believes that the rest of the world's population has gone mad.
Watson shows them another bowl with the words "So long and thanks for all the fish" inscribed on it, and encourages them to listen to it.
The bowl explains audibly that the dolphins, aware of the planet's coming destruction, left Earth for an alternate dimension.
Before leaving, they created a new Earth and transported everything from the original to the new one.
After the meeting, Fenchurch tells Arthur that while he lost something and found it, she had found something and lost it.
She desires that they travel to space together, and reach the site where God's Final Message to His Creation is written.
Ford Prefect discovers that the Hitchhiker's Guide entry for Earth consists of the volumes of text he originally wrote, instead of the previous truncated entry, "Mostly harmless".
Curious, Ford hitchhikes across the galaxy to reach Earth.
Eventually he uses the ship of a giant robot to land in the centre of London, causing a panic.
In the chaos, Ford reunites with Arthur and Fenchurch, and they commandeer the robot's ship.
Arthur takes Fenchurch to the planet where God's Final Message to His Creation is written, where they discover Marvin.
Due to previous events, Marvin is now approximately 37 times older than the known age of the universe and is barely functional.
With Arthur and Fenchurch's help, Marvin reads the Message ("We apologise for the inconvenience"), smiles, utters the final words "I think.
I feel good about it," and dies happily.
<EOS>
Eric Thorgrimursson (nicknamed "Brighteyes" for his most notable trait), strives to win the hand of his beloved, Gudruda the Fair.
Her father Asmund, a priest of the old Norse gods, opposes the match, thinking Eric a man without prospects.
But deadlier by far are the intrigues of Swanhild, Gudruda's half-sister and a sorceress who desires Eric for herself.
She persuades the chieftain Ospakar Blacktooth to woo Gudrida, making the two men enemies.
Battles, intrigues, and treachery follow.
<EOS>
Choke follows Victor Mancini and his friend Denny through a few months of their lives with frequent flashbacks to the days when Victor was a child.
He had grown up moving from one foster home to another, as his mother was found to be unfit to raise him.
Several times throughout his childhood, his mother would kidnap him from his various foster parents, though every time they would eventually be caught, and he would again be remanded over to the governmental child welfare agency.
In the present day setting of the book, Victor is now a man in his mid-twenties who left medical school in order to find work to support his feeble mother who is now in a nursing home.
He cannot afford the care that his mother is receiving so he resorts to being a con man.
He consistently goes to various restaurants and purposely causes himself to choke midway through his meal, luring a "good Samaritan" into saving his life.
He keeps a detailed list of everyone who saves him and sends them frequent letters about fictional bills he is unable to pay.
The people feel so sorry for him that they send him cards and letters asking him about how he's doing and even continue to send him money to help him with the bills.
He works at a re-enactment museum set in colonial times, where most of the employees are drug-addicts or, in his friend Denny's case, a fellow recovering sex addict.
Victor spends most of his time on the job guarding his friend Denny (who is constantly being caught with "contraband", items that don't correspond with the time period of the museum) in the stocks.
Victor first met Denny at a sexual addiction support group (he was there as a chronic masturbator), and they later applied together to the same job.
Denny is later fired from the museum, and begins collecting stones from around the city to build his "dream home;" Palahniuk based this portion of the novel on the true story of Ferdinand Cheval.
While growing up, Victor's mother taught him numerous conspiracy theories and obscure medical facts which both confused and frightened him.
This and his constant moves from one home to another have left Victor unable to form lasting and stable relationships with women.
Victor, as a result, finds himself getting sexual gratification from women on a solely superficial level (using sex anonymous meetings to find many of his sexual partners).
Later on, he starts talking to his mother again for the first time in years.
The narrative is episodic, and is presented out of chronological order, a style common to the author's books.
<EOS>
Mrs Wilberforce is a sweet and eccentric old widow who lives alone with her raucous parrots in a gradually subsiding lopsided house, built over the entrance to a railway tunnel in Kings Cross, London.
With nothing to occupy her time and an active imagination, she is a frequent visitor to the local police station where she reports fanciful suspicions regarding neighbourhood activities.
Having led wild-goose chases in the past, she is humoured by the officers there who give her reports no credence whatsoever.
She is approached by an archly sinister character, 'Professor' Marcus, who wants to rent rooms in her house.
She is not aware that he has assembled a gang of hardened criminals for a sophisticated security van robbery at London King's Cross railway station: the gentlemanly and easily fooled con-man Major Claude Courtney; the comedic Cockney spiv Harry Robinson; the slow-witted and punch drunk ex-boxer 'One-Round' Lawson; and the murderous, cruel and vicious continental gangster Louis Harvey.
As a cover, the "Professor" convinces the naive mrs Wilberforce that the group is an amateur string quintet using the rooms for rehearsal space.
To maintain the deception, the gang members carry musical instruments and play a recording of Boccherini's Minuet (3rd movement) from String Quintet in E, Op.
11 No.
5 during their planning sessions.
After the heist, "Mrs.
W" is deceived into retrieving the disguised money from the railway station herself.
This she successfully manages to do but not without serious complications owing to her tendency to righteous meddling.
As the gang departs her house with the loot, 'One-Round' accidentally gets his cello case full of banknotes trapped in the front door.
As he pulls the case free, banknotes spill forth while mrs Wilberforce looks on.
Finally, smelling a rat, she informs Marcus that she is going to the police.
Stalling, the gangsters half convince mrs W that she will surely be considered an accomplice for holding the lolly.
In any case, it is a victimless crime as insurance will cover all the losses and the police will probably not even accept the money back.
She wavers but when she rallies the criminals finally decide they must kill her.
No one wants to do it so they draw lots using matchsticks.
The Major loses but tries to make a run for it with the cash.
As the oblivious mrs W dozes, the criminals cross, double-cross and manage to kill one another in rapid succession.
The Major falls off the roof of the house after being chased by Louis; Harry is killed by One-Round who thinks Harry has killed mrs W after having a change of heart; One-Round tries to shoot Louis and Marcus when he overhears a plan to double-cross him but leaves the gun's safety catch on and is himself killed by Louis; Marcus kills Louis by dislodging his ladder under the tunnel behind the house causing Louis to fall into a passing railway wagon.
Before falling into the carriage Louis fires a last shot at Marcus which nearly hits him.
Finally with no one else left Marcus himself is struck on the head by a railway signal over the tunnel and drops into another wagon.
All the other bodies have been dumped into railway wagons passing behind the house and are now far away.
mrs Wilberforce is now left alone with the plunder.
She goes to the police to return it but they do not believe her story.
They humour her, telling her to keep the money.
She is puzzled but finally relents and returns home.
Along the way, she leaves a banknote of enormous denomination with a startled "starving artist".
<EOS>
A Friend of the Earth is the story of Tyrone O'Shaughnessy Tierwater, aS.
citizen born in 1950, half Irish Catholic and half Jewish ("I'm a mess and I know it.
Jewish guilt, Catholic guilt, enviro-eco-capitalistico guilt: I can't even expel gas in peace".
), whose personal tragedy fits in with, and adds to, the gloomy atmosphere created in the novel.
Egged on by Andrea, the woman he loves, he becomes a committed "Earth Forever.
" activist (an allusion to the radical environmental group Earth First.
) in the 1980s, is imprisoned for ecotage, but eventually cannot change anything.
On top of that, he suffers the loss of his first wife when their daughter is only three and of his daughter when she is only 25.
When the novel opens, Tierwater is a 75-year-old disillusioned ex-con living on the estate of a famous pop star in the Santa Ynez Valley, north of Santa Barbara, in California and looking after the latter's private menagerie.
Maclovio Pulchris, the singer, has had the idea of preserving some of the last surviving animals of several species in order to initiate a captive breeding programme at some later point in time, choosing to preserve the animals no-one else would.
Tierwater has been working for Pulchris ("Mac") for ten years when, in 2025, Andrea, his ex-wife and stepmother to his daughter Sierra, contacts him after more than 20 years.
She and a friend of hers, April Wind, move in with Tierwater, officially for April Wind to write a biography, or rather hagiography, of Sierra Tierwater, his daughter, who died in 2001 as a martyr to the environmentalist cause.
(A "tree-hugging cunt", as their opponents called her, she falls off a tree in old growth woodland in which she has been living for about three years)  In the course of the next few months the situation deteriorates even more.
The rain and the wind destroy the animals' cages, and subsequently they have to be kept in Pulchris's basement.
One morning one of the lions gets loose and attacks and kills the singer, as well as a number of employees.
As a consequence, the other lions are shot—and thus lions as a species become extinct.
(There is just one surviving lion in the San Diego Zoo left)  Jobless and penniless, Tierwater, who has fallen in love all over again with Andrea, is evicted from the estate by Pulchris's heirs.
Along with Andrea, Tyrone leaves the compound, heading for a mountain cabin owned by Earth Forever.
somewhere in the forest which decades ago served as a hideout.
They arrive there with only one of Pulchris's animals in tow: Petunia, the Patagonian fox, which they now keep as their domestic animal, passing it off as their dog.
In the final scene of the book, a teenaged girl comes hiking along the trail where the forest surrounding the dilapidated cabin would have been.
Tierwater and Andrea, who again call themselves husband and wife now, have a glimmer of hope that life will soon be like life 30 years before, as the novel ends on an optimistic note.
<EOS>
The action covers a period of roughly four months—from August to November—around the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee.
Liza Kemp is an 18-year-old factory worker and the youngest of a large family, now living alone with her aging mother.
Very popular with all the residents of Vere Street, Lambeth, she likes Tom, a boy her age, but not as much as he likes her, so she rejects him when he proposes.
Nevertheless, she is persuaded to join a party of 32 who make a coach trip (in a horse-drawn coach, of course) to a nearby village on the August Bank Holiday Monday.
Some of the other members of the party are Tom; Liza's friend Sally and her boyfriend Harry; and Jim Blakeston, a 40-year-old father of 5 who has recently moved to Vere Street with his large family, and his wife (while their eldest daughter, Polly, is taking care of her siblings).
The outing is fun, and they all get drunk on beer.
On their way back in the dark, Liza realises that Jim Blakeston is making a pass at her by holding her hand.
Back home, Jim manages to speak to her alone and to steal a kiss from her.
Seemingly without considering either the moral implications or the consequences of her actions, Liza feels attracted to Jim.
They never appear together in public because they do not want the other residents of Vere Street or their workmates to start talking about them.
One of Jim Blakeston's first steps to win Liza's heart is to go to a melodramatic play with her on Saturday night.
Afterwards, he assaults and rapes her (although the graphic details of their sexual encounter are not explicitly described):  Jim punches her in the stomach, but in the end they "slide down into the darkness of the passage".
Despite the violent encounter, Liza is overwhelmed by love.
("Thus began a time of love and joy".
)  When autumn arrives and the nights get chillier, Liza's secret meetings with Jim become less comfortable and more trying; they must meet in the third-class waiting-room of Waterloo station.
To Liza's dismay, people do start talking about them despite their precautions.
Only Liza's mother, a drunkard and a simple person, doesn't know about their affair.
After Liza's friend Sally gets married, her husband doesn't want her to earn her own money, so he stops her from working at the factory; besides, Sally soon becomes pregnant.
With Sally married and stuck at home, and even Tom seemingly shunning her, Liza feels increasingly isolated, but her love for Jim keeps her going.
They do talk about their love affair: about the possibility of Jim leaving his wife and children ("I dunno if I could get on without the kids"); about Liza not being able to leave her mother, who needs her help; about living somewhere else "as if we was married", about bigamy—but, strangely, not about adultery.
The novel builds up to a sad climax, suggesting that all men—with the possible exception of Tom—are alike, since they all beat their wives, especially when they have been drinking.
Soon after their wedding, Harry beats up Sally just because she has been away from home chatting with a female neighbor; he even hits his mother-in-law.
When Liza drops by, she stays a bit longer to comfort Sally, which makes her late for her meeting with Jim in front of a nearby pub.
When she finally gets there, Jim is aggressive towards her for being late.
Without really intending to, he hits her across the face ("It wasn't the blow that 'urt me much; it was the wy you was talkin'") and gives her a black eye.
Soon the situation deteriorates completely.
Mrs Blakeston, who is pregnant again, opposes Jim's affair with Liza by refusing to talk to him, then goes around telling other people what she would do with Liza if she caught her, and those people inform Liza, who is frightened because she is weak and she knows mrs Blakeston is strong.
One Saturday afternoon in November, Liza is on her way home from work when the angry mrs Blakeston confronts her, spits in her face, and physically attacks her.
Quickly a crowd gathers, not to abate the fight, but to abet it.
("The audience shouted and cheered and clapped their hands".
) Eventually, both Tom and Jim stop the fight, and Tom walks Liza home.
Liza is now publicly stigmatised as a "wrong one", a fact she herself admits to Tom ("Oh, but I 'ave treated yer bad.
I'm a regular wrong 'un, I am").
Despite all her misbehaviour ("I couldn't 'elp it.
[.
] I did love 'im so.
"), Tom still wants to marry Liza, but she tells him that "it's too lite now" because she thinks she is pregnant.
Tom says he wouldn't mind that, but she insists on refusing.
Meanwhile, at the Blakestones', Jim beats up his wife.
Other residents hear them and young Polly appeals to some for help, but they choose not to interfere in other people's domestic problems ("She'll git over it; an' p'raps she deserves it, for all you know").
When Mrs Kemp comes home and sees her daughter's injuries, all she does is offer her some alcohol (whiskey or gin).
That evening they both get drunk, despite Liza's pregnancy.
During the next night Liza has a miscarriage.
Mr Hodges, who lives upstairs, fetches a doctor from the nearby hospital, who soon says he can do nothing for her.
While her daughter is dying, Mrs Kemp has a long talk with Mrs Hodges, a midwife and sick-nurse.
Liza's last visitor is Jim, but Liza is already in a coma.
Mrs Kemp and Mrs Hodges are talking about the funeral arrangements when they hear Liza's death rattle and the doctor declares her dead.
<EOS>
The book's introduction concerns the origin of the weirdstone.
Following the defeat of Nastrond steps had been taken to prepare for his eventual return.
This involved bringing together a small band of warriors of pure heart, each with a horse, and gathering them inside the old dwarf caves of Fundindelve, deep inside the hill of Alderley which were sealed by powerful white magic which would both defend Fundindelve from evil as the ages passed and prevent the warriors and their horses from ageing.
When the time was ripe and the world once more in mortal peril it was prophesied that this small band of warriors would ride out from the hill, trusting in their purity of heart to defeat Nastrond forever.
Fundindelve had a guardian, the ancient wizard Cadellin Silverbrow, and the heart of the white magic was sealed inside a jewel, the Weirdstone of Brisingamen.
At the beginning of the story, however, the Weirdstone has been lost, stolen centuries before by a farmer whose milk-white mare Cadellin had bought to complete the numbers in Fundindelve.
The stone became a family heirloom and eventually found its way to Susan's mother, who passed it on to Susan, oblivious of its history and purpose.
When the children meet Cadellin the wizard fails to notice the bracelet even when the children come to visit him in Fundindelve.
However its presence does not go unnoticed by Selina Place and the witches of the morthbrood, who send their minions to steal it.
Susan finally realises the identity of the Weirdstone and, fearing its destruction, sets out to warn the wizard.
The children return to Fundindelve but Cadellin is nowhere to be found, so they set out to reclaim the stone on their own.
They are successful but become lost in a labyrinth of mine-shafts and caverns.
As the members of the morthbrood close in on them they are rescued by a pair of dwarfs, Fenodyree and Durathror, who are close companions of Cadellin.
After passing through many perils the group returns to the farm where Susan and Colin are staying to spend the night.
They set out with the farm's owner the next day to return the weirdstone to Cadellin before it can fall into the wrong hands.
Their travels take them through forests, mountains and snowy fields while striving to avoid the attention of the morthbrood.
At the climax of the story a great battle takes place on a hill near Alderley during which the children and their companions make a desperate last stand to protect the Weirdstone.
However the enemy forces prove too strong and Durathror is mortally wounded.
Grimnir takes the Weirdstone for himself and, in the ensuing chaos, Nastrond sends the great wolf Fenrir (in some editions Managarm) to destroy his enemies.
As the remaining companions begin to despair Cadellin appears and slays Grimnir, whom he reveals to be his own brother.
The Morrigan flees in terror while Cadellin uses the power of the Weirdstone to subdue once again the forces of darkness.
<EOS>
Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents are traveling to their new home when her father takes a wrong turn.
They unknowingly enter a magical world that Chihiro's father insists on exploring.
While Chihiro's parents eat like pigs at an empty restaurant stall, Chihiro finds an exquisite bathhouse and meets a young boy named Haku who warns her to return across the river before sunset.
However, Chihiro discovers too late that her parents have turned into pigs and she is unable to cross the flooded river, becoming trapped in the spirit world.
After finding Chihiro, Haku has her ask for a job from the bathhouse's boiler-man, Kamaji, a spider yōkai commanding the susuwatari.
Kamaji and the worker Lin send Chihiro to the witch, Yubaba, who runs the bathhouse; she gives Chihiro a job but renames her.
While visiting her parents' pigpen, Sen finds a goodbye card addressed to Chihiro and realizes that she has already forgotten her name.
Haku warns her that Yubaba controls people by taking their names and that if she forgets hers like he has forgotten his, she will not be able to leave the spirit world.
While working, Sen invites a silent masked creature named No-Face inside, believing him to be a customer.
A 'stink spirit' arrives as Sen's first customer.
She discovers he is the spirit of a polluted river.
In gratitude for cleaning him, he gives Sen a magic emetic dumpling.
Meanwhile, No-Face tempts a worker with gold, then swallows him.
He demands food and begins tipping extensively.
As the workers swarm him hoping to be tipped, he swallows yet another two greedy workers.
Sen discovers paper shikigami attacking a dragon and recognizes the dragon as Haku transformed.
When a grievously-injured Haku crashes into Yubaba's penthouse, Sen follows him upstairs.
When she reaches Haku, a shikigami that stowed away on her back transforms into Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister.
She transforms Yubaba's baby son Boh into a mouse, creates a decoy baby and turns Yubaba's bird creature into a tiny bird.
Zeniba tells Sen that Haku has stolen a magic golden seal from her, and warns Sen that it carries a deadly curse.
After Haku dives to the boiler room with Sen and Boh on his back, she feeds him part of the dumpling, causing him to vomit both the seal and a black slug, which Sen crushes with her foot.
With Haku unconscious, Sen resolves to return the seal and apologize for Haku.
Before she leaves the bathhouse, Sen confronts No-Face, who is now massive, and feeds him the rest of the dumpling.
No-Face chases Sen out of the bathhouse, steadily vomiting out those he has eaten.
Sen, No-Face and Boh travel to see Zeniba.
Enraged at the damage caused by No-Face, Yubaba blames Sen for inviting him in and orders that her parents be slaughtered.
After Haku reveals that Boh is missing, he promises to retrieve Boh in exchange for Yubaba freeing Sen and her parents.
Yubaba agrees, on condition that Sen pass a final test.
Sen, No-Face and Boh arrive at Zeniba's house, where Zeniba, now the benevolent "Granny", reveals that Sen's love for Haku broke her curse and that Yubaba had used the black slug to control Haku.
Haku appears in his dragon form and flies both Sen and Boh back to the bathhouse.
No-Face unexpectedly shows itself as a very good spinner for Zeniba and accepts her proposal to stay as a worker.
On the way back, Sen recalls a memory from her youth in which she had fallen into the Kohaku River but was washed safely ashore.
After correctly guessing that Haku is the spirit of the Kohaku River (and thus revealing his real name), Haku is completely freed from Yubaba's control.
When they arrive at the bathhouse, Yubaba tells Sen that in order to break the curse on her parents, she must identify them from among a group of pigs.
After Sen correctly states that none of the pigs are her parents, she is given back her real name Chihiro.
Haku takes her to the now dry riverbed and vows to meet her again.
Chihiro crosses the river and reunites with her restored parents, who do not remember what happened after eating at the restaurant stall.
They walk back to their car and drive away.
<EOS>
The novel begins with a brief foreword, which reads: "Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction, my readers must decide for themselves.
As the fateful picnic took place in the year nineteen hundred, and all the characters who appear in this book are long since dead, it hardly seems important".
At Appleyard College, an upper-class women's private boarding school, a picnic is being planned for the students under the supervision of mrs Appleyard, the school's headmistress.
The picnic entails a day trip to Hanging Rock in the Mount Macedon area, Victoria, on st Valentine's Day in 1900.
One of the students, Sara, who is in trouble with mrs Appleyard, is not allowed to go.
Sara's close friend Miranda, who is described as an ethereal girl, goes without her.
When they arrive, the students lounge about and eat a lunch.
Afterward, Miranda goes to climb the monolith with classmates Edith, Irma, and Marion.
The girls' mathematics teacher, Greta McCraw, follows behind them.
As they ascend the rock, in a dreamlike episode, Miranda, Marion, and Irma vanish into the rock while Edith watches; she returns to the picnic in hysterics, disoriented and with no memory of what occurred.
Miss McCraw is also nowhere to be accounted for.
The school scours the rock in search of the girls and their teacher, but they are not found.
The disappearances provoke much local concern and international sensation with sexual molestation, abduction and murder being high on the list of possible outcomes.
Several organized searches of the picnic grounds and the area surrounding the rock itself turn up nothing.
Meanwhile, the students, teachers and staff of the college, as well as members of the community, grapple with the riddle-like events.
A young man on a private search discovers Irma, unconscious and on the verge of death.
When he fails to return from his search, he is found at the rock with Irma in an unexplained daze.
Concerned parents begin withdrawing their daughters from the formerly prestigious college, prompting various staff to leave; the college's handyman and maid quit their jobs, and the French instructor, Mlle.
Dianne de Poitiers, announces that she will be getting married and leaving the college as well.
A junior governess at the college also leaves with her brother, only to be killed in a hotel fire.
Amidst the unrest both in and around the college, Sara vanishes, only to be found days later, having committed suicide.
mrs Appleyard, distraught over the events that have occurred, also kills herself by jumping from a peak on Hanging Rock.
In a pseudo-historical afterword purportedly extracted from a 1913 Melbourne newspaper article, we are told that both the college, and the Woodend Police Station where records of the investigation were kept, were destroyed by a brush fire in the summer of 1901.
In 1903, rabbit hunters came across a lone piece of frilled calico at the rock, but the women were still never found.
<EOS>
Dr.
Charlotte Manning is young, beautiful, blonde, and well-to-do psychiatrist motivated by greed.
To increase her profit, she becomes involved with a crime syndicate with ties to both prostitution and drug-trafficking.
The leader of the organization is Hal Kines, who has had plastic surgery to make him look younger, and who recruits young women for the sex trade.
Manning herself has upscale clientele, though her trade is not prostitution but coercing her patients into becoming dependent upon medications, primarily heroin, in order to extort money from them.
On the surface, Charlotte Manning maintains her façade as a renowned psychiatrist.
As the sinister plots of Manning and the crime syndicate evolve, Jack Williams falls in love with Myrna Devlin when he stops her from committing suicide by jumping from a bridge.
Williams himself is a former New York police officer who has lost his arm in World War II saving the life of his friend Mike Hammer.
Williams asks dr Manning to admit Devlin to her clinic for psychotherapy.
After Myrna has become clean, she and Williams become engaged, though the couple maintains a casual friendship with Manning.
Over time, Williams becomes suspicious of Manning's business, and secretly investigates further.
He realizes that Hal Kines, one of Manning's college students who has spent some time at her clinic and who has become one of her casual acquaintances, is in fact a criminal.
When, at a party given by Williams in his apartment, Charlotte Manning finds old college yearbooks whose contents would expose Kines' criminal actions, she has to act fast.
After the party, she goes home but on the same night, undetected, returns to Williams' apartment and shoots him in the stomach with a silencer as she watches him die slowly.
Then she takes the college yearbooks and leaves.
On a Saturday morning, Hammer picks up Myrna Devlin and gives her a lift.
They drive to the Bellemy twins' estate in the country for a gigantic all-day party there.
Charlotte Manning says she has some business to attend to and will be there in time for a tennis game due to take place that evening.
After an unsuccessful attempt at playing tennis himself, Hammer gets rid of his sleep deficit by spending all day in his room, fast asleep, with "old junior" &mdash; his gun &mdash; close to him.
He is woken up just in time for dinner, during which Harmon Wilder, the Bellemys' lawyer, and Charles Sherman, Wilder's assistant, are pointed out to him.
This is a fine &mdash; and the final &mdash; distractor in the novel: Wilder and Sherman are suddenly missing from the party after Myrna Devlin has been found shot.
In fact they had illicit drugs on them and did not want to be found out.
During the tennis game, Mary Bellemy asks Charlotte if she can "borrow" Hammer.
Then she leads him into the woods where they have sex.
They return to the party just as a maid discovers Myrna's body in an upstairs room, in front of a large mirror.
Both Pat Chambers and the police are called in, and the alibis of each guest is checked.
Again Charlotte can convince everyone that she could not have done anything.
Back home, Hammer retreats into his apartment to think.
Finally, he knows the identity of the killer.
This is when he goes to Charlotte's place, recapitulates the whole crime and finally shoots her dead, despite her efforts to pull the trigger on him.
<EOS>
Act I  The cast of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is rehearsing for the opening of the show that evening ("Another Op'nin', Another Show").
Egotistical Fred Graham is the director and producer and is starring as Petruchio, and his movie-star ex-wife, Lilli Vanessi, is playing Katherine.
The two seem to be constantly arguing, and Lilli is particularly angry that Fred is pursuing the sexy young actress Lois Lane, who is playing Bianca.
After the rehearsal, Lois's boyfriend Bill appears; he is playing Lucentio, but he missed the rehearsal because he was gambling.
He tells her that he signed a $10,000 IOU in Fred's name, and Lois reprimands him ("Why Can't You Behave.
").
Before the opening, Fred and Lilli meet backstage, and Lilli shows off her engagement ring from Washington insider Harrison Howell, reminding Fred that it's the anniversary of their divorce.
They recall the operetta in which they met, which included "Wunderbar", a Viennese waltz; they end up fondly reminiscing and singing and dancing.
Two gangsters show up to collect the $10,000 IOU, and Fred replies that he never signed it.
The gangsters obligingly say they will give him time to remember it and will return later.
In her dressing room, Lilli receives flowers from Fred, and she declares that she is still "So In Love" with him.
Fred tries to keep Lilli from reading the card that came with the flowers, which reveals that he really intended them for Lois.
However, Lilli takes the card with her onstage, saying she will read it later.
The show begins ("We Open in Venice").
Baptista, Katherine and Bianca's father, will not allow his younger daughter Bianca to marry until his older daughter Katherine is married.
However, she is shrewish and ill-tempered, and no man desires to marry her.
Three suitors - Lucentio, Hortensio, and Gremio - try to woo Bianca, and she says that she would marry any of them ("Tom, Dick, or Harry").
Petruchio, a friend of Lucentio, expresses a desire to marry into wealth ("I've Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua").
The suitors hatch a plan for him to marry Kate, as Baptista is rich.
Kate, however, has no intentions of getting married ("I Hate Men").
Petruchio attempts to woo her ("Were Thine That Special Face").
Offstage, Lilli has an opportunity to read the card.
She walks on stage off-cue and begins hitting Fred, who, along with the other actors, tries to remain in character as Baptista gives Petruchio permission to marry Kate.
Lilli continues to strike Fred, and he ends up spanking her.
Offstage, Lilli furiously declares she is leaving the show.
However, the gangsters have reappeared, and Fred tells them that if Lilli quits, he'll have to close the show and won't be able to pay them the $10,000.
The gangsters force her to stay at gunpoint.
Back onstage, Bianca and Lucentio dance while the chorus performs "We Sing of Love", covering a scene change.
The curtain opens, revealing the exterior of a church; Petruchio and Kate have just been married, and they exit the church; the gangsters, dressed in Shakespearean costume, are onstage to make sure that Lilli stays.
Petruchio implores for Kate to kiss him, and she refuses.
He lifts her over his shoulder and carries her offstage while she pummels his shoulder with her fists ("Kiss Me Kate").
Act II  During the show's intermission, the cast and crew relax in the alley behind the theater.
Paul (Fred's assistant), along with a couple other crew members, lament that it's "Too Darn Hot" to meet their lovers that night.
The play continues, and Petruchio tries to 'tame' Katherine and mourns for his now-lost bachelor life ("Where Is the Life That Late I Led.
").
Off-stage, Lilli's fiancé Harrison Howell is looking for Lilli.
He runs into Lois, and she recognizes him as a former lover but promises not to tell Lilli.
Bill is shocked to overhear this, but Lois tells him that even if she is involved with other men, she is faithful to him in her own way ("Always True to You in My Fashion").
Lilli tries to explain to Howell that she is being forced to stay at the theatre by the gangsters, but Howell doesn't believe her and wants to discuss wedding plans.
Fred insidiously points out how boring Lilli's life with Howell will be compared to the theatre.
Bill sings a love song he has written for Lois ("Bianca").
The gangsters discover that their boss has been killed, so the IOU is no longer valid.
Lilli leaves—without Howell—as Fred unsuccessfully tries to convince her to stay ("So in Love" (Reprise)).
The gangsters get caught on stage and improvise a tribute to Shakespeare in which they explain that knowing Shakespeare is the key to romance ("Brush Up Your Shakespeare").
The company prepares for the conclusion of the play, the wedding of Bianca and Lucentio, even though they are now missing one of the main characters.
However, just in time for Katherine's final speech, Lilli arrives onstage ("I Am Ashamed That Women Are So Simple").
Fred and Lilli wordlessly reconcile on stage, and the play ends ("Kiss Me Kate" (Finale)) with them, as well as Bill and Lois, kissing passionately.
<EOS>
Right from the start, Ralph Messenger's philandering is painfully obvious to Helen.
At one of the first social gatherings she attends, she happens to see Messenger and the wife of the Head of the School of English, Marianne Richmond, kissing passionately in the kitchen.
(At that point of time she does not know that there is not more to it than meets the eye, that they are just playing some sort of secret game) One weekend quite early during her stay, after they have been in the hot water outside and with Carrie already in the house, Messenger plants a firm kiss on Helen's lips.
From the secret journal he is keeping, we know that Messenger fancies her.
Helen does not actually resist the kiss, but afterwards she tells him unmistakably that she is not going to have an affair with him because, among other things, she strongly disapproves of adultery.
From Helen's own journal, however, we learn that she is sexually aroused by his presence and by just thinking of him.
Messenger, who does not know anything about Helen's real feelings, thinks that he has made his pass at her prematurely and, by doing so, has spoiled any future liaison with her.
Meanwhile, Helen tries to focus on her work.
The students she has to teach are a small, friendly and ambitious group who meet on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
Her class is to a large extent about their work in progress, mainly novels which they started during the preceding term.
When Sandra Pickering, one of the students, belatedly submits some chapters from the novel she is writing, Helen immediately recognises one of the male characters as having been modelled on her late husband Martin.
As Helen herself has based a character in her novel The Eye of the Storm on Martin, she is about to accuse Sandra Pickering of plagiarism when, to her dismay, she finds out that the girl used to work for the BBC some years ago, that she knew Martin, and that she actually had an affair with him.
(Sandra knows, and writes about, intimate details such as what he preferred doing immediately after sex) Gradually it dawns upon Helen that her husband must have had a whole succession of young lovers, with everyone except herself knowing everything, or at least suspecting a lot, about it, while she herself, only mildly promiscuous during her student days, was never unfaithful to him.
At this point Helen decides to never again shed a tear for him and get on with her own life instead.
In this new light, not even Messenger's advances seem so monstrous any more.
She makes another discovery which almost turns her view of the world upside down.
On a free afternoon, she escapes the stifling atmosphere of the campus to explore the surrounding countryside.
Seated over lunch in a pub in the small town of Ledbury.
An embarrassing encounter at the pub follows, with all three of them keeping up appearances and being polite and reserved.
Later, however, during a duck race (a fund-raising event with plastic ducks "racing" down a small river), Carrie confides in Helen: She knows all (or almost everything) about her husband's flings and, by taking a lover herself, tries to get back at him.
Ralph Messenger, she is quite sure, does not know anything about her affair.
Also, Carrie tells her that she screwed around a lot while she was studying at UC Berkeley, but only with faculty, never with other students.
Back home in the USA, Mr Thurlow, Carrie's rich father, has two serious heart attacks in a row so that Carrie books the first flight home.
She takes Hope with her.
With Carrie out of the way for some time – in the end it turns out to be three weeks – Helen, who has recently let herself be seduced by Messenger, spends the most beautiful and romantic – or rather lustful – three weeks since her husband's death.
In the language of the kind of novels she loves reading, she describes herself as having become "a woman of pleasure, a scarlet woman, a woman of easy virtue".
She and Messenger have sex practically every day, and at all kinds of places.
Helen, who prefers a bedroom with the curtains drawn, is amazed at, and eventually fascinated by, Messenger's lust and ingenuity when it comes to selecting odd spots for making love, for instance a prehistoric burial mound on top of a hill, with some hikers approaching.
Helen also volunteers to perform the duties of a housewife for Carrie and then stays over at the Messengers' house.
At night, she and Ralph Messenger derive some additional pleasure from trying not to make any sound during their lovemaking so as not to arouse the kids' suspicion.
(But Emily, who has an 18-year-old boyfriend and who discusses her sex life with her mother, seems to know what is going on anyway and at one point almost blackmails her stepfather) Soon Helen ponders the question whether she is actually falling in love with him and, consequently, if and how their affair will continue after the end of the term.
Only once, when they are in bed together, can he not get an erection.
A final breach of confidence committed by Ralph Messenger makes it much easier for Helen to leave him and go back to London.
Also, for the first time, it inadvertently triggers some emotion in Messenger, albeit a negative one: jealousy.
When he is waiting for Helen in her maisonette, he cannot resist the temptation to turn on her laptop and read parts of her journal.
This is how he learns about his own wife's infidelity.
When Helen enters her apartment, his jealousy gets the better of him so that he cannot hide the fact that he has invaded her privacy.
(Originally, he suggested that they should exchange their respective journals, as each of them would profit from reading the other's, but Helen categorically refused)  Ralph Messenger does have to be operated on after all, but the surgery is successful.
However, he somewhat ages and, in the process, loses his reputation as a woman-chaser.
In 1999, he publishes a new book entitled Machine Living and in due course is awarded a CBE.
He never confronts Carrie with her affair and remains married to her.
Helen Reed returns to London and resumes writing.
Some time later she meets a new partner, but she does not move in with him (or he with her).
In the following year she publishes Crying is a Puzzler, a novel about life on campus quite similar to that of the University of Gloucester.
<EOS>
According to Soviet reports, German agents planned to kill the Big Three leaders at the Tehran Conference, but called off the assassination while it was still in the planning stage.
Western intelligence dismissed the existence of this plot.
Otto Skorzeny, the alleged leader of the operation, claimed that Hitler had dismissed the idea as unworkable before planning had even begun.
Nevertheless, the topic continues to be a theme of certain Russian historians.
<EOS>
In the 1920s, Sean Thornton (John Wayne), an Irish-born American from Pittsburgh, travels to Ireland to reclaim his family's farm and his birthplace in Inisfree.
He meets and falls in love with the fiery Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara), the sister of the bullying, loud-mouthed landowner Squire "Red" Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen).
Danaher, who had wanted the farm himself, is angry that the Widow Tillane (herself angered by Danaher's admission that he had discussed her in the local pub) accepts Sean's bid, and retaliates by refusing consent for his sister to marry.
Several town locals, including the Catholic priest, Father Lonergan (Ward Bond), conspire to trick him into believing that the wealthy Widow Tillane (Mildred Natwick) wants to marry him, but only if Mary Kate is no longer living in his house.
After learning the truth on Sean and Mary Kate's wedding day, an enraged Will refuses to give his sister her dowry which is made up of a large sum of money and her family possessions passed down from her mother.
Sean, unschooled in Irish customs, cares nothing about the dowry, but to Mary Kate the dowry represents her independence, identity, and pride.
She feels passionately and intensely that the dowry is hers and is needed to validate her marriage to Sean.
Angered and shamed by Sean's refusal to confront her brother and demand what is legally hers, she brands him a coward, and, despite living together, they are quickly estranged as husband and wife.
In the morning they find that others in the village had visited Will and pressured him to return Mary Kate's furniture, but not her money.
Sean had been a boxer in the United States, a heavyweight challenger known as "Trooper Thorn".
After accidentally killing an opponent in the ring, Sean hung up his gloves, vowing never to fight again.
This is known to only one person in the village, the Church of Ireland minister, the Rev.
Playfair (Arthur Shields), who once upon a time had been the lightweight champion and so understands Thornton's internal conflict over the fight.
In an attempt to force Sean to confront Will, Mary Kate leaves him and boards a train departing Castletown and headed to Dublin.
Sean hears that she left for the station and drags her off the train.
Followed by the crowding townspeople, he forces her to walk with him the five miles back to Inisfree and directly to the Danaher farm.
Sean demands that Will hand over her dowry.
When Will refuses, he throws Mary Kate back at Will, saying that "no dowry, no marriage" is their custom not his, shocking the two and shaming Will into finally paying the monetary part of his sister's dowry.
Sean promptly throws the money into a nearby furnace which Mary Kate holds open, showing that Mary Kate never cared about the money, but only what it represented.
After a proud Mary Kate announces so all can hear, that she will now return home to prepare his supper, and departs, Will punches Sean, and a long, memorable fistfight ensues between the two, drawing crowds from miles around.
They slug it out through the village, stop for a drink, brawl again, then, somewhat drunk, admit grudging mutual respect and the two return to Sean and Mary Kate's home for supper, where it is implied the rift is healed.
Sean regains Mary Kate's love and respect.
In the aftermath it is shown that Will and the Widow Tillane begin courting, and "peace is returned to Inisfree".
<EOS>
In the latter months of 1938, Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), a respectable middle-class British woman in an affectionate but rather dull marriage, tells her story while sitting at home with her husband, imagining that she is confessing her affair to him.
Laura, like many women of her class at the time, goes to a nearby town every Thursday for shopping and to the cinema for a matinée.
Returning from one such excursion to Milford, while waiting in the railway station's tea shop, she is helped by another passenger, who solicitously removes a piece of grit from her eye.
The man is Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), an idealistic doctor who also works one day a week as a consultant at the local hospital.
Both are in their late thirties or early forties, married and with children.
Enjoying each other's company, the two arrange to meet again.
They are soon troubled to find their innocent and casual relationship quickly developing into something deeper, approaching infidelity.
For a while, they meet openly, until they run into friends of Laura and the perceived need to lie arises.
The second lie comes easier.
They eventually go to a flat belonging to Stephen (Valentine Dyall), a friend of Alec's and a fellow doctor, but are interrupted by Stephen's unexpected and judgmental return.
Laura, humiliated and ashamed, runs down the back stairs and into the streets.
She walks for hours, sits on a bench and smokes, and is confronted by a police officer, with the implication that she could be perceived as a "streetwalker".
The recent turn of events informs the couple that both an affair and a future together are impossible.
Realizing the danger and not wishing to hurt their families, they agree to part.
Alec has been offered a job in Johannesburg, South Africa, where his brother lives.
Their final meeting occurs in the railway station refreshment room, now seen for a second time with the poignant perspective of their story.
As they await a heart-rending final parting, Dolly Messiter (Everley Gregg), a talkative acquaintance of Laura, invites herself to join them and begins chattering away, oblivious to the couple's inner misery.
As they realize that they have been robbed of the chance for a final goodbye, Alec's train arrives.
With Dolly still chattering, Alec departs with a last look at Laura but without the passionate farewell for which they both long.
After shaking Messiter's hand, he discreetly squeezes Laura on the shoulder and leaves.
Laura waits for a moment, anxiously hoping that Alec will walk back into the refreshment room, but he does not.
As the train is heard pulling away, Laura is galvanized by emotion and, hearing an approaching express train, suddenly dashes out to the platform.
The lights of the train flash across her face as she conquers a suicidal impulse.
She then returns home to her family.
Laura's kind and patient husband, Fred (Cyril Raymond), suddenly shows not only that he has noticed her distance in the past few weeks but that he has perhaps even guessed the reason.
He thanks her for coming back to him.
She cries in his embrace.
<EOS>
Joanna Drayton's (Katharine Houghton) unannounced early return from a Hawaiian vacation causes a stir when she brings her new fiancé to her childhood upper-class home in San Francisco.
He is John Prentice (Sidney Poitier): a widowed, black physician.
Joanna's parents&mdash;newspaper publisher Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and his wife art gallery owner Christina Drayton (Katharine Hepburn)&mdash;are purported liberals who have instilled in her the idea of racial equality.
But although they try to hide it, Joanna's parents and in particular her father are initially upset that she is planning to marry a black man.
The Draytons' black maid, Tillie (Isabel Sanford), is even more horrified, suspecting that John is trying to "get above himself" by marrying a white woman.
Joanna is oblivious to the reactions of her parents.
They are unsettled by her engagement with John since they never thought that her choice would be a black man, and further unsettled by John's decision that if Joanna's parents do not accept the engagement that day, that he will end it.
Adding to the situation is that Joanna, at first intending to join John in a few weeks in Geneva for their planned marriage ceremony, has changed her mind to leave after dinner on his flight to New York City and then onward to Europe.
She has also invited John's parents (Roy Glenn and Beah Richards) to dinner so that they can all become acquainted.
Due to this invitation, what was intended to be a sit-down steak dinner for two turns into a meet-the-in-laws dinner party.
Furthermore, John is forced to reveal that he had not yet told his parents of his intention to marry a white girl.
Matt's golf buddy Monsignor Mike Ryan (Cecil Kellaway), a Catholic priest, stops by after Matt earlier cancelled on playing golf.
After learning of John, he shares Joanna's enthusiasm for the pending nuptials and tells her father as much.
Matt says he cannot give the couple his blessing however; he fears that Joanna will be hurt by the prejudice that she and John will surely encounter.
Meanwhile, one of Christina's employees at her gallery, Hilary (Virginia Christine), who'd briefly met John and Joanna earlier in the day, stops by the Draytons' home to express her disapproval over the relationship and, though Christina herself is still unsure of her own feelings about the matter, she is so offended at Hilary's racism that she fires her on the spot.
Later, when dressing for dinner, Christina shares with Matt her support for Joanna, even if it should mean having to fight her husband.
Cocktails at the Drayton home is musical chairs of different sets of parental characters who share their views about the situation; it shows that the mothers have more faith in their children than the fathers.
Universally, it had been expressed by the parents that more than a few hours are necessary for a proper decision, but John's mother brings up her idea of what the men are missing about the situation: passion.
When the elder Prentice tells John that he is making a huge mistake, John says that his father thinks of himself as a black man, whereas John thinks of himself as a man.
mrs Prentice tells Matt that he and her husband, in growing old, have forgotten what it's like to feel romantic passion.
If they remembered, they would see that in their children as being more important than any racial problem.
After thinking about the situation, and his conversation with mrs Prentice in particular, Matt calls everyone together to make an announcement.
He says that it does not matter what everyone else may think about John and Joanna getting married: all that matters is that they love each other.
The film ends with the two families and Monsignor Ryan finally sitting down to dinner.
<EOS>
The story begins in Tuscany, Italy.
A carpenter named Master Antonio, but who everyone calls Master Cherry, has found a block of pinewood which he plans to carve into a leg for his table.
When he begins, however, the log shouts out.
Frightened by the talking log, Master Cherry gives it to his neighbor Geppetto, an extremely poor man who plans to make a living as a puppeteer in hopes of earning "a crust of bread and a glass of wine".
Geppetto carves the block into a boy and names him "Pinocchio".
As soon as Pinocchio's nose has been carved, it begins to grow with his congenital impudence.
Before he is even built, Pinocchio already has a mischievous attitude; no sooner than Geppetto is finished carving Pinocchio's feet does the puppet proceed to kick him.
Once the puppet has been finished and Geppetto teaches him to walk, Pinocchio runs out the door and away into the town.
He is caught by a Carabiniere, who assumes Pinocchio has been mistreated and imprisons Geppetto.
Left alone, Pinocchio heads back to Geppetto's house to get something to eat.
Once he arrives at home, a talking cricket who has lived in the house for over a century warns him of the perils of disobedience and hedonism.
In retaliation, Pinocchio throws a hammer at the cricket, more accurately than he intended to, and accidentally kills it.
That evening, Pinocchio falls asleep with his feet on the stove, and wakes to find that they have burned off.
Geppetto is released from prison and makes Pinocchio a new pair of feet.
In gratitude, Pinocchio promises to attend school, and Geppetto sells his only coat to buy him a school book.
On his way to school the next morning, Pinocchio encounters the Great Marionette Theatre, and he sells his school book in order to buy a ticket for the show.
The marionettes on stage recognize him in the audience and call out to him, angering the puppet master Mangiafuoco.
The puppet master initially decides to use Pinocchio as firewood but ultimately releases him and gives him five gold pieces to give to Geppetto.
As Pinocchio travels home to give the coins to his father, he meets a fox and a cat.
The Cat pretends to be blind, and the Fox pretends to be lame.
A white blackbird tries to warn Pinocchio of their lies, but the blackbird is eaten by the Cat.
The two animals convince Pinocchio that if he plants his coins in the Field of Miracles outside the city of Catchfools, they will grow into a tree with gold coins.
They stop at an inn, where the Fox and the Cat gorge themselves on food at Pinocchio's expense and ask to be awoken by midnight.
Two hours before the set time, the pair abandon Pinocchio, leaving him to pay for the meal with one of his coins.
They instruct the innkeeper to tell Pinocchio that they left after receiving a message stating that the Cat's eldest kitten had fallen ill and that they would meet Pinocchio at the Field of Miracles in the morning.
They take off ahead of Pinocchio and disguise themselves as bandits while Pinocchio continues on toward Catchfools, despite warnings from the Ghost of the Talking Cricket.
The disguised Fox and Cat ambush Pinocchio, but the puppet escapes to a white house after biting off the Cat's paw.
Upon knocking on the door, Pinocchio is greeted by a young fairy with turquoise hair who says she is dead and waiting for a hearse.
Unfortunately, the bandits catch him and hang him in a tree.
After a while, the Fox and Cat get tired of waiting for the puppet to suffocate, and they leave.
The Fairy has Pinocchio rescued by summoning a falcon to get him down and having her poodle servant pick him up in her stagecoach.
The Fairy calls in three famous doctors to tell her whether Pinocchio is dead.
Two of them, an owl and a crow, are unsure of Pinocchio's status.
The third doctor is the Ghost of the Talking Cricket, who says that the puppet is fine, but has been disobedient and hurt his father.
The Fairy administers medicine to Pinocchio who consents to take it after four undertaker rabbits arrive to carry away his body.
Recovered, Pinocchio lies to the Fairy when she asks what has happened to the gold coins, and his nose grows until it is so long that he cannot turn around in the room.
The Fairy explains that Pinocchio's lies are making his nose grow and calls in a flock of woodpeckers to chisel it down to size.
The Fairy sends for Geppetto to come and live with them in the forest cottage.
When Pinocchio heads out to meet his father, he once again encounters the Fox and the Cat.
When Pinocchio notices the Cat's missing paw, the Fox claims that they had to sacrifice it to feed a hungry old wolf.
They remind the puppet of the Field of Miracles, and finally, he agrees to go with them and plant his gold.
They finally reach the city of Catchfools, where every animal in town has done something exceedingly foolish and now suffers as a result.
Upon reaching the Field of Miracles, Pinocchio buries his coins and then leaves for the twenty minutes that it will take for his gold to grow into gold coin trees.
After Pinocchio leaves, the Fox and the Cat dig up the coins and run away.
Once Pinocchio returns, he learns of the Fox and the Cat's treachery from a parrot who mocks Pinocchio for falling for their tricks.
Pinocchio rushes to the Catchfools courthouse where he reports the theft of the coins to a gorilla judge.
Although he is moved by Pinocchio's plea, the judge sentences Pinocchio to four months in prison for the crime of foolishness.
Fortunately, all criminals are released early by the jailers when the unseen young Emperor of Catchfools declares a celebration following his army's victory over the town's enemies.
Upon being released, Pinocchio leaves Catchfools.
Pinocchio then heads back to the Fairy's house in the forest, but he sneaks into a farmer's yard to steal some grapes.
He is caught in a weasel trap where he encounters a glowworm.
The farmer finds Pinocchio and ties him up in the doghouse of his late watch dog Melampo to guard the chicken coop.
When Pinocchio foils the chicken-stealing weasels, the farmer frees the puppet as a reward.
Pinocchio finally comes to where the cottage was, finds nothing but a gravestone, and believes that the Fairy has died of sorrow.
A friendly pigeon sees Pinocchio mourning the Fairy's death and offers to give him a ride to the seashore, where Geppetto is building a boat in which to search for Pinocchio.
Pinocchio is washed ashore when he tries to swim to his father.
Geppetto is then swallowed by The Terrible Dogfish.
Pinocchio accepts a ride from a dolphin to the nearest island called the Island of Busy.
Upon arriving on the Island of Busy, Pinocchio can only get food in return for labor.
Pinocchio offers to carry a lady's jug home in return for food and water.
When they get to the lady's house, Pinocchio recognizes the lady as the Fairy, now miraculously old enough to be his mother.
She says she will act as his mother, and Pinocchio will begin going to school.
She hints that if Pinocchio does well in school and tries his hardest to be good for one whole year, then he will become a real boy.
Pinocchio studies hard and rises to the top of his class, but this makes the other schoolboys jealous.
The other boys trick Pinocchio into playing hookey by saying they saw a large sea monster at the beach, the same one that swallowed Geppetto.
However, the boys were lying and a fight breaks out.
One boy named Eugene is hit by Pinocchio's school book, though Pinocchio did not throw it.
Pinocchio is accused of injuring Eugene by two Carabinieres, but the puppet escapes.
During his escape, Pinocchio saves a drowning Mastiff named Alidoro.
In exchange, Alidoro later saves Pinocchio from The Green Fisherman, who was going to eat the marionette, as Pinocchio returns home.
After meeting the Snail that works for the Fairy, Pinocchio is given another chance by the Fairy.
Pinocchio does excellently in school and passes with high honors.
The Fairy promises that Pinocchio will be a real boy the next day and says he should invite all his friends to a party.
He goes to invite everyone, but he is sidetracked when he meets a boy nicknamed Candlewick who is about to go to a place called Toyland where everyone plays all day and never works.
Pinocchio goes along with him when they are taken there by The Coachman, and they have a wonderful time for the next five months.
One morning in the fifth month, Pinocchio and Candlewick awake with donkeys' ears.
A Dormouse tells Pinocchio that boys who do nothing but play and never work always turn into donkeys while they are in Toyland.
Soon both Pinocchio and Candlewick are fully transformed, and Pinocchio is sold to a circus by The Coachman.
He is trained by the ringmaster to do tricks until he falls and sprains his leg.
The ringmaster then sells Pinocchio to a man who wants to skin him and make a drum.
The man throws the donkey into the sea to drown him.
But when the man goes to retrieve the corpse, all he finds is a living marionette.
Pinocchio explains that the fish ate all the donkey skin off him, and he is now a puppet again.
Pinocchio dives back into the water and swims out to sea.
When the Terrible Dogfish appears, Pinocchio swims from it at the advice of the Fairy in the form of a little blue-furred goat from atop a high rock, but is swallowed by it.
Inside the Dogfish, Pinocchio unexpectedly finds Geppetto, who has been living on a ship inside the Dogfish.
Pinocchio and Geppetto manage to escape the monster and search for a place to stay.
Pinocchio and Geppetto pass two beggars: the Fox and the Cat.
The Cat has really become blind, and the Fox has really become lame and is also thin, is almost hairless, and has chopped off his tail to sell for food.
The Fox and the Cat plead for food or money, but Pinocchio rebuffs them and tells them that their misfortunes have served them right for their wickedness.
Geppetto and Pinocchio arrive at a small house, which is home to the Ghost of the Talking Cricket.
The Talking Cricket says they can stay and reveals that he got his house from a little goat with turquoise hair.
Pinocchio gets a job doing work for a farmer and recognizes the farmer's dying donkey as his friend Candlewick.
After long months of working for the farmer and supporting the ailing Geppetto, Pinocchio goes to town with the forty pennies he has saved to buy himself a new suit.
He discovers that the Fairy is ill and needs money.
Pinocchio instantly gives the Snail he met back on the Island of Busy all the money he has.
That night, he dreams that he is visited by the Fairy, who kisses him.
When he wakes up, he is a real boy at last.
His former puppet body lies lifeless on a chair.
Furthermore, Pinocchio finds that the Fairy has left him a new suit, boots, and a bag in which he thinks are the forty pennies that he originally gave to her.
Instead, the boy is shocked to find forty freshly-minted gold coins.
Geppetto also returns to health and resumes woodcarving.
<EOS>
The village of Wootton Major was well-known around the countryside for its annual festivals, which were particularly famous for their culinary delights.
The biggest festival of all was the Feast of Good Children.
This festival was celebrated only once every twenty-four years: twenty-four children of the village were invited to a party, and the highlight of the party was the Great Cake, a career milestone by which Master Cooks were judged.
In the year the story begins, the Master Cook was Nokes, who had landed the position more or less by default; he delegated much of the creative work to his apprentice Alf.
Nokes crowned his Great Cake with a little doll jokingly representing the Queen of Faery.
Various trinkets were hidden in the cake for the children to find; one of these was a star the Cook discovered in the old spice box.
The star was not found at the Feast, but was swallowed by a blacksmith’s son.
The boy did not feel its magical properties at once, but on the morning of his tenth birthday the star fixed itself on his forehead, and became his passport to Faery.
The boy grew up to be a blacksmith like his father, but in his free time he roamed the Land of Faery.
The star on his forehead protected him from many of the dangers threatening mortals in that land, and the Folk of Faery called him "Starbrow".
The book describes his many travels in Faery, until at last he meets the true Queen of Faery.
The identity of the King is also revealed.
The time came for another Feast of Good Children.
Smith had possessed his gift for most of his life, and the time had come to pass it on to some other child.
So he regretfully surrendered the star to Alf, and with it his adventures into Faery.
Alf, who had become Master Cook long before, baked it into the festive cake once again for another child to find.
After the feast, Alf retired and left the village; and Smith returned to his forge to teach his craft to his now-grown son.
<EOS>
The story opens with the narrator, Sanders Roscoe, defending his neighbor Edith Goodnough to a reporter trying to dig up dirt on her.
She has been accused of murdering her brother Lyman.
Sanders seems disappointed in the Sherriff for caving in to the reporter, saying that to understand what happened you would have had to know Edith's story, which he begins to tell.
In 1896, newlyweds Roy and Ada Goodnough leave Iowa and settle down in northeastern Colorado under the Homestead Act of 1862.
The business of farming is a tough affair in those days, but Roy is a hard-working man who eventually succeeds in growing wheat.
Ada bears him two children: Edith, who is born in 1897, and Lyman, born two years later.
As their neighbour, Hannah Roscoe, the narrator's grandmother, a Native American woman whose white husband left her and their six-year-old son for good, quietly observes the Goodnoughs and also, on Ada's request, helps deliver Edith and Lyman.
Very soon Ada regrets leaving Iowa for the plains of Colorado.
Her husband turns out to be a bully, an angry and violent man without any sense of humour who makes her and their children work very hard on the farm.
When she dies in 1914, aged only 42, Edith has to take over all of Ada's chores and duties.
Then, in 1915, a terrible accident during harvest time seals Edith's fate: Her father's hands get entangled in a machine, and nine of his fingers are chopped off.
This severe physical handicap leaves Roy Goodnough all the more cruel and demanding; he considers, and treats, Edith and Lyman as his "self-sired farmhands", bossing them around and taking all decisions himself.
As the two siblings grow up, they start looking for means of escape but soon realize that they are stuck on their father's farm and, as opposed to city kids, they are bound by a rural code of honour and a sense of duty and thus prevented from abandoning the farm and leaving their father alone.
For the next 37 years, Edith performs the duties of farmer, housewife and nurse without ever complaining, renouncing her personal freedom and refusing to get involved with men except for a brief but powerful romance with the narrator's father, who Edith loves but refuses to marry out of a sense of duty to her father and brother.
Despite her rejection, he never gets over her.
Lyman, tall, inexperienced in the ways of the world and deeply frustrated, finally sees his chance of escape when, in 1941, the United States is attacked by Japan.
In the middle of the night and with the help of the Roscoes, he secretly leaves the farm and goes to the city with the intention of joining the armed forces.
But at 42 he is too old to enlist and instead embarks on a tour of the United States which lasts for more than 20 years.
All those years, Edith never doubts that one day her brother will return.
He does so, too, in the early 1960s, almost ten years after their father's peaceful death at 82.
For six years Edith and Lyman, now both in their sixties, live happily together in their farm house, often going sightseeing in Lyman's Pontiac.
Then in 1967, the Goodnoughs, Sanders and his wife Mavis, now eight months pregnant, decide to go to the county fair together.
They stay late into the night, drinking and having a good time, but on the way home Lyman crashes his Pontiac, causing Mavis to miscarry and giving himself a head injury from which he never truly recovers.
He becomes moody, childish and antisocial.
Edith's sense of duty requires her to look after her brother, who becomes more and more reclusive, eventually refusing to leave the house and his new obsession: planning trips around the country that he'll never take.
As they grow older and frailer, Edith decides to move everything downstairs and close off the second story, and enlists Sanders' help.
Upstairs, he discovers only one bedroom with only one bed, a fact which Edith does not attempt to disguise, saying only that they moved the extra bed out when Lyman came home to make room for his things.
Sanders says nothing, allowing that when you live out in the country you come to understand your neighbors, or at least accept them, because you all know how hard life can be.
In the following years, Edith draws some pleasure from spending afternoons with Rena, Sanders' daughter, who is born in 1969.
But soon it becomes too dangerous for Rena to go to the Goodnoughs on her own, as Lyman, who has regressed to infancy, is prone to unprompted outbursts of violence.
Eventually, on New Year's Eve, 1976, Edith, unable to care for Lyman but unwilling to put him in a home, prepares for the only way out she can see.
She has Lyman put on his best clothes, cooks a three-course dinner for him, waits for him to fall asleep and then sets fire to their house.
Things do not happen according to plan though because the fire is detected too soon and the two old people are evacuated.
However, Lyman never recovers from the injuries inflicted by the fire and dies soon afterwards.
In the spring of 1977 Edith Goodnough is still lying in a hospital bed with a policeman stationed outside her room and facing charges of attempted murder.
The Roscoes visit every day.
<EOS>
England, England is divided into three parts entitled "England", "England, England" and "Anglia".
The first part focuses on the protagonist Martha Cochrane and her childhood memories.
Growing up in the surrounding of the English countryside, her peaceful childhood gets disrupted when her father leaves the family.
Martha's memories of her father are closely related to playing a Counties of England jigsaw puzzle with him.
The second part, "England, England", is set in the near future in what is clearly marked as a postmodern age.
Martha is now in her forties and gets employed by the entrepreneur Sir Jack Pitman for his megalomaniac project.
Sir Jack aims to turn the Isle of Wight into a gigantic theme park which contains everything that people, especially tourists, consider to be quintessentially English, selected according to what Sir Jack himself approves of.
The theme park called 'England, England' thus becomes a replica of England's best known historical buildings, figures and sites.
Popular English tourist attractions and icons of 'Englishness' are crammed together to be easily accessible without having to travel whole 'real' England.
While working on the set-up of the project, Martha starts an affair with one of her colleagues, Paul Harrison.
They find out about Sir Jack's questionable sexual preferences and blackmail him with the incriminating evidence when Sir Jack wants to dismiss Martha.
She thus becomes CEO of the Island project, which turns out to be a highly popular tourist attraction.
As a consequence of the huge success, 'England, England' becomes an independent state and part of the European Union, while the real, 'Old England' suffers a severe decline and increasingly falls into oblivion.
After a major scandal in the theme park, however, Martha is eventually expelled from the island.
The third part of the novel, "Anglia", is set decades later and depicts Martha who has returned to a village in Old England after many years of wandering abroad.
The original nation has regressed into a vastly de-populated, agrarian and pre-industrial state without any international political influence, while 'England, England' continues to prosper.
The chapter describes the villagers' endeavour to re-establish a traditional village fête with the help of Martha's memories.
Martha ultimately spends her final days in this rural setting pondering about her past.
<EOS>
In the distant future, the known universe is ruled by Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.
The most important substance in the empire is the drug known as melange or "the spice".
It has many special properties, such as extending life and expanding consciousness.
The most profitable and important of its properties is its ability to assist the Spacing Guild with folding space, which allows safe, instantaneous interstellar travel.
Sensing a potential threat to spice production, the Spacing Guild sends an emissary to demand an explanation from the Emperor, who confidentially shares his plans to destroy House Atreides.
The popularity of Duke Leto Atreides has grown through the empire, and he is suspected to be amassing a secret army equipped with sonic-based weapons, which Emperor Shaddam sees as a potential threat to his rule.
Shaddam's plan is to give House Atreides control of the planet Arrakis (also known as Dune), the only source of spice.
Once installed on Arrakis, he intends to have them ambushed by their longtime archenemies, the Harkonnens, with assistance from the Emperor's elite troops, the Sardaukar.
The Guild Navigator also commands the Emperor to kill Duke Leto's son, Paul Atreides, a young man who dreams prophetic visions of his purpose.
The execution order draws the attention of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, as Paul is tied to its centuries-long Bene Gesserit breeding program which seeks to produce the universe's superbeing, the Kwisatz Haderach.
Before he leaves for Arrakis, Paul is tested by the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam by being forced to place his hand in a box which induces excruciating pain.
To her surprise, he passes the test to Mohiam's satisfaction.
Meanwhile, on the industrial world of Giedi Prime, the sadistic Baron Vladimir Harkonnen tells his nephews Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha about his plan to eliminate the Atreides by manipulating someone in House Atreides into betraying the Duke.
The Atreides leave their homeworld Caladan for Arrakis, a barren desert planet populated by gigantic sandworms.
The native people of Arrakis are called the Fremen, a mysterious people who have long held a prophecy that a messiah would come to lead them to freedom.
Upon arrival on Arrakis, Leto is informed by one of his right-hand men, Duncan Idaho, that the Fremen have been underestimated, as they exist in vast numbers and could prove to be powerful allies.
Leto begins to gain the trust of the Fremen, but before the Duke can establish an alliance, the Harkonnens launch their attack.
While they had anticipated a trap, Harkonnen's traitor within House Atreides, dr Wellington Yueh, Duke Leto's personal physician, has disabled critical shields and has destroyed their sonic weapons, leaving them nearly defenseless.
In the attack, Idaho is killed, Leto is captured, and nearly all of House Atreides is wiped out.
While captured, Leto dies in a failed attempt to assassinate the Baron Harkonnen using a poison gas capsule planted in his tooth by dr Yueh, who is double-crossed by Baron Harkonnnen and executed by Piter De Vries.
However, Leto's concubine Lady Jessica and his son Paul survive the attack and are able to escape into the deep desert, where they discover a sietch of Fremen, led by Stilgar.
Paul and Jessica are taken in by the Fremen; Jessica becomes their Reverend Mother, and Paul falls in love with Chani, a Fremen warrior he had previously seen in one of his visions.
Paul takes on the Fremen name Muad'Dib, and emerges as the leader for whom the Fremen have been waiting.
He teaches the Fremen to build and use the sonic weapons developed by House Atreides and begins to target spice mining production, which is back in control of the Harkonnen, overseen by Rabban.
Over the next two years, spice production is effectively halted, a fact Rabban tries to keep hidden from the empire.
The Spacing Guild returns to the Emperor to warn him of the deteriorating situation on Arrakis.
They also fear that Paul will consume the Water of Life, a powerful poison used by the Bene Gesserit to help induce their abilities.
The meeting is revealed to Paul in a prophetic dream, but then the dreams suddenly stop.
Shaken by the absence of his visions, he goes out into the desert and drinks the Water of Life and enters into a trance.
Upon awakening, he is transformed, obtaining powerful psychic abilities and the ability to control the sandworms.
Paul has also regained his ability to see into space and the future, and learns the Emperor is amassing a huge invasion fleet above Arrakis to wipe out the Fremen and to regain absolute control of the planet.
Upon the Emperor's arrival at Arrakis, he executes Rabban for failing to remedy the spice situation, calling in Baron Harkonnen to demand an explanation.
At the same time, Paul launches a final attack against the Harkonnens and the Emperor's Sardaukar at the capital city of Arrakeen.
His Fremen warriors, riding in on sandworms and brandishing their sonic weapons, easily defeat the Emperor's legions, while Paul's sister Alia kills Baron Harkonnen.
Once in Arrakeen, Paul faces the Emperor and engages Feyd-Rautha in a duel to the death; Paul kills Feyd and relieves Emperor Shaddam of power.
Paul then demonstrates his newfound powers and fulfills the Fremen prophecy that he is the promised messiah by causing rain to fall on Arrakis for the first time ever, as Alia declares him to be the Kwisatz Haderach.
<EOS>
Opportunistic racketeering thrives in a damaged and impoverished Allied-occupied Vienna, which is divided into four sectors each controlled by one of the occupying forces: American, British, French, and Soviet.
These powers share the duties of law enforcement in the city.
American pulp Western writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) comes to the city seeking his childhood friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job.
Upon arrival he discovers that Lime was killed just hours earlier by a speeding truck while crossing the street.
Martins attends Lime's funeral, where he meets two British Army Police: Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), a fan of Martins' pulp novels; and his superior, Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), who says Lime was a criminal and suggests Martins leave town.
An official of the British occupying forces (Wilfrid Hyde-White) subsequently approaches Martins, requesting that he give a lecture and offering to pay for his lodging.
Viewing this as an opportunity to clear his friend's name, Martins decides to remain in Vienna.
He receives an invitation to meet from Lime's friend, "Baron" Kurtz (Ernst Deutsch), who tells Martins that he, along with another friend, Popescu (Siegfried Breuer), carried Lime to the side of the street after the accident.
Before dying, according to Kurtz, Lime asked Kurtz and Popescu to take care of Martins and Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), Lime's actress girlfriend.
Hoping to gather more information, Martins goes to see Anna at her theatre, where she suggests in passing that Harry's death may not have been accidental.
She then accompanies Martins to question the porter at Lime's apartment building.
The porter claims Lime was killed immediately and could not have given any instructions to his friends before dying.
He also states that Kurtz and Popescu did not move the body out of the street alone, but were helped by a third man.
Martins berates him for not being more forthcoming with the police about what he knows.
Concerned for his family's safety, the porter indignantly tells Martins not to involve him.
Shortly afterwards the police, searching Anna's flat for evidence, find and confiscate her forged passport and detain her.
Anna tells Martins that she is of Czechoslovak nationality and will be deported from Austria by the Russian occupying forces if discovered.
Martins visits Lime's "medical adviser", dr Winkel (Erich Ponto), who says that he arrived at the accident after Lime was dead, and only two men were present.
Later, the porter secretly offers Martins more information but is murdered before their arranged meeting.
When Martins arrives, unaware of the murder, a young boy recognizes him as having argued with the porter earlier and points this out to the gathering bystanders, who become hostile, and then mob-like.
Escaping from them, Martins returns to the hotel, and a cab whisks him away.
He fears it is taking him to his death, but it delivers him to the book club.
With no lecture prepared, he stumbles until Popescu, in the audience, asks him about his next book.
Martins replies that it will be called The Third Man, "a murder story" inspired by facts.
Popescu tells Martins that he should stick to fiction.
Martins sees two thugs approaching and flees.
Calloway again advises Martins to leave Vienna, but Martins refuses and demands that Lime's death be investigated.
Calloway reluctantly reveals that Lime had been stealing penicillin from military hospitals, and selling it on the black market diluted so much that many patients died.
In postwar Vienna, antibiotics were new and scarce outside military hospitals and commanded a very high price.
Calloway's evidence convinces Martins.
Disillusioned, he agrees to leave Vienna.
Martins visits Anna to say good-bye and finds that she also knows of Lime's misdeeds, but that her feelings toward him are unchanged.
She tells him she is to be deported.
Upon leaving her flat, he notices someone watching from a dark doorway; a neighbour's lit window briefly reveals the person to be Lime (Orson Welles), who flees, ignoring Martins's calls.
Martins summons Calloway, who deduces that Lime has escaped through the sewers.
The British police immediately exhume Lime's coffin and discover that the body is that of Joseph Harbin, an orderly who stole penicillin for Lime and went missing after turning informant.
The next day, Martins goes to Kurtz and demands to see Lime.
Lime comes out to meet him and they ride Vienna's Ferris wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad.
Lime obliquely threatens Martins's life but relents when told that the police already know his death and funeral were faked.
In a monologue on the insignificance of his victims, he reveals the full extent of his amorality.
He again offers a job to Martins and leaves.
Calloway asks Martins to help lure Lime out to capture him, and Martins agrees, asking for Anna's safe conduct out of Vienna in exchange.
However, Anna refuses to leave and remains loyal to Lime.
Exasperated, Martins decides to leave but changes his mind after Calloway shows Martins the children who are victims of Lime's diluted penicillin, brain-damaged as a result of meningitis.
Lime sneaks out for his rendezvous with Martins, but Anna, still loyal to Lime, arrives and warns him off just in time.
He tries again to escape through the sewers, but the police are there in force.
Lime shoots and kills Paine, but Calloway shoots and wounds Lime.
Badly injured, Lime drags himself up a ladder to a street grating exit but cannot lift it.
Martins picks up Paine's revolver, follows Lime, reaches him, but hesitates.
Lime looks at him and nods.
A shot is heard.
Later, Martins attends Lime's second funeral.
At the risk of missing his flight out of Vienna, Martins waits in the cemetery to speak to Anna.
She approaches him from a distance and walks past, ignoring him.
<EOS>
The narrative switches between four main characters.
Count Sessine is a high-ranking member of the court who is assassinated, ending his last life.
Reborn inside the crypt he comes under repeated attack and is almost permanently killed.
On his last virtual life, he makes contact with a copy of himself who assists him.
He spends many subjective years wandering the wider reaches of the crypt before being contacted by its representative who requests his aid in relation to the encroachment.
Gadfium, the Chief Scientist of the ruling class, is engaged in a conspiracy with like-minded nobles who believe that the elite are not acting in the best interests of the population, and who question the real motive of the ongoing war with the rival clan of Engineers.
She becomes aware of a message that has apparently been sent from the fast tower, the highest, inaccessible part of the castle which stresses the danger of the Encroachment and tells of an attempt by the crypt to activate a long forgotten sub system which may prevent disaster.
The message also warns that this will be opposed by those in power as it will threaten their interests.
She and her fellow conspirators are considering how to respond when the security forces attempt to arrest them, although Gadfium manages to escape into the depths of the castle.
Bascule the Teller is a young man who contacts the dead personalities within the crypt on behalf of their relatives or other interested parties.
Whilst searching for a lost friend, he attracts the attention of the Security forces and takes refuge with various chimeric animals whose implants have taken on personalities from the within the crypt.
He is eventually tasked with ascending the central shaft of the highest tower in a vacuum balloon in order to reach its control room.
Asura is a young woman who awakens in an re-incarnation facility with no memory.
She is compelled to travel towards the castle, rapidly gathering knowledge about the world before being captured by the security forces.
She is interrogated within the crypt, but is able to resist the questioning, becoming stronger at understanding and manipulating her virtual environments.
As she escapes her virtual prison, she is physically freed by Gadfium, assisted by the copy of Count Sessine who had guided her to Asura's location.
Asura broadcasts to the world the truth regarding the encroachment and the attempts of the monarchy to prevent the activation of the crypt sub-systems.
She explains her origin, being an emissary of the crypt that was combined with the mind of Count Sessine who sacrificed himself in the process.
She was created by the crypt because the relevant systems were kept separate by their designers to prevent infection by chaos.
The so-called chaotic elements of the crypt are a burgeoning ecology of Artificial Intelligences.
Asura states that both the humans and chaos will have to learn to live with each other.
Asura and Gadfium depart, reaching an elevator which is activated for them by Bascule after reaching the control room at the summit of the tower.
Asura is able to activate the "Fearsome Engine" of the title, which begins the slow process of relocating the solar system out of reach of the cloud.
<EOS>
The main protagonist is Lady Sharrow, a former military pilot and antiquities thief.
She lives on Golter, a planet orbiting a star in an isolated planetary system with no nearby galaxies.
A cult named the Huhsz is granted permission to assassinate her, believing that their messiah can not be born until the end of her family's female bloodline.
She is forced to choose between going into hiding for a year or recovering the last Lazy Gun, an ancient weapon of mass destruction that was stolen from the cult by her ancestor.
Sharrow resolves to recover the Lazy Gun, rejecting an offer of help from her cousin Geis, a wealthy industrialist and businessman.
In order to do this, she must first find the Universal Principles, a long lost book rumoured to contain a clue to the Gun's hiding place.
She visits her half-sister Breyghun who is held prisoner in the Seahouse, a monastery run by the Sad Brothers.
Breyghun tells her that their grandfather Gorko, a collector of rare artifacts, encoded information regarding the location of the Universal Principles into the DNA of his servants.
Sharrow recruits the surviving members of her combat unit and sets out to make contact with the son of Gorko's butler.
During these events, Sharrow is menaced by two unidentified bald headed clones, who have the ability to inflict pain on her via a military virus embedded in her nervous system.
They demand the Gun is turned over to them and not the Huhsz.
Sharrow and her team follow the trail left by Gorko and recover the Universal Principles.
The book has long since turned to dust, but the case contains a quotation that is also inscribed on Gorko's tomb.
Sharrow visits the storage facility where the tomb is kept and finds a device that provides them with co-ordinates deep in an embargoed zone.
The team are joined by an android named Feril and set out to retrieve the Lazy Gun.
After disembarking from the submarine they hired, they are attacked first by air and ground troops.
During these encounters, her team are killed one by one and Sharrow is wounded.
Sharrow and Feril reach a small tower which contains both the Gun and numerous other pieces of ancient technology.
After leaving the tower, Sharrow is immobilized by the virus and the clones appear, confiscate the Gun and take them both prisoner.
They are conveyed to a desert stronghold and are presented to a man named Molgarin, who claims to be immortal.
The fortress is attacked, by both the Hushz and another unidentified set of troops.
In the chaos, Sharrow kills the clones and escapes using a monowheeled tank that was found along with the Lazy Gun.
She realizes that the first force contained members of the Sad Brothers and she and Feril head for the Seahouse, taking the Lazy Gun with them.
They arrive and discover that her cousin Geis has been behind events, acting out of an unrequited love for Sharrow and a desire to engineer political change within the system.
Molgarin was an actor employed to try and make Sharrow feel gratitude towards Geis.
After they are taken captive Sharrow and Ferril cause the Lazy Gun to begin firing uncontrollably and the Seahouse is destroyed, with Feril still inside it.
In the confusion, Sharrow kills first her half-sister Breyghun and then Geis, before leaving in the tank, self-identifying with the Lazy Gun and the destruction that it brings to everything it encouters.
<EOS>
The novel chronicles the lives of a group of Jews - or rather, a Jewish family - in theSA, in particular New York City, over a period of roughly seven months during 1991 and 1992.
There is little action.
Rather, the novel describes in greater detail the feelings of the protagonist and what goes on in her immediate surroundings.
Most of the characters in the novel are Jewish, and the reader gets a vivid picture of the lives of assimilated Jews in theSA.
It is told by a third person narrator who is very close to Esther Zepler's thoughts.
There are frequent flashbacks to both the distant and the not-so-distant past and numerous references to the Holocaust.
Edek Zepler is a Holocaust survivor who was born Edek Zeleznikow in Łódź, Poland in 1915, where his father owned several apartment blocks.
He got married in the Łódź ghetto to Rooshka but had to marry her again after the war in a DP camp in Germany.
That is where their daughter, Esther, was born in 1950.
In 1951 the family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia.
When the novel opens, Edek Zepler is an old man of 76 who certainly enjoys good food, a man living alone with his dog in the old house in Melbourne, feeling rather alone—in spite of an active Jewish community in his neighbourhood—and without any life in him since his wife's death in 1986 ("The saddest thing did already happen to me.
My wife died.
Nothing can be sad after that".
).
He regularly phones his family, who have moved to Manhattan.
The only close relative still in Melbourne is his grandson, Zachary, who studies medicine there.
His life takes a decisive turn when, on a visit to New York, he meets Josl and Henia Borenstein again, a couple he last saw in the German DP camp.
Now that Josl Borenstein has died of cancer, Edek and Henia gradually feel more and more attracted to each other.
In spite of several (alleged) proposals of marriage from millionaires, Henia, herself a rich widow, wants to spend the rest of her life with Edek and invites him to stay with her at her Florida home.
Eventually, Edek packs up all his things, sells his house and moves to theSA.
He is cordially taken up by Henia's friends, who belong to several associations (for example the Zionist Federation).
Although mostly agnostic, he even pays an occasional visit to the synagogue.
The problem he has to face towards the end of the novel would be considered rather severe by the average person, but Edek Zepler just laughs it off: Henia's two sons want him to sign a pre-nuptial agreement so that he would not inherit anything if Henia died first (and so that he would not be able to bequeath the Borenstein fortune to Esther and his grandchildren).
Such an agreement, Esther and her husband Sean warn him, might mean that he could be left even without a place to stay after her death.
But Edek Zepler does not mind ("In that case, I'll come and live with you".
).
He signs everything and is married to Henia.
Esther Zepler is the only child of Edek and Rooshka Zepler.
She was born in a German DP camp in 1950.
In 1951 her parents decided to emigrate to Australia, where she spent most of her life.
In 1968, aged 18, she became a rock journalist - just like Lily Brett herself - and in this capacity also visited New York.
As a young woman, she married a gentile and had a son, Zachary, now 21, and a daughter, Zelda, now 16, by him.
However, her first marriage was characterized by a "lack of lust", and when she met Sean Ward, a painter and yet another gentile, she left her husband for him.
Nobody would guess that Sean, Esther, Zachary, Zelda and Kate - Sean's 19-year-old daughter by his first wife, who died of cancer - are a patchwork family.
For one thing, Sean looks Jewish although he is not; for another, they all understand each other well and there is a certain feeling of belonging amongst them.
When the novel opens they have just moved to New York City, and Esther starts working as a writer of obituaries.
Although on the surface level Esther's life seems to be in perfect order - she has got a good job, she is happily married, her children are well-behaved, they all are quite wealthy, they do not suffer from any illnesses - Esther is constantly suffering in some way or other.
She has always seen herself as "a person with so much to sort out", and this is why she has been in analysis for a quite a number of years.
She spends a fortune on it and even has to sell her mother's diamond ring.
At one point in the novel, she learns the difference between compulsive and obsessive behaviour (compulsive behaviour is to do with action, obsessive behaviour with thoughts) and promptly thinks she herself shows both types of behaviour.
She suffers from agoraphobia as well as claustrophobia.
When she was 15, back home in Australia, her father let her drive his car in public until they were stopped by the police.
Now, as an adult, she is afraid to drive, and considers herself lucky that you do not really need a car in New York City.
She is neurotic, a woman with "excessive anxieties and indecisions", and likely to panic when having to face things.
She is all for drugs: beta blocker, Valium, Mylanta, and other pills.
On the other hand, Esther neither smokes nor drinks.
Generally, although she likes, and is able to enjoy, sex, she is very reluctant to talk about it, especially in public.
But all around her, people keep talking freely about sex in general and also about their own sex lives, whereas Esther does not even want to imagine her father sleeping with Henia Borenstein, and is slightly embarrassed when she sees them holding hands under the table.
Esther often feels "fouled by her parents´ past".
She is haunted by her dead mother.
She is preoccupied with the Holocaust and owns more than 400 books on the subject.
Her thoughts about the lives of Jews during the Third Reich are again and again woven into the novel.
She ponders about medical experiments conducted by Nazi physicians; about the gas chambers in the death camps, implicitly comparing a crowded New York subway with a cattle wagon to Auschwitz; the Nazis making soap with human fat; Pope Pius XII and Roman Catholicism; displaced Jews after World War II; anti-Semitism in general; Neo-Nazis in Germany and Austria; the world population of Jews in 1939 and today and the fact that there were "no Jews left" in Poland after World War II; business in the DP camps (ie.
bartering with cigarettes), coffee but also Nazi memorabilia; and she considers with disgust a video game on CD-ROM entitled "How to Survive the Holocaust".
She is also preoccupied with death and dying on a more general level.
For example, she reads a book on suicide, which she finds invigorating rather than depressing.
Fear of death seems to be her constant companion; she continuously sees death as a danger and a menace.
Esther also seems to have inherited her mother's "guilt at having survived".
At one point in the novel, she speaks of a Jewish "weariness gene".
But Esther is also critical of the other Jews she meets in America.
There is Sonia Kaufman, who considers Esther as her best friend.
Sonia is a lawyer working for the same law firm as her Jewish husband Michael.
As opposed to Esther, Sonia has had affairs throughout her married life.
Her current lover used a broken condom while they were making love, and now Sonia is pregnant for the first time in her life.
As it turns out soon, she is expecting twins.
The real problem now is that she cannot possibly say who the father is.
Sonia hopes that they will look like her husband, who is looking forward to the birth of his children and has no idea that his wife has had sex with another man.
The problem is solved in rather a humorous, light-hearted way at the end of the novel: The twins - two girls - look like her mother.
The Kaufmans will be able to afford two nannies, so they will not have any problems combining their careers and their family life.
Then there are Joseph and Laraine Reiser.
The Reisers are "arseholes".
They are filthy rich Jews who live the life of the super-rich in a very pronounced way, never mingling with ordinary people, on whom they seem to look down.
Joseph Reiser is an entrepreneur "doing business with Germany"—in itself a suspicious activity—and a would be-patron of the arts: Time and again he talks to Sean Ward about coming to his studio, implying that he might want to buy one of his paintings, but he never seems to get round to doing so.
Sean and Esther meet them twice: first, at one of their big parties, and later when they are invited to their Long Island beach house.
Esther feels guilty when one of the Reisers´ cars (a stretch Mercedes limo with a fax machine) comes to pick them up.
<EOS>
The story is a series of episodes in the youth of George Sherston, ranging from his first attempts to learn to ride to his experiences in winning point-to-point races.
The title is somewhat misleading, as the book is mainly concerned with a series of landmark events in Sherston/Sassoon's childhood and youth, and his encounters with various comic characters.
"The Flower-Show Match," an account of an annual village cricket match – an important fixture for those involved – in which young Sherston plays a significant part, was later published separately by Faber as a self-contained story.
The book as a whole is a frequently humorous work, in which fox-hunting, one of Sassoon's major interests, comes to represent the young man's innocent frame of mind in the years before war broke out.
The book ends with his enlistment in a local regiment.
The story is continued in two sequels: Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Sherston's Progress.
<EOS>
In Morocco, Frank Cotton buys a puzzle box from a dealer.
In a bare attic, when Frank solves the puzzle, hooked chains emerge and tear him apart.
Later, the room is filled with swinging chains and covered with the remnants of his body.
A black-robed figure picks up the box and returns it to its original state, restoring the room to normal.
Some time afterward, Frank's brother Larry moves into the house to rebuild his strained relationship with his second wife, Julia, who had an affair with Frank shortly after their marriage.
Larry's teenage daughter, Kirsty, has chosen not to live with them and moves into her own place.
Larry cuts his hand carrying a bed up the stairs, and lets his blood drip on the attic floor.
The blood resurrects Frank as a skinless corpse, who is soon found by Julia.
Still obsessed with Frank, she agrees to harvest blood for him so that he can be fully restored, and they can run away together.
Julia begins picking up men in bars and bringing them back to the house, where she murders them.
Frank consumes their blood, regenerating his body.
Frank explains to Julia that he had exhausted all sensory experiences and sought out the puzzle box, with the promise that it would open a portal to a realm of new carnal pleasures.
When solved, the "Cenobites" came to subject him to the extremes of sadomasochism.
Kirsty spies Julia bringing men to the house; believing her to be having an affair, she follows her to the attic, where she interrupts Frank's latest feeding.
Frank attacks her, but Kirsty throws the puzzle box out the window, creating a distraction and allowing her to escape.
Kirsty retrieves the box and flees, but collapses shortly thereafter.
Awakening in a hospital, Kirsty solves the box, summoning the Cenobites and a two-headed monster, which Kirsty narrowly escapes from.
The Cenobites' leader explains that although the Cenobites have been perceived as both angels and demons, they are simply "explorers" from another dimension seeking carnal experiences, and they can no longer differentiate between pain and pleasure.
Although they attempt to force Kirsty to return to their realm with them, she informs Pinhead that Frank has escaped.
The Cenobites agree to take Frank back and, in exchange, say they will consider giving Kirsty her freedom.
Kirsty returns home, where Frank has killed Larry and taken his identity by stealing his skin.
Julia shows her what is purported to be Frank's flayed corpse in the attic, locking the door behind her.
The Cenobites appear and demand the man who "did this".
Kirsty tries to escape but is held by Julia and Frank.
Frank reveals his true identity to Kirsty and, when his sexual advances are rejected, he decides to kill her to complete his rejuvenation.
He accidentally stabs Julia instead and drinks her blood without remorse.
Frank chases Kirsty to the attic and, when he is about to kill her, the Cenobites appear.
Now sure he is the one they are looking for, they ensnare him with chains and tear him to pieces.
They then attempt to abduct Kirsty.
Ripping the puzzle box from Julia's dead hands, Kirsty defeats the Cenobites by reversing the motions needed to open the puzzle box, sending them back to Hell.
Kirsty's boyfriend shows up and helps her escape the collapsing house.
Afterwards, Kirsty throws the puzzle box onto a burning pyre.
A creepy vagrant who has been stalking Kirsty walks into the fire and retrieves the box before transforming into a winged creature and flying away.
The box ends up in the hands of the merchant who sold it to Frank, offering it to another prospective customer.
<EOS>
The series is set in ancient Pompeii (pre-eruption).
Howerd played a slave, Lurcio (pronounced Lurk-io); the other main characters were Lurcio's bumbling old master, Senator Ludicrus Sextus (initially Max Adrian and then Wallas Eaton), the senator's promiscuous wife Ammonia (Elizabeth Larner), his daughter Erotica (Georgina Moon) and his eternally virginal son Nausius (Kerry Gardner), along with the Cassandra-esque Senna the Soothsayer (Jeanne Mockford) and, in series one, Plautus (Willie Rushton).
Guest stars included several actresses from the Carry On film series, including Barbara Windsor, Wendy Richard and Valerie Leon.
The format was little more than a backdrop for an endless series of double entendres and risqué gags.
Howerd was central to most of the gags and he started each episode with a prologue — a "to camera" piece that was seldom concluded and rarely had anything to do with the episode's plot.
Thirteen 30-minute episodes were made, in two series (March &ndash; May and September &ndash; October 1970).
In addition there was a pilot episode (1969) and two special episodes entitled Further Up Pompeii, one in 1975 and the other, written by Brian Leveson and Paul Minett, in 1991.
The latter sparked speculation that there could be a new series, but Howerd's death in 1992 put an end to any such prospect.
Apart from the change to the actor playing Ludicrus Sextus, there are some differences between the two series of Up Pompeii, the second series using noticeably fewer sets than the previous.
This may have been due to the second series being commissioned, filmed and broadcast within four months from the end of the first.
The series was recorded in front of a live studio audience, with whom Howerd interacted, breaking the fourth wall.
Also, Howerd made anachronistic comments like "I don't use that glycerine rubbish" or "The BBC told me.
".
when such things didn't exist in ancient times.
Howerd addressed the audience using asides that the other characters couldn't hear (a device that harks back to classical theatre), often commenting on the script, sometimes complaining that everyone else got the good lines.
<EOS>
The book opens with a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby facing the loss of his farm because of debts.
Even though he and his wife Emily Shelby believe that they have a benevolent relationship with their slaves, Shelby decides to raise the needed funds by selling two of them—Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife and children, and Harry, the son of Emily Shelby's maid Eliza—to a slave trader.
Emily Shelby is averse to this idea because she had promised her maid that her child would never be sold; Emily's son, George Shelby, hates to see Tom go because he sees the man as his friend and mentor.
When Eliza overhears mr and mrs Shelby discussing plans to sell Tom and Harry, Eliza determines to run away with her son.
The novel states that Eliza made this decision because she fears losing her only surviving child (she had already miscarried two children).
Eliza departs that night, leaving a note of apology to her mistress.
Tom is sold and placed on a riverboat which sets sail down the Mississippi River.
While on board, Tom meets and befriends a young white girl named Eva.
Eva's father Augustine st Clare buys Tom from the slave trader and takes him with the family to their home in New Orleans.
Tom and Eva begin to relate to one another because of the deep Christian faith they both share.
During Eliza's escape, she meets up with her husband George Harris, who had run away previously.
They decide to attempt to reach Canada.
However, they are tracked by a slave hunter named Tom Loker.
Eventually Loker and his men trap Eliza and her family, causing George to shoot him in the side.
Worried that Loker may die, Eliza convinces George to bring the slave hunter to a nearby Quaker settlement for medical treatment.
Back in New Orleans, st Clare debates slavery with his Northern cousin Ophelia who, while opposing slavery, is prejudiced against black people.
st Clare, however, believes he is not biased, even though he is a slave owner.
In an attempt to show Ophelia that her views on blacks are wrong, st Clare purchases Topsy, a young black slave, and asks Ophelia to educate her.
After Tom has lived with the st Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill.
Before she dies she experiences a vision of heaven, which she shares with the people around her.
As a result of her death and vision, the other characters resolve to change their lives, with Ophelia promising to throw off her personal prejudices against blacks, Topsy saying she will better herself, and st Clare pledging to free Tom.
Before st Clare can follow through on his pledge, however, he dies after being stabbed outside of a tavern.
His wife reneges on her late husband's vow and sells Tom at auction to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree.
Legree (a transplanted northerner) takes Tom and Emmeline (whom Legree purchased at the same time) to rural Louisiana, where they meet Legree's other slaves.
Legree begins to hate Tom when Tom refuses Legree's order to whip his fellow slave.
Legree beats Tom viciously and resolves to crush his new slave's faith in God.
Despite Legree's cruelty, however, Tom refuses to stop reading his Bible and comforting the other slaves as best he can.
While at the plantation, Tom meets Cassy, another of Legree's slaves.
Cassy was previously separated from her son and daughter when they were sold; unable to endure the pain of seeing another child sold, she killed her third child.
At this point Tom Loker returns to the story.
Loker has changed as the result of being healed by the Quakers.
George, Eliza, and Harry have also obtained their freedom after crossing into Canada.
In Louisiana, Uncle Tom almost succumbs to hopelessness as his faith in God is tested by the hardships of the plantation.
However, he has two visions, one of Jesus and one of Eva, which renew his resolve to remain a faithful Christian, even unto death.
He encourages Cassy to escape, which she does, taking Emmeline with her.
When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, Legree orders his overseers to kill Tom.
As Tom is dying, he forgives the overseers who savagely beat him.
Humbled by the character of the man they have killed, both men become Christians.
Very shortly before Tom's death, George Shelby (Arthur Shelby's son) arrives to buy Tom's freedom but finds he is too late.
On their boat ride to freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris's sister and accompany her to Canada.
Cassy discovers that Eliza is her long-lost daughter who was sold as a child.
Now that their family is together again, they travel to France and eventually Liberia, the African nation created for former American slaves.
George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm and frees all his slaves.
George tells them to remember Tom's sacrifice and his belief in the true meaning of Christianity.
<EOS>
In a cheap hotel on the Khao San Road in Bangkok, Richard, a young English backpacker, meets a mentally disturbed Scotsman going by the alias of Daffy Duck who gives him a hand-drawn map, with directions to a beautiful island with a hidden lagoon and beach, located in the Gulf of Thailand and inaccessible to tourists.
Shortly after receiving the map, Richard discovers that Daffy has committed suicide.
Wanting company in his search, Richard befriends a travelling French couple, Étienne and Françoise, and the trio sets out to find what they hope might be an untouched paradise.
On their way to the island, Richard gives a copy of the map to Sammy and Zeph, two American Harvard students he meets on Koh Samui.
When the three finally reach the hidden beach — after bribing a local boat pilot, swimming from an adjacent island, discovering a cannabis plantation in the jungle and avoiding the armed owners, and eventually jumping over a waterfall — they discover a group of around 30 backpackers that have largely shut off the outside world to live a slow-paced life of leisure, under the de facto leadership of an American woman called Sal and her South African lover Bugs, who, along with Daffy, founded the community there in 1989.
They live in a village of hand-built wooden huts and tents, located near a large and beautiful beach and lagoon that is encircled by cliffs and connected to the sea by underwater caves.
When Richard, Étienne, and Françoise arrive, it is already 1995, six years after the founders came to the beach.
Only a small number of friends and acquaintances have been chosen by the founders to come to the island, and thus newcomers are not welcome, but are not sent away because to do so would jeopardize the secrecy of the community — the residents fear that if word gets out the beach will become overrun with tourists and ruined, like many of Thailand's other beauty spots.
They are also mindful of upsetting the Thai cannabis farmers, with whom they originally agreed to keep to separate territories but who have more recently warned them not to bring anyone new to the island, as the farmers fear discovery by the police.
After initial suspicion, the group accepts the trio when they explain about Daffy's map and his death back on the Thai mainland.
Since the community aims to be self-sufficient, work is divided into rosters, for the garden, fishing, cooking, and carpentry.
Along with Françoise and Étienne, Richard becomes a part of the fishing detail.
For several months, Richard finds life on the island idyllic, fishing in the mornings and relaxing the rest of the time.
He finds friends in a few other members of the community: Keaty, a fellow Englishman hooked on his Game Boy; Gregorio, a Spaniard on his fishing detail; Unhygienix, the Italian head chef obsessed with soap since he handles fish every day; Jesse and Cassie, two lovers; Ella, who works second-in-command to Unhygienix; and finally, Jed — the loner of the group whose mysterious job involves going alone into the jungle.
Richard later discovers that Jed has been assigned by Sal to be the island's guardian: he watches the sea and shores of the neighboring islands for any signs of people attempting to discover the beach.
Jed also has a sideline of stealing some cannabis from the Thai farmers' side of the island.
One day, Unhygienix informs everyone that their rice supply has been infected by a fungus and Sal announces an emergency Rice Run — an occasional discreet trip to the mainland by boat to bulk-buy rice and other essentials.
Due to the laborious nature of the task, no one volunteers for it except Jed, who, to the bewilderment of most others, always takes the job.
Richard also volunteers, and so the two travel back to Koh Phangan for their supplies.
It is during the Rice Run that Jed finds out that Richard gave a copy of the map to Sammy and Zeph when Jed coincidentally wanders past and overhears the two Americans relaying the urban legend of the beach to some Germans.
The Rice Run goes without a hitch but soon, accompanied by three Germans they met on the mainland, Zeph and Sammy make their way to the nearest neighbouring island, which worries Richard because he will be blamed if they successfully reach the community.
Soon after, Sal reassigns Richard to the perimeter detail to partner with Jed and keep a close eye on the potential invaders.
With a free spot in Gregorio's fishing detail, Keaty moves in to take Richard's place.
A few days later, Keaty mistakenly catches a dead squid that gives severe food poisoning to most of the group, with the few remaining healthy members struggling to nurse the sick residents back to health.
Richard returns from his sentry duty to find that Bugs has punched Keaty in the face for his mistake.
Richard, having never liked Bugs due to his arrogant nature, instigates a heated argument with him in front of the whole group, which leads to a division of the community into several cliques.
On this day, only two of the fishing details are still in operation and the best detail, consisting of three Swedes — Christo, Sten and Karl — who fish outside the safe lagoon area, are attacked by a shark.
The camp only finds out about this with the return of one of the three, Karl, in the early evening.
Karl carries Sten on his back to the village, where Sten is discovered to have already bled to death.
Karl was not physically hurt by the shark, but he suffers severe emotional trauma from having watched his friend die.
He subsequently spends his time sitting in a dug-out hole on the beach and not talking to anyone; barely accepting food and water.
Richard realizes that Christo is still missing and, at his own risk, retrieves him from partially submerged caves of the lagoon.
Richard is praised for his heroic rescue of Christo.
However, as Christo is gravely wounded, he requires Jed's presence in the camp, because only Jed has the medical knowledge to tend to him.
This leaves Richard to work the sentry detail alone.
A few days later, a funeral is held for Sten near the jungle waterfall, and Sal gives a decisive speech which goes some way to restoring social harmony.
She announces that it is 11 September, and that they will thus be celebrating the Tet festival in three days' time.
Spending long hours alone in the forest as he hikes between lookout spots, Richard begins to experience hallucinations in which Daffy appears: they converse and patrol the part of the island which Richard refers to as the DMZ together.
Richard comes to appreciate that Daffy killed himself because he could neither endure the unravelling of his elitist vision of the beach as the group grew in size, nor bear the thought of a return to backpacking or settled life, and notes that he himself is falling prey to that way of thinking.
Richard also realizes that Daffy gave him the map — as well as spreading rumors of the island all over Thailand — so many travelers would come looking for the beach, inevitably leading to it becoming a tourist destination.
Daffy describes this act as "euthanizing" the community, and Richard realizes he was merely a pawn in Daffy's revenge plan.
This comes to a head following the arrival of the American/German group by raft.
Unlike Richard, Étienne, and Françoise who managed to overcome all obstacles in getting to the beach, the newcomers never make it past the most dangerous hurdle: the cannabis farmers.
Richard witnesses them being first beaten violently and then dragged away.
The sound of gunshots implies the farmers have murdered the intruders.
Richard returns to the community campsite to immediately inform Sal and Jed of what happened.
He then goes to the beach to visit Karl, who attacks Richard and runs off into the jungle.
On the day of the Tet festival, Sal obtusely asks Richard to kill Karl because of the threat he poses to the group's now-fragile social integrity, complaining that she constantly has to lift morale in the wake of the poisoning incident and Sten's death.
Richard, disillusioned with the beach, resolves to escape with his closest friends.
That night, he swims out to the cave where the group's only boat is kept, only to find that Karl has used it to escape to the mainland.
Étienne corners him thereafter and soon discovers that he, along with the rest of his clique, has become frightened of Richard "doing things" for Sal.
Richard convinces Étienne, Françoise, Jed and a paranoid Keaty to leave the beach for good, and euthanizes the dying Christo.
Now fully aware of what Sal is willing to do to protect the beach, they decide to spike the food for the party and escape on the raft that the doomed backpackers used.
Night falls, and the party begins.
Prior to dinner, Keaty and Richard spike the stew Unhygienix cooked with fermented coconut milk and a huge amount of cannabis to immobilize the group.
Richard and his friends are about to slip away when the Thai farmers arrive.
The farmers threaten all of them with guns as they believe that the beach dwellers invited the recent arrivals.
The farmers beat up Richard, while leaving the bloodied corpses of the American/German backpackers as a warning.
At the sight of this, the extremely intoxicated group experience a collective mental breakdown and start to rip the corpses apart in a frenzy.
Sal discovers that Richard has spread the secret of the beach when she picks up the map he drew for Zeph and Sammy.
Upon hearing this, the now unstable community members attack Richard with sharp objects.
Richard believes he is about to die, but he is saved when Françoise, Étienne, Keaty and Jed return from the beach armed with their fishing spears to drive the others off, while seriously wounding Sal and Bugs in the process.
Richard and his rescuers make their planned escape on the raft.
In the epilogue, it is revealed that the five friends got away and split up when they reached the mainland.
It has been a year and one month since his departure from Thailand, and Richard has returned home to Britain and hasn't heard from Françoise and Étienne again, but states he is likely to bump into them eventually because "the world is a small place, and Europe is even smaller".
He still keeps in contact with Keaty and Jed.
By chance, Keaty and Jed end up working new jobs in the same building, although for different companies; similar to how they both happened to stay in the same guesthouse years before they first met at the beach.
He also hears in a news report that Cassie has been arrested in Malaysia for smuggling a large amount of heroin and will be the first Westerner to be executed in the country in six years.
Richard wonders whether other people got off the island, particularly Unhygienix, whom he liked.
He believes that Bugs died and hopes that Sal died too, because he does not like the idea of her "turning up on his doorstep".
Richard finishes by saying he is content with his life, though he carries a lot of scars: "I like the way that sounds.
I carry a lot of scars".
<EOS>
Wimsey accepts an offer from the highly respectable management of Pym's Publicity, Ltd.
(a light disguise for Bensons, where Sayers worked) to investigate a mystery and avert a scandal.
Copywriter Victor Dean has died in a fall down the office's spiral iron staircase, but he left a half-finished letter to the management hinting that something potentially scandalous is going on at Pym's.
Under the pseudonym of "Death Bredon" (actually his middle names), Wimsey goes to work at Pym's.
He takes over Dean's office and learns his trade while investigating the office staff.
He discovers a talent for copywriting and promotion, and produces a campaign which will become one of the firm's most successful.
He also investigates Dean's social life.
Dean, for a short time, socialised with "the De Momerie crowd": the cronies of dissolute socialite Dian de Momerie, most of them heavy cocaine users.
He meets De Momerie's companion, Major Milligan, who appears to be the cocaine supplier for the group.
Milligan is linked to a big cocaine-selling ring which Wimsey's friend and brother-in-law Chief Inspector Parker is investigating.
Milligan, hearing that Dean worked at Pym's, spoke to him assuming that Dean was the ring's man at Pym's.
Dean was surprised, and Milligan shut up – but Dean guessed that someone else at Pym's was indeed involved.
Hence the letter to the management.
Wimsey plays multiple roles.
By day he is Bredon, an illegitimate, impoverished Wimsey cousin who works for a living.
Most evenings, he is himself.
But on some evenings, "Bredon" dresses up as a masked harlequin, and by various wild stunts draws the attention and company of Dian de Momerie – annoying Major Milligan.
Junior newspaper reporter Hector Puncheon has a beer in a pub, and discovers later that someone put a bag of cocaine in his coat pocket.
He must have blundered into a distribution operation, but there is no further sign of anything at that pub.
Apparently the ring holds each week's distribution at a different location.
Wimsey continues his probing at Pym's, and learns that one of the senior copywriters, Tallboy, seems to have large amounts of cash.
Puncheon recognises a man who was in the pub the night he was given the cocaine, and follows him.
Puncheon gets knocked out, and the man "accidentally" falls in front of a moving train.
The dead man (Mountjoy) had money but no job or assets, which fits a drug dealer.
His effects include a telephone directory with the names of many pubs ticked off.
One of the marked pubs is the one where Puncheon was given the cocaine.
Other clues turn up: a scarab in Dean's desk, a large pebble in the stairwell, a "catapult" (slingshot) belonging to office boy Ginger Joe, who is recruited by "Bredon" to help in the investigation.
Finally Wimsey makes the connection.
One of Pym's major clients runs a large newspaper advertisement every Friday morning.
The text is approved a few days earlier.
The first letter of the advertisement's text indicates the pub to be used that week.
Tallboy supplies the letter to the ring as soon as the text is approved.
A final clue turns up during a company social outing, in the course of a cricket match between Pym's and Brotherhood's, a soft-drink company and Pym's client.
Most of the players are middle-aged and flabby.
But Wimsey, provoked by a ball which clips his elbow, shows off the form which made him a first-team star at Eton and Oxford.
Tallboy too shows a surprising talent, when he knocks down a wicket with a perfect throw from deep in the field.
Wimsey wins the match for Pym's, which is about to expose his cover when the police, led by Parker, arrest "Bredon" for the murder of Dian de Momerie.
Milligan is dead too – killed in yet another "accident" as the ring covers its tracks.
But the ring is still operating, and the police want to nab the whole gang at their next distribution.
With Mountjoy's phone book, all they need is the letter for the week – which is provided by Ginger Joe.
While "Bredon" supposedly sits in jail, "Lord Peter" is much seen about town for the next few days.
Wimsey is sure that Tallboy killed Victor Dean, but does not want to unmask him until the gang is rounded up.
On the night of the round-up, Tallboy comes to Wimsey's flat and confesses.
He was sucked into the scheme with an innocent-sounding story and the offer of money he needed.
But soon he was trapped.
Then Dean found out and blackmailed him.
Tallboy shot him in the head with Ginger Joe's catapult on the staircase, so that it would look like an accident.
Tallboy cannot escape, and suggests suicide, which would save his family from the shame of his trial and conviction for murder.
Wimsey, after looking out of the window, has an alternative: Tallboy must go home, on foot, and never look behind him.
Both know that the gang's killers are waiting in ambush.
<EOS>
The setting is a feast given by the sea god Ægir.
(In continuity, the prose introduction says: "Ægir, also named Gymir, had made ale for the Æsir, when he had received the great kettle of which was told" (see Hymiskviða).
Thor did not attend, but his wife Sif came in his stead as did Bragi and his wife Iðunn.
Tyr, by this time one-handed as a consequence of his sacrifice of his hand in the shackling of Loki's son, the wolf Fenrisulfr, attended, as did Niord and his wife Skaði, Freyr and Freyja, as well as Vidar, the son of Odin.
Many other Vanir, Æsir, and also elves were there.
The servants of Ægir, Fimafeng and Eldir, did a thorough job of welcoming the guests; Loki was jealous of the praise being heaped upon them and slew Fimafeng.
The gods were angry with Loki and drove him out of the hall, before returning to their carousing.
On returning Loki encountered Eldir.
He threatened him and bade him reveal what the gods were talking about in their cups.
Eldir's response was that they were discussing their might at arms, and that Loki was not welcomed.
Loki then enters the hall of Ægir after trading insults and threats with Eldir.
A hush falls.
Loki calls upon the rules of hospitality, demanding a seat and ale.
Bragi then responds that he is unwelcome.
Loki demands fulfillment of an ancient oath sworn with Odin that they should drink together.
Odin asked his son Vidar to make a space for Loki.
Vidar rises and pours a drink for Loki.
Before Loki drains his draught, he utters a toast to the gods but pointedly excludes Bragi from it.
Bragi offers Loki a horse, a ring and a sword to placate him; Loki, however, is spoiling for a fight, and insults Bragi by questioning his courage.
Bragi's response is that it would be contrary to the rules of correct behaviour to fight within his hosts' hall, but were they back in Asgard then things would be different.
Iðunn, Bragi's wife, holds him back.
Loki then insults Iðunn, calling her sexually loose.
Gefjon is the next to speak and then Loki turns his spite on her.
Odin then attempts to take a grip, as do (in turn), Freyja, Niord, Tyr, Freyr and Byggvir.
The exchanges between Odin and Loki are particularly vitriolic.
Eventually Thor turns up at the party, and he is not to be placated, nor withheld.
Alternating with Loki's insults to him, he says four times that he will use his hammer to knock Loki's head off if he continues.
Loki replies that for Thor alone he will leave the hall, because his threats are the only ones he fears.
He then leaves.
Finally there is a short piece of prose summarizing the tale of Loki's binding, which is told in fuller form in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda.
Loki is chased by the gods, and caught after an unsuccessful attempt at disguising himself as a salmon.
The entrails of his son Nari are used to bind him to three rocks above which Skaði places a serpent to drip venom on him.
Loki's wife Sigyn remains by his side with a bowl to catch the venom; however, whenever she leaves to empty the bowl, venom falls on Loki, causing him to writhe in agony; this writhing was said to be the cause of earthquakes.
The text says that Loki's other son, Narfi, was turned into a wolf, but does not make clear that he tears his brother apart; also in the Gylfaginning version it is a son of Loki named Váli whom the Æsir transform into a wolf and who kills Narfi.
Some editors have therefore chosen to read the names Nari and Narvi as a mistake in the manuscript, and transcribe Nari as Váli.
Nari and Narfi are otherwise considered to be variations of the same name.
<EOS>
A geology expedition in the Amazon uncovers fossilized evidence from the Devonian period of a link between land and sea animals: a skeletal hand with webbed fingers.
Expedition leader dr Carl Maia (Antonio Moreno) visits his friend and former student, dr David Reed (Richard Carlson), an ichthyologist.
He works at an aquarium in California and has also been a guest at Maia's marine biology institute in Brazil for more than a month.
Reed persuades his boss, the financially minded dr Mark Williams (Richard Denning), to fund a return expedition to the Amazon to look for the remainder of the skeleton.
The group goes aboard the tramp steamer Rita, which is captained by crusty old Lucas (Nestor Paiva).
The expedition consists of David, Carl, and Mark, as well as Reed's girlfriend and colleague, Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams), and another scientist, dr Edwin Thompson (Whit Bissell).
When they arrive at the camp, they discover that Maia's entire research team has been mysteriously killed while he was away.
Lucas suggests it was likely done by a jaguar, but the others are unsure.
In fact, the camp was attacked by a piscine amphibious humanoid, a living member of the same species from which the fossil originated.
The creature, curious about the expedition, goes to the camp.
When its sudden appearance frightens the members, they attack it, and in response the enraged creature kills them.
The excavation of the area where Carl found the hand turns up nothing.
Mark is ready to give up the search, but David suggests that perhaps thousands of years ago the part of the embankment containing the rest of the skeleton fell into the water and was washed downriver, broken up by the current.
Lucas says that the tributary empties into a lagoon.
Lucas calls it the "Black Lagoon", a paradise from which no one has ever returned.
The scientists decide to risk it, unaware that the amphibious "Gill-man" that killed Carl's assistants earlier has been watching them.
Taking notice of the beautiful Kay, it follows the Rita all the way downriver to the Black Lagoon.
Once the expedition arrives, David and Mark go diving to collect fossils from the lagoon floor.
After they return, Kay goes swimming and is stalked underwater by the creature, who then gets briefly caught in one of the ship's drag lines.
Although it escapes, the creature leaves behind a claw in the net, revealing its existence to the scientists.
Subsequent encounters with the Gill-man claim the lives of Lucas's crew members, before the creature is captured and locked in a cage aboard the Rita.
It escapes during the night, attacking Edwin, who was guarding it.
Edwin smashes the beast with a lantern, driving it off.
Following this incident, David decides they should return to civilization, but as the Rita tries to leave, they find the lagoon's entrance blocked by fallen logs, courtesy of the escaped Gill-man.
While the others attempt to remove the logs, Mark is mauled to death trying to capture the creature underwater, single handedly.
It then abducts Kay and takes her to its cavern lair.
David, Lucas, and Carl give chase, and Kay is rescued.
The creature is riddled with bullets before retreating to the lagoon, where its body sinks into the watery depths.
<EOS>
The narrator of the story is a British journalist in 19th Century India - Kipling himself, in all but name.
Whilst on a tour of some Indian native states he meets two scruffy adventurers, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan.
Softened by their stories, he agrees to help them in a minor errand, but later he regrets this and informs the authorities about them - preventing them from blackmailing a minor rajah.
A few months later the pair appear at his newspaper office in Lahore.
They tell him of a plan they have hatched.
They declare that after years of trying their hands at all manner of things, they have decided that "India is not big enough for them".
They plan to go to Kafiristan and set themselves up as kings.
Dravot will pass as a native and, armed with twenty Martini-Henry rifles, they plan to find a king or chief to help him defeat enemies.
Once that is done, they will take over for themselves.
They ask the narrator for the use of books, encyclopedias and maps of the area – as a favour, because they are fellow Freemasons, and because he spoiled their blackmail scheme.
They also show him a contract they have drawn up between themselves which swears loyalty between the pair and total abstinence from women and alcohol.
Two years later, on a scorching hot summer night, Carnehan creeps into the narrator's office.
He is a broken man, a crippled beggar clad in rags and he tells an amazing story.
Dravot and Carnehan succeeded in becoming kings: traversing treacherous mountains, finding the Kafirs, mustering an army, taking over villages, and dreaming of building a unified nation and even an empire.
The Kafirs (pagans, not Muslims) were impressed by the rifles and Dravot's lack of fear of their idols, and acclaimed him as a god, the reincarnation or descendant of Alexander the Great.
They show a whiter complexion than others of the area ("so hairy and white and fair it was just shaking hands with old friends") implying their ancient lineage to Alexander himself.
The Kafirs practised a form of Masonic ritual, and Dravot's reputation was further cemented when he showed knowledge of Masonic secrets that only the oldest priest remembered.
Their schemes were dashed, however, when Dravot (against the advice of Carnehan) decided to marry a Kafir girl.
Kingship going to his head, he decided he needed a Queen and then royal children.
Terrified at marrying a god, the girl bit Dravot when he tried to kiss her during the wedding ceremony.
Seeing him bleed, the priests cried that he was "Neither God nor Devil but a man.
" Most of the Kafirs turned against Dravot and Carnehan.
A few of his men remained loyal, but the army defected and the two kings were captured.
Dravot, wearing his crown, stood on a rope bridge over a gorge while the Kafirs cut the ropes, and he fell to his death.
Carnehan was crucified between two pine trees.
When he survived this torture for a whole day, the Kafirs considered it a miracle and let him go.
He begged his way back to India.
As proof of his tale, Carnehan shows the narrator Dravot's head, still wearing the golden crown, which he swears never to sell.
Carnehan leaves carrying the head.
The next day the narrator sees him crawling along the road in the noon sun, with his hat off and gone mad.
The narrator sends him to the local asylum.
When he inquires two days later, he learns that Carnehan has died of sunstroke.
No belongings were found with him.
<EOS>
The year is 1898, and Mina Murray is recruited by Campion Bond on behalf of British Intelligence and asked to assemble a league of other extraordinary individuals to protect the interests of the Empire: Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, dr Jekyll, and Hawley Griffin the Invisible Man.
They help stop a gang-war between Fu Manchu and Professor Moriarty, nemesis of Sherlock Holmes.
Following this they are involved in the events of Wells's The War of the Worlds.
Two members of the League (Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain) achieve immortality, and are next seen in an adventure in 1958, which follows events that take place after the fall of the Big Brother government from Nineteen Eighty Four.
Following this Mina and Allan team up with fellow immortal Orlando and are shown in an adventure which spans a century, from 1910 to 2009, concerning a plot by evil magicians to create a Moonchild that might well turn out to be the Antichrist.
During this adventure Captain Nemo's daughter, Janni Dakkar, is introduced, and some of her adventures are chronicled subsequently.
<EOS>
Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), a former priest, lives with his asthmatic son, Morgan (Rory Culkin), his daughter Bo (Abigail Breslin) who leaves glasses of water around the house for various reasons, and his younger brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), a failed minor league baseball player, on an isolated farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Hess has lost his faith and gave up his priesthood after his wife, Colleen, died in a traffic accident caused by a town local, Ray Reddy (Shyamalan).
One morning, Graham discovers a crop circle in his field.
While investigating the crop circle with the local law enforcement, Graham learns of animals becoming violent across town.
Morgan is forced to kill one of the family dogs when it turns violent against Bo.
They hear reports of crop circles appearing around the globe, and there are reports of lights from invisible objects over Mexico.
Later, Graham and Merrill find the farm is being watched by a tall dark figure which disappears into the fields when they give chase.
The next day, they hear strange noises over a baby monitor, but cannot find their source.
Graham approaches the crop circle but on seeing a green leg sticking out of the cornrows, flees back to the house.
After opening up to Merrill about the death of his wife, noting that her last words were "tell Merrill to swing away", Graham goes to visit Ray, the first time since the incident.
When Graham is gone, Merrill and the children watch a news report about footage taken of an alien creature in Brazil, showing that the aliens can blend into their surroundings.
Merrill joins the children in wearing tin foil hats, believing the aliens can read their minds.
At Ray's, Graham finds Ray is bleeding from an injury but otherwise apologetic for the accident.
After Graham accepts his apology, Ray departs for a nearby lake, saying "they" do not like water.
Graham finds Ray has trapped one of the aliens in his pantry, and tries to see what the alien looks like using a kitchen knife under the door; the alien grabs at him, and Graham reacts by cutting off its fingers before fleeing.
On his return, and hearing news that more lights have been seen in the skies across the globe, the Hess family decides to stay at their house instead of leaving for the lake, barricading the doors and windows.
After an emotionally charged dinner, they hear the same noises on the baby monitor before their television signal drops out, and place the final barricades and defenses before they gather together.
As the aliens attempt to gain entry into the house, the family discovers they have left the attic door unguarded and quickly retreat to the basement.
The aliens assault the basement door and in the subsequent chaos the light goes out as Graham and Merrill prevent their entry.
However, Morgan suffers an asthma attack when the aliens attempt to enter by way of an old coal chute.
By morning, radio reports claim that the aliens have left Earth as suddenly as they arrived.
Graham leaves the basement to locate Morgan's asthma inhaler, the others following him.
But they discover an alien, the same that Graham had attacked in Ray's home, is still there, and takes Morgan hostage.
Colleen's last words come back to Graham, and he instructs Merrill to "swing away" with a baseball bat.
Merrill attacks the alien but not before it attempts to poison Morgan by spraying him with a toxin from its body.
Graham recovers his son when the alien drops him and takes Morgan outside with his medication.
Merrill continues to attack the alien, causing it to fall onto the ground, knocking over one of the glasses of water Bo had left and splashing it with water.
The water reacts like acid on its skin, making it scream in agony.
Merrill strikes the alien against furniture where it is doused with water full on its face, and dies.
Outside, Graham administers Morgan's medicine and waits for his son to wake up, hoping that due to his lungs being closed from his previous asthma attack he was spared.
Then, Morgan wakes up and the family rejoices.
Some time later, the Hess family has recovered from the incident and they appear to be doing much better than before.
In the final scene, Graham is shown returning to his priestly duties, apparently having regained his faith.
<EOS>
A peddler sets up shop in the fictional sultanate of Agrabah, offering to tell the audience about the story of an oil lamp in his possession.
Jafar, the Grand Vizier of the Sultan, and his parrot Iago, seek the lamp hidden within the Cave of Wonders but are told that only a “diamond in the rough” may enter.
Jafar identifies a street urchin named Aladdin as worthy.
Aladdin and his pet monkey, Abu, cross paths with Princess Jasmine, who has run away from the palace, unwilling to be betroth to yet another snobbish suitor.
Aladdin and Jasmine become friends and fall in love, but Jafar has Aladdin apprehended, tricking Jasmine into thinking that he has been decapitated.
Disguised as an old man, Jafar frees Aladdin and Abu, taking them to the Cave and promises to reward them if they retrieve the lamp.
Inside, Aladdin befriends a magic carpet.
Abu greedily tries to steal a jewel, despite the Cave’s warning, and the Cave collapses.
Trapped in the Cave, Aladdin rubs the lamp, releasing Genie, who was trapped inside.
Genie explains that Aladdin has become his master and he will grant him three wishes.
Aladdin tricks the Genie into freeing them from the Cave without utilizing a wish, and then uses his first to become a prince to be near Jasmine.
Jafar, on Iago’s suggestion, plots to become Sultan by marrying Jasmine.
Aladdin parades into the city as “Prince Ali of Ababwa.
” However, Jasmine is unimpressed with Aladdin’s bravado.
Despite his friends advising him to tell Jasmine the truth, Aladdin refuses, believing she would never fall “for some street rat.
” He takes Jasmine on a flight on the magic carpet, where she deduces his identity, though Aladdin convinces her that he dresses as a peasant to escape the stresses of royal life.
Aladdin returns Jasmine home, only to be attacked by the palace guards on Jafar’s orders and nearly drowned, until the Genie rescues him using his second wish.
Jafar tries to hypnotize the Sultan into agreeing to his marriage to Jasmine, only for Aladdin to appear and expose Jafar’s schemes.
Jafar flees, but notices Aladdin has the lamp, realizing who he is.
Learning he will become Sultan, Aladdin has second thoughts about freeing the Genie, believing that without him, he would not be able to keep up appearances.
Iago steals the lamp, and Jafar becomes the Genie’s new master.
He uses his first two wishes to usurp the Sultan and become the world’s most powerful sorcerer, exposing Aladdin’s lies and exiling him, Abu, and the carpet to a frozen wasteland, though they escape death and return to the palace.
Jafar orders the Genie to brainwash Jasmine into falling in love with him, but the Genie reveals he is unable to grant the wish.
Jasmine feigns interest to distract Jafar and allow Aladdin to get the lamp, but he is cornered.
Jafar transforms himself into a giant cobra and ensnares Aladdin, saying he is the most powerful being in the world.
However, Aladdin points out the Genie is more powerful, inspiring Jafar to use his last wish to become a genie, only to be sucked into his own lamp as part of the genie’s nature, dragging Iago in with him.
The Genie throws Jafar’s lamp into the Cave of Wonders, and suggests Aladdin to use his third wish to regain his royal title so the law will allow him to stay with Jasmine.
However, Aladdin knows he cannot keep pretending to be something he is not, and decides to keep his promise and frees the Genie.
Learning of Aladdin and Jasmine’s love, the Sultan alters the law to allow his daughter to marry whom she chooses.
The Genie leaves to explore the world, while Aladdin and Jasmine celebrate their engagement.
<EOS>
The novel chronicles the life of Amelia, the only daughter of newspaper tycoon Max de Monde who, after having spoiled Amelia beyond hope while she was still young, abandons her when she becomes pregnant.
Amelia decides to marry Mark Crawley, the father of her child, an ambitious young critic intent on shaking off his humble background.
Suddenly, the young couple find themselves in desperate need of money and, at first, accommodations.
While she stays at home raising their daughter Rose, Amelia metamorphoses from spoiled brat to mature and responsible mother, whereas her husband loses all interest in the housewife he now realizes he has married.
Amelia is encouraged to stay on her chosen path by Grace, her cleaning woman—who is also her niece (without either of the women being aware of this), and by Tom Viner, a young doctor who becomes their lodger.
A Vicious Circle also follows the life of Mary Quinn.
An Irish girl lacking a university education, Mary has a natural writing talent and rises to become a prominent reviewer of new fiction after having been left by her lover of many years, Mark Crawley.
Mary makes friends with Adam Sands, a yet unpublished author who keeps his homosexuality a secret from almost everyone including his own mother.
When he is dying of an AIDS-related disease, Mary is the only person who remembers and eventually takes care of him.
When the recession of the 1990s hits the country everyone seems to be affected by it.
Max de Monde, who has even plundered his daughter's trust fund, spectacularly commits suicide by crashing his helicopter against the ground.
Amelia leaves Mark and is planning to raise her daughter as a single parent.
<EOS>
The Dark Knight Returns is set in a dystopian near-future version of Gotham City.
Bruce Wayne, at 50, has given up the mantle of Batman after the death of Jason Todd 10 years prior.
As a result, crime is running rampant through the city and a gang calling themselves 'The Mutants' has risen to terrorize the people of Gotham.
Upon seeing this, Wayne returns to his role as a vigilante.
On his first night as Batman he puts a stop to multiple assaults- including one on two young girls, Carrie Kelley and her friend Michelle.
While attempting to foil an armed robbery on the same night, Batman learns that the men involved are working for Harvey Dent.
Dent, previously known for his criminal acts as Two-Face, underwent extensive therapy and plastic surgery financed by Wayne to reemerge into society.
Batman informs Commissioner James Gordon that Dent may be planning a larger scheme.
Soon after, Dent hijacks the television sets of the city and announces his intention to hold the city to ransom with a bomb.
When Batman defeats Dent and his goons, he realizes that Dent's mind has completely warped into his Two-Face persona.
Inspired by Batman's rescue, Kelley buys herself an imitation Robin costume and searches for him, seeking to help him.
She learns that Batman will be at the city dump and follows the Mutants there.
Although Batman defeats the Mutants with his advanced weaponry in the ensuing battle, the Mutant Leader ends up goading him into a fight.
During their hand-to-hand brawl, Batman, despite being able to match the Leader in strength, is rusty and slightly slow due to a decade's lack of activity which results him in getting seriously injured.
Kelley creates a diversion, allowing Batman to immobilise the Mutant Leader, and the two of them escape.
At the Batcave, Wayne's butler Alfred Pennyworth tends to his wounds while Kelley admires the Robin costume that belonged to Todd.
Wayne decides to keep Kelley as his new sidekick.
Gordon allows Batman to defeat the Mutant Leader (who he had arrested) on his own terms.
The two engage in a fight at a sewage run-off pipe surrounded by members of the Mutant gang.
Batman, leveraging the mud from the sewage to slow him down, deals the Leader a brutal defeat.
Seeing Batman defeat their leader, the Mutants disband and some rename themselves the Sons of Batman, using excessive violence against criminals.
At the White House, Superman and the president discuss the events in Gotham, with the latter suggesting that Superman may have to arrest Batman.
Superman informs the president that he may only be able to talk to Wayne.
He is then deployed by Washington to the Latin American country of Corto Maltese where he fights Soviet combat forces in a conflict that may ignite WWIII.
Gordon hands over the role of commissioner to Captain Ellen Yindel, who issues a statement declaring that Batman is a wanted criminal for his vigilante activities.
At the same time, Batman's return stimulates the Joker to awaken from catatonia at Arkham Asylum.
With renewed purpose, the Joker manipulates his caretakers to allow him onto a television talk show, where he murders everyone with gas and escapes.
Batman and Robin track him to a county fair while evading a police pursuit led by Yindel.
There, they realise that he is already making attempts to kill fairgoers.
Batman defeats the Joker in a violent confrontation, nearly killing him.
To incriminate Batman for murder, the Joker seemingly commits suicide by breaking his own spine.
After another confrontation with the Gotham police, Batman escapes with the help of Robin and a citywide manhunt begins.
Superman diverts a Soviet nuclear warhead which detonates in a desert, nearly killing himself in the process.
The United States is hit by an electromagnetic pulse as a result and descends into chaos during the resulting blackout.
In Gotham, Batman realizes what has happened, and he and Robin turn the remaining Mutants and Sons of the Batman into a non-lethal vigilante gang.
He leads them against looters and ensures the flow of essential supplies.
In the midst of the blackout, Gotham becomes the safest city in the country.
TheS.
government sees this as an embarrassment, and orders Superman to remove Batman.
Oliver Queen predicts to Wayne that the government lackey Superman and the maverick Batman will have a final confrontation.
Superman demands to meet Batman.
Knowing he may die, Wayne chooses Crime Alley, where he first became Batman.
He relies on Superman's weakness caused by near-death in the nuclear blast (Superman only just managed to survive by absorbing the energy of the sun, but he is still vulnerable to attack).
Superman tries to reason with Batman, but Batman uses his technological inventions and mastery of hand-to-hand combat to fight him.
During the battle, Superman compromises Batman's exoframe, while Queen shoots a kryptonite-tipped arrow to greatly weaken Superman.
Batman reveals that he intentionally spared Superman's life by not using a more powerful kryptonite mix; the fight and near-death experience was meant as a warning to Superman to stay out of Batman's way.
Before he can fully defeat Superman, Batman suddenly has a heart attack, apparently dying.
Alfred destroys the Batcave and Wayne Manor before dying of a stroke, exposing Batman as Bruce Wayne, whose fortune has disappeared.
After Wayne's funeral, it is revealed that his death was staged using his own chemical concoction that can suspend his vital life signs.
Clark Kent attends the funeral and winks at Robin after hearing Wayne's heartbeat resume.
Some time afterward, Bruce Wayne leads Robin, Queen, and the rest of his followers into the caverns beyond the Batcave and prepares to continue his war on crime.
<EOS>
Fresh from the academy, Robyn "Toybox" Slinger is headed for her first day on the job at Precinct 10, home of Neopolis' finest.
Despite a cold reception from her new partner Jeff Smax, Robyn quickly helps with investigating the scene of a homicide in the robot ghetto, Tin Town.
The dead man, Stefan "Saddles" Graczik, leads the police to a known drug factory, headed by none other than Professor Gromolko, an original architect of the city.
When a telepath is brought in to interrogate the evil scientist, the drug peddler shoots himself with Dust Devil's pistol.
The next day, Shock-headed Pete and Dust Devil discover the body of a local prostitute with her head severed, indicating the horrific "Libra" killer is back.
Elsewhere, Detective Synaesthesia gets the idea to use zen taxi driver Blindshot to track down Marta "Boots" Wesson, girlfriend and associate of Saddles.
Boots reveals that Gromolko had a special delivery for a unique client.
At the museum hideout where Boots and Saddles had been staying, a metal canister is found containing some unknown, radioactive drug.
Back at the station, Hyperdog and Peregrine interview Annette "Neural 'Nette" Duvalle, a prostitute who was able to survive an encounter with Libra.
She leads Hyperdog and Peregrine, along with Dust Devil, Shock-headed Pete and Jack Phantom, to the sewers near where she encountered her attacker.
The police are able to arrest Libra, who is revealed to be former "science hero" M'rrgla Qualtz, an alien shapeshifter who assumed her natural form to feed during her metamorphic period.
After Qualtz's arrest, several of her former Seven Sentinels teammates come to give her their support, as well as political and legal aid.
Even as she professes her innocence, Qualtz continues to use her telepathic powers to try and trick officers into freeing her from captivity.
Meanwhile, King Peacock travels to Grand Central, a parallel dimension where the Roman Empire never fell and is filled with countless Roman myth-based creatures.
It was here that Saddles was to deliver the drug, but before Peacock can investigate anything, he is drafted into an inter-precinct gladiatorial contest due to a seeming bureaucratic oversight.
Though he is victorious, King Peacock despairs that he had to assault and even kill fellow law officers.
Smax and Toybox are called to the scene of an apparent suicide, only to discover the victim, a sidekick boy band star, was murdered.
Back at headquarters, the precinct welcomes Commissioner Ultima, visiting from Grand Central for an inspection.
Detective Synaesthesia's special senses reveal that Ultima was involved in the drug dealings, likely having King Peacock placed in the competition to keep him from investigating.
Ultima goes berserk in resisting arrest, killing Girl One, M'rrgla Qualtz and injuring Toybox before she can be brought down by forcibly giving her the drug and causing her to overdose.
In the aftermath of the commissioner's attack, Joe Pi from Precinct 9 is transferred to replace Girl One.
Despite the antagonism against Pi, both for the place he occupies and his "Ferro-American" heritage, he quickly establishes himself as a capable policeman.
After some digging, Peregrine and Jack Phantom discover that Glenn "Bluejay" Garland, the murdered pop star, was connected to the Seven Sentinels.
He was about to sell his life story just before being killed, and investigation into his and M'rrgla's past with the Seven Sentinels reveals the dark secret behind the group: the Seven Sentinels are not a superhero group, but a pedophile ring, having faked all of their famous battles and used the Young Sentinels (sidekicks) as sexual slaves.
M'rrgla's old newsreels even contain clips of Sentinels being "serviced".
The precinct moves to swiftly arrest all the Sentinels, but their leader, Atoman, is tipped off.
Locking himself in his Impregnium shielded lair, Atoman seems to be out of the reach of the law, and Irma Geddon laments that even if he were to be convicted, Atoman's long lifespan would allow him to walk free, even with consecutive murder charges.
Joe Pi then talks to Atoman through an intercom and subtly convinces him to kill himself, rather than face trial, be stripped of his powers, and go to prison with revenge-seeking supervillains.
As the events of the past few weeks wind down, Smax visits Toybox in the hospital, asking her to accompany him to his home dimension in order to attend a funeral; Hyperdog starts a relationship with Neural 'Nette; and Captain Traynor returns home to his loving partner, former Skyshark pilot, Wulf.
Five years after the events of the Smax mini-series, Precinct 10 is celebrating another year of hard work done at their annual labor day picnic.
The festivities are broken up, however, by the appearance of a large avatar in the sky, nicknamed the Hell Ditch Pilgrim (after the supernatural crevice it appeared above).
The next day, as new officers are paired with veterans, Toybox goes looking for the Rumor, anxious to thank him for rescuing her from Ultima years ago.
Unfortunately, she cannot find him, but new officer Hoodoo Priest informs he knows of the Rumor and alludes to his divine role.
Officer Joe Pi is reconfigured as a lesser form to investigate a new strain of robot drug that seemed connected to the Hell Ditch Pilgrim.
After giving Joe Pi his new assignment, Captain Traynor is called to the mayor's office, where he is summarily fired and replaced with the more hawkish Sean Cindercott.
Cindercott soon initiates a number of sweeping reforms, instituting radio check-ins every quarter-hour, less focus on street-level crime in favor of "rooting out subversive elements," no non-essential visitors at the station (meaning loved ones), mandatory overtime with base pay, no contact with the media, and ceasing of routine maintenance of officer's personal equipment.
Finally, all officers are asked to sign a ten-page "loyalty oath".
Needless to say, the officers are polarized by these decisions, with a large number signing a letter of resignation, until Hyperdog convinces them all to stay.
Joe Pi reports back, after accidentally having experienced the effects of the dark energy capsules firsthand.
The "darkshots" create a direct mental connection between any cybernetic intelligence and some extra-dimensional entity.
Where these drugs are being created is a federal lab called Project JOOTS, where Irmageddon's husband just happens to work.
Investigating the lab, Irma's husband, Ron, explains the basic goal: the scientists investigate "superspace" the underlying region that seems to bind all timelines in the multiverse.
In superspace, dark energy is the force that holds the multiverse together, as well as having other properties.
It seems a robot worker, named Rikby-2001, has been using dark energy to create and distribute the drug, but he purposefully overdoses and transcends this plane rather than talk.
After the precinct thwarts a minor attack by a group of anarchic "derridadaists," they have to deal with the Hell Ditch Pilgrim spreading his influence and destructive insanity through all the entities in Neopolis, including fellow officers.
While Cindercott wishes to make a beeline for city hall to protect the mayor, the officers know they have to attack the problem at its source: superspace.
But without any means to breach superspace, they cannot fight the Hell Ditch Pilgrim; until the Rumor shows up.
He informs Top 10 that Andy "Airbag" Soames, who five years ago contractedTORMS.
(Sexually Transmitted Organic Rapid Mutation Syndrome), was so radically altered by the disease as to become a creature capable of entering and controlling superspace.
The Rumor says that Toybox is the only one that can harm Soames, because she carries her mother's gift: Pandora's Box.
The Rumor helps the officers bridge the gap left by Project JOOTS technology and send Toybox into superspace.
When Toybox faces Andy alone, she unleashes all of her toys to protect herself, and then reveals the final thing left in Pandora's Box that can heal Andy Soames desperate mind: Hope.
Smax rushes through the makeshift portal to grab his partner, escaping just before the effects backlash throughout superspace.
A few months after the events of the Hell Ditch Pilgrim case, Hyperdog is Traynor's replacement as Captain of Precinct 10, Robyn Slinger is no longer Toybox, and the fascist Mayor Famaille and Major Cindercott are out of power, casualties of the reality warping by Andy Soames, who now peacefully overlooks Top 10 as they once again celebrate survival and hopeful perseverance in a crazy and confusing beautiful world.
A new officer, Slipstream Phoenix, joins as well as Girl Two, who replaces Girl One.
The new commissioner, David Moon Gilbert, enforces stricter regulations to the dismay of some officers.
Irma Wornow is suspended for breaking the new regulations.
Shock-headed Pete is dismissed after he destroys Joe Pi's body while attacking Slipstream Phoenix.
<EOS>
On Guy Fawkes Night in London in 1997, a financially desperate 16-year-old, Evey Hammond, sexually solicits men who are actually members of the state secret police, called "The Finger".
Preparing to rape and kill her, the Fingermen are dispatched by V, a cloaked anarchist wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, who later remotely detonates explosives at the Houses of Parliament before bringing Evey to his contraband-filled underground lair, the "Shadow Gallery".
Evey tells V her life story, which reveals that a global nuclear war in the late 1980s has since triggered the rise of England's fascist government, Norsefire.
Meanwhile, Eric Finch, a veteran detective in charge of the regular police force—"the Nose"—begins investigating V's terrorist activities.
Finch often communicates with Norsefire's other intelligence departments, including "the Finger," led by Derek Almond, and "the Head", embodied by Adam Susan: the reclusive government Leader, who obsessively oversees the government's Fate computer system.
Finch's case thickens when V mentally deranges Lewis Prothero, a propaganda-broadcasting radio personality; forces the suicide of Bishop Anthony Lilliman, a Paedophile priest; and prepares to murder dr Delia Surridge, a medical researcher who once had a romance with Finch.
Finch suddenly discovers the connection among V's three targets: they all used to work at a former Norsefire "resettlement camp" near Larkhill.
That night, V kills both Almond and Surridge, but Surridge has left a diary revealing that V—a former inmate and victim of Surridge's cruel medical experiments—was able to destroy and flee the camp, and is now eliminating the camp's former officers for what they did at the camp.
Finch reports these findings to Susan, who suspects that this vendetta may actually be a cover for V, who, he worries, may be plotting an even bigger terrorist attack.
Four months later, V breaks into Jordan Tower, the home of Norsefire's propaganda department, "the Mouth"—led by Roger Dascombe—to broadcast a speech that calls on the people to resist the government.
V escapes using an elaborate diversion that results in Dascombe's death.
Finch is soon introduced to Peter Creedy, the new head of the Finger, who provokes Finch to strike him and thus get sent on a forced vacation.
All this time, Evey has moved on with her life, becoming romantically involved with a much older man named Gordon.
Evey and Gordon unknowingly cross paths with Rose Almond, the widow of the recently killed Derek.
After Derek's death, Rose reluctantly began a relationship with Dascombe, but now, with both of her lovers murdered, she is forced to perform demoralizing burlesque work, increasing her hatred of the unsupportive government.
When a Scottish gangster named Ally Harper murders Gordon, a vengeful Evey interrupts a meeting between Harper and Creedy, the latter of whom is buying the support of Harper's thugs in preparation for a coup d'état.
Evey attempts to shoot Harper, but is suddenly abducted and then imprisoned.
Amidst interrogation and torture, Evey finds an old letter hidden in her cell by an inmate named Valerie Page, a film actress who was imprisoned and executed for being a lesbian.
Evey's interrogator finally gives her a choice of collaboration or death; inspired by Valerie, Evey refuses to collaborate, and, expecting to be executed, is instead told that she is free.
Stunned, Evey learns that her supposed imprisonment is in fact a hoax constructed by V so that she could experience an ordeal similar to the one that shaped him at Larkhill.
He reveals that Valerie was a real Larkhill prisoner who died in the cell next to his and that the letter is not a fake.
Evey forgives V, who has hacked into the government's Fate computer system and started emotionally manipulating Adam Susan with mind games.
Consequently, Susan, who has formed a bizarre romantic attachment to the computer, is beginning to descend into madness.
The following 5 November (1998), V blows up the Post Office Tower and Jordan Tower, killing "the Ear" leader Brian Etheridge; in addition to effectively shutting down three government agencies: the Eye, the Ear, and the Mouth.
Creedy's men and Harper's associated street gangs violently suppress the subsequent wave of revolutionary fervor from the public.
V notes to Evey that he has not yet achieved what he calls the "Land of Do-as-You-Please", meaning a functional anarchistic society, and considers the current chaotic situation an interim period of "Land of Take-What-You-Want".
Finch has been mysteriously absent and his young assistant, Dominic Stone, one day realises that V has been influencing the Fate computer all along, which would explain V's consistent foresight.
All the while, Finch has been travelling to the abandoned site of Larkhill, where he takes LSD to conjure up memories of his own devastated past and to put his mind in the role of a prisoner of Larkhill, like V, to help give him an intuitive understanding of V's experiences.
Returning to London, Finch suddenly deduces that V's lair is inside the abandoned Victoria Station, which he enters.
V takes Finch by surprise; resulting in a scuffle which sees Finch shoot V and V wound Finch with a knife.
V claims that he cannot be killed since he is only an idea and that "ideas are bulletproof"; regardless, V is indeed mortally wounded and returns to the Shadow Gallery deeper within, dying in Evey's arms.
Evey considers unmasking V, but decides not to, realising that V is not an identity but a symbol.
She then assumes V's identity, donning one of his spare Guy Fawkes costumes.
Finch sees the large amount of blood that V has left in his wake and deduces that he has mortally wounded Occurring concurrently to this; Creedy has been pressuring Susan to appear in public, hoping to leave him exposed.
Sure enough, as Susan stops to shake hands with Rose during a parade, she shoots him in the head in vengeance for the death of her husband and the life she has had to lead since then.
Following Rose's arrest, Creedy assumes emergency leadership of the country, and Finch emerges from the subway proclaiming V's death.
Due to his LSD-induced epiphany, Finch leaves his position within "the Nose".
The power struggle between the remaining leaders' results in all of their deaths; with Harper betraying and killing Creedy at the behest of Helen Heyer (wife of "the Eye" leader Conrad Heyer; who had outbid Creedy for Harper's loyalty), and Harper and Heyer killing each other as a consequence of Heyer's attack on Harper following his discovery of Harper's affair with his wife.
With the fate of the top government officials' unknown to the public, Stone acts as leader of the police forces deployed to ensure that the riots are contained should V still be alive and make his promised public announcement.
Evey appears to a crowd, dressed as V, announcing the destruction of 10 Downing Street the following day and telling the crowd they must ".
choose what comes next.
Lives of your own, or a return to chains", whereupon a general insurrection begins.
Evey destroys 10 Downing Street by blowing up an Underground train containing V's body, in the style of an explosive Viking funeral.
She abducts Stone, apparently to train him as her successor.
The book ends with Finch quietly observing the chaos raging in the city and walking down an abandoned motorway whose lights have all gone out.
<EOS>
Stage and screen star Tony Hunter, a veteran of musical comedy, is concerned that his career might be in decline.
His good friends Lester and Lily Marton have written a stage show that they believe is perfect for his comeback.
Tony signs up, despite misgivings after the pretentious director, Jeffrey Cordova, changes the light comedy into a dark reinterpretation of the Faust legend, with himself as the Devil and Tony as the Faust character.
Tony also feels intimidated by the youth, beauty, and classical background of his female co-star, noted ballerina Gabrielle "Gaby" Gerard.
Unbeknownst to him, she is just as insecure in his presence, awed by his long stardom.
Eventually, it all proves too much for Tony.
He walks out, but Gaby speaks with him alone and they work out their differences.
They also begin to fall in love, though she already has a commitment to the show's choreographer Paul Byrd.
When the first out-of-town tryout in New Haven proves to be a disaster, Tony persuades Jeffrey to let him convert the production back into what the Martons had originally envisioned.
Tony takes charge of the production, taking the show on tour to perfect the new lighthearted musical numbers.
Since the original backers have walked out, Tony finances it by selling his personal art collection.
Byrd walks out, but Gaby remains.
The revised show proves to be a hit on its Broadway opening.
Afterwards, Gaby and Tony confess their love for each other.
<EOS>
In the United States in 1917, James "Jim" Apperson's (John Gilbert) idleness (in contrast to his hardworking brother) incurs the great displeasure of his wealthy businessman father.
Then America enters World War Jim informs his worried mother that he has no intention of enlisting, and his father threatens to kick him out of the house if he does not join.
However, when he runs into his patriotic friends at a send-off parade, he is persuaded to enlist, making his father very proud.
During training, Jim makes friendships with construction worker Slim and bartender Bull.
Their unit ships out to France, where they are billeted at a farm in the village of Champillon in the Marne.
All three men are attracted to Melisande (Renée Adorée), whose mother owns the farm.
She repulses all their advances, but gradually warms to Jim.
They fall in love, despite not being able to speak each other's language.
One day, however, Jim receives a letter and a photograph from Justyn (Claire Adams), which reveals that they are engaged.
When Melisande sees the picture, she realizes the situation and runs off in tears.
Before Jim can decide what to do, his unit is ordered to the front.
Melisande hears the commotion and races back, just in time for the lovers to embrace and kiss.
The Americans march towards the front and are strafed by an enemy fighter before it is shot down.
The unit is sent to the attack immediately, advancing against snipers and machine guns in the woods, then more machine guns, artillery, and poison gas in the open.
They settle down in a makeshift line.
Jim shelters in a shellhole with Slim (Karl Dane) and Bull (Tom O'Brien).
That night, orders come down for one man to go out and eliminate a troublesome mortar crew; Slim wins a spitting contest for the opportunity.
He succeeds, but is spotted and wounded on the way back.
After listening to Slim's pleas for help, Jim cannot stand it any longer and goes to his rescue against orders.
Bull follows, but is shot and killed.
By the time Jim reaches Slim, he is already dead.
Jim is then shot in the leg.
When a German comes to finish him off, Jim shoots and wounds him.
The German starts crawling back to his line.
Jim catches up to him in another shellhole, but, face to face, cannot bring himself to finish him off with his bayonet.
Instead, he gives his erstwhile enemy a cigarette.
Soon after, the German dies.
Fortunately for Jim, he is not stuck in no man's land for long; the Americans attack, and he is taken away to a hospital.
From another patient, he learns that Champillon has changed hands four times.
Worried about Melisande, Jim sneaks out of the hospital and hitches a ride.
When he gets to the farmhouse, he finds it damaged and empty.
Melisande and her mother have joined a stream of refugees.
Jim collapses and is carried off in an ambulance by retreating soldiers.
After the war ends, Jim goes home to America.
Before he arrives, his mother overhears Justyn and Jim's brother Harry (Robert Ober) discussing what to do; in Jim's absence, they have fallen in love.
When Jim appears, it is revealed that he has had his leg amputated.
Later, Jim tells his mother about Melisande; she tells him to go back and find her.
When he returns to the farm, Melisande rushes into his arms.
<EOS>
The film begins with the looting of a ship already captured and badly mauled, by the pirates.
After relieving the ship and crew of valuables, the pirates fire the ship, blowing up the gunpowder on board, sinking her.
While the pirates celebrate, two survivors wash up on an island, an old man and his son.
Before dying, the older man gives his signet ring to his son (Douglas Fairbanks).
His son buries him, vowing vengeance.
The Pirate Captain and Lieutenant bring some crew to the other side of the same island to bury some of their plunder.
They then plan to murder the other pirates: "Dead men tell no tales".
But first, Fairbanks appears as the "Black Pirate", who offers to join their company and fight their best man to prove his worth.
After much fighting, the Black Pirate kills the Pirate Captain.
The Pirate Lieutenant sneers, and says there is more to being a pirate than sword tricks.
To further prove his worth, the Black Pirate says he will capture the next ship of prey single-handed, which he does.
He then uses his wits to prevent the pirates from blowing up the ship along with the crew and passengers, suggesting that they hold the ship for ransom.
When a woman is discovered on board, the Pirate Lieutenant claims her.
In love at first sight, the Black Pirate finds a way to temporarily save her from this fate by presenting her as a "princess" and urging the crew to use her as a hostage to ensure their ransom will be paid, as long as she remains "spotless and unharmed".
The pirates cheer the Black Pirate, and want to name him captain.
The Pirate Lieutenant jeers but consents to wait to see if the ransom is paid by noon the next day.
However, he secretly has a confederate destroy the ransom ship later that night to ensure it will not return.
Then, when the Black Pirate is caught trying to release the woman, the Pirate Lieutenant exposes him as a traitor and the pirates force him to walk the plank.
At noon the next day, with the ransom ship having failed to show, the Pirate Lieutenant goes to the woman to claim his prize.
But just then, the Black Pirate, who with the help of the sympathetic one-armed pirate MacTavish had survived being sent overboard, returns leading troops to stop the pirates.
After a long fight, the pirates are routed.
In the end, the Black Pirate is revealed to be a Duke, and the "Princess" he loves a noble Lady.
Even MacTavish is moved to tears of joy by the happy ending.
<EOS>
The scene is all filmed from a stationary camera.
On screen is a large anvil with a blacksmith behind it and a striker to either side (portrayed by Edison employees).
The smith uses a heated metal rod he has removed from a fire and places it on the anvil.
All three begin a rhythmic hammering.
After several blows the metal rod is returned to the fire.
One striker pulls out a bottle of beer, and they each take a drink.
Following this drink they then resume their work.
<EOS>
On a stormy night, Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Walton) and Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) praise Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester) for her story of Frankenstein and his Monster.
Reminding them that her intention was to impart a moral lesson, Mary says she has more of the story to tell.
The scene shifts to the end of the 1931 Frankenstein.
Villagers gathered around the burning windmill cheer the apparent death of the Monster (Boris Karloff, credited as "Karloff").
Their joy is tempered by the realization that Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is also apparently dead.
Hans (Reginald Barlow), father of the girl the creature drowned in the previous film, wants to see the Monster's bones.
He falls into a flooded pit underneath the mill, where the Monster&nbsp;– having survived the fire&nbsp;– strangles him.
Hauling himself from the pit, the Monster casts Hans' wife (Mary Gordon) into it to her death.
He next encounters Minnie (Una O'Connor), who flees in terror.
Henry's body is returned to his fiancée Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson) at his ancestral castle home.
Minnie arrives to sound the alarm about the Monster, but her warning goes unheeded.
Elizabeth, seeing Henry move, realizes he is still alive.
Nursed back to health by Elizabeth, Henry has renounced his creation, but still believes he may be destined to unlock the secret of life and immortality.
A hysterical Elizabeth cries that she sees death coming, foreshadowing the arrival of Henry's former mentor, Doctor Septimus Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger).
In his rooms, Pretorius shows Henry several homunculi he has created, including a miniature queen, king, archbishop, devil, ballerina, and mermaid.
Pretorius wishes to work with Henry to create a mate for the Monster and offers a toast to their venture: "To a new world of gods and monsters.
" Upon forcing Henry to help him, Pretorius will grow an artificial brain while Henry gathers the parts for the mate.
The Monster saves a young shepherdess (Anne Darling) from drowning.
Her screams upon seeing him alert two hunters, who shoot and injure the creature.
The hunters raise a mob that sets out in pursuit.
Captured and trussed to a pole, the Monster is hauled to a dungeon and chained.
Left alone, he breaks his chains, kills the guards and escapes into the woods.
That night, the Monster encounters a gypsy family and burns his hand in their campfire.
Following the sound of a violin playing "Ave Maria", the Monster encounters an old blind hermit (O.
Heggie) who thanks God for sending him a friend.
He teaches the monster words like "friend" and "good" and shares a meal with him.
Two lost hunters stumble upon the cottage and recognize the Monster.
He attacks them and accidentally burns down the cottage as the hunters lead the hermit away.
Taking refuge from another angry mob in a crypt, the Monster spies Pretorius and his cronies Karl (Dwight Frye) and Ludwig (Ted Billings) breaking open a grave.
The henchmen depart as Pretorius stays to enjoy a light supper.
The Monster approaches Pretorius, and learns that Pretorius plans to create a mate for him.
Henry and Elizabeth, now married, are visited by Pretorius.
He is ready for Henry to do his part in their "supreme collaboration".
Henry refuses and Pretorius calls in the Monster who demands Henry's help.
Henry again refuses and Pretorius orders the Monster out, secretly signaling him to kidnap Elizabeth.
Pretorius guarantees her safe return upon Henry's participation.
Henry returns to his tower laboratory where in spite of himself he grows excited over his work.
After being assured of Elizabeth's safety, Henry completes the Bride's body.
A storm rages as final preparations are made to bring the Bride to life.
Her bandage-wrapped body is raised through the roof.
Lightning strikes a kite, sending electricity through the Bride.
Henry and Pretorius lower her and realize their success.
"She's alive.
Alive.
" Henry cries.
They remove her bandages and help her to stand.
"The bride of Frankenstein.
" Doctor Pretorius declares.
The Monster comes down the steps after killing Karl on the rooftop and sees his mate (Elsa Lanchester).
The excited Monster reaches out to her, asking, "Friend.
" The Bride, screaming, rejects him.
"She hate me.
Like others" the Monster dejectedly says.
As Elizabeth races to Henry's side, the Monster rampages through the laboratory.
The Monster tells Henry and Elizabeth "Yes.
Go.
You live.
" To Pretorius and the Bride, he says "You stay.
We belong dead".
While Henry and Elizabeth flee, the Monster sheds a tear and pulls a lever to trigger the destruction of the laboratory and tower.
<EOS>
David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a mild-mannered paleontologist.
For the past four years, he has been trying to assemble the skeleton of a Brontosaurus but is missing one bone: the "intercostal clavicle".
Adding to his stress is his impending marriage to the dour Alice Swallow (Virginia Walker) and the need to impress Elizabeth Random (May Robson), who is considering a million-dollar donation to his museum.
The day before his wedding, David meets Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) by chance on a golf course.
She is a free-spirited young lady, and (unknown to him at first) mrs Random's niece.
Susan's brother, Mark, has sent her a tame leopard from Brazil named Baby (Nissa) to give to their aunt.
(The leopard is native to Africa and Asia but not to South America) Susan thinks David is a zoologist (rather than a paleontologist), and persuades David to go to her country home in Connecticut to help bring up Baby (which includes singing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" to soothe the leopard).
Complications arise since Susan has fallen in love with David and tries to keep him at her house as long as possible to prevent his marriage.
David finally receives the intercostal clavicle, but Susan's dog George (Asta) takes it out of its box and buries it.
Susan's aunt, Elizabeth Random, arrives.
The dowager is unaware of David's identity, since Susan has introduced him as "Mr.
Bone".
Baby and George run off, and Susan and David mistake a dangerous leopard who was being driven to be euthanized from a nearby circus (also portrayed by Nissa) for Baby, and let it out of the cage.
After considerable running around, David and Susan are jailed by a befuddled town policeman, Constable Slocum (Walter Catlett), for breaking into the house of dr Fritz Lehman (Fritz Feld) (where they had cornered the circus leopard).
When Slocum does not believe their story, Susan tells him they are members of the "Leopard Gang"; she calls herself "Swingin' Door Susie", and David "Jerry the Nipper".
David fails to convince the constable that Susan makes things up "from motion pictures she's seen".
Eventually, Alexander Peabody (George Irving) shows up to verify everyone's identity.
Susan, who during a police interview contrived to sneak out a window, unwittingly drags the irritated circus leopard into the jail.
David saves her, using a chair to shoo the big cat into a cell.
Some time later Susan finds David, who has just been jilted by Alice because of her, on a high platform at his brontosaurus reconstruction at the museum.
After showing him the missing bone which she'd found by trailing George for three days, Susan, against his warnings, climbs a tall ladder next to the dinosaur to be closer to him.
She tells David that her Aunt has given her the million dollars, and she wants to donate it to the museum, but David is more interested in telling her that the day spent with her was the best day of his life.
Unconsciously swaying the ladder from side to side upon hearing David's further words of endearment and love, Susan tells him that she loves him too, then notices that the ladder is on the verge of falling over.
Frightened, she climbs onto and over the skeleton, but just before the dinosaur bones collapse David grabs her hand, she dangles below him, and he lifts her onto the platform.
Regrettably surveying the wreckage of his work, David soon accepts the destruction and chaos, gives in, and hugs and kisses Susan.
<EOS>
Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) leaves his native China because he "dreams to spread the gentle message of Buddha to the Anglo-Saxon lands".
His idealism fades as he is faced with the brutal reality of London's gritty inner-city.
However, his mission is finally realized in his devotion to the "broken blossom" Lucy Burrows (Lillian Gish), the beautiful but unwanted and abused daughter of boxer Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp).
After being beaten and discarded one evening by her raging father, Lucy finds sanctuary in Cheng's home, the beautiful and exotic room above his shop.
As Cheng nurses Lucy back to health, the two form a bond as two unwanted outcasts of society.
All goes astray for them when Lucy's father gets wind of his daughter's whereabouts and in a drunken rage drags her back to their home to punish her.
Fearing for her life, Lucy locks herself inside a closet to escape her contemptuous father.
By the time Cheng arrives to rescue Lucy, whom he so innocently adores, it is too late.
Lucy's lifeless body lies on her modest bed as Battling has a drink in the other room.
As Cheng gazes at Lucy's youthful face which, in spite of the circumstances, beams with innocence and even the slightest hint of a smile, Battling enters the room to make his escape.
The two stand for a long while, exchanging spiteful glances, until Battling lunges for Cheng with a hatchet, and Cheng retaliates by shooting Burrows repeatedly with his handgun.
After returning to his home with Lucy's body, Cheng builds a shrine to Buddha and takes his own life with a knife to the chest.
<EOS>
Parachute maker Carmen Jones makes a play for a "fly boy" Air Force man, Joe, who is in love with sweet Cindy Lou and about to marry her on a day pass when Carmen gets into a fight with another woman.
Joe's pass is cancelled in order for him to drive her to the next town to be handed over to the non-military police.
Instead, she charms and seduces him, and he is put in the stockade for not delivering her to the authorities.
While she waits for Joe to be released from military prison, she hangs around Billy Pastor's jive cafe where she encounters boxer Husky Miller, who is instantly besotted with Carmen, calling her "heatwave".
She is initially uninterested.
But her friends Frankie and Mert know that their invitation from Husky's manager to see him fight in Chicago depends on Carmen's being there, too.
Then Joe turns up at the cafe but gets into a fight with his sergeant, who is making a move on Carmen.
The train ticket to Chicago originally given to Carmen offers them a way of avoiding the MPs.
After a few days holed up with no money and no future with Joe, Carmen pays a visit to her two friends, now covered in diamonds and furs, at Husky's training camp.
She is only looking for a loan, but they try to draw her to give up Joe and "go with the money" by staying with Husky.
Later, at Husky's apartment, Frankie reads Carmen's "cards", and reveals the Nine of Spades - the card of Death.
In the belief that her days are numbered, Carmen gives in to Husky's advances, abandoning Joe for the luxurious life Husky can offer her.
Cindy Lou comes to look for Joe, but he is still in love with Carmen and spurns Cindy Lou.
The night of Husky's title fight, Joe turns up to try to convince Carmen to come back to him, but when she rejects him, he kills her, thus making the cards' prophecy a reality.
<EOS>
Jo is a taxi driver in Chinatown, San Francisco who, along with his nephew Steve, are seeking to purchase a cab license of their own.
Jo's friend Chan Hung was the go-between to finalize the transaction but at the beginning of the film, Chan has disappeared, taking Jo's money with him.
The two men begin their search for Chan by speaking with a series of Chinatown locals, each of whom has a different impression of Chan's personality and motivations.
The portrait that is created is incomplete and, at times, contradictory.
As the mystery behind Chan's disappearance deepens, Jo becomes paranoid that Chan may be involved in the death of man killed during a "flag-waving incident" between opposing supporters of the People's Republic of China (mainland China) and the Republic of China (Taiwan).
In the end, Chan remains missing but through his daughter, he returns Jo and Steve's money.
Jo, holding a photo of Chan where his face is completely obscured, eventually accepts that Chan is an enigma, saying in a voiceover, "here's a picture of Chan Hung but I still can't see him".
<EOS>
Socialite Edith Hardy (Ward) has extravagant tastes.
Her stockbroker husband Richard (Dean), with all of his money tied up in a very promising investment, insists she send back an expensive dress she has just bought.
When she asks an acquaintance what he could do with $10,000, he assures her he could double it overnight.
She gives him the Red Cross funds entrusted to her as the charity's treasurer.
The next day, however, he reports that the money is gone.
Hishituru Tori (Hayakawa), a wealthy Japanese admirer (changed in the film's 1918 re-release to a Burmese ivory king named "Haka Arakau"), overhears and offers her a loan, if she is willing to pay the price of her virtue.
The same day, her husband is jubilant that his gamble has paid off.
She asks him for $10,000, which she explains is to cover her losses playing bridge.
She visits Tori and tries to pay him back, but he refuses to cancel their bargain.
She threatens to kill herself, but he is so confident that she is bluffing that he hands her a pistol.
When she continues to resist his advances, he subdues her and brands her on the back of the shoulder with the seal with which he marks all of his property.
Edith grabs the gun and shoots him in the shoulder, then flees.
Richard, having followed her after she left their home, finds Tori and picks up the gun.
He is held for the police by Tori's servants.
When questioned, he confesses to the crime to protect his wife.
When Edith visits him in jail, Richard orders her to remain silent.
During the trial, both he and Tori testify on the stand that he was the shooter.
However, when he is found guilty, Edith rushes to the judge and announces she did it.
When she shows the brand to all, the judge and officers of the court have great difficulty keeping the outraged spectators from attacking Tori.
The judge sets aside the verdict, and Edith and Richard depart the courtroom.
<EOS>
The Little Tramp first meets the Flower Girl, and discovers she is blind when she cannot find a dropped flower.
That evening, the Tramp runs into a drunken millionaire who is attempting suicide on the waterfront.
He takes the Tramp back to his mansion and gives him a change of clothes.
Early the next morning, they return to the mansion and encounter the Flower Girl en route to her vending spot.
The Tramp asks The Millionaire for some money, which he uses to buy all the girl's flowers and then drives her home in the Millionaire's car.
After he leaves, the Flower Girl tells her grandmother (Florence Lee) about her wealthy acquaintance.
When the Tramp returns to the mansion, the Millionaire has sobered-up and does not remember him, so he has the butler order him out.
Later that day, the Millionaire meets the Tramp again while intoxicated and invites him home for a lavish party.
The next morning, having sobered again and planning to leave for a cruise, the Millionaire again has the Tramp tossed out.
Returning to the Flower Girl's apartment, the Tramp spies her being attended by a doctor.
Deciding to take a job to earn money for her, he becomes a street sweeper.
Meanwhile, the grandmother receives a notice that she and the girl will be evicted if they cannot pay their back rent by the next day, but she hides it.
The Tramp visits the girl on his lunch break and sees a newspaper story about a Viennese doctor who has devised an operation that cures blindness.
He then finds the eviction notice and reads it aloud at the girl's request.
He reassures her that he will pay the rent.
But he returns to work late and is fired.
As he is walking away, a boxer persuades him to stage a fake fight, promising to split the $50 prize money.
Just before the bout, however, the man receives a telegram warning him that the police are after him.
He flees, leaving the Tramp a no-nonsense replacement opponent.
Despite a valiant effort, the Tramp is knocked out.
Some time later, he meets the drunken millionaire who has just returned from Europe.
The Millionaire takes him to the mansion, and after he hears the girl's plight, he gives the Tramp $1,000 to give to the girl for her operation.
Unbeknownst to the Millionaire and the Tramp, two burglars were hiding in the house when they entered.
Upon hearing about the cash, they knock out the millionaire and take the rest of his money.
The Tramp telephones for the police, but the robbers flee before they arrive, and the butler assumes he stole the money.
The Millionaire cannot remember the Tramp or giving him the $1,000.
The Tramp narrowly escapes and gives the money to the girl, saying he will be going away for a while.
Later, he is arrested in front of the newsboys who taunted him earlier, and he is then jailed.
Months later, the Tramp is released.
Searching for the girl, he returns to her customary street corner but does not find her.
With her sight restored, the girl has opened up a flourishing flower shop with her grandmother.
When a rich customer comes into the shop, the girl briefly wonders if he is her mysterious benefactor.
But when he leaves with no acknowledgement, she realizes again she is wrong.
While retrieving a flower from the gutter outside the shop, the Tramp is again tormented by the two newsboys.
As he turns to leave, he finds himself staring at the girl through the window.
His despair turns to elation and he forgets about the flower.
Seeing that he has crushed the flower he retrieved, the girl kindly offers him a fresh one and a coin.
Embarrassed, the Tramp tries to shuffle away, but the girl stops him and hands him the flower, which he shyly takes.
When the girl takes hold of his hand to place the coin in it, she recognizes the touch of his hand and realizes he is no stranger.
"You.
" she says, and he nods, asking, "You can see now.
" She tearfully replies, "Yes, I can see now", and holds the Tramp's hand close to her chest.
Tearful and elated, the Tramp smiles at the girl shyly as the film fades to black.
<EOS>
John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is a popular young Hollywood director of profitable but shallow comedies (eg.
Ants in Your Plants).
Sullivan is dissatisfied despite his success and tells his studio boss, mr Lebrand (Robert Warwick) that he wants his next project to be a serious exploration of the plight of the downtrodden.
He asks to make his next film an adaptation of O Brother, Where Art Thou.
, a socially-conscious novel.
Lebrand wants him to direct another lucrative comedy instead, but the idealistic Sullivan refuses to give in.
He wants to "know trouble" first-hand, and plans to travel as a tramp so he can return and make a film that depicts the sorrows of humanity.
His butler (Robert Greig) and valet (Eric Blore) openly question the wisdom of his plan.
Sullivan dresses as a penniless hobo and takes to the road, followed by a fully staffed double-decker coach at Lebrand's request.
Neither party is happy with the arrangement; and Sullivan eventually persuades his guardians to leave him alone and arranges to rendezvous with them in Las Vegas later.
However, when he hitchhikes alone, he finds himself back in Los Angeles where he started.
There he meets a young failed actress (Veronica Lake, credited only as "The Girl") who is just about to quit the business and go home.
She believes he is truly a tramp, and buys him a breakfast of eggs and ham.
In return for her kindness, Sullivan retrieves his car from his estate and gives her a lift.
He neglects to tell his servants that he has returned; so they report the "theft" of the car and Sullivan and the Girl are apprehended by the police.
Upon their release, the Girl pushes him into his enormous swimming pool for deceiving her about his true identity.
However, after considering her options, she becomes his traveling companion.
This time Sullivan succeeds in living like a hobo.
After eating in soup kitchens and sleeping in homeless shelters with the Girl, Sullivan finally decides he has had enough.
His experiment is publicized by the studio as a huge success.
The Girl wants to stay with him, but is stymied by his complicated living situation.
On the advice of his business manager, Sullivan had gotten married to reduce his income tax.
Ironically, he discovers that his wife cost him double what he saved in taxes.
Sullivan decides to thank the homeless by handing out $5 bills, but one man, who had previously stolen his shoes, ambushes Sullivan and steals the money.
Sullivan is knocked unconscious and thrown onto a train boxcar leaving the city.
The thief drops the loose cash on the rails, getting run over and killed by another train while picking it up.
When the thief's body is found, they discover a special identification card in his shoes identifying him as Sullivan.
The mangled body is assumed to be Sullivan's, and his staff and the Girl are informed of his death.
Meanwhile, Sullivan wakes up in the rail yard of another city, with no memory of who he is or how he got there.
In his confused state, he assaults the railroad worker who finds him, for which he is sentenced to six years in a labor camp.
Sullivan slowly regains his memory.
While in the labor camp, Sullivan attends a showing of Walt Disney's Playful Pluto cartoon.
Looking at the pure joy in the audience's faces, Sullivan realizes that comedy can do more good for the poor than his proposed social drama, O Brother, Where Art Thou.
But Sullivan still has a problem – he cannot convince anybody that he is Sullivan.
Finally, he comes up with a solution: he confesses to being his own killer.
When his picture makes the front page of the newspapers, the Girl recognizes him and gets him released.
His "widow" had already taken up with his crooked business manager, so he can now divorce her and be reunited with the Girl.
A montage of happily laughing faces ends the film.
<EOS>
The film opens with the outbreak of a war in the previously peaceful kingdom of Wredpryd.
Count Ferdinand is the inventor of a new submarine who is assigned to command the new ship in battle.
The King of Wredpryd orders the Count to sink the "ProPatria" ("for my country"), a civilian ship that is believed to be carrying munitions as well as civilian passengers.
In his mind's eye, the Count sees a vision of what would happen if he sent a torpedo crashing into the liner, and he recoils.
He refuses to follow his orders, saying he is "obeying orders -- from a Higher Power".
Realizing his crew will carry out the orders, the Count fights with the crew and blows up his submarine, sending it to the bottom of the sea.
The Count's soul descends into purgatory, where he encounters Jesus.
Jesus announces that the Count can find redemption by returning to the living world as a voice for peace.
Jesus tells the Count, "Peace to thee, child, for in thy love for humanity is thy redemption.
In thy earthly body will I return, and with thy voice plead for peace.
Much evil is being wrought in my name".
The Count returns to life and is stoned and reviled by his countrymen.
He is put on trial by the king, a modern Pontius Pilate, and is sentenced to death.
Five thousand women gather at the palace singing a song of peace and pleading with the king to end the war.
The mothers' plea inspires the king to visit the cell of the condemned Count.
The Count is found dead in his cell, and Jesus emerges from the Count's body and takes the king on a tour of the battlefields.
Jesus asks, "See here thy handiwork.
Under thy reign, thy domain hath become a raging hell.
" In the film's most famous scene, Jesus walks through the battlefields amid the carnage of war.
The signing of a peace treaty follows, and the closing scenes depicts the happiness in store for the returning soldiers.
<EOS>
The story takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great Depression in the fictional "tired old town" of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County.
It focuses on six-year-old Jean Louise Finch (Scout), who lives with her older brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer.
Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer.
The three children are terrified of, and fascinated by, their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley.
The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo, and few of them have seen him for many years.
The children feed one another's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his house.
After two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone leaves them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place.
Several times the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person.
Judge Taylor appoints Atticus to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell.
Although many of Maycomb's citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability.
Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus's actions, calling him a "nigger-lover".
Scout is tempted to stand up for her father's honor by fighting, even though he has told her not to.
Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom.
This danger is averted when Scout, Jem, and Dill shame the mob into dispersing by forcing them to view the situation from Atticus' and Tom's perspective.
Atticus does not want Jem and Scout to be present at Tom Robinson's trial.
No seat is available on the main floor, so by invitation of the Rev.
Sykes, Jem, Scout, and Dill watch from the colored balcony.
Atticus establishes that the accusers—Mayella and her father, Bob Ewell, the town drunk—are lying.
It also becomes clear that the friendless Mayella made sexual advances toward Tom, and that her father caught her and beat her.
Despite significant evidence of Tom's innocence, the jury convicts him.
Jem's faith in justice becomes badly shaken, as is Atticus', when the hapless Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison.
Despite Tom's conviction, Bob Ewell is humiliated by the events of the trial, Atticus explaining that he "destroyed [Ewell's] last shred of credibility at that trial".
Ewell vows revenge, spitting in Atticus' face, trying to break into the judge's house, and menacing Tom Robinson's widow.
Finally, he attacks the defenseless Jem and Scout while they walk home on a dark night after the school Halloween pageant.
Jem suffers a broken arm in the struggle, but amid the confusion someone comes to the children's rescue.
The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley.
Sheriff Tate arrives and discovers that Bob Ewell has died during the fight.
The sheriff argues with Atticus about the prudence and ethics of charging Jem (whom Atticus believes to be responsible) or Boo (whom Tate believes to be responsible).
Atticus eventually accepts the sheriff's story that Ewell simply fell on his own knife.
Boo asks Scout to walk him home, and after she says goodbye to him at his front door he disappears again.
While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective, and regrets that they had never repaid him for the gifts he had given them.
<EOS>
This very Kafka-esque film was filmed during the rape-and-murder trial of Fatty Arbuckle, a circumstance that may have influenced the short's tone of hopeless ensnarement.
Even though the central character's intentions are good, he cannot win, no matter how inventively he tries.
He gets into various scraps with police officers throughout the film.
Eventually, he unwittingly throws a bomb into a police parade and ends up being chased by a horde of cops.
At the end of the film, Keaton's character locks up the cops in the police station.
However, the girl he is trying to woo disapproves of his behavior and gives him the cold shoulder.
Therefore, he unlocks the police station and is immediately pulled in by the cops.
The film ends with the title "The End" written on a tombstone with Keaton's pork pie hat propped on it.
One of Keaton's most iconic and brilliantly-constructed short films, Cops was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry in 1997.
<EOS>
Two thugs looking for a "George Kaplan" at a hotel bar see a waiter calling out for him at the same time advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) summons the waiter.
Thornhill, thus, is mistaken for "George Kaplan".
Kidnapped by the thugs, he is brought to the Long Island estate of Lester Townsend, and interrogated by spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason).
Thornhill vehemently denies he is Kaplan.
Vandamm thinks he is lying and Vandamm's henchman Leonard (Martin Landau) tries to arrange Thornhill's death, but Thornhill manages to escape a staged drunken driving accident.
Thornhill fails to convince his mother and the police that he had been kidnapped and forcibly inebriated.
A woman at Townsend's home, presumed to be mrs Townsend, (Josephine Hutchinson) says he got drunk at her dinner party.
She says Townsend is a United Nations diplomat.
While searching Kaplan's hotel room with his mother, Thornhill answers a phone call from the thugs who are in the hotel lobby.
He escapes and visits theN.
General Assembly building to meet Townsend.
He discovers that Townsend (Philip Ober) is not the man he met on Long Island, and that Townsend is a widower.
As Thornhill questions Townsend, one of the thugs throws a knife hitting Townsend in the back, killing him.
Thornhill catches Townsend as he falls and grabs the knife, giving the appearance that he murdered Townsend.
Thornhill flees and attempts to find the real Kaplan.
Meanwhile, a government intelligence agency picks up the news and realizes Thornhill has been mistaken for "George Kaplan," a fictional persona created by the agency to thwart Vandamm.
However, Thornhill is not rescued for fear of compromising their operation.
Thornhill sneaks onto the 20th Century Limited train.
He meets Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who protects him from the police.
Kendall is actually working with Vandamm and his thugs.
In Chicago, Kendall tells Thornhill she has arranged a meeting with Kaplan at an isolated bus stop.
Thornhill waits, but no one comes.
He is attacked by a crop duster plane, but steps in front of a speeding tank truck; the airplane crashes into the truck, and Thornhill escapes.
When he reaches Kaplan's hotel in Chicago, he discovers that Kaplan had checked out and left before Kendall said she talked to him on the phone.
Thornhill goes to her room, but she leaves.
He tracks her to an art auction, where he finds Vandamm and his thugs.
Vandamm purchases a Mexican Purépecha statue and departs.
To engineer an escape from the thugs, Thornhill disrupts the auction by acting erratically; the police are summoned and take him away.
He tells them he is the fugitive murderer; the police release him to the government agency's chief Professor (Leo Carroll), who reveals that Kaplan does not exist, and was invented to distract Vandamm from the real government agent: Kendall.
Thornhill agrees to help maintain her cover.
At the Mount Rushmore visitor center, Thornhill (as Kaplan) negotiates Vandamm's turnover of Kendall for her prosecution as a spy.
"Kaplan" confronts Kendall; she shoots him "fatally" with a handgun (loaded with blanks), and flees.
Thornhill and Kendall meet in a forest.
Thornhill discovers Kendall must depart with Vandamm and Leonard on a plane.
Thornhill evades the Professor's custody, and goes to Vandamm's house to rescue Kendall.
At the house, Thornhill overhears that the sculpture holds microfilm.
Vandamm implies that he will kill Kendall during the flight.
Thornhill lets Kendall know they plan to kill her, but he is captured.
As Vandamm is boarding the plane, Kendall takes the sculpture and runs to Thornhill.
They attempt to flee, but they realize they are on top of Mount Rushmore.
They begin to climb down the mountain's sculpture, pursued by two thugs.
After a harrowing chase, all turns out well for them.
Later, Thornhill invites Kendall, as the new mrs Thornhill, onto the upper berth of a train, which then, suggestively, enters a tunnel.
<EOS>
When a flying saucer lands in Washington,C, the Army quickly surrounds it.
A humanoid (Michael Rennie) emerges, announcing that he has come in peace.
When he unexpectedly opens a small device, he is shot by a nervous soldier.
A tall robot emerges from the saucer and quickly disintegrates the soldiers' weapons.
The alien orders the robot, Gort, to stop.
He explains that the now-broken device was a gift for the President which would have enabled him "to study life on the other planets".
The alien, Klaatu, is taken to Walter Reed Hospital.
After surgery, he uses a salve to quickly heal his wound.
Meanwhile, the Army is unable to enter the saucer; Gort stands outside, silent and unmoving.
Klaatu tells the President's secretary, mr Harley (Frank Conroy), that he has a message that must be delivered to all the world's leaders simultaneously.
Harley tells him that such a meeting in the current political climate is impossible.
Klaatu suggests that he be allowed to go among humans to better understand their "unreasoning suspicions and attitudes".
Harley rejects the proposal, and Klaatu remains under guard.
Klaatu escapes and lodges at a boarding house as "Mr.
Carpenter", the name on the dry cleaner's tag on a suit he "borrowed".
Among the residents are young widow Helen Benson (Patricia Neal) and her son Bobby (Billy Gray).
The next morning, Klaatu listens to the boarders speculate about why the alien has come.
While Helen and her boyfriend Tom Stephens (Hugh Marlowe) go out, Klaatu babysits Bobby.
The boy takes Klaatu on a tour of the city, including a visit to his father's grave in Arlington National Cemetery; Klaatu learns that most of those buried there were killed in wars.
The two visit the Lincoln Memorial, then the heavily guarded spaceship.
Klaatu asks Bobby who is the greatest living person; Bobby suggests Professor Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), who lives in the capital.
Bobby takes Klaatu to Barnhardt's home, but the professor is absent.
Klaatu adds an equation to a problem on Barnhardt's blackboard and leaves his contact information with the suspicious housekeeper.
That evening, a government agent takes Klaatu to Barnhardt.
Klaatu explains that the people of other planets have safety concerns now that humanity has developed rockets and a rudimentary form of atomic power.
Klaatu declares that if his message is ignored, "Earth will be eliminated".
Barnhardt agrees to gather scientists from around the world at the saucer; he then suggests that Klaatu give a harmless demonstration of his power.
Klaatu returns to his ship that night, unaware that Bobby has followed him.
Bobby sees Gort knock out two sentries and Klaatu enter the saucer.
Bobby tells Helen and Tom what he saw, but they do not believe him until Tom takes a diamond he found in Klaatu's room to a jeweler and learns it is "unlike any other on Earth".
Klaatu finds Helen at her workplace, and they take an empty service elevator, which stops precisely at noon.
Klaatu reveals his true identity, then asks for her help.
He has neutralized all electricity everywhere, except for such things as hospitals and aircraft in flight.
Exactly 30 minutes later, the blackout ends.
After Tom informs the authorities of his suspicions, Helen breaks up with him.
She and Klaatu go to Barnhardt's home.
En route, he tells her that should anything happen to him, she must say to Gort, "Klaatu barada nikto".
Their taxi is spotted and hemmed in; he makes a break for it and is shot dead.
Helen quickly heads to the saucer.
Gort disintegrates both sentries and advances on her.
When Helen utters Klaatu's words, the robot carries her into the ship, then leaves to retrieve Klaatu's body.
Gort brings Klaatu back to life, but he explains to Helen that his revival is only temporary; the power of life and death is "reserved for the Almighty Spirit".
Klaatu emerges from the saucer and addresses Barnhardt's assembled scientists, informing them that he represents an interplanetary organization that created a police force of invincible robots like Gort to "patrol the planets in spaceships like this one, and preserve the peace" by automatically annihilating aggressors.
"In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us.
This power cannot be revoked".
Klaatu concludes with, "It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder.
Your choice is simple: join us, and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration".
Klaatu and Gort depart in the spaceship.
<EOS>
In Clairton, a small working class town in western Pennsylvania, in late 1967, Russian-American steel workers Michael "Mike" Vronsky (Robert De Niro), Steven Pushkov (John Savage), and Nikanor "Nick" Chevotarevich (Christopher Walken), with the support of their friends and co-workers Stan (John Cazale) and Peter "Axel" Axelrod (Chuck Aspegren) and local bar owner and friend John Welsh (George Dzundza), prepare for two rites of passage: marriage and military service.
The opening scenes set the traits of the three main characters.
Mike is the no-nonsense, serious, but unassuming leader; Steven the loving, groom-to-be, pecked-at by his mother; and Nick the quiet, introspective man who loves deer hunting because, he likes "…the trees…the way the trees are".
The recurring theme of hunting with "one shot", which is how Mike prefers to take down a deer, is introduced.
Before the trio ships out, Steven and his girlfriend Angela (Rutanya Alda), who is pregnant by another man, but loved by Steven nonetheless, marry in a Russian Orthodox wedding.
In the meantime, Mike works to control his feelings for Nick's girlfriend Linda (Meryl Streep).
At the wedding reception held at the local VFW hall, the guys drink, dance, sing, and enjoy the festivities, but then notice a soldier in aS.
Army Special Forces uniform.
Mike attempts to ask what Vietnam is like, but the soldier ignores him.
After Mike explains that he, Steven, and Nick are going to Vietnam, the Green Beret raises his glass and says "fuck it".
After being restrained by the others from starting a fight, Mike goes back to the bar and, in a mocking jest to the soldier, raises his glass and toasts him with "fuck it".
The soldier then glances over at Mike and grins.
Later, Steven and Angela drink from conjoined goblets, a traditional part of the Orthodox wedding ceremony.
It is believed that if they drink without spilling any wine, they will have good luck for life.
Two drops of blood-red wine unknowingly spill on her wedding gown.
After Linda catches the bride's bouquet, Nick asks her to marry him, and she agrees.
Later that night, a drunken Mike runs through the town, stripping himself naked along the way.
After Nick chases him down, he begs Mike not to leave him "over there" if anything happens in combat.
The next day, Mike, Nick, Stan, John, and Axel go deer hunting one last time.
Mike is exasperated by his friends, especially Stan, who drinks and clowns, showing little respect for the ritual of hunting, which to Mike is a nearly sacred experience.
Only Nick understands Mike's attitude, but he is more indulgent toward his friends.
Mike goes hunting afterwards and kills a deer with one, clean shot.
Act one finishes with the friends arriving back at Welsh's bar, with Michael's deer strapped to the hood of the car.
They enter rambunctiously, spraying beers over each other and singing loudly.
Welsh then makes his way to a piano and begins playing methodically as the others sit quietly.
They sit in silence, strewn all over the bar, as their friend plays Chopin's Nocturne No.
6 Op.
15-3, a peaceful, yet ominous melody.
The film then jumps abruptly to war-torn Vietnam, whereS.
helicopters attack a Communist-occupied village with napalm.
A North Vietnamese soldier throws a stick grenade into a hiding place full of civilians.
An unconscious Mike (now a Staff Sergeant in theS.
Army Special Forces) wakes up to see the NVA soldier shoot a woman carrying a baby.
Mike kills him with a flame thrower.
Meanwhile, a unit of UH-1 "Huey" helicopters drops off severalS.
infantrymen, Nick and Steven among them.
Mike, Steven, and Nick unexpectedly find each other just before they are captured and held together in a riverside prisoner of war camp with otherS.
Army and ARVN prisoners.
For entertainment, the sadistic guards force their prisoners to play Russian roulette and gamble on the outcome.
All three friends are forced to play.
Steven plays against Mike, who offers moral support, but Steven breaks down and points the gun upwards whilst pulling the trigger, grazing himself with the bullet when it discharges.
As punishment, the guards put him into an underwater cage full of rats and the bodies of others who earlier faced the same fate.
Mike and Nick hatch a plan to escape by playing against each other, with Mike convincing the guards to let them play Russian roulette with three bullets in the gun.
After a tense match, they kill their captors and escape.
Mike earlier argued with Nick about whether or not Steven could be saved, but after killing their captors, he rescues Steven.
The three float downriver on a tree branch.
An American helicopter finds them, but only Nick is able to climb aboard.
The weakened Steven falls back into the water, and Mike plunges in the water to rescue him.
Mike helps Steven to reach the river bank, but Steven's legs are broken, so Mike carries him through the jungle to friendly lines.
Approaching a caravan of locals escaping the war zone, Mike stops a South Vietnamese military truck and places the wounded Steven on it, asking the soldiers to take care of him.
Nick, who is psychologically damaged, recuperates in a military hospital in Saigon with no knowledge on the status of his friends.
After being released, he goes AWOL and aimlessly stumbles through the red-light district at night.
At one point, he encounters Julien Grinda, a champagne-drinking, friendly Frenchman, outside a gambling den where men play Russian roulette for money.
Grinda entices the reluctant Nick to participate and leads him into the den.
Mike is present in the den, watching the game, but the two friends do not notice each other at first.
When Mike does see Nick, he is unable to get his attention.
When Nick is introduced into the game, he grabs the gun, fires it at the current contestant, and then again at his own temple, causing the audience to riot in protest.
Grinda hustles Nick outside to his car to escape the angry mob.
Mike cannot catch up with Nick and Grinda as they speed away.
Back in theS, Mike arrives home but maintains a low profile.
While en route home, he tells a cab driver to drive past the house where all his friends are assembled with a large banner outside, as he is embarrassed by the fuss Linda and the others have made.
He visits Linda the following day and grows close to her, but only because of the friend they both think they have lost.
Mike eventually learns about Angela, whom he goes to visit at the home of Steven's mother.
Angela is apathetic and barely responsive.
When asked by Mike about Steven's whereabouts, she writes a phone number on a scrap of paper, which leads Mike to the local veterans' hospital where Steven has been for several months.
Mike goes hunting with Axel, John, and Stan one more time, and after tracking a deer across the woods, takes his one shot but pulls the rifle up and fires into the air.
He then sits on a rock escarpment and yells out, "OK.
", which echoes back at him from the opposing rock faces leading down to the river, signifying his fight with his mental demons over losing Steven and Nick.
He also berates Stan for carrying around a small revolver and waving it around, not realizing it is still loaded.
Mike visits Steven, who has lost both of his legs and is partially paralyzed.
Steven reveals that someone in Saigon has been mailing large amounts of money to him, and Mike is convinced that it is Nick.
Mike brings a reluctant Steven home to Angela and then travels to Saigon just before its fall in 1975.
He tracks down Grinda, who has made a lot of money from the Russian roulette-playing Nick.
He finds Nick in a crowded gambling club, but Nick appears to have no recollection of his friends or his home in Pennsylvania.
Mike enters himself in a game of Russian roulette against Nick, hoping to jog Nick's memory and persuade him to come home, but Nick's mind is gone.
To keep him from taking another turn, Mike grabs Nick's arms, which are covered in scars (implied to be heroin tracks).
At the last moment, after Mike reminds Nick of their hunting trips together, he finally breaks through, and Nick recognizes Mike and smiles.
Nick then tells Mike, "one shot", raises the gun to his temple, and pulls the trigger.
The round is in the gun's top chamber, and Nick kills himself.
Horrified, Mike tries reviving him, but to no avail.
Back home in 1975, the friends have gathered for Nick's funeral, whom Mike has brought home, staying good to his promise.
The film ends with everyone at John's bar, singing "God Bless America".
Mike toasts in Nick's honor.
<EOS>
Piano player Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is drinking coffee at a roadside diner in Reno, hitchhiking east from California, when a fellow patron plays a song on the jukebox that reminds him of his former life in New York City.
At the time, Al was bitter about squandering his talent working in a cheap nightclub.
After his girlfriend Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake), the nightclub vocalist, leaves to seek fame in Hollywood, he decides to go to California and marry her.
With little money, he is forced to hitchhike his way across the country.
In Arizona, bookie Charles Haskell, Jr.
(Edmund MacDonald) gives Al a ride in his convertible and tells him that he's in luck: he's driving all the way from Florida to Los Angeles to place a bet on a horse.
During the drive, he has Al pass him pills several times.
That night, Al is driving while Haskell sleeps.
When a rainstorm forces Al to pull over to put up the top, he is unable to rouse Haskell.
Al opens the passenger-side door and Haskell falls out, striking his head on a rock.
Al then realizes the bookie is dead.
Fearful that the police will believe he killed Haskell, Al drags the body off the road, takes the dead man's money, clothes, and identification, and drives away.
After spending the night in a California motel, Al decides to drive to an urban area and ditch the car.
At a gas station, he picks up another hitchhiker, Vera (Ann Savage).
After some time, she suddenly asks him what he did with the real owner of the car.
It turns out she had been picked up by Haskell in Louisiana; she scratched him and got out in Arizona after he tried to become too friendly.
Al claims to be Haskell, but she calls his bluff and blackmails him by threatening to turn him in.
She tells him that they should sell the car rather than abandon it.
In Hollywood, they rent an apartment, posing as mr and mrs Haskell to provide an address when they sell the car.
However, Vera learns from a newspaper that Haskell's wealthy father is near death and looking for his son, who ran away as a youth after accidentally injuring his friend.
Vera demands that Al impersonate Haskell as soon as the father dies, but Al balks at this notion, pointing out that he knows next to nothing about either man.
Back at the apartment, Vera gets drunk and they begin arguing.
She threatens to call the police, running into the bedroom with the telephone and locking the door.
She falls into a stupor on the bed with the telephone cord tangled around her neck.
Al pulls on the cord in an effort to break it.
When he finally breaks down the door, he sees that he has accidentally strangled her.
He gives up ever seeing his girlfriend Sue again and returns to hitchhiking instead, imagining his probable future arrest by the police.
<EOS>
Mookie (Spike Lee) is a 25-year-old black man living in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn with his sister, Jade (Joie Lee).
He and his girlfriend Tina (Rosie Perez) have a son.
He's a pizza delivery man at the local pizzeria, but lacks ambition.
Sal (Danny Aiello), the pizzeria's Italian-American owner, has been in the neighborhood for twenty-five years.
His older son Pino (John Turturro) intensely dislikes blacks, and does not get along with Mookie.
Pino is at odds with his younger brother Vito (Richard Edson), who is friendly with Mookie.
The neighborhood is full of distinct personalities, including Da Mayor (Ossie Davis), a friendly local drunk; Mother Sister (Ruby Dee), who watches the neighborhood from her brownstone; Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), who blasts Public Enemy on his boombox wherever he goes; and Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith), a mentally disabled man, who meanders around the neighborhood trying to sell hand-colored pictures of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
While at Sal's, Mookie's trouble-making b-boyish friend, Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), questions Sal about his "Wall of Fame", a wall decorated with photos of famous Italian-Americans.
Buggin' Out demands that Sal put up pictures of black celebrities since Sal's pizzeria is in a black neighborhood.
Sal replies that he doesn't need to feature anyone but Italians as it is his restaurant.
Buggin' Out attempts to start a protest over the Wall of Fame.
Only Radio Raheem and Smiley support him.
During the day, the heat and tensions begin to rise.
The local teenagers open a fire hydrant and douse the street, before police officers intervene.
Mookie and Pino begin arguing over race, which leads to a series of scenes in which the characters spew racial insults into the camera.
Pino and Sal talk about the neighborhood, with Pino expressing his hatred, and Sal insisting that he is not leaving.
Sal almost fires Mookie, but Jade intervenes, before Mookie confronts her for being too close to Sal.
That night, Buggin' Out, Radio Raheem, and Smiley march into Sal's and demand that Sal change the Wall of Fame.
Raheem's boombox is blaring and Sal demands that they turn the radio off, but they refuse.
Buggin' Out calls Sal and sons guineas while saying that they're closing down the pizzeria for good until they change the Wall of Fame.
Sal, in a fit of frustration, tells him he will "tear his nigger ass," then destroys the boombox with a baseball bat.
Raheem attacks Sal, leading to a huge violent fight that spills out into the street, attracting a crowd.
While Radio Raheem is choking Sal, the police arrive.
They break up the fight and apprehend Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out.
Despite the pleas of his fellow officers and the onlookers, one officer refuses to release his chokehold on Raheem, killing him.
Realizing that Raheem has been killed in front of onlookers, the officers place his body in the back of a squad car, and drive off, leaving Sal, Pino, and Vito unprotected.
The onlookers, enraged about Radio Raheem's death, blame Sal and his sons.
Mookie grabs a trash can and throws it through the window of Sal's pizzeria, sparking the crowd to rush into the restaurant and destroy it, with Smiley finally setting it on fire.
Da Mayor pulls Sal, Pino, and Vito out of the mob's way.
Firemen and riot patrols arrive to put out the fire and disperse the crowd.
After police issue a warning, the firefighters turn their hoses on the rioters, leading to more fighting and arrests.
Mookie and Jade sit on the curb, watching in disbelief.
Smiley wanders back into the smoldering building and hangs one of his pictures on what is left of Sal's Wall of Fame.
The next day, after having an argument with Tina, Mookie returns to Sal, who feels that Mookie betrayed him.
Mookie demands his weekly pay, leading to an argument, before they cautiously reconcile, and Sal finally pays him.
Mister Señor Love Daddy (Samuel Jackson), a local DJ, dedicates a song to Raheem.
The film ends with two quotations expressing different views about violence, one from Martin Luther King and one from Malcolm X, before fading to a photograph of them shaking hands.
<EOS>
An incredibly strong ship stoker named Bill (George Bancroft) saves a beautiful prostitute named Mae (Betty Compson) from drowning during his one night of shore leave.
She was attempting suicide as she had no money, almost no clothes and felt remorse about her life up to then.
He steals some clothes for her and invites her out for a "good night".
They go to a bustling wharf pub and that evening they spontaneously get married by a minister invited to the pub.
The next morning Bill must go back to sea.
Mae is disappointed, but he says he was "just having a good time".
He also says he couldn't be serious about staying with her and fulfilling his marriage vows because his job keeps him at sea.
Bill's ship sets out, but before it leaves the city harbor, events help him to decide.
he must not leave her.
Swimming ashore, he goes to the tavern and asks "Where is my Wife.
".
One patron directs him to the local Night Court.
She had been accused of stealing the clothes that he had actually stolen for her.
The judge sentences her to 30 days in jail, then Bill speaks up and says that he had stolen the clothes.
The irritated judge gives him 60 days for theft.
Bill says he will do the time for her; as he is led away, she pledges to "wait forever" for him.
<EOS>
The film features Joan Baez, Donovan and Alan Price (who had just left the Animals), Dylan's manager Albert Grossman and his road manager Bob Neuwirth.
Marianne Faithfull, John Mayall, Ginger Baker, and Allen Ginsberg may also be glimpsed in the background.
The film shows a young Dylan: confident if not arrogant, confrontational and contrary, but also charismatic and charming.
Notable scenes include: Dylan's romance with Baez had pretty much run its course by the time of the tour, and the film candidly captures what amounts to their breakup.
The opening scene of the film also served as a kind of music video for Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues", in which the singer displays and discards a series of cue cards bearing selected words and phrases from the lyrics (including intentional misspellings and puns).
Allen Ginsberg makes a cameo appearance during this episode.
<EOS>
Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), a successful insurance salesman, returns to his office building in downtown Los Angeles late one night.
Visibly in pain and sporting a gunshot wound on his shoulder, he begins dictating a confession into a Dictaphone for his friend and colleague, Barton Keyes (Edward Robinson), a brilliant claims adjuster.
The story, told primarily in flashback, ensues.
Neff first meets the alluring Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) during a routine house call to remind her husband (Tom Powers) that his automobile insurance policy is up for renewal.
They flirt, until Phyllis asks how she could take out an accident policy on her husband's life without his knowledge.
Neff deduces she is contemplating murder, and makes it clear he wants no part of it.
However, he cannot get her out of his mind, and when Phyllis shows up at his own home, he cannot resist her any longer.
Neff knows all the tricks of his trade and devises a plan to make the murder of her husband appear to be an accidental fall from a train that will trigger the "double indemnity" clause and pay out twice the policy's face value.
After Dietrichson breaks his leg, Phyllis drives him to the train station for his trip to Palo Alto for a college reunion.
Neff is hiding in the backseat and kills Dietrichson when Phyllis turns onto a deserted side street.
Then, Neff boards the train posing as Dietrichson and using his crutches.
He makes his way to the last car, the observation car, and steps outside to the open platform to supposedly smoke a cigarette.
A complication ensues when he meets a passenger named Jackson (Porter Hall) there, but he manages to get the man to leave.
Neff then throws the crutches on the railway tracks, jumps off at a prearranged meeting spot with Phyllis, and drags Dietrichson's body onto the tracks by his crutches.
mr Norton (Richard Gaines), the company's chief, believes the death was suicide, but Keyes scoffs at the idea, quoting statistics indicating the improbability of suicide by jumping off a slow-moving train, to Neff's hidden delight.
Keyes does not suspect foul play at first, but his instincts, to which he refers as the "little man", pointing to his stomach, starts nagging.
He wonders why Dietrichson did not file a claim for his broken leg, and deduces he did not know about the policy.
Keyes tells Neff of his theory outside Neff's apartment, while Phyllis hides behind the door.
Keyes soon concludes that Phyllis and some unknown accomplice murdered Dietrichson for the insurance money, but needs more proof.
Keyes, however, is not Neff's only worry.
The victim's daughter, Lola (Jean Heather), comes to him, convinced that stepmother Phyllis is behind her father's death.
Lola's mother also died under suspicious circumstances, when Phyllis was her nurse.
Neff begins seeing Lola, at first to keep her from going to the police with her suspicions and then because he is plagued by guilt and a sense of responsibility for her.
Keyes brings Jackson to Los Angeles.
After examining photographs of Dietrichson, Jackson is sure the man he met was not that old, but at least 15 years younger.
Keyes is eager to reject the claim and force Phyllis to sue.
Neff warns Phyllis not to go to court and admits he has been talking to Lola about her past.
Lola eventually tells him she has discovered her boyfriend, the hotheaded Nino Zachetti (Byron Barr), has been seeing Phyllis behind her (and Neff's) back.
When Keyes informs Neff that he suspects Nino of being Phyllis's accomplice (Nino has been spotted repeatedly visiting Phyllis at night), Neff sees a way out of his predicament.
He arranges to meet Phyllis at her house.
He informs her that he knows about her involvement with Nino, and guesses that she is planning to have the other man kill him.
He tells her that he intends to kill her and put the blame on Nino.
She is prepared, however, and shoots him in the shoulder.
Seriously wounded but still standing, he slowly comes closer and dares her to shoot again.
She does not, and he takes the gun from her.
She says she never loved him "until a minute ago, when I couldn't fire that second shot".
Neff doesn't believe a word she says, and as she hugs him tightly, Neff says, "Goodbye, baby," and shoots twice, killing her.
Outside, Neff waits for Nino to arrive (something Neff had orchestrated).
Neff advises him not to enter the house and instead go to "the woman who truly loves you": Lola.
Nino is reluctantly convinced and leaves as told.
Neff drives to his office and starts speaking into his Dictaphone, as seen at the film's opening.
Keyes arrives unnoticed and hears enough to know the truth.
Keyes sadly tells him, "Walter, you're all washed up".
Neff tells Keyes he is going to Mexico rather than face the gas chamber, but sags to the floor from his injury and blood loss before he can reach the elevator.
A weakened Neff tells Keyes the reason he couldn't figure the case out was because the guy he was looking for was "too close, right across the desk from you".
When Keyes replies "closer than that, Walter".
Neff replies that he loves Keyes too.
As Neff had done lighting Keyes' cigars for him throughout the film, Keyes lights Neff's cigarette as they await the police and an ambulance.
<EOS>
The cartoon's title sequence and opening scene suggest Daffy Duck is to star as a musketeer, who boldly acts out an action scene with a fencing foil.
As he thrusts the foil and advances, the background abruptly disappears, leaving a plain white screen.
Confused by this, Daffy turns to the animator and asks him to complete the scenery.
However, instead of a castle from the original scene, the animator paints a farm scene.
Daffy returns and starts to repeat his musketeer opening, but quickly notices the different background.
He walks off screen and returns dressed as a farmer while singing a version of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", but a few seconds later, the scene segues into a winter backdrop; Daffy changes into winter clothes and skies through the snow (to "Jingle Bells") and into a Hawaiian setting.
Still dutifully, but impatiently, going through the changes, Daffy comes back in Hawaiian garb.
After a couple of bars of "Aloha 'Oe (Farewell To Three)" on ukulele, Daffy ends up back in the plain white background.
While Daffy tries to reason with the animator that cartoons should have scenery, he becomes completely erased and upon asking where he was, is redrawn as a cowboy with a guitar.
Daffy tries to play it but there is nothing but silence.
He requests sound with a sign and is granted with various non-guitar sound effects.
Daffy also finds himself generating random sound effects when he tries to speak, and finally regains his voice when he blows his top and shouts angrily at the animator.
Regaining his composure, Daffy demands some new scenery and is given an amateurish line-art cityscape background in pencil.
Daffy asks for color, prompting the animator to slap various colors and patterns all over him ("NOT ME, YOU SLOP ARTIST.
").
All but Daffy's face is erased and upon asking where the rest of him was, he is redrawn as a bizarre mismatched animal with a "screwball" flag on its tail.
As Daffy walks off (wondering to himself if he wasn't living up to his contract and if he hadn't been keeping himself trim), he becomes suspicious of his new form until the animator creates a mirror and Daffy scolds the animator upon seeing his hideous self ("EEK.
You know better than that.
").
Everything is erased and Daffy is redrawn again, this time as a sailor.
He begins to sing "The Song of the Marines" as the animator draws an ocean scene with an island in the background, but he does not draw anything under Daffy, resulting in him falling into the ocean and surfacing on the distant island where he asks for a closeup, only to have the screen frame contract around him (to which he says "A CLOSEUP, YA JERK.
A CLOSEUP.
"), as the camera then zooms up uncomfortably close to his eyes before he walks away, saying to the animator "Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin".
As Daffy tries once again to negotiate with the animator to have an understanding, the screen frame falls on him.
After failing to keep the frame up with a stick, Daffy goes ballistic and rips apart the black background.
Now at the end of his rope, Daffy demands "Let's get this picture started", so the camera does an iris-out to black, followed by "The End" slide which Daffy frustratingly pushes off camera, screaming "NO, NO.
" as he does so.
Daffy suggests that he and the animator go their separate ways and (hoping, against hope, that nothing further will happen) begins a dance routine which is quickly interrupted when the film runs out of alignment, resulting in two Daffys on the screen.
They argue with each other and almost start a fight, but one Daffy is erased just as the other throws a punch.
The animator then turns Daffy into a pilot and draws him into an airplane.
The duck excitedly flies around until a mountain is drawn in his path.
The plane crashes off-screen, leaving Daffy with nothing but the plane's steering wheel and windshield.
He "bails" out of the plane's remains and floats downward with his parachute which is replaced with an anvil.
Crashing to the ground, a disoriented Daffy hammers the anvil while dizzily reciting "The Village Blacksmith".
The animator changes the anvil into an artillery shell which explodes after a few more hammer strikes.
Daffy finally snaps and angrily demands that the animator reveal themselves.
The animator does, but not until after they draw a door around Daffy and close it on him.
The camera draws back and reveals the guilty party to be Bugs Bunny at a drawing table, who turns around and says to the audience: "Ain't I a stinker.
".
<EOS>
The wealthy mrs Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) insists that Rufus Firefly (Groucho) be appointed leader of the small, bankrupt country of Freedonia before she will continue to provide much-needed financial aid.
Meanwhile, neighboring Sylvania is attempting to annex the country.
Sylvanian ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) tries to foment a revolution and to woo mrs Teasdale, and he tries to dig up dirt on Firefly by sending in spies Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo).
After failing to collect useful information against Firefly, Chicolini and Pinky are able to infiltrate the government when Chicolini is appointed Secretary of War after Firefly sees him selling peanuts outside his window.
Meanwhile, Firefly's secretary, Bob Roland (Zeppo), suspects Trentino's motives, and advises Firefly to get rid of Trentino by insulting him.
Firefly agrees to the plan, but after a series of personal insults exchanged between Firefly and Trentino, the plan backfires when Firefly slaps Trentino instead of being slapped by him.
As a result, the two countries come to the brink of war.
Adding to the international friction is the fact that Firefly is also courting mrs Teasdale, and, like Trentino, hoping to get his hands on her late husband's wealth.
Trentino learns that Freedonia's war plans are in mrs Teasdale's safe and orders Chicolini and Pinky to steal them.
Chicolini is caught by Firefly and put on trial, during which war is officially declared, and everyone is overcome by war frenzy, breaking into song and dance.
The trial put aside, Chicolini and Pinky join Firefly and Bob Roland in anarchic battle, resulting in general mayhem.
The end of the film finds Trentino caught in makeshift stocks, with the Brothers pelting him with fruit.
Trentino surrenders, but Firefly tells him to wait until they run out of fruit.
mrs Teasdale begins singing the Freedonia national anthem in her operatic voice and the Brothers begin hurling fruit at her instead.
In the "mirror scene," Pinky, dressed as Firefly, pretends to be Firefly's reflection in a missing mirror, matching his every move—including absurd ones that begin out of sight—to near perfection.
In one particularly surreal moment, the two men swap positions, and thus the idea of which is a reflection of the other.
Eventually, and to their misfortune, Chicolini, also disguised as Firefly, enters the frame and collides with both of them.
Although its appearance in Duck Soup is the best known instance, the concept of the mirror scene did not originate in this film.
Max Linder included it in Seven Years Bad Luck (1921), where a man's servants have accidentally broken a mirror and attempt to hide the fact by imitating his actions in the mirror's frame.
Charlie Chaplin used a similar joke in The Floorwalker (1916), though it did not involve a mirror.
This scene has been imitated many times; for instance, in the Bugs Bunny cartoon Hare Tonic, the Mickey Mouse cartoon Lonesome Ghosts, The Square Peg (1959), The Pink Panther (1963), and Big Business (1988).
Harpo himself did a reprise of this scene, dressed in his usual costume, with Lucille Ball also donning the fright wig and trench coat, in the I Love Lucy episode "Lucy and Harpo Marx".
The climactic production number ridicules war by comparing nationalism to a minstrel show.
One segment is a variant on the old Negro spiritual "All God's Chillun Got Wings" (and was reportedly considered for deletion for the film's DVD release, for fear of offending African Americans): They got guns, We got guns, All God's chillun got guns.
I'm gonna walk all over the battlefield, 'Cause all God's chillun got guns.
Shortly after, during the final battle scenes, "rightfully [.
] called the funniest of all of cinema", Firefly can be seen wearing a different costume in almost every sequence until the end of the film, including American Civil War uniforms (first Union and then Confederate), a British palace guard uniform, a Boy Scout Scoutmaster's uniform, and even a Davy Crockett coonskin cap.
Meanwhile, the exterior view of the building they are occupying changes appearance from a bunker to an old fort, etc.
Firefly assures his generals that he has "a man out combing the countryside for volunteers".
Sure enough, Pinky is wandering out on the front lines wearing a sandwich board sign reading, "Join the Army and see the Navy".
Later, Chicolini volunteers Pinky to carry a message through enemy lines; Firefly tells him, "[.
] and remember, while you're out there risking life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are".
Thomas Doherty has described this line as "sum[ming] up the Great War cynicism towards all things patriotic".
The melodramatic exclamation "This means war.
" certainly did not originate with Duck Soup, but it is used several times in the film—at least twice by Trentino and once by Firefly—and would be repeated by Groucho in A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.
Variations of this phrase would later become a frequently used catch-phrase for Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny in Warner Bros.
cartoons.
In another scene, the film pokes fun at the Hays Code.
Due to the code, a man and woman could not be shown in bed together.
The camera begins the scene in a woman's bedroom, panning across the foot of the bed.
A pair of men's shoes are shown on the floor, then a pair of women's shoes and then four horseshoes.
The camera cuts to a shot of the entire room: Pinky is sleeping in one bed with the horse, while the woman is in another bed.
The film's writers recycled a joke used in Horse Feathers in this dialogue with Chico: Prosecutor: Chicolini, isn't it true you sold Freedonia's secret war code and plans.
Chicolini: Sure.
I sold a code and two pairs o' plans.
The street vendor confrontations are also well-remembered pieces of physical comedy: Chico and Harpo harass a lemonade seller (comedy film veteran Edgar Kennedy), egged on by his irritation that they have stolen his pitch.
First, there is a scene involving the knocking off, dropping, picking up and exchanging of hats.
Later, Kennedy (a much larger man) steals bags of Harpo's peanuts, and Harpo responds by burning Kennedy's new straw boater hat; in return, Kennedy pushes over their peanut wagon.
Harpo responds by stepping knee-deep into Kennedy's lemonade tank, where he imitates a stereotypical Italian grape-crushing peasant; this drives off Kennedy's waiting line of customers.
Just before the Mirror Scene is the Radio Scene.
Harpo tries the combination to the safe on a box which proves to be a radio, and it starts blaring the break-up strain of John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever".
The music continues despite frantic efforts to silence, and finally destroy, the radio.
Harpo often doffed his hat on-screen, but Chico very rarely removed his Tyrolean hat, even when indoors.
For a few seconds on-screen in the earlier scene, Chico's head is uncovered, revealing a wavy wig.
Chico had already started going bald when the brothers appeared in their first Broadway production, I'll Say She Is, in 1924.
All of the Brothers' natural receding-hairline patterns were similar, but Harpo and Chico covered theirs with wigs (Groucho would later sport an obvious toupee in the films At The Circus and Go West).
<EOS>
In a Californian forest, a group of alien botanists land in a spacecraft, collecting flora samples.
When government agents appear on the scene, they flee in their spaceship, leaving one of their own behind in their haste.
At a suburban home, a ten-year-old boy named Elliott is spending time with his brother, Michael, and his friends.
As he returns from picking up a pizza, he discovers that something is hiding in their tool shed.
The creature promptly flees upon being discovered.
Despite his family's disbelief, Elliott leaves Reese's Pieces candy to lure the creature to his bedroom.
Before he goes to sleep, he realizes it is imitating his movements.
He feigns illness the next morning to stay home from school and play with it.
Later that day, Michael and their five-year-old sister, Gertie, meet it.
They decide to keep it hidden from their mother, Mary.
When they ask it about its origin, it levitates several balls to represent its solar system and then demonstrates its powers by reviving a dead chrysanthemum.
At school the next day, Elliott begins to experience a psychic connection with the alien, including exhibiting signs of intoxication (because it is at his home, drinking beer), and he begins freeing all the frogs in his biology class.
As the alien watches John Wayne kiss Maureen O'Hara in The Quiet Man on TV, Elliott then kisses a girl he likes in the same manner and he is sent to the principal's office.
The alien learns to speak English by repeating what Gertie says as she watches Sesame Street and, at Elliott's urging, dubs itself "ET".
He reads a comic strip where Buck Rogers, stranded, calls for help by building a makeshift communication device and is inspired to try it himselfT.
receives Elliott's help in building a device to "phone home" by using a Speak & Spell toy.
Michael notices thatT.
's health is declining and that Elliott is referring to himself as "we".
On Halloween, Michael and Elliott dressT.
as a ghost so they can sneak him out of the house.
Elliott andT.
ride the former's bike to the forest, whereT.
makes a successful call home.
The next day, Elliott wakes up in the field, only to findT.
gone.
Elliott returns home to his distressed family.
Michael searches for and findsT.
dying next to a culvert, being investigated by a raccoon.
Michael takesT.
home to Elliott, who is also dying.
Mary becomes frightened when she discovers her son's illness and the dying alien, just as government agents invade the house.
Scientists set up a hospital at the house, questioning Michael, Mary and Gertie while treating Elliott andT.
Their link disappears andT.
then appears to die while Elliott recovers.
A grief-stricken Elliott is left alone with the motionlessT.
when he notices a dead chrysanthemum, the plantT.
had previously revived, coming back to lifeT.
reanimates and reveals that his people are returning.
Elliott and Michael steal a van thatT.
had been loaded into and a chase ensues, with Michael's friends joining them as they attempt to evade the authorities by bike.
Suddenly facing a police roadblock, they escape asT.
uses telekinesis to lift them into the air and toward the forest, like he had done for Elliott before.
Standing near the spaceship,T.
's heart glows as he prepares to return home.
Mary, Gertie, and "Keys", a government agent, show upT.
says goodbye to Michael and Gertie, as she presents him with the chrysanthemum that he had revived.
Before boarding the spaceship, he tells Elliott "I'll be right here," pointing his glowing finger to his forehead.
He then picks up the chrysanthemum, boards the spaceship, and it takes off, leaving a rainbow in the sky as everyone watches it leave.
<EOS>
The protagonists are two freewheeling bikers: Wyatt (Fonda), nicknamed "Captain America", and Billy (Hopper).
Wyatt dresses in American flag-adorned leather (with an Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge affixed to it), while Billy dresses in Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bushman hat.
The former is quite open to people they meet on their journey and accepting of help while the latter is more hostile and suspicious.
After&nbsp;smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wyatt and Billy sell their haul to "Connection", a man (played by Phil Spector) in a Rolls-Royce, and receive a large sum in return.
With the money stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes-painted fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper, they ride eastward aiming to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, in time for the Mardi Gras festival.
During their trip Wyatt and Billy stop to repair one of the bikes at a farmstead, and have a meal with the farmer (Warren Finnerty) and his family.
Wyatt seems to appreciate the simple, traditional lifestyle presented here.
Later Wyatt stops to pick up a hippyish hitch-hiker (Luke Askew) and he invites them to visit his commune, where they stay for the rest of the day.
Life in the commune appears to be hard, with young hippies from the city struggling to grow their own crops in a dry climate with poor soil and little rainfall.
At one point, the bikers witness a prayer for blessing of the new crop, as put by a commune-member (Robert Walker Jr): A chance "to make a stand", and to plant "simple food, for our simple taste".
The commune is also hosting a traveling theater group that "sings for its supper" (performs for food).
The notion of "free love" appears to be practised, with two of the women, Lisa (Luana Anders) and Sarah (Sabrina Scharf), seemingly sharing the affections of the hitch-hiking commune-member before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy.
The hitch-hiker asks the two bikers to stay at the commune, saying, "the time is now", to which Wyatt replies "I'm hip about time.
but I just gotta go".
As the bikers leave, the hitch-hiker (known only as "Stranger on highway" in the credits) gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people".
Later, while naughtily riding along with a parade in a small town, the pair are arrested by the local authorities for "parading without a permit" and thrown in jail.
There, they befriend American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and local drunk George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), who has spent the night in jail after overindulging in alcohol.
George helps them get out of jail and decides to travel with Wyatt and Billy to New Orleans.
As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana.
As an alcoholic and a "square", George is reluctant to try the marijuana ("It leads to harder stuff", and "I don't want to get hooked"), but he quickly relents.
Stopping to eat at a smalltown Louisiana diner, the trio's appearance attracts the attention of the locals.
The girls in the restaurant think they're exciting but the local men and a police officer begin making loud and denigrating comments and taunts.
One of the men menacingly states, "I don't believe they'll make the parish line".
The waitress does not take their order and Wyatt, Billy and George, feeling the hostility, decide to leave without any fuss.
They make camp outside town.
The events of the day cause George to comment: "This used to be a hell of a good country.
I can't understand what's gone wrong with it".
He observes that Americans talk a lot about the value of freedom but are actually afraid of anyone who truly exhibits it.
In the middle of the night a group of locals attack the sleeping trio, beating them with clubs.
Billy screams and brandishes a knife and the attackers leave.
Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries but George has been bludgeoned to death.
Wyatt and Billy wrap George's body up in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his parents.
They continue to New Orleans and find a brothel George had told them about.
Taking prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) with them, Wyatt and Billy decide to go outside and wander the parade-filled street of the Mardi Gras celebration.
They end up in a cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD which the hitch-hiker had given to Wyatt.
They experience a bad trip.
Making camp afterward, Billy declares that their trek has been a success.
Wyatt disagrees, declaring, "We blew it".
The next morning, the two are continuing their trip eastward to Florida (where they hope to retire wealthy) when two rednecks in an old pickup truck spot them and decide to "scare the hell out of them" with their shotgun.
As they pull alongside Billy, one of the men lazily aims the shotgun at him and threatens and insults him by saying, "Want me to blow your brains out.
" and "Why don't you get a haircut.
" When Billy casually flips his middle finger up at them, the hillbilly fires the shotgun and the shot hits Billy.
His motorcycle goes down and he lands near the edge of the road, seriously wounded in the side.
As the truck then takes off past Wyatt down the road, Wyatt turns around and races back to put his American flag-emblazoned jacket over his critically injured friend, who is already drenched in blood, before riding off for help.
Seeing the injured biker, the old pickup truck turns around and closes in on Wyatt.
The hillbilly fires at Wyatt as he speeds by, hitting the bike's gas tank and causing it to erupt in a fiery explosion, killing Wyatt instantly.
As the murderous rednecks drive away, the film ends with an aerial shot from a helicopter of the flaming bike in the middle of the deserted road, as the camera recedes into the sky.
<EOS>
The writing team of Nava and Thomas split the story into three parts:  Arturo Xuncax: The first part takes place in a small rural Guatemalan village called San Pedro and introduces the Xuncax family, a group of indigenous Mayans.
Arturo is a coffee picker and his wife a homemaker.
Arturo explains to his son, Enrique, his world view and how the indio fares in Guatemalan life, noting that, "to the rich, the peasant is just a pair of strong arms".
Arturo and his family then discuss the possibility of going to the United States where "all the people, even the poor, own their own cars".
Because of his attempts to form a labor union among the workers, Arturo and the other organizers are attacked and murdered by government troops when a co-worker is bribed to betray them—Arturo's severed head is seen hanging from a tree.
When Enrique attempts to climb the tree that displays his father's head, a soldier attacks him.
Enrique fights and kills the attacker, only to learn that many of their fellow villagers have been rounded up by soldiers.
The children's mother too "disappears": abducted by soldiers.
So, using money given to them by their godmother, Enrique and his sister Rosa decide to flee Guatemala, the land of their birth, and head north.
Coyote: During the second part of the film the two teenagers flee Guatemala, travel through Mexico, and meet a Mexican coyote who guides them across the border.
This section includes various comic scenes relating to mutual stereotyping among different ethnic groups; the two attempt to pass themselves off as indigenous Mexicans, failing to convince one Mexican truck driver after naming the wrong destination, but later succeeding in convincing aS.
Border Patrol officer by copiously peppering their responses with the Mexican word for "fuck", which a neighbor had suggested was how all Mexicans speak.
After their first failed attempt to cross the "frontera", where a man posing as a coyote deceives and attempts to rob them, they have a horrific experience when they finally cross theS.
-Mexican border through a sewer pipe laden with rats; critic Roger Ebert noted: El Norte: In the final part of the film Rosa and Enrique discover the difficulties of living in theS.
without official documentation.
The brother and sister team find work and a place to live and initially feel good about their decision.
However, Rosa nearly is caught up in an immigration raid and must find a new job.
Working as a domestic, she is puzzled when her Anglo employer shows her a washing machine.
Enrique becomes a busboy and, as his English classes begin to improve his command of the language, he is promoted to a position as a waiter's assistant.
He is later approached by a businesswoman who has a better-paying job for him in Chicago as a foreman, which he initially declines; he too encounters problems when a jealous Chicano co-worker reports him to immigration, causing him to flee the restaurant and seek out the businesswoman.
When Enrique finally decides to take the position, Rosa becomes gravely ill with typhus contracted from the rat bites she received during their border crossing.
When this happens, Enrique must make the tough decision of missing the flight to Chicago to be by her side, and thus loses the position.
As Enrique visits the hospital, Rosa laments that she will not live to enjoy the fruits of their harrowing journey to theS.
Rosa sums up the film's major theme when she says to Enrique:  Although Enrique is temporarily employed once again, he is distracted by haunting daydreams about his sister's lost desires for a better life.
The final shot in the film again shows a severed head hanging from a rope, which may be the same image used in Part I of the film; one critic has commented that a hanging, severed head is "a symbolic device used in some Latin films to signify that the character has committed suicide".
<EOS>
Giambattista Basile, an Italian soldier and government official, assembled a set of oral folk tales into a written collection titled Lo cunto de li cunti (The Story of Stories), or Pentamerone.
It included the tale of Cenerentola, which features a wicked stepmother and evil stepsisters, magical transformations, a missing slipper, and a hunt by a monarch for the owner of the slipper.
It was published posthumously in 1634.
Plot: One of the most popular versions of Cinderella was written in French by Charles Perrault in 1697, under the name Cendrillon.
The popularity of his tale was due to his additions to the story, including the pumpkin, the fairy-godmother and the introduction of "glass" slippers.
Plot:  The first moral of the story is that beauty is a treasure, but graciousness is priceless.
Without it, nothing is possible; with it, one can do anything.
However, the second moral of the story mitigates the first one and reveals the criticism that Perrault is aiming at: That "without doubt it is a great advantage to have intelligence, courage, good breeding, and common sense.
These, and similar talents come only from heaven, and it is good to have them.
However, even these may fail to bring you success, without the blessing of a godfather or a godmother".
Another well-known version was recorded by the German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century.
The tale is called "Aschenputtel" ("Cinderella" in English translations).
This version is much more intense than that of Perrault and Disney, in that Cinderella's father did not die and the step sisters cut off their own toes to fit in the golden slipper.
In addition, there is no fairy godmother, but rather help comes from a wishing tree that she planted on her mother's grave.
Plot:  Aschenputtel's relationship with her father in this version is ambiguous; Perrault's version states that the absent father is dominated by his second wife, explaining why he does not prevent the abuse of his daughter.
However, the father in this tale plays an active role in several scenes, and it is not explained why he tolerates the mistreatment of his child.
He also describes Aschenputtel as his "first wife's child" and not his own.
Villains: In some versions, her father plays an active role in the humiliation of his daughter; in others, he is secondary to his new wife, Cinderella's stepmother; in some versions, especially the popular Disney film, Cinderella's father has died and Cinderella's mother has died also.
Although many variants of Cinderella feature the wicked stepmother, the defining trait of type 510A is a female persecutor: in Fair, Brown and Trembling and Finette Cendron, the stepmother does not appear at all, and it is the older sisters who confine her to the kitchen.
In other fairy tales featuring the ball, she was driven from home by the persecutions of her father, usually because he wished to marry her.
Of this type (510B) are Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, All-Kinds-of-Fur, and Allerleirauh, and she slaves in the kitchen because she found a job there.
In Katie Woodencloak, the stepmother drives her from home, and she likewise finds such a job.
In La Cenerentola, Gioachino Rossini inverted the sex roles: Cenerentola is oppressed by her stepfather.
(This makes the opera Aarne-Thompson type 510B) He also made the economic basis for such hostility unusually clear, in that Don Magnifico wishes to make his own daughters' dowries larger, to attract a grander match, which is impossible if he must provide a third dowry.
Folklorists often interpret the hostility between the stepmother and stepdaughter as just such a competition for resources, but seldom does the tale make it clear.
Ball, Ballgown, and Curfew: The number of balls varies, sometimes one, sometimes two, and sometimes three.
The fairy godmother is Perrault's own addition to the tale.
The person who aided Cinderella (Aschenputtel) in the Grimms's version is her dead mother.
Aschenputtel requests her aid by praying at her grave, on which a tree is growing.
Helpful doves roosting in the tree shake down the clothing she needs for the ball.
This motif is found in other variants of the tale as well, such as The Cinder Maid, collected by Joseph Jacobs, and the Finnish The Wonderful Birch.
Playwright James Lapine incorporated this motif into the Cinderella plotline of the musical Into the Woods.
Giambattista Basile's Cenerentola combined them; the Cinderella figure, Zezolla, asks her father to commend her to the Dove of Fairies and ask her to send her something, and she receives a tree that will provide her clothing.
Other variants have her helped by talking animals, as in Katie Woodencloak, Rushen Coatie, Bawang Putih Bawang Merah, The Story of Tam and Cam, or The Sharp Grey Sheep—these animals often having some connection with her dead mother; in The Golden Slipper, a fish aids her after she puts it in water.
In "The Anklet", it's a magical alabaster pot the girl purchased with her own money that brings her the gowns and the anklets she wears to the ball.
Gioachino Rossini, having agreed to do an opera based on Cinderella if he could omit all magical elements, wrote La Cenerentola, in which she was aided by Alidoro, a philosopher and formerly the Prince's tutor.
The midnight curfew is also absent in many versions; Cinderella leaves the ball to get home before her stepmother and stepsisters, or she is simply tired.
In the Grimms' version, Aschenputtel slips away when she is tired, hiding on her father's estate in a tree, and then the pigeon coop, to elude her pursuers; her father tries to catch her by chopping them down, but she escapes.
Furthermore, the gathering need not be a ball; several variants on Cinderella, such as Katie Woodencloak and The Golden Slipper have her attend church.
In the three-ball version, Cinderella keeps a close watch on the time the first two nights and is able to leave without difficulty.
However, on the third (or only) night, she loses track of the time and must flee the castle before her disguise vanishes.
In her haste, she loses a glass slipper which the prince finds—or else the prince has carefully had her exit tarred, so as to catch her, and the slipper is caught in it.
The identifying item: The glass slipper is unique to Charles Perrault's version and its derivatives; in other versions of the tale it may be made of other materials (in the version recorded by the Brothers Grimm, German: Aschenbroedel and Aschenputtel, for instance, it is gold) and in still other tellings, it is not a slipper but an anklet, a ring, or a bracelet that gives the prince the key to Cinderella's identity.
In Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola" ("Cinderella"), the slipper is replaced by twin bracelets to prove her identity.
In the Finnish variant The Wonderful Birch the prince uses tar to gain something every ball, and so has a ring, a circlet, and a pair of slippers.
Interpreters unaware of the value attached to glass in 17th century France and perhaps troubled by sartorial impracticalities, have suggested that Perrault's "glass slipper" (pantoufle de verre) had been a "squirrel fur slipper" (pantoufle de vair) in some unidentified earlier version of the tale, and that Perrault or one of his sources confused the words; however, most scholars believe the glass slipper was a deliberate piece of poetic invention on Perrault's part.
The 1950 Disney adaptation takes advantage of the slipper being made of glass to add a twist whereby the slipper is shattered just before Cinderella has the chance to try it on, leaving her with only the matching slipper with which to prove her identity.
Another interpretation of verre/vair (glass/fur) suggested a sexual element—the Prince was 'trying on' the 'fur slipper' (vagina) of the maidens in the kingdom, as a 'Droit du seigneur' right of sexual possession of his subjects.
The disguised Cinderella's 'fur slipper' was of unique appeal to the Prince who sought her thereafter through sexual congress (a variety of sources including Joan Gould).
The translation of the story into cultures with different standards of beauty has left the significance of Cinderella's shoe size unclear, and resulted in the implausibility of Cinderella's feet being of a unique size for no particular reason.
Humorous retellings of the story sometimes use the twist of having the shoes turn out to also fit somebody completely unsuitable, such as an amorous old crone.
In Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad, the witches accuse another witch of manipulating the events because it was a common shoe size, and she could only ensure that the right woman put it on if she already knew where she was and went straight to her.
In "When the Clock Strikes" (from Red As Blood), Tanith Lee had the sorcerous shoe alter shape whenever a woman tried to put it on, so it would not fit.
The Revelation: Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters (in some versions just the stepsisters and, in some other versions, a stepfather and stepsisters) conspire to win the prince's hand for one of them.
In the German telling, the first stepsister fits into the slipper by cutting off a toe, but the doves in the hazel tree alert the prince to the blood dripping from the slipper, and he returns the false bride to her mother.
The second stepsister fits into the slipper by cutting off her heel, but the same doves give her away.
In many variants of the tale, the prince is told that Cinderella can not possibly be the one, as she is too dirty and ragged.
Often, this is said by the stepmother or stepsisters.
In the Grimms' version, both the stepmother and the father urge it.
The prince nevertheless insists on her trying.
Cinderella arrives and proves her identity by fitting into the slipper or other item (in some cases she has kept the other).
The Conclusion: In the German version of the story, the evil stepsisters are punished for their deception by having their eyes pecked out by birds.
In other versions, they are forgiven, and made ladies-in-waiting with marriages to lesser lords.
In The Thousand Nights and A Night, in a tale called "The Anklet", the stepsisters make a comeback by using twelve magical hairpins to turn the bride into a dove on her wedding night.
In The Wonderful Birch, the stepmother, a witch, manages to substitute her daughter for the true bride after she has given birth.
Such tales continue the fairy tale into what is in effect a second episode.
In an episode of Jim Henson's The Storyteller, writer Anthony Minghella merged the old folk tale Donkeyskin (also written by Perrault) with Cinderella to tell the tale of Sapsorrow, a girl both cursed and blessed by destiny.
Many popular new works based on the story feature one step-sister who is not as cruel to Cinderella as the other.
Examples are the film Ever After, Cinderella 3 and the Broadway revival.
Ever After (known in promotional material as Ever After: A Cinderella Story) is a 1998 American romantic comedy-drama film inspired by the fairy tale Cinderella, directed by Andy Tennant and starring Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, and Dougray Scott.
The usual pantomime and comic/supernatural elements are removed and the story is instead treated as historical fiction, set in Renaissance-era France.
It is often seen as a modern, post-feminism interpretation of the Cinderella myth.
There is also Gregory Maguire's novel Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, which gives the classic story from the view of one of the ugly stepsisters.
In this version, the Cinderella character is unusually beautiful, but also a shy enigma.
Her stepsister, though plain, is charming and intelligent.
The novel has themes much more adult than the traditional story.
Likewise there is a Marissa Meyer novel Cinder, which is set in a futuristic Beijing.
The Cinderella character, named Cinder, is a cyborg mechanic, who meets Prince Kaito.
Gail Carson Levine wrote Ella Enchanted, a story about how "Ella" is under a fairy curse of obedience (she does whatever someone tells her to).
A movie also has been made based on this book.
In 1982, Roald Dahl rewrote the story in a more modern and gruesome way in his book Revolting Rhymes.
In his book dr Gardner's Fairy Tales for Today's Children, dr Richard Gardener's story "Cinderelma" has the heroine Cinderelma and the prince re-unite, then mutually decide to separate.
Cinderelma then gets a job as a seamstress, later opens her own dress shop, and marries a young printer who owns the shop next door to hers.
In 1995, Richard Conlon's play Anastasia and Drizella was produced at Chicago's Temporary Theatre.
In it, Cinderella's step sister Anastasia gets a master's degree in finance, and her step sister Drizella gets a master's degree in chemical engineering.
When the prince tries to have Cinderella's step family beheaded, Anastasia buys the kingdom.
The prince and Cinderella get married, and spend the rest of their lives working as servants for Cinderella's step family, while the step sisters live happily ever after.
In the 2005 picture book Ella's Big Chance by Shirley Hughes, Ella is a dressmaker in her father's shop, and when the stepsisters arrive they appoint themselves as models.
Ella eventually chooses to marry Buttons, an employee in the shop, instead of the prince.
In Emily Short's 2006 interactive fiction short story Glass, it is Cinderella herself who has magical powers, and neither her stepmother nor her stepsisters are malicious.
The royal ambitions of the stepmother plays a small part in their attempt to deceive the prince, but more importantly they are trying to protect Cinderella from the law of the land, under which practicing magic is punishable by death.
In 2014, Bad Wolf Press published a musical version called Cinderella: A Modern Makeover, a fractured interpretation of the story featuring a more positive "blended family" home life as well as a heroine trying to get her dream job at the palace instead of a marriage proposal.
Also in 2014, Rae Magdon published an unusual retelling of the story in a novel titled The Second Sister, in which the protagonist, Ellie, is somewhat forced into stopping one of her step-sisters from enchanting the Prince and take over the entire Kingdom.
In order to do this, she receives the help of a shy maid, a friendly cook, a talking cat, and her mysterious second sister.
Anne Sexton wrote an adaptation as a poem called "Cinderella" in her collection Transformations (1971), a book in which she re-envisions sixteen of the Grimm's Fairy tales.
The Throne of Glass series, written by Sarah Maas, is inspired by the story of Cinderella.
Bridget Hodder has written The Rat Prince, a middle grade novel telling the Cinderella story from the point of view of one of Cinderella's rodent friends.
FSG/MacMillan is publishing the book August 23, 2016.
<EOS>
Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) works in a California oil field (shot in and around the city of Taft in the San Joaquin Valley) with his friend Elton (Billy "Green" Bush), who has a wife and baby son.
Bobby spends most of his time with his waitress girlfriend, Rayette (Karen Black), who has dreams of singing country music, or in the company of Elton, with whom he bowls, gets drunk, and has sex with other women.
Bobby has evidently not told Elton that he is a former classical pianist who comes from an upper-class family of musicians.
Rayette gets pregnant and Elton is arrested for having robbed a gas station a year earlier.
Bobby quits his job and leaves for Los Angeles where his sister, Partita (Lois Smith), also a pianist, is making a recording.
Partita informs him that their father, from whom Bobby is estranged, has suffered two strokes.
She urges Bobby to return to the family home in Washington state, to visit their father.
Rayette threatens to kill herself if Bobby leaves her, so he reluctantly asks her along.
Driving north, they pick up two women headed for Alaska, one of whom is obsessed with "filth".
The four of them are thrown out of a restaurant when Bobby gets into an argument with a waitress who refuses to accommodate his special order.
Reaching his destination, Bobby, embarrassed by Rayette's lack of polish, registers her in a motel before proceeding to his family home on an island in Puget Sound.
He finds Partita giving their father a haircut, but the old man seems completely oblivious to him.
At dinner, Bobby meets Catherine Van Oost (Susan Anspach), a young pianist engaged to his brother, Carl (Ralph Waite), a violinist.
Despite personality differences, Catherine and Bobby are immediately attracted to one another and make love in her room.
Rayette runs out of money at the motel and comes to the Dupea estate unannounced.
Her presence creates an awkward situation, but when Samia, a pompous family friend, ridicules her, Bobby comes to her defense.
Storming from the room in search of Catherine, he discovers his father's male nurse giving Partita a massage.
Now more agitated, he picks a senseless fight with the nurse, who knocks him to the floor.
Bobby tries to persuade Catherine to go away with him, but she declines, believing he does not love himself, or indeed anything at all.
After trying to talk to his unresponsive father, Bobby leaves with Rayette, who makes a playful sexual advance that he angrily rejects.
When Rayette goes in for some coffee at a gas station, he gives her his wallet and then abandons her, hitching a ride on a truck headed north.
<EOS>
Chester Kent (James Cagney) replaces his failing career as a director of Broadway musicals with a new one as the creator of musical numbers called "prologues", short live stage productions presented in movie theaters before the main feature is shown.
He faces pressure from his business partners to constantly create a large number of marketable prologues to service theaters throughout the country, but his job is made harder by a rival who is stealing his ideas, probably with assistance from someone working inside his company.
Kent is so overwhelmed with work that he doesn't realize that his secretary, Nan (Joan Blondell), has fallen in love with him, and is doing her best to protect him as well as his interests.
Kent's business partners announce that they have a big deal pending with the Apolinaris theater circuit, but getting the contract depends on Kent impressing mr Apolinaris (Paul Porcasi) with three spectacular prologues, presented on the same night, one after another at three different theatres.
Kent locks himself and his staff in the offices to prevent espionage leaks while they choreograph and rehearse the three production numbers.
Kent then stages "Honeymoon Hotel", "By a Waterfall", featuring the famous 'Human Waterfall', and "Shanghai Lil", featuring Cagney and Ruby Keeler dancing together.
<EOS>
The drama tells of a lawyer, Joe Morse (Garfield), working for a powerful gangster, Tucker, who wishes to consolidate and control the numbers racket in New York.
This means assuming control of the many smaller numbers rackets, one of which is run by Morse’s older brother Leo Morse (Thomas Gomez).
The plot which unfolds is a terse, melodramatic thriller notable for realist location photography, almost poetic dialogue and frequent biblical allusions (Cain and Abel, Judas's betrayal, stigmata).
<EOS>
In a European village, a young scientist, named Henry Frankenstein, and his assistant Fritz, a hunchback, piece together a human body, the parts of which have been collected from various sources.
Frankenstein desires to create human life through electrical devices which he has perfected.
Elizabeth, his fiancée, is worried over his peculiar actions.
She cannot understand why he secludes himself in an abandoned watch tower, which he has equipped as a laboratory, refusing to see anyone.
She and a friend, Victor Moritz, go to dr Waldman, Henry's old medical professor, and ask Waldman's help in reclaiming the young scientist from his experiments.
Waldman tells them that Frankenstein has been working on creating life.
Elizabeth, intent on rescuing Frankenstein, arrives just as Henry is making his final tests.
He tells them to watch, claiming to have discovered the ray that brought life into the world.
They watch Frankenstein and the hunchback as they raise the dead creature on an operating table, high into the room, toward an opening at the top of the laboratory.
Then a terrific crash of thunder, the crackling of Frankenstein's electric machines, and the hand of Frankenstein's monster begins to move, prompting Frankenstein to shout 'It's alive.
'.
Through the incompetence of Fritz, a criminal brain was secured for Frankenstein's experiments instead of the desired normal one.
The manufactured monster, despite its grotesque form, initially appears to be a simple, innocent creation.
Frankenstein welcomes it into his laboratory and asks his creation to sit, which it does.
He then opens up the roof, causing the monster to reach out towards the sunlight.
Fritz enters with a flaming torch, which frightens the monster.
Its fright is mistaken by Frankenstein and Waldman as an attempt to attack them, and it is chained in the dungeon.
Thinking that it is not fit for society and will wreak havoc at any chance, they leave the monster locked up, where Fritz antagonizes it with a torch.
As Henry and Waldman consider the monster's fate, they hear a shriek from the dungeon.
Frankenstein and Waldman find the monster has strangled Fritz.
The monster lunges at the two but they escape, locking the monster inside.
Realizing that the creature must be destroyed, Henry prepares an injection of a powerful drug and the two conspire to release the monster and inject it as it attacks.
When the door is unlocked the creature lunges at Frankenstein as Waldman injects the drug into the creature's back.
The monster falls to the floor unconscious.
Henry leaves to prepare for his wedding while Waldman examines the creature.
As he is preparing to dissect it, the creature awakens and strangles him.
It escapes from the tower and wanders through the landscape.
It has a short encounter with a farmer's young daughter, Maria, who asks him to play a game with her in which they toss flowers into a lake and watch them float.
The monster enjoys the game, but when they run out of flowers the monster thinks Maria will float as well, so he throws her into the lake where, to his puzzlement, she drowns.
Upset by this outcome, the monster runs away.
With preparations for the wedding completed, Frankenstein is serenely happy with Elizabeth.
They are to marry as soon as Waldman arrives.
Victor rushes in, saying that the Doctor has been found strangled in his operating room.
Frankenstein suspects the monster.
A chilling scream convinces him that the monster is in the house.
When the searchers arrive, they find Elizabeth unconscious on the bed.
The monster has escaped.
Maria's father arrives, carrying his daughter's body.
He says she was murdered, and a band of peasants form a search party to capture the monster, and bring it to justice.
In order to search the whole country for the monster, they split into three groups: Ludwig leads the first group into the woods, Frankenstein leads the second group into the mountains, and the Burgomaster leads the third group by the lake.
During the search, Frankenstein becomes separated from the group and is discovered by the monster, who attacks him.
The monster knocks Frankenstein unconscious and carries him off to an old mill.
The peasants hear his cries and they regroup to follow.
They find the monster has climbed to the top, dragging Frankenstein with him.
The monster hurls the scientist to the ground.
His fall is broken by the vanes of the windmill, saving his life.
Some of the villagers hurry him to his home while the rest of the mob set the windmill ablaze, killing the entrapped monster inside.
At Castle Frankenstein, Frankenstein's father, Baron Frankenstein celebrates the wedding of his recovered son with a toast to a future grandchild.
<EOS>
The film opens with a sideshow barker drawing customers to visit the sideshow.
A woman looks into a box to view a hidden occupant and screams.
The barker explains that the horror in the box was once a beautiful and talented trapeze artist.
The central story is of this conniving trapeze artist Cleopatra, who seduces and marries sideshow midget Hans after learning of his large inheritance.
Cleopatra conspires with circus strongman Hercules to kill Hans and inherit his wealth.
At their wedding reception, Cleopatra begins poisoning Hans' wine.
Oblivious, the other "freaks" announce that they accept Cleopatra in spite of her being a "normal" outsider: they hold an initiation ceremony in which they pass a massive goblet of wine around the table while chanting, "We accept her, we accept her.
One of us, one of us.
Gooba-gobble, gooba-gobble".
The ceremony frightens the drunken Cleopatra, who accidentally reveals that she has been having an affair with Hercules.
She mocks the freaks, tosses the wine in their faces and drives them away.
The humiliated Hans realizes that he has been played for a fool and rejects Cleopatra's attempts to apologize, but then he falls ill from the poison.
While bedridden, Hans pretends to apologize to Cleopatra and also pretends to take the poisoned medicine that she is giving him, but he secretly plots with the other freaks to strike back at Cleopatra and Hercules.
In the film's climax, the freaks attack the evil pair during a storm, wielding guns, knives and other sharp-edged weapons.
Hercules is not seen again (the film's original ending had the freaks castrating him: the audience sees him later singing in falsetto).
As for Cleopatra, she has become a grotesque, squawking "human duck".
The flesh of her hands has been melted and deformed to look like duck feet, her legs have been cut off and what is left of her torso has been permanently tarred and feathered.
She is the opening scene's cause for alarm.
In a final scene MGM inserted later for a happier ending, Hans is living a millionaire's life in a mansion.
Venus and her clown boyfriend Phroso visit, bringing Frieda, to whom Hans had been engaged before meeting Cleopatra.
Hans refuses to see them, but they force their way past his servant.
Frieda assures Hans that she knows he tried to stop the others from exacting revenge.
Phroso and Venus leave as Frieda comforts Hans when he starts to cry.
Interspersed between segments of the main narrative are a variety of "slice of life" segments detailing the lives of the sideshow performers.
<EOS>
En route to meet his fiancée, Katherine Grant (Sylvia Sidney), gas station owner Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy) is arrested on flimsy circumstantial evidence for the kidnapping of a child.
Gossip soon travels around the small town, growing more distorted through each retelling, until a mob gathers at the jail.
When the resolute sheriff (Edward Ellis) refuses to give up his prisoner, the enraged townspeople burn down the building, two of them also throwing dynamite into the flames as they flee the scene.
Unknown to anyone else there, the blast frees Wilson, but kills his little dog Rainbow, who had run in to comfort him in the cell.
The district attorney (Walter Abel) brings the main perpetrators to trial for murder, but nobody is willing to identify the guilty, and several provide false alibis.
The case seems hopeless, but then the prosecutor produces hard evidence: newsreel footage of twenty-two people caught in the act.
However, Katherine is troubled by one piece of evidence.
The defense attorney had tried to get his clients off by claiming that there was no proof Joe was killed, but an anonymous letter writer had returned a partially melted ring belonging to Joe.
Katherine notices that a word is misspelled just as Joe used to spell it.
She discovers that Joe escaped the fire and that Joe's brothers are helping him get his revenge by concealing his survival and framing the defendants for his murder.
She goes to see Joe and pleads with him to stop the charade, but he is determined to make his would-be killers pay.
However, his conscience starts preying on him and, in the end, just as the verdicts are being read, he walks into the courtroom and sets things straight.
<EOS>
The story begins with the reminiscences of Leo Colston, an elderly man looking back on his childhood with nostalgia.
Leo, in his mid-sixties, is looking through his old things.
He chances upon a battered old red collar box.
In it he finds a diary from 1900, the year of his thirteenth birthday.
He slowly pieces together his memory as he looks through the diary.
Impressed by the astrological emblems at the front of the book, young Leo combines them in his mind with the idea that he is living at the turn of the 20th century.
The importance of his boarding school's social rules is another theme.
Some of the rougher boys steal his diary, reading and defacing it.
The two oldest bullies, Jenkins and Strode, beat him at every opportunity.
He devises some "curses" for them in the pages of the book, using occult symbols and Greek letters, and placing the book where they will find it.
Subsequently both boys venture onto the roof of one of the school buildings, fall off and are severely injured.
This leaves him greatly admired by the other boys, who think that he is a magician something that he comes to half-believe himself.
The greater portion of the text concerns itself with Leo's past, particularly the summer of 1900, spent in Norfolk, England, as a guest at Brandham Hall, the luxurious country home of his schoolfriend Marcus Maudsley.
Here the young Leo, on holiday from boarding school, is a poor boy among the wealthy upper class.
Leo's comparatively humble background is obvious to all and he does not really fit in there; however, his hosts do their best to make him feel welcome, treating him with kindness and indulgence.
When Marcus falls ill, Leo is left largely to his own devices.
He becomes a secret "go-between" for Marian Maudsley, the daughter of the host family, and nearby tenant farmer Ted Burgess.
At first, Leo is happy to help Marian because she is kind to him and he has a crush on her.
Besides, Leo is initially ignorant of the significance or content of the messages that he is asked to carry between Ted and Marian.
Leo is a well-meaning and innocent boy, so it is easy for the lovers to manipulate him.
The fact that Ted comes from a much lower social class than Marian means there can be no possible future in the relationship because of the social taboos involved.
Although Marian and Ted are fully aware of this, Leo is too naïve to understand why the lovers can never marry.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that Marian is about to become engaged to Hugh, Viscount Trimingham, the descendant of the area's nobility who formerly resided in Brandham Hall.
Together, these factors make Marian's secret relationship with Ted highly dangerous for all parties concerned.
Later, Leo acts as an interceptor, and occasional editor, of the messages.
Eventually, he begins to comprehend the sexual nature of the relationship between Marian and Ted, and feels increasingly uncomfortable about the general atmosphere of deception and risk.
Leo tries to end his role as go-between, but comes under great psychological pressure and is forced to continue.
Ultimately, Leo's involvement as messenger between the lovers has disastrous consequences.
The trauma which results when Marian's family discover what is going on leads directly to Ted's shotgun suicide.
In the epilogue the older Leo tells the reader the consequences of this summer.
The experience profoundly affects Leo, leaving him with permanent psychological scars.
Forbidden to speak about the scandal, he feels he must not think of it either; and since nearly everything reminds him of it, he shuts down his emotions, leaving room only for facts.
He subsequently grows up to be an emotionally detached adult who is never able to establish intimate relationships.
He succeeds in repressing the memories until the diary unlocks them.
Now looking back on the events through the eyes of a mature adult, he is fully aware of how the incident has left its mark on him.
In a final twist to the story, 52 years later, Leo returns to Brandham.
There he meets Marian's grandson and finds Marian herself living in a cottage, the place she used to tell people she was going for her clandestine meetings with Ted.
Brandham Hall has been let out to a girls' school.
Lord Trimingham married Marian, but died in 1910, while Marcus and his brother were killed in the First World War.
In the end, an elderly Marian Maudsley persuades Leo to act once more as go-between, to assure her grandson that she really loved Burgess.
<EOS>
Set in Glendale, California, in the 1930s, the book is the story of a middle-class housewife, Mildred Pierce, and her attempts to maintain her family's social position during the Great Depression.
Mildred separates from Bert, her unemployed husband, and sets out to support herself and her children.
After a difficult search she finds a job as a waitress, but she worries that it is beneath her middle-class station.
More than that, she worries that her ambitious and increasingly pretentious elder daughter, Veda, will think her new job demeaning.
Mildred encounters both success and failure as she opens three successful restaurants, operates a pie-selling business and copes with the death of her younger daughter, Ray.
Veda enjoys her mother's newfound financial success but increasingly turns ungrateful, demanding more and more from her hard-working mother while openly condemning her and anyone who must work for a living.
When Mildred discovers her daughter's plot to blackmail a wealthy family with a fake pregnancy, she kicks her out of their house.
Veda, who has been training to become an opera singer, goes on to great fame, and Mildred's increasing obsession with her daughter leads her to use her former lover, Monty (a man who, like Mildred, lost his family's wealth at the start of the Great Depression), and his social status and connection to bring Veda back into her life.
Unfortunately for Mildred, this means buying Monty's family estate and using her earnings to pay for Veda's extravagances.
Mildred and Monty marry, but things go sour as her lavish lifestyle and neglect of her businesses has dramatically affected the company's profits.
Creditors line up, led by Wally, a former business associate of Bert's, with whom Mildred had a brief affair upon their separation.
With no one to turn to, Mildred confesses to Bert that she has been embezzling money from her company in order to buy Veda's love.
Having decided that the only course of action is to ask Veda to contribute some of her now considerable earnings to balance the books and fearing that Wally might target the girl's assets if they are exposed Mildred goes to her room to confront her.
She finds Veda in bed with her stepfather.
Monty reproaches Mildred for using him to bring Veda back and for her attitude to him as a financial dependent of hers, while Veda affects boredom but joins in to chide Mildred for embarrassing her and taking glory in her success.
Mildred snaps, brutally attacking and strangling her daughter, who now appears incapable of singing and loses her singing contract.
Weeks pass as Mildred moves to Reno, Nevada, to establish residency in order to get a speedy divorce from Monty.
Bert moves out to visit her.
Mildred ultimately is forced to resign from her business empire, leaving it to Ida, a former company assistant.
Bert and Mildred, upon the finalization of her divorce, remarry.
Veda travels to Reno and apparently reconciles with Mildred but, several months later, Veda reveals that her voice has healed and announces that she is moving to New York City with Monty.
The "reconciliation" (which had been accompanied by reporters and photographers) was designed to defuse the negative publicity resulting from the affair with her stepfather and it emerges her apparent loss of her voice was a ploy so that she could renege on her existing singing contract and be free to take up a more lucrative one offered by another company.
As she leaves the house, a broken Mildred, encouraged by Bert, eventually says "to hell" with the monstrous Veda, and the pair agree to get "stinko" (drunk).
<EOS>
Ben is a witty, charismatic serial killer who holds forth at length about whatever comes to mind, be it the "craft" of murder, the failings of architecture, his own poetry, or classical music, which he plays with his girlfriend.
A film crew joins him on his sadistic adventures, recording them for a fly on the wall documentary.
Ben takes them to meet his family and friends while boasting of murdering many people at random and dumping their bodies in canals and quarries.
The viewer witnesses these grisly killings in graphic detail.
Ben ventures into apartment buildings, explaining how it is more cost-effective to attack old people than young couples because the former have more cash at home and are easier to kill.
In a following scene, he screams wildly at an elderly lady, causing her to have a heart attack.
As she lies dying, he casually remarks that this method saved him a bullet.
Ben continues his candid explanations and appalling rampage, shooting, strangling, and beating to death anyone who comes his way: women (he is profoundly misogynistic), immigrants (he is a racist xenophobe), and postmen (his favorite targets).
The camera crew becomes more and more involved in the murders, first as accomplices but eventually taking an active part in them.
When Ben invades a home and kills an entire family, they help him hold down a young boy and smother him.
They meet a competing camera crew and take turns shooting the three men.
During filming, two of Ben's crew are killed; their deaths are later called "occupational hazards" by a crew member.
When Ben takes a couple hostage in their own home, he holds the man at gunpoint while he and the crew gang-rape the woman.
The following morning, the camera dispassionately records the aftermath: the woman has been butchered with a knife, her entrails spilling out, and the man has been shot to death.
Ben's violence becomes more and more random until he kills an acquaintance in front of his girlfriend and friends during a birthday dinner.
Spattered with blood, they act as though nothing horrible has happened, continuing to offer Ben presents.
The film crew disposes of the body for Ben.
After a victim flees before he can be killed, Ben is arrested, but he escapes.
At this point someone starts taking revenge on him and his family.
Ben discovers that his parents have been killed, along with his girlfriend: a flautist, she has been murdered in a particularly humiliating manner, with her flute inserted into her anus.
This prompts Ben to decide that he must leave.
He meets the camera crew to say farewell, but in the middle of reciting a poem he is abruptly shot dead by an off-camera gunman.
The camera crew is then picked off one by one.
After the camera falls, it keeps running, and the film ends with the death of the fleeing sound recordist.
<EOS>
Dickens divided the book into five chapters, which he labelled "staves".
The story begins on a cold and bleak Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley.
Scrooge, an old miser, hates Christmas and refuses an invitation to Christmas dinner from his nephew Fred.
He turns away two men who seek a donation from him in order to provide food and heating for the poor, and only grudgingly allows his overworked, underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off with pay to conform to the social custom.
At home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth, entwined by heavy chains and money boxes, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness.
Marley tells Scrooge that he has one chance to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits and he must listen to them or be cursed to carry chains of his own, much longer than Marley's chains.
The first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of Scrooge's boyhood and youth, reminding him of a time when he was more innocent.
The boyhood scenes portray Scrooge's lonely childhood, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan, and a Christmas party hosted by his first employer, mr Fezziwig, who treated Scrooge like a son.
They also portray Scrooge's neglected fiancée Belle, who ends their relationship after she realises that Scrooge will never love her as much as he loves money.
Finally, they visit a now-married Belle with her large, happy family on a recent Christmas Eve.
The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to a joy-filled market of people buying the makings of Christmas dinner and celebrations of Christmas in a miner's cottage and in a lighthouse.
Scrooge and the ghost also visit Fred's Christmas party.
A major part of this stave is taken up with Bob Cratchit's family feast and introduces his youngest son, Tiny Tim, a happy boy who is seriously ill.
The spirit informs Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die soon unless the course of events changes.
Before disappearing, the spirit shows Scrooge two hideous, emaciated children named Ignorance and Want.
He tells Scrooge to beware the former above all and mocks Scrooge's concern for their welfare.
The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge a Christmas Day in the future.
The ghost shows him scenes involving the death of a disliked man.
The man's funeral will only be attended by local businessmen if lunch is provided.
His charwoman, his laundress, and the local undertaker steal some of his possessions and sell them to a fence.
When Scrooge asks the ghost to show anyone who feels any emotion over the man's death, the ghost can only show him the pleasure of a poor couple in debt to the man, rejoicing that his death gives them more time to put their finances in order.
After Scrooge asks to see some tenderness connected with any death, the ghost shows him Bob Cratchit and his family mourning the passing of Tiny Tim.
The ghost then shows Scrooge the man's neglected grave, whose tombstone bears Scrooge's name.
Sobbing, Scrooge pledges to the ghost that he will change his ways to avoid this outcome.
Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning a changed man.
He spends the day with Fred's family and anonymously sends a large turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner.
The following day, he gives Cratchit a pay increase and becomes like another father to Tiny Tim.
From then on Scrooge began to treat everyone with kindness, generosity and compassion, embodying the spirit of Christmas.
<EOS>
In 1958, during his son's First Communion party at Lake Tahoe, Michael Corleone has a series of meetings in his role as the Don of his crime family.
Corleone caporegime Frank Pentangeli is dismayed that Michael will not help him defend his Brooklyn territory against the Rosato brothers, who work for Michael's business partner Hyman Roth.
That night, Michael leaves Nevada after surviving an assassination attempt at his home.
Michael suspects Roth of planning the assassination, but meets with him in Miami and feigns ignorance.
In New York, Pentangeli attempts to maintain Michael's façade by making peace with the Rosato family but they attempt to kill him.
Roth, Michael, and several of their partners travel to Havana to discuss their future Cuban business prospects under the cooperative government of Fulgencio Batista; Michael becomes reluctant after reconsidering the viability of the ongoing Cuban Revolution.
On New Year's Eve, he tries to have Roth and Roth's right-hand man Johnny Ola killed, but Roth survives when Michael's bodyguard is discovered and shot by police.
Michael accuses his brother Fredo of betrayal after Fredo inadvertently reveals that he'd met with Ola previously.
Batista abruptly abdicates due to rebel advances; during the ensuing chaos, Michael, Fredo, and Roth separately escape to the United States.
Back home, Michael learns that his wife Kay has miscarried.
In Washington,C, a Senate committee on organized crime is investigating the Corleone family.
Having survived the earlier attempt on his life, Pentangeli agrees to testify against Michael, who he believes had double-crossed him, and is placed under witness protection.
Fredo is returned to Nevada, where he privately explains himself to Michael: resentful at being passed over to head the family, he helped Roth in expectation of something in return—unaware, he claims, of the plot on Michael's life.
Michael responds by disowning Fredo.
Unable to get to the heavily-guarded Pentangeli, Michael instead brings Pentangeli's Sicilian brother to the hearing.
On seeing his brother, Pentangeli denies his previous statements, and the hearing dissolves in an uproar.
Afterwards, Kay reveals to Michael that her miscarriage was actually an abortion, and that she intends to take their children away from Michael's criminal life.
Outraged, Michael takes custody of the children and banishes Kay from the family.
Carmela Corleone dies.
At the funeral, Michael appears to forgive Fredo but later orders caporegime Al Neri to assassinate him out on the lake.
Roth is refused asylum and even entry to Israel and is forced to return to the United States.
Over the dissent of consigliere Tom Hagen, Michael sends caporegime Rocco Lampone to intercept and shoot Roth on arrival.
Rocco, however, is shot dead by federal agents after completing his mission.
At the witness protection compound, Hagen reminds Pentangeli that failed plotters against the Roman Emperor often committed suicide and assures him that his family will be cared for.
Pentangeli later slits his wrists in his bathtub.
Michael sits alone by the lake at the family compound.
<EOS>
The following is the plot of the 1942 re-release:  Big Jim, a gold prospector during the Klondike Gold Rush, has just found an enormous gold deposit on his parcel of land when a blizzard strikes.
The Lone Prospector gets lost in the same blizzard while also prospecting for gold.
He stumbles into the cabin of Black Larsen, a wanted criminal.
Larsen tries to throw him out when Jim also stumbles inside.
Larsen tries to scare both out using his shotgun but is overpowered by Jim, and the three agree to an uneasy truce where they all can stay in the cabin.
When the storm is taking so long that food is running out, the three draw lots for who will have to go out into the blizzard to obtain some more.
Larsen loses and leaves the cabin.
While outside looking for food, he encounters Jim's gold deposit and decides to ambush him there when Jim returns.
Meanwhile, the two remaining in the cabin get so desperate that they cook and eat one of the Prospector's shoes.
Later, Jim gets delirious, imagines the Prospector as a giant chicken and attacks him.
At that moment, a bear enters the cabin and is killed, supplying them with food.
After the storm subsides, both leave the cabin, the Prospector continuing on to the next gold boom town while Jim returns to his gold deposit.
There, he is knocked out by Larsen with a shovel.
While fleeing with some of the mined gold, Larsen is swept to his death in an avalanche.
Jim recovers consciousness and wanders into the snow, but he has lost his memory from the blow.
When he returns to the town, his memory has been partly restored and he remembers that he had found a large gold deposit, that the deposit was close to a certain cabin and that he had stayed in the cabin with the Prospector.
But he knows neither the location of the deposit nor of the cabin.
So, he goes looking for the Prospector, hoping that he still knows the location of the cabin.
The Prospector arrives at the town and encounters Georgia, a dance hall girl.
To irritate Jack, a ladies' man who is making aggressive advances toward her and pestering her for a dance, she instead decides to dance with "the most deplorable looking tramp in the dance hall", the Prospector, who instantly falls in love with her.
After encountering each other again, she accepts his invitation for a New Year's Eve dinner, but does not take it seriously and soon forgets about it.
While waiting for her to arrive to the dinner, the Prospector imagines entertaining her with a dance of bread rolls on forks.
When she does not arrive until midnight, he walks alone through the streets, desperate.
At that moment, she remembers his invitation and decides to visit him.
Finding his home empty but seeing the meticulously prepared dinner and a present for her, she has a change of heart and prepares a note for him in which she asks to talk to him.
When the Prospector is handed the note, he goes searching for Georgia.
But at the same moment, Jim finds him and drags him away to go search for the cabin, giving the Prospector only enough time to shout to Georgia that he soon will return to her as a millionaire.
Jim and the Prospector find the cabin and stay for the night.
Overnight, another blizzard blows the cabin half over a cliff right next to Jim's gold deposit.
The next morning the cabin rocks dangerously over the cliff edge while the two try to escape.
At last Jim manages to get out and pull the Prospector to safety right when the cabin falls down the chasm.
One year later both have become wealthy.
But the Prospector was not able to find Georgia.
They return to the contiguous United States on a ship on which, unknown to them, Georgia is also travelling.
When the Prospector agrees to don his old clothes for a photograph, he falls down the stairs, encountering Georgia once more.
After she mistakes him for a stowaway and tries to save him from the ship's crew, the misunderstanding is cleared up and both are happily reunited.
<EOS>
The film opens with two bandits breaking into a railroad telegraph office, where they force the operator at gunpoint to have a train stopped and to transmit orders for the engineer to fill the locomotive's tender at the station's water tank.
They then knock the operator out and tie him up.
As the train stops it is boarded by the banditsnow four.
Two bandits enter an express car, kill a messenger and open a box of valuables with dynamite; the others kill the fireman and force the engineer to halt the train and disconnect the locomotive.
The bandits then force the passengers off the train and rifle them for their belongings.
One passenger tries to escape, but is instantly shot down.
Carrying their loot, the bandits escape in the locomotive, later stopping in a valley where their horses had been left.
Meanwhile, back in the telegraph office, the bound operator awakens, but he collapses again.
His daughter arrives bringing him his meal and cuts him free, and restores him to consciousness by dousing him with water.
There is some comic relief at a dance hall, where an eastern stranger is forced to dance while the locals fire at his feet.
The door suddenly opens and the telegraph operator rushes in to tell them of the robbery.
The men quickly form a posse, which overtakes the bandits, and in a final shootout kills them all and recovers the stolen mail.
<EOS>
John McTeague is a miner working in Placer County, California.
A traveling dentist calling himself dr "Painless" Potter visits the town, and McTeague's mother begs Potter to take her son on as an apprentice.
Potter agrees and McTeague eventually becomes a dentist, practicing on Polk Street in San Francisco.
Marcus Schouler brings Trina Sieppe, his cousin and intended fiancée, into McTeague's office for dental work.
Schouler and McTeague are friends and McTeague gladly agrees to examine her.
As they wait for an opening, Trina buys a lottery ticket.
McTeague becomes enamored with Trina and begs Schouler for permission to court Trina.
After seeing McTeague's conviction, Schouler agrees.
Trina eventually agrees to marry McTeague and shortly afterwards her lottery ticket wins her $5,000.
Schouler bitterly claims that the money should have been his, causing a rift between McTeague and Schouler.
After McTeague and Trina wed, they continue to live in their small apartment with Trina refusing to spend her $5,000.
Schouler leaves the city to become a cattle rancher.
Before he goes, he secretly, in order to ruin his former friend, reports McTeague for practicing dentistry without a license.
McTeague is ordered to shut down his practice or face jail.
Even though she has saved over $200 in addition to the original $5,000 from the lottery ticket, Trina is unwilling to spend her money.
Money becomes increasingly scarce, with the couple forced to sell their possessions.
McTeague finally snaps and bites Trina's fingers in a fit of rage.
Later, he goes fishing to earn money, taking Trina's savings (now totaling $450).
Trina's bitten fingers become infected and have to be amputated.
To earn money she becomes a janitor at a children's school.
She withdraws the $5,000 from the bank to keep it close to her, eventually spreading it on her bed so she can sleep on it.
McTeague then returns, having spent the money he took, and asks Trina for more.
The following day McTeague confronts Trina at the school.
After a heated argument McTeague beats Trina to death and steals her $5,000.
Now an outlaw, McTeague returns to Placer County and teams up with a prospector named Cribbens.
Headed towards Death Valley, they find a large quantity of quartz and plan to become millionaires.
Before they can begin mining, McTeague senses danger and flees into Death Valley with a single horse, the remaining money and one water jug.
Several marshals pursue him, joined by Schouler.
Schouler wants to catch McTeague personally and rides into Death Valley alone.
The oppressive heat slows McTeague's progress.
Schouler's progress is also beginning to wane when he spies McTeague and moves in to arrest him.
After a confrontation, McTeague's horse bolts and Schouler shoots it, puncturing the water container.
The water spills onto the desert floor.
The pair fight one last time, with McTeague proving the victor; however, Schouler has handcuffed himself to McTeague.
The film ends with McTeague left in the desert with no horse and no water, handcuffed to a corpse and unable to reach the remaining money.
Von Stroheim's original edit contained two main sub-plots that were later cut.
The point of these sub-plots was to contrast two possible outcomes of Trina and McTeague's life together.
The first depicted the lives of the junkman Zerkow and Maria Miranda Macapa, the young Mexican woman who collects junk for Zerkow and sold Trina the lottery ticket.
Maria often talks about her imaginary solid gold dining set with Zerkow, who becomes obsessed by it.
Eventually, believing she has riches hidden away, Zerkow marries her.
He often asks about it, but she gives a different answer each time he mentions it.
Zerkow does not believe her and becomes obsessed with prying the truth from her.
He murders her and after having lost his mind, leaps into San Francisco Bay.
The second sub-plot depicts the lives of Charles Grannis and Miss Anastasia Baker.
Grannis and Baker are two elderly boarders who share adjoining rooms in the apartment complex where Trina and McTeague live.
Throughout their time at the apartment complex, they have not met.
They both sit close to their adjoining wall and listen to the other for company, so they know almost everything about each other.
They finally meet and cannot hide their long-time feelings for each other.
When they reveal their love, Grannis admits he has $5,000, making him just as rich as Trina.
But this makes little difference to them.
Eventually, they marry and a door connects their rooms.
<EOS>
At the age of 14, Bart Tare robs a hardware store and steals a gun.
He is sent to reform school by a sympathetic Judge Willoughby (Morris Carnovsky), despite the testimony of his friends Dave and Clyde, his older sister Ruby and others that he would never kill any living creature, even though he has had a fascination with guns even as a child.
Flashbacks provide a portrait of Bart who, after he kills a young chick with a BB gun at age seven, is hesitant to harm anyone with guns even though he is a good shot with a pistol.
After reform school and a stint in the Army teaching marksmanship, Bart (John Dall) returns home.
He, Dave (Nedrick Young) and Clyde (Harry Lewis) go to a traveling carnival in town.
There, Bart challenges sharpshooter Annie Laurie Starr (Peggy Cummins) to a shooting contest, and wins.
She gets him a job with the carnival, and he becomes smitten with her.
However, their attraction to each other inflames the jealousy of their boss, Packett (Berry Kroeger), who wants Laurie for himself.
As Packett tries to force himself on her, Bart enters and shoots a mirror behind Packett.
They both get fired, and leave together.
The couple get married and embark on a happy honeymoon.
She warns him beforehand that she is "bad, but will try to be good".
When their money runs out though, Laurie gives Bart a stark choice: join her in a career of crime or she will leave him.
They hold up stores and gas stations, but the money they steal does not last long.
While fleeing a police car, Laurie tells Bart to shoot at the policeman driving so they can escape, but he hesitates and becomes somewhat disoriented.
Ultimately, he shoots the tire out and the couple escapes.
Later that day, Laurie intends to shoot and kill a grocer they had just robbed, but Bart prevents her from doing so.
The couple have now been identified in national newspapers as robbers and murderers.
While snowed in, Bart says he is done with a life of crime.
She persuades him to take on one last big robbery so they can flee the country and live in peace and comfort.
They get jobs at a meat processing plant and make detailed plans.
They hold up the payroll office, but as they are leaving, the secretary pulls the burglar alarm and Laurie shoots the secretary dead.
As they are fleeing the scene, Laurie shoots and kills a security guard as well.
The two are supposed to split up for a couple of months and have separate getaway cars to minimize the chances of both of them being caught, but neither can bear to be away from the other that long.
The FBI is brought in, and the fugitives become the targets of an intense manhunt, yet they evade a statewide dragnet and escape to California.
In California, Bart arranges for passage to Mexico, but the FBI tracks them down to a dance hall by using the serial numbers from bills from the meat plant.
They are forced to flee, leaving all their loot behind.
With no place else to go and roadblocks everywhere, they jump on a train and go to his sister Ruby's house.
Bart's old friend, now the local sheriff, notices that Ruby's house has the curtains drawn and the children are not in school.
He informs Bart's other old friend, now a news reporter, and the two plead with Bart to give himself and Laurie up.
Instead, the couple flee into the mountains where Bart used to go camping in the summer.
They run while being pursued by police dogs, but are surrounded in reed grass the next morning.
Fog surrounds them, but Dave and Clyde approach them to try to save their lives.
When Bart sees Laurie preparing to gun them down, he shoots her and is in turn killed by the police.
<EOS>
Catherine Sloper (Olivia de Havilland) is a plain, painfully shy woman whose emotionally detached father, New York physician Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson), makes no secret of his disappointment in her.
He is terribly bitter about the loss of his charming and beautiful wife, whom he feels fate replaced with a simple and unalluring daughter.
Catherine is devoted to her father, however, and too innocent to fully comprehend his mistreatment or the reasons for it.
When she meets the charming Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift), she immediately is taken by the attention he lavishes upon her, attention she so desperately seeks from her father.
Catherine falls madly in love with Morris and they plan to marry.
dr Sloper believes Morris is an idler who is courting Catherine only to get her inheritance, and his interview with Morris' sister only reinforces his suspicion.
He tells the young couple his opinion of Morris and takes Catherine to Europe for an extended time, but she cannot forget her betrothed.
When they return to New York, dr Sloper threatens to disinherit his daughter if she marries Morris.
Catherine does not care and plans to elope with him but not before telling him about her father's decision.
On the night they are to elope, Catherine eagerly waits at home for Morris to come and take her away, but he never arrives.
Catherine is heartbroken.
A day or so later, she has a bitter argument with her father, who makes his disdain for her abundantly clear.
Soon afterwards, he reveals he is dying.
She tells her father she still loves Morris and challenges him to change his will if he is afraid they will waste his money after he dies.
He does not alter the will and dies a short time later, leaving her his entire estate.
A few years later, Morris returns from California, having made nothing of himself but still professing his love for Catherine.
He claims that he left her behind because he could not bear to see her destitute.
Catherine pretends to forgive him and tells him she still wants to elope as they originally planned.
He promises to come back for her that night, and she tells him she will start packing her bags.
Catherine coldly plots her revenge upon Morris.
Her aunt asks her how she can be so cruel, and she responds, "I have been taught by masters".
When Morris returns, Catherine calmly orders the maid to bolt the door, leaving him locked outside, shouting her name.
The film fades out with Catherine silently ascending the stairs while Morris' despairing cries echo unanswered in the darkness.
<EOS>
Hell's Hinges tells the story of a weak-willed minister, Rev.
Bob Henley (played by Standing), who comes to a wild and debauched frontier town with his sister, Faith (played by Williams).
The owner of the saloon, Silk Miller (played by Hollingsworth), and his accomplices sense trouble and encourage the local rowdies to disrupt the attempts to evangelize the community.
Hard-bitten gunman Blaze Tracy (played by Hart), the most dangerous man around, is, however, won over by the sincerity of Faith.
He intervenes to expel the rowdies from the newly built church.
Silk adopts a new approach.
He encourages the dance-hall girl, Dolly (played by Glaum), to seduce Rev.
Henley.
She gets him drunk, and he spends the night in her room.
The following morning the whole town learns of his fall from grace.
Blaze rides out to find a doctor for the now near-demented minister.
The disgraced minister, having rapidly descended into alcoholism, is goaded into helping the rowdy element to burn down the church.
The church-goers try to defend the church, and a gunfight erupts in which the minister is killed and the church set ablaze.
Blaze returns too late to stop the destruction.
In revenge, Blaze kills Silk and burns down the whole town, beginning with the saloon.
He and Faith leave to start a new life.
<EOS>
In Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico Territory, Marshal Will Kane (Cooper), newly married to Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly), is preparing to retire.
The happy couple is departing for a new life, raising a family and running a store in another town; but word arrives that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), a vicious outlaw who Kane sent to jail, has been released, and is arriving on the noon train.
Miller's gang—his younger brother Ben (Sheb Wooley), Jack Colby (Lee Van Cleef), and Jim Pierce (Robert Wilke)—await his arrival at the train station; it is clear that Miller intends to exact revenge.
For Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives; but Kane's sense of duty and honor is strong.
"They're making me run," he tells her.
"I've never run from anybody before".
Besides, he says, Miller and his gang will hunt him down anyway.
Amy gives Kane an ultimatum: She is leaving on the noon train, with or without him.
While waiting at the hotel for the train, she meets Helen Ramírez (Katy Jurado), who was once Miller's lover, and then Kane's, and is leaving as well.
Amy understands why Helen is fleeing, but the reverse is not true: Helen tells Amy that if Kane were her man, she would not abandon him in his hour of need.
Kane's efforts to round up a posse at the tavern, and then the church, are met with fear and hostility.
Some townspeople, worried that a gunfight would damage the town's reputation, urge Kane to avoid the confrontation entirely.
Others are Miller's friends, and resent that Kane cleaned up the town in the first place.
Kane's young deputy Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges), who is bitter that Kane did not recommend him as his successor, says he will stand with Kane only if Kane goes to the city fathers and "puts the word in" for him.
Kane rejects the quid pro quo, and Pell turns in his badge.
Kane visits a series of old friends and allies, but none can (or will) help: His predecessor, Marshal Howe (Lon Chaney Jr) is old and arthritic; Judge Percy Mettrick (Otto Kruger), who sentenced Miller, flees on horseback, and urges Kane to do the same; townsman Herb Baker (James Millican) agrees to be deputized, but backs out when he realizes he is the only volunteer; Sam Fuller (Harry Morgan) hides in his house, sending his wife to the door to tell Kane he isn't home.
Kane writes out his will as the clock in his office ticks toward high noon.
At the stables, Pell saddles a horse and tries to persuade Kane to mount it and leave town.
Their conversation becomes an argument, and then a fist fight.
Kane finally knocks his former deputy senseless, then goes into the street to face Miller and his gang.
In one of the most iconic shots in film history, the camera rises and widens to show Kane standing alone on a deserted street in a deserted town.
The outlaws approach and the gunfight begins.
Kane guns down Ben Miller and Colby, but is wounded in the process.
As the train is about to leave the station, Amy hears the gunfire, leaps off, and runs back to town.
Choosing her husband's life over her religious beliefs, she picks up Ben Miller's gun and shoots Pierce from behind, leaving only Frank Miller, who grabs Amy as a shield to force Kane into the open.
Amy claws Miller's face and he pushes her to the ground, giving Kane a clear shot, and he shoots Miller dead.
Kane helps his bride to her feet and they embrace.
As the townspeople emerge and cluster around him, Kane surveys them with bitter contempt, wordlessly throws his marshal's star in the dirt, and departs with Amy on their wagon.
<EOS>
Walter Burns (Cary Grant) is a hard-boiled editor for The Morning Post who learns his ex-wife and former star reporter, Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson (Rosalind Russell), is about to marry bland insurance man Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and settle down to a quiet life as a wife and mother in Albany, New York.
Walter determines to sabotage these plans, enticing the reluctant Hildy to cover one last story, the upcoming execution of convicted murderer Earl Williams (John Qualen).
Walter does everything he can to keep Hildy from leaving, including setting Bruce up so he gets arrested over and over again on trumped-up charges.
He even kidnaps Hildy's stern mother-in-law-to-be (Alma Kruger).
When Williams escapes from the bumbling sheriff (Gene Lockhart) and practically falls into Hildy's lap, the lure of a big scoop proves too much for her.
She is so consumed with writing the story that she hardly notices as Bruce realizes his cause is hopeless and returns to Albany.
The crooked mayor (Clarence Kolb) and sheriff need the publicity from the execution to keep their jobs in an upcoming election, so when a messenger (Billy Gilbert) brings them a reprieve from the governor, they try to bribe the man to go away and return later, when it will be too late.
Walter and Hildy find out in time to save Williams from the gallows and they use the information to blackmail the mayor and sheriff into dropping Walter's arrest for kidnapping.
Afterward, Walter offers to remarry Hildy, promising to take her on the honeymoon they never had in Niagara Falls, but then Walter learns that there is a newsworthy strike in Albany, which is on the way to Niagara Falls by train.
<EOS>
Two men (Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy) from El Centro, California are driving toward a planned fishing trip at the Mexican town of San Felipe on the Gulf of California.
Just south of Mexicali, they pick up a hitchhiker named Emmett Myers (William Talman), whose stolen car has apparently run out of gas.
Myers turns out to be a psychopath who has committed multiple murders while hitch-hiking between Illinois and Southern California, and has managed to slip into Mexico at Mexicali.
To evade the pursuing authorities, Myers forces the two men at gunpoint to journey deep into the heart of the Baja California Peninsula, toward the town of Santa Rosalía, where he plans to take a ferry across the Gulf of California.
Meanwhile, the men try to plot their escape from the violent, paranoid Myers.
They try tactics such as sabotaging their car and leaving clues (like an engraved wedding ring) at various points on their journey.
One man badly twists his ankle during an escape attempt.
The sadistic Myers physically and mentally torments the men, forcing them to continue on foot and mocking their loyalty to each other by claiming that they could have escaped separately if they embraced Myers' each-man-for-himself ethos.
Arriving at Santa Rosalía, Myers tries to conceal his identity by forcing one of the men to wear his clothes.
Myers, upon discovering that the regular ferry to Guaymas has burned down, hires a fishing boat.
However, while he is awaiting the fisherman, locals discover his status as a wanted murderer and contact authorities.
Police surround the pier and, after some confusion over Myers' identity, take him into custody following a brief scuffle in which the boastful Myers is revealed to be a coward.
The film ends with the weary friends agreeing to give statements to police.
<EOS>
The series is set thousands of years in the future, and revolves around the Systems Commonwealth, a constitutional monarchy based in a distant star system called Tarn-Vedra.
Humankind is a part of The Commonwealth, having been discovered by its members thousands of years before.
The Commonwealth spreads across three galaxies: the The Milky Way, Triangulum, and Andromeda, with Tarn-Vedra near its core.
Ships travel from one end of the Commonwealth to the other through slipstreams, following roller coaster-like pathways through the cosmos to and from their destination.
The Commonwealth claims to be a utopian society, but it is actually in a state of war with the Magog, a predatory humanoid species with bat-like faces that is dedicated to war.
A few years earlier, to show good faith as a result of peace talks, the Commonwealth ceded a key home world to the Magog.
This home world was a central planet of one of the Commonwealth's member species, the genetically engineered Nietzscheans.
The Nietzscheans were displeased with the peace agreement and secretly attempted to usurp control of the Commonwealth.
This action is the embodiment of their basic beliefs, as they see themselves as the race described as the "Übermensch" by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
The Commonwealth is defended by the High Guard, a large armada composed of numerous ships.
The protagonist of the series, Dylan Hunt, is the captain of a Commonwealth ship, the Andromeda Ascendant.
The ship's computer, a powerful artificial intelligence, is a key character in the series, often referred to as simply "Andromeda" or affectionately as "Rommie".
The entire High Guard, including Captain Hunt, is caught by surprise in the first engagement of the Nietzschean uprising.
He is forced to evacuate his crew, but Andromeda gets caught on the edge of the event horizon of a black hole, freezing him in time.
303 years later, in CY 10087 (approx 5167 AD), the crew of the salvage ship Eureka Maru locates Hunt's ship.
The Systems Commonwealth and the High Guard have fallen in the centuries since he was frozen in time, beginning an era known as The Long Night.
Hunt recruits the salvage crew to join him in an attempt to restore the Systems Commonwealth and "rekindle the light of civilization".
The salvage crew comprises its leader, Beka Valentine, a con-artist and expert pilot; a super-genius engineer named Seamus Harper (rescued from Nietzschean-enslaved Earth by Beka) who can plug his mind directly into computer systems; Trance Gemini, a mysterious alien of unknown origin whose innocent demeanor hides a surprisingly old soul; and Rev Bem, a Magog who has adopted a non-violent, Taoist-like religion called The Way ("Rev" being short for "Reverend").
The salvage crew's beneficiary also brought along an insurance policy in the form of a Nietzschean mercenary named Tyr Anasazi.
Tyr is the leader of a group of mercenaries, of which he is the only one remaining on board after the opening episodes.
Tyr's propensity for self-preservation leads him to join Dylan's crew until better opportunities arise.
As for Dylan, he is determined with his new crew to bring unity to the galaxies by restoring the Systems Commonwealth.
The programs' tagline summizes the series as: "On the starship Andromeda, hope lives again".
<EOS>
Set in 1993 London, About a Boy features two main protagonists: Will Freeman, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus Brewer, an incongruous schoolboy described as 'introverted' by his suicidal mother, Fiona, despite his tendencies to bond and interact with people.
Will's father wrote a successful Christmas song, the royalties of which have afforded Will the ability to remain voluntarily redundant throughout his life – he spends his huge amounts of free time immersing himself in 1990s culture, drinking, using soft drugs and pursuing sexual relations with women.
After a pleasant relationship with a single mother, Angie, Will comes up with the idea of attending a single parents group as a new way to pick up women.
For this purpose, he invents a two-year-old son called Ned.
Will then makes a number of acquaintances through his membership of the single parents group, two of which are Fiona and her son Marcus.
Although their relationship is initially somewhat strained, they finally succeed in striking up a true friendship despite Will being largely uninterested during the early-middle stages of the novel.
Will, a socially aware and "trendy" person, aids Marcus to fit into 1990s youth culture by encouraging him not to get his hair cut by his mother, buying him Adidas trainers, and introducing him to contemporary music such as Nirvana.
Marcus and Will's friendship strengthens as the story progresses, even after Marcus and Fiona discover Will's lie about having a child.
Marcus is befriended by Ellie McCrae, a tough, moody 15-year-old girl, who is constantly in trouble at school because she insists on wearing a Kurt Cobain jumper.
He also spends some time with his dad Clive, who visits Marcus and Fiona for Christmas together with his new girlfriend Lindsey and her mother.
Clive has a minor accident during someIY work, and breaks his collar bone.
This prompts Clive into having 'a big think' about the meaning of his life, and he summons Marcus to Cambridge to see him.
Marcus decides to bring Ellie along with him for support, however they are arrested on the way as Ellie smashes a shop window displaying a cardboard cut-out of Kurt Cobain – accusing the shopkeeper of 'trying to make money out of him' after his suicide.
Meanwhile, to Will's despair, he falls in love with a woman called Rachel.
Ironically, Rachel is a single mother with a son named Ali (Alistair) who is the same age as Marcus.
The two originally fight, but quickly become friends.
Will's emotional faculties are liberated and he begins to 'shed [his] old skin' of emotional indifference – simultaneously Marcus is becoming more typical of his age, and he begins to enjoy his life more.
The penultimate scene takes place in a police station in a small suburban town, where nearly every significant character in the novel is present; their common link being Marcus.
The novel ends during a three-way dialogue between Marcus, Will and Fiona where Will, to see if Marcus has truly changed, proposes the idea that he play a Joni Mitchell song on Fiona's piano, which she is enthusiastic about.
However, Marcus responds saying he 'hates' Joni Mitchell whereby Hornby concludes the novel with the narration saying "Will knew Marcus would be OK".
The novel ends with Will and Marcus both having become more typical of their age groups, and happier because of it.
Will intends to marry Rachel, and embraces romantic normality and Marcus enters his teenage phase in the typical fashion of a boy growing up in 1990s London.
<EOS>
The story follows Jerry Welbach as he travels through Mexico to find a valuable antique gun, The Mexican, and smuggle it into the United States.
Five years earlier, Welbach had caused a traffic accident in which he hit the car of local mobster Arnold Margolese, who was jailed for five years after the police searched his car following the crash, finding someone tied up in his trunk.
In compensation for the jail time, Welbach has been sent on various errands by Margolese's prickly second-in-command, Bernie Nayman.
Retrieving the gun will be his final errand.
Welbach has a girlfriend, Samantha, with whom he argues constantly and who leaves Jerry prior to the trip over his lack of commitment to their relationship.
Jerry arrives in Mexico and makes his way to pick up Beck, the Margolese employee now in possession of the gun.
There, a drunken Beck tells Jerry about the gun's history as a suicide weapon used as part of a jilted love-triangle between a woman, a nobleman, and the son of the gunsmith who forged the weapon, as well as its curse to misfire.
Jerry helps Beck to his car, only for the man to be killed by celebratory gunfire from a nearby festival.
Panicked but determined, Jerry buries the body and then calls Bernie to report on the situation, only for his vehicle to be stolen while he makes the call, the gun still inside.
Jerry briefly has an uncooperative donkey as transportation to follow the thief, then buys an old, damaged truck.
Meanwhile, Samantha gets kidnapped by a hit man named Leroy, who tells her that Jerry hired him to make sure she is safe from anybody that wants her dead.
It is then revealed that Leroy is gay, which doesn't bother Samantha.
They pick up a postal worker named Frank, who then has a relationship with Leroy.
Another hitman follows them to Las Vegas and kills Frank to make it look like a suicide.
Leroy kills him in an act of vengeance, and flees with Samantha.
Jerry finds out that Ted, his friend and colleague, wanted to kill him and take the pistol to Margolese, but hesitated and ends up getting handcuffed to a pawnshop owner, after he received the gun from a policeman when Jerry was being interrogated for the bloodstain on the front passenger seat of his car.
Jerry then finds out he accidentally grabbed Ted's Passport and tries to retrieve his own, but Ted has already fled.
Jerry decides to pick up Samantha and Leroy at the airport, where Leroy recognizes him, but Jerry doesn't recognize Leroy.
Without a passport, Jerry is stuck in Mexico until further notice by the American Consulate.
After their car has a blowout, Jerry kills Leroy and finds out that he is one of Nayman's men named Winston Baldry, and that the real Leroy was the man Winston killed.
Samantha begins to realize that Leroy was not who he appeared to be when they first met.
Jerry realizes that Nayman's plan was to make it look like Jerry double crossed Margolese.
Shocked by this, Samantha decides to go home, but also decides to stay with Jerry to see the situation to the end.
Jerry gets assaulted and taken to Margolese who was released from prison a few days earlier.
He tells Jerry that he didn't double cross him as it was Bernie who wanted to sell the pistol to the highest bidder.
A gunsmith, who is the great-grandson of the gunsmith from the story, wanted to bring the pistol back to where it belongs.
He thanks Jerry for risking his life for the pistol he was going to give to his greedy boss.
Samantha gets kidnapped by Bernie in order to get the pistol from Margolese.
After opening the trunk to his car, she pulls the gun on Bernie, blaming him for ruining her life, where it ends in a Mexican standoff.
Samantha gets the upper hand and kills Bernie with the pistol he desperately needed.
Jerry and Samantha rekindle their romance and get married in Mexico, while Margolese finally gets his prize, as well as the gunsmith.
The film ends with Jerry and Samantha arguing over the story of The Mexican on their way to Vegas.
<EOS>
"Second Variety" occurs in the aftermath of an extensive nuclear war between the Soviet Union (sometimes referred to as Russia) and the United Nations.
Early Soviet victories forced the North American government and production to flee to a Moon Base, leaving the majority of their troops behind.
To counter the almost complete Soviet victory,N.
technicians develop robots, nicknamed claws—the basic models are "a churning sphere of blades and metal" that ambush their unsuspecting victims "spinning, creeping, shaking themselves up suddenly from the gray ash and darting toward… [any warm body]"N.
forces are protected from the claws by a special radiation-emitting wrist tab.
Within six years, the sophisticated and independent claws have destroyed the Soviet forces, repairing and redesigning themselves in automated underground factories run without any human oversight.
TheN.
forces receive a message from the Soviets asking for a policy-level officer to go to them for a gravely urgent conference.
TheN.
victory was costlier than they had expected.
Major Joseph Hendricks is sent to negotiate with the Soviets.
En route to the rendezvous, he meets a small boy named David who asks to accompany Hendricks.
When they near the Soviet bunker, soldiers immediately kill the boy, revealing him to be an android.
The claws' development program has evolved to develop sophisticated robots, indistinguishable from humans, designed to infiltrate and kill.
The three Soviets met by Major Hendricks—soldiers Klaus, Rudi, and a young woman named Tasso—reveal that the entire Soviet army and command structure collapsed under the onslaught of the new robots - they are all that are left in the command center.
From salvaged internal metal identification plates, two varieties are identified: I-V, a wounded soldier, and III-V, David.
II-V—the "second variety"—remains unknown.
The different models are produced independently of each other in different factories.
The Soviets also reveal that theN.
protective tabs are ineffective against the new robots.
Hendricks attempts to transmit a warning to hisQ.
bunker, but is unable to do so.
During the night, Klaus claims Rudi is the II-V and kills him, however Rudi's internal organs are human.
The next morning, Hendricks and the two remaining Soviets return to theN.
lines.
When they reach the bunker, they discover it overrun: a crowd of David and Wounded Soldier robots attack, but Tasso destroys them with a very powerful hand grenade, stating that it was designed to destroy the robots.
Hendricks and Tasso flee, leaving Klaus to the old-style claws.
However, Klaus survives both the claws and the bomb blast only to be shot by Tasso, sending "gears and wheels" flying.
Tasso tells Hendricks that Klaus must have been the II-V robot.
Hendricks, now suffering from a wounded arm and internal injuries, hopes to escape to the Moon Base.
He and Tasso search for a hidden escape rocket, which is found to be a single-seat spacecraft.
Hendricks attempts to leave, but Tasso convinces him to let her leave and send back help.
In his injured state, he has no choice but to agree.
Hendricks provides Tasso with the signal code needed to find the Moon Base.
Alone and armed with Tasso's pistol, Hendricks returns to Klaus' remains and discovers from the parts that the robot was not a II-V, but a IV-IV.
A group of robots then attack Hendricks, including Davids, Wounded Soldiers, and several Tasso—the true II-V—models.
Hendricks recognizes that he has doomed the Moon Base by sending a robot to them, and that he cannot withstand the onslaught of robots attacking him.
As the Tasso models approach, Hendricks notices the bombs clipped to their belts, and recalls that the first Tasso used one to destroy other claws.
At his end, Hendricks is vaguely comforted by the thought that the claws are designing, developing, and producing weapons meant for killing other claws.
<EOS>
In 1951, Norman Dale arrives in the rural southeast Indiana town of Hickory to become a high school teacher and head basketball coach.
He was hired by Cletus Summers, the principal and a longtime friend of Dale's.
Dale, just out of the Navy, had been a champion collegiate coach until he struck one of his players.
The coaching position in Hickory is a last chance for him.
Like much of the state, Hickory is passionate about basketball.
The townspeople are aware that the best player in town, Jimmy Chitwood, does not intend to play on this season's team due to his attachment to the previous coach and the concern of hometown faculty member Myra Fleener, who has been looking after Jimmy since his mother's illness and warns Dale not to try to persuade Jimmy to change his mind.
The school enrollment is so small that Dale has only seven players on his squad.
At his first practice, Dale quickly dismisses one, Buddy Walker, for not paying attention and talking while the coach is talking.
Another, Whit Butcher, walks out in support of his friend, leaving Dale with only 5 players, the minimum needed to play.
He then begins drilling the remaining five players (Rade Butcher, Merle Webb, Everett Flatch, Strap Purl, and equipment manager Ollie McLellan) with fundamentals and conditioning but no scrimmages or shooting, much to the players' dislike.
Townsmen who have heard of the coach's non-traditional approach to working with the team intrude on a practice and demand to know what Dale is doing.
However, Whit's father arrives with his son in tow and makes his son apologize to Dale for walking out and ask for another chance.
mr Butcher then shows his support of Dale by ushering the townsmen out of the gym.
With the team having worked on a four-pass offense, Dale remains committed to this approach in the opening game of the season, even when Rade Butcher disobeys him and repeatedly shoots successfully without passing.
Dale benches him and, when another player fouls out, refuses to let Rade return to the game, leaving his team with only four players on the floor to the jeers of the home crowd.
In a subsequent game, when an opposing player pushes his finger into Dale's chest during an on-court argument during a timeout, Rade jumps to his defense and hits the player on the jaw.
After the ensuing brawl, Cletus, who has been assisting Dale in coaching, suffers a mild heart attack.
The coach further alienates the community by having the team play with a slow, defensive style that does not immediately produce results and also by losing his temper, causing him to be ejected from multiple games.
With Cletus laid up, Dale invites knowledgeable local former star basketball player Wilbur "Shooter" Flatch, Everett's alcoholic father, to join him on the bench as a new assistant.
This too confounds the town, including Everett.
The coach has one major stipulation in order for Shooter to participate with the team: he must be sober at all times around the boys.
By the middle of the season, an emergency town meeting is called to vote on whether Dale should be dismissed.
Fleener appreciates the coach's having stayed away from Jimmy and his efforts with Shooter and, despite having learned of Dale's past mistakes and volatile behavioral patterns as a coach, she unexpectedly expresses support for him at the meeting.
Just as the vote is being counted, Jimmy enters the meeting and asks permission to speak.
He says he's ready to begin playing basketball again, but only if Dale remains as coach.
The ballot count is reported and it has gone against Dale, but Fleener's mother jumps up and calls for a re-vote.
mr Butcher calls for a voice vote from the assembly, and the townspeople overwhelmingly vote for Dale to stay as coach.
From this point, Hickory becomes a nearly unstoppable team.
Along the way, Dale proves Shooter's value to the townspeople (and to Shooter himself) by intentionally getting himself ejected from a game and forcing Shooter to show his coaching ability.
Shooter does just that by diagramming a play by which Hickory wins the game on a last-second shot.
Despite a setback in which Shooter arrives drunk to a game and ends up in a hospital, the team advances through tournament play with contributions from unsung players, such as the pint-sized Ollie and devoutly religious Strap.
Hickory shocks the state by reaching the championship game in Indianapolis.
In a large arena and before a crowd bigger than any they've seen, the Hickory players face long odds to defeat the defending state champions from South Bend, whose players are taller and more athletic.
But with Chitwood scoring at the last second, tiny Hickory takes home the 1952 Indiana state championship.
<EOS>
At a Manhattan teaching hospital, the life of dr Bock (George Scott), the Chief of Medicine, is in disarray: his wife has left him, his children don't talk to him, and his once-beloved teaching hospital is falling apart.
The hospital is dealing with the sudden deaths of two doctors and a nurse.
These are attributed to coincidental or unavoidable failures to provide accurate treatment.
At the same time, administrators must deal with a protest against the hospital's annexation of an adjacent and decrepit apartment building.
The annexation is to be used for a drug rehabilitation center; the building's current occupants demand that the hospital find them replacement housing before the building is demolished despite the building being condemned sometime before.
As dr Bock complains of impotence and has thoughts of suicide, he falls for Barbara Drummond (Diana Rigg), a patient's daughter who came with her father from Mexico for his treatment.
This temporarily gives dr Bock something to live for after Barbara confronts him.
The deaths are discovered to have been initiated by Barbara's father (Barnard Hughes), as retribution for the "inhumanity" of modern medical treatment.
Drummond's victims would have been saved if they'd received prompt, appropriate treatment—but they didn't.
dr Bock and Barbara use a final, accidental death of a doctor at the hospital to cover Drummond's tracks.
Barbara then takes her father back to JFK airport to escape back to Mexico, leaving dr Bock at his insistence to try and organize the chaotic Hospital.
<EOS>
Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden) and his family set out west for the frontier via the Erie Canal, the "West", at this time, being the Ohio River country, at the very tip of southern Illinois.
Along the journey, they meet mountain man, Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), who is traveling east, to Pittsburgh, to trade his furs.
Rawlings and Zebulon's daughter, Eve (Carroll Baker) are attracted to each other, but Linus is not ready to settle down.
Linus Rawlings stops at an isolated trading post, run by a murderous clan of river pirates, headed by "Alabama Colonel" Jeb Hawkins (Walter Brennan).
Linus is betrayed when he accompanies seductive Dora Hawkins (Brigid Bazlen), into a cave, modeled after the real outlaw haunt, of Cave-In-Rock State Park, to see a "varmint".
Dora Hawkins stabs him in the back and Rawlings falls into a deep hole.
He is not seriously wounded, and is able to rescue the Prescott party from a similar fate.
The bushwhacking thieves (Lee Van Cleef plays one), including Dora, are dispatched, being killed in an attack by Rawlings, in a form of rough, frontier justice.
After Zebulon prays to God for their lost loved ones and commends to Him the thieves' souls "whether You want 'em or not", the settlers continue down the river, but their raft is caught in rapids and Zebulon and his wife Rebecca, (Agnes Moorehead) drown.
Linus, finding that he cannot live without Eve, reappears and marries her.
She insists on homesteading, at the spot where her parents died.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.
Eve's sister Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) chooses to go to st Louis, where she finds work performing in a dance hall.
She attracts the attention of professional gambler Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck).
After overhearing that she has just inherited a California gold mine, and to avoid paying his debts to another gambler (John Larch), Cleve joins the wagon train taking her there.
He and wagonmaster Roger Morgan (Robert Preston) court her along the way, but she rejects them both, much to the dismay of her new friend and fellow traveler Agatha Clegg (Thelma Ritter), who is searching for a husband.
Surviving an attack by Cheyenne Indians, Lilith and Cleve arrive at the mine, only to find that it is worthless.
Cleve leaves.
Lilith returns to work in a dance hall in a camp town, living out of a covered wagon.
Morgan finds her and again proposes marriage unromantically.
She tells him, "Not now, not ever".
Later, Lilith is singing in the music salon of a riverboat.
By chance, Cleve is a passenger.
When he hears Lilith's voice, he leaves the poker table (and a winning hand) to propose to her.
He tells her of the opportunities waiting in the rapidly growing city of San Francisco.
She accepts his proposal.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.
Linus Rawlings joins the Union army as a captain in the American Civil War.
Despite Eve's wishes, their son Zeb (George Peppard) eagerly enlists as well, looking for glory and an escape from farming.
Corporal Peterson (Andy Devine) assures them the conflict will not last very long.
The bloody Battle of Shiloh shows Zeb that war is nothing like he imagined and, unknown to him, his father dies there.
Zeb encounters a similarly disillusioned Confederate (Russ Tamblyn) who suggests deserting.
By chance, they overhear a private conversation between Generals Ulysses Grant (Harry Morgan) and William Tecumseh Sherman (John Wayne).
The rebel realizes he has the opportunity to rid the South of two of its greatest enemies and tries to shoot them, leaving Zeb no choice but to kill him with the bayonet from his shattered musket.
Afterward, Zeb rejoins the army.
When the war finally ends, he returns home as a lieutenant, only to find his mother has died.
She had lost the will to live after learning that Linus had been killed.
Zeb gives his share of the family farm to his brother, who is content to be a farmer, and leaves in search of a more interesting life.
Directed by John Ford.
Following the daring riders from the Pony Express and the construction of the transcontinental telegraph line in the late 1860s, two ferociously competing railroad lines, the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, one building westward and the other eastward, open up new territory to eager settlers.
Zeb becomes a lieutenant in theS.
cavalry, trying to maintain peace with the Indians with the help of grizzled buffalo hunter Jethro Stuart (Henry Fonda), an old friend of Linus.
When ruthless railroad man Mike King (Richard Widmark) violates a treaty by building on Indian territory, the Arapaho Indians retaliate by stampeding buffalo through his camp, killing many, including women and children.
Disgusted, Zeb resigns and heads to Arizona.
A subplot with Hope Lange as Jethro Stuart's daughter, named Julie, leading to a love triangle between Zeb and Mike King with Julie marrying and later leaving Zeb was deleted.
Directed by George Marshall.
In San Francisco, widowed Lilith auctions off her possessions (she and Cleve had made and spent several fortunes) to pay her debts.
She travels to Arizona, inviting Zeb and his family to oversee her remaining asset, a ranch.
Zeb (now a marshal), his wife Julie (Carolyn Jones), and their children meet Lilith at Gold City's train station.
However, Zeb also runs into an old enemy there, outlaw Charlie Gant (Eli Wallach).
Zeb had killed Gant's brother in a gunfight.
When Gant makes veiled threats against Zeb and his family, Zeb turns to his friend and Gold City's marshal, Lou Ramsey (Lee Cobb), but Gant is not wanted for anything in that territory, so there is little Ramsey can do.
Zeb decides he has to act rather than wait for Gant to make good his threat someday.
Suspecting Gant of planning to rob an unusually large gold shipment being transported by train, he prepares an ambush with Ramsey's reluctant help.
Gant and his entire gang (one member played by Harry Dean Stanton) are killed in the shootout and resulting train wreck.
In the end, Lilith and the Rawlings family travel to their new home.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.
A short epilogue shows modern Los Angeles and San Francisco in the early 1960s, including the four-level downtown freeway interchange and Golden Gate Bridge.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.
<EOS>
After losing to Fats, Eddie could spiral down to the scrapheap, but he meets Bert Gordon, a.
Bert teaches him about winning, or more particularly about losing.
Tautly written, it is a treatise on how someone, with all of the skills, can lose if he "wants" to lose; how a loser is beaten by himself, not by his opponent; and how he can learn to win, if he can look deeply enough into himself.
The book was followed by the sequel The Color of Money.
<EOS>
The film begins aboard a steamer crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and initially showcases the misadventures of an unnamed immigrant, the Tramp (Chaplin) who finds himself in assorted mischief while, among other things, playing cards, eating in a mess hall, and avoiding seasick passengers.
Along the way, he befriends another unnamed immigrant (Purviance) who is traveling to America with her ailing mother.
The two are robbed by a pickpocket who is losing in gambling.
The Tramp, feeling sorry for the two penniless women, attempts to secretly place his winnings from his card game in the woman's pocket, but ends up being mistakenly accused of being a pickpocket.
The woman manages to clear the Tramp's name.
Upon arrival in America, the Tramp and the woman part company.
Later, hungry and broke, the tramp finds a coin on the street outside a restaurant and pockets it.
He doesn't realize there is a hole in his pocket and the coin has fallen straight through and is back on the ground.
He enters the restaurant, where he orders a plate of beans.
There, he is reunited with the woman and discovers her mother is dead.
The Tramp orders a meal for her.
As they eat, they watch the restaurant's burly head waiter (Campbell) and other waiters attack and forcibly eject a patron who is short 10 cents in paying his bill.
The Tramp, intimidated by the waiter, checks and now realizes he has lost his coin.
Terrified of facing the same treatment as the man he saw thrown out, the Tramp begins planning how he will fight the huge man.
Soon, however, he finds the same coin fallen from the head waiter's pocket onto the floor and makes many failed attempts to retrieve it without notice.
He finally retrieves the coin and nonchalantly pays the waiter only to be thunderstruck when the waiter reveals the coin to be fake.
Once again, the Tramp prepares for the fight of his life.
Just then, a visiting artist spots the Tramp and the woman and offers them a job to pose for a painting.
The two agree.
The artist offers to pay for the Tramp and the woman's meal, but the Tramp declines the offer several times for reasons of etiquette, intending to eventually accept the artist's offer; however, he's dismayed when the artist does not renew his offer to pay at the last moment.
The artist pays for his own meal and leaves a tip for the waiter.
The Tramp notices that the tip is enough to cover the couple's meal and, without the artist noticing, palms the tip and presents it to the waiter as his own payment for his and the woman's meal.
As a final riposte, he lets the waiter keep the remaining change - one small coin - after paying his bill.
The waiter thinks the artist himself has given no tip whatsoever, and is clearly upset at this supposed action.
Afterwards, outside a marriage license office in the rain, the Tramp proposes marriage to the woman, who is coy and reluctant until the Tramp physically carries her into the office while she waves her arms and kicks her feet in protest.
<EOS>
The following plot synopsis was published in conjunction with a 1915 showing of the film at Carnegie Hall:.
<EOS>
Psychiatrist dr Hill is called to the emergency room of a California hospital, where a screaming man is being held in custody.
dr Hill agrees to listen to his story.
The man identifies himself as a doctor, and he recounts, in flashback, the events leading up to his arrest and arrival at the hospital:  In the nearby town of Santa Mira, dr Miles Bennell sees a number of patients apparently suffering from Capgras delusion – the belief that their relatives have somehow been replaced with identical-looking impostors.
Returning from a trip, Miles meets his former girlfriend, Becky Driscoll, who has herself recently come back to town after a divorce.
Becky's cousin Wilma has the same fear about her Uncle Ira, with whom she lives.
Psychiatrist dr Dan Kauffman assures Bennell that these cases are merely an "epidemic of mass hysteria".
That same evening, Bennell's friend, Jack Belicec, finds a body with his exact physical features, though it appears not fully developed; later, another body is found in Becky's basement that is her exact duplicate.
When Bennell calls Kauffman to the scene, the bodies have mysteriously disappeared, and Kauffman informs Bennell that he is falling for the same hysteria.
The following night, Bennell, Becky, Jack, and Jack's wife Teddy again find duplicates of themselves, emerging from giant seed pods in dr Bennell's greenhouse.
They conclude that the townspeople are being replaced while asleep with exact physical copies.
Miles tries to make a long distance call to federal authorities for help, but the phone operator claims that all long-distance lines are busy; Jack and Teddy drive off to seek help in the next town.
Bennell and Becky discover that by now all of the town's inhabitants have been replaced and are devoid of humanity; they flee to Bennell's office to hide for the night.
The next morning they see truckloads of the giant pods heading to neighboring towns to be planted and used to replace their populations.
Kauffman and Jack, both of whom are "pod people" by now, arrive at Bennell's office and reveal that an extraterrestrial life form is responsible for the invasion.
After their takeover, they explain, life loses its frustrating complexity, because all emotions and sense of individuality vanish.
Bennell and Becky manage to escape, but are soon pursued by a crowd of "pod people".
Exhausted, they manage to hide in an abandoned mine outside town.
Bennell leaves a little later, coming upon a large greenhouse farm, where he discovers giant seed pods being grown by the hundreds.
When Bennell kisses Becky after his return, he realizes, to his horror, that Becky fell asleep and is now one of them.
As Bennell runs away, she sounds the alarm.
He runs and runs, eventually finding himself on a crowded state highway.
After seeing a transport truck bound for San Francisco and Los Angeles filled with the pods, he frantically screams at the passing motorists, "They're here already.
You're next.
You're next.
"  dr Hill and the on-duty doctor dismiss Bennell's account until a truck driver is wheeled into the emergency room after being badly injured in an accident.
He was found in his wrecked truck buried under a load of giant seed pods.
dr Hill calls for all roads in and out of Santa Mira to be barricaded, and alerts the FBI.
<EOS>
Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a low-level government employee who frequently daydreams of saving a damsel in distress.
When a fly gets jammed in a printer and results in the incarceration and accidental death during interrogation of cobbler Archibald Buttle – instead of renegade air conditioning specialist and suspected terrorist Archibald Tuttle – Sam is assigned the task of rectifying the error.
Visiting Buttle's widow, Sam encounters their neighbour Jill Layton (Kim Greist), and is astonished to see that she resembles the woman from his recurring dreams.
Jill is trying to help mrs Buttle determine what happened to her husband, but her efforts are obstructed by bureaucracy.
Unknown to her, she is now considered a terrorist accomplice of Tuttle for attempting to report the mistake of Buttle's arrest to a government which would rather dispose of all evidence and witnesses than admit its error.
Sam approaches Jill, but she avoids giving him full details, worried the government will track her down.
During this time, Sam comes in contact with Tuttle (Robert De Niro), who once worked for Central Services but left due to his dislike of the tedious and repetitive paperwork.
Tuttle helps Sam deal with two Central Services workers, Spoor (Bob Hoskins) and Dowser (Derrick O'Connor), who later return to demolish Sam's ducts and seize his apartment under the guise of fixing the air conditioning.
Sam discovers that the only way to learn about Jill is to get transferred to Information Retrieval, where he can access her classified records.
He had previously turned down a promotion arranged by his mother, Ida (Katherine Helmond), who is obsessed with the rejuvenating plastic surgery of cosmetic surgeon dr Jaffe (Jim Broadbent).
Sam retracts his refusal by speaking with Deputy Minister mr Helpmann (Peter Vaughan) at a party hosted by Ida.
Obtaining Jill's records, Sam tracks her down before she can be arrested, then falsifies the records to fake her death, allowing her to escape pursuit.
The two share a romantic night together, but are soon apprehended by the government at gunpoint.
Charged with treason for abusing his new position, Sam is restrained to a chair in a large, empty cylindrical room (the interior of a power station cooling tower), to be tortured by his old friend, Jack Lint (Michael Palin).
Sam learns that Jill was killed while resisting arrest.
When Jack is about to start the torturing, Tuttle and other members of the resistance break into the Ministry, shooting Jack, rescuing Sam, and blowing up the Ministry building.
Sam and Tuttle flee together, but Tuttle disappears amid a mass of scraps of paperwork from the destroyed building.
Sam stumbles into the funeral for Ida's friend, who died following excessive cosmetic surgery; finding Ida resembling Jill and being fawned over by young men, Sam falls into the open casket and through a black void.
He lands in a street from his daydreams, and attempts to escape police and monsters by climbing a pile of flex-ducts.
Opening a door, he passes through it and is surprised to find himself in a trailer driven by Jill.
The two leave the city together.
However, this "happy ending" is a product of Sam's delusions: he is still strapped to the chair.
Realising that Sam has descended into blissful insanity, Jack and mr Helpmann declare him a lost cause and leave the room.
Sam remains in the chair, smiling and singing "Brazil".
<EOS>
After breaking his leg photographing a racetrack accident, a professional photographer, the adventurous "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart), is confined to a wheelchair in his Greenwich Village apartment to recuperate.
His rear window looks out onto a courtyard and several other apartments.
During a powerful heat wave, he watches his neighbors, who keep their windows open to stay cool.
He observes a flamboyant dancer he nicknames "Miss Torso"; a single middle-aged woman he calls "Miss Lonelyhearts"; a talented, single, middle-aged composer-pianist; several married couples; a female sculptor; and Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), a traveling jewelry salesman with a bedridden wife.
Jeff's sophisticated, beautiful socialite girlfriend, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), visits him regularly, as does his insurance company's nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter).
Stella wants Jeff to settle down and marry Lisa, but Jeff is reluctant.
One night during a thunderstorm Jeff hears a woman scream "Don't.
" and then the sound of breaking glass.
Later he is awakened by thunder and observes Thorwald leaving his apartment.
Thorwald makes repeated late-night trips carrying his sample case.
The next morning Jeff notices that Thorwald's wife is gone, and then sees Thorwald cleaning a large knife and handsaw.
Later, Thorwald ties a large trunk with heavy rope and has moving men haul it away.
Jeff discusses all this with Lisa and with Stella.
Jeff becomes convinced that Thorwald has murdered his wife.
Jeff explains this to his friend Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey), a New York City Police detective, and asks him to do some research.
Doyle finds nothing suspicious; apparently mrs Thorwald is upstate, and picked up the trunk herself.
Soon after, a neighbor's dog is found dead, its neck broken.
The owner yells out into the courtyard, "You don't know the meaning of the word 'neighbors'.
Neighbors like each other, speak to each other, care if anybody lives or dies.
But none of you do.
" All the neighbors run to their windows to see what is happening, except for Thorwald, whose cigar can be seen glowing as he sits quietly in his dark apartment.
Certain that Thorwald is also guilty of killing the dog, Jeff asks Lisa to slip an accusatory note under his door, so Jeff can watch his reaction when he reads it.
Then, as a pretext to get Thorwald out of his apartment, Jeff telephones him and arranges a meeting at a bar.
He believes Thorwald buried something incriminating in the courtyard flower bed and killed the dog to stop it digging there, so when Thorwald leaves, Lisa and Stella dig up the flowers; they find nothing.
Much to Jeff's amazement and admiration, Lisa then climbs the fire escape to Thorwald's apartment and clambers in through an open window.
When Thorwald returns and grabs Lisa, Jeff calls the police, who arrive in time to save her by arresting her.
Jeff sees Lisa has her hands behind her back, wiggling her finger with mrs Thorwald's wedding ring on it.
Thorwald notices this, and realizing that she is signaling to someone, he sees Jeff across the courtyard.
Jeff phones Doyle and leaves an urgent message.
Stella heads for the police station to post bail for Lisa.
When his phone rings, Jeff assumes it is Doyle, and says that the suspect has left the apartment.
When no one answers, Jeff realizes that Thorwald himself had called, and is heading over to confront him.
When Thorwald enters, Jeff repeatedly sets off his camera flashbulbs, temporarily blinding him.
However, Thorwald grabs Jeff and manages to push him out of the open window, as Jeff is yelling for help.
Police officers enter the apartment as he falls to the ground; other officers have run over to break his fall.
Thorwald confesses to the police soon afterward.
A few days later, the heat has lifted, and Jeff rests peacefully in his wheelchair, now with casts on both legs.
The lonely neighbor is chatting with the pianist in his apartment, the dancer's lover returns home from the army, the couple whose dog was killed have a new dog, and the newly married couple are bickering.
Lisa reclines on the daybed in Jeff's apartment, wearing jeans and apparently reading a book titled Beyond the High Himalayas.
As soon as Jeff falls asleep, Lisa puts the book down and happily opens a fashion magazine.
<EOS>
The film tells the story of Pietro "Beppo" Donnetti.
Donnetti is a poor, but happy, gondolier in Venice, Italy.
Beppo falls in love with Annette Ancello, but her father, Trudo, wants her to marry another suitor, one who is a successful businessman.
If Beppo can prove himself within a year, Trudo agrees to allow him to marry Annette.
Beppo sails for America to make his fortune, making a living working as a shoeshiner on a street corner in New York City.
He borrows money from an Irish ward boss, Bill Corrigan, and sends for Annette to join him.
In exchange, Beppo agrees to help Corrigan's candidate win the Italian vote in the ward.
When Annette arrives in New York, she and Beppo are married, and the following year they have a son, Tony.
Beppo, Annette and Tony live a happy life in their Lower East Side tenement.
The happiness is interrupted when the baby contracts a fever during a heatwave.
The doctor instructs them to feed pasteurized milk to the baby.
Beppo works hard to earn the money to purchase the expensive milk.
While walking to the store to buy the milk, Beppo is robbed.
He attacks the men who robbed him and is arrested.
Beppo asks Corrigan to help his baby while he is in jail: "I must get-a-de-milk or my babee is die".
Corrigan rebuffs Beppo, and Beppo's baby dies during Beppo's five days in jail.
When Beppo is released from jail, he learns that Corrigan's young daughter is ill and vows to avenge his son's death by killing Corrigan's daughter.
Beppo sneaks into Corrigan's house, but when he sees Corrigan's daughter lying in her crib, he cannot act on his plan, and he leaves the child unharmed.
In the final scene of the narrative, Beppo is shown placing flowers and sobbing over his son's grave.
<EOS>
During a late-night beach party on Amity Island, a young woman goes swimming in the ocean.
While treading water, she is violently pulled under.
The next morning, her partial remains are found on shore.
The medical examiner ruling the death a shark attack leads Police Chief Martin Brody to close the beaches.
Mayor Larry Vaughn overrules him, fearing it will ruin the town's summer economy.
The coroner now concurs with the mayor's theory that the girl was killed in a boating accident.
Brody reluctantly accepts their conclusion until another fatal shark attack occurs shortly after.
A bounty is then placed on the shark, resulting in an amateur shark-hunting frenzy.
Local professional shark hunter Quint offers his services for $10,000.
Meanwhile, consulting oceanographer Matt Hooper examines the first victim's remains and confirms the death was from a shark attack.
When local fishermen catch a large tiger shark, the mayor proclaims the beaches safe.
Hooper disputes it being the same predator, confirming this after no human remains are found inside it.
Hooper and Brody find a half-sunken vessel while searching the night waters in Hooper's boat.
Underwater, Hooper retrieves a sizable great white shark's tooth embedded in the submerged hull.
He drops it after finding a partial corpse.
Vaughn discounts Brody and Hooper's claims that a huge great white shark is responsible and refuses to close the beaches, allowing only added safety precautions.
On the Fourth of July weekend, tourists pack the beaches.
Following a juvenile prank, the real shark enters a nearby estuary, killing a boater and causing Brody's son, Michael, to go into shock.
Brody finally convinces a devastated Vaughn to hire Quint.
Quint, Brody, and Hooper set out on Quint's boat, the Orca, to hunt the shark.
While Brody lays down a chum line, Quint waits for an opportunity to hook the shark.
Without warning, it appears behind the boat.
Quint estimates the shark's length at and harpoons a barrel into it, but it drags the barrel underwater and disappears.
At nightfall, as the three swap stories, the great white returns unexpectedly, ramming the boat's hull and killing the power.
The men work through the night repairing the engine.
In the morning, Brody attempts to call the Coast Guard, but Quint smashes the radio, enraging Brody.
After a long chase, Quint harpoons another barrel into the shark.
The line is tied to the stern, but the shark drags the boat backwards, swamping the deck and flooding the engine compartment, forcing Quint to sever the line to prevent the transom from being pulled out.
He then heads toward shore, intending to lure the shark to shallower waters and suffocate it, but the overtaxed engine quits.
With the Orca slowly sinking, the trio attempt a riskier approach: Hooper dons scuba gear and enters the water in a shark-proof cage, intending to lethally inject the shark with strychnine using a hypodermic spear.
The shark demolishes the cage before Hooper can inject it, but he manages to escape to the seabed.
The shark then attacks the boat directly, killing Quint.
Trapped on the sinking vessel, Brody stuffs a pressurized scuba tank into the shark's mouth, and, climbing the mast, shoots the tank with Quint's rifle, destroying it.
The resulting explosion obliterates the shark.
Hooper resurfaces, and he and Brody paddle to Amity Island clinging to boat wreckage.
<EOS>
Stan works long hours at a slaughterhouse in Watts, Los Angeles.
The monotonous slaughter affects his home life with his unnamed wife and two children, Stan Jr.
and Angela.
Through a series of confusing episodic events – some friends try to involve Stan in a criminal plot, a white woman propositions Stan to work in her store, Stan and his friend Bracy attempt to buy a car engine – a mosaic of an austere working-class life emerges in which Stan feels unable to affect the course of his life.
<EOS>
Lars Knutson Rockne moves his family from Norway in 1892, settling in Chicago.
His son Knute saves up his money and enrolls in college at the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana, where he plays football.
After graduation, Rockne marries sweetheart Bonnie Skiles and stays on at Notre Dame to teach chemistry, work in the chemistry lab under Father Nieuwland on synthetic rubber and in his spare time serve as an assistant coach of the Fighting Irish football team under Coach Jess Harper.
He and his college roommate, quarterback Gus Dorais, develop the forward pass, which enables Notre Dame to defeat the traditionally strong team from West Point.
An outstanding freshman halfback, George Gipp, leads the Irish to greater gridiron glory.
Gipp is stricken with a fatal illness, however, and encourages the team to go out and "win one for the Gipper".
Notre Dame continues its football success with a backfield of stars dubbed "the Four Horsemen".
Rockne, tragically, is killed in a 1931 plane crash on a trip to California, but his legend makes him a campus immortal.
<EOS>
Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck) is a beautiful con artist.
Along with her equally larcenous father, "Colonel" Harrington (Charles Coburn) and his partner Gerald (Melville Cooper), she is out to fleece rich, naive Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), the heir to the Pike Ale fortune ("The Ale That Won for Yale").
Pike is a woman-shy snake expert Ophidiologist, just returning from a year-long expedition up the Amazon.
Though surrounded by ladies desperate for his attention, Charles is putty in Jean's hands.
But even the best laid plans can go astray.
First, Jean falls hard for Pike and shields him from her card sharp father.
Then, when Pike's suspicious minder/valet Muggsy (William Demarest) discovers the truth about her and her father, Pike dumps her.
Furious at being scorned, she re-enters his life masquerading as the posh "Lady Eve Sidwich", niece of Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith (Eric Blore), another con man who's been swindling the rich folk of Connecticut.
Jean is determined to torment Pike mercilessly, as she explains, "I've got some unfinished business with him—I need him like the axe needs the turkey".
When Pike meets "Eve", he is so bewildered he constantly trips and falls over himself.
Although Muggsy tries to convince him "she's the same dame", Pike reasons that Jean would never come close to his home without at least disguising herself, so he concludes the resemblance is only a coincidence.
After a brief courtship, they marry, and on the train to their honeymoon, "Eve" begins to confess her past, dropping name after name after name of old boyfriends and lovers.
Pike finally gets fed up and jumps off the train.
Now separated, Jean's con team urges her to close the deal, saying she's got him over a barrel and can make a killing in a settlement.
While Charles' father and lawyers are on the phone with her pleading to settle quickly, Jean says she doesn't want any money at all, just for Pike to tell her it's over to her face.
Pike refuses, and through his father Jean learns that he's departing on another ocean voyage.
She arranges her own passage, and "bumps into" Pike, just as they met before.
"Hopsie" is overjoyed to see Jean again, and they instantly dash to her cabin where they mutually affirm their love for each other.
Charles confesses that he is married, and Jean replies tenderly, "So am I, darling".
<EOS>
Joe is an impoverished New York newsboy who lives with his abusive grandmother.
While selling papers, he is given a ticket for a children's excursion sponsored by the Fresh Air Fund.
The next morning, Joe sneaks out of his tenement home to join the excursion, where he sees the countryside and the ocean for the first time.
After a picnic, an adult volunteer reads the children a story about a young prince who is beaten by an old witch.
A group of fairies rescue the boy, take him to a boat, and sail off for "the Land Beyond the Sunset, where he lived happily ever after".
Joe imagines himself as the boy in the story.
When the group returns to the city, Joe stays behind because he is afraid of his grandmother.
He wanders to the beach, where he finds a rowboat and decides to go to the Land Beyond the Sunset himself.
He pushes the boat into the water and climbs in.
The film ends with a long shot of Joe drifting out to sea.
<EOS>
Set in Depression-era Yorkshire, England, mr and mrs Carraclough (Donald Crisp and Elsa Lanchester) are hit by hard times and forced to sell their collie, Lassie (Pal), to the rich Duke of Rudling (Nigel Bruce), who has always admired her.
Young Joe Carraclough (Roddy McDowall) grows despondent at the loss of his companion.
Lassie will have nothing to do with the Duke, however, and finds ways to escape her kennels and return to Joe.
The Duke finally carries Lassie to his home hundreds of miles distant in Scotland.
There, his granddaughter Priscilla (Elizabeth Taylor) senses the dog's unhappiness and arranges her escape.
Lassie then sets off for a long trek to her Yorkshire home.
She faces many perils along the way, dog catchers and a violent storm, but also meets kind people who offer her aid and comfort.
At the end, when Joe has given up hope of ever seeing his dog again, the weary Lassie returns to her favorite resting place in the schoolyard at home.
There, Lassie is joyfully reunited with the boy she loves.
<EOS>
In 1757, in the midst of the French and Indian War, three French divisions and their Huron Indian allies are advancing on Fort William Henry, a British stronghold south of Lake George in the colony of New York.
Chingachgook (Theodore Lorch) sends his son Uncas (Roscoe), the last living warrior of the Mohican tribe, to warn the fort's commander, Colonel Munro (James Gordon), of the imminent danger.
Uncas is admired by Munro's daughter Cora (Barbara Bedford), much to the displeasure of her suitor, Captain Randolph (George Hackathorne).
Munro dispatches Major Heyward (Henry Woodward) and an Indian runner named Magua (Beery) to escort Cora and her "capricious" younger sister Alice (Hall) to the relative safety of Fort Edward, and to deliver an urgent request for reinforcements to its commander, General Webb (Sydney Deane).
Magua, who is a Huron sympathizer with ulterior motives, convinces Heyward to take a "shortcut" through a forest, then pretends to lose his way.
In the forest they encounter Uncas, Chingachgook and the hunter and scout Hawkeye (Harry Lorraine), accompanied by an eccentric preacher named David Gamut (Nelson McDowell).
When Heyward asks for directions to Fort Edward, the men become suspicious of Magua who, like all Indians in the area, should have an intimate knowledge of the terrain.
Their fears of treachery are confirmed when they discover that Magua has disappeared.
Uncas and Hawkeye conceal Heyward and the women in a cave, but Magua and his men find the hiding place, and after a fierce firefight the women are captured.
Magua offers to spare "Golden Hair" (Alice) if Cora will become his squaw; but Uncas, Chingachgook and Hawkeye counterattack and rescue the hostages.
Although they leave Magua for dead, he is actually uninjured.
At Fort William Henry the situation is dire.
The only thing keeping the besiegers at bay is a formidable gun emplacement on the left rampart.
The cowardly Captain Randolph informs Montcalm, the French commander, that the rampart guns are nonfunctional, leaving Munro no choice but to surrender the fort.
Though promised safe passage for the women and children, the Hurons, under the influence of French-supplied whiskey, slaughter the civilians and torch the fort.
Magua kidnaps the Munro sisters for a second time and flees.
Uncas and Hawkeye pursue him, but Magua reaches a neutral Delaware village.
The dispute is taken before a Delaware council of three; their judgment is that Cora be released to Uncas, and that Alice remain with Magua.
To save her sister, Cora offers to take her place.
Uncas vows that Magua will not leave with his true love; but by Delaware law, Magua is protected until sundown.
That night, Cora escapes and is pursued by Magua to the edge of a precipice.
She threatens to jump if he approaches, so Magua waits patiently for her to fall asleep.
When she does, he grabs her arm.
She flings herself off the cliff, but Magua still has hold of her arms.
When Uncas appears, the situation is reversed: Cora tries to save herself, but Magua uses his knife to pry her fingers loose, and she falls to her death.
In the ensuing fight, Magua stabs Uncas, whose body rolls down the embankment to rest near Cora's.
With his final, dying strength, Uncas reaches forth and takes Cora's hand in his.
Magua flees when Chingachgook and Hawkeye arrive, but Hawkeye shoots him dead.
At Cora and Uncas's burial ceremony, Chingachgook mourns the passing of his son, the last of the Mohicans.
<EOS>
In 1951, Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) are high-school seniors and friends in a small, declining north Texas town, Anarene.
Duane is dating Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd), the prettiest (and wealthiest) girl in town.
Sonny decides to break up with girlfriend Charlene Duggs (Sharon Taggart).
At Christmas time, Sonny begins an affair with Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman), the depressed, middle-aged wife of his high-school coach, Coach Popper (Bill Thurman).
At the Christmas dance, Jacy is invited by Lester Marlow (Randy Quaid) to a naked indoor pool party, at the home of Bobby Sheen (Gary Brockette), a wealthy young man who seems a better prospect than Duane.
Bobby tells Jacy he isn't interested in virgins and to come back after she's had sex.
The group of boys take their young intellectually disabled friend, Billy (Sam Bottoms), to a prostitute to lose his virginity but she hits Billy in the face when he ejaculates prematurely.
When Duane and Sonny take Billy back home, Sam "the Lion" (Ben Johnson) tells them that since they cannot even take care of a friend, he is barring them from his pool hall, movie theater and cafe.
Sonny later sneaks into the cafe and accepts the offer of a free hamburger from the waitress, Genevieve (Eileen Brennan), when Sam walks in and discovers him.
Once Sam sees Sonny's genuine affection for Billy he accepts his apology.
Duane and Sonny go on a weekend road trip to Mexico, an event that happens off-screen.
Before they drive off, Sam comes to encourage them about their trip and gives them some extra money.
In the next scene they return hungover and tired and eventually learn that during their absence Sam has died of a stroke.
He left the town's movie theater to the woman who ran the concession stand, the café to Genevieve, $1000 to Joe Bob Blanton, and the pool hall to Sonny.
Jacy invites Duane to a motel for sex but he is unable to perform.
She loses her virginity to him on their second attempt and then breaks up with him by phone.
When Bobby marries another girl, Jacy is disappointed.
Out of boredom, she has sex with Abilene (Clu Gulager), her mother's lover, though he is cold to her after their rendezvous.
Jacy then sets her sights on Sonny, who drops Ruth without announcement.
Duane quarrels with Sonny over Jacy, "his" girl and hits him over the head with a bottle.
Duane then decides to join the Army to fight in Korea.
Jacy suggests to Sonny that they elope.
On their way to their honeymoon, they are stopped by an Oklahoma state trooper; Jacy left a note telling her parents all about their plan.
The couple are brought back to Anarene.
On the trip back, Jacy's mother Lois (Ellen Burstyn) admits to Sonny she was Sam the Lion's paramour and tells him he was much better off with Ruth Popper than with Jacy.
Duane returns to town for a visit, before shipping out for Korea.
He and Sonny are among the meager group attending the final screening at the movie house, which is closing down.
The next morning, after Sonny sees Duane off on the Trailways bus, Billy is run over and killed as he sweeps the street.
An upset Sonny seeks comfort from Ruth.
Her first reaction is to vent her hurt and anger but then she takes his outstretched hand.
<EOS>
New York City police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is investigating the murder of a beautiful and highly successful advertising executive, Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney).
Laura has apparently been killed by a shotgun blast to the face, just inside the doorway of her apartment.
He first interviews charismatic newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), an imperious, effete dandy, who relates how he met Laura and became her mentor.
She had become his platonic friend and steady companion and he used his considerable fame, influence, and connections to advance her career.
McPherson also questions Laura's parasitic playboy fiancé, Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), a "kept man" and companion of her wealthy socialite aunt, Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson).
Treadwell is tolerant of her niece's infatuation with Shelby, which appears to be out of her practical acceptance of Shelby's need for the affection of a woman who is his own age.
All the while, Treadwell is carrying on with Carpenter and giving him money.
Detective McPherson finally questions Laura's loyal housekeeper, Bessie Clary (Dorothy Adams).
Through the testimony of her friends, and the reading of her letters and diary, McPherson becomes obsessed with Laura, so much so that Lydecker finally accuses him of falling in love with the dead woman.
He also learns that Lydecker was jealous of Laura's suitors, using his newspaper column and influence to keep them at bay.
One night, the detective falls asleep in Laura's apartment, under her portrait, and is awakened by the sound of someone entering the apartment.
He is shocked to discover it is Laura, who finds a dress in her closet belonging to one of her models, Diane Redfern.
McPherson concludes that Redfern was the victim, brought there by Carpenter, while Laura was away in the country.
Now it becomes even more urgent to unmask the murderer.
A party is thrown to welcome Laura's return.
At the party, McPherson arrests Laura for the murder of Diane Redfern.
Upon questioning her, he is convinced that she is innocent and that she does not love Shelby.
He goes to search Lydecker's apartment, where he becomes suspicious of a clock that is identical to the one in Laura's apartment.
On closer examination he finds a secret compartment.
McPherson returns to Laura's apartment.
Lydecker is there and it is apparent that there is a growing bond between Laura and the detective.
Lydecker insults McPherson and is sent away by Laura, but pauses on the stairwell outside.
McPherson examines Laura's clock and finds the shotgun that killed Diane.
Laura is confronted with the truth that Lydecker was the murderer.
McPherson locks Laura into her apartment, warning her to admit no one.
After he has left, Lydecker emerges from another room and attempts to kill Laura, claiming that if he cannot have her, no one can.
He is shot down by McPherson's sergeant, who had told McPherson that Lydecker had never left the building, causing the two policemen to return to the apartment.
Lydecker's last words are: "Goodbye, Laura.
Goodbye, my love".
<EOS>
Newt Winger (Kyle Johnson) is an African-American teenager living in rural Kansas in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
He generally confronts the prejudices of the era with pride and an even temper, unlike his hot-headed friend Marcus Savage (Alex Clarke).
As circumstances slowly pull Newt and Marcus further apart, Newt witnesses a murder – one committed by Marcus' father Booker (Richard Ward).
When Newt's decision to come forward as a witness leads to Booker's suicide, Marcus ambushes and confronts Newt with a gun – resulting in a vicious fight.
Newt wins the fight but spares Marcus' life, only to watch helplessly as Marcus is shot and killed by a racist sheriff (Dana Elcar).
<EOS>
A rich and well-known writer, returning home to Vienna from one of many holidays, finds a long letter from an unknown woman.
As a teenager she had lived with her poor widowed mother in the same building and had fallen totally in love with both the opulent cultured lifestyle of her neighbour and the handsome charming man himself.
This passion was not lessened by the flow of attractive women spending the night with him or by her being removed to Innsbruck when her mother remarried.
At age 18 she returned to Vienna, took a job and tried to meet the writer.
He did not recognise her and, without revealing her name, she succeeded in spending three nights with him before he disappeared on a holiday.
Pregnant, she lost her job and had to give birth in a refuge for the indigent.
Resolved that their child should have a good life, she spent nights with or became mistress of various rich men but would never marry because her heart belonged always to the writer.
Out with a current lover, she saw the writer in a night club and went home with him instead.
To him, she was just an agreeable companion for that night, as he again did not recognise her.
In the 1918 flu pandemic, the child died and she, ill herself, wrote this letter to be posted after her death.
<EOS>
Mr.
Jones (Jules Raucourt), an artist and aspiring movie star, arrives in Hollywood and is immediately star-struck by the glitz and glamour of the film industry.
He speaks with a film studio representative, presenting a letter of recommendation and attempting to speak on his own behalf, but the representative cuts him off and writes the number "9413" on his forehead.
From this point on, 9413 speaks only in unintelligible gibberish and moves in a mechanical fashion, mindlessly following the instructions of film directors and studio representatives.
He goes on a series of casting calls, but is unable to find any success, constantly being confronted with signs that read, "No Casting Today".
A series of images are interspersed throughout these scenes, including shots of Hollywood, cameras filming, the word "DREAMS" written in the stars, and an endlessly repeating loop of a man walking up a stairway toward the word "SUCCESS", without ever reaching the top.
Unlike 9413, other extras around him begin to find success.
A woman (Adriane Marsh) with the number "13" on her head constantly kneels and stands back up at the behest of a film director, and eventually succeeds in landing a part, greeted by a "Casting Today" sign.
Another extra (Voya George) with the number "15", who unlike 9413 has expressionless and unenthusiastic facial expressions, holds paper masks in front of his face, symbolizing his performances.
He is greeted with enthusiasm by the cheering masses, all of whom speak in the same gibberish as 9413.
His number 15 is replaced with a star and he achieves tremendous success.
9413 admires this new movie star and attempts to mimic him, presenting his own, much more impressive-looking mask.
But the star is unimpressed and disregards 9413, who sadly cradles his mask like a baby, lamenting his inability to achieve success.
Time passes and 9413 remains unable to find work in Hollywood.
Despite constant phone calls to studio representatives begging for work, he is repeatedly confronted by "No Casting Today" signs.
He cannot afford to buy food, and bills that he is unable to pay are constantly slipped under his door.
A series of images symbolizing his mental anguish are shown, including twisted trees blowing in the wind, and a man laying on the stairway leading to "SUCCESS", still unable to reach the top.
He falls to the ground, starving, exhausted, and in a state of despair over his failures.
Finally, he dies, and after images are shown of the other actors laughing at him, his tombstone is revealed to read "Here Lies No.
9413, a Hollywood Extra", next to the words "No Casting Today".
After his death, 9413's spirit leaves his body and is pulled by a platform into the sky.
As he gets higher, he grows angel wings and ascends into heaven, a place with glittering crystal towers and bright blinking lights.
A hand removes the "9413" from his forehead, and he smiles happily before flying further into heaven.
<EOS>
Joey Norton, seven years old, lives with his older brother Lennie in a lower-middle-class neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Joey is too small to be taken seriously by Lennie and Lennie's friends.
One day, while their mother is away visiting her sick mother, Lennie and his friends play a joke on Joey.
They stage an incident using catsup and a toy gun, so that Joey thinks he has shot and killed his brother.
Joey, who is told the police will catch and imprison him, runs to the nearest elevated train station and flees to Coney Island.
He seems to forget his predicament and spends the day wandering around the arcades, pony rides, beach—a little boy's paradise.
He gets money for snacks by cashing in deposit bottles, and spends the night sleeping under the boardwalk.
Meanwhile, Lennie is frantically trying to find him, as their mother is due home soon.
Joey loves horses, and he begins hanging around a pony ride.
The proprietor of the ride becomes suspicious that Joey is a runaway.
He tricks Joey into giving him his address.
He calls home and alerts Lennie.
Lennie comes to Coney Island and, after a frantic search, finds little Joey.
Their mother returns just after the two brothers arrive home.
She is unaware of what happened, and, pleased that her two sons behaved so well during her absence, says they will have a treat that weekend: a trip to Coney Island.
<EOS>
The film tells the story of "Marky" (Shirley Temple), whose father gives her to a gangster-run gambling operation as a "marker" (collateral) for a bet.
When he loses his bet and commits suicide, the gangsters are left with her on their hands.
They decide to keep her temporarily and use her to help pull off one of their fixed races, naming her the owner of the horse to be used in the race.
Marky is sent to live with bookie Sorrowful Jones (Adolphe Menjou).
Initially upset about being forced to look after her, he eventually begins to develop a father-daughter relationship with her.
His fellow gangsters become fond of her and begin to fill the roles of her extended family.
Bangles (Dorothy Dell) - girlfriend of gang kingpin Big Steve (Charles Bickford), who has gone to Chicago to place bets on the horse - also begins to care for Marky, and to fall in love with Sorrowful, whose own concern for Marky shows he has a warm heart beneath his hard-man persona.
Sorrowful, encouraged by Bangles and Marky, gets a bigger apartment, buys Marky new clothes and himself a better cut of suit, reads her bedtime stories, and shows her how to pray.
However, being around the gang has a somewhat bad influence on Marky, and she begins to develop a cynical nature and a wide vocabulary of gambling terminology and slang.
Bangles and Sorrowful, worried that she acquired bad-girl attitude means she won't get adopted by a "good family", put on a party with gangsters dressed up as knights-of-the-round-table, to rekindle her former sweetness.
She is unimpressed until they bring in the horse and parade her around on its back.
Big Steve, returning to New York, frightens it which throws her and she is taken to the hospital.
Big Steve goes there to pay back Sorrowful for trying to steal Bangles, but is roped into giving Marky the direct blood transfusion she needs for her life-saving operation.
Sorrowful, praying for her survival, destroys the drug which, administered to the horse, would have helped it win the race but killed it soon after.
Big Steve, told he has "good blood", and pleased to have given life for a change, forgives Bangles and Sorrowful.
They plan to marry and adopt Marky.
<EOS>
The film deals with the adventures of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon, who live a somewhat idyllic existence playing in the bayous of Louisiana.
A sub-plot involves his elderly father's allowing an oil company to drill for oil in the inlet that runs behind their house.
A completely assembled miniature oil rig on a slender barge is towed into the inlet from connecting narrow waterways.
Although there is a moment of crisis when the rig strikes a gas pocket, most of this is dealt with swiftly and off-camera, and the barge, rig, and friendly drillers depart expeditiously, leaving behind a phenomenally clean environment and a wealthy Cajun family.
Conflict and action for the plot is provided by the presence of a giant alligator in the area, which is believed to have eaten the pet raccoon and which is hunted in revenge.
There is no individual or organized resistance to the incursion of the oil seekers, even after the (brief, offscreen) disaster, who are unequivocally portrayed as friendly, progressive humanitarians.
The boy, named in the film as Alexander Napoleon Ulysses Le Tour but in the credits just identified as "the boy", was played by Joseph Boudreaux.
The film was photographed by Richard Leacock and edited by Helen van Dongen, who were also the associate producers.
Original release was through independent film distributor Lopert Films.
<EOS>
It is December 1938 in the town of Carvel.
Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney) is putting a $12 down payment on a used car.
Andy, desperate to take his girlfriend Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford) to the Christmas Eve dance in his own car, must pay an additional $8 by December 23 for it to be his.
When Polly tells Andy she will be visiting her grandmother for the next three weeks and will not be able to attend the Christmas Eve dance with him, Andy vows to attend the dance alone.
Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) later encounters his son, Andy, and Andy broaches the subject of car ownership, but Judge Hardy tells Andy that he cannot have his own car.
Returning home for the evening, Judge Hardy runs into 12-year-old Betsy Booth (Judy Garland), who is staying with her grandparents for the Christmas holiday.
Betsy’s grandmother has been effusive about Andy Hardy and Betsy is thrilled to learn he will be her next door neighbor during her stay.
Judge Hardy’s wife, Emily (Fay Holden), receives a telegram that evening informing her that her mother had a serious stroke.
Emily and her sister leave immediately for rural Canada to care for their mother.
Andy Hardy meets Betsy Booth while delivering some of his mother’s freshly canned preserves.
Betsy is obviously taken with Andy but he does not reciprocate her admiration; he leaves as quickly as possible.
Beezy (George Breakston), Andy’s friend, asks Andy to date Cynthia (Lana Turner), Beezy’s girlfriend, while Beezy is out of town over the Christmas holiday period, so that she will avoid other men.
Beezy promises to pay Andy $8 plus 50 cents a week for expenses for his efforts.
Andy needs the money to purchase his car, so he agrees.
Andy starts going out with Cynthia, but she is bored by sports activities, and they find they only get along when they are busy kissing; after walking Cynthia home Andy stops in to visit Betsy Booth—only he’s covered in Cynthia’s lipstick.
Betsy gives Andy a handsome new radiator cap for his anticipated car, and after he leaves she sadly sings “In-Between.
”  One morning Andy receives a telegram from Polly saying she will be home for the Christmas Eve dance after all.
Andy telephones her saying he can’t take her to the dance because of a previous engagement.
He thereafter opens a letter from Beezy.
Beezy wrote saying he found a new girlfriend so he wasn’t going to pay Andy for dating Cynthia.
Betsy, from a moneyed family, offers to help Andy pay for his car, but he refuses her aid.
That evening he tells his father about the mess he made.
Judge Hardy explains his point of view about spending money on a car versus putting it aside as savings—and then discloses his deep concern for Andy’s mother.
Judge Hardy would like to convey a message to his wife, but there is no telephone at her mother’s home and Emily finds telegrams unnerving.
Andy suggests a message be sent to their mother via ham radio in lieu of sending her a telegram.
Andy brings Judge Hardy to the home of twelve-year-old ham radio operator James McMann Jr (Gene Reynolds) and he sends a message to mrs Hardy.
Judge Hardy is so impressed with James’ help and his son’s ingenuity that he pays the last $8 for Andy’s car.
Betsy deceives Cynthia into thinking that Andy’s car is an absolute wreck; Cynthia haughtily refuses to go to the Christmas Eve dance with Andy.
Andy feels relieved to be able to date Polly again.
Andy tries to clear things up with Polly but, having learned of his fling with Cynthia, she angrily tells Andy that she won’t go to the dance with him because she has a date with a college boy.
Christmas Eve finds Andy wholly dejected at the prospect of not having a date for the dance—but when Betsy comes over in her evening gown he decides to take her to the dance.
At the dance Polly’s date recognizes Betsy as an accomplished singer and asks her to perform; Andy is scared that she will embarrass him, but she proves to be a fantastic singer and quickly wins over the crowd with “It Never Rains But it Pours” and encores with “Meet the Beat of My Heart.
” Betsy and Andy lead the dance in a grand march after Polly leaves in tears.
Late that evening at home after the dance, Betsy Booth and the Hardy family are gathered together around the Christmas tree when mrs Hardy unexpectedly returns home—her mother is getting better.
On Christmas Day Betsy explains everything to Polly.
Polly and her date from the dance come over to the Hardy home, and Polly’s date turns out to be her cousin.
Betsy expresses her gratitude to Andy for a wonderful evening and leaves.
Polly and Andy make up.
<EOS>
The story describes an encounter between a Parisian tailor named Maurice Courtelin (Chevalier) and a family of local aristocrats.
These include Vicomte Gilbert de Varèze (Ruggles), who owes Maurice a large amount of money for tailoring work; Gilbert's uncle the Duc d'Artelines (C.
Aubrey Smith), the family patriarch; d'Artelines' man-hungry niece Valentine (Loy); and his other 22-year-old niece, Princesse Jeanette (MacDonald), who has been a widow for three years.
D'Artelines has been unable to find Jeanette a new husband of suitable age and rank.
The household also includes three aunts and an ineffectual suitor the Comte de Savignac (Butterworth).
Maurice custom-tailors clothing for de Varèze on credit, but the Vicomte's unpaid tailoring bills become intolerable, so Maurice travels to de Savignac's castle to collect the money owed to him.
On the way, he has a confrontation with Princesse Jeanette.
He immediately professes his love for her, but she haughtily rejects him.
When Maurice arrives at the castle, Gilbert introduces him as "Baron Courtelin" in order to hide the truth from the Comte.
Maurice is fearful of this scheme at first, but changes his mind when he sees Jeanette.
While staying at the castle, he arouses Valentine's desire, charms the rest of the family except for Jeanette, saves a deer's life during a hunt, and continues to woo Jeanette.
The Comte de Savignac discovers that Maurice is a fake, but the Vicomte then claims that Maurice is a royal who is traveling incognito for security reasons.
Finally, Jeanette succumbs to Maurice's charms, telling him "Whoever you are, whatever you are, wherever you are, I love you".
When Maurice criticizes Jeanette's tailor, the family confronts him for his rudeness, only to catch him and Jeanette alone with Jeanette partially undressed.
Maurice explains that he is redesigning Jeanette's riding outfit, and he proves this by successfully altering it, but in the process he is forced to reveal his true identity.
Despite her earlier promise, Jeanette recoils from him and runs to her room on hearing that he is a commoner.
The entire household is outraged, and Maurice leaves.
However, as a train carries him back to Paris, Jeanette struggles with her fears, finally realizes her mistake, and catches up to the train on horseback.
When the engineer refuses to stop the train, she rides ahead and stands on the track.
The train stops, Maurice jumps out, and the two lovers embrace as steam from the train envelops them.
<EOS>
Mysto the Magician appeals to a snobbish opera singer, the Great Poochini (a pun on opera composer Giacomo Puccini), to let him perform an opening act at the show that night.
Mysto's tricks primarily come from his magic wand, which can summon flowers and rabbits.
After Mysto dances and asks him if he gets the job, Poochini emphatically says "NO.
" as he kicks Mysto out the door into the alley.
While on the ground, upsetter Mysto plays with his magic wand, but soon realizes he can pass it off as a conductor's baton, being further inspired by seeing himself in place of the conductor in a promotional poster outside the door and plans to get revenge on Poochini.
Later, as the performance is starting he freezes the conductor, steals his tuxedo, nose and hair, then takes his place in front of the orchestra to conduct the Great Poochini, who is unaware of the imposter in front of him.
During the performance, in which Poochini (performed by the Colombian baritone Carlos Julio Ramírez) sings Largo al factotum from Gioacchino Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Mysto unleashes a variety of tricks with his wand.
He begins tamely by summoning rabbits and flowers, then turning Poochini into a ballet dancer, Indian, tennis player, prisoner rock-breaker and football player.
Mysto's revenge gets more brutal as he throws a cymbal on Poochini's head, turning him Chinese (see below), then transforming him into a country singer and sings, Oh My Darling, Clementine.
After levitating Poochini to the ceiling and slamming him down to the stage, Mysto turns him into a square dance caller.
Poochini actually continues his performance for a good 20 seconds after this without interruption, except for the "hair gag".
Poochini is then transformed into a Shirley Temple&ndash;esque child (who sings "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" before the balloon blows up and pops), then a Carmen Miranda&ndash;type singer (with two rabbits accompanying him on guitar) after an irritated audience member hurls an armload of fruit onto Poochini's head where it piles up like Miranda's headdress.
The same guy later sprays black ink on Poochini turning him into Bill Kenny from the Ink Spots, then he throws an anvil on him, crushing him into a shorter height and deepening his voice as well.
After a rabbit hoses off Poochini's face and another rabbit works his arm like an automobile jack to get him back up to full height, the fun continues as he is transformed into a Hawaiian singer with two rabbits for harmony.
Reaching the end of the number, Mysto's plan is finally revealed to Poochini as his wig falls off.
Mysto quickly puts the wig back on, but it's too late.
Now set for revenge of his own, Poochini furiously grabs the hairpiece and puts it on while Mysto tries to flee, but Poochini, having also grabbed the magic wand, stops the magician by using the wand on him as placing Mysto to the stage and unleashes the same gimmicks on the hapless magician at high speed.
A red curtain with the words "The End" then falls on the magician and the rabbits (at the end of the Hawaiian singer shtick).
<EOS>
The film opens with a montage of images of Manhattan and other parts of New York City accompanied by George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, with Isaac Mortimer Davis (Woody Allen) narrating drafts of an introduction to a book about a man who loves the city.
Isaac is a twice-divorced, 42-year-old television comedy writer dealing with the women in his life who quits his unfulfilling job.
He is dating Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a 17-year-old girl attending the Dalton School.
His best friend, college professor Yale Pollack (Michael Murphy), married to Emily (Anne Byrne), is having an affair with Mary Wilkie (Diane Keaton).
Mary's ex-husband and former teacher, Jeremiah (Wallace Shawn), also appears.
Isaac's ex-wife Jill Davis (Meryl Streep) is writing a confessional book about their marriage.
Jill has also since come out of the closet as a lesbian and lives with her partner, Connie (Karen Ludwig).
When Isaac meets Mary, her cultural snobbery rubs him the wrong way.
Isaac runs into her again at an Equal Rights Amendment fund-raising event at the Museum of Modern Art hosted by Bella Abzug (who is played by herself) and accompanies her on a cab ride home.
They chat until sunrise in a sequence that culminates in the iconic shot of the Queensboro Bridge.
In spite of a growing attraction to Mary, Isaac continues his relationship with Tracy but emphasizes that theirs cannot be a serious relationship and encourages her to go to London to study acting.
In another iconic scene, at Tracy's request, they go on a carriage ride through Central Park.
After Yale breaks up with Mary, he suggests that Isaac ask her out.
Isaac does, always having felt that Tracy was too young for him.
Isaac breaks up with Tracy, much to her dismay, and before long, Mary has virtually moved into his apartment.
Emily is curious about Isaac's new girlfriend, and after several meetings between the two couples, including one where Emily reads out portions of Jill's new book about her marriage with Isaac, Yale leaves Emily to resume his relationship with Mary.
A betrayed Isaac confronts Yale at the college where he teaches, and Yale argues that he found Mary first.
Isaac responds by discussing Yale's extramarital affairs with Emily, but Yale told her that Isaac introduced Mary to him.
In the denouement, Isaac lies on his sofa, musing into a tape recorder about the things that make "life worth living".
When he finds himself saying "Tracy's face", he sets down the microphone.
He leaves his apartment and sets out on foot for Tracy's.
He arrives at the lobby of her family's apartment just as she is leaving for London.
He says that she does not have to go and that he does not want "that thing about [her] that [he] like[s]" to change.
She replies that the plans have already been made and reassures him that "not everybody gets corrupted" before saying "you have to have a little faith in people".
He gives her a slight smile with a final coy look to the camera then segueing into final shots of the skyline with some bars of Rhapsody in Blue playing again.
An instrumental version of "Embraceable You" plays over the credits.
<EOS>
The backdrop for Meet Me in st Louis is st Louis, Missouri in the year leading up to the 1904 World's Fair.
It is summer 1903.
The Smith family leads a comfortable upper-middle class life.
Alonzo Smith (Leon Ames) and his wife Anna (Mary Astor) have four daughters: Rose (Lucille Bremer), Esther, Agnes, and Tootie; and a son, Lon Jr.
(Henry Daniels, Jr) Esther, the second eldest daughter (Judy Garland), is in love with the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), although he does not notice her at first.
Rose is expecting a phone call in which she hopes to be proposed to by Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully).
Esther finally gets to meet John properly when he is a guest at the Smiths' house party, although her chances of romancing him don't go to plan when, after all the guests are gone and he is helping her turn off the gas lamps throughout the house, he tells her she uses the same perfume as his grandmother and that she has "a mighty strong grip for a girl".
Esther hopes to meet John again the following Friday on a trolley ride from the city to the construction site of the World Fair.
Esther is sad when the trolley sets off without any sign of him, but cheers up when she sees him running to catch the trolley mid journey.
On Halloween, Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) returns home injured, claiming that John Truett attacked her.
Without bothering to investigate, Esther confronts John, physically attacking him and scolding him for being a "bully".
When Esther returns home, Tootie confesses that what really happened was that John was trying to protect Tootie and Agnes (Joan Carroll) from the police after a dangerous prank they pulled went wrong.
Upon learning the truth, Esther immediately dashes to John's house next door to apologize, and they share their first kiss.
mr Smith announces to the family that he is to be sent to New York on business and eventually they will all move.
The family is devastated and upset at the news of the move, especially Rose and Esther whose romances, friendships, and educational plans are threatened.
Esther is also aghast because they will miss the World's Fair.
An elegant ball takes place on Christmas Eve.
Esther is devastated when John cannot take her as his date, due to his leaving his tuxedo at the tailor's and being unable to get it back.
But she is relieved when her grandfather (Harry Davenport) offers to take her instead.
At the ball, Esther fills up a visiting girl's (Lucille Ballard, played by June Lockhart) dance card with losers because she thinks Lucille is a rival of Rose's.
But when Lucille turns out to be interested in Lon, Esther switches her dance card with Lucille's and instead dances herself with the clumsy and awkward partners.
After being rescued by Grandpa, she is overwhelmed when John unexpectedly turns up after somehow managing to obtain a tuxedo, and the pair dance together for the rest of the evening.
Later on, John proposes to Esther and she accepts.
Esther returns home to an upset Tootie.
She is soothed by the poignant "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".
Tootie, however, becomes more upset at the prospect of the family's move and runs downstairs, out into the cold to destroy the snowmen they have made.
mr Smith sees his daughter's upsetting outburst from an upstairs window.
mr Smith later announces that the family will not leave st Louis after all when he realizes how much the move will affect his family.
Warren boldly declares his love for Rose, stating that they will marry at the first possible opportunity.
On or after April 30, 1904, the family take two horse drawn buggies to the World's Fair.
The film ends that night with the entire family (including boyfriends-to-turn-into-presumed-husbands and Lon's new love interest) overlooking the Grand Lagoon at the center of the World's Fair just as thousands of lights illuminate the grand pavilions.
<EOS>
A woman sees someone on the street as she is walking back to her home.
She goes to her room and sleeps on a chair.
As soon as she is asleep, she experiences a dream in which she repeatedly tries to chase a mysterious hooded figure with a mirror for a face but is unable to catch it.
With each failure, she re-enters her house and sees numerous household objects including a key, a knife, a flower, a telephone and a phonograph.
The woman follows the hooded figure to her bedroom where she sees the figure hide the knife under a pillow.
Throughout the story, she sees multiple instances of herself, all bits of her dream that she has already experienced.
The woman tries to kill her sleeping body with a knife but is awakened by a man.
The man leads her to the bedroom and she realizes that everything she saw in the dream was actually happening.
She notices that the man's posture is similar to that of the hooded figure when it hid the knife under the pillow.
She attempts to injure him and fails.
Towards the end, the man walks into the house and sees a broken mirror being dropped onto wet ground.
He then sees the woman in the chair, who was previously sleeping, but is now dead.
Directors Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid portrayed the role of the woman and the man.
<EOS>
Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) is a small-town girl with a soft spot for soldiers.
She wakes up one morning after a wild farewell party for a group of them to find that while drunk the night before, she married a soldier whose name she can't remember, except that "it had a z in it.
Like Ratzkywatzky [.
] or was it Zitzkywitzky.
" She believes they both used fake names and she doesn't know how to get in touch with him or even what he looks like.
The matter is complicated when she learns that she became pregnant that night as well.
Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), a local 4-F boy who has been in love with Trudy for years, steps in to help out, but Trudy's over-protective father (William Demarest), a policeman, gets involved and complicates matters.
Before long, Norval is arrested on 19 different charges, and then he finds himself on the run as an escaped prisoner.
All seems lost until Trudy gives birth to sextuplets.
At that point Governor McGinty (Brian Donlevy) and The Boss (Akim Tamiroff) step in and provide a phone call which results in a happy ending for everyone.
When Norval discovers that Trudy has borne not just one son but six, he faints, and the movie ends with this epilogue on a title card:.
<EOS>
The story concerns a woman, Lulu, who lives with her sister's family, essentially acting as a servant.
She does not complain about her position, but is not happy.
When her brother-in-law's brother, Ninian, comes to visit, there is a certain attraction between them.
While joking around one evening they find themselves accidentally married, due to the laws of the state requiring little more than wedding vows to be recited while a magistrate is in the room for a marriage to count as legal.
On learning this, Ninian and Lulu decide they actually like the idea of being married, and choose to stick with it.
However, within a month, Lulu is back home, having discovered that Ninian was already legally married: 18 years prior he had wed a girl who left him after 2 years, and he had actually forgotten about the whole thing.
Lulu considers this a reasonable story, but her brother-in-law, Dwight, insists that it would be a humiliation to the family to reveal such a thing, and insists that she tell everyone instead that Ninian grew bored with her and left her.
Lulu is unable to see why this should be a less humiliating story, and begins to complain about her circumstances for the first time.
She also notices that her teenage niece, Di, is unhappy, and also seems to be trying to use marriage as a way to escape her circumstance.
Lulu eventually has to prevent Di from eloping, and is finally inspired to move out of her sister's home and live on her own.
Two endings were written for the play, the original as seen in December 1920 (and the ending that won Gale the Pulitzer Prize from Drama; the first woman ever to do so) has Lulu starting a life on her own and undertaking adventures of her own as we hear in her final lines, "Good-by.
Good-by, all of you.
I'm going I don't know where-to work at I don't know what.
But I'm going from choice.
"  The revised ending is a much less satisfying one, but is more typical and would have been a bit more commercially acceptable and far less challenging to the audiences of the day.
In this ending, Ninian shows up in the nick of time just as Lulu decides to go off on her own life to work and live elsewhere.
He asks her forgiveness and she agrees saying "I forgave you in Savannah, Georgia".
<EOS>
Modern Times portrays Chaplin as a factory worker employed on an assembly line.
There, he is subjected to such indignities as being force-fed by a malfunctioning "feeding machine" and an accelerating assembly line where he screws nuts at an ever-increasing rate onto pieces of machinery.
He finally suffers a nervous breakdown and runs amok, throwing the factory into chaos.
He is sent to a hospital.
Following his recovery, the now unemployed factory worker is mistakenly arrested as an instigator in a Communist demonstration.
In jail, he accidentally ingests smuggled cocaine, mistaking it for salt.
In his subsequent delirium, he avoids being put back in his cell.
When he returns, he stumbles upon a jailbreak and knocks the convicts unconscious.
He is hailed as a hero and given special treatment.
When he is informed that he will soon be released due to his heroic actions, he argues unsuccessfully that he prefers it in jail.
Outside of jail, he applies for a new job but leaves after causing an accident.
He runs into a recently orphaned girl, Ellen (Paulette Goddard), who is fleeing the police after stealing a loaf of bread.
Determined to go back to jail and to save the girl, he tells police that he is the thief and ought to be arrested.
A witness reveals his deception and he is freed.
To get arrested again, he eats an enormous amount of food at a cafeteria without paying.
He meets up with Ellen in a paddy wagon, which crashes, and she convinces him to escape with her.
Dreaming of a better life, he gets a job as a night watchman at a department store, sneaks Ellen into the store, and encounters three burglars: one of whom is "Big Bill", a fellow worker from the factory at the beginning of the film, who explains that they are hungry and desperate.
After sharing drinks with them, he wakes up the next morning during opening hours and is arrested once more.
Ten days later, Ellen takes him to a new home – a run-down shack that she admits "isn't Buckingham Palace" but will do.
The next morning, the factory worker reads about an old factory re-opening and lands a job there as a mechanic's assistant.
His boss accidentally falls into the machinery, but the worker manages to extricate him.
The other workers suddenly decide to go on strike.
Outside, the worker accidentally launches a brick at a policeman and is arrested again.
Two weeks later, he is released and learns that Ellen is a café dancer.
She gets him a job as a singer and waiter, where he goes about his duties rather clumsily.
During his floor show, he loses a cuff that bears the lyrics to his song, but he rescues the act by improvising the lyrics; using gibberish from multiple languages, combined with some pantomiming.
His act proves a hit.
When police arrive to arrest Ellen for her earlier escape, the two flee again.
Ellen despairs that there's no point to their struggling, but the factory worker assures her that they'll make it somehow.
In the final scene, they walk down a road at dawn, towards an uncertain but hopeful future.
<EOS>
The film is set in the late 1920s.
It opens in Morocco, with the French Foreign Legion returning from a campaign.
Among them is Légionnaire Private Tom Brown (Gary Cooper).
Meanwhile, on a ship bound for Morocco is the disillusioned nightclub singer Amy Jolly (Marlene Dietrich).
Wealthy La Bessière (Adolphe Menjou) attempts to make her acquaintance, offering to assist her on her first trip to Morocco.
When she politely refuses any help, he gives her his calling card, which she later tears up and tosses away.
They meet again at the nightclub where she is a new headliner.
Also in the audience is Private Tom Brown (Gary Cooper).
Amy, who comes out in a tophat and tails, is first greeted by boos, which she coolly ignores.
Tom begins to clap, interrupting their jeers, and others follow suit.
After the noise subsides she sings her number ("Quand l'amour Meurt" or "When Love Dies") and is met with ecstatic applause.
Seeing a woman in the audience with a flower in her hair, she asks if she may keep it, to which the woman responds "of course".
She playfully kisses the woman on the mouth, and throws the flower to Private Tom Brown.
Her second performance ("What am I bid for my Apple.
"), this time in feminine dress, is also a hit.
After the number she sells apples to the audience, including La Bessière and Tom Brown.
When Amy gives the latter his "change", she slips him her key.
That night, Tom sets out to take Amy up on her offer.
On the street he encounters Adjudant Caesar's wife (Eve Southern).
It is clear that she has a past clandestine relationship with him, which she desires intensely to maintain, but Toms rejects her.
Entering Amy's house, they become acquainted.
Her house is plastered with photos from her past, which she, like a Foreign Legion soldier, reveals nothing of.
He asks Amy if the man in the photographs is her husband, and she answers that she has never found someone good enough, a sentiment shared by Tom.
She has become embittered with life and men after repeated betrayals, and asks if he can restore her faith in men.
He answers that he is the wrong man for that, and that no one should have faith in him.
As they talk, she finds herself coming to like him.
Unwilling to risk heartbreak once again, she asks him to leave before anything serious happens.
As he leaves, he encounters Caesar's wife again.
Her husband, Tom's commanding officer, watches undetected from the shadows.
Meanwhile, Amy changes her mind and seeks Tom out.
With Amy in arm, Tom leaves Madame Caesar, who then hires two street ruffians to attack the couple.
Tom manages to seriously wound both, while he and Amy escape unscathed.
The next day, Tom is brought before Adjutant Caesar (who had been watching them clandestinely) on the charge of injuring two allegedly harmless natives.
Amy clears him, but Caesar makes him aware that he knows about Tom's involvement with his wife.
La Bessière, whose affections for Amy continue unabated, knows her concern for Tom and offers to use his weight with Caesar to lighten his punishment.
Instead of a court martial, Tom is released from detention and ordered to leave for Amalfi Pass with a detachment commanded by Caesar.
He suspects that Caesar intends to rid himself of his romantic rival, and fears for his life were he to go.
Amy is saddened by the news that he is leaving.
Meanwhile, Tom, war-weary and enamored with Amy, plans to desert to be with her.
That night at the nightclub, La Bessière enters Amy's dressing room.
He gifts her with a lavish bracelet, which she attempts to refuse, before setting it on her table.
At the same time Tom, intending to tell her of his plans, arrives at the door of her dressing room.
Tom overhears La Bessière offer to marry Amy, an offer she politely turns down.
La Bessière asks her if it is because she is in love, to which she responds that she doesn't think she is.
Asking her if she would make the same choice if not for "a certain private in the Foreign Legion", she answers that she does not know.
After hearing this Tom knocks on the door, and La Bessière kindly lets them alone so Tom can say goodbye to her.
As they embrace, Amy tells him not to go, and he responds that that's what he intended to do.
He will desert and board a train to Europe, but if she would join him.
She agrees to this.
A buzzer signals it is time for her to perform, and she asks him to wait for her to return.
After she departs, he notices the lavish bracelet on her dressing room table.
Though he has fallen in love with her himself, Tom decides that she would be better off with a rich man than with a poor Legionnaire.
He writes on her mirror, "I changed my mind.
Good luck.
".
The next day Amy arrives with La Bessière to see the company's departure, so that she can bid Tom farewell.
Adding further injury, he hides the depth of his feelings for her by having several women in his company, who cling to him so doggedly that Amy must maneuver herself between them to shake his hand.
She asks La Bessière about the women trailing after the company, who explains that they follow the men.
She wonders how they keep pace with them, and he answers "Sometimes they catch up with them, and sometimes they don't.
And very often when they do, they find their men dead".
Amy remarks that the women must be mad to do such a thing, to which La Bessière responds "I don't know.
You see, they love their men".
On the march to Amalfi Pass, Tom's company detachment runs into a machine gun nest.
Caesar orders Tom to deal with it, and Tom suspects it is a suicide mission.
To his surprise, Caesar decides to accompany him.
Caesar is killed by the enemy.
Though in a relationship with La Bessière, Amy pines for Tom.
She is devastated by his treatment of her, and begins drinking heavily and acting erratically at work.
La Bessière enters her dressing room to find her singing gayly.
He asks if she is in high spirits because she has heard news of Tom.
She leads him to the mirror to show him the note Tom left, which she had hidden behind a flower pot.
Still concealing her grief, she asks him to pour her a drink, before throwing its contents on the mirror and breaking the glass.
La Bessière consoles her, and Amy eventually accepts his proposal.
Later, at their engagement party, La Bessière and Amy learn that what's left of Tom's detachment has returned.
Frantic, Amy rushes outside, but learns that Tom was wounded and left behind to recuperate in a hospital.
She informs La Bessière that she must go to Tom that very night; and wanting only her happiness, he drives her there.
She finds that Tom has not been injured at all, but has instead been faking an injury to avoid combat.
Instead of the hospital ward, he has been residing in a canteen.
Accompanying him is a native woman, who attempts to console him, knowing he is brokenhearted over leaving his love.
He has carved "AMY JOLLY" inside a heart, covered by a heap of cigarette butts from his chain smoking.
When Amy arrives, Tom asks her if she is married, to which she answers in the negative.
He then asks if she plans to marry La Bessière, to which she replies with a yes.
He encourages her to marry him, not revealing his feelings for her.
As he prepares to join his new unit, she finds his knife on the table, which he has forgotten.
When he returns to collect it, she remarks that he has also forgotten to say goodbye.
He asks her to see the unit off as they leave at dawn.
Alone and distraught, Amy sifts through the pile of playing cards and cigarettes, and finds the heart with her name in it.
The next morning she attends as his unit disembarks.
Amy is torn in leaving him with the knowledge of his love for her, but when she sees a handful of native women stubbornly following the Legionnaires they love, she joins them.
<EOS>
In a music store, mrs Theodore von Schwartzenhoffen orders a player piano as a surprise birthday gift for her husband, Professor Theodore von Schwartzenhoffen,D,D,DS,LD, F-F-F-and-F.
She tells the manager her address — 1127 Walnut Avenue — and he hires the Laurel and Hardy Transfer Company to deliver the piano in their freight wagon.
The duo soon learn from a postman that the home is at the top of a very long stairway.
Their attempts to carry the piano up the stairs result in it rolling and crashing into the street below several times, twice with Ollie in tow.
During their first attempt, they encounter a lady with a baby carriage trying to go down the steps; in trying to let her pass, they knock the piano back down the stairs.
After the lady laughs at them, Stan kicks her in her backside, causing her to punch him back and hit Ollie over the head with a milk bottle.
Stan and Ollie then heft the piano back up the stairs.
The angry lady tells a policeman on the corner, who kicks Ollie twice and hits Stan with his truncheon after the latter suggests the officer is "bounding over his steps" (ie.
"overstepping his bounds").
Meanwhile, the piano has rolled down the steps again.
Yet the two doggedly persist in carrying the piano up the stairs for a third time.
Halfway up, they encounter the short-tempered and pompous Professor von Schwartzenhoffen, who impatiently tells them to take the piano out of his way; he should like to pass.
Ollie very reasonably and sensibly suggests he walk around, which sets off the Professor in a fit of German rage.
He screams at Stan and Ollie to get the piano out of his way, and Stan knocks the Professor's top hat down the stairs and into the street, where it is crushed by a passing vehicle.
The outraged professor goes off, loudly threatening to have the two arrested.
Finally, Stan and Ollie get the piano to the top, where Ollie falls into a fountain.
As they ring the bell of 1127 Walnut Avenue, the piano rolls back down to the street again.
They wearily drag it back up the stairs, and meet the postman by the house, who informs them they did not have to lift the piano up the stairs; they could have driven up the hill and stopped in front of the house.
Stan and Ollie promptly carry the piano back down the stairs, put it back in their wagon and drive it up the hill to the house.
Finding no one home, they finally succeed in getting the piano in the house, making a shambles of the living room while unpacking it.
Meanwhile, the owner of 1127 Walnut Avenue — Professor von Schwartzenhoffen — returns and is outraged at what he finds, as he hates pianos.
He attacks the piano with an axe, destroying it, but regrets his actions when mrs Von Schwartzenhoffen returns home and tearfully tells her husband it had been a surprise birthday present.
To apologize for his actions, the Professor signs the check, but the pen Stan and Ollie give him squirts ink over his face.
Furious, Schwartzenhoffen blows his temper again and makes the duo run away.
<EOS>
A plot device is a means of advancing the plot in a story.
It is often used to motivate characters, create urgency, or resolve a difficulty.
This can be contrasted with moving a story forward with dramatic technique; that is, by making things happen because characters take action for well-developed reasons.
An example of a plot device would be when the cavalry shows up at the last moment and saves the day in a battle.
In contrast, an adversarial character who has been struggling with himself and saves the day due to a change of heart would be considered dramatic technique.
Familiar types of plot devices include the deus ex machina, the MacGuffin, the red herring, and Chekhov's gun.
A plot outline is a prose telling of a story which can be turned into a screenplay.
Sometimes it is called a "one page" because of its length.
It is generally longer and more detailed than a standard synopsis, which is usually only one or two paragraphs, but shorter and less detailed than a treatment or a step outline.
In comics, the roughs refer to a stage in the development where the story has been broken down very loosely in a style similar to storyboarding in film development.
This stage is also referred to as storyboarding or layouts.
In Japanese manga, this stage is called the nemu (pronounced like the English word "name").
The roughs are quick sketches arranged within a suggested page layout.
The main goals of roughs are: In fiction writing, a plot outline is a laundry list of scenes with each line being a separate plot point, and the outline helps give a story a "solid backbone and structure".
<EOS>
In 1882 (in reality, the gunfight at theK.
Corral happened on October 26, 1881), Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, and James Earp are driving cattle to California when they cross Old Man Clanton.
When they learn about the nearby boom town of Tombstone, the older brothers ride in, leaving the youngest brother James to watch over the cattle.
The Earps soon learn that Tombstone is a lawless town without a marshal.
Wyatt is the only man in the town willing to face the drunk Indian shooting at the townspeople.
When they return to their camp, they find the cattle rustled and James murdered.
Seeking to avenge his brother's murder, Wyatt returns to Tombstone.
To identify the perpetrator, he takes the open position of town marshal and meets with Doc Holliday and the Clanton gang several times.
During this time, Clementine Carter, Doc's ex-love interest from his hometown of Boston, arrives in town on the stagecoach, having searched for him for some time, and is given a room at the same hotel where both Wyatt and Doc Holliday are residing.
<EOS>
During the Great Depression, Godfrey "Smith" Parke (William Powell) is living alongside other men down on their luck at a New York City dump on the East River near the 59th Street Bridge.
One night, spoiled socialite Cornelia Bullock (Gail Patrick) offers him five dollars to be her "forgotten man" for a scavenger hunt.
Annoyed, he advances on her, causing her to retreat and fall on a pile of ashes.
She leaves in a fury, much to the glee of her younger sister, Irene (Carole Lombard).
After talking with her, Godfrey finds her to be kind, if a bit scatter-brained.
He offers to go with Irene to help her beat Cornelia.
In the ballroom of the Waldorf-Ritz Hotel, Irene's long-suffering businessman father, Alexander Bullock (Eugene Pallette), waits resignedly as his ditsy wife, Angelica (Alice Brady), and her mooching "protégé" Carlo (Mischa Auer) play the game.
Godfrey arrives and is authenticated as a "forgotten man".
He then addresses the crowd, expressing his contempt for their antics.
Irene is apologetic and offers him a job as the family butler, which he gratefully accepts.
The next morning, Godfrey is shown what to do by the Bullocks' sardonic, wise-cracking maid, Molly (Jean Dixon), the only servant who has been able to put up with the antics of the family.
She warns him that he is merely the latest in a long line of butlers.
Only slightly daunted, he proves to be surprisingly competent, although Cornelia holds a grudge against him.
On the other hand, Irene considers Godfrey to be her protégé.
A complication arises when Tommy Gray (Alan Mowbray), a lifelong friend of Godfrey's, recognizes him at a tea party thrown by Irene.
Godfrey quickly ad-libs that he was Tommy's valet at Harvard.
Tommy plays along, embellishing Godfrey's story with a nonexistent wife and five children.
Dismayed, Irene impulsively announces her engagement to the surprised Charlie Van Rumple (Grady Sutton), but she soon breaks down in tears and flees after being congratulated by Godfrey.
Over lunch the next day, Tommy is curious to know what one of the elite "Parkes of Boston" is doing as a servant.
Godfrey explains that a broken love affair had left him considering suicide, but the undaunted attitude of the men living at the dump rekindled his spirits.
During lunch, Cornelia has her longstanding boyfriend "Faithful George" (Robert Light) call Tommy away to the telephone.
She takes a seat at Godfrey's table and attempts to negotiate a peace with him — but only on her terms.
Godfrey declines and Cornelia leaves in a huff.
When everything she does to make Godfrey's life miserable fails, Cornelia plants her pearl necklace under his mattress.
She then calls the police to report her missing jewelry.
To Cornelia's surprise, the pearls do not turn up when Godfrey's suite is searched.
mr Bullock realizes his daughter has orchestrated the whole thing and sees the policemen out.
After they have gone, he informs Cornelia she had better find her pearls herself, as they are not insured.
The Bullocks then send their daughters off to Europe to get Irene away from her now-broken engagement.
When they return, Cornelia implies that she intends to seduce Godfrey.
Worried, Irene stages a fainting spell and falls into Godfrey's arms.
He carries her to her bed, but while searching for smelling salts, he realizes she is faking when he sees her (in a mirror) sit up briefly.
In revenge, he puts her in the shower and turns on the cold water full blast.
Far from quenching her attraction, this merely confirms her hopes: "Oh Godfrey, now I know you love me.
You do or you wouldn't have lost your temper".
Godfrey resigns as the Bullocks' butler.
However, mr Bullock has more pressing concerns.
He first throws Carlo out, then announces to his family and Godfrey that his business is in dire straits and that he might even face criminal charges.
Godfrey interrupts with good news: he had sold short, using money raised by pawning Cornelia's necklace, and bought the stock that Bullock had sold.
He gives the endorsed stock certificates to the stunned mr Bullock, saving the family.
He also returns the necklace to a humbled Cornelia, who apologizes.
Godfrey then leaves.
With his stock profits and reluctant business partner Tommy Gray's backing, Godfrey has built a fashionable nightclub at the now-closed East River dump called "The Dump", ".
giving food and shelter to fifty people in the winter, and giving them employment in the summer".
Godfrey tells Tommy he quit the Bullocks because "he felt that foolish feeling coming along again".
However, a determined Irene tracks him down in his manager's apartment at The Dump and bulldozes him into marriage, saying, "Stand still, Godfrey, it'll all be over in a minute".
<EOS>
In 1938, handsome, irresponsible playboy Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) meets dowdy Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) on a train and charms her into eloping despite the strong disapproval of her wealthy father, General McLaidlaw (Sir Cedric Hardwicke).
After a lavish honeymoon and returning to an extravagant house, Lina discovers that Johnnie has no job and no income, habitually lives on borrowed money, and was intending to try to sponge off her father.
She talks him into getting a job, and he goes to work for his cousin, estate agent Captain Melbeck (Leo Carroll).
Gradually, Lina learns that Johnnie has continued to gamble wildly, despite promising to quit, and that to pay a gambling debt, he sold two antique chairs (family heirlooms) that her father had given her as a wedding present.
Beaky (Nigel Bruce), Johnnie's good-natured but naive friend, tries to reassure Lina that her husband is a lot of fun and a highly entertaining liar.
She repeatedly catches Johnnie in ever more significant lies, discovering that he was fired weeks before for embezzling from his cousin Melbeck, who says he will not prosecute if the money is repaid.
Lina writes a letter to Johnnie that she is leaving him, but then tears it up.
After this, Johnnie enters the room and shows her a telegram announcing her father's death.
Johnnie is severely disappointed to discover that Lina has inherited no money, only her father's portrait.
He convinces Beaky to finance a hugely speculative land development scheme.
Lina is afraid this is a confidence trick or worse, and tries to talk Beaky out of it, but he trusts his friend completely.
Johnnie overhears and angrily warns his wife to stay out of his affairs, but later he calls the whole thing off.
When Beaky leaves for Paris, Johnnie accompanies him partway.
Later, news reaches Lina that Beaky died in Paris.
Johnnie lies to her and an investigating police inspector, saying that he stayed in London.
This and other details lead Lina to suspect he was responsible for Beaky's death.
Lina then begins to fear that her husband is plotting to kill her for her life insurance.
He has been questioning her friend Isobel Sedbusk (Auriol Lee), a writer of mystery novels, about untraceable poisons.
Johnnie brings Lina a glass of milk before bed, but she is too afraid to drink it.
Needing to get away for a while, she says she will stay with her mother for a few days.
Johnnie insists on driving her there.
He speeds recklessly in a powerful convertible (a 1936 Lagonda LG45) on a dangerous road beside a cliff.
Lina's door unexpectedly swings open.
Johnnie reaches over, his intent unclear to the terrified woman.
When she shrinks from him, he stops the car.
In the subsequent confrontation, it emerges that Johnnie was actually intending to commit suicide after taking Lina to her mother's.
Now, however, he has decided that suicide is the coward's way out, and is resolved to face his responsibilities, even to the point of going to jail for the embezzlement.
He was in Liverpool at the time of Beaky's death, trying to borrow on Lina's life insurance policy to repay Melbeck.
Her suspicions allayed, Lina tells him that they will face the future together.
<EOS>
Racial wars have torn theS.
apart, resulting in a post-apocalyptic world.
Many small pockets of civilization still exist; from isolated super high-tech fortresses, hidden research labs, or racial groups in walled-in cities — all fighting each other among the more regular population which in many ways resembles the "old west".
Jeremiah and his friend Kurdy travel the country, taking odd jobs and getting mixed up in various affairs.
Jeremiah, being the more noble of the two, often sticks his neck out to help others, while Kurdy is a more wily, opportunistic scoundrel.
Despite its setting, Jeremiah's underlying motif is of hope and the survival of mankind.
The storylines carry little from album to album, meaning they can be read individually.
<EOS>
The story describes a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures, whereof women are simple line-segments, while men are polygons with various numbers of sides.
The narrator is a square named A Square, a member of the caste of gentlemen and professionals, who guides the readers through some of the implications of life in two dimensions.
The first half of the story goes through the practicalities of existing in a two-dimensional universe as well as a history leading up to the year 1999 on the eve of the 3rd Millennium.
On New Year's Eve, the Square dreams about a visit to a one-dimensional world (Lineland) inhabited by "lustrous points", in which he attempts to convince the realm's monarch of a second dimension; but is unable to do so.
In the end, the monarch of Lineland tries to kill A Square rather than tolerate his nonsense any further.
Following this vision, he is himself visited by a three-dimensional sphere named A Sphere, which he cannot comprehend until he sees Spaceland (a tridimensional world) for himself.
This Sphere visits Flatland at the turn of each millennium to introduce a new apostle to the idea of a third dimension in the hopes of eventually educating the population of Flatland.
From the safety of Spaceland, they are able to observe the leaders of Flatland secretly acknowledging the existence of the sphere and prescribing the silencing of anyone found preaching the truth of Spaceland and the third dimension.
After this proclamation is made, many witnesses are massacred or imprisoned (according to caste), including A Square's brother,  After the Square's mind is opened to new dimensions, he tries to convince the Sphere of the theoretical possibility of the existence of a fourth (and fifth, and sixth.
) spatial dimension; but the Sphere returns his student to Flatland in disgrace.
The Square then has a dream in which the Sphere visits him again, this time to introduce him to Pointland, whereof the point (sole inhabitant, monarch, and universe in one) perceives any communication as a thought originating in his own mind (cf.
Solipsism):  The Square recognizes the identity of the ignorance of the monarchs of Pointland and Lineland with his own (and the Sphere's) previous ignorance of the existence of higher dimensions.
Once returned to Flatland, the Square cannot convince anyone of Spaceland's existence, especially after official decrees are announced that anyone preaching the existence of three dimensions will be imprisoned (or executed, depending on caste).
Eventually the Square himself is imprisoned for just this reason, with only occasional contact with his brother who is imprisoned in the same facility.
He does not manage to convince his brother, even after all they have both seen.
Seven years after being imprisoned, A Square writes out the book Flatland in the form of a memoir, hoping to keep it as posterity for a future generation that can see beyond their two-dimensional existence.
<EOS>
Planet Spaceball, led by the incompetent President Skroob, has wasted all of its fresh air.
Skroob schemes to force King Roland of the neighboring planet Druidia to give them their air by kidnapping his daughter Princess Vespa on the day of her pre-arranged wedding to the narcoleptic Prince Valium.
Skroob sends the villainous Dark Helmet to complete this task with Spaceball One, an impossibly huge ship helmed by Colonel Sandurz.
Before they can arrive, Vespa abandons her wedding and flees the planet in her Mercedes spaceship with her droid of honor, Dot Matrix.
Roland contacts mercenary Lone Starr and his mawg (half-man, half-dog) sidekick Barf, offering a lucrative reward to retrieve Vespa before she is captured.
Lone Starr readily accepts, as he is in major debt with the gangster Pizza the Hutt.
In their Winnebago space ship the Eagle 5, Starr and Barf are able to reach Vespa before Spaceball One, rescue both her and Dot, then escape.
Spaceball One tries to follow, but Helmet foolishly orders the ship to "ludicrous speed," causing it to overshoot the escapees.
Out of fuel, Lone Starr is forced to crash-land on the nearby "desert moon of Vega".
The escapees travel on foot in blazing sun and pass out.
They are found by the Dinks, a group of diminutive red-clad aliens, and are taken to a cave occupied by Yogurt, who is old and wise.
Yogurt introduces Lone Starr to "The Schwartz", a metaphysical power similar to the Force.
Yogurt also introduces the audience to the film's merchandising campaign.
Starr and Vespa begin to flirt, but Vespa insists she can only be married to a prince.
Helmet and Sandurz break the fourth wall by using a VHS copy of the film to discover Vespa's location, and Helmet orders Spaceball One to the moon.
The Spaceballs capture Vespa and Dot, and return with them to planet Spaceball.
Their captors threaten to reverse Vespa's nose job, forcing Roland to give over the code to the shield that protects Druidia.
Helmet and Sandurz take Spaceball One to Druidia, where he transforms the ship into Mega Maid, a giant robotic maid with a vacuum cleaner that begins sucking the air from the planet.
Lone Starr and Barf rescue Vespa and Dot from captivity, and then race to Druidia.
When the vacuum bag is almost full, Lone Starr is able to use the Schwartz to reverse the robot's sucking action, returning the air to the planet.
Once the air is successfully returned to the planet, Lone Starr and his allies enter the Mega Maid to attempt to destroy it.
Lone Starr is forced to fight Helmet with lightsaber-like "Schwartz rings" near the ship's self-destruct button.
Lone Starr manages to defeat Helmet, causing him to involuntarily strike the button.
Lone Starr and his friends escape the ship, while Skroob, Helmet, and Sandurz fail to reach any escape pods in time.
Trapped in the robot's head as the ship explodes, they land on a nearby planet, much to the regret of its Planet of the Apes-like population.
With Lone Starr's debt to Pizza nullified by the gangster's untimely death, he returns Vespa to Roland and leaves, taking only enough money to cover his expenses.
After a lunch break at a diner and a strange incident involving an alien and an astronaut, Lone Starr finds a final message from Yogurt informing him that he is a prince and thus eligible to marry Vespa.
He manages to reach Druidia in time to stop her wedding to Valium, announces his royal lineage, then marries Vespa.
<EOS>
In March 1868, Howard Kemp (James Stewart) is tracking Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan), who is wanted for the murder of the marshal in Abilene, Kansas.
On the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, Kemp meets a grizzled old prospector, Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell), and offers him twenty dollars to help.
Tate assumes that Kemp is a sheriff and Kemp does nothing to disillusion him.
They trap someone on top of a rocky hill who Kemp is convinced must be his wanted man.
Rockslides force a retreat.
Looking for a way around the hill, Kemp and Tate meet up with a Union soldier, Lieutenant Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker).
He has been discharged from the 6th Cavalry at Fort Ellis in Bozeman and is heading east.
Tate questions why Anderson isn't on the Bozeman Trail.
Anderson's story is that there are some "bad tempered Indians" whose chief's daughter fell in with a handsome young army lieutenant.
Kemp has a chance to see Anderson's discharge order in which he is described as "morally unstable" and given a dishonorable discharge.
Tate tells Anderson that Kemp is a sheriff.
With the aid of Anderson, who scales a sheer cliff face, Vandergroat is caught, along with his companion, Lina Patch (Janet Leigh), the daughter of Vandergroat's friend, Frank Patch, who was shot dead trying to rob a bank in Abilene.
Vandergroat sets Tate and Anderson straight on two facts: that Kemp is no lawman, and that a reward is offered to bring him in— $500000—dead or alive.
Tate and Anderson want their shares, to aid Kemp in getting Vandergroat back to Kansas.
Lina is convinced that her father's friend is innocent.
On the trail to Abilene, Vandergroat attempts to turn his captors against each other, using greed as his weapon.
He also encourages Lina to use her beauty to divide Kemp and Anderson.
When scouting a way through a mountain pass, Kemp and Tate spot a dozen Blackfeet, a normally friendly tribe, far from their normal hunting grounds.
They tell the others and Anderson confesses that the Indians are after him.
Kemp tells Anderson to hightail it out of there to avoid being captured by the Blackfeet.
Anderson thinks Kemp just wants a bigger share of the reward money.
He rides ahead, and from his position hidden behind a fallen tree trunk, with his rifle he elects to pick off a chief of the Blackfeet, at the moment Kemp's group have confronted the Indians and are about to engage them in talk.
During the ensuing battle, Kemp saves Lina from the Blackfeet and she, in turn, helps him when he is shot in the leg.
Later, Kemp passes out on the trail and awakes from a delirious nightmare.
He thinks Lina is Mary, his ex-fiancée.
Vandergroat tells the others that Mary sold Kemp's ranch, which he left in her safekeeping, while he was serving in the army during the Civil War, and then went off with another man.
Vandergroat further reveals that Kemp is determined to buy his ranch back, and that it can't happen if he splits the reward money with Anderson and Tate.
Lina's feelings of loyalty to her father's friend, combined with an attraction to Kemp, confuses her.
She has never seen Vandergroat hurt anyone unless it was in a fair fight but after he loosens Kemp's saddle cinch and tries to push him off a high mountain pass, Lina's sympathies for Kemp grow.
Taking refuge from a storm in a cave, Vandergroat manipulates Lina into distracting Kemp.
She tells the rancher of her dream to go to California, where no one knows her and she can make a fresh start.
He tells her of his wish to repurchase his ranch.
They kiss and this gives Ben a chance to escape.
Kemp catches Vandergroat, and Anderson suggests that since the reward is for a "dead or alive" criminal, they should just kill the troublemaker.
Tate stops Anderson but, caught up in the anger of the moment and hurt by what he sees as Lina's treachery, Kemp challenges Vandergroat to a shoot out.
The wanted man declines to take part.
Next day, the group comes to a high-running river.
They argue about whether to cross or go down stream.
Anderson grabs a rope and throws it around Vandergroat's neck and says he'll drag him across the river.
A fight ensues between Kemp and Anderson, as Vandergroat watches with malicious enjoyment.
Kemp finally manages to kick Anderson unconscious.
While Kemp and Anderson recover from the fight and Lina searches for firewood, Vandergroat convinces Tate to sneak off with him to find a gold mine, the whereabouts of which Vandergroat has been tempting the old man with.
When they depart during the night, he convinces Tate to take Lina along.
Vandergroat and Lina ride double; Tate follows, holding a rifle on them.
Ben suddenly yells, "Snake.
" and in the confusion grabs Tate's rifle from him and kills him.
He fires two more shots in order to lure Kemp and Anderson to a spot where he intends to kill them.
Lina finally sees Vandergroat for what he is.
Kemp and Anderson discover Tate's body where Vandergroat has positioned it for an ambush from the high cliff face.
Preparing to shoot Kemp, Vandergroat is caught off guard when Lina grabs the rifle barrel, saving Kemp's life.
While Anderson exchanges gunfire with Vandergroat, Kemp removes one of his spurs to aid in climbing up the back of the cliff to outflank Vandergroat.
He uses the spur as a combination climbing ax and makeshift piton.
Vandergroat, hearing Kemp, gets the drop on the rancher.
However, before he can pull the trigger, Kemp throws his spur into the killer's left cheek.
As Ben reels from the pain of the spur, he is shot by Anderson and his body falls into the nearby river, becoming entangled in the roots of a tree.
Anderson lassos a branch on the other side of the river and crosses using the rope.
He then wraps it around Ben's body but is crushed by a large tree stump barrelling down the river.
Kemp grabs the rope and drags Vandergroat's body across the river and, in a rage, vows that he will take him back to reclaim his land.
Lina pleads with him not to take blood money for bringing Vandergroat in.
She says she will go with him, no matter what, marry him, and live with him on the ranch.
Kemp realizes what he is doing and his love for Lina makes him stop.
He begins digging a grave to bury Vandergroat and they decide to make for California, leaving their pasts behind.
<EOS>
The overarching plot takes place over five days leading up to a political rally for Replacement Party candidate Hal Phillip Walker, who is never seen throughout the entire movie.
The story follows 24 characters roaming around Nashville, in search of some sort of goal through their own (often overlapping) story arcs.
Day One  The film opens with a campaign van for presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker driving around Nashville as an external loudspeaker blares Walker's folksy political aphorisms, juxtaposed with country superstar Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) recording an overblown patriotic song intended to commemorate the upcoming Bicentennial, and growing irritated with the accompanying musicians in the studio.
An Englishwoman named Opal (Geraldine Chaplin) who claims to be working on a documentary for the BBC appears in the studio but is told to leave by Haven.
Down the hall from Haven's session is Linnea Reese (Lily Tomlin), a white gospel singer recording a song with a black choir.
Later that day, popular country singer Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) is returning to Nashville, having recovered from a burn accident, and the elite of Nashville's music scene, including Haven and his companion Lady Pearl (Barbara Baxley), have converged on Berry Field to greet her plane as it arrives.
Also present are Pfc.
Glenn Kelly (Scott Glenn) and the popular folk trio "Bill, Mary, and Tom" who are in town to record an album.
Bill (Allan Nicholls) and Mary (Cristina Raines) are married, but largely unhappy, partly due to the fact that Mary is in love with womanizing Tom (Keith Carradine).
Meanwhile, mr Green (Keenan Wynn) arrives at the airport to pick up his niece, Martha (Shelley Duvall), aka "LA.
Joan," a teenage groupie who has come to Nashville ostensibly to visit her aunt Esther Green who is sick in the hospital.
However, Martha repeatedly puts off visiting her aunt in favor of chasing after male musicians.
Working at the airport restaurant are African-American cook Wade Cooley (Robert DoQui), and his pretty waitress friend, Sueleen Gay (Gwen Welles), an aspiring country singer who refuses to recognize that she can't carry a tune.
After greeting the crowds on the tarmac, Barbara Jean faints due to the heat, and her handlers, headed by her domineering husband-manager Barnett (Allen Garfield), rush her to the hospital.
Barbara Jean's appearance having been cut short, those in attendance depart the airport and wind up stranded on the highway after a pile-up occurs.
During the commotion, Winifred (Barbara Harris), an aspiring country singer, runs away from her husband, Star (Bert Remsen), after he refuses to take her to the Grand Ole Opry.
Star gives a ride to Kenny Frasier (David Hayward), who has just arrived in town carrying a violin case.
Opal takes advantage of the traffic jam to interview first Linnea and then Tommy Brown (Timmy Brown), an African-American country singer who is performing at the Opry.
Tommy and his entourage go to Lady Pearl's club but Wade, who is drinking and trying to pick up white girls at the bar, insults Tommy for being too "white" and starts a fight.
Linnea's husband, Del Reese (Ned Beatty) is working with political organizer, John Triplette (Michael Murphy) to plan a small fundraiser and a large outdoor concert gala for the Walker campaign.
Sueleen appears at a local club's open mike night in a provocative outfit, and despite her lack of singing ability, club manager Trout (Merle Kilgore) recommends her to Triplette for the fundraiser based on her appearance.
Winifred shows up at Trout's club trying to recruit musicians to record a demo with her, but Star sees her and chases her out.
Del invites Triplette for family dinner with Linnea and their two deaf children.
Linnea and Del are having communication problems and she focuses on the children rather than on him.
In the middle of dinner, Tom calls trying to make a date with Linnea, but she puts him off, so he takes Opal back to his room instead.
Pfc.
Kelly sneaks into Barbara Jean's hospital room and sits in the chair by her bed all night, watching her sleep.
Day Two  Tom calls Linnea again but, with Del listening on the other line, Linnea yells at Tom and tells him not to call her any more.
Kenny rents a room from mr Green.
Haven throws a pre-show party at his house before the evening's Grand Ole Opry performance.
At the party, Triplette tries to persuade Haven to perform at the Walker gala by telling him that if Walker is elected, Walker would back Haven for state governor.
Haven says he'll give Triplette his decision after the Opry show that night.
Later, Tommy Brown, Haven, and Connie White (Karen Black) all perform at the Opry.
Connie is substituting for the hospitalized Barbara Jean.
Winifred tries unsuccessfully to get backstage.
At the hospital, Barbara Jean and Barnett have an argument because he is going to the after-show gathering to thank Connie for substituting at the last minute.
Barbara Jean doesn't want him to go and he accuses her of having another nervous breakdown like she did previously.
Barnett finally subdues Barbara Jean and leaves, but Connie doesn't seem happy to see him.
Haven tells Triplette that Barbara Jean and Connie never appear on the same stage, and that he (Haven) will appear anyplace Barbara Jean also appears.
Bill gets upset when his wife Mary doesn't show up all evening; she is sleeping with Tom.
Day Three  It is Sunday morning and the characters are shown attending various local church services.
A Roman Catholic service includes Lady Pearl, Wade and Sueleen in attendance; Haven sings in the choir at a Protestant service; and Linnea is seen in the choir at a black Protestant church as a baptism is taking place.
At the hospital chapel, Barbara Jean sings "In the Garden" from her wheelchair while mr Green and Pfc.
Kelly, among others, watch.
mr Green tells Kelly how he and his wife lost their son in WWII.
Opal wanders alone through a huge auto scrapyard making free-form poetic speeches about the cars into her tape recorder.
Haven, Tommy Brown and their families attend the stock car races, where Winifred also attempts to sing on a small stage but cannot be heard.
Bill and Mary argue in their hotel room and are interrupted by Triplette, who wants to recruit them for the Walker concert gala.
Tom tries to get chauffeur Norman (David Arkin) to score him some pills.
Day Four  Opal walks alone through a large school bus parking lot making more strange observations into her tape recorder.
Barbara Jean is discharged from the hospital at the same time mr Green shows up to visit his sick wife.
Barbara Jean asks after his wife and sends her regards.
After Barbara Jean and her entourage have left, a nurse tells mr Green his wife died earlier that morning.
Back at mr Green's house, Kenny gets upset when Martha tries to look at his violin case.
Barbara Jean performs at Opryland USA.
Triplette and Del attend and try to convince Barnett to have Barbara Jean play the Walker concert gala at the Parthenon the next day, but he refuses.
Barbara Jean gets through the first couple of songs all right, but then begins to tell rambling stories about her childhood instead of starting the next song.
After several false starts, Barnett escorts her from the stage and tells the disappointed audience that they can come to the Parthenon tomorrow and see Barbara Jean perform for free, thus committing her to the Walker concert.
Tom calls Linnea and invites her to meet him that night at a club where he is playing.
Linnea arrives but sits by herself because Martha is trying to pick Tom up.
Mary and Bill are also there, and Opal sits with them and talks about how she slept with Tom, causing Mary to become upset.
Wade tries unsuccessfully to pick up Linnea, while Norman tries equally unsuccessfully to pick up Opal.
Tom sings "I'm Easy" and Linnea, moved, goes back to his room where they make love.
When Linnea needs to leave, Tom calls another woman and has a romantic conversation within Linnea's earshot while she is getting dressed.
Sueleen appears at the all-male Walker fundraiser, but is booed off the stage when she sings poorly and doesn't take off her clothes.
Del and Triplette explain that the men expect her to strip and that if she does so, they will let her sing the next day at the Parthenon with Barbara Jean.
Sueleen is visibly upset but strips anyway.
Winifred shows up at the fundraiser hoping to get a chance to sing, but after she sees what is going on, she stays hidden behind a curtain.
Del drives Sueleen home and drunkenly comes on to her, but she is rescued by Wade.
After he hears what happened, Wade tells Sueleen she can't sing and asks her to go back to Detroit with him the next day.
Sueleen refuses because she is determined to sing at the Parthenon with Barbara Jean.
Day Five  The performers, audience and Walker and his entourage arrive for the Parthenon concert.
In the performing lineup are Haven, Barbara Jean, Linnea and her choir, Bill, Mary and Tom, Sueleen, and Winifred who has shown up again hoping for a chance to sing.
Barnett gets upset because Barbara Jean will have to perform in front of a large Walker advertisement, but has to go along with it because his wife's career will be harmed if he pulls her out of the show.
mr Green and Kenny attend Esther Green's burial service and mr Green leaves angrily, vowing to find Martha (who is not at the service) and make her show some respect to her aunt.
mr Green and Kenny go to the Parthenon to look for Martha.
The Walker gala starts and Haven and Barbara Jean perform a song together, then Barbara Jean sings a solo song.
At the end of the song, Kenny takes a gun from his violin case and shoots Haven and Barbara Jean.
Pfc.
Kelly disarms Kenny as chaos breaks out.
Barbara Jean is carried bleeding and unconscious from the stage.
Haven tries to calm the crowd by exhorting them to sing, asserting that "This isn't Dallas".
As he is led from the stage for treatment of his wounds, he hands the microphone off to Winifred, who begins to sing "It Don't Worry Me" and is joined by Linnea's gospel choir.
The film ends with the audience raptly listening to Winifred's song — she has finally gotten her big break.
<EOS>
In 1962, Faber College freshmen Lawrence "Larry" Kroger and Kent Dorfman seek to join a fraternity.
Finding themselves out of place at the prestigious Omega Theta Pi house's party, they visit the slovenly Delta Tau Chi house next door, where Kent is a "legacy" who cannot be rejected due to his brother having been a member.
John "Bluto" Blutarsky welcomes them, and they meet other Deltas including biker Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day, ladies' man Eric "Otter" Stratton, and Otter's best friend Donald "Boon" Schoenstein, whose girlfriend Katy is constantly pressuring him to stop drinking with the Deltas and do something with his life.
Larry and Kent are invited to pledge and given the fraternity names "Pinto" and "Flounder" respectively, by Bluto, Delta's sergeant-at-arms.
College Dean Vernon Wormer wants to remove the Deltas, who are already on probation, so he invokes his emergency authority and places the fraternity on "double-secret probation" due to various campus conduct violations and their abysmal academic standing.
He directs the clean-cut, smug Omega president Greg Marmalard to find a way for him to remove the Deltas from campus.
Various incidents, including the prank-related accidental death of a horse belonging to Omega member and ROTC cadet commander Douglas Neidermeyer, and an attempt by Otter to date Marmalard's girlfriend further increase the Dean's and the Omegas' animosity toward the Deltas.
Bluto and D-Day steal the answers to an upcoming test from the trash, not realizing that the Omegas have planted a fake set of answers for them to find.
The Deltas fail the exam, and their grade-point averages fall so low that Wormer tells them he needs only one more incident to revoke their charter.
To cheer themselves up, the Deltas organize a toga party and bring in Otis Day and the Knights to provide live music.
Wormer's wife attends at Otter's invitation and has sex with him.
Pinto hooks up with Clorette, a girl he met at the supermarket.
They make out, but do not have sex because she passes out drunk.
Pinto takes her home in a shopping cart and later discovers that she is the mayor's daughter.
Outraged by his wife's escapades and the mayor's threat of personal violence, Wormer organizes a kangaroo court and revokes Delta's charter.
To take their minds off this action, Otter, Boon, Flounder, and Pinto go on a road trip.
Otter is successful in picking up four young women from Emily Dickinson College as dates for himself and his Delta brothers.
He elicits sympathy by posing as the fiancé of a young woman at the college who died in a recent kiln explosion.
They stop at a roadhouse bar where Day's band is performing, not realizing it has an exclusively African-American clientele.
A couple of hulking patrons intimidate the Deltas and they quickly exit, smashing up Flounder's borrowed car and leaving their dates behind.
Marmalard and other Omegas lure Otter to a motel and beat him up, believing that Otter is having an affair with Marmalard's girlfriend, Mandy.
The Deltas' midterm grades are so poor that an ecstatic Wormer expels them all, having already notified their local draft boards that they are now eligible for military service.
The news shocks Flounder so badly that he vomits on Wormer.
The Deltas are despondent, but Bluto rallies them with an impassioned, if historically inaccurate, speech ("Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
Hell no.
"), and so they decide to take action against Wormer, the Omegas, and the college.
They convert Flounder's damaged car into an armored vehicle and hide it inside a cake-shaped breakaway float in order to sneak into the annual homecoming parade.
As they wreak havoc on the event, the futures of several of the student main characters are revealed using freeze-frame labels.
Most of the Deltas become respectable professionals, while their adversaries suffer less fortunate outcomes.
<EOS>
Otis Driftwood (Groucho), business manager for wealthy dowager mrs Claypool (Margaret Dumont), has stood her up and is having dinner with another woman in the very same restaurant.
When she discovers him seated directly behind her, Driftwood joins mrs Claypool, and introduces her to Herman Gottlieb (Sig Ruman), director of the New York Opera Company, also dining at the restaurant.
Driftwood has arranged for mrs Claypool to invest $200,000 in the opera company, allowing Gottlieb to engage Rodolfo Lassparri (Walter Woolf King), the "greatest tenor since Caruso".
Backstage at the opera house, chorister Ricardo Baroni (Allan Jones) hires his best friend Fiorello (Chico) to be his manager.
Ricardo is in love with the soprano, Rosa Castaldi (Kitty Carlisle), who is also being courted by Lassparri.
Driftwood arrives and finds Lassparri attacking Tomasso (Harpo), who knocks Lassparri unconscious by hitting him over the head with a mallet.
Fiorello appears and identifies himself as the manager of the "greatest tenor in the world".
Driftwood, mistakenly thinking Fiorello is referring to Lassparri, signs Baroni to a contract.
After bidding farewell to Rosa at the pier, Ricardo, Fiorello and Tomasso stowaway on board the ocean liner to New York inside Driftwood's trunk.
After Driftwood discovers them, he tries to get the three of them to leave, as he is expecting a rendezvous with mrs Claypool.
They refuse to go until they've eaten and eventually, Driftwood's incredibly small stateroom is crowded with an assortment of people.
(see Stateroom scene below)  Lassparri later spots the stowaways among the immigrants on the ship and they are caught and thrown into the brig.
They escape with help from Driftwood and are able to sneak into the country by assuming the identities of three famous bearded aviators, who are traveling aboard the ship.
After a welcoming reception in New York their true identities are discovered and they hide out in Driftwood's hotel room, pursued by police sergeant Henderson (Robert Emmett O'Connor).
Meanwhile, Ricardo is reunited with Rosa after climbing in the window of her hotel room.
Ricardo has an altercation with Lassparri, which results in both Rosa and Driftwood being fired from the opera company by Gottlieb.
The boys decide to seek revenge by sabotaging the opening night performance of Il trovatore ending with the abduction of Lassparri, forcing Gottlieb to substitute Ricardo and Rosa in his place.
The audience clearly prefers Baroni over Lassparri and the latter is booed and pelted with fruit after he attempts to return to the stage.
The film ends with Driftwood and Fiorello attempting to negotiate another contract, as Rosa and Ricardo sing an encore.
<EOS>
In West Virginia in the 1930s, along the Ohio River, Reverend Harry Powell, a serial killer, flees the scene of his latest murder.
Powell is a self-anointed preacher with a penchant for switchblade knives, a misogynist who is both attracted to and repulsed by women.
He travels rural roads, preaching in small towns, and rationalizes his murders by telling himself that he is punishing sinful women and gaining money to preach God's word.
The letters "L-O-V-E" are tattooed on the fingers of his right hand, and the letters "H-A-T-E" on those of his left hand.
Powell uses them as symbols in impromptu sermons.
In one small town, police arrest Powell for driving a stolen car and he is sentenced to jail.
Meanwhile, a local family man named Ben Harper kills two people in a bank robbery.
He arrives home and hides the money he has stolen inside his daughter's rag doll.
He convinces his two young children, John and Pearl, to keep the hiding place secret.
The police arrive and arrest Ben, while John is shocked by the way the police roughly overpower his father.
Harper and Powell share a cell where Powell, soon to be released, tries without success to learn the location of the stolen money.
Harper lets slip enough information to allow Powell to determine that Harper's children must know where the money is.
Harper is executed for his crimes, while Powell is released from jail, and then woos and marries Harper's widow, Willa.
Powell charms most of the townsfolk, but John remains distrustful.
John does not share the money's hiding place with Powell and must constantly remind his younger and more trusting sister Pearl to maintain the secret.
Willa eventually discovers that Powell is searching for the money, though he has earlier denied this to her.
Still, the pious Willa believes he married her to show her God's light rather than to gain access to the money.
Powell murders her, dumps her body in the river, and covers up her disappearance by claiming she has abandoned him and the children for a life of sin.
With this cover story Powell retains the trust and sympathy of the townsfolk.
His position in the town becomes even more secure.
Willa's drowned body is discovered by Birdie Steptoe, an elderly man who spends his days drinking on his riverboat and is friendly with John.
Birdie keeps his discovery a secret out of fear the town will blame him for her death.
Nobody else in town is willing to take John's side against Powell.
Left to care for John and Pearl, Powell threatens their lives and learns the money is hidden inside the doll.
The children flee down the river with the doll and take sanctuary with Rachel Cooper, a tough old woman who looks after stray children.
Powell tracks them down, but Rachel sees through him and runs him off her property.
Powell returns after dark, as he had threatened, and in the ensuing all-night standoff he is wounded by a shot.
The police, by now having discovered Willa's body, arrive to arrest Powell.
John breaks down as he witnesses the arrest of Powell as a parallel to the arrest of his real father.
John takes the doll and beats it against the handcuffed Powell.
As the money spills out, he insists that Powell can have the cash if he wants it.
Powell is tried, convicted, and sentenced for his crimes.
Several of the townsfolk previously depicted as his staunchest defenders sit in the public gallery drinking and shouting abuse at him.
A lynch mob tries to take Powell from the police station but the police retreat with him out the back of the building as the professional executioner promises to see Powell again soon.
Finally, John and Pearl have their first Christmas together with Rachel and their new family.
<EOS>
Duff Anderson works on a railroad section gang near Birmingham, Alabama, earning a good wage and living an itinerant life with his black co-workers.
On their night off, while the other men drink and visit a pool hall, Duff decides to walk into the nearby small town, and ends up at a church meeting featuring good food and lively gospel music.
There, Duff meets the pretty and genteel schoolteacher Josie, the daughter of Preacher Dawson.
They begin to date against the wishes of Josie's father and stepmother, who think the relatively uneducated, non-religious, and (to them) arrogant Duff is not good enough for Josie.
Despite her parents' objections, Josie continues to see Duff, partly because Duff shows himself willing to resist and challenge the social conventions that oppress black people, rather than just accepting the status quo in order to get along with white people, as Josie's father has done.
Initially, Duff is just looking for a sexual relationship, and tells Josie he doesn't want to get married.
But after Duff visits his four-year-old illegitimate son who has been abandoned to the care of an indifferent, unloving foster mother, and his emotionally abusive, drunken father who is barely functioning under the care of Duff's stepmother Lee, Duff realizes that he prefers the stability of a family to the life of a drifter.
Duff and Josie marry with bright hopes for the future, but then begin to face a series of challenges as a married couple.
Duff quits the section gang and takes a lower paying job at the local sawmill in order to have a stable home life.
Being on the move had given Duff the illusion of freedom, but living in the town makes Duff subject to the town's social rules, and he immediately starts to have problems.
Unlike his peers, Duff refuses to pretend to be friendly to white people who treat him obnoxiously or patronize him.
Duff tries to encourage his black co-workers at the mill to stick together and stand up for their rights, but one of them informs on him to the white mill bosses, who suspect him of being a union organizer and troublemaker.
After Duff refuses to follow his white boss's order to retract his statements to the other men, Duff is fired, and subsequently finds himself blacklisted at other area mills.
Despite diligently searching for work, he is unable to find another job that is not humiliating and that also pays enough to support his family, now including a baby on the way.
Duff hates his preacher father-in-law, whom he sees as having sold out to the white people in return for social status and economic gain, and he hurtfully says to his wife, "You've never really been a nigger, living with them, in that house".
Nevertheless, out of concern for Josie, Preacher Dawson uses his connections in the town to get Duff a job at a white-owned gas station.
Soon, white customers who find Duff too proud for a black "boy" threaten to cause trouble if the boss keeps him on, and he loses that job as well.
Although Josie is understanding, Duff, under emotional pressure and in a rage, shoves his pregnant wife to the floor when she tries to comfort him.
Duff packs his bag and leaves their house, telling Josie that he will write her when he is on his feet again.
Duff storms off to his father, and finds him so inebriated that he dies as Duff and Lee are driving him to the hospital.
Neither Duff nor Lee know where Duff's father was born or how old he was, and the only possessions he has handed down to Duff are the contents of his pockets.
Duff decides to return home with his young son, whom Josie had been wanting to adopt.
Duff and Josie tearfully embrace as he reassures her that "everything is gonna be all right”.
<EOS>
Joe Stefanos arrives in a small town of Bridgeport, California, in search of Jeff Bailey.
Jeff, owner of the town's gas station, is on a picnic with wholesome local girl Ann Miller.
Stefanos sends Jeff's deaf young employee, The Kid, to retrieve Jeff.
Stefanos informs Jeff that Whit Sterling wants to see him.
Though Ann trusts Jeff implicitly, her parents are wary of him, as is Jim, a local police officer who has been sweet on Ann since childhood.
Jeff reluctantly agrees to meet with Whit, and Ann joins him to drive through the night to Whit's home on Lake Tahoe.
On the way, Jeff tells Ann of his past (in flashback).
Jeff Bailey's real name is Jeff Markham.
He and partner Jack Fisher were private investigators in New York.
Jeff had been hired by shady businessman Whit to find his girlfriend, Kathie Moffat.
Whit claimed she shot him and stole $40,000 from him.
Jeff is reluctant, sensing that finding Kathie will result in her death.
Whit assures Jeff he just wants her back, and will not harm her.
Kathie's maid tells Jeff that she's gone to Florida, but Jeff guesses Mexico because of the particular inoculations Kathie received.
He goes to Acapulco and waits, eventually striking up an acquaintance with her.
A love affair develops, and Jeff ultimately reveals that he had been sent by Whit.
Kathie sensed this from the start and has been spinning a web for him.
She denies taking Whit’s money and pleads with Jeff to run away with her.
Preparing to leave, Jeff is surprised by the arrival of Whit and Stefanos, checking up on his lack of progress.
Jeff asks to be taken off the case, but Whit refuses.
Jeff lies that Kathie slipped past him and is on a steamer going south.
Whit instructs Jeff to keep looking for her&mdash;instead, Jeff takes her north to San Francisco.
They live in San Francisco as inconspicuously as possible, but an outing to the horse races goes bad when they are spotted by Jeff’s old partner, Fisher.
Jeff and Kathie split up, with Jeff making himself conspicuous in moving to Los Angeles.
Jeff seems to give Fisher the slip and eventually rejoins Kathie at a rural cabin, only to find that Fisher had actually followed Kathie.
When Fisher demands money to keep quiet, the two men brawl.
Kathie suddenly shoots Fisher dead and flees without Jeff.
He finds her bank book, revealing a deposit of $40,000, the money she had denied taking from Whit.
Back to the present, Ann drops Jeff off at Whit's palatial estate.
Jeff is surprised when Kathie reappears.
She had returned to Whit and told the whole story.
Whit tells Jeff that doing one last job is the only way to make things right between them.
Whit's lawyer, Leonard Eels, has helped Whit dodge all taxes, but now wants $200,000 ($ today) or he will give Whit's business records to the taxman, which would put Whit in prison.
Whit wants Jeff to recover the records, but Jeff realizes that he is being set up.
In San Francisco, he meets Eels' secretary, Meta Carson, who is secretly conspiring with Whit.
He is introduced by her to Eels, leaving his fingerprints on a glass.
Jeff returns and finds Eels dead.
He hides the body and retrieves the business records, but is told by the devious Kathie (who has impersonated Meta Carson) that she gave Whit a signed affidavit swearing that Jeff killed Fisher, setting up Jeff to be a double murderer&mdash;reported as such in the morning papers.
Jeff returns to the Bridgeport area.
Unbeknownst to Whit, Kathie has ordered Stefanos to trail The Kid so he can find and kill Jeff.
The Kid drives to a steep, narrow, canyon where Jeff is hiding.
The Kid spots Stefanos taking aim at Jeff and quickly hooks him with a fishing line, causing Stefanos to lose his balance and fall to his death.
Jeff goes back to Whit's mansion, telling him of Kathie's double cross and the death of Stefanos.
He offers that the death of Stefanos, Eels' actual murderer, can be made to look like a guilt-ridden suicide, removing Jeff from that frame up.
Furthermore, he will return the business records to Whit if he destroys Kathie's affidavit and hands her to the police for Fisher's death.
Whit takes the offer, and Jeff believes he has worked his way out of the trap.
Jeff makes a quick visit to Ann, returning to Tahoe to discover that Kathie has killed Whit.
She gives Jeff the choice of running away with her and a satchel of Whit's money, or taking the blame for all three murders.
He agrees to go with her, but phones the state police while she is upstairs packing.
Driving up to a police roadblock, Kathie realizes that Jeff has betrayed her and shoots him dead.
She then fires at the police, who fatally shoot her.
When the news reaches Bridgeport, Jim offers to take Ann away.
Ann asks the Kid if Jeff had been planning to run away with Kathie.
Wanting to free Ann, The Kid lies and nods his head.
Ann returns to Jim and she drives off with him.
<EOS>
In Bridger's Wells, Nevada in 1885, Art Croft (Harry Morgan) and Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) ride into town and enter Darby's Saloon.
The atmosphere is subdued due to recent incidents of cattle-rustling.
Art and Gil are suspected to be rustlers because they have rarely been seen in town.
A man enters the saloon and announces that a rancher named Larry Kinkaid has been murdered.
The townspeople immediately form a posse to pursue the murderers, whom they believe are cattle rustlers.
A judge tells the posse that it must bring the suspects back for trial, and that its formation by a deputy (the sheriff being out of town) is illegal.
Art and Gil join the posse to avoid raising even more suspicion.
Davies (Harry Davenport), who was initially opposed to forming the posse, also joins, along with "Major" Tetley (Frank Conroy) and his son Gerald (William Eythe).
Poncho informs the posse that three men and cattle bearing Kinkaid's brand have just entered Bridger's Pass.
The posse encounters a stagecoach.
When they try to stop it, the stagecoach guard assumes that it is a stickup, and shoots, wounding Art.
In the coach are Rose Mapen (Mary Beth Hughes), Gil's ex-girlfriend, and her new husband, Swanson (George Meeker).
Later that night in Ox-Bow Canyon, the posse finds three men sleeping, with what are presumed to be stolen cattle nearby.
The posse interrogates them: a young, well-spoken man, Donald Martin (Dana Andrews); a Mexican, Juan Martínez (Anthony Quinn); and an old man, Alva Hardwicke (Francis Ford, brother of film director John Ford).
Martin claims that he purchased the cattle from Kinkaid but received no bill of sale.
No one believes Martin, and the posse decides to hang the three men at sunrise.
Martin writes a letter to his wife and asks Davies, the only member of the posse that he trusts, to deliver it.
Davies reads the letter, and, hoping to save Martin's life, shows it to the others.
Davies believes that Martin is innocent and does not deserve to die.
The Mexican "Juan" is recognized as a gambler named Francisco Morez.
He tries to escape and is shot and wounded.
The posse discovers that Morez has Kinkaid's gun.
Major Tetley wants the men to be lynched immediately.
A vote is taken as to whether the men should be hanged or taken back to stand trial.
Only seven, among them Davies, Gerald Tetley, Gil and Art, vote to take the men back to town alive; the rest support immediate hanging.
Gil tries to stop it, but is overpowered.
After the lynching, the posse heads back towards Bridger's Wells and encounters Sheriff Risley, who tells them that Lawrence Kinkaid is not dead and that the men who shot him have been arrested.
Risley strips the deputy of his badge.
The men of the posse gather in Darby's Saloon and drink in silence.
Major Tetley returns to his house and shoots himself after his son condemns him for being sadistic.
In the saloon, Gil reads Martin's letter while members of the posse listen.
In the final scene Gil and Art head out of town to deliver the letter and $500 raised by those in the posse to Martin's wife.
<EOS>
Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer, is driven to revenge by the murder of his wife and young son by a band of pro-Union Jayhawker militants.
The murderers were from Senator James Lane's Kansas Brigade, which included Captain Terrill.
After grieving and burying his wife and son, Wales joins a group of pro-Confederate Missouri Bushwhackers led by William Anderson and fights in the Civil War.
At the conclusion of the war, Captain Fletcher persuades the guerrillas to surrender, saying they have been granted amnesty.
Wales refuses to surrender.
As a result, he and one young man are the only survivors when Captain Terrill's Redlegs massacre the surrendering men.
Wales intervenes and guns down several Redlegs with a Gatling gun.
Senator Lane forces Fletcher to work with Terrill in tracking down Wales and puts a $5,000 bounty on Wales, who is now on the run from Union militia and bounty hunters.
Along the way, despite wishing to be left alone, he accumulates a diverse group of companions.
They include an old Cherokee named Lone Watie, a young Navajo woman, and an elderly woman from Kansas and her granddaughter Laura Lee, whom Wales rescues from Comancheros.
At Santo Rio, two men, Travis and Chato, join their group.
Wales and his companions find the abandoned ranch owned by Laura's father and inhabit it after Wales parleys and makes peace with the neighboring Comanche tribe leader, Ten Bears.
Meanwhile, a bounty hunter who identified Wales at Santo Rio, guides Captain Terrill and his men to the town.
The following morning, the ranch is attacked by the Redlegs.
Wales' companions take shelter in the fortified ranch house and open fire, gunning down all of Terrill's men.
A wounded Wales, despite being out of ammunition, pursues the fleeing Terrill.
When he corners him, Wales dry fires his four pistols through all the empty chambers while reliving the events surrounding his family's death, and remembering Terrill's involvement, before stabbing and killing Terrill with his own cavalry sword.
At the bar in Santa Rio, Wales finds Fletcher with two Texas Rangers.
The locals at the bar, who refer to Wales as "Mr.
Wilson," tell the Rangers that Wales was killed in a shoot-out in Monterrey, Mexico.
The Rangers accept this story and move on.
Fletcher refuses to believe the story, but pretends to not recognize Wales and says that he will go to Mexico to look for Wales himself, and try to convince him that the war is over, because he owes him that.
Wales says that they all died a little in the war, before riding off.
<EOS>
Schultz is proud of his prize-winning rooster, Brigham.
Davidson, who lives next door, raises flowers and has a son named Ignatz.
Schultz's son has just become engaged to Davidson's daughter.
Although the two fathers don't get along, their children's engagement seems like a good time to bury the hatchet.
A celebration dinner is planned and Ignatz is given two dollars to go purchase a chicken.
But Ignatz, wanting to keep the money for himself, takes Brigham instead.
When the families gather together to eat the chicken, Ignatz realizes that he left Brigham's 1st Prize tag on the now cooked leg.
Gradually, they all realize the chicken is Brigham, everyone, except the two fathers, Schultz and Davidson.
Ignatz runs away.
The engaged couple pantomime the truth to Davidson who after a scuffle runs away too.
<EOS>
Hiro Protagonist is a hacker and pizza delivery driver for the mafia.
He meetsT.
(short for Yours Truly), a young skateboard Kourier (courier), during a failed attempt to make a delivery on timeT.
completes the delivery on his behalf and they strike up a partnership, gathering intel and selling it to the CIC, the for-profit organization that evolved from the CIA's merger with the Library of Congress.
Within the Metaverse, Hiro is offered a datafile named Snow Crash by a man named Raven who hints that it is a form of narcotic.
Hiro's friend and fellow hacker Da5id views a bitmap image contained in the file which causes his computer to crash and Da5id to suffer brain damage in the real world.
Hiro meets his ex-girlfriend Juanita Marquez, who gives him a database containing a large amount of research, positing connections between the virus, ancient Sumerian culture and the legend of Tower of Babel.
Juanita advises him to be careful and disappears.
The Mafia boss Uncle Enzo begins to take a paternal interest inT.
Impressed by her attitude and initiative, he arranges to meet her and offers her freelance jobs.
Hiro's investigations andT.
's intelligence gathering begin to coincide, with links between the neuro-linguistic viruses, a religious organization known as Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates and a media magnate named Bob Rife beginning to emerge.
Juanita's research showed that the ancient Sumerian ur-language allowed brain function to be 'programmed' using audio stimuli in conjunction with a DNA altering virus.
Sumerian culture was organized around these programs (known as me) which were administered by priests to the populace.
Enki, a figure of legend, developed a counter-virus (known as the nam-shub of Enki) which when delivered stopped the Sumerian language from being processed by the brain and led to the development of other, less literal languages, giving birth to the Babel myth.
Bob Rife had been collecting Sumerian artifacts and developed the drug Snow Crash in order to make the public vulnerable to new forms of me which he would control.
The physical form of the virus is distributed in the form of an addictive drug and within Reverend Wayne's church via infected blood.
There is also a digital version to which hackers are especially vulnerable as they are accustomed to processing information in binary form.
Hiro heads north to where the Raft, a huge collection of boats containing Eurasian refugees, is approaching the American coast.
Rife has been using the Raft as a mechanism to indoctrinate and infect thousands with the virus and so import it to AmericaT.
is captured and brought to Rife on the Raft, who intends to use her as a hostage, knowing her connection to Uncle Enzo.
With help from the Mafia, Hiro makes it onto the raft and recovers the nam-shub of Enki which Rife had been concealing.
With help from Juanita who had previously infiltrated the Raft, the nam-shub is read out and Rife's control over the Raft is broken.
Rife flees the Raft, takingT, and Raven attempts to activate the digital form of Snow Crash at a virtual concert within the Metaverse.
Hiro is able to neutralize the virus andT.
escapes.
After a confrontation with the Mafia, Raven is injured, and Rife is killed as he attempts to flee on his private jetT.
is reunited with her mother and Hiro and Juanita appear reconciled.
<EOS>
Florida's vapid, corrupt Governor, Richard "Dick" Artemus, has no agenda beyond unquestioning obedience to the whims of his major campaign contributors.
One of these contributors, a former drug smuggler-turned-developer, Robert Clapley, plans to bulldoze the small Toad Island and remake it into "Shearwater Island," with high rise condominiums and golf courses.
The project requires the construction of a massive new bridge to the mainland, to accommodate Clapley's cement trucks.
On Artemus's recommendation, Clapley hires Palmer Stoat, a lobbyist, to expedite the government funding for the bridge construction.
By random happenstance, Stoat becomes subject to the wrath of Twilly Spree, an independent ecoterrorist.
Spree obsessively pursues Stoat after watching him litter the highway from his luxury Range Rover, and tracks him back to his Fort Lauderdale residence where he and his wife, Desirata, live.
Twilly begins by arranging ironic pranks - hijacking a garbage truck and dumping its load into Desirata's open convertible, and filling Stoat's Range Rover with dung beetles - but is aggravated when the "unfathomably arrogant" Stoat fails to get the point, and continues to litter.
When Twilly breaks into Stoat's home, he is followed out by Stoat's massive Labrador Retriever, "Boodle", and then by Desirata herself.
"Desi", who is increasingly unhappy with her marriage, tells Twilly that he is "aiming low" if he is trying to correct Stoat's misbehavior.
She guides him to Toad Island, the site of Stoat's latest "fix," and Twilly becomes vehemently opposed to the despoiling of the island.
Even Desi is appalled to see that Clapley's construction crew deliberately buried thousands of oak toads (the island's namesake) to avoid later protest by environmentalists.
Twilly orders Desi to return to Stoat and tell him that Twilly will murder Stoat's beloved dog if he doesn't kill the bridge project.
At first, Stoat doesn't take the threat seriously, until Twilly sends him a Labrador's severed ear via FedEx (actually sliced from the corpse of a roadkill Labrador Twilly found).
The dog becomes Twilly's companion, after he changes his name to "McGuinn".
Stoat convinces Governor Artemus to veto the funding for the bridge, though he has no intention of letting the project fail.
He tells Artemus and Clapley that the funding can be re-inserted into the budget later, through a special session of the Legislature, once the "dog-napper" releases Boodle.
Clapley is unconvinced, and sends a hit man, mr Gash, to track down Twilly and kill him.
Artemus, in an effort to avoid the Shearwater Project being tainted with violent death, seeks out and locates ex-governor Clinton Tyree,ka.
"Skink", who vanished in the mid-1970s after a short and unsuccessful (but honest) term of office and is said to be hiding out somewhere in the remaining wilderness of Florida.
Artemus knows Skink will be unsympathetic to his situation, and resorts to blackmail: Skink's mentally disturbed elder brother, Doyle, is still on the state's payroll as the keeper of a lighthouse that has not been in use for years.
Artemus warns Skink that his brother will be tossed out on the street if Skink doesn't apprehend Twilly.
Artemus fails to realize the dire consequences of threatening a man with Skink's volcanic temper, or of putting him and Twilly in contact with each other.
Desi becomes attracted to Twilly, and the two eventually develop a relationship.
Stoat is disgusted and washes his hands of her and Boodle, telling Twilly that the bridge is going up no matter what Twilly does.
After a violent confrontation on Toad Island involving Twilly, Desi, Skink, and mr Gash, mr Gash is left mortally wounded on the island, and Twilly is left in Skink's care while Desi returns to her parents' home in Atlanta.
Despite her pleadings, Twilly is still committed to stopping the Shearwater Island project.
Accompanied by Skink, Twilly trails Stoat, Clapley, and Artemus to a private canned hunting reserve in northern Florida, where Stoat has arranged for Clapley to shoot a black rhinoceros, and also win over Willie Vasquez-Washington, a crucial member of the Florida House who is opposed to the special session.
Twilly is on the verge of shooting Clapley with a rifle, but then Boodle/McGuinn runs into the preserve and nips playfully at the rhino's tail.
The rhino - so ancient that it has hardly moved since it arrived at the ranch - goes berserk and charges at the hunting party.
Clapley is gored to death on the rhino's horn, and Stoat is trampled flat.
The governor escapes the chaos, but is mortified to learn that Willie snapped plenty of pictures.
Clapley's death leaves the Shearwater project doomed without financial backing and, apart from his many lobbying clients and crony politicians, only a few friends and family members show up at Palmer Stoat's funeral.
Desi is among the mourners, during which she is approached by McGuinn, holding a note with Twilly's new address on it.
Meanwhile, Twilly Spree and Clinton Tyree are driving along the highway towards Tyree's wilderness when they see another group of litterbugs throwing lighted cigarette butts, empty bottles and other rubbish out of their speeding car.
They immediately agree they have to teach them a lesson.
<EOS>
The conflicting origins and stories of the DC universe are explained as a Multiverse, containing many parallel universes and alternate versions of the characters, with the primary DC continuity referred to as Earth-1.
A cosmic being known as the Monitor supervises many of these realities, but is opposed by his counterpart the Anti-Monitor, who comes from an antimatter universe and begins destroying many of the realities with a wave of antimatter, to replace them with his own.
The Monitor is murdered by his protege, Harbinger, who is possessed by one of the Anti-Monitor's demons; his death releases enough energy to project the last five parallel Earths into a protective limbo.
The Anti-Monitor recruits Psycho-Pirate to his cause, infusing him with part of his power to manipulate the heroes of Earth-4, Earth-S and Earth-X against the rest; this fails when all five Earths enter the limbo universe.
Harbinger recruits heroes from the remaining Earths to lead an assault on the Anti-Monitor in the antimatter universe, using Alexander Luthor, Jr.
's powers to open a portal between the limbo and antimatter universes.
Pariah tracks down the Anti-Monitor at his fortress, and the heroes destroy a converter powered by stellar energy to destroy the last five Earths; the injured Anti-Monitor retreats and Supergirl dies.
During a lull in the war the villains unite under Brainiac, who kills Earth-Two's Alexei Luthor while recruiting the Earth-One Lex Luthor to conquer the remaining Earths.
The Anti-Monitor tries to use an antimatter cannon to penetrate the limbo universe and destroy the five partially merged Earths.
The Flash (Barry Allen) dies stopping this attempt.
A furious Anti-Monitor vows to travel back through time to prevent the creation of the multiverse.
The Spectre unites the heroes and villains by warning them about the Anti-Monitor's plan; the heroes travel back in time to stop the Anti-Monitor, while the villains travel back in time to the ancient planet Oa to prevent renegade scientist Krona from creating the technology necessary for the Anti-Monitor's plan to succeed.
The villains fail, and Krona continues his experiment.
The Anti-Monitor waits for Alex Luthor to reopen the portal between the positive and antimatter universes, capturing the heroes, but a magically empowered Spectre creates an energy overload which shatters space and time.
The five Earths merge into a single shared universe, and the superheroes return to the present; only those present at the dawn of time remember the original realities.
A cosmically empowered Anti-Monitor attacks again, transporting the new Earth to the antimatter universe and summoning a horde of shadow demons.
He falls in a carefully planned counterattack culminating in a battle with Kal-L (the Earth-Two Superman), Alexander Luthor of Earth-Three and Superboy of Earth-Prime, with help from New Gods adversary Darkseid.
In this final battle the Anti-Monitor, reduced to a flaming head, crashes into a star and dies.
As they are the only four who remember the original past, Alex sends Earth-Two Superman, Earth-Two Lois Lane, Earth-Prime Superboy and himself to a pocket "paradise" dimension.
According to George Pérez in a Wizard magazine interview in 1994, Chris Claremont suggested that Superman of Earth-One dies in the final battle with the Anti-Monitor in issue #12.
After the Anti-Monitor was destroyed for good, Kal-L from Earth-Two realizes that he is now alone, without his Earth, without his Lois, and now the new single Earth is without a Superman.
Then he remarks, "Don't need this anymore," and brushes the white dye off his hair and other make-up that he apparently used to make himself look aged.
The other heroes are surprised by this and Kal-L simply explains that he had stopped aging when he reached the peak of his powers.
He returns with the other heroes to the new post-Crisis Earth, taking the place of the Earth-One Superman.
If this idea had been used, then The Man of Steel would have marked the return of the "Original Super-Hero", as Kal-L (now switched to Kal-El) begins his life on the post-Crisis Earth, which is similar to his old life, but with distinct differences.
Despite this "culture shock," Kal-L endures and is given a new lease on life by being deposited back to the early days of the modern heroic age of the post-Crisis Earth.
However, this was discarded when the John Byrne version of The Man of Steel was planned.
<EOS>
The story begins with the closing moments of a rather dull government lecture and slide show on agricultural policy, after which the leader of the security police of a right-wing military-dominated government (Dux) takes over the podium for an impassioned speech describing the government's program to combat leftism, using the metaphors of "a mildew of the mind", an infiltration of "isms", or "sunspots".
The scene shifts to preparations for a rally of the opposition faction where the pacifist Deputy (Montand) is to give a speech advocating nuclear disarmament.
It is obvious that there have been attempts to prevent the speech’s delivery by the government.
The venue has been changed to a much smaller hall and logistical problems have appeared out of nowhere.
The Deputy is hit in the head by right-wing anticommunist bullies (some sponsored by the government) but carries on with his sharp speech.
As the Deputy crosses the street from the hall after giving his speech, a delivery truck speeds past him and a man on the open truck bed strikes him down with a club.
The injury eventually proves fatal, and by that time it is already clear to the viewer that the police have manipulated witnesses to force the conclusion that the victim was simply run over by a drunk driver.
However, they do not control the hospital, where the autopsy disproves their interpretation.
The examining magistrate (Trintignant), with the assistance of a photojournalist (Perrin), now uncovers sufficient evidence to indict not only the two right-wing militants who committed the murder, but also four high-ranking military police officers.
The action of the film concludes with one of the Deputy's associates rushing to see the Deputy's widow (Papas) to give her the surprising news of the officers' indictments.
The widow looks distressed, appearing not to believe things will change for the better.
An epilogue provides a synopsis of the subsequent turns of events.
Instead of the expected positive outcome, the prosecutor is mysteriously removed from the case, several key witnesses die under suspicious circumstances, the assassins receive (relatively) short sentences, the officers receive only administrative reprimands, the Deputy's close associates die or are deported, and the photojournalist is sent to prison for disclosing official documents.
The heads of the government resign after public disapproval, but before elections are carried out, a Coup d'etat occurs and the military seize all the power.
They ban modern art and popular art in its many features, such as popular music and avant-garde novelists, as well as modern mathematics, classic and modern philosophers, and the use of the term "Z" (, which was used by protesters against the former government), which referred to The Deputy and means: "He lives".
<EOS>
In 1781 pre-Revolution Paris, the Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) plots revenge against her ex-lover, the Comte de Gercourt, who has recently ended their relationship.
To soothe her wounded pride and embarrass Gercourt, she seeks to arrange the seduction and disgrace of his young virgin fiancée, Cécile de Volanges (Uma Thurman), who has only recently been presented to society after spending her formative years in the shelter of a convent.
Merteuil calls on the similarly unprincipled Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) to do the deed, offering him her own sexual favors as a reward.
Valmont declines, as he is plotting a seduction of his own: Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer), the chaste, devoutly religious wife of a member of Parliament, currently a houseguest of Valmont's aunt, Madame de Rosemonde (Mildred Natwick).
Merteuil is amused and incredulous; how can Valmont ever hope to bed the virtuous Madame Tourvel.
Never one to refuse a challenge, Valmont modifies the proposal: If he succeeds in sleeping with Tourvel, Merteuil must sleep with him as well.
Merteuil accepts, on the condition that he furnish written proof of the liaison.
Tourvel rebuffs all of Valmont's advances.
Searching for leverage, he instructs his page Azolan (Peter Capaldi) to seduce Tourvel's maid Julie (Valerie Gogan) to gain access to Tourvel's private correspondence.
One of the letters he intercepts is from Madame de Volanges (Swoosie Kurtz), Cécile's mother and Merteuil's cousin, warning Tourvel that Valmont is a nefarious and untrustworthy individual.
On reading this, Valmont resolves to seduce Cécile after all, as revenge for her mother's quite accurate denunciation of him.
Meanwhile in Paris, Cécile meets the charming Chevalier Raphael Danceny (Keanu Reeves).
Danceny becomes Cécile's music teacher and slowly, with a little coaxing from Merteuil (who knows that Danceny, a poor commoner, can never qualify as a bona fide suitor), they fall in love.
After gaining access to Cécile's bedchamber on a false pretense, Valmont forces himself upon her as she pleads with him to leave.
On the pretext of illness Cécile remains locked in her chambers, refusing all visitors.
A concerned Madame de Volanges calls upon Merteuil to speak to her.
Cécile, naively assuming that Merteuil has her best interests at heart, confides in her.
Merteuil advises Cécile to welcome Valmont's advances; young women should take advantage of all the lovers they can acquire, she says, in a society so repressive and contemptuous of women.
The result is a perverse "student-teacher" relationship; by day, Cécile is courted by Danceny, and each night she receives a sexual "lesson" from Valmont.
In the meantime, Merteuil begins an affair with Danceny.
Meanwhile, Valmont somehow manages to win Tourvel's heart — but at a cost: the lifelong bachelor playboy falls in love.
In a fit of jealousy, Merteuil mocks Valmont and threatens to trash his reputation as a carefree gigolo.
She also refuses to honor her end of their agreement, since Valmont has no written proof that the relationship has been consummated.
Valmont abruptly dismisses Tourvel with a terse excuse: "It is beyond my control".
Cécile, meanwhile, after a particularly rough night in Valmont's bed, miscarries his child.
Tourvel, overwhelmed with grief and shame, retreats to a monastery where her health deteriorates rapidly.
The Valmont-Merteuil toxicity escalates.
Valmont warns Danceny of Merteuil’s ulterior motives in seducing him; Merteuil retaliates by informing Danceny that Valmont has been sleeping with Cécile.
Danceny challenges Valmont to a duel with swords, and mortally wounds him.
With his dying breath, Valmont asks Danceny to communicate to Tourvel—by now at death's door—his genuine love for her.
He then gives Danceny his collection of intimate letters from Merteuil; all of Paris learns the entire, grisly range of her schemes and depredations.
Booed and humiliated at the opéra by her former friends and sycophants, Merteuil flees the city in disgrace.
Cécile, guilt-ridden, returns to the convent whence she came to become a nun.
<EOS>
The series begins with a monkey-tailed boy named Son Goku befriending a teenage girl named Bulma, whom he accompanies to find the seven Dragon Balls, which summon the dragon Shenlong to grant the user one wish.
The journey leads them to the desert bandit Yamcha, who later becomes an ally; Chi-Chi, whom Goku unknowingly agrees to marry; and Pilaf, an impish man who seeks the Dragon Balls to fulfill his desire to rule the world.
Goku then undergoes rigorous training regimes under the martial arts master Kame-Sen'nin in order to fight in the.
A monk named Kuririn becomes his training partner and rival, but they soon become best friends.
After the tournament, Goku searches for the Dragon Ball his grandfather left him and almost single-handedly defeats the Red Ribbon Army and their hired assassin Taopaipai.
Thereafter Goku reunites with his friends to defeat the fortuneteller Baba Uranai's fighters and have her locate the last Dragon Ball to revive a friend killed by Taopaipai.
At the Tenkaichi Budōkai three years later Goku and his allies oppose Kame-Sen'nin's rival and Taopaipai's brother, Tsuru-Sen'nin, and his students Tenshinhan and Chaozu.
Kuririn is killed after the tournament and Goku tracks down and is defeated by his murderer, Piccolo Daimao.
The samurai Yajirobe takes Goku to the hermit Karin, where he receives healing and a power boost.
Meanwhile, Piccolo fights Kame-Sen'nin and Chaozu, leading to both their deaths, and uses the Dragon Balls to regain his youth before destroying Shenlong.
Goku then kills Piccolo Daimao, who, just before dying, spawns his son/reincarnation Piccolo.
Karin then directs Goku to Kami, the original creator of the Dragon Balls, to restore Shenlong and revive his slain friends.
Goku trains under Kami for the next three years, once again reuniting with his friends at the Tenkaichi Budōkai, where he narrowly wins against Piccolo before leaving with Chi-Chi to keep his promise to marry her.
Five years later, Goku is a young adult and father to his son Gohan, when Raditz arrives on Earth, identifies Goku as his younger brother 'Kakarrot' and reveals to him that they are members of a nearly extinct extraterrestrial race called the , who sent Goku to conquer Earth for them, until he suffered a severe head injury and lost all memory of his mission.
Goku refuses to continue the mission, sides with Piccolo, and sacrifices his life to defeat Raditz.
In the afterlife Goku trains under the North Kaiō until he is revived by the Dragon Balls to save the Earth from the invading Nappa and Vegeta.
In the battle Yamcha, Chaozu, Tenshinhan, and Piccolo are killed, and the Dragon Balls cease to exist.
Kuririn and the galactic tyrant Freeza learn of another set of Dragon Balls on planet , whereupon Bulma, Gohan, and Kuririn search for them to revive their friends and subsequently the Earth's Dragon Balls, leading to several battles with Freeza's minions and Vegeta, the latter standing alongside the heroes to fight the Ginyu Force, a team of mercenaries.
The long battle with Freeza himself comes to a close when Goku transforms into a of legends and defeats him.
A group of created by a member of the former Red Ribbon Army, Doctor Gero, appear three years later, seeking revenge against Goku.
During this time, an evil life form called Cell also emerges and, after absorbing two of the Androids to achieve his "perfect form," holds his own fighting tournament to challenge the protagonists.
After Goku sacrifices his own life to no avail, Gohan avenges his father by defeating Cell.
Seven years later, Goku, briefly revived for one day, and his allies are drawn into a fight against Majin Boo.
After numerous battles, including destruction and re-creation of the Earth, Goku destroys Boo with a Genki-Dama (a sphere of pure energy drawn from all intelligent beings on Earth) and wishes for him to be reincarnated as a "good person".
Ten years later, at another Tenkaichi Budōkai, Goku meets Boo's human reincarnation, Oob.
Leaving their match unfinished, Goku departs with Oob to train him to be Earth's new guardian.
<EOS>
Hidetora Ichimonji, a powerful though now elderly warlord, decides to divide his kingdom among his three sons: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo.
Taro, the eldest, will receive the prestigious First Castle and become leader of the Ichimonji clan, while Jiro and Saburo will be given the Second and Third Castles.
Hidetora is to retain the title of Great Lord and Jiro and Saburo are to support Taro.
Saburo, however, points out that Hidetora is foolish if he expects his sons to be loyal to him, reminding him that even Hidetora had previously used the most ruthless methods to attain power.
Hidetora infers the comments to be subversive, and when his servant Tango comes to Saburo's defense, he exiles both men.
Fujimaki, a visiting warlord who had witnessed these events agrees with Saburo's frankness, and invites him to take his daughter's hand in marriage.
Following the division of Hidetora's lands between his remaining two sons, Taro's wife Lady Kaede begins to urge her husband to usurp control of the entire Ichimonji clan.
When Taro demands Hidetora renounce his title of Great Lord, Hidetora then storms out of the castle and travels to Jiro's castle, only to discover that Jiro is only interested in using Hidetora as a titular pawn.
Hidetora and his retinue then leave Jiro's castle as well without any clear destination.
Eventually Tango appears with provisions but to no avail.
Tango then tells Hidetora of Taro's new decree: death to whoever aids his father.
At last Hidetora takes refuge in the Third Castle, abandoned after Saburo's forces followed their lord into exile.
Tango does not follow him.
Shortly thereafter, Hidetora and his samurai retinue are besieged militarily by Taro and Jiro's combined forces.
In a short but violent siege, virtually all defenders are slaughtered as the Third Castle is set alight.
Solitarily, Hidetora succumbs to madness and wanders away from the burning castle.
As Taro and Jiro's forces storm the castle, Taro is killed by a bullet shot by Jiro's general, Kurogane.
Hidetora is discovered wandering in the wilderness by Tango who is still loyal to him and who stays to assist Hidetora.
In his madness, Hidetora is haunted by horrific visions of the people he destroyed in his quest for power.
They take refuge in a peasant's home only to discover that the occupant is Tsurumaru, the brother of Lady Sué, Jiro's wife.
Tsurumaru had been blinded and left impoverished after Hidetora took over his land and killed his father, a rival lord.
With Taro dead, Jiro becomes the Great Lord of the Ichimonji clan, enabling him to move into the First Castle.
Upon Jiro's return from battle, Lady Kaede, who doesn't seem to be fazed by Taro's death, blackmails Jiro into having an affair with her, and she becomes the power behind his throne.
Kaede demands that Jiro kill Lady Sué and marry her instead.
Jiro orders Kurogane to do the deed, but he refuses, warning Jiro that Kaede means to ruin the entire Ichimonji clan.
Kurogane then warns Sué and Tsurumaru to flee.
Tango, still watching over Hidetora with Kyoami, encounters two ronin who had once served as spies for Jiro.
Before he kills them both, one of the ronin tells him that Jiro is considering sending assassins after Hidetora.
Alarmed, Tango rides off to alert Saburo.
Hidetora becomes even more insane and runs off into a volcanic plain with a frantic Kyoami in pursuit.
Saburo's army crosses back into Jiro's territory to find him.
News also reaches Jiro that two rival lords allied to Saburo (Ayabe and Fujimaki) have also entered the territory, forcing Jiro to hastily mobilize his army.
At the field of battle, the two brothers accept a truce, but Saburo becomes alarmed when Kyoami arrives to tell of his father's descent into insanity.
Saburo goes with Kyoami to rescue his father and takes 10 warriors with him; Jiro sends several gunners to follow Saburo and ambush them both.
Jiro then orders an attack on Saburo's much smaller force.
Saburo's army retreats into the woods for cover and fires on Jiro's forces, frustrating the attack.
In the middle of the battle a messenger arrives with news that a rival warlord, Ayabe, is marching on the First Castle, forcing Jiro's army to hastily retreat.
Saburo then finds Hidetora in the volcanic plain; Hidetora partially recovers his sanity, and begins repairing his relationship with Saburo.
However, one of the snipers Jiro had sent after Saburo's small group shoots and kills Saburo.
Overcome with grief, Hidetora dies.
Fujimaki and his army arrive to witness Tango and Kyoami lamenting the death of father and son.
Meanwhile, Tsurumaru and Sué arrive at the ruins of a castle but inadvertently leave behind the flute that Sué previously gave Tsurumaru when he was banished.
She gives a picture of Amida Buddha to him for company while she attempts to retrieve the missing flute.
It is when she returns to Tsurumaru's hovel to retrieve it that she is ambushed and killed by Jiro's assassin.
Meanwhile, Ayabe's army pursues Jiro's army to the First Castle and commences a siege.
When Kurogane hears that Lady Sué has been finally murdered by one of Jiro's men, Kurogane confronts Kaede.
She admits her perfidy and to her plotting to exact blood revenge against Hidetora and his Ichimonji clan for having destroyed her family years before.
Enraged, Kurogane finally snaps and decapitates Kaede.
Jiro, Kurogane, and all Jiro's men subsequently die in the battle with Ayabe's army that follows.
A solemn funeral procession is held for Saburo and Hidetora.
Meanwhile, left alone in the castle ruins, Tsurumaru accidentally drops, and loses, the Amida Buddha image Sué had given to him.
The film ends with a distance shot of Tsurumaru, alone, silhouetted, atop the ruins.
<EOS>
Gwendolyn is an 11-year-old girl who is left by her rich and busy parents to the care of unsympathetic domestic workers at the family's mansion.
Her mother is only interested in her social life and her father has serious financial problem and is even contemplating suicide.
When she manages to have some good time with an organ-grinder or a plumber, or have a mud-fight with street boys, she is rapidly brought back on the right track.
One day she becomes sick because the maid has given her an extra dose of sleeping medicine to be able to go out.
She then becomes delirious and starts seeing an imaginary world inspired by people and things around her; the Garden of Lonely Children in the Tell-Tale forest.
Her conditions worsens and Death tries to lure her to eternal rest.
But Life also appears to her and finally wins.
<EOS>
In 1947, "toons" act out theatrical cartoon shorts as with live-action films; they regularly interact with real people and animals and reside in Toontown, an animated portion of Los Angeles.
Private detective Eddie Valiant and his brother, Teddy, once worked closely with the toons on several famous cases, but after Teddy was killed by a toon, Eddie lapsed into alcoholism and vowed never to work for toons again.
One day,K.
Maroon, head of Maroon Cartoon Studios, is concerned about the recent poor acting performances of one of his biggest stars, Roger Rabbit.
Maroon hires Valiant to investigate rumors about Roger's voluptuous toon wife Jessica being romantically involved with businessman and gadgets inventor, Marvin Acme, owner of both Acme Corporation and Toontown.
After watching Jessica perform at the underground Ink & Paint Club, Valiant secretly takes photographs of her and Acme playing patty-cake in her dressing room, which he shows to Roger.
Maroon suggests to Roger that he should leave Jessica, but a drunken Roger refuses and flees.
The next morning, Acme is discovered dead at his factory by the Los Angeles Police Department with a safe dropped on his head, and evidence points to Roger being responsible.
While investigating, Valiant meets Judge Doom, Toontown's Superior Court judge, who has created a substance capable of killing a toon: a toxic "Dip" made of turpentine, acetone, and benzene.
Valiant runs into Roger's toon co-star, Baby Herman, who believes Roger is innocent and that Acme's missing will, which will give the toons ownership of Toontown, may be the key to his murder.
He then finds Roger hiding in his office, who begs him to help exonerate him.
Valiant reluctantly hides Roger in a local bar where his ex-girlfriend, Dolores, works.
Later, Jessica approaches Valiant and says that Maroon had forced her to pose for the photographs so that he could blackmail Acme.
Doom and his toon-weasel henchmen discover Roger, but he and Valiant escape with Benny, an anthropomorphic taxicab.
They flee to a theater, where Valiant explains to Roger that a toon killed Teddy before he fled to Toontown.
As they leave with Dolores, Valiant sees a newsreel detailing the sale of Maroon Cartoons to Cloverleaf, a mysterious corporation that bought the city's trolley network shortly before Acme's murder.
Valiant goes to the studio to confront Maroon, leaving Roger to guard outside, but Jessica knocks him out and puts him in the trunk.
Maroon tells Valiant that he blackmailed Acme into selling his company so that he could then sell the studio, but is killed before he can explain the consequences of the missing will.
Valiant spots Jessica fleeing the scene and, assuming she is the culprit, follows her into Toontown.
Jessica reveals that Doom killed Acme and Maroon and that the former had given her his will for safe-keeping, but she discovered that the will was blank.
She and Valiant are soon captured by Doom and the weasels.
At the Acme factory, Doom reveals his plot to destroy Toontown with a giant machine loaded with dip to build a freeway, the only way past Toontown since Cloverleaf (which Doom owns) has bought out Los Angeles' tram system.
Roger unsuccessfully attempts to save Jessica, and the couple is tied onto a hook in front of the machine's hose.
Valiant then performs a comedic vaudeville act, causing the weasels to die of laughter; Valiant kicks their leader, Smart Ass, into the machine's Dip vat.
Valiant then fights Doom, who is eventually flattened by a steamroller, but survives.
Eddie is shocked when Doom reveals that he is a toon in disguise—the same toon who killed Teddy.
Valiant uses a toon mallet with a spring-loaded boxing glove and fires it at a switch that causes the machine to empty its dip onto Doom, dissolving him and killing him.
The empty machine crashes through the wall into Toontown, where it is destroyed by a train.
Numerous toons run in to regard Doom's remains, and Roger discovers that he inadvertently wrote his love letter for Jessica on Acme's will, which was written in disappearing-reappearing ink.
Roger then shocks Valiant with a joy buzzer, and Valiant gives him a kiss, having regained his sense of humor.
Valiant happily enters Toontown with Dolores, and Roger with Jessica, followed by the other toons.
<EOS>
A newspaper shows Porky traveling to Africa to hunt the rare dodo bird, worth four sextillion dollars.
Porky uses his airplane to go to Dark Africa, then Darker Africa, and finally lands in Darkest Africa.
When Porky lands, a sign tells him that he's in Wackyland ("Population: 100 nuts and a squirrel"), while a voice booms out "It can happen here.
" Porky tiptoes along the ground in his airplane and he is greeted by a roaring beast, who suddenly becomes effeminate and dances away into the forest.
He watches as the sun is lifted above the horizon by a tower of stacked creatures.
Nearby, another creature rises out of a tall flower, playing "The William Tell Overture", using his nose as a flute.
The creature launches into a wild drum solo, plays a tiny piano, and plays its nose like a horn, which brings out many strange, weird, and oafish creatures, including a rabbit dangling in midair from a swing that seems to be threaded through its own ears, a small creature wearing large boots that encourages the rabbit to swing faster, a peacock with a fantail of cards, an upside-down creature walking with giant bare feet in his hands, a goofy looking creature wearing large glasses in a small pot, a little creature wearing oversized female mannequin legs, and an angry criminal imprisoned behind a free-floating barred window that he holds in his hands while a small policeman on a wheel appears and hits him on the head with a large stick.
As Porky tries to find the do-do, he is distracted by a duck singing "Mammy.
", a horn-headed creature, a conjoined cat and dog hybrid creature spinning around like a tornado while they fight, and a 3 headed stooge whose heads argue and fight amongst themselves.
Finally, the Dodo appears.
Porky tries to catch it, but it plays tricks on him.
The dodo pulls out a pencil and draws a door in mid-air, and instead of opening it and running through, reaches down and lifts up the bottom edge of the door like a curtain, darts underneath and lets it snap back into place for Porky to bump into.
At another point, the do-do appears on the Warner Bros.
shield logo and slingshots Porky into the ground.
Porky is defeated when the dodo pulls a wall of bricks in the picture and lets him crash into it.
At the end of the film, Porky triumphs when he disguises himself as a bearded paperboy, shouting "Extra.
Extra.
Porky captures Dodo.
", before hitting the bird with a mallet.
Porky loudly proclaims to the audience that he has captured the last dodo.
The dodo mockingly replies, "Yes, I'm really the last of the dodos.
Ain't I, fellas.
".
A multitude of dodos appear, all yelling out, "Yeah, man.
".
They and the Dodo all howl, which allows him to escape and stand on Porky's head.
<EOS>
On the evening of the coronation of King Rudolf of Ruritania, his brother, Prince Michael, has him drugged.
In a desperate attempt to deny Michael the excuse to claim the throne, Colonel Sapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim, attendants of the king, persuade his distant cousin Rudolf Rassendyll, an English visitor, to impersonate the King at the coronation.
The unconscious king is abducted and imprisoned in a castle in the small town of Zenda.
There are complications, plots, and counterplots, among them the schemes of Michael's mistress, Antoinette de Mauban, and those of his dashing but villainous henchman, Count Rupert of Hentzau.
Rassendyll falls in love with Princess Flavia, the King's betrothed, but cannot tell her the truth.
He determines to rescue the king and leads an attempt to enter the castle of Zenda.
The king is rescued and is restored to his throne, but the lovers, in duty bound, must part.
<EOS>
The once-great Max Bialystock (Mostel) had once been the toast of Broadway, but now he has been reduced to a washed-up, aging, fraudulent, corruptible, and greedy Broadway producer who barely ekes out a hand-to-mouth existence romancing lascivious, wealthy elderly women ("angels" in theatrical terms) in exchange for money for his next play.
Accountant Leopold "Leo" Bloom (Wilder) arrives at Max's office to do his books and discovers a $2,000 discrepancy in the accounts of Max's last play.
Max persuades Leo to hide the relatively minor fraud, and while shuffling numbers, Leo has a revelation: a producer could make a lot more money with a flop than a hit by overselling shares in the production, because no one will audit the books of a play presumed to have lost money.
Max immediately puts this scheme into action.
They will oversell shares on a massive scale and produce a play that will close on opening night, thus avoiding payouts and leaving the duo free to flee to Rio de Janeiro with the profits.
Leo is afraid such a criminal venture will fail and they will go to prison, but Max eventually convinces him that his drab existence is no better than prison.
After reading many bad plays (including a stage adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis), the partners find the obvious choice for their scheme: Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden.
It is "a love letter to Hitler" written in total sincerity by deranged ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars).
Max and Leo persuade Liebkind to sign over the stage rights, telling him they want to show the world "the Hitler you loved, the Hitler you knew, the Hitler with a song in his heart".
To guarantee that the show is a flop, they hire Roger De Bris (Christopher Hewett), a director whose plays "close on the first day of rehearsal".
The part of Hitler goes to a charismatic, but only semicoherent, flower power hippie named Lorenzo Saint DuBois, also known asSD.
(Dick Shawn), who can barely remember his own name and mistakenly wandered into the theater during the casting call.
After Max sells 25,000% of the play to his regular investors (dozens of lustful little old ladies), they are sure to be on their way to Rio.
The result of all this is a cheerfully upbeat and utterly tasteless musical play purporting to be about the happy home life of a brutal dictator.
It opens with a lavish production of the title song, "Springtime for Hitler," which celebrates Nazi Germany crushing Europe ("Springtime for Hitler and Germany/Winter for Poland and France").
After seeing the audience's dumbfounded disbelief, Max and Leo, confident that the play will be a flop, go to a bar across the street to celebrate and get drunk.
Unbeknownst to them, the audience ends up findingSD.
's beatnik-like portrayal (and constant ad-libbing) hilarious and misinterprets the production as a satire.
During intermission, some members of the audience come to the bar at which Max and Leo are drinking and rave about the play, much to Max's and Leo's shared horror.
The two decide to return to the theater after intermission to hear what the rest of the audience has to say, which echoes what the others already said.
Meanwhile,SD.
's portrayal of Hitler enrages and humiliates Franz, who — after going behind the stage, untying the cable holding up the curtain, and rushing out on stage — confronts the audience and rants about the treatment of his beloved play.
However, someone behind the curtain manages to knock him out and remove him from the stage, and the audience assumes that Franz's rant was part of the act.
Springtime For Hitler is declared a smash hit, which means, of course, that the investors will be expecting a larger financial return than can be paid out.
Bialystock is frustrated and miserable.
“I was so careful,” he laments.
“I picked the wrong play, the wrong director, the wrong cast.
where did I go RIGHT.
”  As the stunned partners turn on each other, a gun-wielding Franz confronts them, accusing them of breaking the "Siegfried Oath".
After failing to shoot Max and Leo, Franz tries to shoot himself, but runs out of bullets.
Leo comforts Franz, while Max tries to convince Franz to kill the actors, but Leo intervenes.
After a reconciliation, the three band together and decide to blow up the theater to end the production, but they are injured, arrested, tried, and found "incredibly guilty" by the jury.
Before sentencing, Leo makes an impassioned statement praising Max for changing his life and being his friend (while also referring to him as "the most selfish man I have ever met in my life"), and Max tells the judge that they have learned their lesson.
Max, Leo, and Franz are sent to the state penitentiary.
There they produce a new play called Prisoners of Love.
a show which proves to be even worse than Springtime For Hitler (mostly because, this time, Leo and Max are actually striving to make a good play instead of a bad one).
While Max and Franz earnestly supervise rehearsals, Leo continues their old scam - overselling shares of the play to their fellow prisoners, and even to the warden.
The song "Prisoners of Love" plays while the credits roll.
<EOS>
The main events of the novel take place in the summer of 1922.
Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and veteran of the Great War from the Midwest—who serves as the novel's narrator—takes a job in New York as a bond salesman.
He rents a small house on Long Island, in the fictional village of West Egg, next door to the lavish mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who holds extravagant parties but does not participate in them.
Nick drives around the bay to East Egg for dinner at the home of his cousin, Daisy Fay Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a college acquaintance of Nick's.
They introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, an attractive, cynical young golfer with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship.
She reveals to Nick that Tom has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the "valley of ashes", an industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City.
Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle to an apartment Tom keeps for his affairs with Myrtle and others.
At Tom's New York apartment, a vulgar and bizarre party takes place.
It ends with Tom breaking Myrtle's nose after she annoys him by saying Daisy's name several times.
As the summer progresses, Nick eventually receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's parties.
Nick encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, an aloof and surprisingly young man who recognizes Nick from their same division in the Great War.
Through Jordan, Nick later learns that Gatsby knew Daisy through a purely chance meeting in 1917, when Daisy and her friends were doing volunteer services' work with young Officers headed to Europe.
From their brief meetings and casual encounters at that time, Gatsby became (and still is) deeply in love with Daisy.
And even more, he became obsessed with the idea of her, and the ideal of living in the world he saw her living in, as the fulfillment of all the possible dreams he could ever have.
Gatsby spends many nights staring at the green light at the end of Tom and Daisy's dock, across the bay from his mansion, hoping one day to rekindle their lost romance.
Jordan confides in Nick that the only reason he bought the mansion is that it was across the bay from Tom and Daisy's home.
And Gatsby's extravagant lifestyle and wild parties were an attempt to impress Daisy and raise her curiosity about her "anonymous" neighbor across the bay.
Gatsby had hoped that one day curiosity would have brought the unsuspecting Daisy to appear at his doorstep, and thereby he'd be able to present himself as a "new man", now of wealth and position, and now able to join her at her side and within her world.
That however never played out, and although Tom had been invited (as a guest of Jordan's) to a Gatsby party and had attended more than one of them, both he and Daisy had (for different reasons) never responded affirmatively to an RSVP to attend as the Buchanans (Mr.
and mrs).
The deeper reasons behind this fact are expanded upon later in the story by Daisy.
His research of Nick, who has so fortuitously rented the small cottage next door to Gatsby's mansion, results in a wholly new approach to his problem of how to introduce Daisy to the "new" Gatsby.
The whole purpose of the "invitation" to Nick to attend a Gatsby party was to develop a relationship with him so that Gatsby could later ask Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy.
Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house without telling her that Gatsby will also be there.
After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection.
They begin an affair and, after a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife's relationship with Gatsby.
At a luncheon at the Buchanans' house, Daisy speaks to Gatsby with such undisguised intimacy that Tom realizes she is in love with Gatsby.
Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is outraged by his wife's infidelity.
He forces the group to drive into New York City and confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, asserting that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand.
In addition to that, he announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal whose fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities.
Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom contemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to prove that Gatsby cannot hurt him.
When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes on their way home, they discover that Gatsby's car has struck and killed Tom's mistress, Myrtle.
Nick later learns from Gatsby that Daisy, not Gatsby himself, was driving the car at the time of the accident but Gatsby intends to take the blame anyway.
Myrtle's husband, George, falsely concludes that the driver of the yellow car is the secret lover he recently began suspecting she has, and sets out on foot to find him.
After finding out the yellow car is Gatsby's, he arrives at Gatsby's mansion where he fatally shoots Gatsby and then himself.
Nick stages an unsettlingly small funeral for Gatsby in which none of Gatsby's associates or partygoers attend.
Later, Nick runs into Tom in New York and finds out that Tom had told George that Gatsby was Myrtle's secret lover and that Gatsby had killed her, then gave George Gatsby's address.
Nick breaks up with Jordan, and, disillusioned with the East, moves back to the Midwest.
<EOS>
As youngsters in 1900's Chicago, Tom Powers (James Cagney) and his lifelong friend Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) engage in petty theft, selling their loot to "Putty Nose" (Murray Kinnell).
Putty Nose persuades them to join his gang on a fur warehouse robbery, assuring them he will take care of them if anything goes wrong.
When Tom is startled by a stuffed bear, he shoots it, alerting the police, who kill gang member Larry Dalton.
Chased by a cop, Tom and Matt have to gun him down.
However, when they go to Putty Nose for help, they find he has left town.
Tom's straightlaced older brother Mike (Donald Cook) tries, but fails, to talk Tom into giving up crime.
Tom keeps his activities secret from his doting mother (Beryl Mercer).
When America enters World War I in 1917, Mike enlists in the Marines.
In 1920, with Prohibition about to go into effect, Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor) recruits Tom and Matt as beer "salesmen" (enforcers) in his bootlegging business.
He allies himself with noted gangster Samuel "Nails" Nathan (Leslie Fenton).
As the bootlegging business becomes ever more lucrative, Tom and Matt flaunt their wealth.
Mike finds out that his brother's money comes not from politics, as Tom claims, but from bootlegging, and declares that Tom's success is based on nothing more than "beer and blood" (the title of the book upon which the film is based).
Tom retorts in disgust: "Your hands ain't so clean.
You killed and liked it.
You didn't get them medals for holding hands with them Germans".
Tom and Matt acquire girlfriends, Kitty (an uncredited Mae Clarke) and Mamie (Joan Blondell) respectively.
Tom eventually tires of Kitty; in a famous scene, when she complains once too often, he angrily pushes half a grapefruit into her face.
He then drops her for Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow), a woman with a self-confessed weakness for bad men.
At a restaurant on the night of Matt's wedding reception to Mamie, Tom and Matt recognize Putty Nose and follow him home.
Begging for his life, Putty plays a song on the piano that he had entertained Tom and Matt with when they were kids.
Tom shoots him in the back.
Tom gives his mother a large wad of money, but Mike rejects the gift.
Tom tears up the banknotes and throws them in his brother's face.
"Nails" Nathan dies in a horse riding accident, prompting Tom to find the horse and shoot it.
A rival gang headed by "Schemer" Burns takes advantage of the disarray resulting from Nathan's death, precipitating a gang war.
Later, Matt is gunned down in public, with Tom narrowly escaping the same fate.
Furious, Tom takes it upon himself to single-handedly settle scores with Burns and some of his men.
Tom is seriously wounded in the shootout, and ends up in the hospital.
When his mother, brother, and Matt's sister Molly come to see him, he reconciles with Mike and agrees to reform.
However, Paddy warns Mike that Tom has been kidnapped by the Burns mob from the hospital.
Later, his dead body is returned to the Powers home.
<EOS>
Behind the opening credits, the film opens on a suburban Los Angeles street with teenager Jim Stark (Dean) drunkenly lying down on a sidewalk.
He is arrested and taken to the juvenile division of the police station for "plain drunkenness".
At the station he meets John "Plato" Crawford (Mineo), who was brought in for shooting a litter of puppies with his mother's gun, and Judy (Wood), who was brought in for curfew violation (she was wearing a bright red dress with matching lipstick and was mistaken for being a streetwalker).
The three each separately reveal their innermost frustrations to officers; all three of them suffer from problems at home: Jim sets out for his first day at Dawson High School and again meets Judy (who lives nearby) waiting on the corner and offers her a ride.
Seemingly unimpressed by Jim at first, she declines and sarcastically says, "You know, I bet you're a real yo-yo," and then is picked up by her "friends", a gang of delinquents led by "Buzz" Gunderson (Corey Allen).
Arriving at school, Jim immediately gets in hot water for unknowingly stepping on the school insignia.
While shunned by most of the student body, Jim befriends Plato, who comes to idolize him as a father figure.
That afternoon, Jim's class goes on a field trip to Griffith Observatory, where they see a dramatic presentation of the bleak future of the Earth as the Sun goes through its red giant phase and post red-giant phase.
As he walks out, Buzz and his gang slash one of Jim's tires and then begin taunting him by clucking and calling him "chicken", which is sure to set him off.
When Jim asks Judy, revealed to be the "property" of Buzz, why she hangs around with them, Buzz pushes Jim away from her, then whips out a switchblade and challenges Jim to a knife fight.
Having no knife, Jim refuses, so Buzz orders one of his gang to lend Jim his knife, but even then Jim still refuses.
When Buzz again calls Jim chicken he goes off, and the two begin fighting, each one getting minor jabs on the other until Jim knocks Buzz's knife away and subdues him.
Buzz wants another shot at Jim, which he accepts but not with knives.
Buzz suggests stealing a couple of cars to have a "Chickie Run" at Millertown Bluff, a high seaside cliff.
Jim agrees to meet them that evening before the observatory security guard runs the gang off.
After they leave, Jim asks Plato what a Chickie Run is.
At home, before leaving for the chickie run, Jim ambiguously asks Frank for advice about defending one's honor in a risky, dangerous situation.
But Frank, dressed in a frilly apron and doing housework while Carol is sick in bed, instead gives Jim a long-winded speech about avoiding confrontation of any kind.
Jim changes his clothes and drives to Millertown Bluff.
Buzz shows him the two stolen cars they'll be racing, and then go to the edge of the cliff alone and share a cigarette, where Buzz confides in Jim that he likes him.
When Jim asks Buzz why they're doing the run, Buzz replies "You gotta do something, now don't you.
".
Meanwhile, Judy asks Plato about Jim; though they barely know one another, Plato calls Jim his best friend.
When Judy asks what Jim is like Plato merely replies "You have to get to know him," but adds that people Jim likes most get to call him "Jamie".
As they prepare to race, Buzz explains the rules: the two are to race toward the edge of the cliff, and whoever jumps out of their car first is declared the "chicken".
As the two cars speed toward the cliff, Jim tumbles out of his car, but Buzz's jacket sleeve gets caught on his door handle, preventing him from jumping out before both cars plummet to the rocky shores below, with Buzz screaming, until he meets his death in the fiery crash below.
The rest of the gang flee leaving Judy stranded, but Jim, with Plato in tow, gives Judy a ride home, giving her back the purse mirror she left at the police station.
Still with Plato along, Jim drives home.
Plato then asks Jim if he would like to go with him up to an old abandoned mansion near the observatory and stay there for the night, but Jim declines and sends him home, but not before Plato writes down Jim's address in his pocket notebook.
Jim tells of his involvement in the crash to Frank and Carol, who saw a news report about it on TV, but when Jim considers turning himself in, they warn him not to volunteer himself to the police.
When Carol declares they're moving again, Jim asserts that he won't let her use him as an excuse to keep running away.
Jim then begs Frank to stand up with him against her, but he doesn't.
Jim angrily jumps and strangles Frank until he is pulled away by Carol.
He storms off to the police station and is accosted by Buzz's fellow gang members Crunch (Frank Mazzola), Goon (Dennis Hopper) and Moose (Jack Grinnage) who were just released from custody.
Jim ignores them and goes in looking for Fremick, but the desk sergeant rudely tells him that Fremick will be out all night.
Before leaving, Jim tries to call Judy at her home, but the call is intercepted by her father who abruptly hangs up.
Jim drives back home and finds Judy waiting at the same spot where they met that morning (she greets him with "Hello, Jamie").
When Jim reveals he was attracted to her from the moment he saw her (and even gently kisses the side of her forehead), Judy apologizes for the way she treated Jim that morning, blaming peer pressure, and the two begin to fall for one another.
Agreeing that they will never go back to their respective homes, Jim suggests they go to the mansion Plato told him about, saying "You can trust me, Judy".
Meanwhile, Plato is just arriving home on his motor scooter when he is grabbed by Crunch, Goon and Moose.
Convinced that Jim ratted them out to the police, and looking to avenge Buzz's death, they demand to know where they can find Jim, but Plato refuses to talk.
They grab Plato's pocket notebook as he gets to the front door and run off.
Plato runs upstairs to his bedroom and, after throwing away a child support check from his father, grabs his mother's gun and runs off to find and warn Jim.
At Jim's house Frank and Carol hear knocking at the front door.
Frank answers to find a live chicken hanging over their door, and Buzz's friends asking about Jim, but Frank hurriedly shuts the door.
After they take off, Plato shows up for the same reason, but when Frank asks Plato about Jim, Plato quickly apologizes and hurries off to the mansion where he finds Jim and Judy.
The three new friends act out a fantasy as a family, and Plato tells them about when the "head shrink" got him to open up about hearing his parents fight when he was a baby, and how his mother later decided the money being spent on his therapy was better spent going off alone to Hawaii.
Wishing they could stay there, but unable to ignore his situation, Plato decides he "might as well be dead anyway" and lies down to doze.
Judy hums the Brahms' Lullaby to him before she and Jim go exploring the rest of the mansion.
Jim and Judy find a place, and they exchange their first kiss.
Crunch, Goon and Moose, now armed with chains, find their way to the mansion and wake up Plato.
Frightened and distraught, Plato fights them off, both in the empty swimming pool, and in the mansion, until he finds his gun and shoots Moose, and then mistakenly fires at Jim when he comes back.
Jim tries to restrain Plato, but he runs from the mansion, shooting at police who have just arrived.
Plato runs to the observatory and barricades himself inside as more police converge including Fremick who, with Frank and Carol, was out looking for Jim.
Jim and Judy follow Plato into the observatory, and Jim persuades Plato to trade the gun for his red jacket; Jim silently removes the ammunition before giving the gun back.
Jim then convinces Plato to come outside after asking Fremick to turn the police lights off.
As they start to come out the police notice Plato still has the gun and turn their lights back on, which incites Plato to break away and charge the police.
When he is shot down, Jim screams, "I got the bullets.
Look.
" Seeing Jim's jacket, Frank believes at first that Jim had been shot.
He runs to comfort the openly grieving Jim, and promises to try and be a stronger father, one that Jim can depend on.
Judy's father takes Jim's jacket, and covers Plato's body.
Now reconciled to his parents, Jim introduces them to Judy saying "She's my friend", first briefly opposed by Carol, until Frank assures her that it's all right.
As dawn encroaches, and as everyone leaves in their respective cars, a lone figure in a business suit with briefcase walks toward the observatory, completely unaware of what just transpired.
<EOS>
Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) is a stubborn man who wants nothing more than to start up a successful cattle ranch in Texas.
Shortly after he begins his journey to Texas with his trail hand Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan), Dunson learns that his love interest (Coleen Gray), whom he had told to stay behind with the California-bound wagon train with the understanding that he would send for her later, was killed in an Indian attack.
Despite this tragedy, Dunson and Groot press on.
That night, Dunson and Groot, keeping watch, hear a group of Indians planning to attack them.
They kill the Indians, and on the wrist of one, Dunson finds a bracelet he had been left by his late mother.
One day before, he had presented it to his young love as he left the wagon train.
The bracelet reappears significantly later in the film.
The next day, an orphaned boy named Matthew Garth (played as a boy by Mickey Kuhn and as an adult by Montgomery Clift) wanders into Dunson and Groot's camp, traumatized and babbling incoherently.
He had been part of the wagon train Dunson had left, and had come back from finding a strayed cow to see the ruins of the train.
He is the sole survivor of the wagon train.
Dunson adopts him and ties the boy's cow to his wagon, alongside a bull Dunson already owned.
With only the bull and the cow, Dunson, Groot and the boy enter Texas by crossing the Red River.
In search for land they travel through Texas, finally settling in deep South Texas near the Rio Grande.
Upon arrival, Dunson proudly proclaims all the land about them as his own.
Two Mexican men appear on horseback and inform Dunson that the land already belongs to their boss, a Spanish grandee whose family held the land by patent from the King of Spain.
Dunson dismisses this inconvenient fact and, thanks to a quicker draw in a showdown, kills one of the men and tells the other man to inform the Spanish don that Dunson now owns the land.
Dunson names his new spread the Red River D, after his chosen cattle brand for his herd.
Fatefully, he promises to add M (for Matt) to the brand, once Matt has earned it.
Fourteen years pass and Dunson now has a fully operational cattle ranch.
With the help of Matt and Groot, his herd now numbers over ten thousand cattle, but he is also broke as a result of widespread poverty in the southern United States.
Due to its loss of the American Civil War, the South cannot afford Dunson's beef.
Dunson decides to drive his massive herd hundreds of miles north to the railhead at Sedalia, Missouri, where he believes they will fetch a good price.
After Dunson hires some extra men to help out with the drive, including professional gunman Cherry Valance (John Ireland), the perilous northward drive starts.
Along the way, they encounter many troubles including a stampede sparked by one of the men, Bunk Kenneally (Ivan Parry), making a clatter while trying to steal sugar from the chuck wagon.
This leads to the death of Dan Latimer (Harry Carey Jr).
Despite Bunk knowing what he did caused all these problems, Dunson wants to make an example of him by whipping him; but when Bunk draws his gun in self-defense as Dunson is about to whip him, Matt shoots Bunk in the arm, knowing that Dunson would have shot to kill.
The wounded Bunk is sent to make his way home on his own.
Continuing with the drive, Valance relates around the campfire one evening that the railroad has reached Abilene, Kansas, which is much closer than Sedalia.
When Dunson confirms that Valance had not actually seen the railroad, he ignores what he regards as a rumor in favor of continuing on to Missouri.
Deeper problems arise when Dunson's tyrannical leadership style begins to affect the men.
One of the two chuck wagons was destroyed in the stampede, causing morale to drop as the men live on nothing but beef and roasted grain "coffee".
Dunson tells the men he is broke and cannot buy more supplies, even if they turned back to get them.
When he announces he intends to lynch two men who had deserted the drive and taken a sack of flour and 100 rounds of ammunition with them and been recaptured by Cherry Valance, Matt rebels.
With the help of Valance and the other men, Matt takes control of the herd in order to drive it along the Chisholm Trail to the hoped-for railhead in Abilene, Kansas.
Valance and Buster (Noah Berry Jr) become his right hand men.
Face to face, Dunson curses him and promises to kill him when next they meet.
The drive turns toward Abilene, leaving the lightly injured Dunson behind with his horse and a few supplies.
Matt and his men are well aware that Dunson will try to recruit a posse to pursue and attack them.
On the way to Abilene, Matt and his men repel an Indian attack on a wagon train made up of gamblers and dance hall girls.
One of the people they save is Tess Millay (Joanne Dru), who falls in love with Matt.
They spend a night together and he gives her Dunson's mother's bracelet, evidently given to Matt by Dunson in earlier years.
Eager to beat Dunson to Abilene, he leaves early in the morning — the same way Dunson had left his lady love with the wagon train 14 years before.
Later Tess encounters Dunson, who has followed Matt's trail to the gamblers' wagon train.
He sees her wearing his mother's bracelet.
Weary and emotional, he tells Tess what he wants most of all is a son.
She offers to bear him one if he will abandon his pursuit of Matthew Garth.
Dunson sees in her the same anguish that his beloved had expressed when he left her.
Despite that, he resumes the hunt.
Tess Millay in her wagon accompanies him.
When Matt reaches Abilene, he finds the town has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of such a herd to buy and ship it east by rail.
Unknowingly, he has completed the first cattle drive along what would become famous as the Chisholm Trail.
He accepts an excellent offer for the cattle.
He also meets Tess again, who has preceded Dunson into town.
Shortly thereafter, Dunson arrives in Abilene with his posse, to fulfill his vow to kill Matt.
Cherry Valance tries to keep the two apart, but Dunson beats him to the draw, badly wounding him while Valance inflicts a flesh wound on Dunson.
Dunson and Matt begin a furious fistfight, which Tess interrupts by drawing a gun on both men, shooting wildly and demanding that they realize the love that they share.
Dunson and Matt see the error of their ways and make peace.
The film ends with Dunson advising Matt to marry Tess, and telling Matt that he will incorporate an M into the Red River D brand as he had promised 14 years before, because he had earned it.
<EOS>
In the early years of the twentieth century, an aging ex-lawman, Steve Judd (Joel McCrea), is hired to guard a shipment of gold from a high country mining camp to the town of Hornitos, California.
Six miners were recently murdered trying to transport their gold on the one trail leading down from the crest of the Sierra Nevada.
In his prime, Judd was a tough and respected lawman, but now his threadbare clothes and spectacles serve as reminders that he is long past his prime.
Judd enlists the help of his old friend and partner Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) to guard the gold shipment.
Gil, who makes his living passing himself off as a legendary sharpshooter named The Oregon Kid, enlists the help of his young sidekick, Heck Longtree (Ron Starr).
Judd, Gil, and Heck ride up into the mountains toward the Coarse Gold mining camp.
Judd doesn't know that Gil and Heck are planning to steal the gold for themselves—preferably with Judd's help, but without it if necessary.
Along the way they stop for the night at the farm of Joshua Knudsen (R.
Armstrong) and his daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley).
Knudsen is a domineering religious man who warns against those who "traffic in gold" and trades Bible verses with Judd at the dinner table.
That night, Elsa and Heck meet in the moonlight, but Knudsen interrupts their conversation.
Back at the house, he admonishes and slaps her for her behavior.
Unable to tolerate her domineering father any longer, Elsa leaves her home the next morning.
She later joins Judd, Gil, and Heck on their ride to Coarse Gold where she intends to marry her fiancé.
Along the way she and Heck flirt and he tries to force himself on her but is stopped by Judd.
When they reach the Coarse Gold mining camp, they soon discover that the girl's fiancé, Billy Hammond (James Drury), is a drunken lout who intends to prostitute her to his four thuggish brothers, Elder (John Anderson), Sylvus (L.
Jones), Jimmy (John Davis Chandler) and Henry (Warren Oates).
Judd and Heck rescue the girl from the marriage, and the next morning, Judd, Gil, Heck and Elsa start back towards town with the gold.
Along the way, Judd talks to Gil about right and wrong and how that's "something you just know".
After all the lost years working in disreputable places, he tells Gil that he's now grateful to have gained back some of his self-respect and intends on keeping it "with the help of you and that boy back there".
When Gil asks if that's all he wants, Judd replies, "All I want is to enter my House justified".
Realizing Judd will never go along with his plan to steal the gold, Gil plans to steal the gold without his help.
During the night as Gil and Heck prepare to leave with the gold, Judd confronts them at gunpoint.
Angered by his old friend's betrayal, he slaps him and challenges him to a draw, but Gil throws down his guns.
Planning to put them on trial when they return to town, Judd is forced to change his plans when the Hammond brothers appear in hot pursuit of the girl.
In the ensuing gunfight, two of the brothers, Jimmy and Sylvus, are killed, and Billy, Elder and Henry escape.
During the night, Gil leaves camp and heads back to the site of the gunfight, where he takes a horse and gun from one of the dead brothers.
Then he follows Judd, Heck, and Elsa down the only trail.
Meanwhile, Heck has shown himself to be trustworthy, and even though he will most likely go to prison, Elsa tells him she'll be there when he gets out.
When they reach Elsa's farm, the Hammond brothers are waiting, having already killed her father.
A gunfight breaks out and soon both Judd and Heck are wounded.
Just then Gil comes riding in to help his old friend, and together the pair insult and challenge the brothers to a face-to-face shootout in the open.
When the dust settles, the three brothers are dead, but Judd is mortally wounded.
He tells his old friend, "I don't want them to see this.
I want to go it alone".
When Gil pledges to take care of everything just like he would have, Judd says, "Hell, I know that.
I always did.
You just forgot it for a while, that's all".
Judd casts a look back towards the high country and then dies.
The film's final shot is of a mountain in the background.
<EOS>
The film opens with a freighter at sea exploding and news announcements.
The cause of the explosion is a mystery, with all crew accounted for with the exception of two unidentified stowaways.
Jeff Peters (Bing Crosby) and Orville 'Turkey' Jackson (Bob Hope) are seen floating at sea aboard a pile of wreckage.
It was Jeff's idea to stow away, but it was Orville 'smoking in the powder room' that caused the explosion.
As the two joke about eating one another to survive, they spot land in the distance.
As they sit on the beach, Orville reminds Jeff of his promise to Aunt Lucy, to take care of him.
Jeff reminds him that Aunt Lucy died before he could agree.
They are interrupted by a convenient camel, and they hitch a ride.
Once in the city, they are nearly run over by Arabs shooting guns, led by the sheik Mullay Kasim (Anthony Quinn).
Jeff and Orville learn the sheik is pursuing a princess for marriage.
Orville is approached by a group of bearers carrying someone in a veiled box.
A beautiful hand takes his and then leaves, with Orville in pure bliss.
In a restaurant, Jeff and Orville eat heartily, while trying to figure out how to get past the knife-wielding owner without paying.
A man (Dan Seymour) takes Jeff aside and hands over a great deal of money.
Orville is happy to be able to pay for the meal, until he learns that Jeff 'sold' him.
Orville is furious, especially since neither of them know why the man bought him.
Jeff calms him down and tells Orville he'll buy him back, eventually; and two men throw a hood over Orville and carry him off.
A week later, Jeff is woken by a vision of Aunt Lucy (played by a harp-wielding Bob Hope) who shames him for his act.
Jeff says he tried to buy Orville back, but learned he was re-sold to someone else.
Aunt Lucy tells him he has to find Orville, and recommends singing Orville's favorite song.
Jeff walks through the street singing, (accompanied by Aunt Lucy's ghost) until a note, with Orville's locket is tossed at him from the palace window.
The note, written by Orville, says he's being tortured and warns Jeff of danger.
Jeff, thinking Orville is in trouble, scales the palace wall.
Hearing a woman singing, Jeff sneaks into the palace and see a lot of beautiful girls dancing for the beautiful Princess Shalmar (Dorothy Lamour) and singing to a very relaxed Orville.
Jeff storms in and is grabbed by guards.
Orville feigns ignorance and tries to send him away.
The princess dismisses everyone, except for Jeff.
Orville admits the truth, but it's clear he's still mad at Jeff.
He says he and the princess are to be married.
Jeff is surprised, but the princess says her wise man read the stars and told her to marry Orville.
She was the one that passed Orville in the veiled box, and also the one that purchased him.
As she plants a passionate kiss on Orville, Jeff decides to stick around; a decision that almost brings him and Orville to blows, but the princess invites Jeff to stay.
As Orville is waited on by beautiful girls, he learns from one of them, Mihirmah, the princess was supposed to marry Kasim, but also tells Orville she loves him too.
Jeff breaks up the party and confronts Orville, who has Jeff thrown out.
Jeff wanders the palace singing, an act that attracts the princess and they go on a moonlit walk.
Mihirmah tries to get Orville to run away with her.
Jeff tries to tell the princess that HE was the one sold and should be marrying her, but he is interrupted by a sword-wielding Orville.
The next morning an angry Kasim confronts Princess Shalmar for marrying someone else.
He is prepared to kill Orville but the princess takes him to the wise man Hyder Kahn.
Hyder Khan said he had read the stars and found that Princess Shalmar's first husband is destined to die a violent death within a week of the marriage, and the second husband would be blessed with long life and happiness.
The princess tells Kasim that Orville is the first husband, and when he dies, she'll happily marry Kasim and they will live in happiness.
Kasim finally understands and embraces the princess.
Orville finds out about the prophecy and runs to Jeff and convinces him that the princess actually loves him and he's going to run off with Mihirmah.
Later that night, Orville is visited and shamed by Aunt Lucy's spirit, but Orville refuses to tell Jeff the truth.
Meanwhile, the wise man realizes that he had been misreading the stars due to fireflies in his telescope; his prophecies are incorrect.
Princess Shalmar refuses to marry Jeff, even though Orville is eager to get out of the marriage.
The princess sends Orville away to get ready for the wedding.
The wise man runs in and tells the princess and Jeff of the incorrect prophecy.
The princess is happy and tells Jeff now she can marry him and not Kasim.
Jeff realizes why Orville was so eager to get out of the marriage, but decides not to tell him.
Instead he says the princess changed her mind, and Orville is only too eager to accept.
Meanwhile, the wise man's assistant tells Kasim, who rallies his men.
The Princess and Jeff decide to get married in the, accompanied by Orville and Mihirmah but they are confronted by Kasim, who takes the princess and gives Mihirmah to one of his men.
Jeff and Orville try to use their 'patty-cake' routine on Kasim, but it backfires.
They escape into the palace with the girls but are found and captured.
Kasim takes the women and strands Jeff and Orville in the desert.
They wander aimlessly, seeing a drive-in restaurant, but it's a mirage.
They see a vision of a singing Princess Shalmar, which spurs them onward.
They find an oasis which is near Kasim's camp.
They try to sneak in, but are captured.
They see another set of horsemen and learn it is an enemy sheik who was invited as a token of peace.
They manage to escape and set the two sheiks against each other.
In the chaos Jeff and Orville grab the girls and escape.
Later, on a boat home, Orville sneaks into the powder room for a cigarette.
There is an explosion and then we see all four afloat a pile of wreckage.
Fortunately, they are near New York harbor.
<EOS>
Ann (Audrey Hepburn), the crown princess of an unspecified country becomes frustrated with her tightly scheduled life, and breaks down at having to repeatedly answer "yes, thank you" and "no, thank you" to demands of her time.
Her doctor gives her a sedative to calm her and help her sleep, but she secretly leaves her country's embassy.
The sedative eventually makes her fall asleep on a bench, where Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), an expatriate American reporter for the "American News Service" based in Rome, finds her.
Not recognizing her, he offers her money so she can take a taxi home, but a woozy "Anya Smith" (as she later calls herself) refuses to cooperate.
Joe finally decides, for safety's sake, to let her spend the night in his apartment.
He is amused by her regal manner, but less so when she appropriates his bed.
He transfers her to a couch.
The next morning, Joe, having already slept through the interview Princess Ann was scheduled to give, hurries off to work, leaving her still asleep.
When his editor, mr Hennessy (Hartley Power), asks why Joe is late, Joe lies, claiming to have attended the princess' press conference.
Joe makes up details of the alleged interview until Hennessy informs him that the event had been canceled because the princess had suddenly "fallen ill".
Joe sees a newspaper picture of her and realizes who is in his apartment.
Immediately seeing an opportunity, Joe proposes getting an exclusive interview.
Hennessy, not knowing the circumstances, agrees to the deal and offers $5,000 if the interview is all Joe claims it will be, but bets Joe $500 that he will not succeed.
Joe hurries home and, hiding the fact that he is a reporter, offers to show "Anya" around Rome.
He also surreptitiously calls his photographer friend, Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert), to tag along to secretly take pictures.
However, Ann declines Joe's offer and leaves.
Ann, enjoying her freedom, explores an outdoor market, buys a pair of shoes, and, on a whim, gets her long hair cut short.
Joe follows and "accidentally" meets her on the Spanish Steps.
This time he convinces her to spend the day with him.
They see the sights, including the "Mouth of Truth", a face carved in marble which is said to bite off the hands of liars.
When Joe shouts in mock pain and pulls his hand out of the mouth, it appears to be missing, causing Ann to scream.
He then pops his hand out of his sleeve and laughs.
(Allegedly, Hepburn's shriek was not acting&mdash;Peck decided to pull a gag he had once seen Red Skelton do, and did not tell his co-star beforehand)  Later, Ann shares with Joe her dream of living a normal life without her crushing responsibilities.
That night, at a dance on a boat, government agents finally track her down and try to escort her away, but a wild melee breaks out and Joe and Ann escape.
While trying to rescue her from plainclothes government agents, Joe is ambushed and falls into a river after being struck.
Ann dives in to save him, and they swim away together away from the agents, finally sharing a kiss as they sit shivering on the riverbank.
Later, knowing her royal responsibilities must resume, the princess bids a tearful farewell to Joe and returns to the embassy.
When she arrives at the embassy she is lectured upon the sense of duty she must display, but (visibly pained) retorts that without such a sense, she would never have returned.
During the course of the day, Hennessy learns that the princess is missing, not ill as claimed.
He suspects that Joe knows where she is and tries to get him to admit it, but Joe claims to know nothing about it.
Joe decides not to write the story, despite the considerable amount of money riding on it.
Irving first plans to sell his photographs independent of the story, but eventually decides against it.
The next day, Princess Ann appears to answer questions from the press, and is surprised to see Joe and Irving there.
Irving takes her picture with the same miniature cigarette-lighter/camera he had used the previous day.
When asked by a reporter which city of her European tour was her favorite, Ann first makes a diplomatic "all were equally good" answer, but interrupts it with an impulsive "Rome.
By all means, Rome".
At the end of the interview, the Princess requests to "meet" the journalists, shaking hands and making brief formal conversation.
As she reaches Joe and Irving, the latter presents her with an envelope with the photographs he had taken, under the pretext of a generic memento of Rome.
The three make several statements that hint at the truth and their dispositions, while feigning formality and the distance expected between the princess and two strange journalists.
As the interview with the princess comes to an end and she reluctantly leaves, the crowd of journalists and reporters eventually disperses, and Joe walks away alone.
<EOS>
The film opens in 1922 with Harold Lloyd (the character has the same name as the actor) behind bars.
His mother and his girlfriend, Mildred, are consoling him as a somber official and priest show up.
The three of them walk toward what looks like a noose.
It then becomes obvious they are at a train station and the "noose" is actually a trackside pickup hoop used by train crews to receive orders without stopping, and the bars are merely the ticket barrier.
He promises to send for his girlfriend so they can get married once he has "made good" in the big city.
Then he is off.
He gets a job as a salesclerk at the De Vore Department Store, where he has to pull various stunts to get out of trouble with the picky and arrogantly self-important head floorwalker, mr Stubbs.
He shares a rented room with his pal "Limpy" Bill, a construction worker.
When Harold finishes his shift, he sees an old friend from his hometown who is now a policeman walking the beat.
After he leaves, Bill shows up.
Bragging to Bill about his supposed influence with the police department, he persuades Bill to knock the policeman backwards over him while the man is using a callbox.
When Bill does so, he knocks over the wrong policeman.
To escape, he climbs up the façade of a building.
The policeman tries to follow, but cannot get past the first floor; in frustration, he shouts at Bill, "You'll do time for this.
The first time I lay eyes on you again, I'll pinch you.
"  Meanwhile, Harold has been hiding his lack of success by sending his girlfriend expensive presents he cannot really afford.
She mistakenly thinks he is successful enough to support a family and, with his mother's encouragement, takes a train to join him.
In his embarrassment, he has to pretend to be the general manager, even succeeding in impersonating him to get back at Stubbs.
While going to retrieve her purse (which Mildred left in the manager's office), he overhears the real general manager say he would give $1,000 to anyone who could attract people to the store.
He remembers Bill's talent and pitches the idea of having a man climb the "12-story Bolton building", which De Vore's occupies.
He gets Bill to agree to do it by offering him $500.
The stunt is highly publicized and a large crowd gathers the next day.
When a drunkard shows "The Law" (the policeman who was pushed over) a newspaper story about the event, the lawman suspects Bill is going to be the climber.
He waits at the starting point despite Harold's frantic efforts to get him to leave.
Finally, unable to wait any longer, Bill suggests Harold climb the first story himself and then switch his hat and coat with Bill, who will continue on from there.
After Harold starts up, the policeman spots Bill and chases him into the building.
Every time Harold tries to switch places with Bill, the policeman appears and chases Bill away.
Each time, Bill tells his friend he will meet him on the next floor up.
Eventually, Harold reaches the top, despite his troubles with a clock and some hungry pigeons, and kisses his girl.
<EOS>
Esperanza Quintero (Rosaura Revueltas) is a miner's wife in Zinc Town, New Mexico, a community which is essentially run and owned by Delaware Zinc Inc.
Esperanza is thirty-five years old, pregnant with her third child and emotionally dominated by her husband, Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacón).
The majority of the miners are Mexican-Americans and want decent working conditions equal to those of white, or "Anglo" miners.
The unionized workers go on strike, but the company refuses to negotiate and the impasse continues for months.
Esperanza gives birth and, simultaneously, Ramon is jailed for assaulting a union worker who betrayed his fellows.
When Ramon is released, Esperanza tells him that he's no good to her in jail.
He counters that if the strike succeeds they will not only get better conditions right now but also win hope for their children's futures.
The company presents a Taft-Hartley Act injunction to the union, meaning any miners who picket will be arrested.
Taking advantage of a loophole, the wives picket in their husbands' places.
Some men dislike this, seeing it as improper and dangerous.
Esperanza is forbidden to picket by Ramon at first, but she eventually joins the line while carrying her baby.
The sheriff, by company orders, arrests the leading women of the strike.
Esperanza is among those taken to jail.
When she returns home, Ramon tells her the strike is hopeless, as the company will easily outlast the miners.
She insists that the union is stronger than ever and asks Ramon why he can't accept her as an equal in their marriage.
Both angry, they sleep separately that night.
The next day the company evicts the Quintero family from their house.
The union men and women arrive to protest the eviction.
Ramon tells Esperanza that they can all fight together.
The mass of workers and their families proves successful in saving the Quinteros' home.
The company admits defeat and plans to negotiate.
Esperanza believes that the community has won something no company can ever take away and it will be inherited by her children.
<EOS>
In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant Antonio "Tony" Camonte (Paul Muni) acts on the orders of Italian mafioso John "Johnny" Lovo (Osgood Perkins) and kills "Big" Louis Costillo (Harry Vejar), the leading crime boss of the city's South Side.
Johnny then takes control of the South Side with Tony as his key lieutenant, selling large amounts of illegal beer to speakeasies and muscling in on bars run by rival outfits.
However, Johnny repeatedly warns Tony not to mess with the Irish gangs led by O'Hara, who runs the North Side.
Tony soon starts ignoring these orders, shooting up bars belonging to O'Hara, and attracting the attention of the police and rival gangsters.
Johnny realizes that Tony is out of control and has ambitions to take his position.
Meanwhile, Tony pursues Johnny's girlfriend Poppy (Karen Morley) with increasing confidence.
At first, she is dismissive of him but pays him more attention as his reputation rises.
At one point, she visits his "gaudy" apartment where he shows her his view of an electric billboard advertising Cook's Tours, which features the slogan that has inspired him: "The World is Yours".
Tony eventually decides to declare war and take over the North Side.
He sends the coin flipping Guino Rinaldo (George Raft), one of his best men and also his close friend, to kill O'Hara in a florist's shop that he uses as his base.
This brings heavy retaliation from the North Side gangs, now led by Gaffney (Boris Karloff) and armed with Thompson submachine guns—a weapon that instantly captures Tony's dark imagination.
Tony leads his own forces to destroy the North Side gangs and take over their market, even to the point of impersonating police officers to gun down several rivals in a garage.
Tony also kills Gaffney as he makes a strike at a bowling alley.
Johnny believes that his protégé is trying to take over, and he arranges for Tony to be assassinated while driving in his car.
Tony manages to escape this attack, and he and Guino kill Johnny, leaving Tony as the undisputed boss of the city.
Tony's actions have provoked a public outcry, and the police are slowly closing in.
Then he sees his beloved sister Francesca ("Cesca", Ann Dvorak) with Guino, and kills his friend in a jealous rage—before the couple can inform him of their secret marriage.
His sister runs out distraught and tells the police what he has done.
The police move to arrest Tony for Guino's murder, and Tony holes up in his house and prepares to shoot it out.
Cesca comes back, planning to kill him, but ends up helping him to fight the police.
Moments later, however, she is killed by a stray bullet.
As the apartment fills with tear gas, Tony leaves down the stairs, and the police confront him.
Tony pleads for his life, but then makes a break for it, only to be gunned down by the police.
Outside, the electric billboard blazes "The World is Yours".
<EOS>
In 1868, Ethan Edwards (Wayne) returns after an eight-year absence to the home of his brother Aaron (Walter Coy) in the wilderness of West Texas.
Ethan fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy, and in the three years since that war ended he apparently fought in the Mexican revolutionary war as well.
He has a large quantity of gold coins of uncertain origin in his possession, and a medal from the Mexican campaign that he gives to his eight-year-old niece, Debbie (played as a child by Lana Wood).
As a former Confederate soldier, he is asked to take an oath of allegiance to the Texas Rangers; he refuses.
As Rev.
Captain Samuel Clayton (Ward Bond) remarks, Ethan "fits a lot of descriptions".
Shortly after Ethan's arrival, cattle belonging to his neighbor Lars Jorgensen (John Qualen) are stolen, and when Captain Clayton leads Ethan and a group of Rangers to recover them, they discover that the theft was a Comanche ploy to draw the men away from their families.
When they return they find the Edwards homestead in flames.
Aaron, his wife Martha (Dorothy Jordan), and their son Ben (Robert Lyden) are dead, and Debbie and her older sister Lucy (Pippa Scott) have been abducted.
After a brief funeral the men set out in pursuit.
They come upon a burial ground of Comanches who were killed during the raid.
Ethan mutilates one of the bodies.
When they find the Comanche camp, Ethan recommends a frontal attack, but Clayton insists on a stealth approach to avoid killing the hostages.
The camp is deserted, and further along the trail the men ride into an ambush.
Though they fend off the attack, the Rangers are left with too few men to fight the Indians effectively.
They return home, leaving Ethan to continue his search for the girls with only Lucy's fiancé, Brad Jorgensen (Harry Carey, Jr) and Debbie's adopted brother, Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter).
Ethan finds Lucy brutally murdered and presumably raped in a canyon near the Comanche camp.
In a blind rage, Brad rides directly into the Indian camp and is killed.
When winter arrives Ethan and Martin lose the trail and return to the Jorgensen ranch.
Martin is enthusiastically welcomed by the Jorgensens' daughter Laurie (Vera Miles), and Ethan finds a letter waiting for him from a trader named Futterman (Peter Mamakos), who claims to have information about Debbie.
Ethan, who would rather travel alone, leaves without Martin the next morning, but Laurie provides Martin with a horse to catch up.
At Futterman's trading post, Ethan and Martin learn that Debbie has been taken by Scar (Henry Brandon), the chief of the Nawyecka band of Comanches.
A year or more later, Laurie receives a letter from Martin describing the ongoing search.
In reading the letter aloud, Laurie narrates the next few scenes, in which Ethan kills Futterman for trying to steal his money, Martin accidentally buys a Comanche wife (Beulah Archuletta), and the two men find a portion of Scar's band killed by soldiers.
The search leads Ethan and Martin to a military fort, and then to New Mexico, where a Mexican man leads them to Scar.
They find Debbie after five years, now an adolescent (Natalie Wood), living as one of Scar's wives.
She tells the men that she has become a Comanche, and wishes to remain with them.
Ethan would rather see her dead than living as an Indian, and tries to shoot her, but Martin shields her with his body and a Comanche wounds Ethan with an arrow as they escape.
Though Martin tends to Ethan's wound, he is furious with him for attempting to kill Debbie, and wishes him dead.
"That'll be the day," Ethan replies, as they return home.
Meanwhile, Charlie McCorry (Ken Curtis) has been courting Laurie in Martin's absence.
Ethan and Martin arrive home just as Charlie and Laurie's wedding is about to begin.
After a fistfight between Martin and Charlie, a nervous "Yankee" soldier, lt Greenhill (Patrick Wayne), arrives with news that Ethan's half-crazy friend Mose Harper (Hank Worden) has located Scar.
Clayton leads his men to the Comanche camp, this time for a direct attack, but Martin is allowed to sneak in ahead of the assault to find Debbie, who welcomes him.
Martin kills Scar during the battle, and Ethan scalps him.
Ethan then locates Debbie, and pursues her on horseback.
Martin fears that he will shoot her as he has promised; but instead he sweeps her up onto his saddle.
"Let’s go home," he says.
Debbie is reunited with her family, and Martin with Laurie.
In an iconic closing scene, Ethan departs the homestead as he arrived—alone—clutching his arm, the cabin door slowly shutting on his receding image.
<EOS>
Charlie Newton is a bored teenaged girl living in the idyllic town of Santa Rosa, California.
She receives wonderful news: her mother's younger brother (her namesake), Charles Oakley, is arriving for a visit.
Two men appear, supposedly working on a national survey.
One takes a photo of Uncle Charlie, who demands the roll of film because "no one takes my photograph".
The younger surveyor, Jack Graham, asks young Charlie out, and she guesses that he is really a detective.
He explains that her uncle is one of two suspects who may be the "Merry Widow Murderer".
Charlie refuses to believe it at first, but then observes Uncle Charlie acting strangely, primarily with a certain news clipping from her father's newspaper.
The initials engraved inside a ring he gave her match those of one of the murdered women, and during a family dinner he reveals his hatred of rich widows.
One night, when Charlie's father and his friend Herbie discuss how to commit the perfect murder, Uncle Charlie lets his guard down and describes elderly widows as "fat, wheezing animals"; he then says, "What happens to animals when they get too fat and too old.
" Horrified, Charlie runs out.
Uncle Charlie follows and takes her into a seedy bar.
He admits he is one of the two suspects.
He begs her for help; she reluctantly agrees not to say anything, as long as he leaves soon, to avoid a horrible confrontation that would destroy her mother, who idolizes her younger brother.
Detective Saunders tells Charlie that the photo they took of Uncle Charlie was sent for identification by witnesses.
News breaks that an alternative suspect was chased by police and killed by an airplane propeller; it is assumed that he was the murderer.
Jack tells young Charlie that he loves her and would like to marry her, and leaves.
Uncle Charlie is delighted to be exonerated, but young Charlie knows all his secrets.
Soon, she falls down dangerously steep stairs which were cut through.
Uncle Charlie says he wants to settle down, and young Charlie says she will kill him if he stays.
Later that night, she is trapped in the garage with a car spewing exhaust fumes, and almost dies.
Uncle Charlie announces he is leaving for San Francisco, along with a rich widow, mrs Potter.
Young Charlie boards the train with her younger sister Ann and their brother to see Uncle Charlie's compartment.
As the children disembark, Uncle Charlie restrains his niece Charlie on the train, hoping to kill her by shoving her out after it picks up speed.
However, in the ensuing struggle, he falls in front of an oncoming train.
At his funeral, Uncle Charlie is honored by the townspeople.
Jack has returned, and Charlie confesses that she withheld crucial information.
They resolve to keep Uncle Charlie's crimes a secret.
<EOS>
John Shaft, a private detective, is informed that some gangsters are looking for him.
Police lt Vic Androzzi meets Shaft and unsuccessfully tries to get information from him on the two gangsters.
After Androzzi leaves, Shaft spots one of the men waiting for him in his office building.
He commandeers the first gangster, forcing him into his office where the second gangster is waiting.
After a quick fight, Shaft dodges one of them who goes out the window, while the other surrenders and reveals to him that Bumpy Jonas, the leader of a Harlem-based organized crime family, wanted Shaft brought uptown to Harlem for a meeting.
At the police station, Shaft lies to lt Androzzi and the Detective assigned to the second gangster's death at Shaft's office, by saying that his friend was in an "accident".
He is allowed to return to the streets for 48 hours.
Shaft arranges a meeting with Bumpy, the leader of these gangsters, in his office.
It turns out Bumpy's daughter has been kidnapped, and Shaft is asked to ensure her safe return.
After tracking down Ben Buford as Bumpy suggested, a big shoot out ensues; Shaft is told by Vic after the shooting that Shaft himself, and not Ben, was the target, and that tensions brewing between the uptown hoods belonging to Bumpy Jonas and the downtown Mafiosi have culminated in a couple of murders.
But the perception is black against white to the general public, with the possibility of an escalation into full-blown race war on the streets of the city.
He also shows Shaft some pictures of two of the Mafia men who just arrived in New York.
Vic begs Shaft to explain what's going on, although Vic already knew Bumpy was looking for Shaft.
Streetwise, Shaft surmises that mobsters are watching his pad from a local bar.
Shaft pretends to be a barkeep and calls the police to have the mobsters arrested.
Shaft later goes to the police station to set a meeting to find where Bumpy's daughter is being held captive.
Vic tells Shaft that the room that he was in at the station house was bugged and he is supposed to bring him in for questioning, but instead leaves.
Ben and Shaft go to the apartment where Marcy Jonas is being held to make sure she's alive.
Once there, a gunfight ensues during which two hoods get killed and Shaft takes a bullet in the shoulder.
Shaft goes home and receives medical attention from a doctor working underground with him.
Shaft tells Ben to round up his men and meet him at the hotel where Marcy has been taken, to prepare to get her back.
He also calls Bumpy to tell him his daughter is fine and he is going to need some taxicabs to meet him at the hotel for the getaway.
Shaft's plan resembles a military commando-style operation.
Ben's men all dress as hotel workers to avoid arousing suspicion.
Shaft and one of Ben's men go to the roof and prepare to enter the room where Marcy is being held captive.
Shaft's plan is to cause a distraction with an explosive thrown through the window of Marcy's room while Ben and his men come down the hall and deal with the Mafia men as they leave their rooms.
The rescue plan is successful.
Marcy is spirited out of the hotel into one of the waiting taxicabs.
As the others get away in the remaining cabs, Shaft walks to a phone booth to call Vic.
Shaft informs Vic as a result of the rescue there will be a huge mess to fix between the uptown crew and the mob in the near future.
Vic says to close it for him, meaning he wants Shaft to fix the trouble.
Shaft replies, "You're gonna have to close it yourself shitty" then hangs up the phone as he walks away laughing.
<EOS>
A movie theater projectionist and janitor (Buster Keaton) is in love with a beautiful girl (Kathryn McGuire).
However, he has a rival, the "local sheik" (Ward Crane).
Neither has much money.
The projectionist buys a $1 box of chocolates, all he can afford, and changes the price to $4 before giving it and a ring to her.
The sheik steals and pawns the girl's father's pocket watch for $4.
With the money, he buys a $3 box of chocolates for the girl.
When the father notices his watch is missing, the sheik slips the pawn ticket into the projectionist's pocket unnoticed.
The projectionist, studying to be a detective, offers to solve the crime, but when the pawn ticket is found in his pocket, he is banished from the girl's home.
While showing a film about the theft of a pearl necklace, the projectionist falls asleep and dreams that he enters the movie as a detective, Sherlock Jr.
The other actors are replaced by the projectionist's "real" acquaintances.
The dream begins with the theft being committed by the villain (played by the local sheik) with the aid of the butler (played by the hired man).
The girl's father calls for the world's greatest detective, and Sherlock Jr.
arrives.
Fearing that they will be caught, the villain and the butler attempt to kill Sherlock through several traps, poison, and an elaborate pool game with an exploding 13 ball.
When these fail, the villain and butler try to escape.
Sherlock Jr.
tracks them down to a warehouse but is outnumbered by the gang that the villain was selling the necklace to.
During the confrontation, Sherlock discovers that they have kidnapped the girl.
With the help of his assistant, Gillette, Sherlock Jr.
manages to escape this situation, save the girl, and defeat the gang.
When he awakens, the girl shows up to tell him that she and her father learned the identity of the real thief after she went to the pawn shop to see who actually pawned the pocket watch.
As a reconciliation scene happens to be playing on the screen, the projectionist mimics the actor's romantic behavior.
<EOS>
Journalist Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) thinks that the quickest way to a Pulitzer Prize is to uncover the facts behind a murder at a mental hospital.
He convinces an expert psychiatrist to coach him to appear insane; this involves relating imaginary accounts of incest with his "sister", who is impersonated by his exotic-dancer girlfriend (Constance Towers).
Barrett convinces the authorities and is locked up in the institution where the murder took place.
While pursuing his investigation, he is disturbed by the behavior of his fellow inmates.
The three witnesses to the murder were driven insane by the stresses of war, bigotry or fear of nuclear annihilation.
After a hospital riot, Barrett is straitjacketed and subjected to shock treatment.
Barrett begins imagining that his girlfriend really is his sister, and experiences many other symptoms of mental breakdown.
He learns the identity of the killer and violently extracts a confession from him in front of witnesses and writes his story.
His mind is critically damaged, however, and he has to stay in the hospital for an undefined period of time.
<EOS>
Shane (Alan Ladd), a skilled, laconic gunfighter with a mysterious past, rides into an isolated valley in the sparsely settled state of Wyoming, some time after the Civil War.
At dinner with local rancher Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) and his wife Marian (Jean Arthur), he learns that a war of intimidation is being waged on the valley's settlers.
Though they have claimed their land legally under the Homestead Acts, a ruthless cattle baron, Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer), has hired rogues and henchmen to harass them and drive them out of the valley.
Starrett offers Shane a job, and he accepts.
At the town's general store, Shane and other homesteaders are loading up supplies.
Shane enters the saloon adjacent to the store, where Ryker's men are drinking, and orders a soda pop for the Starretts' son, Joey (Brandon deWilde).
Chris Calloway (Ben Johnson), one of Ryker's men, throws a shot of whiskey on Shane's shirt.
"Smell like a man.
" he taunts.
Shane doesn't rise to the bait, and leaves to the taunts of Ryker's men.
On the next trip to town, Shane returns the empty soda bottle to the saloon, where Calloway again taunts him.
Shane orders two shots of whiskey, pours one on Calloway's shirt and throws the other in his face, then knocks him to the ground.
A brawl ensues; Shane prevails, with Starrett's help.
Ryker declares that the next time they meet, "the air will be filled with gun smoke".
Joey is drawn to Shane, and to his gun.
Shane shows him how to wear a holster and demonstrates his shooting skills; but Marian interrupts the lesson.
Guns, she says, are not going to be a part of her son's life.
Shane counters that a gun is a tool, no better nor worse than a hoe or axe, and as good or bad as the man using it.
Marian retorts that the valley would be better off without any guns—including Shane's.
Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), an unscrupulous gunfighter working for Ryker, deliberately provokes Frank "Stonewall" Torrey (Elisha Cook, Jr), a hot-tempered ex-Confederate homesteader.
"Them rebs are all Southern trash," Wilson says.
"You're a low-down, lyin' Yankee," responds Torrey.
"Prove it," Wilson replies—and when the inexperienced farmer goes for his gun, shoots him dead.
At Torrey's funeral, there is talk among the settlers of giving in to Ryker and moving on; but after battling a fire set by Ryker's men, they find new determination and resolve to continue the fight.
Ryker invites Starrett to a meeting at the saloon to negotiate a settlement—and then orders Wilson to kill him when he arrives.
Calloway, unable to tolerate Ryker's treachery any longer, warns Shane of the double-cross.
Starrett says no matter, he will shoot it out with Wilson, and asks Shane to look after Marian and Joey if he dies.
Shane, aware that Starrett is no match for Wilson in a gunfight, says he must go instead.
Starrett is adamant, and Shane is forced to knock him unconscious.
A distraught Marian asks Shane why he is doing this.
For her, he replies, and her husband and son, and all the other decent people who want a chance to live in peace in the valley.
As Shane rides to town, Joey follows him on foot.
At the saloon, Shane tells Ryker he cannot prevail, because times have changed; cattle barons and gunfighters are both relics of the Old West.
Then he turns to Wilson: "I hear you're a low-down Yankee liar," he says.
"Prove it," replies Wilson, and draws.
Shane beats him to the draw, then shoots Ryker too, as he draws a hidden gun.
Before Ryker's brother Morgan, concealed in a balcony overhead, can shoot Shane in the back, Joey shouts a warning, and Shane kills Morgan as well.
Shane tells Joey to go home and tell his mother that the settlers have won, that there are no more guns in the valley.
As Joey reaches out, blood drips onto his hands; Shane's left arm hangs limply at his side as he mounts his horse.
In an iconic closing scene, Shane rides out of town, slumped forward in his saddle, ignoring Joey's desperate cries of "Shane.
Come back.
".
<EOS>
Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) is the top salesman at a leathergoods shop in Budapest owned by the high-strung mr Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan).
Kralik's coworkers at Matuschek and Company include his friend, Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), a kindly family man; Ferencz Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut), a two-faced womanizer; and Pepi Katona (William Tracy), an ambitious, precocious delivery boy.
One morning, Kralik reveals to Pirovitch that he's been corresponding anonymously with an intelligent and cultured woman whose ad he came across in the newspaper.
Kralik is mr Matuschek's oldest and most trusted employee—just invited to a dinner party at Matuschek's home—but lately there has been tension between the two.
They get into an argument over mr Matuschek's idea to sell a cigarette box that plays "Ochi Chërnye" when opened.
Kralik thinks it's a bad idea.
Although annoyed with Kralik's stubbornness, Matuschek is reluctant to ignore his judgment.
After their exchange, Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) enters the gift shop looking for a job.
Kralik tells her there are no openings, but when she is able to sell one of the cigarette boxes (as a candy box), mr Matuschek hires her.
As Christmas approaches, Kralik is preparing to finally meet his mystery correspondent for a dinner date.
Planning to propose if the date works out, Kralik requests a raise from mr Matuschek, who has not been in a good mood for months.
Forced to put up with the pesky Miss Novak—the two simply cannot get along—Kralik is grateful that his anonymous correspondent is nothing like her.
He admits to Pirovitch that he is nervous about meeting this "most wonderful girl in the world" for the first time.
Kralik's planned meeting is interrupted when mr Matuschek demands that everyone stay after work.
He and Kralik argue when Kralik mentions his previous engagement.
Later Kralik is called into mr Matuschek's office—and is fired.
No one in the shop understands mr Matuschek's actions; they do not know that mr Matuschek suspects Kralik of having an affair with his wife.
Later, mr Matuschek meets with a private investigator who informs him that his suspicions were correct, that his wife is having an affair with one of his employees—Ferencz Vadas.
Pepi returns to the shop just in time to prevent the distraught mr Matuschek from committing suicide.
Meanwhile, Kralik arrives at the Cafe Nizza, where he discovers that his mystery woman, with the red carnation as planned, is in fact Klara Novak.
Despite his disappointment, Kralik goes in and talks with her, pretending he is there to meet Pirovitch.
In his mind, Kralik tries to reconcile the cultured woman of his letters with his annoying coworker—secretly hoping that things might work out with her.
But concerned that Kralik's presence will spoil her first meeting with her "far superior" mystery correspondent, she calls Kralik a "little insignificant clerk" and asks him to leave, and he does.
Later that night, Kralik goes to the hospital to visit mr Matuschek.
After apologizing for his behavior, mr Matuschek offers him a job as manager of Matuschek and Company, gives him the keys to the shop, and asks him to dismiss Vadas quietly.
Kralik dismisses Vadas, loudly and publicly, pushing Vadas across the shop floor into a pile of cigarette boxes.
Grateful to Pepi for saving his life, mr Matuschek promotes the errand boy to clerk.
The next day, Miss Novak calls in sick after her mystery man failed to show.
That night, Kralik visits her at her apartment, where she reveals her problem to be "psychological".
During his visit, she receives a letter from her correspondent and reads it in front of Kralik (who wrote the letter).
Two weeks later, on Christmas Eve, Matuschek and Company achieves record sales.
A grateful mr Matuschek gives everyone their bonuses and sends them home early.
Then, feeling lonely, he tries to get someone to have dinner with him, but all the employees have other plans.
Finally, Rudy, the new errand boy who lives alone in the city, agrees.
Kralik and Miss Novak, now alone in the shop, talk about their planned dates for the evening and Miss Novak reveals that she had a crush on Kralik when they first met, back when she was "foolish and naive".
After pretending to have met Miss Novak's mystery man—whom he claims is overweight, balding, and unemployed—Kralik puts a blue carnation in his lapel and finally reveals to Miss Novak that he is in fact her mystery correspondent—her "dear friend"—and they kiss.
<EOS>
Grant Newbury, Deputy Inspector of Immigration at the US/Mexico border is asked by his boss to infiltrate a gang smuggling Chinese workers through the border at Calexico, in order to identify and arrest their ringleader.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, Estelle Halloway is disappointed because her guardian wrote that she would not be able to spend her holidays with him in Calexico as planned.
When she wires him that she will come nevertheless with her room-mate Marguerite and her brother, he tells her that they will meet instead neat the Grand Canyon as it is too warm in Calexico.
In Calexico Grant finds out that the ringleader is none other than Jim Frazer, Estelle's guardian.
He becomes part of the gang and is requested to go and help taking of the Chinese now hidden in a camp in Grand Canyon.
After having left discreetly the camp to fetch the police, he sees Estelle on the point of drowning in a river and saves her.
He is caught by the bandit who have learned that he is a government agent but manages to escape first on horseback then in a motor car and reaches the little town of Williams where he gets the help of the police.
While the police drives to the hidden camp in motor cars, Grant borrows an airplane and flies into the Grand Canyon where he jumps in a river and manages to free Estelle.
Jim Frazer is identified as the ringleader and arrested but, to protect Estelle, Grant accepts that he lets her believe that he is leaving for a long trip.
Frazer asks Grant whether he would help take care of Estelle while he is in jail and Grant answers :"I'll look after her the rest of her life if she'll let me".
<EOS>
Snow White is a lonely princess living with her stepmother, a vain and wicked Queen.
The Queen fears that Snow White's beauty surpasses her own, so she forces Snow White to work as a scullery maid and asks her Magic Mirror daily "who is the fairest one of all".
For several years the mirror always answered that the Queen was, pleasing her.
One day, the Magic Mirror informs the Queen that Snow White is now the fairest in the land.
The jealous Queen orders her Huntsman to take Snow White into the forest and kill her.
She further demands that the huntsman return with Snow White's heart in a jeweled box as proof of the deed.
However, the Huntsman cannot bring himself to kill Snow White.
He tearfully begs for her forgiveness, revealing the Queen wants her dead and urges her to flee into the woods and never look back.
Lost and frightened, the princess is befriended by woodland creatures who lead her to a cottage deep in the woods.
Finding seven small chairs in the cottage's dining room, Snow White assumes the cottage is the untidy home of seven orphaned children.
In reality, the cottage belongs to seven adult dwarfs, named Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey, who work in a nearby mine.
Returning home, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean and suspect that an intruder has invaded their home.
The dwarfs find Snow White upstairs, asleep across three of their beds.
Snow White awakes to find the dwarfs at her bedside and introduces herself, and all of the dwarfs eventually welcome her into their home after they learn she can cook and clean beautifully.
Snow White keeps house for the dwarfs while they mine for jewels during the day, and at night they all sing, play music and dance.
Meanwhile, the Queen discovers that Snow White is still alive when the mirror again answers that Snow White is the fairest in the land and reveals that the heart in the jeweled box is actually that of a pig.
Using a potion to disguise herself as an old hag, the Queen creates a poisoned apple that will put whoever eats it into the "Sleeping Death", a curse that can only be broken by "love's first kiss", but dismisses that Snow White will be buried alive.
The Queen goes to the cottage while the dwarfs are away, but the animals are wary of her and rush off to find the dwarfs.
Faking a potential heart attack, the Queen tricks Snow White bringing her into the cottage to rest.
The Queen fools Snow White into biting into the poisoned apple under the pretense that it is a magic apple that grants wishes.
As Snow White falls asleep the Queen proclaims that she is now the fairest of the land.
The dwarfs return with the animals as the Queen leaves the cottage and give chase, trapping her on a cliff.
She tries to roll a boulder over them, but before she can do so, lightning strikes the cliff, causing her to fall to her death.
The dwarfs return to their cottage and find Snow White seemingly dead, being kept in a deathlike slumber by the poison.
Unwilling to bury her out of sight in the ground, they instead place her in a glass coffin trimmed with gold in a clearing in the forest.
Together with the woodland creatures, they keep watch over her.
A year later, a prince, who had previously met and fallen in love with Snow White, learns of her eternal sleep and visits her coffin.
Saddened by her apparent death, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her.
The dwarfs and animals all rejoice as the Prince takes Snow White to his castle.
<EOS>
It is February 1929 in the city of Chicago, during the era of prohibition.
Joe (Tony Curtis) is an irresponsible jazz saxophone player, gambler and ladies' man; his friend Jerry (Jack Lemmon) is a sensible jazz double-bass player; both are working in a speakeasy (disguised as a funeral home) owned by mob gangster "Spats" Colombo (George Raft).
When the joint is raided by the police after being tipped off by informant "Toothpick" Charlie (George Stone), Joe and Jerry flee—only to accidentally witness Spats and his henchmen exacting his revenge on "Toothpick" and his own gang (inspired by the real-life Saint Valentine's Day Massacre).
Penniless and in a mad rush to get out of town, the two musicians take a job with Sweet Sue (Joan Shawlee) and her Society Syncopators, an all-female band headed to Miami.
Disguised as women and renaming themselves Josephine and Daphne, they board a train with the band and their male manager, Bienstock.
Before they board the train, Joe and Jerry notice Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), the band's vocalist and ukulele player.
Joe and Jerry become enamored of Sugar and compete for her affection while maintaining their disguises.
Sugar confides that she has sworn off male saxophone players, who have stolen her heart in the past and left her with "the fuzzy end of the lollipop".
She has set her sights on finding a sweet, bespectacled millionaire in Florida.
During the forbidden drinking and partying on the train, Josephine and Daphne become intimate friends with Sugar, and have to struggle to remember that they are supposed to be girls and cannot make a pass at her.
Once in Miami, Joe woos Sugar by assuming a second disguise as a millionaire named Junior, the heir to Shell Oil, while feigning disinterest in Sugar.
An actual millionaire, the much-married aging mama's boy Osgood Fielding III, (Joe Brown) tries repeatedly to pick up Daphne, who rebuffs him.
Osgood invites Daphne for a champagne supper on his yacht.
Joe convinces Daphne to keep Osgood occupied onshore so that Junior can take Sugar to Osgood's yacht, passing it off as his.
Once on the yacht, Junior explains to Sugar that, due to psychological trauma, he is impotent and frigid, but that he would marry anyone who could change that.
Sugar tries to arouse some sexual response in Junior, and begins to succeed.
Meanwhile, Daphne and Osgood dance the tango ("La Cumparsita") till dawn.
When Joe and Jerry get back to the hotel, Jerry explains that Osgood has proposed marriage to Daphne and that he, as Daphne, has accepted, anticipating an instant divorce and huge cash settlement when his ruse is revealed.
Joe convinces Jerry that he cannot actually marry Osgood.
The hotel hosts a conference for "Friends of Italian Opera", which is in fact a front for a major meeting of various branches of La Cosa Nostra.
Spats and his gang from Chicago recognize Joe and Jerry as the witnesses to the Valentine's Day murders.
Joe and Jerry, fearing for their lives, realize they must quit the band and leave the hotel.
Joe breaks Sugar's heart by telling her that he, Junior, has to marry a woman of his father's choosing and move to Venezuela.
After several chases, Joe and Jerry witness additional mob killings, this time of Spats and his boys.
Joe, dressed as Josephine, sees Sugar onstage singing that she will never love again.
He kisses her before he leaves, and Sugar realizes that Joe is both Josephine and Junior.
Sugar runs from the stage at the end of her performance and manages to jump into the launch from Osgood's yacht New Caledonia just as it is leaving the dock with Joe, Jerry, and Osgood.
Joe tells Sugar that he is not good enough for her, that she would be getting the "fuzzy end of the lollipop" yet again, but Sugar wants him anyway.
Jerry, for his part, comes up with a list of reasons why he and Osgood cannot get married, ranging from a smoking habit to infertility.
Osgood dismisses them all; he loves Daphne and is determined to go through with the marriage.
Exasperated, Jerry removes his wig and shouts, "I'm a man.
" Osgood simply responds, "Well, nobody's perfect".
<EOS>
At a [[Sunset Boulevard]] mansion, the body of Joe Gillis floats in the swimming pool.
In a [[flashback (narrative)|flashback]], Joe relates the events leading to his death.
Six months earlier, down-on-his-luck screenwriter Joe tries selling [[Paramount Pictures]] producer Sheldrake on a story he submitted.
[[Script coverage|Script reader]] Betty Schaefer harshly critiques it in Joe's presence, unaware that he is the author.
Later, while fleeing from men trying to [[Repossession|repossess]] his car, Joe turns into the driveway of a seemingly deserted mansion.
After concealing the car, he hears a woman calling him, apparently mistaking him for someone else.
Ushered in by Max, her butler, Joe recognizes the woman as almost-forgotten silent film star Norma Desmond.
Learning he is a writer, she asks his opinion of a script she has written for a film about [[Salome]].
She plans to play the title role herself in a comeback attempt.
Joe finds her script abysmal, but flatters her into hiring him as a [[script doctor]].
Moved into Norma's mansion at her insistence, Joe resents but gradually accepts his dependent situation.
He sees that Norma refuses to face the fact that her fame has evaporated and learns the fan letters she still receives are secretly written by Max.
Max tells him Norma is subject to depression and has made suicide attempts.
Norma lavishes attention on Joe and buys him expensive clothes.
At her New Year's Eve party, he discovers he is the only guest and realizes she has fallen in love with him.
He tries to let her down gently, but she slaps him and retreats to her room.
Joe leaves the mansion and visits his friend Artie Green, who is having his own New Year's Eve party.
Joe asks Artie about staying at his place and again meets Betty, who he learns is Artie's girlfriend.
Betty believes a scene in one of Joe's scripts has potential, but Joe is uninterested in pursuing it.
When Joe phones Max to have him pack his things, Max informs him that Norma has cut her wrists with his razor.
Joe leaves Artie's party and returns to Norma.
Norma has Max deliver the edited Salome script to her former director, [[Cecil DeMille]], at Paramount.
Afterwards, she begins to receive calls from Paramount executive Gordon Cole, but petulantly refuses to speak to anyone except DeMille.
Eventually, she has Max drive her and Joe to Paramount in her 1929 [[Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A|Isotta Fraschini]], where she is greeted warmly by the older studio employees.
DeMille receives her affectionately and treats her with great respect, but tactfully evades her questions about Salome.
Meanwhile, Max learns that Cole merely wants to rent her unusual car for a film.
Unaware of the true intent of the phone calls from Paramount, Norma undergoes rigorous beauty treatments in preparation for her imagined comeback.
Joe secretly works nights at Betty's Paramount office, collaborating with her on an original screenplay.
His moonlighting is soon discovered by Max, who reveals that he was once a respected film director who discovered Norma as a teenage girl, made her a star, and became her first husband.
After she divorced him, he found life without her unbearable and abandoned his career to become her servant.
Despite her engagement to Artie, Betty and Joe fall in love.
When Norma discovers a manuscript with Joe's and Betty's names on it, she telephones Betty and insinuates the sort of man that Joe really is.
Overhearing the phone call, Joe invites Betty to come see for herself.
When she arrives at the mansion, Joe feigns satisfaction with his life as a [[kept man]], but after Betty tearfully leaves, he packs to return to his old Ohio newspaper job.
When Norma discovers that Joe is planning to leave her, he disregards her threat to kill herself and the gun that she shows him.
He bluntly informs her that the public has forgotten her, there will be no comeback, and her fan letters are written by Max.
As Joe walks from the house, Norma shoots him three times and he falls into the pool, ending the flashback.
Norma's mansion is subsequently filled with policemen and reporters.
Now having lost touch with reality, she believes the [[newsreel]] cameras are there to film Salome and Max and the police play along.
Max pretends to set up a scene for her and calls "Action.
" As the cameras roll, Norma dramatically descends her grand staircase.
She pauses and makes an impromptu speech about how happy she is to be making a film again, and concludes with the famous line: "All right, mr DeMille, I'm ready for my [[close-up]]".
<EOS>
Manhattan press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) has been unable to gain mentions for his clients inJ.
Hunsecker's (Burt Lancaster) influential, nationally syndicated newspaper column of late because of Falco's failure to make good on a promise to break up the romance between Hunsecker's younger sister Susan (Susan Harrison) and musician Steve Dallas (Martin Milner), an up-and-coming jazz guitarist.
Falco is losing money and clients.
Given one last chance by the bullying, intimidating Hunsecker, he schemes to plant a false rumor in a rival column that Dallas is a dope-smoking Communist, then encourages Hunsecker to rescue Dallas's reputation, certain that the headstrong boyfriend will reject Hunsecker's favor and end up looking bad to Susan.
The plan works, in a way—Dallas can't resist insulting Hunsecker's methods, and, forced to choose between them, the timid Susan breaks up with Dallas in order to protect him from her brother.
Hunsecker, however, is enraged by Dallas's insults to him after a brief confrontation.
He decides to ruin the boy after all (against Falco's advice) and wants to have marijuana planted on the musician, then have him arrested and roughed up by corrupt police lt Harry Kello (Emile Meyer).
It is such a dirty trick that even Falco wants no part of it, at least until Hunsecker promises to take a long vacation from his powerful column and turn it over to Falco in his absence.
At a nightclub, Falco slips the marijuana cigarettes into a pocket of a coat belonging to Dallas, who is accosted by Kello outside the club.
Falco is summoned to Hunsecker's penthouse apartment, only to find Susan there by herself and about to attempt suicide.
He grabs her just as her brother walks in, but Hunsecker, encouraged by Susan's silence, accuses Falco of trying to assault Susan and begins beating the physically weaker Falco.
Falco pleads that he only came to the apartment at Hunsecker's request, prompting Hunsecker to tell Falco that he never called him.
As Susan stops Hunsecker from further harming him, Falco realizes that Susan placed the call in order to bring the men to blows.
In a climactic confrontation, Falco reveals to Susan that it was her brother who ordered him to destroy Dallas's reputation and their relationship.
Hunsecker makes a call to Kello to come after Falco, who tries to flee but is caught in Times Square by the brutal cop.
Back in the penthouse, Susan, her bags packed, acknowledges to her brother that she attempted suicide, considering death preferable to living with him.
She walks out on him, saying that she will go to Dallas and tells Hunsecker that she pities rather than hates him.
A mortifiedJ.
looks at his sister from his apartment, as she walks out into the daylight.
<EOS>
Aged emissary Hitu arrives by Western sailing ship to the island of Bora Bora, a small island in the South Pacific, on an important mission.
He bears a message from the chief of Fanuma to the chief of Bora Bora: a maiden sacred to their gods has died, and Reri has been given the great honour of replacing her because of her royal blood and virtue.
From this point on, she is tabu: "man must not touch her or cast upon her the eye of desire" upon penalty of death.
This is painful news to Reri and the young man Matahi, who love each other.
Matahi cannot bear it.
That night, he sneaks her off the ship, and the couple escape the island by outrigger canoe.
Eventually, they reach a French colony, half dead.
They recover quickly, and Matahi becomes the community's most successful pearl diver.
They are happy with their new life together.
However, Matahi is unfamiliar with the concept of money, so he does not understand the bills he signs for drinks for everyone during a celebration.
The local policeman receives a notice from the French government announcing a reward for the return of the couple, but Matahi bribes him with his last pearl.
Then, Hitu arrives on the island and sees Reri alone, informing her that she has three days to give herself up or Matahi will be put to death.
Without telling Matahi of her meeting with Hitu, Reri decides they must flee once more.
However, when Matahi goes to buy tickets on a schooner, the shopkeepers instead take the money as partial payment of his debt.
That night, Hitu returns with a spear.
Reri first throws herself in front of the sleeping Matahi, then agrees to return to Bora Bora to save his life.
When Matahi stirs, Reri pretends to be asleep.
Matahi gets up and decides to get money by getting a pearl from a tabu region of the lagoon, a perilous place guarded by a shark that has already taken the life of one diver.
While he is away, Reri writes a farewell note, and leaves with Hitu.
Matahi manages to get a pearl while fending off the shark.
When he returns, however, he finds the note.
He swims after Hitu's boat.
He manages to grab a rope trailing from the boat, unbeknownst to the sleeping Reri, but Hitu cuts it.
Undaunted, Matahi continues swimming after them until he eventually tires and drowns.
<EOS>
Passing a stagecoach way station on his journey into town, Pat Brennan (Randolph Scott) agrees to return with some store bought candy for the friendly station manager's young son.
At a ranch where he once worked, Brennan tries to buy a bull, but is talked into riding one.
If he wins, he gets the bull.
If he loses he has to give up his horse.
Brennan loses, and is forced to walk home, carrying his saddle.
He gets a welcome rescue by stagecoach driver Rintoon (Arthur Hunnicutt), hired to transport the newlyweds Willard (John Hubbard) and Doretta Mims (Maureen O'Sullivan).
Doretta is a plain woman, but the daughter of the richest man in the state.
It tickles Brennan, who tells Rintoon this is the first time he's ever been on a honeymoon.
When they stop at the way station, they are mistaken for the regular stage by three outlaws, Chink (Henry Silva), Billy Jack (Skip Homeier), and their leader, Frank Usher (Richard Boone), who have already killed the station manager and his son.
Rintoon goes for a shotgun, only to be killed by Chink.
Terrified of sharing the same fate, Willard suggests to the outlaws that ransoming his wife would be far more profitable than robbing the stage.
Frank likes the idea.
He makes one mistake, though—he takes a liking to Brennan.
He later tells Brennan that, under different circumstances, they might have been friends.
Frank takes the woman and Brennan to a remote hideout while ordering Billy Jack to ride along with Willard and deliver a ransom note to Doretta's father, demanding $50,000.
Willard returns, saying his father-in-law has agreed and is rounding up the money.
Willard is told he is no longer needed and can leave.
A coward, he does not even bother to say goodbye to his new wife, disgusting Frank.
Willard then begins to ride off, but is shot down by Chink.
Brennan knows full well that he and Doretta will end up dead like the others once the ransom is paid.
He tells the distraught widow to collect herself and be ready to take any opportunity that presents itself.
He then takes her in his arms.
She hesitates, then kisses him.
She confesses she married Willard because she was getting older and did not want to be alone.
Billy Jack and Chink are left behind to guard the hostages while Frank goes off to collect the money.
Brennan plants the thought that their ringleader might just ride off with all the money, so Chink leaves the camp to keep an eye on Frank.
Brennan suggests to Billy Jack that he take advantage of mrs Willard , a lonely woman denied even her wedding night.
Billy Jack does indeed try to force himself on Doretta, whereupon Brennan overpowers him and shoots him dead.
Chink hears the shots and turns back.
Brennan kills him.
Frank then returns with the money.
Brennan sneaks up behind him, so Frank surrenders his revolver and the money, gambling that Brennan will not shoot him in the back.
He slowly mounts his horse and rides off.
However, he turns around and comes back and tries to kill Brennan with a rifle, forcing Brennan to shoot him dead.
As Brennan and Doretta walk away, side by side, she reaches for Brennan's arm, as he places his arm around her.
<EOS>
Pharaoh Rameses I of Egypt has ordered the death of all the firstborn Hebrew male infants after hearing the prophecy of the Deliverer, but a Hebrew mother named Yoshebel saves her own infant son by setting him adrift in a basket on the Nile.
Bithiah, the Pharaoh's daughter, who had recently lost both her husband and the hope of ever having children of her own, finds the basket and decides to adopt the boy even though her servant, Memnet, recognizes the child is Hebrew and protests.
Because she drew the infant out of the water, Bithiah decides to name the baby Moses.
Many years later, Prince Moses grows up to become a successful general, winning a war with Ethiopia and then entering Egypt into an alliance with them.
Moses loves Nefretiri, who is the throne princess and must be betrothed to the next Pharaoh.
She reciprocates his love.
While working on the building of a city for Pharaoh Sethi's jubilee, Moses meets the stonecutter Joshua, who tells him of the Hebrew God.
An incident occurs when an elderly woman is almost crushed to death when her sash gets caught under the slab of stone, prompting Moses to scold overseer Baka.
Moses frees the elderly woman, not realizing that she is his natural mother, Yoshebel.
Moses institutes numerous reforms concerning the treatment of the slaves on the project, and eventually Prince Rameses, Moses's "brother", charges him with planning an insurrection, pointing out that the slaves are calling him the "Deliverer".
Moses defends himself against the charges, arguing that he is simply making his workers more productive by making them stronger and happier and proves his point with the impressive progress he is making.
Rameses had earlier been charged by Sethi with finding out whether there really is a Hebrew fitting the description of the Deliverer.
Nefretiri learns from Memnet that Moses is the son of Hebrew slaves.
Nefretiri kills Memnet but reveals the story to Moses only after he finds the piece of Levite cloth he was wrapped in as a baby, which Memnet had kept.
Moses goes to Bithiah to learn the truth.
Bithiah evades his questions, but Moses follows her to the home of Yoshebel and thus learns the truth, while also meeting his true brother, Aaron, and sister, Miriam.
Although Moses feels no real change from this revelation, he spends time working amongst the slaves to learn more of their lives.
Nefretiri urges him to return to the palace so he may help his people when he becomes pharaoh, to which he agrees after he completes a final task.
The master builder Baka steals Lilia, who is engaged to the stonecutter Joshua.
Joshua rescues Lilia by causing a commotion in Baka's stables.
Joshua strikes Baka in the process and gets captured; he is then whipped by Baka for this insult.
Moses strangles Baka and frees Joshua, confessing to Joshua that he too is Hebrew.
The confession is witnessed by the ambitious Hebrew chief overseer Dathan.
In exchange for his freedom, riches and Lilia, Dathan tells about this to Rameses, who then arrests Moses.
Brought in chains before Sethi, Moses explains that he is not the Deliverer, but would free the slaves if he could.
Bithiah tells her brother Sethi the truth about Moses, and Sethi reluctantly orders his name stricken from all records and monuments, and Rameses is declared the next Pharaoh.
Rameses, well aware of his father's (and Nefretiri's ) devotion to Moses, decides not to execute him and make a martyr out of him.
Instead he banishes Moses to the desert, where Nefretiri will never know if he survives, or perhaps finds another love.
He also tells Moses that Yoshebel had died after delivering a robe of Levite cloth for Moses.
Moses makes his way across the desert, nearly dying of hunger and thirst before he comes to a well in the land of Midian.
At the well, he defends seven sisters from Amalekites who try to push them away from the water.
Moses finds a home in Midian with the girls' father Jethro, a Bedouin sheik, who reveals that he is a follower of "He who has no name", whom Moses recognizes as the God of Abraham.
Moses impresses Jethro and the other sheiks with his wise and just trading, and marries Jethro's eldest daughter Sephora.
While herding sheep in the desert Moses finds Joshua, who has escaped from the copper mines of Ezion-Geber that he was sent to after the death of Baka.
Moses sees the burning bush on the summit of Mount Sinai and hears the voice of God.
God charges Moses to return to Egypt and free His chosen people.
In the meantime, in Egypt, Sethi dies, his last word being Moses's name.
Before he dies, he hands over the reins to his son Ramseses, who becomes Rameses II.
At Pharaoh's court, Moses comes before Rameses to win the slaves' freedom, turning his staff into a cobra.
Jannes does the same with his staves, but Moses's snake devours his.
Rameses decrees that the Hebrews be given no straw to make their bricks, but to make the same tally as before on pain of death.
As the Hebrews prepare to stone Moses in anger, Nefretiri's retinue rescues him.
He spurns her when she attempts to renew her relationship with him by saying that he is on a mission and is also married.
As Moses continues to challenge Pharaoh's hold over his people, Egypt is beset by divine plagues.
Moses turns the river Nile to blood at a festival of Khnum and brings burning hail down upon Pharaoh's palace.
Moses warns him the next plague to fall upon Egypt will be summoned by Pharaoh himself.
Enraged at the plagues and Moses' continuous demands, as well as his generals and advisers telling him to give in, Rameses orders all first-born Hebrews to die.
Nefretiri warns Sephora to escape with her son Gershom on a passing caravan to Midian, and Moses tells the Queen that it is her own son who will die.
In an eerily quiet scene, the Angel of Death creeps into Egyptian streets in a glowing green mist, killing all the firstborn of Egypt, including the adult son of Pharaoh's top general, and Pharaoh's own child.
The Hebrews who have marked their doorposts and lintels with lamb's blood are eating a hasty meal and preparing to depart.
Bithiah reunites with Moses and decides to go with him and his people when they leave.
Broken and despondent, Pharaoh orders Moses to leave with the Hebrews.
In the following day, the Hebrews, now homeless and uprooted, begin their exodus from Egypt with Dathan, reluctantly, also among them.
Rameses spends the next three days begging Seker to call life back into the body of his son.
Nefretiri goads him into such a rage that he arms himself and gathers the elite Egyptian forces and pursues the former slaves to the shore of the Red Sea.
When the people see the Egyptian troops heading for them, they beg Moses to save them.
Dathan told the Israelites to bring Moses to Rameses.
With God's help, he puts out a pillar of fire.
Held back by this pillar, the Egyptian forces are afraid to passed the fire.
Moses parts the waters with power.
As the Hebrews race over, at the seabed, many of them are been injured by a mud, one of them struggling a wagon (at the middle of the road during the Crossing) because of a loose wheel.
When they reach the other side of the stormy sea, Joshua told moses to climb at the stone.
when the pillar of fire then dies down, Rameses and the army follows them, Rameses stays on the rock where Moses parts the waters.
The Hebrews make it to the far shore, one Israelite shouted and run with panic, Dathan wants them come.
Moses close the walls of water, drowning every man and horse, except Rameses, who looks on in despair.
All he can do is return to Nefretiri, confessing to her, "His god is God".
and he sits on the throne.
The former slaves camp at the foot of Sinai and wait as Moses again ascends the mountain with Joshua.
During his absence, the Hebrews lose faith.
Urged by Dathan, they build a golden calf as an idol to take back to Egypt, hoping to win Rameses' forgiveness.
They force Aaron to help fashion the gold plating.
The people indulge their most wanton desires in an orgy of sinfulness, Dathan took Lilia for sacrifice for the calf.
except for a few still loyal to Moses, including Lilia, Joshua, Sephora, Bithiah, Aaron, and Miriam.
High atop the mountain, Moses witnesses God's creation of the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments.
When Moses finally climbs down and meets Joshua, they both behold their people's iniquity.
Moses hurls the tablets at the idol in a rage.
The idol explodes, and Dathan and his followers are killed.
After God forces them to endure forty years' exile in the desert to kill off the rebellious generation, the Hebrews are about to arrive in the land of Canaan.
An elderly Moses, who is not allowed to enter the promised land, because of his disobedience to God at the waters of Strife, appoints Joshua to succeed him as leader, says a final good bye to Sephora, and goes forth to his destiny, Alone with God.
Moses dies.
The film depicts With words saying : " it was written that it shall be done ".
<EOS>
Ahmed (Douglas Fairbanks) robs as he pleases in the city of Baghdad.
Wandering into a mosque, he tells the holy man (Charles Belcher) he disdains his religion; his philosophy is, "What I want, I take".
That night, he sneaks into the palace of the caliph (Brandon Hurst) using a magic rope he stole during ritual prayers.
All thoughts of plunder are forgotten when he sees the sleeping princess (Julanne Johnston), the caliph's daughter.
The princess's Mongol slave (Anna May Wong) discovers him and alerts the guards, but he gets away.
When his associate (Snitz Edwards) reminds the disconsolate Ahmed that a bygone thief once stole another princess during the reign of Haroun al-Rashid, Ahmed sets out to do the same.
The next day is the princess's birthday.
Three princes arrive, seeking her hand in marriage (and the future inheritance of the city).
Another of the princess's slaves foretells that she will marry he who first touches a rose-tree in her garden.
The princess watches anxiously as first the glowering Prince of the Indies (Noble Johnson), then the obese Prince of Persia (an uncredited Mathilde Comont), and finally the Prince of the Mongols (Sojin Kamiyama) pass by the rose-tree.
The mere sight of the Mongol fills the princess with fear, but when Ahmed appears (disguised in stolen garments as a suitor), she is delighted.
The Mongol slave tells her countryman of the prophecy, but before he can touch the rose-tree, Ahmed's startled horse tosses its rider into it.
That night, following ancient custom, the princess chooses Ahmed for her husband.
Out of love, Ahmed gives up his plan to abduct her and confesses all to her in private.
The Mongol prince learns from his spy, the princess's Mongol slave, that Ahmed is a common thief and informs the caliph.
Ahmed is lashed mercilessly, and the caliph orders he be torn apart by a giant ape, but the princess has the guards bribed to let him go.
When the caliph insists she select another husband, her loyal slave advises her to delay.
She asks that the princes each bring her a gift after "seven moons"; she will marry the one who brings her the rarest.
In despair, Ahmed turns to the holy man.
He tells the thief to become a prince, revealing to him the peril-fraught path to a great treasure.
The Prince of the Indies obtains a magic crystal ball from the eye of a giant idol, which shows whatever he wants to see, while the Persian prince buys a flying carpet.
The Mongol prince leaves behind his henchman, telling him to organize the soldiers he will send to Bagdad disguised as porters.
(The potentate has sought all along to take the city; the beautiful princess is only an added incentive) After he lays his hands on a magic apple which has the power to cure anything, even death, he sends word to the Mongol slave to poison the princess.
After many adventures, Ahmed gains a cloak of invisibility and a small chest of magic powder which turns into whatever he wishes when he sprinkles it.
He races back to the city.
The three princes meet as agreed at a caravansary before returning to Bagdad.
The Mongol asks the Indian to check whether the princess has waited for them.
They discover that she is near death, and ride the flying carpet to reach her.
Then the Mongol uses the apple to cure her.
The suitors argue over which gift is rarest, but the princess points out that without any one gift, the remaining two would have been useless in saving her life.
Her loyal slave shows her Ahmed in the crystal ball, so the princess convinces her father to deliberate carefully on his future son-in-law.
The Mongol prince chooses not to wait, unleashing his secret army that night and capturing Bagdad.
Ahmed arrives at the city gate, shut and manned by Mongols.
When he conjures up a large army with his powder, the Mongol soldiers flee.
The Mongol prince is about to have one of his men kill him when the Mongol slave suggests he escape with the princess on the flying carpet.
Ahmed liberates the city and rescues the princess, using his cloak of invisibility to get through the Mongols guarding their prince.
In gratitude, the caliph gives his daughter to him in marriage.
<EOS>
A United States Air Force crew is dispatched from Anchorage, Alaska at the request of dr Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite), the chief scientist of a North Pole scientific outpost.
They have evidence that an unknown flying craft has crashed in their vicinity, so reporter Ned Scott (Douglas Spencer) tags along for the story.
dr Carrington later briefs Captain Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) and his airmen, and dr Redding (George Fenneman) shows photos of a flying object moving erratically before crashing -- not the movements of a meteorite.
Following erratic magnetic pole anomalies, the crew and scientists fly to the crash site where the mysterious craft lies buried beneath refrozen ice.
As they spread out to outline the craft's general shape, the men realize they are standing in a circle; they have discovered a crashed flying saucer.
They try de-icing the buried craft with thermite heat bombs, but only ignite its metal alloy, causing an explosion that destroys the saucer.
Their Geiger counter then points to a slightly radioactive frozen shape buried nearby in the refrozen ice.
They excavate a large block of ice around what appears to be a tall body and fly it to the research outpost, just as a major storm moves in, cutting off their communications with Anchorage.
Some of the scientists want to thaw out the body, but Captain Hendry insists on waiting until he receives further instructions from the Air Force.
Later, Corporal Barnes (William Self) takes the second watch over the ice block and to avoid looking at the body within, covers it with an electric blanket that the previous guard left turned on.
As the ice slowly melts, the Thing inside revives; Barnes panics and shoots at it with his sidearm, but the alien escapes into the raging storm.
The Thing is attacked by sled dogs and the airmen recover a severed arm.
A microscopic examination of a tissue sample reveals that the arm is vegetable rather than animal matter, demonstrating that the alien is a very advanced form of plant life.
As the arm warms to ambient temperature, it ingests some of the dogs' blood covering it, and the hand begins moving.
Seed pods are discovered in the palm.
The Air Force personnel believe the creature is a danger to all of them, but dr Carrington is convinced that it can be reasoned with and has much to teach them.
Carrington deduces their visitor requires blood to survive and reproduce.
He later discovers the body of a dead sled dog hidden in the outpost's greenhouse.
Carrington has dr Voorhees (Paul Frees), dr Olsen (William Neff) and dr Auerbach stand guard overnight, waiting for The Thing to return.
Carrington secretly uses blood plasma from the infirmary to incubate seedlings grown from the alien seed pods.
The strung-up bodies of Olsen and Auerbach are discovered in the greenhouse, drained of blood.
dr Stern is almost killed by the Thing but escapes.
Hendry rushes to the greenhouse after hearing about the bodies, and is attacked by the alien.
Hendry slams the door on the Thing's regenerated arm as it tries to grab him.
The alien then escapes through the greenhouse's exterior door, breaking into another building in the compound.
Nikki Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan), Carrington's secretary, reluctantly updates Hendry when he asks about missing plasma and confronts Carrington in his lab, where he discovers the alien seeds have grown at an alarming rate.
Following Nicholson's suggestion, Hendry and his men lay a trap in a nearby room: after dousing the alien with buckets of kerosene, they set the thing ablaze with a flare gun, forcing it to jump through a closed window into the arctic storm.
Nicholson notices that the temperature inside the station is falling; a heating fuel line has been sabotaged by the alien.
The cold forces everyone to make a final stand near the generator room.
They rig an electrical "fly trap", hoping to electrocute their visitor.
As the Thing advances, Carrington shuts off the power and tries to reason with it, but is knocked aside.
On Hendry's direct order that nothing of the Thing remain, it is reduced by arcs of electricity to a smoldering pile of ash; dr Carrington's growing seed pods and the Thing's severed arm are then destroyed.
When the weather clears, Scotty files his "story of a lifetime" by radio to a roomful of reporters in Anchorage.
Scotty begins his broadcast with a warning: "Tell the world.
Tell this to everybody, wherever they are.
Watch the skies everywhere.
Keep looking.
Keep watching the skies".
<EOS>
Before the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the stars of a theater company in Warsaw are the "ham" actor Josef Tura (Jack Benny) and his beautiful wife, Maria (Carole Lombard).
As part of the company's rehearsal of "Gestapo", a play satirizing the Nazis, one of the actors, Bronski (Tom Dugan), takes to the street to prove that he looks like Hitler in his costume and makeup.
People gawk at the appearance of the Nazi dictator in Warsaw, until a young girl asks for the autograph of "Mr.
Bronski".
That night, when the company is performing Shakespeare's Hamlet, with Tura in the title role, Bronski commiserates with his friend and colleague, Greenberg (Felix Bressart), about being limited to being spear carriers.
Greenberg, who is implicitly Jewish (although the words "Jew" or "Judaism" are never said in the film), reveals that it has always been his dream to perform Shylock in Merchant of Venice, especially the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes.
" speech, which he proceeds to recite.
Meanwhile, Maria has received a bouquet of flowers from the handsome young pilot lt Stanislav Sobinski (Robert Stack).
She arranges to meet him, telling Sobinski to come to her dressing room when Tura begins his "To be or not to be.
".
speech, so they can be sure of privacy.
The young man walks out, very obviously, when Tura begins his monologue, causing the highly-strung actor great distress.
Shortly thereafter, the company is ordered by a government representative to cancel their production of "Gestapo" out of fear it would offend the Germans and worsen tensions between the two nations.
The next night, after a brief (and chaste) assignation, Sobinski again walks out during "To be or not to be", freshly infuriating Tura.
Sobinski returns backstage to confess his love to Maria, assuming that she will leave her husband and the stage to be with him.
Before she can correct his assumption, news breaks out that Germany has invaded Poland.
Sobinski leaves to join the fight, and the actors huddle in the basement of the theater as Warsaw is bombed.
Hitler conquers Poland and the Polish division of the British Royal Air Force is fighting to free its mother country.
lt Sobinski and other young pilots of the division sing together, with the Polish resistance leader Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges) as their guest.
Siletsky hints he will return to Warsaw soon and the men jump to give him messages for their relatives but Sobinski is suspicious when he gives Siletsky a message for Maria Tura and he doesn't know who the famous actress is.
When Sobinski reports the incident to higher authorities, they realize that Siletsky now has a list of the names and addresses of relatives of Polish airmen in the RAF, against whom reprisals can be taken.
Sobinski is sent to Warsaw to warn the resistance but Siletsky gets there first.
The flier manages to reach Maria, who passes on the message to the underground.
Immediately after, she is stopped by two soldiers who have been ordered by Siletsky to bring her to him so he can deliver Sobinski's message and determine what "To be or not to be" means to her.
Siletsky invites Maria to dinner, hoping to recruit her as a spy, as well as to sample her charms.
She pretends to be interested and goes home to dress up.
Just before she arrives at her apartment, Tura returns and finds Sobinski in his bed and his bathrobe.
Maria and Sobinski try to figure out what to do about Siletsky, while Tura tries to figure out what is going on with his wife and the pilot.
In the end, Tura proclaims that he will kill Siletsky.
Later that evening, Maria returns to Siletsky's room and pretends to be attracted to him.
Just as they kiss, there is a knock at the door.
A Nazi officer &ndash; actually one of the members of the acting company &ndash; summons Siletsky to "Gestapo headquarters", which is the theatre, hastily disguised with props and costumes from their play.
Tura pretends to be Col.
Ehrhardt of the Gestapo and Siletsky gives him the report containing the names and addresses of the families of the Polish pilots.
He also reveals that Sobinski gave him a message for Maria, and that "To be or not to be" was the signal for their rendezvous.
Tura reacts in an extremely jealous way and declares he will have Maria arrested.
Noting this overreaction, Siletsky quickly sees that he has been duped, pulls a gun on Tura and tries to escape but is shot and killed by Sobinski.
Tura returns to the hotel disguised as Siletsky in a fake beard and glasses to destroy the copy of the information about the Polish resistance that Siletsky has in his trunk and to confront Maria about her affair.
Unfortunately, he is met at the hotel by the real Col.
Ehrhardt's adjutant, Capt.
Schultz (Henry Victor), and taken to meet Ehrhardt (Sig Ruman).
Tura manages to pass himself off as Siletsky, defuses the information by naming recently executed prisoners as the leaders of the resistance and learns that Hitler himself will visit Warsaw the next day.
The next day, the real Siletsky's body is discovered in the theater.
Ehrhardt sends for Maria to tell her but she is unable to warn Tura in time and he arranges another meeting with Ehrhardt, again posing as Siletsky.
When Tura arrives, Ehrhardt sends him into a room with Siletsky's dead body, hoping to frighten him into a confession.
Thinking quickly, Tura shaves off Siletsky's beard and then attaches a spare fake beard that he was carrying in his pocket.
He then calls Ehrhardt into the room and manipulates him into pulling Siletsky's now-fake beard off.
This appears to prove that the real Siletsky was actually the imposter.
But just as Tura is about to make his escape, the other actors, sent by Maria and again in Nazi costume, storm into Ehrhardt's office, yank off Tura's false beard and pretend to drag him away to prison.
This gets Tura out of Gestapo headquarters but now he cannot leave the country on the plane Ehrhardt had arranged for him and it is only a matter of time before the ruse is discovered.
The company comes up with a bold plan; when the Nazis stage a show at the theater to honor Hitler.
Sobinski, Tura, Bronski and the other actors sneak in dressed as Nazis.
The actors hide until Hitler arrives and takes his seat.
As the Nazis are singing the Deutschlandlied (the German national anthem) inside, Greenberg suddenly appears and rushes the box.
This distracts the Führer's guards long enough for Bronski wearing a Hitler moustache, to emerge unnoticed from hiding, surrounded by his entourage of actors dressed as Nazi officers.
Playing the head of Hitler's guard, Tura demands to know what Greenberg wants and the actor finally gets his chance to deliver Shylock's famous speech from The Merchant of Venice.
He ends with a ringing "if you wrong us, shall we not revenge.
" and Tura orders his "officers" to take Greenberg away.
He also recommends that Bronski/Hitler leave Poland immediately and all the actors march out, get in Hitler's cars and drive away.
Back at her apartment, Maria is waiting for the actors to pick her up.
They intend to leave on Hitler's plane but Col.
Ehrhardt shows up and tries to seduce her.
Ehrhardt is amazed when the door opens and Bronski walks in disguised as Hitler.
Bronski simply turns and walks out in silence but Ehrhardt immediately thinks that Maria is having an affair with Hitler and he has just been caught trying to steal the Führer's mistress.
Maria dashes after Bronski calling, "Mein Führer, Mein Führer.
"  The actors take off in the plane and easily dispose of the Nazi pilots.
Sobinski flies to Scotland, where the actors are interviewed by the press.
Asked what reward he would like for his service to the Allies, Tura hesitates in a show of false modesty, but Maria quickly responds for him, "He wants to play Hamlet".
Tura is now once again on stage as Hamlet and reaches the moment of "To be or not to be".
He sees Sobinski in the audience as he begins the speech but both are amazed when a new young officer gets up and noisily heads backstage.
<EOS>
Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is a respected but perfectionist actor.
Nobody in New York wants to hire him anymore because he is difficult to work with.
According to his long-suffering agent George Fields (Sydney Pollack), Michael's attention to detail and difficult reputation led a commercial he worked on to run significantly over-schedule, because the idea of a tomato sitting down was "illogical" to him.
After many months without a job, Michael hears of an opening on the popular daytime soap opera Southwest General from his friend and acting student Sandy Lester (Teri Garr), who tries out for the role of hospital administrator Emily Kimberly, but doesn't get it.
In desperation, and as a result of his agent telling him that "no one will hire you", he dresses as a woman, auditions as "Dorothy Michaels" and gets the part.
Michael takes the job as a way to raise $8,000 to produce a play, written by his roommate Jeff Slater (Bill Murray) and to star Sandy, titled Return to Love Canal.
Michael plays his character as a feisty, feminist administrator, which surprises the other actors and crew who expected Emily to be (as written) another swooning female in the plot.
His character quickly becomes a television sensation.
When Sandy catches Michael in her bedroom half undressed (he wanted to try on her clothes in order to get more ideas for Dorothy's outfits), he covers up by professing he wants to have sex with her.
They have sex despite his better judgment about her self-esteem issues.
Michael believes Sandy is too emotionally fragile to handle the truth about him winning the part, especially after noticing her strong resentment of Dorothy.
Their relationship, combined with his deception, complicates his now-busy schedule.
Exacerbating matters further, he is attracted to one of his co-stars, Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange), a single mother in an unhealthy relationship with the show's amoral, sexist director, Ron Carlisle (Dabney Coleman).
At a party, when Michael (as himself) approaches Julie with a pick-up line that she had previously told Dorothy she would be receptive towards, she throws a drink in his face.
Later, as Dorothy, when he makes tentative advances, Julie—having just ended her relationship with Ron per Dorothy's advice—confesses that she has feelings about Dorothy which confuse her, but is not emotionally ready to be in a romantic relationship with a woman.
Meanwhile, Dorothy has her own admirers to contend with: older cast member John Van Horn (George Gaynes) and Julie's widowed father Les (Charles Durning).
Les proposes marriage, insisting Michael/Dorothy "think about it" before answering; he leaves immediately and returns home to find co-star John, who almost forces himself on Dorothy until Jeff walks in on them.
John apologizes for intruding and leaves.
The tipping point comes when, due to Dorothy's popularity, the show's producers want to extend her contract for another year.
Michael finds a clever way to extricate himself.
When the cast is forced to perform the show live, he improvises a grand speech on camera, pulls off his wig and reveals that he is actually the character's twin brother who took her place to avenge her.
Sandy and Les, who are all watching at home, react with the same level of shock as the cast and crew of the show.
The one exception is Jeff, who was aware of his roommate's "dual role" and remarks, "That is one nutty hospital.
" The revelation allows everybody a more-or-less graceful way out.
Julie, however, is so outraged that she slugs him in the stomach in front of the cast once the cameras have stopped rolling before storming off.
Some weeks later, Michael is moving forward with producing Jeff's play.
He awkwardly makes peace with Les in a bar, and Les shows tentative support for Michael's attraction to Julie.
Later, Michael waits for Julie outside the studio.
Julie resists talking but finally admits she misses Dorothy.
Michael confesses, "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man".
At that, she forgives him and they walk off, Julie asking him to lend her a dress.
<EOS>
In Venice, Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall), a master thief masquerading as a baron, meets Lily (Miriam Hopkins), a beautiful thief and pickpocket also pretending to be of the nobility, and the two fall in love and decide to team up.
They leave Venice for Paris, and go to work for the famous perfume manufacturer Madame Mariette Colet (Kay Francis), with the intention of stealing a great sum of money from her safe, which Monescu, as her secretary, arranges to be diverted there.
In the course of things, Colet begins to flirt with Monescu, and he begins to have feelings for her.
Unfortunately, the plan develops a hitch when François Filiba (Edward Everett Horton), one of Colet's suitors, sees Monescu at a garden party.
He is unable to remember where he knows him from, but when another of Colet's suitors, The Major (Charles Ruggles), tells Filiba that he once mistook Monescu for a doctor, Filiba suddenly remembers that he knows Monescu from Venice, where the thief robbed him, pretending to be a doctor.
Monescu and Lily plan an immediate getaway that night, after they take all the money in the safe.
Colet prepares to leave for a dinner party given by the Major, but cannot decide whether to go or to stay and have sex with Monescu.
Eventually she goes, but not before Lily catches on that Monescu has fallen for her rival, and wants to back out of the plan &ndash; so she robs the safe herself after confronting her partner.
At the Major's, Filiba tells Colet about Monescu, but she refuses to believe it's true.
She returns home and suggestively probes Monescu, who admits that the safe has been cleaned out, but claims that he himself took the cash.
He also tells her that the manager of her business, Adolph Giron (C.
Aubrey Smith), who has been suspicious of Monescu all along, has stolen millions of dollars from the firm over the years.
Lily then confronts Colet and Monescu, reporting that it was she who stole the money from the safe.
An argument ensues, in which, eventually, Colet allows the two thieves to leave together.
As a parting shot, Monescu steals a necklace from Colet that Lily had her eye on, and, in turn, Lily steals it from him, displaying it to him as the taxi takes them away, hugging each other.
<EOS>
A Dutch boy and girl's idyllic existence is destroyed when they are overrun by a group of Nazi-like mechanical men called "The Screwballs", who lay waste to everything they touch.
The Screwballs are later destroyed and the boy and girl's idyllic life resumes.
<EOS>
In 1949, formerS.
Army Air Forces officer Harvey Stovall (Dean Jagger) is vacationing in Great Britain when he spots a familiar Toby Jug in an antique shop window and is told that it came from Archbury, where Stovall served with the 918th Bomb Group during World War II.
Convinced that it is the same jug, he buys it and journeys to the derelict airfield.
Stovall remembers the events of 1942, when having recently arrived and been thrown into action, the 918th had gained the reputation of a "hard luck group" suffering from poor morale.
One reason is the strategy of daylight precision bombing of German targets and the corresponding losses to anti-aircraft fire and enemy aircraft.
The commander, Colonel Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill), has become too close to his men to instil discipline.
When he is ordered to fly a mission at low altitude to increase accuracy, Davenport rushes to headquarters and confronts his friend, Brigadier General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations.
His behavior prompts Savage to go to General Pritchard, the commanding general of VIII Bomber Command (Millard Mitchell) and tell him that he feels Davenport may not be fit to command.
Following a disastrous mission in which the 918th loses seven bombers, General Pritchard relieves Davenport of command and the 918th is given to Savage.
In order to address discipline problems, Savage deals with everyone so harshly that the men begin to detest him.
Savage fires Lieutenant Colonel Ben Gately (Hugh Marlowe), the popular Air Exec, busting him down to an airplane commander and replaces him with the rough-and-ready Major Cobb, a superb combat leader.
Upset by the contrast of Savage's stern leadership with Davenport's easygoing ways, all of the 918th Squadron pilots apply for transfers.
Savage asks the Group Adjutant, Major Stovall, to delay processing their applications to buy him some time.
A former pilot during World War I and an attorney in civilian life between the wars, Stovall knows how to use organizational "red tape” to his advantage.
When the 918th resumes combat flying with greater success after hasty refresher training, the men begin to change their minds, especially after Savage leads them on a mission in which the 918th is the only group to bomb the target and have all of the aircraft return.
Savage also acquires a surrogate son in Lieutenant Jesse Bishop (Robert Patten), a Medal of Honor recipient who is Savage's eyes and ears among the combat aircrews.
Word gets around that Pritchard personally reprimanded Savage for his claim of "radio malfunction" as an excuse to ignore the recall order but rather than incurring any form of punishment for this disobedience, Savage persuades Pritchard to recommend the group for a Distinguished Unit Citation.
When the Inspector General arrives to investigate the unrest, Savage is packing ready to go but the pilots withdraw their requests to transfer.
Savage also softens his attitude towards the men as he becomes more closely involved with them.
At the same time, Savage and Gately are reconciled after the general learns Gately flew three missions with a fractured vertebra he received when he was forced to ditch his bomber, the Leper Colony, in the English Channel due to battle damage.
With enemy resistance intensifying as the air war advances deeper into Germany, missions become longer, riskier and many of Savage's best men are shot down or killed.
Pritchard tries to get Savage to return to a staff job at VIII Bomber Command but Savage refuses because he feels that the 918th is not ready to stand up without him yet.
Reluctantly, Pritchard leaves him in command.
After a particularly brutal mission, Savage's iron will cracks.
On the day of the first daylight bombing raid on Berlin, he finds himself physically unable to haul himself up into his B-17.
The redeemed Ben Gately takes his place as lead pilot and strike commander for the mission.
While waiting for the group’s return, Savage becomes catatonic.
Only as they return to Archbury does Savage regain his composure and fall asleep.
The story then returns to 1949 and Stovall pedals away on his bicycle.
<EOS>
On the eve of Columbus Day festivities in New York, the boxer Mateo Vargas is released early from a jail term he served after he struck a police officer.
He returns home for a surprise reunion with his family, but his wife Blanca faints.
Mateo learns from her doctor that she is pregnant.
Mateo is shocked, and knows that he cannot be the father.
His trainer wants him to return to the boxing ring, but Mateo is too preoccupied with Blanca's infidelity.
While he was in jail, Blanca had been seeing Claudio, the fiancé of Mateo's sister Lola.
When Lola tells her suspicions to her mother, she slaps Lola.
Vargas confronts Blanca about her pregnancy, but she refuses to name the father.
Mateo becomes obsessed with finding his wife's lover.
<EOS>
In 2005, the war between the Autobots and Decepticons has culminated in the Decepticons conquering their home planet Cybertron, while the Autobots operate from its two moons preparing a counter-offensive.
Optimus Prime sends an Autobot shuttle to Earth's Autobot City for Energon supplies, but the Decepticons, led by Megatron, commandeer the ship and kill the crew, consisting of Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl and Brawn.
Travelling to Earth, the Decepticons attack Autobot City, slaughtering many Autobots and leaving only a small group alive including Hot Rod, Kup, Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Springer, Blurr, Perceptor, Blaster, and the human Daniel Witwicky.
The next day, Optimus and the Dinobots arrive as reinforcements.
Optimus single-handedly defeats the Decepticons and engages Megatron in a climactic battle that leaves both of them mortally wounded.
On his death bed, Optimus passes the Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus, informing him that its power will light the Autobots' darkest hour, and dies.
Elsewhere, the Decepticons jettison their wounded from Astrotrain, including Megatron at the hands of his treacherous second-in-command Starscream.
The wounded are found by Unicron, a gigantic sentient cyber-planet who consumes other planets.
Unicron offers Megatron a new body in exchange for destroying the Matrix, which has the ability to destroy him.
Megatron agrees and is converted into Galvatron, gaining new troops from the other Decepticons present.
Going to Cybertron, Galvatron crashes Starscream's coronation as Decepticon commander and destroys him, before travelling to Autobot City to eliminate Ultra Magnus.
The surviving Autobots escape in separate shuttles which are damaged by the Decepticons and crash land on different planets.
Hot Rod and Kup are taken prisoner by the Quintessons, multi-faced tyrants who hold kangaroo courts and execute prisoners by feeding them to the Sharkticons.
Hot Rod and Kup learn of Unicron from Kranix, a survivor of Lithone – a planet devoured by Unicron.
After Kranix is executed, Hot Rod and Kup escape their own trial, aided by the arrival of the Dinobots and the small Autobot Wheelie, who helps them find a ship to leave the planet.
The other Autobots land on the Junk Planet, where Galvatron kills Ultra Magnus and seizes the Matrix, intending on using it to control Unicron.
The Autobots reunite and befriend the local Junkions, led by Wreck-Gar, who then rebuild Magnus.
Learning Galvatron has the Matrix, the Autobots and Junkions fly to Cybertron, which Unicron, discovered to be a gigantic Transformer also now in robot form, begins to destroy.
The Autobots crash their spaceship through Unicron's eye but are separated.
Daniel rescues his father Spike and Jazz, Bumblebee, and Cliffjumper from being devoured.
Hot Rod confronts Galvatron, who tries to form an alliance, but is forced into attacking Hot Rod by Unicron.
Hot Rod obtains the Matrix, which converts him into Rodimus Prime, the Autobot that Optimus said would light their darkest hour.
Rodimus tosses Galvatron into space and uses the Matrix's power to destroy Unicron from the inside.
The Autobots celebrate the end of the war and the retaking of Cybertron, while Unicron's head begins to orbit the planet.
<EOS>
After a rooftop chase, where his fear of heights and vertigo result in the death of a policeman, San Francisco detective John "Scottie" Ferguson retires.
Scottie tries to conquer his fear, but his friend and ex-fiancée Midge Wood says that another severe emotional shock may be the only cure.
An acquaintance from college, Gavin Elster, asks Scottie to follow his wife, Madeleine, claiming that she is in some sort of danger.
Scottie reluctantly agrees, and follows Madeleine to a florist where she buys a bouquet of flowers, to the Mission San Francisco de Asís and the grave of Carlotta Valdes, and to Legion of Honor art museum where she gazes at the Portrait of Carlotta.
He watches her enter the McKittrick Hotel, but on investigation she does not seem to be there.
A local historian explains that Carlotta Valdes tragically committed suicide.
Gavin reveals that Carlotta (who he fears is possessing Madeleine) is Madeleine's great-grandmother, although Madeleine has no knowledge of this, and does not remember the places she has visited.
Scottie tails Madeleine to Fort Point and, when she leaps into the bay, he rescues her.
The next day Scottie follows Madeleine; they meet and spend the day together.
They travel to Muir Woods and Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, where Madeleine runs down towards the ocean.
Scottie grabs her and they embrace.
Madeleine recounts a nightmare and Scottie identifies its setting as Mission San Juan Bautista.
He drives her there and they express their love for each other.
Madeleine suddenly runs into the church and up the bell tower.
Scottie, halted on the steps by his acrophobia, sees Madeleine plunge to her death.
The death is declared a suicide.
Gavin does not fault Scottie, but Scottie breaks down, becomes clinically depressed and is in a sanatorium, almost catatonic.
After release, Scottie frequents the places that Madeleine visited, often imagining that he sees her.
One day, he notices a woman who reminds him of Madeleine, despite her different appearance.
Scottie follows her and she identifies herself as Judy Barton, from Salina, Kansas.
A flashback reveals that Judy was the person Scottie knew as "Madeleine Elster"; she was impersonating Gavin's wife as part of a murder plot.
Judy drafts a letter to Scottie explaining her involvement: Gavin had deliberately taken advantage of Scottie's acrophobia to substitute his wife's freshly killed body in the apparent "suicide jump".
But Judy rips up the letter and continues the charade, because she loves Scottie.
They begin seeing each other, but Scottie remains obsessed with "Madeleine", and asks Judy to change her clothes and hair so that she resembles Madeleine.
After Judy complies, hoping that they may finally find happiness together, he notices her wearing the necklace portrayed in the painting of Carlotta, and realizes the truth.
He insists on driving her to the Mission.
There, he tells her he must re-enact the event that led to his madness, admitting he now understands that "Madeleine" and Judy are the same person.
Scottie forces her up the bell tower and makes her admit her deceit.
Scottie reaches the top, finally conquering his acrophobia.
Judy confesses that Gavin paid her to impersonate a "possessed" Madeleine; Gavin faked the suicide by throwing the body of his wife from the bell tower.
Judy begs Scottie to forgive her, because she loves him.
He embraces her, but a shadowed figure rises from the trapdoor of the tower, startling Judy, who steps backward and falls to her death.
Scottie, bereft again, stands on the ledge, while the figure, a nun investigating the noise, rings the mission bell.
<EOS>
The screen pans on the silhouette of a mighty Viking arousing ferocious lightning storms, but then zooms in to reveal that it is only Elmer Fudd (as the demigod Siegfried).
Elmer sings his signature line "Be vewy qwiet, I'm hunting wabbits" (in recitative), before he finds rabbit tracks and arrives at Bugs Bunny's hole.
We watch as Elmer jams his spear into Bugs' hole to "Kill the wabbit.
Kill the wabbit.
Kill the wabbit.
" Bugs sticks his head out of another rabbit hole, and, appalled, sings his signature line "What's up, doc.
" to the theme of Siegfried's horn call from the Ring Cycle.
He asks Elmer how he will kill the rabbit, then taunts Elmer about his "spear and magic helmet".
This prompts a display of Elmer-as-Siegfried's "mighty powers", set to the overture of The Flying Dutchman, which causes lightning to strike the tree next to Bugs.
At that, Bugs flees, Elmer realizes "That was the wabbit.
", and the chase begins.
Suddenly, Elmer stops in his tracks at the sight of the beautiful Valkyrie Brünnhilde (Bugs in a drag queen disguise), riding in grandly on her horse Grane, who is enormously fat (in , director Jones notes that the production team "gave the horse the operatic curves we couldn't give Bugs").
"Siegfried" and "Brünnhilde" exchange endearments, set to the "Pilgrims' Chorus" theme from Tannhäuser as orchestrated in the opera's overture.
After the usual "hard to get" pursuit they perform a short ballet (based on the Venusberg ballet in Tannhäuser), capping it off with the duet "Return My Love" set to another section of the Tannhäuser overture as the pair meet at a gazebo.
Bugs' true identity is suddenly exposed when his headdress falls off, enraging Elmer.
Bugs yanks Elmer's helmet down over his head and uses it as a chance to escape, discarding his disguise.
A crescedo drum roll is playing while Elmer struggles to fix his helmet.
When Elmer puts his helmet into the right position, the "Ride" overture plays once again and the white gazebo turns red (reflecting Elmer's anger), resolving to himself "I'll kill the wabbit.
" prompting him to command fierce lightning, "typhoons, huwwicanes, earthquakes" and, finally, "SMOG.
" (a word Elmer screams which was not done by Bryan, but by Blanc) to "stwike de wabbit.
" while music from The Flying Dutchman plays in the background.
Eventually, the ensuing storm tears apart the mountains where Bugs has fled.
Elmer triumphantly rushes to see his victory, but upon seeing the Bugs's intact yet seemingly lifeless body, Elmer immediately regrets his wrath and tearfully carries the bunny off, presumably to Valhalla in keeping with the Wagnerian theme, per Act III of The Valkyries (although the music again comes from the overture to Tannhäuser).
Bugs suddenly raises his head to face the audience, breaking the fourth wall, and remarks, "Well, what did you expect in an opera.
A happy ending.
", before going back to playing dead, ironically undoing the intended sad conclusion.
The Merrie Melodies end title card then appears with all the words already there.
<EOS>
Richard Walton, a district attorney, is presented with an obscenity case: A medical practitioner, dr Homer, has been arrested for distributing 'indecent' birth control literature.
On the stand, dr Homer makes a strong case for legalizing contraception.
He recounts three incidents from his medical practice, each shown in a brief flashback: children are exposed to violent abuse in a family riddled with alcoholism; an impoverished family is unable to provide adequate medical care for their sick children; and a single mother, abandoned by her male lover, commits suicide with her young infant.
Meanwhile, Richard's wife, Edith, has been keeping a secret from him for many years: she has been seeing a doctor, one Herman Malfit, who performs abortions so that her busy social life will not be interrupted by the inconvenience of pregnancy.
She suggests it as an option for her friend mrs William Carlo, who is with child.
mrs Carlo has the abortion.
The Waltons receive two new guests in their house almost simultaneously: Edith Walton's ne'er-do-well younger brother, and their maid's young daughter, Lillian.
Smitten by the brother's advances, the maid's daughter is seduced and soon finds herself pregnant.
She is taken to dr Malfit and then abandoned by the boy after the operation goes wrong.
Making her way back to the Walton mansion, she collapses and dies from the botched abortion.
Following Malfit's arrest and trial, Richard Walton examines the doctor's ledgers and realized that his wife and many of her friends are listed as having received 'personal services.
' He returns home, furious, to find them lunching at his home.
He banishes his wife's friends, saying 'I should bring you to trial for manslaughter.
' and confronts Edith with the cry, 'where are my children.
' She is overcome with remorse.
As the years pass, the couple must contend with a lonely, childless life, full of longing for the family they might have had.
<EOS>
The film consists of seven segments, each connected by a common theme.
In the film, it is Donald Duck's birthday (namely Friday the 13th), and he receives three presents from friends in Latin America.
The first present is a film projector, which shows him a documentary about birds.
During the documentary, he learns about the Aracuan Bird, who received his name because of his eccentric song.
The Aracuan also makes several appearances throughout the film.
The next present is a book given to Donald by José.
This book tells of Bahia (spelled "Baía" in the film), which is one of Brazil's 26 states.
José shrinks them both down so that they can enter the book.
Donald and José meet up with several of the locals, who dance a lively samba, and Donald ends up pining for one girl, but fails.
After the journey, Donald and José leave the book.
Upon returning, Donald realizes that he is too small to open his third present.
José shows Donald how to use "black magic" to return himself to the proper size.
After opening the present, he meets Panchito, a native of Mexico.
The trio take the name "The Three Caballeros" and have a short celebration.
Panchito then presents Donald's next present, a piñata.
Panchito tells Donald of the tradition behind the piñata.
José and Panchito then blindfold Donald, and have him attempt to break open the piñata, which eventually reveals many surprises.
Donald ends the celebration by being fired away by firecrackers in the shape of a ferocious toy bull (with which the firecrackers are lit by José with his cigar).
Throughout the film, the Aracuan Bird appears at random moments.
He usually taunts everyone with his madcap antics, sometimes stealing José's cigar and trying to make José jealous.
His most famous gag is when he re-routes a train that Donald and José are riding on by drawing new tracks, causing the train to disassemble.
He returns three or four years later in Melody Time (1948).
The film consists of seven segments: This segment is narrated by Sterling Holloway, reproducing images of the penguins of Punta Tombo in Argentina along the coast of Patagonia.
In the segment, a penguin named Pablo is so fed up with the freezing conditions of the South Pole that he decides to leave his home for warmer climates landing on the Galápagos Islands.
This segment involves the adventures of a little boy from Uruguay in the English version (with adult narration provided by Frank Graham), and from Argentina in the Spanish version, and his winged donkey, who goes by the name of Burrito (which is Spanish for "little donkey").
This segment involves a pop-up book trip through the Brazilian state of Bahía, as Donald and José meet up with some of the locals who dance a samba and Donald pining for one of the women, portrayed by singer Aurora Miranda.
This is the story of a group of Mexican children who celebrated Christmas by re-enacting the journey of Mary, the mother of Jesus and Saint Joseph searching for room at the inn.
"Posada" meant "inn", or "shelter", and their parents told them "no posada" at each house until they came to one where they were offered shelter in a stable.
This leads to festivities including the breaking of the piñata, which in turn leads to Donald Duck trying to break his own piñata as well.
Panchito gives Donald and José a tour of Mexico on a flying sarape, or magic carpet.
Several Mexican dances and songs are learned here.
A key point to what happens later is that Donald is pining for some more ladies again, tries to hound down every single one he sees, and gain return affections, but once more he fails every time and ends up kissing José while blindfolded.
The skies of Mexico City result in Donald falling in love with singer Dora Luz.
The lyrics in the song itself play parts in the scenarios as to what is happening as well.
Several imagined kisses lead to Donald going into the "Love is a drug" scene.
Donald constantly envisions sugar rush colors, flowers, and Panchito and José popping in at the worst moments, making chaos.
The scene changes after Donald manages to dance with Carmen Molina from the state of Oaxaca, from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
The two dance and sing the song "La Zandunga".
Carmen begins by singing the song, with Donald "quacking" out the rest of the chorus with her.
The "drunkenness" slows down for a second after Donald multiplied himself while dancing, but speeds up again when Carmen reappears dressed in a Charro's outfit and uses a horsewhip as a conductor's baton to make cacti appear in many different forms while dancing to "Jesusita en Chihuahua", a trademark song of the Mexican Revolution.
This scene is notable for providing the masterful combination of live-action and cartoon animation, as well as animation among the cacti.
The scene is interrupted when Panchito and José suddenly spice things up for the finale of the movie, and Donald ends up battling the same toy bull with wheels on its legs the day before from earlier.
The catch is that it is again loaded with firecrackers and other explosives following with a fireworks finale with the words "The End" exploding from the fireworks first in Mexican Spanish (Fin) in the colors of the Mexican Flag, then in Brazilian Portuguese (Fim) in the colors of the flag of Brazil and finally in English in the colors of the flag of the United States.
<EOS>
In Texas in 1913, Pike Bishop (William Holden), the leader of a gang of aging outlaws, is seeking retirement with one final score: the robbery of a railroad office containing a cache of silver.
They are ambushed by Pike's former partner, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who is leading a posse of bounty hunters hired and deputized by the railroad.
A bloody shootout kills several of the gang.
Pike uses a serendipitous temperance union parade to shield their getaway, and many citizens are killed in the crossfire.
Pike rides off with Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine), brothers Lyle (Warren Oates) and Tector Gorch (Ben Johnson) and Angel (Jaime Sánchez), the only survivors.
They are dismayed when the loot from the robbery turns out to be a decoy: steel washers instead of silver coin.
The men reunite with old-timer Freddie Sykes (Edmond O'Brien) and head for Mexico.
Pike's men cross the Rio Grande and take refuge that night in the village where Angel was born.
The townsfolk are ruled by Gen.
Mapache (Emilio Fernández), a corrupt, brutal general in the Mexican Federal Army, who has been ravaging the area's villages to feed his troops, who have been fighting—and losing to—the forces of revolutionary Pancho Villa.
Pike's gang makes contact with the general.
A jealous Angel spots Teresa, his former lover, in Mapache's arms and shoots her dead, angering Mapache.
Pike defuses the situation and offers to work for Mapache.
Their task is to steal a weapons shipment from aS.
Army train so that Mapache can resupply his troops and appease Col.
Mohr (Fernando Wagner), his German military adviser, who wishes to obtain samples of America's armaments.
The reward will be a cache of gold coins.
Angel gives up his share of the gold to Pike in return for sending one crate of the stolen rifles and ammunition to a band of rebels opposed to Mapache.
The holdup goes largely as planned until Deke's posse turns up on the very train the gang has robbed.
The posse chases them to the Mexican border, only to be foiled again as the robbers blow up a trestle spanning the Rio Grande, dumping the entire posse into the river.
The pursuers temporarily regroup at a riverside camp and then quickly take off again after the Bunch.
Pike and his men, knowing they risk being double-crossed by Mapache, devise a way of bringing him the stolen weapons without him double-crossing them.
However, Mapache learns from the mother of Teresa that Angel embezzled a crate of guns and ammo, and reveals this as Angel and Engstrom deliver the last of the weapons.
Surrounded by Mapache's army, Angel desperately tries to escape, only to be captured and tortured.
Mapache lets Engstrom go, and he returns to rejoin Pike's gang and tell them what happened.
Sykes is wounded by Deke's posse while securing spare horses.
The rest of Pike's gang returns to Agua Verde for shelter, where a bacchanal celebrating the weapons transfer has commenced; they see Angel being dragged on the ground by a rope tied behind the general's car.
After a brief frolic with prostitutes and a period of reflection, Pike and the gang try to forcibly persuade Mapache to release Angel, barely alive after the torture.
The general appears to comply; however, as they watch, the general cuts his throat instead.
Pike and the gang angrily gun Mapache down in front of hundreds of his men.
For a moment, the federales are so shocked that they fail to return fire, causing Engstrom to laugh in surprise.
Pike calmly takes aim at Mohr and kills him, too.
This results in a violent, bloody shootout—dominated by the machine gun—in which Pike and his men are killed, along with many of Mapache's troops and the remaining German adviser.
Deke finally catches up.
He allows the remaining members of the posse to take the bullet-riddled bodies of the gang members back and collect the reward, while electing to stay behind, knowing what awaits the posse.
After a period, Sykes arrives with a band of the previously seen Mexican rebels, who have killed off what's left of the posse along the way.
Sykes asks Deke to come along and join the revolution.
Deke smiles and rides off with them.
<EOS>
In lieu of a theme song and opening of the movie, Tashlin instead laid traditional opening credits over faux television commercials for products that failed to deliver what they promised.
From this comedic segue, the film opens on a writer for television advertising, Rockwell Hunter (Tony Randall), who is low on the ladder at the La Salle agency, the company where he works.
With the agency set to lose its biggest account &ndash; Stay-Put Lipstick &ndash; he hatches an idea to get the perfect model and spokeswoman for Stay-Put's new line of lipstick, the famous actress with the "oh-so-kissable lips", Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield).
For Rita to endorse the lipstick, however, Rock has to pretend to be her boyfriend to make her real boyfriend, Bobo Branigansky (Hargitay), the star of a TV Tarzan show, jealous.
Bobo leaks the news of Rita's new romance to the tabloids and Rock Hunter is suddenly famous as Marlowe's "Lover Doll".
Hunter's boss decides to leverage his employee's newfound fame, but when Hunter also gets Marlowe to agree on a television spectacular sponsored by Stay-Put, Hunter becomes the advertising firm's highest-regarded employee.
Marlowe, meanwhile, is miserable; she thinks she is falling in love with Hunter, but her one real true love is the man who discovered her, George Schmidlap (Groucho Marx).
Not being able to find Schmidlap, she pursues Hunter, though her Secretary "Vi" (Joan Blondell) warns her that she is playing a dangerous game.
(Ironically, Blondell, who plays Mansfield's frumpy, middle-aged, all-business secretary, was herself a major movie sex symbol some 30 years before, and whose sexuality was one of the first victims of the Hays Code).
Hunter soon finds fame to be a double-edged sword, getting him what he wants, but with a price to be paid for that success.
Women are crazy about him, and he has no peace of mind.
Ultimately, he moves up the ladder at work, becoming company president, only to find it is not what he really wanted.
Hunter confesses to his angry fiancée Jenny that he finds himself at the top of the heap without any meaning and she takes him back.
As Rita Marlowe opens her television spectacular for Stay-Put Lipstick, she is surprised by the appearance of the show's "surprise" guest star of (and the first real love of her life), George Schmidlap.
Freed from strain of advertising, Rock and Jenny retire to the country to tend a chicken farm, announcing that he has found the real living end.
<EOS>
An impoverished young woman named Letty (Lillian Gish) travels west by train from Virginia to live at her cousin Beverly's isolated ranch in Sweetwater.
On the way, she is bothered by the constantly blowing wind.
Fellow passenger and cattle buyer Wirt Roddy (Montagu Love) makes her acquaintance and tells her the wind usually drives women crazy.
Upon arrival, she is picked up by Beverly's closest neighbors, Lige Hightower (Lars Hanson) and the older, balding Sourdough (William Orlamond), who live 15 miles from her cousin.
Wirt assures her he will drop by occasionally to see how she is doing.
After endless miles in sand and wind, they arrive at the ranch.
Beverly (Edward Earle) is delighted to see her, but his jealous wife Cora (Dorothy Cumming) gives her a cold reception, despite Letty saying she and Beverly (who was raised by Letty's mother) are like brother and sister.
Cora is further angered when her children seem to like Letty better.
At a party, Sourdough tells Lige that he intends proposing to Letty.
Lige explains he was planning to do the same.
After Wirt drops by, a cyclone interrupts the festivities.
Most of the guests seek shelter in the basement, where Wirt declares his love for Letty and offers to take her away from the dismal place.
After the cyclone passes, Lige and Sourdough talk to Letty in private.
When they flip a coin to see who will ask for her hand in marriage (Lige wins), Letty thinks it is just a joke.
Afterward, Cora demands that she leave Beverly alone and that she has to leave the ranch.
Because she has neither money nor a place to go, she decides to go away with Wirt, but then Wirt reveals that he wants her for a mistress, informing her that he already has a wife.
She goes back to Cora, who tells her to choose from her two other suitors.
She marries Lige.
When Lige takes her home, he kisses Letty for the first time, but her lack of enthusiasm is unmistakable.
Worse for the drink, he becomes more forceful, and this makes her tell him that he has made her hate him, which she did not want to do.
Lige promises her he will never touch her.
He states he will try to make enough money to send her back to Virginia.
In the meantime, Letty works around the house, but is bothered by the ever present wind.
One day, Lige is invited to a meeting of the cattlemen, who must do something to avoid starvation.
Letty, terrified of being left alone with only the wind for company, begs to go with him.
He agrees.
After she cannot control her horse in the fierce wind, he has her get on behind him on his horse.
When she falls off, Lige tells Sourdough to take her home.
When the cattlemen return, they bring an unwanted guest, an injured Wirt.
After he recovers, Lige insists he participate in a roundup of wild horses to raise money for the cattlemen.
Wirt goes along, but later sneaks away and returns to Letty.
Out of her mind with fear as she endures the house shaking from the worst wind storm yet, Letty faints soon after Wirt's arrival.
He picks her up and carries her to the bed.
The next morning, Wirt tries to persuade Letty to go away with him, but she rejects him.
He insists, noting Lige will kill them both if they remain.
As Wirt becomes more aggressive, Letty picks up a revolver to defend herself.
Confident that Letty will not fire, Wirt grabs the gun and it goes off, killing him.
Letty decides to bury him outside.
After she is done, the wind uncovers the body, terrifying her.
When Lige returns, Letty is so glad to see him, she kisses her husband.
She then confesses she killed and buried Wirt.
When Lige looks outside, however, the corpse is nowhere to be seen.
He tells Letty that the wind can remove traces when a killing is justified.
He has enough money to send her away, but Letty declares she loves him and that she no longer wants to leave.
She is no longer afraid of the wind.
<EOS>
The film opens with Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer), a young African-American woman, visiting her cousin Alma in the North.
Landry is waiting for the return of Conrad as they plan to marry.
Alma also loves Conrad, and would like Sylvia to marry her brother-in-law Larry, a gambler and criminal.
Alma arranges for Sylvia to be caught in a compromising situation by Conrad when he returns.
He leaves for Brazil, and Larry kills a man during a game of poker.
Sylvia returns to the South.
Landry meets Rev.
Jacobs, a minister who runs a rural school for black children called Piney Woods School.
The school was overcrowded, and he cannot continue on the small amount offered to blacks for education by the state.
With the school facing closure, Landry volunteers to return to the North to raise $5,000.
She has difficulty raising money, and her purse is stolen, but it is recovered by a local man, dr Vivian.
Almost hit by a car as she saves a young child playing in the street, Landry meets the owner, Elena Warwick, a wealthy philanthropist.
Learning of Sylvia's mission, she decides to give her the needed money.
When her Southern friend, mrs Stratton, tries to discourage her, Warwick increases her donation to $50,000.
This amount will save the school and Landry returns to the South.
Meanwhile, dr Vivian has fallen in love with Sylvia.
He goes to Alma, who tells him about Sylvia's past: these flashback scenes are portrayed in the film.
Sylvia was adopted and raised by a poor black family, the Landrys, who managed to provide her with an education.
During her youth, the senior Landry was wrongfully accused of the murder of an unpopular but wealthy white landlord, Gridlestone.
A white mob attacked the Landry family, lynching the parents and hunting down their son, who escaped after nearly being shot.
The mob also lynched Efrem, a servant of Gridlestone.
Sylvia escaped after being chased by Gridlestone's brother, who was close to raping her.
Noticing a scar on her breast, Gridlestone's brother realized that Sylvia was his mixed-race daughter, born of his marriage to a local black woman.
He had paid for her education.
After hearing about her life, dr Vivian meets with Sylvia; he encourages her to love her country and take pride in the contributions of African Americans.
He professes his love for her, and the film ends with their marriage.
<EOS>
Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) and Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) are journalists for the fictional New York Chronicle, with two drastically different backgrounds and worlds.
Tess is an educated, well-travelled political affairs columnist who speaks several languages fluently.
Sam is a knowledgeable and informed sports writer.
Their difficulties are presented as stemming from class and emotional differences as well as from those of gender.
A feud in their columns erupts over baseball, and their editor tells them that he will not stand for an intramural feud at his paper.
Sam invites Tess on a date to a baseball game, and she inadvertently breaks the "men only" atmosphere of the press box.
She is confused and unfamiliar with the rules of the sport.
Tess then invites Sam to her apartment later that night.
What he thought would be a romantic occasion is actually a dinner party where none of the guests is speaking, or can speak, English.
Despite the seemingly wide differences between their lives and personalities, the two fall in love.
After Sam and Tess marry, a conflict arises over Tess's priorities and Sam's place in her life.
They have several minor disagreements about not being together enough, but a bigger problem occurs when Tess volunteers to take on the care of a Greek refugee child, Chris (George Kezas), without consulting Sam.
Tess is excited but trepidatious about Sam's reaction.
He initially believes Tess is pregnant when she announces they're having a child.
Upon meeting Chris, however, he is angry and doesn't want an unrelated six-year-old orphan.
Still, he tries to befriend the boy and introduces him to sports.
Tess learns that she has received the award of "America's Outstanding Woman of the Year", to be awarded at a gala ceremony.
She plans to leave Chris by himself.
When Sam finds out, he refuses to leave Chris alone, though Tess wants him to be beside her on her big night, and is embarrassed at the thought that the public will wonder where he is.
Sam says she can tell everyone he had more important plans.
Tess offends him by asking if anyone would believe he could find something more important to do.
While Tess is at her ceremony, Sam returns the child to the orphanage and walks out on Tess.
She learns of this upon her return home, when she goes to change for photographers – only to discover that Sam and Chris and their belongings are all gone.
She attempts to reclaim Chris, but he refuses, preferring to stay with his fellow refugees.
The next day, Tess receives an invitation, addressed to both of them, to the home of her prominent Senator father (Minor Watson) and the world-famous feminist aunt who raised her (Fay Bainter).
Sam is covering a championship boxing match that evening and tells her he cannot go.
Tess arrives alone, only to be told that her aunt and her father are to be married that night, after 15 years of "making the same mistake" and saying nothing of their mutual attraction.
Listening to the words of the wedding ceremony encourages Tess to attempt a reconciliation with Sam.
Tess enters Sam's Riverside home the next morning and starts to prepare breakfast.
Eventually awakened by her noisy incompetence in the kitchen, he watches her surreptitiously.
She proclaims her intention of being nothing more than his wife and thinking only of his domestic needs, but he believes it is an insincere tactic to win him back.
Trying to prove herself, Tess once again tries to cook breakfast, only to fail because she knows nothing of cooking.
Sam tells her this is the first time he is disappointed in her, faulting her for going to extremes.
He says he does not want Tess Harding or "just mrs Sam Craig," but instead "Tess Harding Craig".
Tess happily agrees, and they reconcile.
Gerald, Tess' ultra-competent secretary (Dan Tobin), arrives with a bottle of champagne and reminds Tess of her commitment to launch a ship.
Sam takes Gerald outside, the bottle smashes, and Sam returns, claiming to have "launched" Gerald.
<EOS>
Los Angeles housewife and mother Mabel loves her construction worker husband Nick and desperately wants to please him, but the strange mannerisms and increasingly odd behavior she displays while in the company of others has him concerned.
Convinced she has become a threat to herself and others, he reluctantly commits her to an institution, where she undergoes treatment for six months.
Left alone with his three children, Nick proves to be neither wiser nor better than his wife in the way he relates to and interacts with them or accepts the role society expects him to play.
After six months Mabel returns home but she is not prepared to do so emotionally or mentally, and neither is her husband prepared correctly for her return.
At first Nick invites a large group of people to the house for a party to celebrate his wife's return, but realizing at the last minute that this is foolish, he sends most of them home.
Mabel then returns with mostly only close family, including her parents, Nick's parents, and their three children to greet her but even this is overwhelming and the evening disintegrates into yet another emotionally and psychologically devastating event.
Nick kicks the family out of the house, leaving husband and wife alone.
After yet another psychotic episode where Mabel cuts herself, Nick decides to put the children to bed.
The youngsters profess their love for their mother as she tucks them in.
Nick and Mabel themselves ready their bed for the night as the film ends.
<EOS>
The story is a shōnen comedy that takes place in the Kanagawa Prefecture, and centers on Keitarō Urashima and his attempts to fulfill a childhood promise that he made with a girl to enter Tokyo University together.
However, he has forgotten the name of the girl he made the promise to and hopes to be accepted into Tokyo University in order to find her.
Having failed the entrance exam twice and with his parents no longer willing to support him, he goes to stay at his grandmother's hotel, only to find that it has been converted into a female-only apartment.
The tenants are about to kick him out when his aunt appears and announces that his grandmother has given him the title to the apartments.
Much to their dismay Keitarō becomes the new manager of the family-owned girls' dorm Hinata House and must now balance his new responsibilities in addition to studying for the university entrance exam.
At Hinata House, Keitarō meets Naru Narusegawa, who is also studying to enter Tokyo University.
Naru ranks first in the whole of Japan on the practice exams, and Keitarō convinces her to help him study.
As the two of them grow closer through their studies, and after Keitarō accidentally reads a small section of Naru's diary, he becomes increasingly convinced that Naru may be the girl with whom he made the promise.
On the second day of the Tokyo University exam, Keitarō asks Naru about the promise and is stunned when she tells him he is mistaken.
Despite their studying, and Naru's mock exam results, they both fail the exams.
The pair then have an argument and independently run off to Kyoto to clear their heads.
While on their trip they settle their differences and meet Mutsumi Otohime, who lives in Okinawa and is also studying for the Tokyo University exams.
After returning from Kyoto, Keitarō and Naru decide to retake the exams.
After a while, Mutsumi moves to Tokyo, and the three begin to study together.
During this period, Naru becomes convinced that Mutsumi is Keitarō's promised girl, but Mutsumi states that she made a childhood promise with Naru, not Keitarō.
During the next round of Tokyo University exams, Keitarō believes he has failed them once again and runs away before finding out his results.
After learning of this, Naru chases after him without checking her exam results either, and they are followed by the rest of the residents of Hinata House who announce that Keitarō and Naru both passed the exams along with Mutsumi.
Unfortunately for him, Keitarō has an accident at the Tokyo University opening ceremony and is unable to attend classes for three months.
After recovering from his injuries, Keitarō decides to study overseas with Noriyasu Seta.
As Keitarō is about to leave, Naru finally confesses her feelings to him at the airport and decides to wait for him to return.
When Keitarō returns, he and Naru finally begin to express their feelings for each other.
After they deal with new obstacles, Grandma Hina returns to Hinata House and reveals Naru is the girl of Keitarō's promise.
Four years later, a wedding ceremony (with a new girl, Ema Maeda, presented) is held at Hinata House for Naru and Keitarō as they finally fulfill their childhood promise to each other.
<EOS>
Tony Wendice (Ray Milland), a former English professional tennis player, is married to wealthy socialite Margot (Grace Kelly), who has had an affair with American crime-fiction writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings).
When Tony retires in response to her complaints about his busy schedule, he secretly discovers the affair and decides to murder her, both for revenge and to ensure that her money will continue to finance his comfortable lifestyle.
Tony meets an acquaintance from the University of Cambridge, Charles Alexander "C".
Swann (Anthony Dawson), who has become a small-time criminal.
Tony has secretly been following Swann so he can blackmail him into murdering Margot.
Tony tells Swann about Margot's affair.
Six months before, Tony stole her handbag, which contained a love letter from Mark, and anonymously blackmailed her.
After tricking Swann into leaving his fingerprints on the letter, Tony offers to pay him £1,000 to kill Margot; if Swann refuses, Tony will turn him in to the police as Margot's blackmailer.
When Swann agrees, Tony explains his plan: the following evening he will take Mark to a party, leaving Margot at home and hiding her latchkey outside the front door of their flat.
Swann is to sneak in when Margot is asleep and hide behind the curtains in front of the French doors to the garden.
At eleven o'clock, Tony will telephone the flat from the party.
Swann must kill Margot when she answers the phone, open the French doors, leave signs suggesting a burglary gone wrong, and exit through the front door, hiding the key again.
The next night, Swann enters the flat while Margot is in bed, and waits.
At the party, Tony discovers his watch has stopped, so he phones the flat later than intended.
When Margot comes to the phone, Swann tries to strangle her with his scarf, but she manages to grab a pair of scissors and kill him.
She picks up the telephone receiver and pleads for help.
Tony tells her not to do anything until he arrives home.
When he returns to the flat, he calls the police and sends Margot to bed.
Before the police arrive, Tony moves what he thinks is Margot's latchkey from Swann's pocket into her handbag, plants Mark's letter on Swann, and destroys Swann's scarf, replacing it with Margot's own stocking in an attempt to incriminate her.
The following day, Tony persuades Margot to hide the fact that he told her not to call the police immediately.
Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) arrives and questions the Wendices, and Margot makes several conflicting statements.
When Hubbard says Swann must have entered through the front door, Tony falsely claims to have seen Swann at the time Margot's handbag was stolen, and suggests that Swann made a copy of her key.
Hubbard does not believe this because no key was found on Swann's body.
Hubbard arrests Margot after concluding that she killed Swann for blackmailing her.
Margot is found guilty and sentenced to death.
Some months later, on the day before Margot's scheduled execution, Mark visits Tony, saying he has devised a story for Tony to tell the police in order to save Margot's life.
To Tony's consternation, Mark's "story" is what did actually happen: that Tony bribed Swann to murder Margot.
Tony says the story is too unrealistic.
Hubbard arrives unexpectedly, and Mark hides in the bedroom.
Hubbard asks Tony about large sums of cash he has been spending, tricks him into revealing that his latchkey is in his raincoat, and inquires about Tony's attaché case.
Tony claims to have lost the case, but Mark, still in the bedroom, finds it on the bed, full of banknotes.
Deducing that the money was Tony's intended payoff to Swann, Mark stops Hubbard from leaving and explains his theory.
Tony improvises another cover story by saying the cash was Margot's blackmail payment to Swann.
Hubbard appears to accept Tony's explanation over Mark's theory, and Mark leaves angrily.
Hubbard discreetly swaps his own raincoat with Tony's, and as soon as Tony leaves, he uses Tony's key to re-enter the flat, followed by Mark.
Hubbard had already discovered that the key in Margot's handbag was Swann's latchkey, and deduced that Swann had put the key back in its hiding place after unlocking the door.
Now suspecting Tony of having conspired with Swann, Hubbard has developed an elaborate ruse to confirm this.
Plainclothes policemen bring Margot from prison to the flat.
She tries unsuccessfully to unlock the door with the key in her handbag, then enters through the garden, proving she is unaware of the hidden key.
Hubbard has Margot's handbag returned to the police station, where Tony retrieves it after discovering that he has no key.
The key from Margot's bag does not work, so he uses the hidden key to open the door, proving his guilt.
With his escape routes blocked by Hubbard and another policeman, Tony calmly makes himself a drink and admits defeat.
<EOS>
The play begins in front of the palace of Thebes, with Dionysus telling the story of his origin and his reasons for visiting the city.
Dionysus explains that he was born prematurely, when Hera made Zeus send down a lightning bolt, killing the pregnant Semele and causing the birth.
Some in Thebes, he notes, don’t believe this story.
In fact, Semele’s sisters — Autonoe, Agave, and Ino – claim it is a lie intended to cover up the fact that Semele became pregnant by some mortal; they say Zeus' lightning was a punishment for the lie.
Dionysus reveals that he has driven the women of the city mad, including his three aunts, and has led them into the mountains to observe his ritual festivities.
He explains that while he is appearing, at the moment, disguised as a mortal, he will vindicate his mother by appearing before all of Thebes as a god, the son of Zeus, and establishing his permanent cult of followers.
Dionysus exits to go into the mountains, and the chorus enters.
They dance and sing, celebrating Dionysus and adding details of his birth and the Dionysian rites.
Then Tiresias, the blind and elderly seer, appears.
He knocks on the palace doors and calls for Cadmus, the founder and former king of Thebes.
The two venerable old men are planning to join the revelry in the mountains when Cadmus’ grandson Pentheus, the current king, enters.
Disgusted to find the two old men in festival dress, he scolds them and orders his soldiers to arrest anyone engaging in Dionysian worship.
He wants the "foreigner", whom he doesn't recognize as Dionysus in disguise, to be captured.
Pentheus intends to have him stoned to death.
The guards soon return with Dionysus himself.
His hands are bound, and he is disguised as a priest and the leader of the Asian Maenads.
Pentheus questions him, his words showing both his skepticism and his interest in the Dionysian rites.
Dionysus' answers keep the meaning hidden, only hinting at the truth Pentheus cannot see.
Infuriated, Pentheus has him taken away in chains and locked up in his stable, where the guards attach the other end of their prisoner's chains to the hooves of an angry bull.
Dionysus, being a god and powerful, breaks free and creates more havoc, razing the palace with an earthquake and fire.
Dionysus is confronting Pentheus, when a herdsman arrives from the top of Mount Cithaeron, where he had been herding his grazing cattle.
He reports that he found women on the mountain behaving strangely.
First, some were sleeping quietly, or drinking wine while listening to flute music.
Some were going into the woods "in pursuit of love".
Some women were putting snakes in their hair, some were suckling wild wolves and gazelles.
Some caused water, wine or milk to spring up from the ground.
One woman had honey oozing from her thyrsus.
The herdsmen and the shepherds made a plan to capture one particular celebrant, Pentheus' mother.
But when they jumped out of hiding to grab her, the tables were turned, and the women pursued the men.
The men escaped, but their cattle were not so fortunate, as the women fell upon the animals, ripping them to shreds with their bare hands.
The women carried on, plundering two villages that were further down the mountain, stealing bronze, iron and even babies.
When villagers attempted to fight back, the women drove them off using only their ceremonial staffs of fennel.
They then returned to the mountain top and washed up, as snakes licked them clean.
Dionysus, still in disguise, persuades Pentheus to forgo his plan to defeat and massacre the women with an armed force.
He says it would be better first to spy on them, while disguised as a female Maenad to avoid detection.
Dressing Pentheus in this fashion, giving him a thyrsus and fawn skins, Dionysus leads him out of the house.
At this point, Pentheus appears not wholly sane, as he thinks he sees two suns in the sky, and believes he now has the strength to rip up mountains with his bare hands.
He has also begun to see through Dionysus' mortal disguise, perceiving horns coming out of the god's head.
A messenger arrives to report that once they reached Mount Cithaeron, Pentheus wanted to climb an evergreen tree to get a better view and the stranger used divine power to bend down the tall tree and place the king in its highest branches.
Then Dionysus, revealing himself, called out to his followers and pointed out the man in the tree.
This drove the Maenads wild.
Led by Agave, his mother, they forced the trapped Pentheus down from the tree top, ripped off his limbs and his head, and tore his body into pieces.
After the messenger has relayed this news, Agave arrives, carrying her son's head.
In her possessed state, she believes it is the head of a mountain lion.
She proudly displays it to her father, Cadmus, and is confused when he does not delight in her trophy, and his face instead contorts in horror.
Agave then calls out for Pentheus to come marvel at her feat, and nail the head above her door so she can show it to all of Thebes.
But Dionysus' possession begins to wear off, and Cadmus forces her to recognize what she's done.
As the play ends, the corpse of Pentheus is reassembled as well as is possible, the royal family devastated and destroyed.
Agave and her sisters are sent into exile, and Dionysus decrees that Cadmus and his wife Harmonia will be turned into snakes and lead a barbarian horde to plunder the cities of Hellas.
<EOS>
Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in Thessaly but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia (a region of southeastern Greece), took the goddess Nephele as his first wife.
They had two children, the boy Phrixus (whose name means "curly"—as in ram's fleece) and the girl Helle.
Later Athamas became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus.
When Nephele left in anger, drought came upon the land.
Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths: in some versions, she persuaded Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus was the only way to end the drought.
Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold.
The ram had been sired by Poseidon in his primitive ram-form upon Theophane, a nymph and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun-god.
According to Hyginus, Poseidon carried Theophane to an island where he made her into a ewe, so that he could have his way with her among the flocks.
There Theophane's other suitors could not distinguish the ram-god and his consort.
Nepheles' children escaped on the yellow ram over the sea, but Helle fell off and drowned in the strait now named after her, the Hellespont.
The ram spoke to Phrixus, encouraging him, and took the boy safely to Colchis (modern-day Georgia), on the easternmost shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea.
There Phrixus sacrificed the winged ram to Poseidon, essentially returning him to the god.
The ram became the constellation Aries.
Phrixus settled in the house of Aeetes, son of Helios the sun god.
He hung the Golden Fleece preserved from the sacrifice of the ram on an oak in a grove sacred to Ares, the god of war and one of the Twelve Olympians.
The golden fleece was defended by bulls with hoofs of brass and breath of fire.
It was also guarded by a never sleeping dragon with teeth which could become soldiers when planted in the ground.
The dragon was at the foot of the tree on which the fleece was placed.
Pindar employed the quest for the Golden Fleece in his Fourth Pythian Ode (written in 462 BC), though the fleece is not in the foreground.
When Aeetes challenges Jason to yoke the fire-breathing bulls, the fleece is the prize: "Let the King do this, the captain of the ship.
Let him do this, I say, and have for his own the immortal coverlet, the fleece, glowing with matted skeins of gold".
In later versions of the story, the ram is said to have been the offspring of the sea god Poseidon and Themisto (less often, Nephele or Theophane).
The classic telling is the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, composed in mid-third century BC Alexandria, recasting early sources that have not survived.
Another, much less-known Argonautica, using the same body of myth, was composed in Latin by Valerius Flaccus during the time of Vespasian.
Where the written sources fail, through accidents of history, sometimes the continuity of a mythic tradition can be found among the vase-painters.
The story of the Golden Fleece appeared to have little resonance for Athenians of the Classic age, for only two representations of it on Attic-painted wares of the fifth century have been identified: a krater at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a kylix in the Vatican collections.
In the kylix painted by Douris, ca 480-470, Jason is being disgorged from the mouth of the dragon, a detail that does not fit easily into the literary sources; behind the dragon, the fleece hangs from an apple tree.
Jason's helper in the Athenian vase-paintings is not Medea— who had a history in Athens as the opponent of Theseus— but Athena.
<EOS>
In Oklahoma territory in 1906, cowboy Curly McLain looks forward to the beautiful day ahead as he wanders into farm girl Laurey Williams's yard ("Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'").
He and Laurey tease each other, while her Aunt Eller looks on.
There will be a box social dance that night, which includes an auction of lunch baskets prepared by the local women to raise funds for a schoolhouse.
The man who wins each basket will eat the lunch with the lady who prepared it.
Curly asks Laurey to go with him, but she refuses, feeling that he has waited too long.
He attempts to persuade her by telling her that he will take her in the finest carriage money can buy ("The Surrey with the Fringe on Top"), but she teases him about it until he says he made it up to get back at her.
She flounces off, not realizing that he really has rented such a rig.
The lonely, disturbed farm hand Jud Fry has become obsessed with Laurey and asks her to the dance.
She accepts to spite Curly, although she is afraid of Jud.
Meanwhile, cowboy Will Parker returns bedazzled and souvenir-laden from a trip to modern Kansas City ("Kansas City").
He won $50 at the fair, which, according to his girlfriend Ado Annie's father, Andrew Carnes, is the money he needs to marry Ado Annie.
Unfortunately, he spent all the money on gifts for her.
Will also purchased a "Little Wonder" (a metal tube used for looking at pictures, but with a hidden blade inside) for Ado Annie's father, unaware of its deadly secret.
Later, Ado Annie confesses to Laurey that while Will has been away, she has been spending a lot of time with Ali Hakim, a Persian peddler.
Laurey tells her she'll have to choose between them, but Ado Annie insists she loves them both ("I Cain't Say No").
Laurey and her friends prepare for the social, while Gertie Cummings flirts with Curly (her obnoxious laugh floating in to taunt Laurey).
Laurey tells her friends that she doesn't really care about Curly ("Many a New Day").
Andrew Carnes discovers Annie with Ali Hakim.
After questioning Ado Annie about their relationship, he forces Hakim at gunpoint to agree to marry her.
Hakim and the other men lament the unfairness of the situation ("It's a Scandal.
It's a Outrage.
").
Curly discovers that Laurey is going to the box social with Jud and tries to convince her to go with him instead.
Afraid to tell Jud she won't go with him, Laurey tries to convince Curly (and herself) that she does not love him ("People Will Say We're in Love").
Hurt by her refusal, Curly goes to the smokehouse where Jud lives to talk with him.
Curly suggests that since Jud does not feel appreciated, he could hang himself, and everyone would realize how much they care about him ("Pore Jud Is Daid").
Their talk turns into an ominous confrontation about Laurey.
After Curly leaves, Jud's resolve to win Laurey becomes even stronger, and he vows to make her his bride ("Lonely Room").
Confused by her feelings for Curly and her fear of Jud, Laurey purchases a "magic potion" (referred to as smelling salts, but actually laudanum) from Ali Hakim, which the unscrupulous peddler guarantees will reveal her true love.
She muses on leaving her dreams of love behind and joining the man she loves ("Out of My Dreams"), then falls asleep under the influence of the opiate ("Dream Sequence").
In an extended dream ballet sequence, Laurey first dreams of what marriage to Curly would be like.
Her dream takes a nightmarish turn when Jud appears and kills Curly.
She cannot escape him, confused by her desires.
The dream makes her realize that Curly is the right man for her, but it is too late to change her mind about going to the dance with Jud; he has come for her, and they leave for the box social.
At the social, during an upbeat square dance ("The Farmer and the Cowman"), the rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys over fences and water rights has led to fighting, which Aunt Eller ends by firing a gun to silence everyone.
Laurey is upset when she sees Curly at the dance with Gertie.
In an effort to rid himself of Ado Annie, Ali Hakim buys Will's souvenirs from Kansas City for $50.
Jud also contributes to this by purchasing Will's Little Wonder, knowing of the blade concealed within it.
The auction starts and Will bids $50 on Ado Annie's basket, not realizing that without the $50, he would no longer have the money her father insisted he needs to "purchase" marriage with her.
Desperate to be rid of Ado Annie, the peddler bids $51 to get the basket so that Will can approach Andrew Carnes with the $50 and claim Ado Annie as his bride.
The auction becomes much more serious when Laurey's basket comes up for auction.
Jud has saved all his money so he can win Laurey's basket.
Various men bid, trying to protect Laurey, but Jud outbids them all.
Curly and Jud engage in a ferocious bidding war, and Curly sells his saddle, his horse, and even his gun to raise money.
Curly outbids Jud and wins the basket.
Jud discreetly tries to kill Curly with the Little Wonder, but his plan is foiled when Aunt Eller (knowing what is happening) loudly asks Curly for a dance.
Later that night, Will and Annie work out their differences, as she reluctantly agrees not to flirt with other men ("All Er Nuthin'").
Jud confronts Laurey about his feelings for her.
When she admits that she does not return them, he threatens her.
She then fires him as her farm hand, screaming at him to get off her property.
Jud furiously threatens Laurey before he departs; Laurey bursts into tears and calls for Curly.
She tells him that she has fired Jud and is frightened by what Jud might do now.
Curly, seeing that she has turned to him for guidance and safety, reassures her and proposes to her, and she accepts ("People Will Say We're In Love (Reprise)").
He then realizes that he must now become a farmer.
Afterwards, Ali Hakim decides to leave the territory and bids Ado Annie goodbye after telling her Will is the man she should marry.
Three weeks later, Laurey and Curly are married and everyone rejoices in celebration of the territory's impending statehood ("Oklahoma.
").
During the celebration, Ali Hakim returns with his new wife, Gertie, whom he unwillingly married after being threatened by her father with a shotgun.
A drunken Jud reappears, harasses Laurey by kissing her and attacks Curly with a knife.
As Curly dodges a blow, Jud falls on his own knife and soon dies.
The wedding guests hold a makeshift trial for Curly, at Aunt Eller's urging, as the couple is due to leave for their honeymoon.
The judge, Andrew Carnes, declares the verdict: "not guilty.
" Curly and Laurey depart on their honeymoon in the surrey with the fringe on top ("Finale Ultimo").
<EOS>
Nick Cavanaugh is a lonely Atlanta surgeon obsessed with a woman named Helena.
After she suffers a high grade tibial fracture in a hit-and-run motor vehicle accident in front of his home, he kidnaps and treats her in his house surreptitiously, amputating both of her legs above the knee.
Later, he amputates her healthy arms above the elbow after she tries to choke him.
Though Helena is the victim of Nick's kidnapping and mutilation, she dominates the dialogue with her constant ridiculing of him for all of his shortcomings.
Eventually, Cavanaugh's actions are discovered by one of Helena's former co-workers.
During a physical confrontation, Cavanaugh is killed, only to wake up and realize that the entire ordeal had been a dream he had at a hospital during Helena's surgery after the car accident.
<EOS>
On 11th May 1941, Boxer and amateur pilot Joe Pendleton (Robert Montgomery), affectionately known as "the Flying Pug", flies his small aircraft to his next fight in New York City, but crashes when a control cable severs.
His soul is "rescued" by 7013 (Edward Everett Horton), an officious angel who assumed that Joe could not have survived.
Joe's manager, Max "Pop" Corkle (James Gleason), has his body cremated.
In the afterlife, the records show his death was a mistake; he was supposed to live for 50 more years.
The angel's superior, mr Jordan (Claude Rains), confirms this, but since there is no more body, Joe will have to take over a newly dead corpse.
mr Jordan explains that a body is just something that is worn, like an overcoat; inside, Joe will still be himself.
Joe insists that it be someone in good physical shape, because he wants to continue his boxing career.
Joe keeps saying the body they find "has to be in the pink".
After Joe turns down several "candidates", mr Jordan takes him to see the body of a crooked, extremely wealthy banker and investor named Bruce Farnsworth, who has just been drugged and drowned in a bathtub by his wife Julia (Rita Johnson) and his secretary, Tony Abbott (John Emery).
Joe is reluctant to take over a life so unlike his previous one, but when he sees the murderous pair mockingly berating Miss Logan (Evelyn Keyes), the daughter of a financier who was sold worthless bonds by Farnsworth's bank, he changes his mind and agrees to take over Farnsworth's body.
As Farnsworth, Joe repays all the investors, including Miss Logan's father.
He sends for Corkle and convinces him that he is Joe (by playing his saxophone just as badly as he did in his previous incarnation).
With Farnsworth's money to smooth the way, Corkle trains him and arranges a bout with the current heavyweight champion, but mr Jordan returns to warn Joe that, while he is destined to be the champion, it cannot happen that way.
Joe has just enough time to tell Miss Logan, with whom he's fallen in love, that if a stranger (especially if he is a boxer) approaches her, to give him a chance.
Then he is shot by his secretary.
The body is hidden, and Joe returns to a ghostly existence.
Accompanied by mr Jordan, Joe finds that his replacement in the prizefight with the champ is a clean-cut, honest fighter named Murdoch, whom Joe knows and respects.
Finding that he has forgotten his lucky saxophone, Joe runs back to the Farnsworth mansion to find that everyone believes Farnsworth has "disappeared".
Corkle has hired a private investigator to find him.
Corkle explains about Joe, mr Jordan and the body-switching, but of course the police detective (Donald MacBride) thinks he is a nut.
Joe manages to mentally nudge Corkle into turning on the radio to the fight and hears that Murdoch has collapsed without even being touched.
mr Jordan reveals that the boxer was shot by gamblers because he refused to throw the fight.
Joe takes over Murdoch's body and wins the title.
Back at the mansion, Corkle hears one of the radio announcers mention a saxophone hanging by the ringside and realizes Joe has assumed Murdoch's body.
Corkle races down to the dressing room.
There, Joe passes along information from mr Jordan that Farnsworth's body is in a refrigerator in the basement of the mansion.
Corkle tells the detective, who promptly has mrs Farnsworth and the secretary arrested.
As Murdoch, Joe fires his old, crooked manager and hires Corkle.
mr Jordan reveals to Joe that this is his destiny; he can be Murdoch and live his life.
Healing the gunshot wound and at the same time removing Joe's memory of his past life, mr Jordan hangs around for a bit longer until Miss Logan arrives.
She wanted to see Corkle, but runs into Murdoch instead.
The pair feel they have met before.
The two go off together, while mr Jordan smiles and says "So long, champ".
<EOS>
Georges Iscovescu (Boyer) recounts his story to a Hollywood film director at Paramount.
He is a Romanian-born gigolo who arrived in a Mexican border town seeking entry to the US.
He endures a waiting period to obtain a quota number of up to eight years with other hopeful immigrants in the Esperanza Hotel.
After six months he is broke and unhappy.
He runs into his former professional "dance partner" Anita Dixon (Goddard) who explains she obtained US residency by marrying an American, who she then quickly divorced.
Georges therefore seeks an American wife, soon targeting visiting school teacher Miss Emmy Brown (de Havilland).
They marry the same day.
Emmy unexpectedly returns a few days later, but immigration inspector Hammock (Abel) appears, hunting for con artists such as Georges.
In order to evade Hammock, Georges drives Emmy to a small village, where they participate in romantic traditional rituals for newlyweds.
Georges becomes increasingly bothered by his conscience as he sees how happy and unsuspecting Emmy is.
Iscovescu develops genuine affection for Emmy.
However this jeopardizes the plans of Anita, long in love with Georges, for them to work together in the US.
Anita informs Emmy of the entire scheme.
Emmy does not turn him in when questioned by Hammock, but nevertheless leaves Georges.
Returning to the US she is seriously injured in a car accident.
A distraught Georges learns of this and jeopardizes his imminent US visa by illegally entering the country to go to Emmy.
On hearing his voice she begins to emerge from her coma.
Georges sees police arriving so leaves for Paramount to sell his story to director Dwight Saxon (Mitchell Leisen) to get the money to care for Emmy, where Hammock catches up with him.
Some weeks later Hammock returns to the Border town.
Anita has a new sugar daddy.
Hammock tells Georges that he didn't report Georges for illegal entry and his visa has been approved.
In addition Emmy has recovered and is at the border to meet him.
Georges sees Emmy happily waving to him from across the border and goes to meet her.
<EOS>
In Stratford, Ontario in 1904, William Spence (Fredric March), a medical student on the verge of becoming a doctor, receives "The Call" while passing a Methodist church one Sunday.
His bride-to-be, Hope Morris (Martha Scott), accepts his decision to enter the ministry with a whole heart despite the disappointment of her prominent and affluent parents.
Will "dives right in," but with no vacancies in Canada, is posted as a circuit minister to a small town in rural Iowa, beginning a life for them of frequent moves around the district, dingy parsonages, and scraping a living from poor boxes and performing weddings.
Hope yearns for a decent parsonage and a sense of permanence for their children, but uncomplainingly provides them a good life and a supportive home for Will.
For his part, Will understands his own nature and laughs at his own foibles, bending where he can in good conscience.
He often enters situations in anger or to instruct but leaves humbled and renewed in spirit.
While Will sincerely lives by and teaches by example (which includes his family) the tenets of the Methodist Discipline, he also learns from his congregations to be flexible and change with the times.
When their third child, a boy, is born, Hope and Will cannot agree on a name and he remains unbaptized for three months.
Hope wants to name the baby William Spence, Jr.
but Will does not like the idea of his son going without a middle name as he did.
He wants the boy to have and be called in "the good old Canadian custom" by the middle name of Frazer.
Will seems to give in to Hope but the following Sunday baptizes him William Frazer Spence.
Hope serenely accepts the change.
Oldest son Hartzell (named for Will's guiding bishop) has a hard time coping with the idea that a minister's son should be an example to the other boys.
Will explains that "a pastor's family walks a tightrope, balancing with one foot on earth and one foot already in Heaven".
After learning that Hartzell has been sneaking into the movies, a pastime seemingly forbidden by the Discipline, Will takes him to the theater to point out why the film is bad for him.
They see a western but rather than finding it sinful, Will is impressed by its moral.
The following Sunday he preaches a sermon advising his congregation that young people may have something to teach their elders.
In the 1920s the family is assigned to a church in Denver, Colorado, that, despite having many well-heeled members, is old, uncomfortable and decrepit.
In a time of economic prosperity for the country, the Spences cope with possibly their most dilapidated parsonage yet.
Will has come to appreciate his wife's serenity with life and resolves to provide her a decent parsonage by building a new church.
His plans at first are thwarted by power struggles among several snobbish members of the church.
He loses one wealthy patron, mrs Sandow (Beulah Bondi), to the Baptists when he refuses to stop ministering to her chauffeur (Harry Davenport), and another, influential banker Preston Thurston (Gene Lockhart), after organizing a children's choir to replace the off-key church choir, run for years by mrs Thurston (Laura Hope Crews), her family and social circle.
Soon after, Hartzell (Frankie Thomas) is expelled from school because of a gossip campaign falsely accusing him of making a young girl pregnant and forcing her family to move to San Francisco.
A deeply discouraged Will investigates a job offer in California that offers the beautiful church and parsonage he and Hope have always dreamed of but discovers that he cannot surrender in his struggles with the Thurstons.
He seeks out the girl's family and learns that there is no truth to any part of the rumor.
Returning to Denver, Will confronts mrs Thurston and her circle, who started the rumors to punish Will, and suggests that if they don't contribute substantially to the building of the new church, he will call them out in his sermons.
A repentant mrs Sandow begs to return to the church and Will inveigles from her the stained glass window, new Skinner organ, and carillon that as luxuries are being cut from the plans to finance a recreation center for the church.
A year later, their dream church and parsonage finished, Will accepts the challenge of returning to Iowa to aid a small church in trouble, confident that he leaves behind a revitalized church when its members, including all those with whom he locked horns, gather spontaneously on a weekday morning to sing The Church's One Foundation as he plays it on the new carillon.
<EOS>
Alvin York (Gary Cooper), a poor young Tennessee hillbilly, is an exceptional marksman, but a ne'er-do-well prone to drinking and fighting, which does not make things any easier for his patient mother (Margaret Wycherly).
He then meets winsome Gracie Williams (Joan Leslie), and works night and day at strenuous odd jobs to accumulate the payment for a certain "bottomland" farm so she'll marry him.
Alvin is given an option on the bottomland by its owner as part of a gentleman's agreement that Alvin can raise the purchase price in sixty days.
On the very day payment is due, he wins the final needed amount at a target-shooting contest, but discovers the owner has reneged and, instead, already sold the farm to Alvin's romantic rival, Zeb Andrews.
Alvin drinks heavily and swears revenge.
Late that night, Alvin is struck by lightning during a rainstorm while en route to attack the man who had cheated him.
He survives the lightning strike, but his mule is knocked down and his rifle is destroyed.
Finding himself outside the church house where a revival meeting is being held, he enters and undergoes a religious awakening and vows never to get angry at anyone ever again.
He makes amends with the men who cheated him out of the land, and tries to with Gracie.
When theS.
declares war in World War I and York is drafted into the army, he tries to avoid induction into the Army as a conscientious objector, but is denied since his church has no official standing.
He reluctantly reports to Camp Gordon for basic training.
His superiors discover that he is a phenomenal marksman and decide to promote him to corporal.
York still wants nothing to do with the Army and killing.
Major Buxton (Stanley Ridges), his sympathetic commanding officer, tries to change York's mind, citing sacrifices made by others all throughout the history of the United States.
He gives York a leave to go home and think it over.
He promises York a recommendation for his exemption as a conscientious objector if York remains unconvinced.
While York is fasting and pondering, the wind blows his Bible open to the verse "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's".
York reports back for duty and tells his superiors that he can serve his country, despite not having everything figured out to his satisfaction, leaving the matter in God's hands.
York is still ridiculed by some superiors for his beliefs, until he demonstrates his skill in firing his rifle to the surprise of all.
His unit is shipped out to Europe and participates in an attack during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive on October 8, 1918.
Pinned down by deadly machine gun fire, the lieutenant orders Sergeant Early (Joe Sawyer) to take some men and try to attack the machine gun nests from behind.
York suddenly finds himself the last remaining unwounded non-commissioned officer in the detachment, and is placed in command by Early.
Seeing his comrades being shot down all around him, his self-doubt disappears.
He works his way to a position flanking the main enemy trench and, as a sniper, fires individual rifle shots with such devastating effect that the Germans surrender.
Then, York forces a captured officer (Charles Esmond) at gunpoint to order the Germans still fighting in another section of the line to also surrender.
He and the handful of other survivors end up with 132 prisoners.
York becomes a national hero and is awarded the Medal of Honor.
When Major Buxton asks him why he did what he did, York explains that he was trying to save the lives of his men.
Arriving in New York City, York receives a ticker tape parade and a key to the city.
He is impressed with the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and its indoor electricity.
Congressman Cordell Hull guides him through the city and informs him that he has been offered opportunities to commercialize on his fame, all totaling around $250,000.
York mentions the bottomland he wanted and Hull responds he could buy it with the money.
York rejects the offers, however, saying that he was not proud of what he did in the war, but it had to be done.
He tells Hull he wants to go home.
He returns to Tennessee.
The people of his home state have purchased for him the bottomland farm he wanted and paid for a house built on the land.
<EOS>
The film commences in 1890 in the small midwestern town of Kings Row, focusing on five children.
They are 1) Parris Mitchell (Robert Cummings), who lives with his grandmother; 2) Cassandra Tower (Betty Field), daughter of dr Alexander Tower (Claude Rains); 3) the wealthy and fun-loving orphan Drake McHugh (Ronald Reagan); 4) Louise Gordon (Nancy Coleman), daughter of the sadistic town physician dr Henry Gordon (Charles Coburn), who has been known to perform operations without anesthetic; and 5) the tomboy Randy Monaghan (Ann Sheridan), whose father is a railroad worker.
Parris is attracted to Cassandra, whom the other children avoid because her family is "strange": her mother is confined to the house and never seen.
dr Tower takes Cassie out of school; she is confined at home and Parris does not see her again until years later, when he begins his medical studies under dr Tower's tutelage.
Parris' best friend, Drake, intends to marry Louise despite the disapproval of her father.
Louise, however, refuses to defy her parents and will not marry him.
Parris and Cassie begin a secret romance, seeing each other at Drake's house.
At about this time, Parris' grandmother becomes ill from terminal cancer and dies as he is about to go overseas to Vienna for medical school.
Parris, who decides to study psychiatry, proposes marriage to Cassie.
She initially resists, running away, but later comes begging him to take her with him to Vienna.
She then runs away again, back home.
The next day, Parris learns that dr Tower has poisoned Cassie and shot himself, and has left his estate to him.
He learns from dr Tower's notebook that he killed Cassie because he believed he saw early signs that she might go insane like her mother, and he wanted to prevent Parris from ruining his life by marrying her, just as Tower's life had been ruined by marrying Cassie's mother.
While Parris is in Vienna, Drake's trust fund is stolen by a dishonest bank official.
Drake is forced to work locally for the railroad, and his legs are injured in a boxcar accident.
dr Gordon amputates both of his legs.
Drake, who had been courting Randy before the accident, marries her but is now embittered by the loss of his legs and refuses to leave his bed.
Nonetheless they commence a business, begun with Parris' financial help, building houses for working families.
When Parris suggests they move into one of the homes they've built, away from the railroad tracks and sounds of the trains that plague Drake, he becomes hysterical and makes Randy swear to never make him leave the room.
Parris returns from Vienna to Kings Row and decides to remain there, when he learns that dr Gordon has died, leaving the town with no doctor.
Louise reveals that her father amputated Drake's legs unnecessarily, because he hated Drake and thought it was his duty to punish wickedness.
Parris at first wishes to withhold the truth from Drake, fearing it will destroy his fragile recovery.
He considers confining Louise to a mental institution, even though she is not insane, to prevent the truth from being revealed to Drake and other victims of her father.
But instead, persuaded by his new friend Elise (Kaaren Verne) to treat Drake like any other patient rather than his best friend, he tells Drake what happened.
Drake reacts with defiance and summons a renewed will to live instead of the deep clinical depression Parris had feared.
Parris is now free to marry Elise, having helped his old friend return to a productive life.
<EOS>
"John Smith" (Ronald Colman) is a British officer who was gassed and became shell shocked in the trenches during the First World War.
He is confined to an asylum as an unidentified inmate because he has lost his memory and has trouble speaking.
When the war ends, jubilation erupts in the nearby town of Melbridge and the gatekeepers abandon their posts to join the celebration.
With no one to stop him, Smith simply wanders off.
In town, he is befriended by singer Paula (Greer Garson).
She guesses he is from the asylum but as he seems harmless, she arranges for him to join her travelling theatrical group.
After an incident that threatens to bring unwanted attention, Paula takes Smith away to a secluded country village, where they marry and are blissfully happy.
"Smithy", as Paula calls him, discovers a literary talent and tries writing to earn a living.
Paula remains home with their newborn baby while Smithy goes to Liverpool, for a job interview with a newspaper.
There, he is struck by a taxi.
When he regains consciousness, his past memory is restored but his life with Paula is now forgotten.
He is Charles Rainier, the son of a wealthy businessman.
None of his meagre possessions, including a key, provide any clue how he got there from the battleground of France.
Charles returns home on the day of his father's funeral, to the family's amazement as he had been given up for dead.
Fifteen-year-old Kitty (Susan Peters), the stepdaughter of one of Charles' siblings, becomes infatuated with her "uncle".
Charles wants to return to college but the mismanaged family business needs him and he puts off his own desires to safeguard the jobs of the many employees and to restore the family fortune.
After a few years, a newspaper touts him as the "Industrial Prince of England".
Meanwhile, Paula has been searching for her Smithy.
Their son having died as an infant, she returns to work as a secretary.
One day, she sees Charles's picture in a newspaper and manages to become his executive assistant, calling herself Margaret (Paula being her stage name), hoping that her presence will jog his memory.
Her confidante and admirer, dr Jonathan Benet (Phillip Dorn), warns her that revealing her identity would only cause Charles to resent her.
As Kitty grows up, she sends Charles love letters.
Eventually they become engaged.
Margaret has Smithy declared legally dead, seven years having elapsed since he left her, dissolving their marriage.
However, a hymn that Kitty is considering for their upcoming wedding triggers a vague memory in Charles.
Kitty realizes that he still loves someone else and heartbroken, breaks off the engagement.
When Margaret hears Charles is in Liverpool, trying one last time to piece together his lost years, she rushes there.
They recover his suitcase from a hotel but he recognizes nothing.
Charles is then approached to stand for Parliament.
After his election, in which Margaret provided invaluable assistance, he feels the need for a wife in his new role.
He proposes to her, more as a business proposition than a romantic one and she accepts.
They become an ideal couple, at least to all outward appearance.
She is the perfect society hostess.
They sometimes discuss his lost past and at one point, she tells him of her own lost love, without disclosing that it is Charles.
He hopes their life together can fill the void they both feel.
Desperately unhappy, Margaret decides to take an extended vacation abroad by herself.
Before her liner sails, she revisits the hamlet where she and Smithy lived.
Meanwhile, Charles is called upon to mediate a strike at the Melbridge Cable Works.
He succeeds.
As he walks through town, the familiar surroundings and the celebrating workers begin to unlock his lost memories and eventually lead him to the cottage he and Paula shared.
Hesitantly, he tries the old key he kept, and finds that it unlocks the door.
Margaret, who had been about to leave for the boat train, makes a casual remark to the current innkeeper about the former owner.
The innkeeper remarks that someone else had just that morning asked about the same woman.
Margaret goes to the cottage and calls "Smithy.
"; he turns, memories flooding back; he cries out "Paula.
" and they embrace.
<EOS>
Mill worker and political activist Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant) is accused of burning down a mill and causing the death of a foreman in the fire.
In the middle of his trial, Dilg escapes from jail and seeks shelter in a house owned by former schoolmate Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur), now a schoolteacher on whom he has had a crush for years.
Shelley has the house rented for the summer to distinguished law professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Colman), who plans to write a book.
Both Lightcap and Dilg arrive within minutes of each other.
When Dilg is spotted by Lightcap, Shelley passes him off as her gardener.
Lightcap and Dilg enjoy having spirited discussions about the law, Lightcap arguing from an academic viewpoint, while Dilg subscribes to a more practical approach.
They become good friends as a result, but meanwhile, they become romantic rivals, as Lightcap also falls in love with Nora.
As a result of prodding by Shelley and Dilg's lawyer, Lightcap becomes suspicious and starts, in spite of his initial reluctance, to investigate the case against Dilg further.
He romances the girlfriend of the supposed murder victim and discovers that the former foreman is still alive and hiding in Boston.
Shelley, Lightcap and Dilg go to Boston and find him, bring him back to Lochester and force him to admit his guilt and that of the mill owner.
While the three argue about whether to call the police, the foreman catches them unawares and escapes.
Dilg is held for trial while the town's anger at him is stoked into a riotous mob.
Lightcap takes a gun from the cottage and seeks out the foreman, hiding in Bush's closet, forcing him to go to the courthouse just as the mob breaks in to lynch Dilg.
Firing the revolver to draw attention, Lightcap announces that the supposedly dead foreman is now present.
He then gives an impassioned speech to the mob about the importance of the law, both in principle and in practice.
In due course, the foreman and owner of the mill are convicted and Dilg is set free.
Soon afterward, Lightcap is appointed to the Supreme Court.
Shelley visits him in his chambers and he tells her that his dream of 20 years has been realized.
With more happiness than a man could want, he says the only thing left is to see his friends likewise happy, and suggests that Shelley should marry Dilg.
While both Dilg and Shelley are attending court at the first seating of Lightcap as an Associate Justice, Dilg interprets an affectionate look shared between Lightcap and Shelley as a sign that she has chosen to marry Lightcap.
Dilg leaves the courtroom abruptly.
When Shelley follows after Dilg, he brushes her off with increasing frustration.
Shelley finally kisses him passionately whereupon, realizing that she has actually chosen him, Dilg takes Shelley by the hand to return to their home town together.
<EOS>
The film's opening credits state that the screenplay was written byR.
Burnett and Frank Butler "From the Records of The United States Marine Corps", and includes many Marine Corps and military advisers.
It also states that "In this picture, the action at Wake Island has been recorded as accurately as possible.
However, the names of the characters are fictional and any similarity to the personal characteristics of the officers and men of the detachment is not intended".
This is likely because the actual events were unfolding during the production of the film, and names were being protected.
The film begins with a bugler playing "Taps" and an overlay of text stating that Americans have been accustomed to military victory, but cites Valley Forge and The Lost Battalion as examples of times where undermanned groups fought to the bitter end for America.
It adds "Such a group was Marine Fighting Squadron 211 of Marine Aircraft Group 21 and the Wake Detachment of the First Defense Battalion, United States Marine Corps, The units which comprised the garrison at Wake Island".
A map is shown with a voiceover giving a brief history of the US military on the island to November 1941.
A new commanding officer has been assigned to Wake Island, Major Geoffrey Caton, USMC.
He is presented a personalized cigarette case with the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor emblem by his daughter, Cynthia, at Pearl Harbor on his departure.
He gives her money so she can have ice cream sodas while he is away.
Another Marine is shown saying goodbye to his wife as he is deployed.
A military contractor, mr McClosky, bids farewell to his Hawaiian hosts as he boards the Pan American Clipper, also bound for Wake Island.
Aboard the plane, the first clash between McClosky and the "brass hat" Major Caton occurs when Caton suggests that McClosky needs a shave.
McClosky tells him that he is a civilian, and does not take orders.
Meanwhile, on the island, two privates, Randall and Doyle, are lounging on the beach with a dog named Skipper, talking about life after the service.
Randall wants to be a hog farmer, (formerly a turkey farmer, but turkeys have too many diseases) and will be discharged in just a few days.
They have a collection of glass floats.
A new float appears, they argue, then fight over it, breaking it in the process.
They begin to fight again, until the chow bell rings.
They drop everything to run to the mess tent.
While in line, they begin to torment a Corporal whose name happens to be Goebbels, but who is unrelated to the notorious Nazi with the same last name.
Randall hears that Caton is on his way to become the new Commanding Officer and says "The honeymoon's over.
From now on you're Marines.
"  The next day, Caton goes on an inspection of the island and identifies Randall and Doyle as troublemakers.
He disciplines them by having them dig a large slit trench by hand.
McClosky has a construction contract for large trenches and living quarters, and is driving his civilian crew to complete the contract on time.
There are numerous conflicts between the military and civilians including practicing for air raids.
A Japanese special envoy arrives on the Clipper on his way to Washington,C.
That evening, a dinner is held, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Japanese Emperor Hirohito are both toasted in hopes of peace.
The next day is December 7th, 1941.
Randall dresses in his civilian gear preparing to board the Clipper to go home, as he is now discharged from service.
He is composing a telegram to his fiancee when the message comes in that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has occurred.
The island goes on alert.
A pilot, Lieutenant Bruce Cameron, talks to a mechanic as he prepares to board his fighter plane.
The mechanic states that his wife was in Warsaw, and he should be glad that he's not married.
Cameron states, "My wife's in Pearl Harbor".
The fighters take off, and civilians are ordered into bomb shelters.
McClosky comes in to complain about the air raid siren interrupting his work, and is informed about the Pearl Harbor attack.
He is given the option to leave the island as soon as the Clipper is cleared to fly.
Randall, still in civilian clothing, is not sure where to go, with the civilians or with the Marines.
He is sent to a bomb shelter with the unarmed civilians as enemy planes approach.
The Americans have only 4 fighters in the air, expecting to hold 8 in reserve, against 24 Japanese bombers.
The Marines fire anti-aircraft from the ground.
Marine flyers shoot down several Japanese planes, but sustain heavy damages on the ground, including several planes on the ground and most of the fuel.
The Pan American Clipper is not damaged and is cleared to fly.
Following the first bombing, Randall is searching for his dog before he will get on the plane, and is delaying takeoff.
He is corralled by several Marines and brought to Major Caton, where he is informed that he is no longer a civilian since hostilities started, and he should "take off the dog catcher suit" and put his uniform back on and get to his unit.
McClosky has also decided to stay and cooperate with the military on the island by digging trenches and other shelters with his heavy equipment.
The Clipper leaves without them.
That night, Cameron, the pilot, is shown forging metal for plane parts as there are no spares.
Caton comes in to tell him that his wife was killed at Pearl Harbor.
Caton says that they are now the same, men who have lost their wives, and wherever bombs have been dropped, there are thousands more like them.
The next day – Enemy ships approach.
The Marines camouflage all equipment in an attempt to trick the Japanese.
Caton orders his men into shelters and to hold their fire while the Japanese bombard the island and close the distance.
Randall also mentions to Doyle that he now wants to raise chickens because hogs stink.
The Japanese signal the Americans asking for their surrender.
Caton does not answer.
He asks Captain Lewis if he knows about Colonel William Prescott.
He then reminds him of the story of The Battle of Bunker Hill and not firing "until you see the whites of their eyes".
Caton waits until enemy ships have closed to 4700 yards before returning fire, and effectively turns back the landing attempt, sinking several ships in the process.
Pilot Lieutenant Cameron, on a reconnaissance flight, spots a Japanese heavy cruiser 15 miles away which can target the island, but is out of range of the island's weapons.
He states he can take out that ship if his fighter is stripped down to the minimum, carries only 15 gallons of fuel, and carries a double load of bombs.
Caton approves the mission.
Cameron is wounded by a Japanese fighter pilot after successfully bombing the ship, and lands the plane safely, but is dead when the plane is stopped.
That night, he is buried, with Caton, then another Marine, reading from the Book of Job.
Japanese planes are shown bombing the island again at 1030 on 12 December 1941, identified as the sixth attack according to a field message being sent.
A fake newspaper headline shows "Wake Marines Repel 8th Attack" with an unseen date.
Another headline reads "Wake Still Holds.
" Dates onscreen show bombing raids on 17 through 21 December 1941.
Caton talks to Captain Lewis and asks him if he would like to hop on a Navy patrol plane that is coming in, since he could give intelligence to the Navy Department in Honolulu.
Lewis initially refuses, but Caton orders him to go and file his official report.
Caton also sends a personal letter for his daughter.
Some time later, reports come in to Caton's command post that the largest caliber ammunition is running out, so he has smaller guns spread around, and repositions his available men.
Some Marines are shown having a meal in the field, including Randall and Doyle, discussing what they would be doing if they were back in civilization.
Randall is called away to see something special, and it's Skipper, the dog he was searching for earlier.
She's had puppies.
There's brief debate since she is the only dog on the island, until they remember a tanker that was there before, evidently with a male dog aboard.
The bugler then sounds general quarters.
Japanese planes approach in large numbers, causing major damage and inflicting numerous casualties.
Only one pilot is left, Captain Patrick, and his plane is damaged while defending the garrison.
He bails out, and is seen parachuting over the beach, but is killed while still in his harness before landing.
Corporal Goebbels goes to Doyle and Randall's position to check on their ammunition supply, and is greeted with a "Heil.
" He then realized who had been tormenting him behind his back.
They immediately make up and continue the fight.
The Japanese again signal for the American surrender.
Caton replies with "Come and get us".
The battle continues, and losses mount.
Civilians are raiding the bar and McClosky clears it, but not before grabbing 2 beers.
Caton sends orders to all posts to act independently, and fire to protect themselves from landing parties.
Communications fail.
Caton orders the last man out of his command post with a written message, as McClosky walks in, asking for a weapon.
Caton hands him a helmet, a "brass hat", and tells him that he will find one for him.
They leave together and make their way to an abandoned machine gun position.
Caton is manning the gun, and McClosky spots a grenade that has been thrown into the foxhole.
He grabs it and throws it back out before is explodes.
In a lull during the fighting, Caton remarks that McClosky has a good throwing arm.
McClosky claims he played football for The University of Notre Dame, Class of 1928.
Caton states that he played for The Virginia Military Institute, Class of 1928.
McClosky pulls the beers from his pockets, and they toast the class of '28.
The Japanese land and begin to overrun the American positions.
The main characters are all killed in action.
The film ends with a voiceover stating that "This is not the end".
<EOS>
The novel graphically describes the brutality of the civil war in Spain during this time.
It is told primarily through the thoughts and experiences of the protagonist, Robert Jordan.
It draws on Hemingway's own experiences in the Spanish Civil War as a reporter for the North American Newspaper Alliance.
Jordan is an American who has lived in Spain during the pre-war period, and fights in the International Brigades for the Republic against Francisco Franco's fascist forces.
An experienced dynamiter, he is ordered by a Soviet general to travel behind enemy lines and destroy a bridge with the aid of a band of local anti-fascist guerrillas, in order to prevent enemy troops from responding to an upcoming offensive.
On his mission, Jordan meets the rebel Anselmo who brings him to the hidden guerrilla camp and initially acts as an intermediary between Jordan and the other guerrilla fighters.
In the camp, Jordan encounters María, a young Spanish woman whose life had been shattered by her parents' execution and her rape at the hands of the Falangists (part of the fascist coalition) at the outbreak of the war.
His strong sense of duty clashes with both the unwillingness of the guerrilla leader Pablo to commit to an operation that would endanger himself and his band, and Jordan's own new-found lust for life which arises from his love for María.
Pablo's wife, Pilar, usurps Pablo's leadership and pledges the allegiance of the guerrillas to Jordan's mission.
However, when another band of anti-fascist guerrillas, led by El Sordo, is surrounded and killed, Pablo steals the dynamite detonators and exploder, hoping to prevent the demolition and thereby avoid fascist reprisals.
Although he disposes of the detonators and exploder by throwing them down a gorge into the river, Pablo regrets abandoning his comrades and returns to assist in the operation.
However, the enemy, apprised of the coming offensive, has prepared to ambush it in force and it seems unlikely that the blown bridge will do much to prevent a rout.
Regardless of this, Jordan understands that he must still demolish the bridge in an attempt to prevent Fascist reinforcements from overwhelming his allies.
Lacking the detonation equipment stolen by Pablo, Jordan and Anselmo coordinate an alternative method to explode the dynamite by using hand grenades with wires attached so that their pins can be pulled from a distance.
This improvised plan is considerably more dangerous because the men must increase their proximity to the explosion.
While Pablo, Pilar, and Maria create a distraction for Jordan and Anselmo, the two men plant and detonate the dynamite, costing Anselmo his life when he is hit by a piece of shrapnel.
While escaping, Jordan is maimed when a tank shoots his horse out from under him.
Knowing he would only slow his comrades down, he bids goodbye to María and ensures that she escapes to safety with the surviving guerrillas.
He refuses an offer from Agustín to shoot him and lies in agony, hoping to kill an enemy officer and delay their pursuit of his comrades before dying.
The narration ends right before Jordan launches his ambush.
<EOS>
An aged Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche) enters the opulent reception area of Hell, to be personally greeted by "His Excellency" (Laird Cregar).
Henry petitions to be admitted (fully aware of the kind of life he had led), but there is some doubt as to his qualifications.
To prove his worthiness (or rather unworthiness), he begins to tell the story of his dissolute life.
Born in Manhattan on October 25, 1872, Henry is the spoiled only child of stuffy, clueless, wealthy parents Randolph (Louis Calhern) and Bertha (Spring Byington).
His paternal grandmother (Clara Blandick in an uncredited role) is also doting and naive, although his down-to-earth grandfather Hugo Van Cleve (Charles Coburn), a self-made millionaire, understands Henry quite well.
Henry grows up an idle young man, with a taste for attractive showgirls.
One day, Henry overhears a beautiful woman lying to her mother on a public telephone.
Intrigued, he follows her into a Brentano's and pretends to be an employee to get to know her better.
Despite learning that she is engaged, he begins making advances, finally confessing he does not work there, whereupon she hastily departs.
Later, obnoxious cousin Albert (Allyn Joslyn) introduces the family to his fiancée, Martha (Gene Tierney), and her feuding parents, the Strables (Eugene Pallette, Marjorie Main).
Henry is shocked to find that his mystery woman and Martha are one and the same.
It turns out that Albert was the first suitor of whom both her parents approved.
Fearful of spending the rest of her life as a spinster in Kansas City, Martha agreed to marry him.
Henry convinces her to elope with him instead.
Though everyone (except Grandpa Van Cleve) is scandalized, eventually they are received back into the family.
Henry and Martha enjoy a happy marriage and become the proud parents of a boy.
On the eve of their tenth anniversary, however, Martha finds out about Henry's continuing dalliances with other women and goes back to her parents.
Henry and Grandpa follow her there.
Sneaking into the Strabel house, Henry begs her forgiveness and talks her into "eloping" a second time, much to Grandpa's delight.
Fifteen years later, Henry meets a chorus girl Peggy Nash (Helene Reynolds) in her dressing room shortly before her performance.
What begins as a courtship is soon revealed as an attempt by Henry to turn her away from his son, who has been dating her.
When Peggy reveals her knowledge of his true identity, Henry buys her off instead for $25,000.
Martha passes away shortly after their twenty-fifth anniversary.
Henry resumes an active social life much to the amusement of his son.
On October 26, 1942, the day after his 70th birthday, Henry dies under the care of a beautiful nurse, having portended her coming in a dream.
After hearing Henry's story, His Excellency denies him entry and suggests he try the "other place", where Martha and his grandfather are waiting for him, hinting that there might be "a small room vacant in the annex".
<EOS>
The film opens with the narration: "This is the story of a ship" and the images of shipbuilding in a British dockyard.
The action then moves forward in time showing the ship, HMS Torrin, engaging German transports in a night-time engagement during the Battle of Crete in 1941.
However, when dawn breaks, the destroyer comes under aerial attack from German bombers.
Eventually the destroyer receives a critical hit following a low-level pass.
The crew abandon ship as it rapidly capsizes.
Some of the officers and ratings manage to find a Carley float as the survivors are intermittently strafed by passing German planes.
From here, the story is told in flashback using the memories of the men on the float.
The first person to reveal his thoughts is Captain Kinross (Coward), who recalls the summer of 1939 when the Royal Naval destroyer HMS Torrin is being rushed into commission as the possibility of war becomes a near certainty.
The ship spends a relatively quiet Christmas in the north of Scotland during the Phoney War.
But by 1940, the Torrin is taking part in a naval battle off the coast of Norway.
During the action, a young terrified sailor (Attenborough) leaves his station while another rating (Mills) returns to work his gun after its crew is knocked unconscious by a torpedo strike.
The damaged Torrin is towed back to port, all the time being harried by dive-bombers.
Safely back in harbour, Captain Kinross tells the assembled ship's company that during the battle nearly all the crew performed as he would expect; however one man didn't.
But he tells everyone present they may be surprised to know that he let him off with a caution as he feels as Captain he failed to make them understand their duty.
Returning to the present, the float survivors watch the capsized Torrin take on water as the badly damaged ship slowly sinks.
The raft is again strafed by German planes.
Some men are killed, and "Shorty" Blake (Mills) is wounded.
This leads to a flashback in which Blake remembers how he met his wife-to-be, Freda, on a train while on leave.
It is also revealed, she is related to the Torrin's affable Chief Petty Officer Hardy (Miles).
When both men return to sea, Freda moves in with CPO Hardy's wife and mother-in-law.
The Torrin participates in the Dunkirk evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force, (portrayed in the film by the 5th Battalion of the Coldstream Guards).
Meanwhile, the nightly Blitz takes its toll on British towns.
Blake soon gets a letter from home to say that Freda has given birth to his son during one raid.
But the letter also says that Hardy's wife and mother-in-law were killed in the same attack.
Stoically he goes to the Petty Officers' Mess to tell Hardy (who is in the process of writing a letter home) the bad news.
The flashback ends as the survivors on the life raft watch the capsized Torrin finally sink.
Captain Kinross leads a final "three cheers" for the Torrin when suddenly another passing German plane rakes the raft with machine gun fire, killing and wounding more men.
A British destroyer soon appears and begins rescuing the men.
On board, Captain Kinross talks to the survivors and collects addresses from the dying.
He tells the young man who once deserted his post that he will write and tell his parents that they can be proud that he did his duty; the critically injured young man smiles and dies peacefully.
Relatives soon receive telegrams informing them about the fate of their loved ones.
Captain Kinross and the 90 surviving members of the crew are taken to Alexandria in Egypt.
Wearing a mixture of odd clothing and standing in a military depot, Captain Kinross tells them that although they lost their ship and many friends, who now "lie together in fifteen-hundred fathoms", he notes that these losses should inspire them to fight even harder in the battles to come.
The ship's company is then told they are to be broken up and sent as replacements to other ships that have lost men.
Captain Kinross then shakes hands with all the ratings as they leave the depot.
When the last man goes, the emotionally tired captain turns to his remaining officers, silently acknowledges them before walking away.
An epilogue then concludes: bigger and stronger ships are being launched to avenge the Torrin; Britain is an island nation with a proud, indefatigable people; Captain Kinross is now in command of a battleship.
Its massive main guns fire against the enemy.
<EOS>
Marie Sklodowska (Greer Garson) is a poor, idealistic student living in Paris and studying at the Sorbonne.
She neglects her health and one day faints during class.
Her tutor, Prof.
Perot (Albert Bassermann) is sympathetic and, finding that she has no friends or family in Paris, invites her to a soirée his wife is throwing for a "few friends" (primarily professors and their wives).
Among the many guests is physicist Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon), an extremely shy and absentminded man completely devoted to his work.
He allows Marie to share his lab and finds that she is a gifted scientist.
Appalled that she plans on returning to Poland to teach after graduation, rather than devoting her life to further study, he takes her to visit his family in their country home.
Marie and Pierre both tend to concentrate on science to the extent that they don't realize until the last minute they have fallen in love.
Even when Pierre asks Marie to be his wife, he does so in terms of reason, logic and chemistry.
Fascinated by a demonstration she saw as an undergraduate, of a pitchblende rock that seems to generate enough energy to take small photographs, Marie decides to make the rock's energy the subject of her doctoral study.
The measurements she takes don't seem to add up, and she decides there must be a third radioactive element in the rock in addition to the two she knows are in there.
In the midst of discussing this, she discloses offhandedly to Pierre's family that she is pregnant.
The physics department at the Sorbonne refuses to fund their research without more proof of the element's existence, but allows them to use a dilapidated old shed across the courtyard from the physics building.
In spite of its disadvantages, they import eight tons of pitchblende ore and cook it down to look for the element they call radium.
In spite of inability to separate out pure radium, they know something is definitely there, as Marie's hands are being burned.
They hit on a tedious method of crystallization to arrive at pure radium.
Now world-famous, they go on vacation to rest after all the press conferences and the Nobel Prize.
They're granted a new laboratory by the university; before its dedication Marie shows off her new dress, inspiring Pierre to go get her a set of earrings to go with it.
Walking home in the rain, he absentmindedly crosses the street in front of a delivery wagon and is run down and killed.
Marie almost loses her mind, but after the concerned Prof.
Perot counsels her, she rallies when she remembers Pierre's words that if one of them is gone, the other must go on working just the same.
Finally, Marie gives a speech at the 25th anniversary celebration of the discovery of radium, expressing her belief that science is the path to a better world.
<EOS>
Retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) arrives in Washington,C.
as an adviser on the housing shortage and finds that his hotel suite will not be available for two days.
He sees an ad for a roommate and talks the reluctant young woman, Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur), into letting him sublet half of her apartment.
Then Dingle runs into Sergeant Joe Carter (Joel McCrea), who has no place to stay while he waits to be shipped overseas.
Dingle generously rents him half of his half.
When Connie finds out about the new arrangement, she orders them both to leave, but she is forced to relent because she has already spent the men's rent.
Joe and Connie are attracted to each other, though she is engaged to bureaucrat Charles Pendergast (Richard Gaines).
Connie's mother married for love, not security, and Connie is determined not to repeat her mistake.
Dingle happens to meet Pendergast at a business luncheon and does not like what he sees.
He decides that Joe would be a better match for his landlady.
One day, Dingle goes too far, reading aloud to Joe from Connie's private diary, including her thoughts about Joe.
When she finds out, she demands they both leave the next day.
Dingle takes full blame for the incident.
Connie allows Joe to remain in the apartment as he has only a few days before being shipped out to Africa.
Joe asks Connie to go out with him.
She is reluctant to do so, but decides to go if Pendergast does not call for her by 8.
At 8, she and Joe are ready to leave, but her noisy teenage neighbor seeks her advice and delays her until Pendergast arrives.
Joe spies on the two of them from the window.
When the neighbor asks what he is doing, Joe flippantly tells him he is a Japanese spy.
Dingle calls Joe to meet him for dinner.
Dingle bumps into the couple and pretends he is meeting Connie for the first time, forcing Joe to do the same.
Dingle engages Pendergast in talk about his work, eventually maneuvering him up to his room so that Connie and Joe can be alone together.
Joe takes Connie home.
The two talk about their romantic pasts and even kiss.
From their separate rooms, Joe confesses that he loves her.
She tells him she feels the same way, but refuses to marry him, as they will soon be forced apart.
Their talk is interrupted by the arrival of the FBI, who have been called to investigate Joe for spying, thanks to the neighbor.
Joe and Connie are taken to headquarters.
They identify Dingle as a fellow occupant who can testify that they are only roommates.
Dingle arrives, bringing Pendergast as a character witness.
It comes out during questioning that Joe and Connie live at the same address.
When they ask mr Dingle to tell Pendergast that their living arrangement is purely innocent, he denies knowing them.
Outside the station, Dingle admits he lied to protect his reputation.
Taking a taxi home, they discuss what to do to avoid a scandal.
Connie grows angry when Pendergast thinks only of himself.
When another passenger in the shared cab turns out to be a reporter, Pendergast runs after him to try to stop him from writing about their situation.
Dingle assures Connie that if she marries Joe, the crisis will be averted, and they can get a quick annulment afterwards.
The couple follow his advice and wed.
Returning home, Connie allows Joe to spend his final night in her apartment.
As Dingle had foreseen, Connie's attraction to Joe overcomes her prudence.
Outside, Dingle puts up a card, showing that the apartment belongs to mr and mrs Sgt.
Carter.
<EOS>
François Soubirous (Roman Bohnen), a former miller now unemployed, is forced to take odd jobs and live at the city jail with his wife (Anne Revere), his two sons, and his two daughters.
One morning he goes to find work, and is told to take contaminated trash from the hospital and dump it in the cave at Massabielle.
At the Catholic school (run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers) that she and her sisters attend, fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous (Jennifer Jones) is shamed in front of the class by Sister Vauzous, the teacher (Gladys Cooper), for not having learned her catechism well.
Her sister Marie (Ermadean Walters) explains that Bernadette was out sick with asthma.
Abbé Dominique Peyramale (Charles Bickford) enters and awards the students holy cards, but is told by Sister Vauzous that Bernadette does not deserve one, because she has not studied, and that it would not be fair to the other students.
Peyramale encourages Bernadette to study harder.
Later that afternoon, on an errand with her sister Marie and school friend Jeanne (Mary Anderson) to collect firewood outside the town of Lourdes, Bernadette is left behind when her companions warn her not to wade through the cold river by the Massabielle caves for fear of taking ill.
About to cross anyway, Bernadette is distracted by a strange breeze and a change in the light.
Investigating the cave, she finds a beautiful lady (Linda Darnell) standing in brilliant light, holding a pearl rosary.
She tells her sister and friend, who promise not to tell anyone else.
They do tell, however, and the story soon spreads all over town.
Many, including Bernadette's Aunt Bernarde (Blanche Yurka), are convinced of her sincerity and stand up for her against her disbelieving parents, but Bernadette faces civil and church authorities alone.
Repeatedly questioned, she stands solidly behind her seemingly unbelievable story and continues to return to the cave as the lady has asked.
She faces ridicule as the lady tells her to drink and wash at a spring that doesn't exist, but digs a hole in the ground and uses the wet sand and mud.
The water begins to flow later and exhibits miraculous healing properties.
The lady finally identifies herself as "the Immaculate Conception".
Civil authorities try to have Bernadette declared insane, while Abbé Peyramale, the fatherly cleric who once doubted her and now becomes her staunchest ally, asks for a formal investigation to find out if Bernadette is a fraud, insane, or genuine.
The grotto is closed and the Bishop of Tarbes (Charles Waldron) declares that unless the Emperor (Jerome Cowan) orders the grotto to be opened, there will be no investigation by the church.
He says this will be a test for Bernadette's "lady".
Shortly thereafter, the Emperor's infant son falls ill and, under instructions from the Empress (Patricia Morison), the child's nanny obtains a bottle of the water.
Arrested for violating the closure order, she appears in court, identifies herself as the Empress' employee, and pays the fines of the other persons who attempted to enter the grotto, so that they will not have to serve time in jail.
The magistrate permits her to go and to take the bottle of water with her.
The Emperor's son drinks the water and recovers.
The Empress believes that his recovery is miraculous, but the Emperor is not sure.
The Empress upbraids him for doubting God, and at her insistence, the Emperor gives the order to reopen the grotto.
The Bishop of Tarbes then directs the commission to convene.
The investigation takes many years, and Bernadette is questioned again and again, but the commission eventually determines that Bernadette experienced visions and was visited by the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.
Bernadette prefers to go on with an ordinary life, work, and possible marriage, but Peyramale does not think it is appropriate to turn Bernadette loose in the world, and persuades her to become a nun at the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers, the Saint Gildard Convent.
She is subjected to normal although rigorous spiritual training and hard work, but also emotional abuse from a cold and sinister Sister Vauzous, her former teacher at school, who is now mistress of novices at the convent.
Sister Vauzous is skeptically jealous of all the attention Bernadette has been receiving as a result of the visions.
She reveals this to Bernadette, saying she is angry that God would choose Bernadette instead of her when she has spent her life in suffering in service of God.
She says Bernadette has not suffered enough and wants a "sign" proving Bernadette really was chosen by Heaven.
Bernadette is diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone, which causes intense pain, yet she has never complained or so much as mentioned it.
The jealous Sister Vauzous, realizing her error and Bernadette's saintliness, begs for forgiveness in the chapel, and vows to serve Bernadette for the rest of her life.
Knowing she is dying, Bernadette sends for Abbé Peyramale (who in reality died a few years before Bernadette) and tells him of her feelings of unworthiness and her concern that she will never see the lady again.
But the lady appears in the room, smiling and holding out her arms.
Only Bernadette can see her, however, and with a cry of "I love you.
I love you.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me", she reaches out to the apparition, and falls back dead.
Peyramale utters the final words of the film, "You are now in Heaven and on earth.
Your life begins, O Bernadette".
<EOS>
In 1940, German-born engineer Kurt Muller (Paul Lukas), his American wife Sara (Bette Davis), and their children Joshua (Donald Buka), Babette (Janis Wilson), and Bodo (Eric Roberts) cross the Mexican border into the United States to visit Sara's brother David Farrelly (Donald Woods) and their mother Fanny (Lucile Watson) in Washington,C.
For the past seventeen years, the Muller family has lived in Europe, where Kurt responded to the rise of Nazism by engaging in anti-Fascist activities.
Sara tells her family they are seeking peaceful sanctuary on American soil; but their quest is threatened by the presence of houseguest Teck de Brancovis (George Coulouris), an opportunistic Romanian Count who has been conspiring with the Germans in the nation's capital.
Teck searches the Mullers' room and discovers a gun and money intended to finance underground operations in Germany.
Shortly after, the Mullers learn resistance worker Max Freidank has been arrested; and, because he once rescued Kurt from the Gestapo, Kurt plans to return to Germany to assist Max and those arrested with him.
Aware Kurt will be in great danger if the Nazis discover he is returning to Germany, Teck demands $10,000 to keep silent; Kurt kills him.
Realizing the dangers Kurt faces, Fanny and David agree to help him escape.
Time passes, and when the Mullers fail to hear from Kurt, Joshua announces he plans to search for his father as soon as he turns eighteen.
Although distraught by the possibility of losing her son as well as her husband, Sara resolves to be brave when the time comes for Joshua to leave.
<EOS>
Anne Hilton (Claudette Colbert) is an upper-middle-class housewife living in a Midwestern town near a military base with her two teenage daughters, Jane (Jennifer Jones) and Bridget "Brig" (Shirley Temple).
Anne's beloved husband Tim Hilton - seen only in photographs - is the father of Jane and Brig, and has volunteered forS.
Army service in World War II.
As the film begins in January 1943, Anne has just returned from seeing her husband off to Camp Claiborne, and she and her daughters must adjust to Tim's absence and make other sacrifices for the war effort, including food rationing; planting a victory garden; giving up the services of their loyal maid Fidelia (Hattie McDaniel) who nevertheless offers to continue working part-time for the Hiltons while foregoing wages; and taking in a boarder, the curmudgeonly retired Colonel Smollett (Monty Woolley).
When the Hiltons travel by train in a failed attempt to see Tim one last time before he ships out, they encounter or travel with many other people whose lives have been affected by the war, and they end up not getting to see Tim because their train is delayed to allow a defense supply train to go through first.
In contrast, the Hiltons' socialite neighbor Emily Hawkins (Agnes Moorehead) complains about the inconveniences caused by the war and engages in unsupportive behaviors such as hoarding food and criticizing the Hiltons' efforts.
The Colonel has a strained relationship with his young grandson, Bill Smollett (Robert Walker), because Bill failed out of West Point and is now serving in theS.
Army as a mere corporal rather than an officer.
An old friend of Anne and Tim's,S.
Navy Lieutenant Tony Willett (Joseph Cotten), also visits the Hiltons while awaiting his orders.
Bill quickly falls for Jane, who has a crush on Tony, who in turn has long been attracted to Anne.
However, after Tony leaves, Bill and Jane's relationship slowly develops and they fall in love.
They become engaged, but Bill convinces Jane to wait until after the war to get married.
Bill finally is sent overseas and Jane tearfully runs after his departing train to tell him goodbye.
The Colonel, who under his gruff exterior really does care about his grandson, conveys his good wishes to Bill via Anne, but arrives too late to say goodbye in person.
Jane is determined to do more for the war effort and begins volunteering as a nurse's aide at the nearby military hospital, where returning veterans with physical and mental injuries are sent to recover.
Shortly after Bill's departure, the Hiltons receive word that he was killed in action at Salerno.
The Hiltons and the Colonel grieve together for Bill.
The family also learns that Tim Hilton is missing in action.
Jane and Anne finally tell off Emily Hawkins after Emily suggests that it is unseemly for Jane to volunteer at the hospital, and Anne decides she herself must do more to help and trains as a welder for defense work at the shipyard.
Tony returns on leave and talks to Anne about his feelings for her, but she believes that he only keeps her as a romantic ideal because she is married to his friend Tim and therefore unattainable.
Anne and Tony decide to leave things as they are and remain friends.
On Christmas Eve, Fidelia places gifts under the tree that Tim had given her months earlier to leave for his family, and Anne is moved to tears.
Anne then gets a cablegram by telephone informing her that Tim is safe and is coming home, and she and her daughters joyfully embrace.
<EOS>
In Aurora, Illinois, rock and roll fans Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar host a public-access television show, Wayne's World, from Wayne's parents' basement.
Learning that the show is popular in the Aurora area, television producer Benjamin Oliver offers to buy the rights for $10,000.
Garth has doubts about the deal, but is too shy to say anything to Wayne; the pair therefore accept the offer.
Wayne and Garth attend a local night club, where they avoid Wayne's troubled ex-girlfriend Stacy.
Wayne falls for Cassandra Wong, vocalist and bassist of the band Crucial Taunt, who are playing on stage.
He impresses her with his Cantonese and purchases an expensive guitar he has long yearned for.
Benjamin attempts to steal Cassandra from Wayne using his wealth and good looks.
He distracts Wayne and Garth with tickets to an Alice Cooper concert and offers Cassandra a role in a music video.
At the concert, Wayne and Garth make the acquaintance of the bodyguard of Frankie Sharpe, producer of Sharpe Records.
During the filming of Wayne's World, Wayne and Garth find it difficult to adjust to the professional studio environment.
Their contract obliges them to give a promotional interview to their sponsor Noah Vanderhoff, who owns a franchise of amusement arcades.
After Wayne ridicules Vanderhoff with insulting notes written on the back of his question cards, he is fired from the show, causing a rift in his friendship with Garth.
Jealous of Benjamin, Wayne attempts to prevent Cassandra from participating in the music video shoot; furious at his lack of trust, Cassandra breaks up with him.
Wayne makes up with Garth and forms a plan to win Cassandra back by having Sharpe hear Crucial Taunt play.
While Garth and their friends infiltrate a satellite station with the aid of Benjamin's assistant Russell, Wayne goes to Cassandra's video shoot, where he embarrasses himself by failing to uncover Benjamin's ulterior motives.
As he leaves, Cassandra changes her mind about Benjamin, Wayne apologizes to her, and they return to Aurora.
They delay Benjamin's pursuit by having Garth's police officer friend perform a rectal search on him.
Broadcasting from Wayne's basement, Wayne's World successfully hacks into Sharpe's satellite television.
As her performance ends, Sharpe and Benjamin converge on Wayne's basement.
Sharpe decides not to offer Crucial Taunt a record contract, Cassandra breaks up with Wayne and departs with Benjamin for a tropical resort, Stacy confesses that she is carrying Wayne's child, and a fire burns down Wayne's house.
Unsatisfied with this ending, Wayne and Garth reenact the scene, unmasking Benjamin as "Old Man Withers" in a "Scooby-Doo ending".
They reenact it again in a "mega happy ending" in which Cassandra signs a record contract and reunites with Wayne, Russell learns that "platonic love can exist between two grown men", Garth begins a relationship with a waitress at the local diner, and Benjamin learns that money and looks do not bring happiness.
<EOS>
Douglas Quail, a simple and ordinary clerk, wishes to visit Mars.
Unable to afford it, he visits a company, REKAL (pronounced "recall") Incorporated, which promises to implant an "extra-factual memory" of a trip to Mars as a secret agent.
The procedure involves administration of narkidrine, a sedative and truth drug, which causes Quail to remember and reveal that he went to Mars as a secret government agent.
His conscious memories of the trip have been erased, but his initial desire to sign up for the trip cannot be removed.
The REKAL staff quickly get Quail out of their office without implanting anything, but his real memories slowly return.
At home, he finds physical evidence to support his trip but also remembers that he attended REKAL.
This conflict causes him to angrily return for a refund, which he is given.
When two police officers show up to kill him, Quail discovers that his former handlers have been reading his thoughts by means of an implanted device that was used to communicate with him during his mission on Mars.
As more memories return, he realizes that he was an assassin for the government, but also remembers how to disarm the cops and escape.
Since he can be tracked by the device, this cannot last for long.
He thus makes a deal for the memory of his Mars mission to be replaced by a false memory of his deepest fantasy as analyzed by psychiatrists, in order to prevent any further desires to visit REKAL.
He is sent back to REKAL for the procedure, but under the narkidrine, he reveals that the memories they are about to implant are realthat aliens visited him when he was nine and were so touched by his kindness and compassion that they decided to postpone their invasion until his death.
By simply remaining alive, he is the most important person on Earth, and the government is now unable to kill him.
<EOS>
This gothic story deals with two aging sisters, Jane and Blanche Hudson, who are living alone together in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Jane, a former child star of early Vaudeville known as "Baby Jane," was spoiled, pampered and doted upon by her father due to her success on the stage; her ignored older sister, Blanche, lived in Jane's shadow.
However, their roles were reversed after the death of their parents due to influenza, when both children moved to Los Angeles to live with an aunt.
Blanche was favored for her brown hair and regal beauty, and was even encouraged to pursue a film career.
Blanche became a star while Jane, whose films were failures, languished in her shadow.
Blanche had a clause in her contract stipulating that Jane have a role in every film in which Blanche appeared.
Years later, Jane, a slatternly alcoholic who still dresses as if she were 10 years old, and Blanche, disabled after a mysterious car accident involving Jane, continue to live together in the same mansion in a declining neighborhood.
Jane resents having to live in the shadow of her sister (who became more famous than she ever was, and who is now being remembered because of a revival of her films on television), and hates having to cook, clean and care for Blanche.
Although stuck upstairs in her bedroom, Blanche has nevertheless managed to keep her good looks, while Jane's appearance is ravaged by alcoholism and neglect.
Blanche, whose only other contact with the outside world is cleaning woman Elvira Stitt and her telephone conversations with her doctor and attorney, realizes that Jane is becoming increasingly unstable.
She calls her lawyer and tells him she is planning to sell.
She hears the extension downstairs click.
Jane, who eavesdrops on her sister's calls, believes that Blanche wants to sell the house and have her committed to a mental hospital.
When Blanche sees Jane's sinister mood swings beginning, she tries to talk to her sister about her decision.
Jane does not listen, however.
Jane begins to get even crazier, taking Blanche's phone and making her afraid to eat by serving, first, her dead pet bird on a salad and, later, a large rat from the cellar.
In a drunken daze, Jane decides to revive her childhood singing and dancing act of Baby Jane, reasoning that Fanny Brice had success with Baby Snooks.
She then hires a musical accompanist, Edwin Flagg, through a want ad.
As reality topples crazily into eerie fantasy, Jane abuses her sister with monstrous cruelty while embezzling her money to buy liquor and revive her childhood act as "Baby Jane Hudson".
Elvira comes to find out why Blanche can't be reached on the phone and why Jane won't let her go upstairs to Blanche's room.
Opening the door and finding Blanche tied to the bed with her mouth taped shut, she tries to help, but Jane sneaks up and kills Elvira with a hammer.
That night, Jane dumps the body.
A day or two later police officers come questioning Jane about Elvira's disappearance.
Jane panics, grabs her barely conscious sister, and heads for the location of some of her happiest childhood memories, the beach.
It was there some fifty years before that crowds used to gather around and watch Baby Jane practice her songs and dances while Daddy played the banjo.
Jane plays in the sand while Blanche lies weak and on the verge of death from her ordeal.
Realizing that she may be dying, Blanche reveals to Jane that it was actually she, not Jane, who had driven the car on the fateful night.
Jane had spent the evening humiliating Blanche at a party.
As Jane unlocked the gates, Blanche tried to run her down with the car, but Jane moved out of the way.
The car then slammed into the metal gate, snapping Blanche's spine.
She managed to crawl out of the car to the gates while Jane, frightened, hid inside the house, where she passed out.
When the police arrived, they assumed Jane had been driving.
Jane had been too drunk to know what had happened and could not refute the accusations.
Blanche later realized that the event had driven her sister insane, but refused to allow her to seek psychiatric help for fear that Jane might recover enough to remember what really happened.
Blanche accepts responsibility for Jane's psychosis and blames herself for Edna's death.
Realizing that all the years of hatred, guilt, and resentment between the sisters could have been avoided, Jane forgives Blanche.
The revelation causes Jane to somewhat return to reality and see that Blanche is dying.
At once she rushes to phone for help, only to be stopped by a police officer questioning her about her car.
She tries to lead the officer back to her sister, but is paralyzed with terror when a crowd of curious onlookers surrounds her.
Disoriented by the attention and the cruel remarks about her haggard appearance, Jane retreats back into her fog of delusion.
Believing that she is a child again and that the strangers are her admirers, she begins to perform one of her childhood dances for the crowd.
It is not revealed if Blanche gets help in time to save her life.
<EOS>
In the 1830s, in the small Danish town of Odense, cobbler Hans Christian Andersen spends his day spinning fairy tales for the village children, teaching them lessons about pride, humility, love and growing up through his fanciful characters.
One day, the stern schoolmaster, who believes Hans is wasting his pupils' precious time, implores the Burgomaster and councilmen to curtail the cobbler's habit of distracting the students with his storytelling, but even the adult citizens easily become a rapt audience for Hans' fables.
Hans finally agrees to stop distracting the children and returns to his shop, where his teenage assistant, the orphan Peter, begs him to stop causing trouble.
However, later that day Hans is drawn back to the schoolhouse to see the children.
As he hears the schoolchildren drone mathematical phrases, he compares an inchworm's myopic measuring of beautiful blossoms to the schoolmaster's blindness to beauty and creativity.
On yet another day, when the children do not arrive at the sound of the school bell, the schoolmaster deduces that Hans is again distracting his pupils.
When the schoolmaster then demands that the Burgomaster and the councilmen choose between him and the cobbler, they decide that Hans must leave Odense.
Peter, who has witnessed the verdict, returns to the shop and secretly tries to save his friend from the shame of being exiled by eagerly suggesting Hans travel to Copenhagen.
After much prodding, Peter succeeds in convincing Hans to leave that afternoon by reminding him that he will be the envy of the town for having been the first to visit the famous city.
Soon after Hans begins his journey, Peter joins him on the trail, bringing all the shop's tools to start their business anew.
After a sea voyage, the pair arrive at the city's harbor and find their way to the Great Square of Copenhagen, which is filled with vendors selling flowers, pots and pans and fresh foods.
When Hans sets up shop and introduces himself to the crowd while standing on a statue of the king, police arrest him for defaming the image of their leader.
Peter, who has sought refuge from the police by hiding near the back entrance of the Royal Theatre, overhears choreographer Niels demand that a company producer send for a cobbler and asks them to free his friend, a cobbler, from jail.
Meanwhile, Hans sees a lonely young girl outside his jail cell window and offers to introduce her to his companion.
By drawing on his thumb, Hans creates a puppet he calls "Thumbelina" and brings a smile to the girl's face.
Soon after, Hans is bailed out of jail by the theater company and taken to the theater where he becomes entranced by the beauty and talent of a Royal Danish Ballet dress rehearsal.
When Niels ridicules lead ballerina Doro's performance, she in turn complains that her shoes need adjusting.
Doro gives the slippers to Hans, who is immediately smitten with the ballerina.
After Hans leaves, Peter learns that Niels and Doro are a happily married couple, despite their theatrical quarrels.
When Hans returns, Niels is equating his wife's performance with an "elephant in the snow drift," prompting Doro to break into tears.
After learning that the couple is married, Hans fantasizes that he can save Doro from her horrible fate with "the cruel" Niels.
Later, when Peter explains that the couple is actually in love, Hans resists the idea and writes a love letter to Doro in the form of a fable called "The Little Mermaid," in which he tells her that she has chosen the wrong man.
That night while Peter surreptitiously reads the letter, a gust of wind whisks it from his hands and carries it into the theater through an open window, where a stage doorman finds it and delivers it to Doro.
The next morning, Peter tells Hans that Doro has the letter, but Hans is unconcerned, believing that Doro's possession of the letter is a good omen.
The next day, the entire ballet company sets off on their annual tour, leaving Hans bereft, but he soon finds comfort entertaining a new group of children with his stories.
One day, Lars, a sad boy with a shaved head, remains behind after the other children tease him.
Hans tells him the story of an ugly duckling who is ostracized by his peers until the ice melts at winter's end, and he sees his reflection in the lake and finds he has become a handsome swan.
When not with the children, Hans counts the days by making pair after pair of brightly colored satin slippers for his absent ballerina and dreaming of her love.
One day, Hans receives an invitation from the Gazette newspaper office, where Lars's father, the publisher, thanks Hans for helping his son overcome his difficulties and offers to publish "The Ugly Duckling" in the newspaper.
Overjoyed by the news, Hans asks that his credit be changed from "Hans, the cobbler" to "Hans Christian Andersen" and runs down the street singing his full name with pride.
That evening, when the ballet company returns, Doro tells Hans that they have created a ballet based on his story "The Little Mermaid," which Hans believes is a sign of her love for him.
The next evening, Peter tells Hans about the councilmen's verdict and warns Hans that Doro will humiliate him as well.
Disappointed by his friend's attitude, Hans suggests that they part ways and leaves for the opening of the new ballet.
When Hans tries to deliver Doro's slippers backstage, Niels locks the insistent writer in a closet to prevent him from disrupting the performers.
While Hans listens to the music and dreams of his story, the performance opens on stage.
In the ballet, mermaids float in the ocean, while a ship carrying a handsome prince sinks to the mermaids' garden at the bottom of the sea.
The littlest mermaid helps the unconscious man to the surface, saving his life.
Having fallen in love with the prince, she seeks the help of the sea witches, who transform the mermaid into a woman, so she might find the prince on land.
She arrives at the palace during a masquerade ball and dances with the prince, but his attentions are for another.
Heartbroken, the mermaid returns to the sea.
The morning after the ballet, Doro sends for Hans and discovers that he is in love with her and has misunderstood her relationship with Niels.
Niels inadvertently interrupts their conversation and insults Hans by offering to pay him for "The Little Mermaid".
To save face, Hans refuses Niels's offer and claims that his writing was a fluke.
Doro knowingly accepts the slippers Hans made for her and graciously allows him to leave.
On the road to Odense, Hans meets Peter and renews their friendship.
Upon reaching town, Hans is greeted as a celebrity and regales the citizens, including the schoolmaster, with his now famous moral tales.
<EOS>
In Edwardian London, 1910, Bert entertains a crowd when he senses a change in the wind.
Afterwards, he directly addresses the audience and gives them a tour of Cherry Tree Lane, stopping outside the home of the Banks family.
George Banks returns home from his job at the bank to learn from his wife Winifred that Katie Nanna, the children's nanny, has left their service after Jane and Michael ran away "again".
They are returned shortly after by the local constable, who reveals the children were chasing a lost kite.
The children ask their father to help build a better kite, but he dismisses them.
Taking it upon himself to hire a nanny, George advertises for a stern, no-nonsense nanny.
Instead, Jane and Michael present their own advertisement for a kinder, sweeter nanny, but when George rips up the letter and throws the scraps in the fireplace, the remains of the advertisement magically float up and out into the air.
The next day, a queue of elderly, sour-faced nannies appear outside.
However, a strong gust of wind blows the nannies away, and Jane and Michael witness a young nanny descend from the sky using her umbrella.
Presenting herself to George, Mary Poppins calmly produces the children’s now restored advertisement and agrees with its requests, but promises the astonished banker she will be firm with his children.
As George puzzles over the return of the advertisement, Mary is forced to hire herself and meets the children, then helps the children to tidy their nursery through song, before heading out for a walk in the park.
Outside, they meet Bert who now works as a screever; Mary uses her magic to transport the group into one of the drawings.
While the children ride on a nearby carousel, Mary Poppins and Bert go on a leisurely stroll and are served tea by a quartet of penguin waiters.
Mary enchants the carousel horses and participates in a horse race which she wins.
While being asked to describe her victory, Mary announces the nonsense word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious".
However, the outing is ruined when a thunderstorm demolishes Bert's drawings, returning the group back to London.
On another outing, the four meet Uncle Albert who has floated up in the air due to his uncontrollable laughter; they join him for a tea party on the ceiling, telling jokes.
George becomes increasingly annoyed by the cheery atmosphere of his family and threatens to fire Mary.
Instead, Mary inverts his attempt by convincing him to take the children to the bank for a day.
George takes Jane and Michael to the bank, where they meet mr Dawes Sr.
and his son.
Dawes aggressively attempts to have Michael invest his tuppence in the bank, snatching the money from him.
Michael demands it back, causing other customers to misinterpret and all demand their money back, causing a bank run.
Jane and Michael flee the bank, getting lost in the East End until they run into Bert, who is now a chimney sweep, then escorts them home.
The three and Mary venture onto the rooftops where they have a song-and-dance number with other chimney sweeps until George returns home, where he receives a phone call from his employers.
George speaks with Bert who tells him he should spend more time with his children before they grow up.
Jane and Michael give Michael’s tuppence in the hope to make amends.
George walks through London to the bank, where he is given a humiliating cashiering and is dismissed.
Looking to the tuppence for words, he raucously blurts out, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
", tells one of Uncle Albert's jokes the children originally told him, and happily heads home.
Dawes mulls over the joke, but finally "gets" it, and floats up into the air, laughing.
The next day, the wind changes, which means Mary must leave.
A happier George is found at home, having fixed his children’s kite, and takes the family out to fly it.
In the park, the Banks meet mr Dawes Jr, who reveals his father died happily laughing from the joke and re-employs George as a junior partner.
With her work done, Mary flies away with Bert bidding her farewell, telling her not to stay away too long.
<EOS>
The film is set in June 1905; the protagonists of the film are the members of the crew of the Potemkin, a battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet.
Eisenstein divided the plot into five acts, each with its own title: The scene begins with two sailors, Matyushenko and Vakulinchuk, discussing the need for the crew of the Potemkin to support the revolution taking place within Russia.
While the Potemkin is anchored off the island of Tendra, off-duty sailors are sleeping in their bunks.
As an officer inspects the quarters, he stumbles and takes out his aggression on a sleeping sailor.
The ruckus causes Vakulinchuk to awake, and he gives a speech to the men as they come to.
Vakulinchuk says, "Comrades.
The time has come when we too must speak out.
Why wait.
All of Russia has risen.
Are we to be the last.
" The scene cuts to morning above deck, where sailors are remarking on the poor quality of the meat for the crew.
The meat appears to be rotten and covered in worms, and the sailors say that "even a dog wouldn't eat this.
" The ship's doctor, Smirnov, is called over to inspect the meat by the captain.
Rather than worms, the doctor says that the insects are maggots, and they can be washed off prior to cooking.
The sailors further complain about the poor quality of the rations, but the doctor declares the meat edible and ends the discussion.
Senior officer Giliarovsky forces the sailors still looking over the rotten meat to leave the area, and the cook begins to prepare borscht although he too questions the quality of the meat.
The crew refuses to eat the borscht, instead choosing bread and water, and canned goods.
While cleaning dishes, one of the sailors sees an inscription on a plate, which reads "give us this day our daily bread".
After considering the meaning of this phrase, the sailor smashes the plate and the scene ends.
All those who refuse the meat are judged guilty of insubordination and are brought to the fore-deck where they receive religious last rites.
The sailors are obliged to kneel and a canvas cover is thrown over them as a firing squad marches onto the deck.
The First Officer gives the order to fire, but in response to Vakulinchuk's pleas the sailors in the firing squad lower their rifles and the uprising begins.
The sailors overwhelm the outnumbered officers and take control of the ship.
The officers are thrown overboard, the ship's priest is dragged out of hiding, and finally the doctor is thrown into the ocean as 'food for the fish'.
The mutiny is successful but Vakulinchuk, the charismatic leader of the rebels, is killed.
The Potemkin arrives at the port of Odessa.
Vakulinchuk's body is taken ashore and displayed publicly by his companions in a tent with a sign on his chest that says "For a spoonful of soup" (Изъ-за ложки борща).
The sailors gather to make a final farewell and praise Vakulinchuk as a hero.
The people of Odessa welcome the sailors, but they attract the police.
The best-known sequence of the film is set on the Odessa steps, connecting the waterfront with the central city.
A detachment of dismounted Cossacks forms a line at the top of the steps and march towards a crowd of unarmed civilians including women and children.
The soldiers halt to fire a volley into the crowd and then continue their impersonal, machine-like advance.
Brief sequences show individuals amongst the people fleeing or falling, a baby's pram rolling down the steps, a woman shot in the face, broken spectacles and the high boots of the soldiers moving in unison.
In retaliation, the sailors of the Potemkin decide to fire on a military headquarters with the guns of the battleship.
Meanwhile, there is news that a squadron of loyal warships is coming to quell the revolt of Potemkin.
The sailors of the Potemkin decide to go all the way and lead the battleship from the port of Odessa to face the fleet of the Tsar.
Just when the battle seems inevitable, the sailors of the formerly loyal ships incredibly refuse to open fire on their comrades, externalizing with songs and shouts of joy their solidarity with the mutineers and allowing them to pass unmolested through the fleet, waving the red flag.
<EOS>
SMERSH, the Soviet counterintelligence agency, plans to commit a grand act of terrorism in the intelligence field.
For this, it targets the British secret service agent James Bond.
Due in part to his role in the defeat of the SMERSH agents Le Chiffre, Mr Big and Hugo Drax, Bond has been listed as an enemy of the Soviet state and a "death warrant" has been issued for him.
His death is planned to precipitate a major sex scandal, which will run in the world press for months and leave his and his service's reputations in tatters.
Bond's killer is to be the SMERSH executioner Red Grant, a psychopath whose homicidal urges coincide with the full moon.
Kronsteen, SMERSH's chess-playing master planner, and Colonel Rosa Klebb, the head of Operations and Executions, devise the operation.
They instruct an attractive young cipher clerk, Corporal Tatiana Romanova, to falsely defect from her post in Istanbul having, she would claim, fallen in love with Bond after seeing a photograph on his file.
As an added lure for Bond, Romanova will provide the British with a Spektor, a Russian decoding device much coveted by MI6.
She is not told the details of the plan.
The offer of defection is received by MI6 in London, ostensibly from Romanova, but is conditional that Bond collects her and the Spektor from Istanbul.
MI6 is unsure of Romanova's motive, but the prize of the Spektor is too tempting to ignore; Bond's superior, M, orders him to go to Turkey.
Once there, Bond forms a comradeship with Darko Kerim, head of the British service's station in Turkey.
Bond meets Romanova and they plan their route out of Turkey with the Spektor.
He and Kerim believe her story and the three board the Orient Express.
Bond and Kerim quickly discover three Russian MGB agents on board, travelling incognito.
Kerim uses bribes and trickery to have two of them taken off the train, but he is later found dead in his compartment with the body of the third agent, both—unbeknown to Bond—having been killed by Grant.
At Trieste a fellow MI6 agent, "Captain Nash", introduces himself and Bond presumes he has been sent by M as added protection for the rest of the trip.
Romanova is suspicious of Nash, but Bond reassures her that the man is from his own service.
After dinner, at which Nash has drugged Romanova, they rest; Bond wakes up to find a gun pointing at him and Nash reveals himself to be the killer Grant.
Instead of killing Bond immediately, Grant reveals SMERSH's plan, including the detail that he is to shoot Bond through the heart and that the Spektor is booby-trapped to explode when examined.
As Grant talks, Bond places his metal cigarette case between the pages of a magazine he holds in front of him, positioning it in front of his heart to stop the bullet.
After Grant fires, Bond pretends to be wounded; when Grant steps over him, Bond attacks and Grant is killed.
Bond and Romanova escape.
Later, in Paris, after successfully delivering Romanova and the booby-trapped Spektor to his superiors, Bond meets Rosa Klebb.
She is captured but manages to kick Bond with a poisoned blade concealed in her shoe; the story ends with Bond fighting for breath and falling to the floor.
<EOS>
The story centers on a Kargish child, taken from her family and dedicated as the high priestess in the service of the "Nameless Ones" on the island of Atuan.
Her name is Tenar, but she is renamed Arha, "the eaten one", when formally consecrated to the gods' service at age six, as all the high priestesses are considered reincarnations of the first.
Arha's youth is a contrast between childish escapades and dark rituals.
Her only friends are the eunuch Manan and Penthe, a young priestess her own age.
Gradually she comes to accept her lonely role, and to feel at home in the unlit underground labyrinth, the eponymous Tombs, where the malevolent, powerful Nameless Ones dwell and where prisoners are sent to be executed.
As Arch-Priestess, Arha is made complicit in the evil system and orders prisoners who are sent by the God-Emperor to be killed slowly by starvation – a cruel act which is to haunt her in later life.
As she becomes aware of the political conflicts between the older priestesses Thar and Kossil, the Tombs become a refuge to her, as she is the only one permitted to move freely through the labyrinth beneath them.
After Thar dies, Arha becomes increasingly isolated: although stern, Thar had been fair to her.
Now only Arha and Kossil remain; Kossil despises Arha and the Nameless Ones' cult as threats to her power.
The numbing routine of Arha's world is disrupted by the arrival of Ged (the protagonist of A Wizard of Earthsea).
He has come to the Tombs looking for the long-lost half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, a magical talisman, broken centuries before, necessary for peace in Earthsea.
(The other half had come into his possession by chance, and a dragon had informed him of its true nature).
Arha finds him in the labyrinth, and traps him underground to punish what she sees as sacrilege.
She goes back and forth in her mind as to whether she should kill him.
Yet in her loneliness, she is drawn to him and listens as he tells her of the outside world.
Arha spares Ged's life and keeps him prisoner in the tombs, bringing him food and water.
However, the priestess Kossil learns of Ged's existence.
Arha promises that Ged will be sacrificed to the Nameless Ones, but realizes that she cannot go through with it.
She instructs Manan to dig a false grave underground, while she herself takes Ged to hide in the treasury of the Tombs, where only she is permitted to go.
By now Arha's relations with Kossil have deteriorated irrevocably, to the point of a public falling out in front of the subordinate priestesses.
Kossil tells her openly to her face that nobody believes in the Nameless Ones anymore, and that Arha is only a powerless figurehead.
The real power lies with her, Kossil, as priestess of the Godking.
In response Arha curses her in the name of the Nameless Ones.
After her anger has cooled, Arha realizes that Kossil will now be determined to kill her, and that nobody can stop her.
She heads underground to the labyrinth, and is horrified to find Kossil uncovering the false grave, and using a light to desecrate the tombs.
She heads for the treasury where Ged is kept prisoner, confesses everything to him.
In the meantime, Ged has discovered what he came to find – the other half of Erreth-Akbe's ring.
He asks Arha to abandon her role as priestess and escape with him from the tombs.
Arha is eventually won over by Ged's kindness, realizing that the Nameless Ones demand her service but give nothing and create nothing in return.
Ged must continually expend his strength hiding himself from the Nameless Ones, as they would kill him if they detected his presence.
Realizing that she has no future in the Tombs, Arha renounces her role as priestess and reverts to calling herself by her original name, Tenar.
She helps Ged escape from the Tombs and they fall in upon themselves as Tenar and Ged leave.
At the last moment, before leaving the island on Ged's boat, the Nameless Ones for a moment reassert their control over Tenar and she contemplates killing Ged, but by speaking calmly and unfearingly he breaks the last of the evil influence.
Ged brings her with him back to Havnor where they are received in triumph, and the reunited ring of Erreth-akbe ushers in a new era of peace to Earthsea.
<EOS>
The film is set in 1920s China during the Warlord Era, years before the Chinese Civil War.
Nineteen-year-old Songlian (Sònglián, played by Gong Li), an educated woman whose father has recently died and left the family bankrupt, is forced by her mother to marry into the wealthy Chen family, becoming the fourth wife or rather the third concubine or, as she is referred to, the Fourth Mistress (Sì Tàitai) of the household.
Arriving at the palatial abode, she is at first treated like royalty, receiving sensuous foot massages and brightly lit red lanterns, as well as a visit from her husband, Master Chen (Ma Jingwu), the master of the house, whose face is never clearly shown.
Songlian soon discovers, however, that not all the concubines in the household receive the same luxurious treatment.
In fact, the master decides on a daily basis the concubine with whom he will spend the night; whomever he chooses gets her lanterns lit, receives the foot massage, gets her choice of menu items at mealtime, and gets the most attention and respect from the servants.
Pitted in constant competition against each other, the three concubines are continually vying for their husband's attention and affections.
The First Mistress, Yuru (Jin Shuyuan), appears to be nearly as old as the master himself.
Having borne a son decades earlier, she seems resigned to live out her life as forgotten, always passed over in favor of the younger concubines.
The Second Mistress, Zhuoyun (Zhuóyún, Cao Cuifen), befriends Songlian, complimenting her youth and beauty, and giving her expensive silk as a gift; she also warns her about the Third Mistress, Meishan (Méishan, He Caifei), a former opera singer who is spoiled and who becomes unable to cope with no longer being the youngest and most favored of the master's playthings.
As time passes, though, Songlian learns that it is really Zhuoyun, the Second Mistress, who is not to be trusted; she is subsequently described as having the face of the Buddha, yet possessing the heart of a scorpion.
Songlian feigns pregnancy, attempting to garner the majority of the master's time and, at the same time, attempting to become actually pregnant.
Zhuoyun, however, is in league with Songlian's personal maid, Yan'er (Yàn'ér, played by Kong Lin) who finds and reveals a pair of bloodied undergarments, suggesting that Songlian had recently had her period, and discovers the pregnancy is a fraud.
Zhuoyun summons the family physician, feigning concern for Songlian's "pregnancy".
Doctor Gao (Gao-yisheng, Cui Zhigang), who is secretly having an illicit affair with Third Mistress Meishan, examines Songlian and determines the pregnancy to be a sham.
Infuriated, the master orders Songlian's lanterns covered with thick black canvas bags indefinitely.
Blaming the sequence of events on Yan'er, Songlian reveals to the house that Yan'er's room is filled with lit red lanterns, showing that Yan'er dreams of becoming a Mistress instead of a lowly servant; it is suggested earlier that Yan'er is in love with the Master and has even slept with him in the Fourth Mistress' bed.
Yan'er is punished by having the lanterns burned while she kneels in the snow, watching as they smolder.
In an act of defiance, Yan'er refuses to humble herself or apologize, and thus remains kneeling in the snow throughout the night until she collapses.
Yan'er falls sick and ultimately dies after being taken to the hospital.
One of the servants tells Songlian that her former maid died with her mistress's name on her lips.
Songlian, who had briefly attended university before the passing of her father and being forced into marriage, comes to the conclusion that she is happier in solitude; she eventually sees the competition between the concubines as a useless endeavor, as each woman is merely a "robe" that the master may wear and discard at his discretion.
As Songlian retreats further into her solitude, she begins speaking of suicide; she reasons that dying is a better fate than being a concubine in the Chen household.
On her twentieth birthday, severely intoxicated and despondent over her bitter fate, Songlian inadvertently blurts out the details of the love affair between Meishan and Doctor Gao to Zhuoyun, who later catches the adulterous couple together.
Following the old customs and traditions, Meishan is dragged to a lone room on the roof of the estate and hanged to death by the master's servants.
Songlian, already in agony due to the fruitlessness of her life, witnesses the entire episode and is emotionally traumatized.
The following summer, after the Master's marriage to yet another concubine, Songlian is shown wandering the compound in her old schoolgirl clothes, having gone completely insane.
<EOS>
It is the coming of the End Times: the Apocalypse is near, and Final Judgement will soon descend upon the human species.
This comes as a bit of bad news to the angel Aziraphale (who was the guardian of the Eastern Gate of Eden) and the demon Crowley (who, when he was originally named Crawly, was the serpent who tempted Eve to eat the apple), respectively the representatives of Heaven and Hell on Earth, as they have become used to living their cozy, comfortable lives and have, in a perverse way, taken a liking to humanity.
As such, since they are good friends (despite ostensibly representing the polar opposites of Good and Evil), they decide to work together and keep an eye on the Antichrist, destined to be the son of a prominent American diplomat stationed in Britain, and thus ensure he grows up in a way that means he can never decide between Good and Evil, thereby postponing the end of the world.
Unfortunately, Warlock, the child everyone thinks is the Anti-Christ is, in fact, a perfectly normal eleven-year-old boy.
Due to the mishandling of several infants in the hospital, the real Anti-Christ is Adam Young, a charismatic and slightly otherworldly eleven-year-old living in Lower Tadfield, Oxfordshire, an idyllic town in Britain.
Despite being the harbinger of the Apocalypse, he has lived a perfectly normal life as the son of typical English parents, and as a result has no idea of his true powers.
He has three close friends, Pepper, Wensleydale and Brian, who collectively forms a gang that is called "Them" by the adults.
As the end of the world nears, Adam blissfully and naively uses his powers, changing the world to fit things he reads in a conspiracy theory magazine, such as raising the lost continent of Atlantis and causing Little Green Men to land on earth and deliver a message of goodwill and peace.
In the meantime, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse assemble: War (a female war correspondent) Death (who resembles his Discworld counterpart), Famine (a dietician and fast food tycoon), and Pollution (Pestilence having retired after the discovery of penicillin).
The incredibly accurate (yet so highly specific as to be useless) prophecies of Agnes Nutter, 17th-century prophetess, are rapidly coming to pass.
Agnes Nutter was a witch in the 17th century and the only truly accurate prophet to have ever lived.
She wrote a book called The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, a collection of prophecies that did not sell very well because they were unspectacular, cryptic and, ironically enough, all true.
She, in fact, decided to publish it only so she could receive a free author's copy.
This copy is passed down to her descendants, and is currently owned by her multi-great granddaughter Anathema Device.
Agnes was burned at the stake by a mob; however, because she had foreseen her fiery end and had packed 80 pounds of gunpowder and 40 pounds of roofing nails into her petticoats, everyone who participated in the burning was killed instantly.
As the world descends into chaos, Adam attempts to split up the world between his gang.
After realizing that by embracing absolute power, he will not be able to continue to grow up as a child in Lower Tadfield, Adam decides to stop the apocalypse.
Anathema, Newton Pulsifer (the last member of the Witchfinder Army), Adam and his gang, Aziraphale and Crowley gather at a military base near Lower Tadfield to stop the Horsemen causing a nuclear war and ending the world.
Adam's friends capture War, Pollution, and Famine.
Just as Adam's father, the devil, seems to come and force the end of the world, Adam twists everything so his human father shows up instead, and everything is restored.
<EOS>
In 1916, the magician Roderick Burgess attempts to attain immortality by capturing the embodiment of Death.
Mistakenly, he binds Death's brother Dream instead.
Fearing retribution, Burgess keeps Dream imprisoned.
In 1988, after Burgess has died and his son Alex has been charged with watching Dream, Dream is able to escape.
Dream punishes Alex by cursing him to experience an unending series of nightmares.
Dream (also known as Morpheus) is weakened after his captivity, and attempts to return to his realm.
He is found by Gregory, a gargoyle belonging to Cain and Abel.
Once they have nursed Dream back to health, Dream returns to his home and is shocked to see it has fallen into ruin.
Lucien, the librarian, fills Dream in on the goings-on since his incarceration.
Dream begins a quest to recover his totems of power (a pouch of sand, a helm, and a ruby), which were dispersed following his capture.
After retrieving the pouch from a former girlfriend of exorcist John Constantine, Dream travels to hell seeking his helm.
While in Hell he stumbles upon his lover Nada (who knows Morpheus as "Lord Kai'ckul"), but states he has not forgiven her and shall not free her.
He is guided by the demon Etrigan to Lucifer.
Dream explains one of the demons in Hell has his Helm, and it is returned to him following a battle of wits which Dream wins.
Lucifer is angered by this though and swears vengeance on Dream.
The ruby is in the possession of John Dee,ka.
Doctor Destiny, who was committed to Arkham Asylum by the Justice League of America.
Dee escapes before going to a diner, where he distorts reality for those inside, using them as toys until they all ultimately murder each other or commit suicide.
Dream arrives and attempts to take the ruby, only to be overpowered by Dee.
Thinking it will kill Dream, Dee shatters the ruby, inadvertently returning its power to Dream.
Considering Dee at least partially responsible for his victory, Dream shows mercy and returns Dee to Arkham.
Reflecting on his recent incarceration, Dream is visited by his sister Death.
She talks Dream out of his brief depression and persuades him to explore the world and see what he missed during his seven decades in prison.
<EOS>
The play has four main characters: Rat, Badger, Mole, and Toad.
Toad's caravan and car adventures are included, as well as his imprisonment, escape, and subsequent fight with the weasels and stoats to regain his home with the help of his friends.
Although not a musical, the play contains six songs, with music written by Harold Fraser-Simson.
<EOS>
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses/walls, forbidden by their parents to be wed, because of their parents' rivalry.
Through a crack in one of the walls, they whisper their love for each other.
They arrange to meet near Ninus' tomb under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other.
Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a mouth bloody from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her veil.
When Pyramus arrives he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's veil, assuming that a wild beast has killed her.
Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword in proper Babylonian fashion, and in turn splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves.
Pyramus' blood stains the white mulberry fruits, turning them dark.
Thisbe returns, eager to tell Pyramus what had happened to her, but she finds Pyramus' dead body under the shade of the mulberry tree.
Thisbe, after a brief period of mourning, stabs herself with the same sword.
In the end, the gods listen to Thisbe's lament, and forever change the colour of the mulberry fruits into the stained colour to honour the forbidden love.
<EOS>
As part of a manhood ritual, an old man in the desert tells a younger man an ancient story, detailing the tragic love between Dream and Queen Nada.
Fearing the consequences of loving an immortal, Nada spurns Dream.
In anger, Dream sends Nada to Hell, where she remains to the present day.
Meanwhile, Dream's androgynous sibling Desire calls upon their twin, Despair, to inform her there is a new dream vortex.
The two of them allude to a scheme against Dream.
Dream reviews a census of his realm, and discovers four of his creations are missing.
On Earth, Rose Walker and her mother Miranda meet Unity Kinkaid, a victim of the sleeping sickness that occurred while Dream was imprisoned.
While Miranda stays in England with Unity, Rose goes in search of her younger brother, Jed.
As she tries to track his whereabouts, Rose takes residence in a boarding house full of peculiar characters, including Chantal and Zelda, who always wear bridal garb and own a collection of stuffed spiders; Ken and Barbie, an extremely yuppie-ish couple; the eccentric Gilbert, a self-described "amateur knight errant"; and the landlord Hal, who performs at nightclubs in drag.
At night, Rose dreams of her brother, whose new caretakers keep him locked in their basement while they enjoy the monetary benefits they receive for caring for him.
Meanwhile, Brute and Glob, two creatures created by Dream, have taken residence in Jed's mind.
Jed is freed when Dream collects Brute and Glob, but is himself captured by the Corinthian, an escaped nightmare.
Dream speaks with Hob Gadling, whom Dream granted immortality in 1389.
The two share a drink in the same tavern every hundred years.
In search of Jed, Rose and Gilbert stop at a hotel, where the Corinthian is attending a convention of serial killers.
Gilbert recognizes the Corinthian, and tells Rose that if she is in danger she should call upon Dream, under his by-name of "Morpheus".
When one of the serial killers attacks her, Rose summons him; whereupon Dream destroys the Corinthian and punishes the convention by revealing the pettiness of their crimes.
Gilbert finds Jed and has him sent to a hospital; while Dream informs Rose she is a 'dream vortex', capable of uniting the imaginations of everyone she meets, and the world will be destroyed if he does not kill her.
Gilbert, now identified as the fourth missing creation, offers his life in Rose's place; but is refused.
Before Dream can kill Rose, Unity assumes the vortex in her stead, and seems to naturally die in the waking world, thus destroying the vortex; whereupon Dream frees Rose, who re-unites thereafter with Jed and Miranda.
After months of thought, Dream confronts Desire, who admits to impregnating Unity in the hope that Dream would kill Rose, and thus occasion his own destruction.
Dream then warns Desire against plotting thus, and departs.
<EOS>
This collection begins with an Endless family meeting, wherein Desire taunts Morpheus about his intolerant treatment of a former lover, the African queen 'Nada' ("Nada" is "Nothing" in Spanish), whose story formed the prologue to the second collection, , and Death angers him further by agreeing with Desire, whereupon Morpheus visits Hell to retrieve Nada.
As he arrives, Lucifer expels all the demons and damned souls from Hell, abdicates as its ruler, and gives Morpheus the key to Hell's gates (this episode sets up the basis for the spin-off comic series Lucifer written by Mike Carey).
Word of Lucifer's abdication spreads to other immortals, who visit the Dreaming to bargain for it: Odin wishes to control Hell to avoid Ragnarök and travels to the Dreaming with Loki and Thor; Anubis, Bast, and Bes offer information in exchange for the key to Hell; Susano-o-no-Mikoto, requests to add Hell to a new underworld controlled by his family; and Azazel arrives with Choronzon and Merkin, and demands the key in exchange for Nada and Choronzon.
Order is personified as an empty cardboard box carried by a Djinn-like being, while Chaos appears as a small girl in clown makeup; whereof Order offers to trade the dreams of the newly dead, while Chaos simply threatens Morpheus and gives him a toy balloon.
The faerie Cluracan and his sister Nuala appeal to Morpheus to give control of Hell to no one, and Cluracan offers his sister in exchange.
Duma and Remiel are set to observe the negotiations (Susano-o-no-Mikoto, Duma, and Remiel later become important characters in the spin-off series Lucifer).
After private negotiations with single divinities that represent each group of gods, Dream gives Duma and Remiel the key; then Dream fights with Azazel, enters inside him and frees Nada, while trapping Azazel in Dream's realm.
Later, Dream apologizes to Nada for what he has done to her, and she is reincarnated as a newborn human child, with permission to enter the Dreaming at will.
Between these deliberations is the story "In Which the Dead Return; and Charles Rowland Concludes His Education", from issue #25, which takes place at a traditional English boarding-school (and borrows elements from the boarding-school story genre) and is used to illustrate the consequences of Hell's closure.
Although the two main characters in this tale, the ghosts of two school boys, never appear again in the Sandman series, they later appear as "The Dead Boy Detectives" in Gaiman's Vertigo cross-over story The Children's Crusade, and in a mini-series of the same name by Jill Thompson.
The collection presents two simultaneous endings: Dream discovers Loki absconding from his punishment, but decides not to reveal it, and also proposes the latter a negotiation to set him free (this has its sequel in the last collection of Sandman).
Meanwhile, Lucifer, without his wings, sits on an Australian beach, and grudgingly admires a sunset.
In the epilogue, Duma and Remiel have become the new rulers of Hell, and initiate a new regimen of punishment meant to "redeem" the condemned (much to the latter's dismay).
<EOS>
A vampire named Louis tells his 200-year-long life story to a reporter referred to simply as "the boy" (the character's name is revealed to be Daniel Molloy in The Queen of the Damned).
In 1791, Louis is a young indigo plantation owner living south of New Orleans.
Distraught by the death of his pious brother, he seeks death in any way possible.
Louis is approached by a vampire named Lestat de Lioncourt, who desires Louis' company.
Lestat turns Louis into a vampire and the two become immortal companions.
Lestat spends time feeding off the local plantation slaves while Louis, who finds it morally repugnant to murder humans to survive, feeds from animals.
Louis and Lestat are forced to leave when Louis' slaves begin to fear the monsters with which they live and instigate an uprising.
Louis sets his own plantation aflame; he and Lestat exterminate the plantation slaves to keep word from spreading about vampires living in Louisiana.
Gradually, Louis bends under Lestat's influence and begins feeding from humans.
He slowly comes to terms with his vampire nature, but also becomes increasingly repulsed by what he perceives as Lestat's total lack of compassion for the humans he preys upon.
Escaping to New Orleans, Louis feeds off a plague-ridden, 5-year old girl, whom he finds next to the corpse of her mother.
Louis begins to think of leaving Lestat and going his own way.
Fearing this, Lestat then turns the girl into a vampire "daughter" for them, to give Louis a reason to stay.
She is then given the name Claudia.
Louis is initially horrified that Lestat has turned a child into a vampire, but soon begins to care for Claudia.
Claudia takes to killing easily, but she begins to realize over time she can never grow up; her mind matures into that of an intelligent, assertive woman, but her body remains that of a young girl.
Claudia blames Lestat for her condition and, after 60 years of living with him, she hatches a plot to kill Lestat by poisoning him and cutting his throat.
Claudia and Louis then dump his body into a nearby swamp.
As Louis and Claudia prepare to flee to Europe, Lestat appears, having recovered from Claudia's attack, and attacks them in turn.
Louis sets fire to their home and barely escapes with Claudia, leaving a furious Lestat to be consumed by the flames.
Arriving in Europe, Louis and Claudia seek out more of their kind.
They travel throughout eastern Europe first and do indeed encounter vampires, but these vampires appear to be nothing more than mindless animated corpses.
It is only when they reach Paris that they encounter vampires like themselves – specifically, the 400-year-old vampire Armand and his coven at the Théâtre des Vampires.
Inhabiting an ancient theater, Armand and his vampire coven disguise themselves as humans and feed on live, terrified humans in mock-plays before a live human audience (who think the killings are merely a very realistic performance).
Claudia is repulsed by these vampires and what she considers to be their cheap theatrics, but Louis and Armand are drawn to each other.
Convinced that Louis will leave her for Armand, Claudia convinces Louis to turn a Parisian doll maker, Madeleine, into a vampire to serve as a replacement companion.
Louis, Madeleine and Claudia live together for a brief time, but all three are abducted one night by the Theatre vampires.
Lestat has arrived, having survived the fire in New Orleans.
His accusations against Louis and Claudia result in Louis being locked in a coffin to starve, while Claudia and Madeleine are locked in an open courtyard.
Armand arrives and releases Louis from the coffin, but Madeleine and Claudia are burned to death by the rising sun.
A devastated Louis finds the ashen remains of Claudia and Madeleine.
He returns to the Theatre late the following night, burning it to the ground and killing all the vampires inside, leaving with Armand.
Together, the two travel across Europe for several years, but Louis never fully recovers from Claudia's death, and the emotional connection between himself and Armand quickly dissolves.
Tired of the Old World, Louis returns to New Orleans in the early 20th century.
Living as a loner, he feeds off any humans who cross his path, but lives in the shadows, never creating another companion for himself.
Telling the boy of one last encounter with Lestat in New Orleans in the 1920s, Louis ends his tale; after 200 years, he is weary of immortality and of all the pain and suffering to which he has had to bear witness.
The boy, however, seeing only the great powers granted to a vampire, begs to be made into a vampire himself.
Angry that his interviewer learned nothing from his story, Louis refuses, attacking the boy and vanishing without a trace.
The boy then leaves to track down Lestat in the hopes that he can give him immortality.
<EOS>
Seven Against Thebes features little action; instead, the bulk of the play consists of rich dialogues between the citizens of Thebes and their king Eteocles regarding the threat of the hostile army before their gates.
Dialogues show aspects of Eteocles' character.
There is also a lengthy description of each of the seven captains that lead the Argive army against the seven gates of the city of Thebes as well as the devices on their respective shields.
Eteocles, in turn, announces which Theban commanders he will send against each Argive attacker.
Finally, the commander of the troops before the seventh gate is revealed to be Polynices, the brother of the king.
Then Eteocles remembers and refers to the curse of their father Oedipus.
Eteocles resolves to meet and fight his brother in person before the seventh gate and exits.
Following a choral ode, a messenger enters, announcing that the attackers have been repelled but that Eteocles and Polynices have killed each other in battle.
Their bodies are brought on stage, and the chorus mourns them.
Due to the popularity of Sophocles' play Antigone, the ending of Seven against Thebes was rewritten about fifty years after Aeschylus' death.
While Aeschylus wrote his play to end with somber mourning for the dead brothers, it now contains an ending that serves as a lead-in of sorts to Sophocles' play: a messenger appears, announcing a prohibition against burying Polynices; his sister Antigone, however, announces her intention to defy this edict.
The seven attackers and defenders in the play are:.
<EOS>
The central character of A Game of You is Barbie, introduced as a resident of the house where Rose Walker stayed during the events of , wherein Barbie dreamt a vivid dream of herself as a princess of a fantasy realm.
As A Game of You opens, Barbie who no longer dreams, but lives in an apartment block with her best friend Wanda, a pre-operative transgender woman; the lesbian couple Hazel and Foxglove; the witch Thessaly; and a quiet man named George.
Martin Tenbones, a character of Barbie's dreams in , enters into the waking world to give her the Porpentine, a quartz amulet, but is slain by the police.
Using the Porpentine, Barbie returns to her fantasy realm, known simply as the Land, where she is required to oppose the mysterious villain called the 'Cuckoo'.
Upon return to the Land she is greeted by Wilkinson the shrew, Prinado the monkey, and Luz the dodo—her allies in the quest.
In New York, George, recruited by the Cuckoo, releases a flock of birds to give nightmares to the other apartment residents.
Immune to this, Thessaly kills George, and uses George's remains to divine the threat of the Cuckoo.
Thessaly then summons the moon, which offers advice; on which Thessaly, Hazel, and Foxglove travel to the Land to assist Barbie, leaving Wanda with the unconscious Barbie and George's still-animated head.
Barbie has multiple adventures, which involve pursuit, loss of friends, and betrayal, and discovers that the Cuckoo resembles herself as a child, while the Land is identified as part of The Dreaming.
The Cuckoo describes Barbie as "the perfect place to develop" and describes herself as "unable to fly", but intends to escape from the Land so that she can fly through the worlds and lay her own eggs in more young girls' minds.
She therefore causes Barbie to break the Porpentine on a monolith called the Hierogram, which summons Morpheus and dissolves the Land.
Morpheus absorbs its inhabitants and assures the Land's original owner, a woman named Alianora, that the Land has been home to many minds since her own time.
Thessaly urges him to kill the Cuckoo, but Morpheus suggests that some action of Barbie's prevented the Cuckoo from leaving the Land, in connection to the events of The Doll's House.
Dream then grants Barbie a single boon, for which she asks that she and her friends be returned to New York "safe and sound".
The Cuckoo escapes into another reality, and Barbie and her friends learn that a storm (), resulting from Thessaly's spell, has killed Wanda.
At the funeral, Barbie finds Wanda buried under the name and likeness of her former self, Alvin Mann; and when alone, alters the name upon the tombstone.
She then dreams of Wanda, with a perfect female body, and Death, who both wave her goodbye.
<EOS>
In November 1941, nine months after a German invasion led to the British surrender, Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer, of the London's Metropolitan Police - CID (Criminal Investigation Department) at Scotland Yard (Homicide Detective), is called in to investigate a murder of a well-dressed man in a flat in Shepherd Market.
Although the body has two gunshot wounds, Archer is puzzled by its condition, in particular by what appears to be sunburn on the arm.
To his surprise, the case draws the attention of the highest levels of the German authorities, as an SS Standartenführer, Oskar Huth, arrives to supervise the investigation.
Archer soon finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between Huth and Gruppenführer Fritz Kellerman, Archer's boss and the head of police forces in Great Britain, while also becoming embroiled in the British Resistance movement and attempts to bring America into the war.
<EOS>
Joe Brady and Clarence Doolittle are Navy sailors who have a four-day leave in Hollywood.
Joe has his heart set on spending time with his girl, the unseen Lola.
Clarence, the shy choir boy turned sailor, asks Joe to teach him how to get girls.
Donald, a little boy who wants to join the navy, is found wandering around the boulevard by a cop, who takes him to the police station.
Clarence and Joe end up being picked up by the cops to help convince Donald to go home.
After the two sailors wait at home and entertain Donald, Donald's Aunt Susie arrives.
Clarence is smitten with her from the beginning.
Susan goes on to tell them that she has been trying to find work in music, and longs to perform with José Iturbi.
Trying to make Susan impressed with Clarence, Joe tells her that Clarence is a personal friend of Iturbi, and that he has arranged an audition for Susan with him.
That night, they go out to a cafe, where Clarence meets a girl from Brooklyn, and they hit it off.
The next day, Joe visits Donald's school, and tells the kids the story of how he got his medal, and how he brought happiness to a lonesome king (played by Jerry Mouse from Tom and Jerry, with Tom briefly appearing as a servant), and joy to the forest animals of the kingdom.
Meanwhile, Clarence has been trying to get into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios to find Iturbi with no luck.
After many failed attempts to find Iturbi, all hope is lost for Joe and Clarence, who want to come clean with Susan and tell her there was no audition.
On Clarence and Joe's last day of leave, Susan runs into Iturbi at a café, who has no idea of the audition.
Susan begins to call Joe, whom by now she has fallen in love with, to yell at him.
Iturbi stops her and agrees to get her a screen test, which turns out to be very successful.
The movie ends as Iturbi conducts the choir in singing "Anchors Aweigh", and Joe, Susan, Clarence and the girl from Brooklyn kiss.
<EOS>
The unconventional Father Charles "Chuck" O'Malley (Bing Crosby) is assigned to st Mary's parish, which includes a run-down inner-city school building on the verge of being condemned.
O'Malley is to recommend whether or not the school should be closed and the children sent to another school with modern facilities; but the sisters feel that God will provide for them.
They put their hopes in Horace Bogardus (Henry Travers), a businessman who has built a modern building next door to the school which they hope he will donate to them.
Father O'Malley and the dedicated but stubborn Sister Superior, Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman), both wish to save the school, but their different views and methods often lead to disagreements.
One disagreement involves a student (Richard Tyler) who is being bullied by another.
A more serious one regards the promotion of an eighth-grade student, Patsy (Joan Carroll), whom the parish has taken in while her mother (Martha Sleeper) attempts to get back on her feet.
At one point, Sister Benedict contracts tuberculosis, and the physician recommends to Father O'Malley that she be transferred to a dry climate with non-parochial duties, but without telling her the reason.
She assumes the transfer is because of her disagreements with O'Malley, and struggles to understand the reasons for the path set out for her.
Right before Sister Benedict departs, Father O'Malley reveals the true reason for her temporary transfer.
<EOS>
Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers) is a salesgirl at the department store John Merlin and Son in New York City.
Hired as temporary help for the Christmas season, she receives her dismissal notice as the season comes to a close.
During her lunch break, she sees a stranger leaving a baby on the steps of an orphanage.
Fearing the baby will roll down the steps, Polly picks it up.
An attendant opens the door and mistakenly believes that Polly is the baby's mother.
David Merlin (David Niven), the playboy son of the store's ownerB.
Merlin (Charles Coburn), is sympathetic to the "unwed mother" and arranges for her to get her job back.
mrs Weiss (Ferike Boros), Polly's landlady, offers to take care of the boy when Polly is at work.
Unable to convince anyone that she is not the mother, and threatened by David with loss of her job if she doesn't assume that role, Polly gives up and starts raising the child.
David's involvement with Polly gradually turns into love, but he keeps the relationship a secret from his father, fearing his reaction.
When he finds that New Year's Eve has arrived and he has no date, David turns to Polly.
He orders clothes to be sent from the store and takes her to a party.
Although David is falling for Polly, he does not relish the idea of a "ready-made family".
WhenB.
learns about the child, he assumes that David is the father.
His suspicions are reinforced when, in a bit of bad timing, Polly and David each produce a different man whom they claim is the father.
To his son's surprise,B.
is delighted (he had been impatiently waiting for David to settle down and provide him with a grandson).
In the end, David decides that he is in love with Polly and baby John.
He tells his father that he is the father of the child and plans to marry Polly, all the while believing Polly is the child's mother.
<EOS>
As an ambulance arrives for the body of Mary Lisbon, a group of anonymous neighborhood boys recall the events leading up to her death.
The Lisbons are a Catholic family living in the suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan during the 1970s.
The father, Ronald, is a math teacher at the local high school.
The mother is a homemaker.
The family has five daughters: 13-year-old Cecilia, 14-year-old Lux, 15-year-old Bonnie, 16-year-old Mary, and 17-year-old Therese.
Without warning, Cecilia attempts suicide by slitting her wrists in the bathtub.
She is found in time and survives.
A few weeks later, their parents allow the girls to throw a chaperoned party at their house in hopes of cheering Cecilia up.
However, Cecilia excuses herself from the party, goes upstairs, and jumps out of her bedroom window.
She is impaled on the fence post below, and she dies almost immediately.
The Lisbon parents begin to watch their four remaining daughters more closely, which isolates the family from their community.
Cecilia's death also heightens the air of mystery about the Lisbon sisters to the neighborhood boys, who long for more insight into the girls' lives.
When school begins in the fall, Lux begins a secret romance with local heartthrob Trip Fontaine.
Trip negotiates with the overprotective mr and mrs Lisbon to take Lux to a homecoming dance, on the condition that he finds dates for the other three sisters.
After winning homecoming king and queen, Trip persuades Lux to ditch the group to have sex on the school's football field.
Afterwards, Trip abandons Lux, she falls asleep and misses her curfew.
In response, mrs Lisbon withdraws the girls from school and keeps them home.
mr Lisbon also takes a leave of absence from his teaching job, so that the family can be together all the time.
Through the winter, Lux is seen having sex on the roof of the Lisbon residence with unknown men at night.
The community watches as the Lisbons' lives deteriorate, but no one intervenes.
After months of confinement, the sisters reach out to the boys across the street by using light signals and sending anonymous notes.
The boys decide to call the Lisbon girls and communicate by playing records over the telephone for the girls to share and express their feelings.
Finally, the girls send a message to the boys to come over at midnight, leading the boys to believe they will help the girls escape.
They meet Lux, who is alone.
She invites them inside and tells them to wait for her sisters while she goes to start the car.
As the boys wait, they explore the house.
In the basement they discover Bonnie hanging from a rope tied to the ceiling rafters.
Horrified, the boys flee.
In the morning, the authorities come for the dead bodies, as the girls had apparently made a suicide pact: Bonnie hanged herself, Therese overdosed on sleeping pills, and Lux died of carbon monoxide poisoning after sealing herself in the garage with the car running.
Mary attempted suicide by putting her head in the gas oven, but failed.
She lives for another month, before she ends her life by taking an overdose of sleeping pills.
The adults in the community go on as if nothing happened.
Local newspaper writer Linda Perl notes that the suicides come exactly one year after Cecilia's first attempt and describes the girls as tragic creatures so cut off from life, that death wasn't much of a change.
After the funerals, mr and mrs Lisbon leave the suburb never to return.
The Lisbon house is sold to a young couple from the Boston area.
All the furniture and personal belongings of the Lisbons are thrown out or sold in a garage sale.
The narrators scavenge through the trash to collect mementos.
Later, as middle-aged men with families, they lament the suicides as selfish acts from which they have not been able to emotionally recover.
The novel closes with the men confessing that they had loved the girls, but that they will never know the motives behind the suicides.
<EOS>
Told in first person narrative by Al Manheim, drama critic of The New York Record, this is the tale of Sammy Glick, a young uneducated boy who rises from copyboy to the top of the screenwriting profession in 1930s Hollywood by backstabbing others.
Manheim recalls how he first met the 16-year-old Sammy Glick when Sammy was working as a copyboy at Manheim's newspaper.
Both awed and disturbed by Sammy's aggressive personality, Manheim becomes Sammy's primary observer, mentor and, as Sammy asserts numerous times, best friend.
Tasked with taking Manheim's column down to the printing room, one day Glick rewrites Manheim's column, impressing the managing editor and gaining a column of his own.
Later he steals a piece by an aspiring young writer, Julian Blumberg, sending it under his own name to the famous Hollywood talent agent Myron Selznick.
Glick sells the piece, "Girl Steals Boy", for $10,000 and leaves the paper to go to work in Hollywood, leaving behind his girlfriend, Rosalie Goldbaum.
When the film of Girl Steals Boy opens, Sammy is credited for "original screenplay" and Blumberg is not acknowledged.
Glick rises to the top in Hollywood over the succeeding years, paying Blumberg a small salary under the table to be his ghost writer.
He even manages to have "his" stageplay, Live Wire, performed at the Hollywood Playhouse.
Although the script is actually a case of plagiarism, The Front Page in flimsy disguise, no one except Manheim seems to notice.
Sammy's bluffing also includes talking about books he has never read.
Manheim, whose ambitions are much more modest, is both fascinated and disgusted by the figure of Sammy Glick, and Manheim carefully chronicles his rise.
In Hollywood, Manheim is disheartened to learn that Catherine "Kit" Sargent, a novelist and screenwriter he greatly admires, has fallen for Sammy's charms.
Although Manheim is quite open about his feelings for Kit, she makes it clear she prefers Sammy, especially in bed.
When she met Sammy, she told Manheim, she had "this crazy desire to know what it felt like to have all that driving ambition and frenzy and violence inside me".
Manheim also describes the Hollywood system in detail, as a money machine oppressive to talented writers.
The bosses prefer to have carte blanche when dealing with their writers, ranging from having them work on a week-to-week basis to giving them a seven-year contract.
In the film industry, Manheim remarks at one point in the novel, it is the rule rather than the exception that "convictions are for sale," with people double-crossing each other whenever the slightest chance presents itself to them.
Hollywood, he notices, regularly and efficiently turns out three products: moving pictures, ambition, and fear.
Manheim becomes an eyewitness to the birth of what was to become the Writers Guild, an organization created to protect the interests of the screenwriters.
After one of the studio's periodic reshufflings, Manheim finds himself out of work and goes back to New York.
There, still preoccupied with Sammy Glick's rise to stardom, he investigates Sammy's past.
He comes to understand, at least to some degree, "the machinery that turns out Sammy Glicks" and "the anarchy of the poor".
Manheim realizes that Sammy grew up in the "dog-eat-dog world" of New York's Lower East Side (Rivington Street), much like the more sophisticated dog-eat-dog world of Hollywood.
The one connection between Sammy's childhood days and his present position seems to be Sheik, someone who went to school with Sammy and regularly beat him up.
Now Sheik is working as Glick's personal servant (or quasi-slave)—possibly some kind of belated act of revenge on Sammy's part, or the "victim's triumph".
When Manheim returns to Hollywood he becomes one of Glick's writers.
There he realizes that there is also a small minority of honorable men working in pictures, especially producer Sidney Fineman, Glick's boss.
Manheim teams up with Kit Sargent to write several films for Glick, who has successfully switched to production and moved into a gigantic manor in Beverly Hills.
Fineman's position becomes compromised by a string of flops, and Manheim attempts to convince Harrington, a Wall Street banker representing the film company's financiers, that Fineman is still the right man for the job.
This is the moment when Glick sees his chance to get rid of Fineman altogether and take his place.
At a reception, Glick meets Laurette, Harrington's daughter; he immediately and genuinely falls in love with this "golden girl," discarding his girlfriend.
He feels that he is about to kill two birds with one stone by uniting his personal ambition and his love life.
Fineman, only 56, dies soon after losing his job to Sammy—of a broken heart, it is rumoured.
Sammy's wedding is described by Manheim as "a marriage-to-end-all-marriages" staged in the beautiful setting of Sammy's estate.
Manheim and Kit Sargent, who have finally decided to get married, slip away early to be by themselves.
Sammy discovers Laurette making love in the guest room to Carter Judd, an actor Sammy has just hired.
Laurette is not repentant: She coldbloodedly admits that she considers their marriage to be purely a business affair.
Sammy calls Manheim and asks him to come over to his place immediately.
Once there, Manheim for the first time witnesses a self-conscious, desperate, and suffering Sammy Glick who cannot stand being alone in his big house.
In the end, Sammy orders Sheik to get him a prostitute, while Manheim drives home.
<EOS>
In 2021, Johnny is a "mnemonic courier" with a data storage device implanted in his brain, allowing him to discreetly carry information too sensitive to transfer across the Net, the virtual-reality equivalent of the Internet.
While lucrative, the implant has cost Johnny his childhood memories, and he seeks to have the implant removed to regain his memories back; his handler, Ralfi assigns him one more job that would cover the costs of the operation (which are extremely expensive), sending Johnny to Beijing to deliver the latest information.
On the way to the job, in the elevator he uses a Pemex Memory Doubler to upgrade his memory capacity from 80 gigabytes to 160 gigabytes.
At the designated place, he finds a group of frantic scientists watching anime who have the data he is to carry, but at 320 GB it far exceeds Johnny's storage capacity, even with the use of compression folders to decrease the size of the information, and if he tries to upload the data in, the remaining amount of data will be uploaded directly in his brain, causing severe psychological damage and potentially, death.
Johnny accepts anyway, in need of the money.
After uploading their data, the group is massacred by Yakuza, but Johnny manages to escape with a portion of the encryption password.
After contacting Ralfi, Johnny returns to Newark and soon finds that two groups are after the data he carries.
One is the international pharmacological company, Pharmakom, led by its United States executive, Takahashi, who believes the data to be critical to the company's interests.
The other is the Yakuza guided by Shinji, who wishes to deny this information to Takahashi and claim it for themselves.
Johnny soon learns that Ralfi is in the Yakuza's employ, and ready to kill Johnny to extract the data storage hardware.
Jane, a cybernetically-enhanced bodyguard, helps Johnny to escape, and aided by the Lo-Teks, an anti-establishment group led by J-Bone, they elude their pursuers.
Jane takes Johnny to meet her friend and street doctor Spider who had installed Jane's implants.
In discussions, Spider reveals he and his allies at a local clinic were to be the recipients of Johnny's data, supposedly Pharmakom's unpublished cure for "nerve attenuation syndrome", a plague ravaging mankind, due to the over-reliance on technology, and causing political strife.
Though Spider could remove Johnny's implant, this may cause both the loss of this invaluable data as well as Johnny's life; instead, Spider directs Johnny to Jones, who resides at Heaven, the Lo-Tek base built on the underside of a bridge.
The clinic is soon invaded by the assassin Karl, the Street Preacher hired by Takahashi to retrieve Johnny's head before Shinji can; Spider is killed while Johnny and Jane escape.
At Heaven, they find that Jones is a dolphin, once used by the Navy for his decryption capabilities.
Jones attempts to discover the remainder of the password to the data, but Heaven is soon attacked by the Yakuza, Takahashi's forces, and the Street Preacher.
Johnny, Jane, and the Lo-Teks fight off all three groups and emerge victorious, killing Takahashi, Shinji, the Street Preacher, and their agents.
Takahashi, in a dying gesture, provides Johnny with a portion of the remaining password.
While this helps, Johnny is told by J-Bone that he must "hack his own brain" to find the final portion, unlocking the data so that the Lo-Teks can download it and transmit it across the globe.
Johnny and Jones again start the procedure but find themselves helped by a mysterious artificial intelligence that operates from Pharmakom's mainframe, providing the last portion of the password to unlock the data.
The data for the NAS cure is safely recovered and Johnny discovers he can now recall his memories of his youth, including his mother and family.
As Johnny recovers from the process, he, Jane, and the Lo-Teks observe the Pharmakom building on fire, a sign that the cure's transmission was successful.
<EOS>
The film opens with this quote:  and announces that it wishes to highlight the virtues of psychoanalysis in banishing mental illness and restoring reason.
dr Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) is a psychoanalyst at Green Manors, a mental hospital in Vermont.
She is perceived by the other (male) doctors as detached and emotionless.
The director of the hospital, dr Murchison (Leo Carroll), is being forced into retirement, shortly after returning from an absence due to nervous exhaustion.
His replacement is dr Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck), who turns out to be surprisingly young.
dr Petersen notices that dr Edwardes has a peculiar phobia about sets of parallel lines against a white background.
She also soon realizes, by comparing handwriting, that this man is an impostor.
He confides to her that he killed dr Edwardes and took his place.
He suffers from massive amnesia and does not know who he is.
dr Petersen believes he is innocent and suffering from a guilt complex.
He disappears overnight, leaving a note for her.
At the same time, it becomes public knowledge that 'Dr.
Edwardes' is an impostor, and that the real dr Edwardes is missing and may have been murdered.
dr Petersen manages to track him down, and starts to use her psychoanalytic training to break his amnesia and find out what really happened.
Pursued by the police, dr Petersen and the impostor (calling himself 'John Brown') travel by train to Rochester, New York where they stay with dr Brulov (Michael Chekhov), dr Petersen's former mentor.
The two doctors analyze a dream that 'John Brown' had.
The dream sequence (designed by Salvador Dalí) is full of psychoanalytic symbols &ndash; eyes, curtains, scissors, playing cards (some of them blank), a man with no face, a man falling off a building, a man hiding behind a chimney and dropping a wheel, and being pursued by large wings.
They deduce that Brown and Edwardes had been on a ski trip together (the lines in white being ski tracks), and that Edwardes had somehow died there.
dr Petersen and Brown go to the Gabriel Valley ski resort (the wings provide a clue), to reenact the event.
Near the bottom of the hill, Brown's memory suddenly returns.
He recalls that there is a precipice in front of them, over which Edwardes had fallen to his death.
He stops them just in time.
He also remembers a traumatic event from his childhood &ndash; he slid down a hand rail with his brother at the bottom, accidentally knocking him onto sharp-pointed railings, killing him.
This incident had caused him to develop a guilt complex.
He also remembers that his real name is John Ballantyne.
All is understood now, and Ballantyne is about to be exonerated, when it is discovered that Edwardes had a bullet in his body.
Ballantyne is convicted of murder and sent to prison.
A heartbroken dr Petersen returns to her position at the hospital, where dr Murchison is once again the director.
Murchison lets slip that he had known Edwardes slightly, and didn't like him, contradicting his earlier claims.
Now suspicious, dr Petersen reconsiders her notes from the dream and realizes that the 'wheel' was a revolver, and that the man hiding behind the chimney and dropping the wheel, was dr Murchison who shot Edwardes, and then dropped the gun.
Petersen confronts Murchison.
He confesses, but explains that he still has the gun, and threatens to kill her.
She walks away, the gun still pointed at her, explaining that while the first murder was committed under the extenuating circumstances of dr Murchison's fragile mental state, her murder would certainly lead him to the electric chair.
He allows her to leave, then turns the gun on himself.
dr Petersen is reunited with Ballantyne.
They honeymoon together from the same Grand Central Station where they first tried to pursue the mystery of his psychosis.
<EOS>
We see a panorama of London in 1600 and travel to the Globe Theatre where the audience is being seated.
The Chorus (Leslie Banks) enters and implores the audience to use their imagination to visualise the setting of the play.
We then see, up on a balcony, two clergymen, The Archbishop of Canterbury (Felix Aylmer), and the Bishop of Ely (Robert Helpmann) discussing the current affairs of state.
Henry (Laurence Olivier) then enters, and discusses with his nobles the state of France.
A gift is delivered to Henry from the French Dauphin.
The gift turns out to be tennis balls, a jibe at Henry's youth and inexperience.
Offended, Henry sends the French ambassador away, and prepares to claim the French throne, a throne that he believes is rightfully his.
We then see characters from Shakespeare's Henry IV plays: Corporal Nym (Frederick Cooper), Bardolph (Roy Emerton), and Pistol (Robert Newton).
These characters resolve to join Henry's army, however, before they do, Falstaff (George Robey), another returning character, and one of the King's former mentors, dies.
At this point, the film gradually ceases to be located in the Globe Theatre; instead the scenes are performed in stylised film sets reminiscent of a medieval Book of Hours.
At Southampton, the fleet embarks, and lands in France, beginning a campaign that tears through France to Harfleur, where Henry's forces lay siege.
At the siege, Henry delivers his first rousing speech to his troops: "Once more.
unto the breach.
Dear friends, once more.
" The troops charge on Harfleur, and take it as their own.
The troops then march to Agincourt, meeting the French forces.
Before the impending battle, Henry wanders around the camp in disguise, to find out what the men think of him.
The next day, before the battle, Henry delivers his famous Saint Crispin's Day speech.
The Battle of Agincourt then commences.
This sequence is filmed on location in a realist style, unlike the stylised sets seen previously; however, the Technicolor is still very bright and somewhat larger than life, unlike the same scene in the later Kenneth Branagh version.
The English archers let forth a volley of arrows that cuts deeply into the French numbers.
The French, weighed down by their heavy armour, are caught in the fresh mud of the field, and are bogged down, which gives the English troops ample opportunity to ride out and fight them on equal terms.
The French Dauphin (Max Adrian), seeing this disadvantage, watches as several bodyguards and noblemen including the Constable of France ride toward the English camp and kills all the boys and squires, prompting a tearful Fluellen to state that 'this is expressly against the law of arms'.
Henry is angered by this and rides out to meet the French Constable (Leo Genn).
Fighting each other, one-on-one, swords in hand, the Constable strikes Henry in the head, shaking him.
Henry turns and continues to fight the Constable, who sheaths his sword in favour of a mace.
The Constable then strikes Henry's hand, causing him to drop his sword.
Henry, now disarmed, lashes out and strikes the Constable in the face with his gauntlet, causing him to fall to the ground and presumably killing him.
The battle is won.
Henry then proceeds to court the Princess Katherine (Renée Asherson); the film now returns to the stylised sets.
Henry woos Katherine, and France is now under the control of England, as the French King, Charles VI adopts Henry as his successor.
In the final moments of the play, we return to the Globe Theatre again, and the actors take their bows.
<EOS>
Maugham begins by characterizing his story as not really a novel but a thinly veiled true account.
He includes himself as a minor character, a writer who drifts in and out of the lives of the major players.
Larry Darrell's lifestyle is contrasted throughout the book with that of his fiance's uncle, Elliott Templeton, an American expatriate living in Paris and a shallow and unrepentant yet generous snob.
For example, while Templeton's Roman Catholicism embraces the hierarchical trappings of the Church, Larry's proclivities tend towards the 13th-century Flemish mystic and saint John of Ruysbroeck.
Wounded and traumatized by the death of a comrade in the War, Larry returns to Chicago, Illinois, and his fiancée, Isabel Bradley, only to announce that he does not plan to seek paid employment and instead will "loaf" on his small inheritance.
He wants to delay their marriage and refuses to take up a job as a stockbroker offered to him by Henry Maturin, the father of his friend Gray.
Meanwhile, Larry's childhood friend, Sophie, settles into a happy marriage, only later tragically losing her husband and baby in a car accident.
Larry moves to Paris and immerses himself in study and bohemian life.
After two years of this "loafing," Isabel visits and Larry asks her to join his life of wandering and searching, living in Paris and travelling with little money.
She cannot accept his vision of life and breaks their engagement to go back to Chicago.
There she marries the millionaire Gray, who provides her a rich family life.
Meanwhile, Larry begins a sojourn through Europe, taking a job at a coal mine in Lens, France, where he befriends a former Polish army officer named Kosti.
Kosti's influence encourages Larry to look toward things spiritual for his answers rather than in books.
Larry and Kosti leave the coal mine and travel together for a time before parting ways.
Larry then meets a Benedictine monk named Father Ensheim in Bonn, Germany while Father Ensheim is on leave from his monastery doing academic research.
After spending several months with the Benedictines and being unable to reconcile their conception of God with his own, Larry takes a job on an ocean liner and finds himself in Bombay.
Larry has significant spiritual adventures in India and comes back to Paris.
What he actually found in India and what he finally concluded are held back from the reader for a considerable time until, in a scene late in the book, Maugham discusses India and spirituality with Larry in a café long into the evening.
He starts off the chapter by saying "I feel it right to warn the reader that he can very well skip this chapter without losing the thread of the story as I have to tell, since for most part it is nothing more than the account of a conversation that I had with Larry.
However, I should add that except for this conversation, I would perhaps not have thought it worthwhile to write this book.
".
Maugham then initiates the reader to 'Advaita philosophy' and reveals how, through deep meditation and contact with Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi, cleverly disguised as Sri Ganesha in the novel, Larry goes on to realise God -- thus becoming a saint—in the process having gained liberation from the cycle of human suffering, birth and death that the rest of the earthly mortals are subject to.
The 1929 stock market crash has ruined Gray, and he and Isabel are invited to live in her uncle Elliott Templeton's grand Parisian house.
Gray is often incapacitated with agonising migraines due to a general nervous collapse.
Larry is able to help him using an Indian form of hypnotic suggestion.
Sophie has also drifted to the French capital, where her friends find her reduced to alcohol, opium, and promiscuity – empty and dangerous liaisons that seem to help her to bury her pain.
Larry first sets out to save her and then decides to marry her, a plan that displeases Isabel, who is still in love with him.
Isabel tempts Sophie back into alcoholism with a bottle of Żubrówka, and she disappears from Paris.
Maugham deduces this after seeing Sophie in Toulon, where she has returned to smoking opium and promiscuity.
He is drawn back into the tale when police interrogate him after Sophie has been found murdered with an inscribed book from him in her room, along with volumes by Baudelaire and Rimbaud.
Meanwhile, in Antibes, Elliott Templeton is on his deathbed.
Despite the fact that he has throughout his life compulsively sought out aristocratic society, none of his titled friends come to see him, which makes him alternately morose and irate.
But his outlook on death is somewhat positive: "I have always moved in the best society in Europe, and I have no doubt that I shall move in the best society in heaven".
Isabel inherits his fortune, but genuinely grieves for her uncle.
Maugham confronts her about Sophie, having figured out Isabel’s role in Sophie’s downfall.
Isabel’s only punishment will be that she will never get Larry, who has decided to return to America and live as a common working man.
He is uninterested in the rich and glamorous world that Isabel will move in.
Maugham ends his narrative by suggesting that all the characters got what they wanted in the end: "Elliott social eminence; Isabel an assured position;.
Sophie death; and Larry happiness".
<EOS>
Ezra "Penny" Baxter (Gregory Peck), once a Confederate soldier, and his wife Ora (Jane Wyman), are pioneer farmers near Lake George, Florida in 1878.
Their son, Jody (Claude Jarman, Jr), a boy in his pre-teen years, is their only surviving child.
Jody has a wonderful relationship with his warm and loving father.
Ora, however, is still haunted by the deaths of the three other children of the family.
She is very somber, and is afraid that Jody will end up dying if she shows her parental love to him.
Jody finds her somewhat unloving and unreasonable.
With all of his siblings dead and buried, Jody longs for a pet to play with and care for.
Penny is sympathetic and understanding, but Ora is disgusted.
One day, when a rattlesnake bites Penny, they kill a doe and use its organs to draw out the poison.
Jody asks to adopt the doe's orphaned fawn.
Penny permits it, but warns Jody that the fawn will have to be set free when it grows up.
When Jody goes to ask his only young friend, Fodderwing (Donn Gift), to name the fawn, Jody finds out he has just died.
However, Ma Forrester tells Jody that Fodderwing had said that if he had a fawn he would name him Flag—for the critter's waving white tail.
Soon, Jody and Flag are inseparable.
One year later, Flag has grown up and becomes a total nuisance to the household and farm; he eats newly-grown corn, destroys fences, and tramples on tobacco crops.
After Penny is injured while trying to clear another field to make up for lost crops, Penny informs Jody that he and his mother have agreed that for Jody to keep Flag he must replant corn and build the fence around the field higher.
Jody works hard and even receives help from Ora with the fence.
During the night, Flag manages to jump the high fence and destroys the new corn crop.
Penny orders Jody to take the deer out into the woods and shoot it.
Jody takes the deer out, but does not have the courage to kill it.
Instead, he orders the deer to go away and never return.
But Flag comes back to their property and devours crops again.
Ora (whom Jody believes had always hated his pet) shoots Flag but only wounds the deer.
Penny orders Jody to put the deer out of its misery.
Rather than let his pet deer be in agonizing pain, he follows his father's orders.
The loss of Jody's beloved pet deer proves too much for him to handle: Overwhelmed with anger and despair, he runs away from home.
Three days later, he is rescued by a friendly boat captain and returns home.
He and Penny quickly make up, but Ora is still out searching for him.
Just before Jody goes to bed, Ora returns and sees that he is back.
She becomes filled with happiness and emotion, knowing that her huge fear of losing her last child is now over.
She happily runs into Jody's room and showers him with more affection than she ever gave him.
She is no longer afraid to show her parental love to him.
<EOS>
Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven), troubled with funding the building of a new cathedral, prays for divine guidance.
His plea is seemingly answered by a suave angel named Dudley (Cary Grant), who reveals his identity only to the clergyman.
However, Dudley's mission is not to help construct a cathedral, but to spiritually guide Henry and the people around him.
Henry has become obsessed with raising funds, to the detriment of his family life.
His relationships with Julia (Loretta Young) and their young daughter are strained by his focus on the cathedral.
Everyone, except for Henry, is charmed by Dudley, even the non-religious Professor Wutheridge (Monty Woolley).
Dudley persuades the wealthy parishioners, particularly widowed Agnes Hamilton (Gladys Cooper), to contribute needed funds, but not to build the cathedral.
He coaxes mrs Hamilton to donate her money to feed and clothe the needy — much to Henry's chagrin.
To save time, Dudley also redecorates the Broughams' Christmas tree in a few seconds, saves an old church by restoring interest in the boys' choir, and dictates to a typewriter to magically produce Henry's new sermon — without Henry's knowledge.
But when Dudley spends time cheering up Julia, there is an unexpected development: Dudley finds himself strongly attracted to her.
Sensing this, Henry becomes jealous and anxious for his unwelcome guest to finish and depart.
He reveals Dudley's true identity to Professor Wutheridge, who urges him to stand up and fight for the woman he loves.
Dudley indicates a willingness to stay, but Julia, sensing what he means, tells Dudley it is time for him to leave.
Dudley tells the bishop it is rare for an angel to envy a mortal.
Henry wants to know why his cathedral plans were derailed.
Dudley reminds the bishop he prayed for guidance, not a building.
With his mission completed and knowing that Julia loves her husband, Dudley leaves, promising never to return.
All memory of him is erased, and later that Christmas Eve at midnight, Henry delivers the sermon that he believes he has written.
Dudley observes from the street, satisfied that his work is done.
<EOS>
Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) is indignant to find that the man assigned to play Santa in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (Percy Helton) is intoxicated.
When he complains to event director Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), she persuades Kris to take his place.
He does so well, he is hired to play Santa at Macy's flagship New York City store on 34th Street.
Ignoring instructions to steer parents to buy from Macy's, Kris directs one shopper (Thelma Ritter) to a competitor.
Impressed, she tells Julian Shellhammer (Philip Tonge), head of the toy department, that she will become a loyal customer.
Attorney Fred Gailey (John Payne), Doris' neighbor, takes the young divorcée's second-grade daughter Susan (Natalie Wood) to see Santa.
Doris has raised her to not believe in fairy tales, but Susan's lack of faith is shaken after seeing Kris speak in Dutch with a girl who does not know English.
Doris asks Kringle to tell Susan that he is not Santa, but he insists that he is.
Worried, Doris decides to fire him.
However, Kris has generated so much positive publicity and goodwill for Macy's that a delighted Macy (Harry Antrim) promises Doris and Julian bonuses.
To alleviate Doris's misgivings, Julian has Granville Sawyer (Porter Hall) administer a "psychological evaluation".
Kris passes, but questions Sawyer's own mental health.
The store expands on the concept.
To avoid looking greedy, competitor Gimbels implements the same policy, forcing Macy's and others to escalate.
Eventually, Kris does the impossible: he reconciles bitter rivals Macy and Gimbel (Herbert Heyes).
Pierce (James Seay), the doctor at Kris' nursing home, assures Doris that Kris is harmless.
Kris makes a pact with Fred – he will work on Susan's cynicism while Fred does the same with Doris, disillusioned by her failed marriage.
When Susan reveals she wants a house, Kris reluctantly promises to do his best.
Kris learns that Sawyer has convinced young employee Alfred that he is mentally ill simply because he is kind-hearted.
Finding Sawyer unwilling to budge, Kris hits him on the head with his cane.
Sawyer exaggerates his pain in order to have Kris confined to Bellevue Hospital.
Tricked into cooperating, and believing Doris to be in on the deception, Kris deliberately fails his examination and is recommended for permanent commitment.
However, Fred persuades Kris not to give up.
At a hearing before Judge Henry Harper (Gene Lockhart), District Attorney Thomas Mara (Jerome Cowan) gets Kris to assert that he is Santa Claus and rests his case.
Fred argues that Kris is not insane because he actually is Santa.
Mara requests Harper rule that Santa does not exist.
In private, Harper's political adviser, Charlie Halloran (William Frawley), warns him that doing so would be disastrous for his upcoming reelection bid.
The judge buys time by hearing evidence.
Doris quarrels with Fred when he quits his job at a prestigious law firm to defend Kris.
Fred calls Macy as a witness.
When Mara asks if he believes Kris to be Santa, Macy starts to equivocate, but when pressed, he considers the business repercussions as well as the good Kris has done and states, "I do.
" Afterward, Macy fires Sawyer.
Fred then calls Mara's own young son (Bobby Hyatt), who testifies that his father told him that Santa was real.
Mara concedes the point.
Mara then demands that Fred prove that Kris is "the one and only" Santa Claus on the basis of some competent authority.
While Fred searches frantically, Susan writes Kris a letter to cheer him up, which Doris also signs.
When a mail sorter (Jack Albertson) sees Susan's letter, he suggests they deliver the many letters to Santa taking up space in the dead letter office too.
Fred presents Judge Harper with three of them, addressed simply to "Santa Claus" and delivered to Kris, asserting the Post Office has thus acknowledged that he is the Santa Claus.
After mailmen dump another 21 full mailbags before him, Harper dismisses the case.
On Christmas morning, Susan is disappointed that Kris could not get her what she wanted.
Kris gives Fred and Doris a route home that avoids traffic.
Along the way, Susan sees her dream house with a "For Sale" sign in the front yard.
Fred learns that Doris had encouraged Susan to have faith and suggests they get married and purchase the house.
He then boasts that he must be a great lawyer since he proved Kris was Santa.
However, when they spot a cane inside that looks just like Kris's, he is not so sure.
<EOS>
The film follows the overall story of the play, but cuts nearly half the dialogue and leaves out two major characters.
The action begins on the battlements of Elsinore where a sentry, Francisco (John Laurie), is relieved of his watch (and questioned if he has seen anything) by another sentry, Bernardo (Esmond Knight), who, with yet another sentry, Marcellus (Anthony Quayle), has twice previously seen the Ghost of King Hamlet.
Marcellus then arrives with the sceptical Horatio (Norman Wooland), Prince Hamlet's friend.
Suddenly, all three see the Ghost, and Horatio demands that the ghost speak.
The ghost vanishes then, without a word.
Inside the Great Hall of the castle, the court is celebrating the marriage of Gertrude (Eileen Herlie) and King Claudius (Basil Sydney); old King Hamlet has died apparently of an accidental snakebite, and his wife, Gertrude, has, within a month of the tragedy, married the late King's brother.
Prince Hamlet (Laurence Olivier) sits alone, refusing to join in the celebration, despite the protests of the new King.
When the court has left the Great Hall, Hamlet fumes over the hasty marriage, muttering to himself the words "and yet, within a month.
"  Soon, Horatio and the sentries enter telling Hamlet of the ghostly apparition of his father.
Hamlet proceeds to investigate, and upon arriving on the battlements, sees the ghost.
Noting that the ghost beckons him forward, Hamlet follows it up onto a tower, wherein it reveals its identity as the Ghost of Hamlet's father.
He tells Hamlet that he was murdered, who did it, and how it was done.
The audience then sees the murder re-enacted in a flashback as the ghost describes the deed – Claudius is seen pouring poison into the late King Hamlet's ear, thereby killing him.
Hamlet does not at first accept this as the truth, and then prepares to feign madness, so as to test Claudius' conscience, without jumping to conclusions.
This feigned insanity attracts the attention of Polonius (Felix Aylmer) who is completely convinced that Hamlet has gone mad.
Polonius pushes this point with the King, claiming that it is derived from Hamlet's love for Ophelia (Jean Simmons), Polonius's daughter.
Claudius, however, is not fully convinced, and has Polonius set up a meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia.
Hamlet's "madness" is constant even in this exchange, and Claudius is convinced.
Hamlet then hires a group of wandering stage performers, requesting that they enact the play The Murder of Gonzago for the king.
However, Hamlet makes a few alterations to the play, so as to make it mirror the circumstances of the late King's murder.
Claudius, unable to endure the play, calls out for light, and retires to his room.
Hamlet is now convinced of Claudius' treachery.
He finds Claudius alone, and has ample opportunity to kill the villain.
However, at this time, Claudius is praying, and Hamlet does not seek to send him to heaven, so, he waits, and bides his time.
He instead confronts Gertrude about the matter of his father's death and Claudius' treachery.
During this confrontation, he hears a voice from the arras, and, believing that it was Claudius eavesdropping, plunges his dagger into the curtains.
On discovering that he has in fact, killed the eavesdropping Polonius instead, Hamlet is only mildly upset, and he continues to confront his mother.
He then sees the ghostly apparition of his father, and proceeds to converse with it (the Ghost is uncredited in the film, but is apparently voiced by Olivier himself).
Gertrude, who cannot see the ghost, is now also convinced that Hamlet is mad.
Hamlet is deported to England by Claudius, who has given orders for him to be killed once he reaches there.
Fortunately, Hamlet's ship is attacked by pirates, and he is returned to Denmark.
In his absence, however, Ophelia goes mad over Hamlet's rejection and the idea that her own sweetheart has killed her father, and she drowns, supposedly committing suicide.
Laertes (Terence Morgan), Ophelia's brother, is driven to avenge her death, as well as his father's.
Claudius and Laertes learn of Hamlet's return and prepare to have him killed.
However, they plan to make it look like an accident.
Claudius orders Laertes to challenge Hamlet to a duel, wherein Laertes will be given a poisoned blade that will kill with a bare touch.
In case Laertes is unable to hit Hamlet, Claudius also prepares a poisoned drink.
Hamlet meets Laertes' challenge and engages him in a duel.
Hamlet wins the first two rounds, and Gertrude drinks from the cup, suspecting that it is poisoned.
Whilst in-between bouts, Laertes rushes Hamlet and strikes him on the arm, fatally poisoning him.
Hamlet, not knowing this, continues to duel.
Hamlet eventually disarms Laertes and switches blades with him.
Hamlet then strikes Laertes in the wrist, fatally wounding him.
Gertrude then submits to the poison and dies, warning Hamlet not to drink from the cup.
(Olivier thus makes Gertrude's death a virtual suicide to protect her son, while Shakespeare writes it as if it were purely accidental, with Gertrude having no idea that the cup is poisoned)  Laertes, dying, confesses the whole plot to Hamlet, who flies at Claudius in a fit of rage, killing him, before finally expiring himself.
Horatio, horrified by all this, orders that Hamlet be given a decent funeral, and the young prince's body is taken away, while the Danish court kneels and the cannons of Elsinore fire off a peal of ordnance in respect.
(A few women can be seen weeping quietly in the background).
<EOS>
The film is the story of a deaf-mute young woman, Belinda MacDonald (Jane Wyman), who is befriended by the new doctor, dr Robert Richardson (Lew Ayres), who comes to Cape Breton Island on the east coast of Canada.
The doctor realizes that, although she cannot hear or speak, Belinda is very intelligent.
She lives on a farm with her father, Black Mac Donald (Charles Bickford), and her aunt, Aggie MacDonald (Agnes Moorehead), wears plain work clothes, rarely goes into town, and only once to church.
The family sells farm goods to the nearby town, mainly flour.
Her father and aunt called Belinda "Dummy" and resent her because her mother died giving birth to her.
dr Richardson teaches Belinda sign language and the signs for many common things and ideas.
Over time, his affection for her grows.
He buys her a pretty dress and encourages her father to take her to town and church.
dr Richardson's secretary, Stella (Jan Sterling), is attracted to him and tries to get his attention, but the doctor does not reciprocate her feelings.
After Stella figures out that he is becoming attracted to Belinda, she starts to resent both of them.
One of the family's customers, Locky McCormick (Stephen McNally), gets drunk at a dance, leaves the dance, and goes to the farm when Belinda is alone and rapes her.
This results in her pregnancy, which is diagnosed by another doctor to whom dr Richardson had brought her for audiology testing.
Belinda gives birth at home to a healthy baby boy, whom she names Johnny.
The people in town began to shun the Mac Donald family and dr Richardson, as they suspect he is the father of Belinda's child because he has spent a lot of time with her.
dr Richardson tells Black that he is willing to marry Belinda in order to quiet town gossip.
Black rejects this idea, as he knows that dr Richardson does not truly love Belinda, but merely pities her.
Locky goes to the MacDonald farm under the pretense of purchasing ground barley, but really wants to get a look at baby Johnny.
When Black sees him, he orders Locky to leave.
Locky inadvertently implies to Black that he is the father of the child.
Black follows Locky and threatens to expose him to the town.
They have a fight on a seaside cliff and Locky throws Black off the cliff into the sea, killing him.
Belinda and her aunt Aggie try to run the farm but they are struggling to pay the bills and keep the farm running.
The town, at the urging of Locky, has a meeting and declares Belinda "unfit" to care for the child.
When Locky and Stella (who by now are married) come to take Johnny, Belinda first makes Stella realize that she is smarter than the townspeople have given her credit for.
She also makes it clear by gestures that she will not give up her baby without a fight.
Stella confronts Locky, who confesses that the child is his.
He then tries to retrieve the baby, but, despite Belinda's efforts to stop him, he manages to make his way upstairs to the room where Johnny is.
However, before Locky can unlock the door, Belinda uses a shotgun to shoot and kill Locky.
Belinda is arrested and goes on trial for murder.
At the trial, dr Richardson testifies that she was protecting her property and family.
The court dismisses this as the doctor's love for her, and is ready to sentence Belinda to execution, but then finally Stella blurts out that her husband Locky had confessed the truth about the rape to her on the day he was killed.
Belinda is set free, and she, Johnny, and dr Richardson leave together.
<EOS>
Virginia Cunningham (Olivia de Havilland) is an apparently schizophrenic inmate at a mental institution called the Juniper Hill State Hospital (which treats only female patients).
She hears voices and seems so out of touch with reality that she doesn’t recognize her husband Robert (Mark Stevens).
dr Kik (Leo Genn; as Mark Van Kensdelaerik, MD/"Dr.
Kik") works with her, and flashbacks show how Virginia and Robert met a few years earlier in Chicago.
He worked for a publisher who rejected her writing, and they bumped into each other again in the cafeteria.
Occasionally she continued to drop by the cafeteria so they get to know each other.
Despite their blossoming romance, Virginia abruptly leaves town without explanation.
Robert moves to New York and bumps into her again at the Philharmonic.
After she provides a loose excuse for her absence and departure, they pick up where they left off, though she remains evasive and avoids his desire for marriage.
Eventually, Virginia brings up the possibility of marriage.
They marry on May 7, but Virginia acts erratically again.
She can’t sleep and loses touch with reality, as she feels it is November and snaps when Robert corrects her.
The rest of the film follows her therapy.
dr Kik puts her through electro-shock treatment and other forms of treatment including hypnotherapy.
dr Kik wants to get to the "causes of her unconscious rejection".
The film includes many flashbacks, including her earlier failed engagement to Gordon (Leif Erickson) as well as childhood issues.
The film shows her progress and what happens to her along the way.
The mental hospital is organized on a spectrum of "levels".
The better a patient gets, the lower level she is able to achieve.
Virginia moves to the lowest level (One), where she encounters Nurse Davis (Helen Craig), the only truly abusive nurse in the hospital.
Davis is jealous of dr Kik's interest in Virginia, which she sees as excessive.
Nurse Davis goads Virginia into an outburst which results in Virginia being straitjacketed and expelled from Level One into the "snake pit," where patients considered beyond help are simply placed together in a large padded cell and abandoned.
dr Kik, learning of this, has Virginia returned to Level One, but away from Nurse Davis's care.
Despite this setback, dr Kik's care continues to improve Virginia's mental state.
Over time, Virginia gains insight and self-understanding, and is able to leave the hospital.
The film also depicts the bureaucratic regimentation of the institution, the staff — some unkind and aloof, some kind and empathetic; and relationships between patients, from which Virginia learns as much as she does in therapy.
<EOS>
The story is set in 1997, 10 years after the game's production.
The plot follows Zak (full name Francis Zachary McKracken), a writer for the National Inquisitor, a tabloid newspaper (the name is a thinly veiled allusion to the National Enquirer); Annie Larris, a freelance scientist; along with Melissa China and Leslie Bennett, two Yale University coed students, in their attempt to prevent the nefarious alien Caponians (who have taken over "The Phone Company", an amalgamation of various telecommunication companies around the world) from slowly reducing the intelligence of everybody on Earth by emitting a 60&nbsp;Hz "hum" from their "Mind Bending Machine".
The Skolarians, another ancient alien race, have left a defense mechanism hanging around to repulse the Caponians (the "Skolarian Device"), which needs reassembly and start-up.
Unfortunately, the parts are spread all over Earth and Mars.
<EOS>
The plot closely follows, and expands upon, the film of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
As the game begins, Indiana Jones has returned to his college, after reclaiming the Cross of Coronado.
He is approached by businessman Walter Donovan, who tells him about the Holy Grail, and of the disappearance of Indy's father.
Indy then travels to some of the places seen in the movie, such as Venice and the catacombs, after meeting fellow archeologist Elsa Schneider.
In the process he finds his father held captive in the Brunwald Castle, after passing through the mazelike corridors, fighting and avoiding guards.
Then Elsa's double role is revealed when she steals the Grail Diary from Indy.
After escaping, father and son pass through Berlin to reclaim the Diary and have a brief meeting with Hitler.
Then they reach an airport, from where they intend to seek the Valley of the Crescent Moon, by Zeppelin or biplane.
There are many action scenes, involving fists, and the biplane sequence above Europe, pursued by Nazi planes.
Several key elements of the movie&mdash;such as the Brotherhood of the Grail, Indy's friend Sallah, and the Venice water chase and the desert battle scenes (except for small hidden references)&mdash;were not included in the game.
<EOS>
The story of Fate of Atlantis is set in 1939, on the eve of World War II.
At the request of a visitor named mr Smith, archaeology professor and adventurer Indiana Jones tries to find a small statue in the archives of his workplace Barnett College.
After Indy retrieves the horned figurine, Smith uses a key to open it, revealing a sparkling metal bead inside.
Smith then pulls out a gun and escapes with the two artifacts, but he loses his coat in the process.
The identity card inside reveals "Smith" to be Klaus Kerner, an agent of the Third Reich.
Another pocket of the coat holds an old magazine containing an article about an expedition on which Jones collaborated with a young woman named Sophia Hapgood, who has since given up archeology to become a psychic.
Fearing that she might be Kerner's next target, Indy travels to New York City in order to warn her and to find out more about the mysterious statue.
There, he interrupts her lecture on the culture and downfall of Atlantis, and the two return to Sophia's apartment.
They discover that Kerner ransacked her office in search of Atlantean artifacts, but Sophia says that she keeps her most valuable item, her necklace, with her.
She owns another of the shiny beads, now identified as the mystical metal orichalcum, and places it in the medallion's mouth, invoking the spirit of the Atlantean god Nur-Ab-Sal.
She explains that a Nazi scientist called dr Hans Ubermann is searching for the power of Atlantis to use it as an energy source for warfare.
Sophia then gets a telepathic message from Nur-Ab-Sal, instructing them to find the Lost Dialogue of Plato, the Hermocrates, a book that will guide them to the city.
After gathering information, Indy and Sophia eventually find it in a collection of Barnett College.
Correcting Plato's "tenfold error", a mistranslation from Egyptian to Greek, the document pinpoints the location of Atlantis in the Mediterranean, 300 miles from the Kingdom of Greece, instead of 3000 as mentioned in the dialogue Critias.
It also says that in order to gain access to the Lost City and its colonies, three special stones are required.
At this point, the player has to choose between the Team, Wits, or Fists Path, which influences the way the stones are acquired.
In all three paths, Sophia gets captured by the Nazis, and Indiana makes his way to the underwater entrance of Atlantis near Thera.
The individual scenarios converge at this point and Jones starts to explore the Lost City.
He saves Sophia from a prison, and they make their way to the center of Atlantis, where her medallion guides them to the home of Nur-Ab-Sal.
The Atlantean god takes full possession of Sophia and it is only by a trick that Indy rids her of the necklace and destroys it, thus freeing her.
Meanwhile, they notice grotesquely deformed bones all over the place.
They advance further and eventually reach a large colossus the inhabitants of the city built to transform themselves into gods.
Using ten orichalcum beads at a time would enable them to control the water with the powers they gained, keeping the sea level down to prevent an impending catastrophe.
Unknowingly, Indiana starts the machine with the stones, upon which Kerner, Ubermann, and the Nazi troops invade the place and announce their intention to use the machine to become gods.
The machine was responsible for creating the mutated skeletons seen earlier, but the Nazis believe that it will work on them due to their Aryan qualities.
Ubermann wants to use Jones as a test subject, but Kerner steps onto the platform first, claiming himself to be most suitable for godhood.
Just as Ubermann wants to start the machine, Jones mentions Plato's tenfold error, which convinces Kerner to use one bead instead of ten.
He is then turned into a horribly deformed and horned creature, and falls into the lava.
Indiana is forced to step on the platform next but threatens Ubermann with eternal damnation once he is a god.
Fearing his wrath, Ubermann uses the machine on himself, feeding it one hundred beads.
He is turned into a green ethereal being, but his form becomes unstable and he flies apart with an agonized scream.
Three bad endings see one of the protagonists undergo the second transformation if Indiana could not convince Ubermann to use the machine instead, or if Sophia was not freed from her prison or Nur-Ab-Sal's influence.
In the good ending, Atlantis succumbs to the eruption of the still active volcano as the duo flees from the city.
The final scene depicts Indiana kissing Sophia on top of the escape submarine, to comfort himself for the lack of evidence for their discovery.
<EOS>
Sam and Max, the Freelance Police, are two comic book characters created by Steve Purcell, who act as private detectives and vigilantes.
Sam & Max Hit the Road follows the pair on a case that takes them from their office in New York City across the United States.
The game starts in a similar way to many of the comic stories, with Sam and Max receiving a telephone call from an unseen and unheard Commissioner, who tells them to go to a nearby carnival.
At the carnival, they are told by the owners that their star attraction, a frozen bigfoot called Bruno, has been set free and fled taking their second attraction, Trixie the Giraffe-Necked Girl.
Sam and Max set off to find Bruno and Trixie and bring them back.
As the duo investigate the carnival, they learn that Bruno and Trixie are in love and that Trixie freed Bruno.
The Freelance Police leave the carnival to pursue leads at various tourist traps throughout the country, such as The World's Largest Ball of Twine, a vortex controlled by giant subterranean magnets and bungee jumping facilities at Mount Rushmore.
The pair learn that two other bigfoots used as tourist attractions in other parts of the country have been freed by Bruno, and that Bruno has been captured by Liverpudlian country western singer Conroy Bumpus, a cruel animal abuser who wishes to use Bruno in his performances.
Sam and Max travel to Bumpus' home and rescue Bruno and Trixie, but Bruno then departs with Trixie to join a bigfoot gathering at an inn in Nevada.
Following them, Sam and Max disguise themselves as a bigfoot to enter the party.
Eventually the party is gatecrashed by Conroy Bumpus and his henchman Lee Harvey, who hope to capture the bigfoots.
However, Sam manages to fool Bumpus and Harvey into donning their bigfoot disguise, and Max locks them in the inn's kitchen freezer.
Chief Vanuatu, leader of the bigfoots, in recognition of the pair's actions, makes the Freelance Police members of the bigfoot tribe and tells them of a spell that will make the world safe for bigfoots again, preventing their capture by humans.
However, the chief requires help deciphering the spell's four ingredients, and asks for Sam and Max's help.
Eventually, they discover that the ingredients are a vegetable resembling John Muir, hair restoration tonic, the tooth of a dinosaur, and a vortex contained within a snow globe.
Combined with a live bigfoot sacrifice—which Max substitutes for frozen bigfoot-clad Bumpus and Harvey—the ingredients cause large trees to spring into existence, destroying towns and cities and covering the bulk of the west United States in forest.
Content that their work is done, Sam and Max take the frozen ice block containing Bumpus and Harvey to the carnival.
Believing that Bruno has been returned to them, the owners give a large reward of skee ball tickets to the Freelance Police, who then spend the end credits shooting targets at a carnival stall with real firearms.
<EOS>
In mid-December 1944 Pvt.
Jim Layton (Marshall Thompson) and his buddy Pvt.
William Hooper (Scotty Beckett) are fresh replacements assigned to separate companies in the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
As a newcomer Layton receives a chilly welcome from his squad.
PFC Holley (Van Johnson) returns to the company after recuperating from a wound sustained from fighting in the Netherlands.
Instead of going on leave in Paris, the squad is trucked back to the front to help stop a surprise German breakthrough in the Ardennes.
They stop that night in the town of Bastogne.
The platoon is put up for the night in the apartment of a local young woman, Denise (Denise Darcel), with whom Holley hopes to fraternize.
Jarvess (John Hodiak) is informed by Denise that she is taking care of two orphaned French girls.
Jarvess later goes on guard in the village, where he runs into a group of battle weary soldiers.
The soldiers inform Jarvess that they are making a "strategic withdrawal".
The next morning, led by Platoon Sgt.
Kinnie (James Whitmore), the men are ordered to dig in on the outskirts of town.
Just as they are nearly done, they are ordered to a new location and have to dig in again.
Holley, Layton and Kippton (Douglas Fowley) stand guard that night at a roadblock.
A patrol of German soldiers, disguised as American soldiers, infiltrates their position and later blows up a nearby bridge.
In the morning the squad awakes to a heavy winter storm.
Roderigues (Ricardo Montalbán), a Latino from Los Angeles, is delighted by the novelty of snow, but his foxhole mate Pop Stazak (George Murphy), awaiting a "dependency discharge" that will send him home, is unimpressed.
Layton goes over to see his friend Hooper, only to find that he had been killed hours before, and that no one in his company knew his name.
Kinnie informs the squad about the infiltration and sends out a patrol—Holley, Roderigues and Jarvess to move through the woods.
Just before they start out, the platoon is shelled by German artillery, causing Bettis (Richard Jaeckel) to panic and desert.
During the barrage Layton reminds his squad leader, Sgt.
Wolowicz (Bruce Cowling), of his name and finds for the first time that he has been accepted as a part of the squad.
Holley's patrol briefly skirmishes with the infiltrators.
Roderigues is wounded by machine-gun fire from an enemy tank.
He is unable to walk, so Holley hastily conceals him under a disabled jeep half-buried in snow, promising to return for him.
Unfortunately, by the time they can get back to him, Roderigues has died due to the exposure of the elements (freezing to death).
Wolowicz, who has been wounded by shellfire, and a sick Cpl.
Standiferd (Don Taylor) are sent back to a field hospital.
Not too long after, Doc (Thomas Breen) informs the 3rd Squad that the field hospital had been captured.
Holley is appointed the new squad leader, and partnered with Layton, while Pop Stazak is paired with Hansan (Herbert Anderson).
When Pop's discharge comes in they find out from Kippton that the 101st is surrounded forcing Pop to stay with the men.
Moved again and again, 3rd Platoon is attacked at dawn.
Garby (James Arness) is killed by machine gun fire.
Hansan demonstrates bravery by crawling out of his foxhole and being the first to fire on the Germans.
Just when it appears that the platoon will be overrun, Hansan is wounded and Holley loses his nerve and runs away.
Layton follows Holley.
Ashamed of his cowardice, Holley leads a flanking counterattack that defeats the German attack.
The platoon leader, lt Teiss (Brett King), announces that he will recommend Hansan for a Silver Star.
Jarvess's foxhole partner, country boy Abner Spudler (Jerome Courtland), is killed while trying to put on his wet boots.
After they get Hanson to the aid station, the squad runs into Bettis, who is doingP.
duty in the rear and gives them a hot meal.
Holley discovers that Layton is a quick learner, finding him being entertained by Denise.
Later, while on guard duty, they encounter a party of Germans who have come under a flag of truce to offer Brig.
Gen.
McAuliffe (Ian MacDonald) surrender terms, resulting in his famous reply of "Nuts.
" to the puzzled Germans.
In the bitter, foggy weather, the squad is short of supplies &ndash; supply transport aircraft are grounded.
Several men attend impromptu outdoor Christmas services held by a chaplain (Leon Ames).
That night the Luftwaffe bombs Bastogne.
Denise is killed.
Bettis, slowed by his fear of going back to the lines, is killed by a collapsing house.
The "walking wounded", including Hansan and mess sergeant he befriended (George Chandler), are recalled up to duty for a last-ditch defense of the town.
As the platoon is down to its last few rounds of ammunition, the weather clears, allowing the Allied fighters to attack the Germans and C-47 transports to drop supplies, enabling the 101st to hold.
Afterward, the siege lifted, Kinnie leads the survivors of the platoon toward the rear for a well-earned rest.
As they move out, they spot a relief column of clean, well-equipped soldiers marching toward Bastogne.
Kinnie begins calling "Jody cadence" and the veterans pull themselves together, proudly chanting the refrain as they pass the other GIs.
<EOS>
In the future year 2040, where motorized vehicles are being replaced by their anti-gravitational counterparts.
The last domestic motorcycle manufacturer in the country is Corley Motors, whose founder and CEO, the elderly Malcolm Corley (Hamilton Camp), is en route to a shareholders meeting at the Corley factory, accompanied by his vice president, Adrian Ripburger (Mark Hamill).
Malcolm suspects that Ripburger is scheming to take over the company, and is suspicious of Ripburger's plan to recruit a biker gang to ride with them to the meeting.
Malcolm's limousine is overtaken by one such gang, the Polecats, and he is immediately impressed with them.
Catching up to them at a biker bar, he quickly befriends their leader, Ben (Roy Conrad).
Ripburger offers to hire the Polecats to escort Malcolm to the meeting, but when Ben declines, he is knocked out by Ripburger's flunkies, Bolus (Jack Angel) and Nestor (Maurice LaMarche).
Ben awakens to learn that the Polecats have been duped into escorting Malcolm, and that an ambush is planned for them further up the road.
He tries to catch up, but his motorcycle has been sabotaged, resulting in a fiery crash.
He is rescued by young photographer Miranda (Pat Musick) and taken to the town of Melonweed, where he is treated by a mechanic named Maureen (Kath Soucie).
Maureen describes how her father taught her about motorcycles, and repairs Ben's bike after he retrieves necessary parts, adding a booster to it as well.
Ben catches up to the Polecats at a rest area, but is too late: Ripburger murders Malcolm and frames the Polecats for the crime.
Miranda manages to catch the murder on film, but her camera is snatched by Bolus.
Before dying, Malcolm tells Ben of Ripburger's plan to take over Corley Motors and produce minivans instead of motorcycles.
He reveals that Maureen is secretly his illegitimate daughter and begs Ben to convince her to take over the company.
Bolus tries to kidnap Maureen, but she escapes with the film from Miranda's camera.
With the Polecats jailed for Malcolm's murder, Ben is a fugitive.
Miranda tells him about her film, and Ben convinces semi-trailer truck driver Emmet to sneak him and his motorcycle past a police roadblock and to an abandoned mink farm where Maureen is hiding.
He is stranded there when Emmet steals his motorcycle's fuel line and Maureen steals his booster fuel.
Emmet's truck is blown up by a biker gang called the Cavefish, destroying the bridge over Poyahoga Gorge, which Ben needs to cross.
Having replaced his fuel line and gotten advice from the Polecats' former leader, Father Torque (Hamilton Camp), Ben outwits Nestor and Bolus and does battle with members of rival biker gangs in order to acquire hover equipment, booster fuel, and a ramp, with which he is able to jump his motorcycle over the gorge.
Ben locates Maureen, who is a member of rival biker gang the Vultures, at the Vulture's hideout, a large cargo aircraft.
Maureen believes Ben killed her father and is about to have him executed, but Ben reveals personal information that Malcolm shared with him and convinces her to develop Miranda's film, which shows that Ripburger was the murderer.
Ben suggests exposing Ripburger at the shareholders meeting, but Ripburger has postponed the meeting until he is sure Ben and Maureen are dead.
The Vultures come up with a plan to fake Ben and Maureen's deaths by entering them in a demolition derby under false identities that will be obvious to Ripburger.
Their cars are rigged to explode, but Ben and Maureen are protected by fireproof suits.
The plan works and results in the deaths of Bolus and Nestor, while the Vultures recover the winner's prize: a special motorcycle built by Malcolm and Maureen that contains a hidden pass code to Malcolm's safe, in which Ben finds Malcolm's recorded will and testament.
Ben exposes Ripburger during the shareholders meeting by projecting Miranda's photos of the murder and playing Malcolm's will, in which he leaves leadership of Corley Motors to Maureen.
Ripburger flees in a semi-trailer truck, but as Ben and Maureen ride away he reappears and rams them.
The Vultures arrive driving their flightless cargo plane, which scoops up the truck along with Ben, Maureen, and Ben's bike.
The plane and truck wind up hanging precariously over the edge of Poyahoga Gorge, and Ripburger falls to his death.
Maureen and the Vultures flee the plane while Ben makes it out at the last second by jumping his bike out the back cargo door just as the truck explodes and it and the plane fall into the gorge.
Members of the biker gangs attend Malcolm's funeral, at which Father Torque delivers a eulogy.
Maureen takes over Corley Motors, and Ben rides away into the sunset.
<EOS>
Just as they are about to take a group of underprivileged children on a riverboat ride and picnic, Deborah Bishop (Jeanne Crain), Rita Phipps (Ann Sothern), and Lora Mae Hollingsway (Linda Darnell) receive a message from Addie Ross informing them that she has run off with one of their husbands.
She, however, leaves them in suspense as to which one.
All three marriages are shown in flashback to be strained.
Deborah grew up on a farm.
Her first experience with the outside world came when she joined the Navy WAVES during World War II, where she met her future husband Brad (Jeffrey Lynn).
When they return to civilian life, Deborah is ill at ease in Brad's upper-class social circle.
Adding to her insecurity, she learns that everyone expected Brad to marry Addie, whom all three husbands consider practically a goddess.
However, she is comforted by Brad's friend Rita, a career woman who writes stories for sappy radio soap operas.
Her husband George (Kirk Douglas), a schoolteacher, feels somewhat emasculated since she earns much more money.
He is also disappointed that his wife constantly gives in to the demands of her boss, mrs Manleigh (Florence Bates).
Rita's flashback is to a dinner party she gave for mrs Manleigh.
She forgot that her husband's birthday was that night, and only remembered when a birthday present, a rare Brahms recording, arrived from Addie Ross.
Lora Mae grew up poor, not just on the "wrong side of the tracks," but literally next to the railroad tracks.
(Passing trains shake the family home periodically) She sets her sights on her older, divorced employer, Porter (Paul Douglas), the wealthy owner of a statewide chain of department stores.
Her mother, Ruby Finney (Connie Gilchrist), is unsure what to think of her daughter's ambition, but Ruby's friend (and the Phipps's servant) Sadie (an uncredited Thelma Ritter) approves.
Matters come to a head when she sees a picture of Addie Ross on the piano in his home.
She tells him she wants her picture on a piano: her own piano in her own home.
He tells her he isn't interested in marriage, and she breaks off their romance.
However, he loves her too much, and finally gives in and proposes, skipping a New Year's party at Addie's house to do so.
When the women return from the picnic, Rita is overjoyed to find her husband at home.
They work out their issues; she promises to not let herself be pushed around by mrs Manleigh.
Deborah's houseman gives her a message stating that Brad will not be coming home that night.
A heartbroken Deborah goes alone to the dance with the other two couples.
When Porter complains about his wife dancing with another man, Deborah tells him he has no idea how much Lora Mae really loves him, but Porter is certain Lora Mae only sees him as a "cash register".
Unable to take it anymore, Deborah gets up to leave, announcing that Brad has run off with Addie.
Porter stops her, confessing it was he who started to run away with Addie, but then explains, "A man can change his mind, can't he.
" Porter then tells Lora Mae that, with his admission in front of witnesses, she can divorce him and get what she wants.
To his shock, Lora Mae claims she did not hear a word he said.
He asks her to dance.
The voice of Addie Ross bids all a good night.
In the film, she is shown only once and from behind.
<EOS>
A radio telescope in Borneo detects the approach of a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth; authorities dub it "Attila" after the ancient conqueror Attila the Hun.
Scientists determine explosives planted on the surface of the asteroid may divert it into a stable orbit around Earth.
A five-person expedition uses the Space Shuttle Atlantis to rendezvous with the asteroid and plant the charges.
The crew is led by Commander Boston Low (voiced by Robert Patrick), and joined by dr Ludger Brink (Steven Blum), a German archaeologist and geologist, Maggie Robbins (Mari Weiss), a linguistics expert and reporter, pilot Ken Borden (David Lodge) and NASA technician Cora Miles (Leilani Jones), who is also running for Congress.
Low, Brink, and Robbins spacewalk to the asteroid and set the charges.
While they are successful in altering the orbit of Attila, they find the inside of the asteroid appears hollow, and proceed to explore.
When they enter a central chamber, they are trapped as the asteroid transforms into a dodecahedron pod and rapidly accelerates away into deep space.
When the three recover and can exit the pod, they find themselves on an alien planet, on a central island surrounded by five smaller, spire-shaped islands; in the game's novelization, they name the planet Cocytus.
It clearly shows signs of former intelligent life, but as they explore, they find no evidence of any sentient creatures that remain, and the one advanced complex they are in shows signs of long-term deterioration.
They encounter a strange form of spirit-like energy that guides them to a particular patch of ground, which they find to be soft and consistent with an opening that has been buried by time.
Shortly after Brink begins digging, the ground gives way beneath him, opening a cavern into a subterranean structure.
Robbins and Low soon find Brink dead at the bottom of the rubble.
Robbins insists they explore the structure separately and the two part ways, keeping in contact with their communicators.
In what appears to be a museum, Low discovers a pair of crystals containing a glowing green liquid.
After seeing a demonstration in the museum of similar crystals being used in what looks like a resurrection ceremony, Low tries one on Brink, bringing him back to life.
They then search for a means to return to Earth, using Brink's and Robbins' talents for xenoarchaeology to decipher strange alien text and images.
As the trio continue to explore, they find Brink has become addicted to the crystals and started hoarding them for himself, leading to conflict within the group.
Low discovers a pyramid that houses a preserved alien, whom he is able to reanimate by use of the life crystals.
Through Robbins, the alien explains that the rest of his species started to recognize the corruption the life crystals had; they decided to travel to a new universe, Spacetime Six, from the current one, which they call Spacetime Four.
The alien chose to remain behind to warn others about the crystals.
However, the rest of the species have been unable to find a way to return to Spacetime Four, and only they would be able to provide the humans with a spacecraft to return to Earth.
Low offers to travel to Spacetime Six to show the aliens how to return, but this requires them to repower the portal that was used.
They are able to retrieve two life crystals from a machine that generates them, but Low and Brink fight over the crystals, and Brink falls to his death.
During the process of opening the portal, Robbins is killed.
The player has the option of reviving Robbins with a life crystal after the portal is opened; however, if they do, she immediately jumps to her death, with no crystals left to revive her a second time.
With no other options, Low uses the portal to meet the rest of the aliens in Spacetime Six; with the portal open, the aliens can perceive the route home and return to Cocytus.
They restore Brink and Robbins to life and cure Brink of his addiction to the crystals, though this leaves him as an elderly man.
If Low left Robbins dead, she is happy to see him, but if Low revived her, she is angry and scorns him.
As promised, the aliens reconstruct a spacecraft for the humans, and representatives of the species join the humans as they return to Earth.
<EOS>
An uncouth, corrupt rich junk dealer, Harry Brock, brings his showgirl mistress Billie Dawn with him to Washington,C.
When Billie's ignorance becomes a liability to Brock's business dealings, he hires a journalist, Paul Verrall, to educate his girlfriend.
In the process of learning, Billie Dawn realizes how corrupt Harry is and begins interfering with his plans to bribe a Congressman into passing legislation that would allow Brock's business to make more money.
<EOS>
Following the wedding of his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor), Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy), a suburban lawyer, recalls the day, three months earlier, when he first learned of Kay's engagement to Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor).
At the family dinner table, Kay's casual announcement that she is in love with Buckley and has accepted his proposal makes Stanley feel uneasy, but he soon comes to realize that his daughter has grown up and the wedding is inevitable.
While Ellie (Joan Bennett), Kay's mother, immediately begins making preparations for the wedding, Stanley lies awake at night, fearing the worst for his daughter.
Stanley's misgivings about the marriage eventually make Ellie anxious, and she insists that Kay introduce them to Buckley's parents.
Kay calls the tradition "old-fashioned rigamarole," but arranges the meeting nevertheless.
Before the introduction, Stanley has a private conversation with Buckley, and is pleased to learn that the young man is the head of a small company and that he is capable of providing a comfortable life for Kay.
The Bankses' first meeting with Doris and Herbert, Buckley's parents, gets off to an awkward start, and goes from bad to worse when Stanley drinks too much and falls asleep in the wealthy Dunstans' living room.
Following Kay and Buckley's engagement party, Stanley, who misses the entire party because he is in the kitchen mixing drinks, realizes that his plans for a small wedding have been swept aside and he will be expected to pay for an extravagant wedding "with all the trimmings".
As costs for the June event spiral out of control, Stanley calculates that he can afford to accommodate no more than one hundred and fifty guests.
The task of paring down the guest list proves too difficult, however, and Stanley reluctantly consents to a 250-person reception.
To save costs, Stanley suggests to Kay that she and Buckley elope.
Kay is at first shocked by the suggestion, then reconsiders, supports the idea, and conveys that to her mother.
Ellie strongly disapproves of eloping which causes Stanley to express his disapproval too, making it appear the idea was originally Kay's.
The plans for a lavish wedding continue until the day that Buckley tells Kay that he wants to take her on a fishing trip in Nova Scotia for their honeymoon.
Kay reacts to the announcement with shock and calls off the wedding, but she and Buckley soon reconcile, and the two families begin their wedding rehearsals.
On the day of the wedding, chaos reigns at the Banks home as final preparations are made for the reception.
The wedding ceremony brings both joy and sorrow to Stanley, as he realizes that his daughter is now a woman and no longer his child.
During the reception, Stanley tries to find Kay so he can kiss the bride but only manages to see her leaving for her honeymoon.
Ellie and Stanley survey the mess in their home and concur that the entire affair was a great success.
Kay calls and tells her father she loves him and thanks her parents for everything.
<EOS>
A youth named Guybrush Threepwood arrives on the fictional Mêlée Island, with the desire to become a pirate.
He seeks out the island's pirate leaders, who set him three trials that must be completed to become a pirate: winning a sword duel against Carla, the island's resident swordmaster, finding a buried treasure, and stealing a valuable idol from the governor's mansion.
These quests take Guybrush throughout the island, where he hears of stories of the Ghost Pirate LeChuck, who apparently died in an expedition to the mysterious Monkey Island, an act that was meant to win the love of the governor Elaine Marley.
Guybrush meets several characters of interest, including a local voodoo priestess, Stan the Used Boat Salesman, Carla the Sword Master, a prisoner named Otis, and Meathook, whose hands have been replaced by hooks.
Guybrush also encounters the governor and is instantly smitten, and she soon reciprocates.
However, as he completes the tasks set for him, the island is raided by LeChuck and his undead crew, who abduct Elaine and then retreat to their secret hideout on Monkey Island.
Guybrush takes it upon himself to rescue her, buying a ship and hiring Carla, Otis, and Meathook as crew before setting sail for the fabled island.
When Guybrush reaches Monkey Island, he discovers a village of cannibals in a dispute with Herman Toothrot, a ragged castaway marooned there.
He settles their quarrel, and then recovers a magical "voodoo root" from LeChuck's ship for the cannibals, who provide him with a seltzer bottle of "voodoo root elixir" that can destroy ghosts.
When Guybrush returns to LeChuck's ship with the elixir, he learns that LeChuck has returned to Mêlée Island to marry Elaine at the church.
He promptly returns to Mêlée Island and gatecrashes the wedding, only to ruin Elaine's own plan for escape; in the process he loses the elixir.
Now confronted with a furious LeChuck, Guybrush is savagely beaten by the ghost pirate in a fight ranging across the island.
The fight eventually arrives at the island's ship emporium, where Guybrush finds a bottle of root beer.
Substituting the beverage for the lost elixir, he sprays LeChuck, destroying the ghost pirate.
With LeChuck defeated, Guybrush and Elaine enjoy a romantic moment, watching fireworks caused by LeChuck exploding.
<EOS>
Guybrush Threepwood is adrift in the sea in a floating bumper car, unable to recall how he escaped from the Big Whoop amusement park.
He approaches Plunder Island, which is governed by his love Elaine Marley and under siege by the zombie pirate LeChuck.
LeChuck captures him and locks him in the ship's hold.
Seeking a way out, Guybrush fires an unrestrained cannon (causing LeChuck to drop a magical voodoo cannonball and explode), finds a diamond ring in the treasure hold, and escapes the ship as it sinks.
He reunites with Elaine and proposes to her with the diamond ring.
However, the ring is revealed to be cursed, and when Elaine puts it on she is transformed into a gold statue and stolen by marauders.
The Voodoo Lady tells Guybrush he must travel to Blood Island to find a diamond ring of greater value to break the spell.
Guybrush recovers the statue Elaine, finds a map to Blood Island and secures a ship and crew to take him there.
On the journey, the ship is attacked by Captain Rottingham, who steals the map.
After much practice, Guybrush learns seabattle insult swordfighting and defeats Rottingham when they next meet, reclaiming the map.
However, soon afterwards, Guybrush's ship crashes on Blood Island in a storm, Elaine's statue is launched inland, and the crew mutinies.
Meanwhile, LeChuck is inadvertently revived as a pyrokinetic demon-pirate by a scavenging pirate, and sails back to his carnival on Monkey Island to organize the capture of Guybrush and Elaine.
Alone on Blood Island, Guybrush meets the locals, including the cannibals of Monkey Island, learns a sad tale of lost love, and feigns death to enter a crypt and secure a new engagement band.
He gambles with smugglers in order to acquire an uncursed diamond, combines the two to make a new ring, and returns Elaine to normal.
The two share a moment before LeChuck's skeletal army seizes them.
LeChuck transforms Guybrush into a child once again and leaves him in the Big Whoop amusement park with Elaine.
Using a hangover cure discovered on Blood Island, Guybrush becomes an adult again and gets on the Rollercoaster of Death to confront LeChuck.
Guybrush improvises an explosive and sets off an avalanche, burying LeChuck under the theme park.
Guybrush and Elaine marry and set sail for their honeymoon, as various friends that were met on his adventures wave them goodbye.
<EOS>
In the town of Rio Bravo, Texas, sheriff's deputy Dude (Dean Martin), who has acquired the contemptuous nickname Borrachón (, Spanish for "big drunk"), enters a saloon but cannot afford a drink.
Joe Burdette (Claude Akins), brother of rancher Nathan Burdette, tosses a silver dollar into a spittoon.
Presidio County, Texas, Sheriff John Chance (John Wayne) appears and kicks the spittoon away, looking at Dude with disgust.
Dude is shamed by his plight and takes out his anger on Chance, knocking him out with an ax handle.
Joe begins punching Dude, then shoots and kills an unarmed bystander who tries to intervene.
Joe heads to his brother's saloon, where a bloody Chance comes to arrest him for the murder of the bystander.
Another patron draws his gun on Chance, but Dude shoots the gun out of the man's hand.
Joe is locked up in the local jail.
Chance is willing to deputize Dude, provided he can stay sober.
Both remember how good with a gun Dude used to be.
Chance's friend Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond) and his wagon train of supplies stop in town, with a young gunslinger, Colorado Ryan (Ricky Nelson), riding guard.
Inside the jail, Stumpy (Walter Brennan), Chance's game-legged deputy, keeps watch over the jail and Joe, who knows that Stumpy holds an old grudge against Joe's wealthy and powerful brother.
Joe warns his jailers that Nathan Burdette will not like how his brother is being treated.
A mysterious woman nicknamed Feathers (Angie Dickinson) is in the saloon, playing poker.
In the meantime, Dude and Chance patrol the town.
Hotel owner Carlos (Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez) stops the sheriff, saying Wheeler has been talking too much about Chance needing help.
In the saloon, Chance implores Wheeler to stop, as it will draw attention from the wrong people.
Wheeler suggests that Colorado could be of assistance, but Colorado politely declines, saying he wants to "mind my own business".
Colorado also promises not to start any trouble without telling the sheriff first.
Feathers leaves the poker game a winner.
Chance follows her up to her room and confronts her as a card cheat, with his evidence three missing aces from the deck of cards being used in the game and a handbill indicating she is wanted for card cheating.
Colorado intervenes, saying another participant in the game is the real cheat.
They confront the card cheat and prove his guilt.
Chance refuses to apologize to Feathers for doing his job, but is no longer in a hurry to make her leave town.
As Wheeler is walking back to the hotel, he is shot dead by a Burdette man hiding in the stable.
Colorado offers to help, but is angrily turned away by Chance, who says, "You had a chance to get in this and you didn't want it".
Chance and Dude flush out the shooter, who escapes into Nathan's saloon after Dude wounds him.
Dude believes the man has muddy boots, but everyone in the bar has clean boots.
Two of Burdette's men suggest Dude needs a drink and one throws a silver dollar into a spittoon.
The bartender puts a beer on the bar, but Dude notices blood dripping into the glass from above.
He turns, fires, and kills the shooter.
Chance goes back to the hotel to sleep.
Without his knowledge, Feathers stands guard at the door to keep him safe, then returns to her room when he awakens.
Chance discovers what she did and advises that she should leave on the next stagecoach.
Nathan Burdette (John Russell) arrives in town with his men, intent on seeing his brother Joe.
Dude is standing guard and confiscating all guns.
One of Burdette's men ignores him until Dude cuts one of his horse's reins with a single shot.
Nathan agrees to turn in their guns until they leave.
Carlos says Feathers will not get on the stagecoach.
She tells the sheriff she does not want to leave, then gives him a kiss.
He indicates if he were not in such a fix at the jail, things between them might be different.
Colorado visits the jail to tell Chance the meaning of a song, "Degüello", or "The Cutthroat Song", that Nathan is paying men to play at his saloon.
The song, reported to have been played by Antonio López de Santa Anna's men at the siege of the Alamo, indicates that "no quarter" will be given to one's enemy, no mercy.
Dude is trying hard to stay sober.
He is given back his guns (the ones he had before he left town, sold by Dude, but bought back by Chance), as well as some clothes he left behind.
The next morning, while Dude is standing guard at the town entryway, four Burdette men attack him from behind and tie him up in a stable.
Others get the drop on Chance, whose rifle is just out of reach.
From inside the hotel, acting on Colorado's instructions, Feathers throws a flower pot through a window a moment after Colorado steps out on the porch, distracting the Burdette men.
Colorado quickly throws Chance's rifle to him and the two men shoot the three Burdette hands.
Chance decides to have his men hole up in the jail, as it will take several more days for the United States Marshal to arrive to take Joe to the Presidio.
Dude's nerves are shot, but as he is about to take a drink, the sound of "The Cutthroat Song" played by Burdette's musicians steels his resolve.
He and Chance go to the hotel to round up additional supplies, but Carlos and Consuela are captured by Burdette's men, who trick Chance into charging and falling over a rope tied at the bottom of the stairs.
Dude and Feathers are unable to help.
Chance is ordered to take the men to the jail to let Joe go.
He is reluctant to do so, but Dude implores Chance to cooperate, saying that Stumpy is alone and has no food or water to hold out very long.
The remaining Burdette men at the hotel take Dude hostage and Nathan Burdette offers to trade him later for Joe.
Stumpy opens fire at the jail, holding off Burdette's men.
Chance and Colorado then take Joe to make the trade for Dude at a warehouse, leaving Stumpy behind because of his bad leg.
During the trade, walking in opposite directions, Dude tackles Joe and they scuffle while a gunfight erupts.
Stumpy turns up and helps even the odds.
Dude overpowers Joe.
The lawmen throw dynamite sticks at the warehouse where Burdette and his men are based, shooting the sticks to explode them.
After a few explosions rock the warehouse, the criminals surrender.
All is quiet in town as Chance gets reacquainted with Feathers, who models a skimpy new costume she will be wearing in her new job singing at the hotel.
After a pair of sheer tights comes floating from a window to the street, a delighted Stumpy retrieves it, but Dude cautions him to mind his own business.
<EOS>
The plot of Super Mario Bros.
3 is described in the instruction booklet.
The Mushroom World, the setting of the game, is invaded by the Koopalings, Bowser's seven children.
The Koopalings conquer each of the seven kingdoms by stealing its king's magical wand and using it to transform him into an animal.
Princess Toadstool sends Mario and Luigi to travel to each kingdom, retrieve the stolen wand, and restore its king to normal.
Mario and Luigi receive notes and special items from Princess Toadstool after rescuing each of the first six kings.
When they rescue the seventh king, they instead receive a note from Bowser, boasting that he has kidnapped Toadstool and imprisoned her within the castle of his own realm, Dark Land.
The brothers travel through Dark Land, enter his castle, and defeat Bowser in a battle.
The game ends with Toadstool being freed from the castle.
On September 10, 2015, Miyamoto confirmed a fan theory stating that the entirety of Super Mario Bros.
3 takes place as a stage play.
The game opens with curtains being pulled, featuring obstacles hanging from the catwalk, objects bolted to the background, and shadows on the skyline.
When Mario finishes a level, he walks off the stage.
<EOS>
After saving the Mushroom Kingdom in Super Mario Bros.
3, brothers Mario and Luigi agree to take a vacation to a place called Dinosaur Land, where there are many types of dinosaurs.
However, while resting on the beach, Princess Toadstool disappears.
When Mario and Luigi wake up they try to find her and, after hours of searching, come across a giant egg in the forest.
It suddenly hatches and out of it comes a young dinosaur named Yoshi, who then tells them that his dinosaur friends have also been imprisoned in eggs by evil Koopas.
Mario and Luigi soon realize that it must be the evil King Bowser and his Koopalings.
Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi set out to save Princess Toadstool and Yoshi's dinosaur friends, exploring Dinosaur Land for Bowser and his Koopalings.
To aid him, Yoshi gives Mario a cape as they begin their journey.
Mario and Luigi continue to follow Bowser, defeating the Koopalings in the process, and save all of Yoshi's dinosaur friends.
They eventually make it to Bowser's castle, where they fight him in a final battle.
They defeat Bowser and save the Princess, restoring peace to Dinosaur Land.
<EOS>
The game begins with Luigi having won a mansion in a contest.
Despite not having entered any contest, he promptly told Mario about the mansion, and the two agreed to meet up outside it that evening.
Luigi takes a flashlight with him and he follows the map to the mansion.
Upon finally arriving at his new mansion, which looks much more sinister than the supplied photo, Mario is nowhere to be found.
Luigi proceeds inside the mansion, entering the Parlor after he gains the key from a strange ghost-like shape.
Upon entry, he is soon assaulted by a Gold Ghost, only to be saved by a little old man wielding a vacuum cleaner.
The old man, however, is unable to reel in the ghost and is soon overpowered.
After being helped to his feet by Luigi, the old man introduces himself as Professor Elvin Gadd.
The two retreat from the mansion when more of the Gold Ghosts appear.
In Gadd's laboratory, he explains how Luigi's newly won mansion is obviously the work of something not of this world, as it only appeared a few nights ago.
As Luigi further explores the mansion, he discovers that it was built by King Boo to shelter the now-freed portrait ghosts, ghosts whom Gadd had previously captured and contained in paintings with a device dubbed the "Ghost Potrificationizer".
They sent Luigi the supplied photo and map to lure him into a trap.
Gadd also tells Luigi that he saw someone wearing a red cap went into the mansion some time ago, but has not seen him since.
Upon learning that the red capped man (Mario) was Luigi's brother, Gadd allows Luigi to take over his duties of ghost-catching and entrusts him with his powerful vacuum cleaner, the "Poltergust 3000," and a multipurpose invention called the GameBoy Horror that allows him to communicate with Luigi.
After numerous confrontations and challenges with many ghosts, portrait ghosts, boss ghosts, Boos, puzzles, and locked doors, Luigi confronts King Boo, who has trapped Mario inside a painting like the portrait ghosts and hung him in a secret altar in the basement.
King Boo pulls Luigi into a painting for their final battle in an arena that resembles the mansion's roof, puppeteering a lifelike Bowser suit from the inside.
Using spiked, explosive metal balls thrown by "Bowser", Luigi finds a way to blast off the suit's head and eventually vacuum and defeat King Boo, causing "Bowser" to collapse.
Luigi returns to Gadd with Mario's painting and successfully extracts him from within it using the Ghost Portrificationizer in reverse.
King Boo is turned into a painting along with the other portrait ghosts.
The ending also sees the haunted mansion disappear, after which Professor Gadd uses the treasure Luigi collected on his adventure to build a new, non-haunted mansion on the site of the original mansion.
The size of the house depends on how much treasure the player gathered before the end of the game.
<EOS>
Allan Quatermain, an adventurer and white hunter based in Durban, in what is now South Africa, is approached by aristocrat Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good, seeking his help finding Sir Henry's brother, who was last seen travelling north into the unexplored interior on a quest for the fabled King Solomon's Mines.
Quatermain has a mysterious map purporting to lead to the mines, but had never taken it seriously.
However, he agrees to lead an expedition in return for a share of the treasure, or a stipend for his son if he is killed along the way.
He has little hope they will return alive, but reasons that he has already outlived most people in his profession, so dying in this manner at least ensures that his son will be provided for.
They also take along a mysterious native, Umbopa, who seems more regal, handsome and well-spoken than most porters of his class, but who is very anxious to join the party.
Travelling by oxcart, they reach the edge of a desert, but not before a hunt in which a wounded elephant claims the life of a servant.
They continue on foot across the desert, almost dying of thirst before finding the oasis shown halfway across on the map.
Reaching a mountain range called Suliman Berg, they climb a peak (one of "Sheba's Breasts") and enter a cave where they find the frozen corpse of José Silvestre (also spelt Silvestra), the 16th-century Portuguese explorer who drew the map in his own blood.
That night, a second servant dies from the cold, so they leave his body next to Silvestra's, to "give him a companion".
They cross the mountains into a raised valley, lush and green, known as Kukuanaland.
The inhabitants have a well-organised army and society and speak an ancient dialect of IsiZulu.
Kukuanaland's capital is Loo, the destination of a magnificent road from ancient times.
The city is dominated by a central royal kraal.
They soon meet a party of Kukuana warriors who are about to kill them when Captain Good nervously fidgets with his false teeth, making the Kukuanas recoil in fear.
Thereafter, to protect themselves, they style themselves "white men from the stars"—sorcerer-gods—and are required to give regular proof of their divinity, considerably straining both their nerves and their ingenuity.
They are brought before King Twala, who rules over his people with ruthless violence.
He came to power years before when he murdered his brother, the previous king, and drove his brother's wife and infant son, Ignosi, out into the desert to die.
Twala's rule is unchallenged.
An evil, impossibly ancient hag named Gagool is his chief advisor.
She roots out any potential opposition by ordering regular witch hunts and murdering without trial all those identified as traitors.
When she singles out Umbopa for this fate, it takes all Quatermain's skill to save his life.
Gagool, it appears, has already sensed what Umbopa soon after reveals: he is Ignosi, the rightful king of the Kukuanas.
A rebellion breaks out, the Englishmen gaining support for Ignosi by taking advantage of their foreknowledge of a lunar eclipse to claim that they will black out the moon as proof of Ignosi's claim.
The Englishmen join Ignosi's army in a furious battle.
Although outnumbered, the rebels overthrow Twala, and Sir Henry lops off his head in a duel.
The Englishmen also capture Gagool, who reluctantly leads them to King Solomon's Mines.
She shows them a treasure room inside a mountain, carved deep within the living rock and full of gold, diamonds, and ivory.
She then treacherously sneaks out while they are admiring the hoard and triggers a secret mechanism that closes the mine's vast stone door.
Unfortunately for Gagool, a brief scuffle with a beautiful native named Foulata—who had become attached to Good after nursing him through his injuries sustained in the battle—causes her to be crushed under the stone door, though not before fatally stabbing Foulata.
Their scant store of food and water rapidly dwindling, the trapped men prepare to die also.
After a few despairing days sealed in the dark chamber, they find an escape route, bringing with them a few pocketfuls of diamonds from the immense trove, enough to make them rich.
The Englishmen bid farewell to a sorrowful Ignosi and return to the desert, assuring him that they value his friendship but must return to be with their own people, Ignosi in return promising them that they will be venerated and honoured/honored among his people forever.
Taking a different route, they find Sir Henry's brother stranded in an oasis by a broken leg, unable to go forward or back.
They return to Durban and eventually to England, wealthy enough to live comfortable lives.
<EOS>
In 1935, Indiana Jones narrowly escapes the clutches of Lao Che, a crime boss in Shanghai, China.
With his 11-year-old Chinese sidekick Short Round and the nightclub singer Willie Scott in tow, Indy flees Shanghai on an airplane that, unknown to them, is owned by Lao.
While the three of them sleep on the plane, the pilots parachute out, and they leave the plane to crash over the Himalayas while dumping its fuel.
Indy, Shorty, and Willie discover this and narrowly manage to escape by jumping out of the plane on an inflatable raft, and then riding down the slopes into a raging river.
They come to Mayapore, a village in northern India, where the poor villagers believe them to have been sent by Shiva to retrieve the sacred sivalinga stone stolen from their shrine, as well as the community's children, from evil forces in the nearby Pankot Palace.
During the journey to Pankot, Indy hypothesizes that the stone may be one of the five fabled Sankara stones that promise fortune and glory.
The trio receive a warm welcome from the Prime Minister of Pankot Palace, Chattar Lal.
The visitors are allowed to stay the night as guests, during which they attend a lavish but grotesque banquet given by the young Maharaja, Zalim Singh.
Chattar Lal rebuffs Indy's questions about the villagers' claims and his theory that the ancient Thuggee cult is responsible for their troubles.
Later that night, Indy is attacked by an assassin, leading Indy, Willie, and Shorty to believe that something is amiss.
They discover a series of tunnels hidden behind a statue in Willie's room and set out to explore them, overcoming a number of booby-traps along the way.
The trio eventually reach an underground temple where the Thugs worship Kali with human sacrifice.
They watch as the Thugs chain one of their victims in a cage and slowly lower him into a ceremonial fire pit, burning him alive.
They discover that the Thugs, led by their high priest Mola Ram, are in possession of three of the five Sankara stones, and have enslaved the children to mine for the final two stones.
As Indy tries to retrieve the stones, he, Willie, and Shorty are captured and separated.
Indy is whipped and forced to drink a potion called the Blood of Kali, which places him in a trance-like state where he begins to mindlessly serve the Thugs.
Willie, meanwhile, is kept as a human sacrifice, while Shorty is put to work in the mines alongside the enslaved children.
Shorty breaks free and escapes back into the temple where he burns Indy with a torch, shocking him out of the trance.
After defeating Chattar Lal, Indy stops Willie's cage and cranks it out of the pit just in time before it has a chance to enter the fire.
They go back to the mines to free the children, but Indy is caught up in a fight with a hulking overseer.
The Maharajah, who was also entranced, attempts to cripple Indy with a voodoo doll.
Shorty spars with the Maharajah, ultimately burning him to snap him out of the trance.
With his strength returned, Indy kills the overseer.
The Maharajah then tells Shorty how to get out of the mines.
While Mola Ram escapes, Indy and Shorty rescue Willie and retrieve the three Sankara stones, the village children escape.
After a mine cart chase to escape the temple, the trio emerge above ground and are again cornered by Mola Ram and his henchmen on a rope bridge high above a crocodile-infested river.
Using a sword, Indy cuts the rope bridge in half, leaving everyone to hang on for their lives.
Indy utters an incantation which causes the stones to glow red hot.
Two of the stones fall into the river, while the last falls into Mola Ram's hand, burning his hand.
Indy catches the now-cool stone, while Mola Ram falls into the river below.
The Thugees then attempt to shoot Indy with arrows, until a company of British Indian Army riflemen arrive and open fire on the Thuggee archers.
Indy, Willie, and Shorty return to the village with the children and give the missing stone back to the villagers.
<EOS>
Space Channel 5 takes place five hundred years in the future, where interstellar television stations fight for ratings.
Ulala is a new reporter for one such station, Space Channel 5, joining up with them having previously been saved by one of their reporters ten years ago.
When a strange alien race known as the Morolians start kidnapping hostages and forcing them to dance, Ulala is sent in to report the news and rescue the hostages with her funky moves.
The Morolians aren't the only problem, however, as Ulala must also contend with rival reporter, Pudding, and pirate broadcaster, Jaguar.
As Ulala investigates further into this incident, she starts to learn that not everything is as it seems.
<EOS>
During an interstellar war one side develops a language, Babel-17, that can be used as a weapon.
Learning it turns one into an unwilling traitor as it alters perception and thought.
The change is made more dangerous by the language's seductive enhancement of other abilities.
This is discovered by the beautiful starship captain, linguist, poet, and telepath Rydra Wong.
She is recruited by her government to discover how the enemy are infiltrating and sabotaging strategic sites.
Initially Babel-17 is thought to be a code used by enemy agents.
Rydra Wong realizes it is a language, and finds herself becoming a traitor as she learns it.
She is rescued by her dedicated crew, figures out the danger, and neutralizes its effects.
The novel deals with several issues related to the peculiarities of language, how conditions of life shape the formation of words and meaning, and how the words themselves can shape the actions of people.
<EOS>
The planet Pao is a quiet backwater with a large, homogeneous, stolid population ruled by an absolute monarch: the Panarch.
Pao's cultural homogeneity contributes to making it vulnerable to external military and economic pressures.
The current Panarch attempts to hire an offworld scientist, Lord Palafox from the Breakness Institute on the planet Breakness, as a consultant in order to reform Pao.
Before the deal can be concluded, however, the Panarch is assassinated by his brother Bustamonte, using mind-control over the Panarch's own son, Beran Panasper, to do so.
Lord Palafox saves Beran Panasper and takes him to Breakness as a possible bargaining chip in his dealings with Pao.
Somewhat later, the predatory Brumbo Clan from the planet Batmarsh raids the virtually defenseless Pao with impunity, and the Panarch Bustamonte is forced to pay heavy tribute.
To rid himself of the Brumbos, he seeks the aid of Palafox, who has a plan to create warrior, technical and mercantile castes on Pao using customized languages (named Valiant, Technicant and Cogitant) and other means to shape the mindsets of each caste, isolating them from each other and the general populace of Pao.
To achieve this, each caste gets a special training area where it is completely segregated from any outside influence; the necessary land is confiscated from families, some of which have held it for countless generations&nbsp;— which creates some disaffection in the conservative Paonese population and earns Bustamonte the name of a tyrant.
In order to return with them to Pao incognito, Beran Panasper infiltrates a corps of interpreters being trained on Breakness.
Mostly to amuse themselves, some of the young people create a language they call "Pastiche", mixing words and grammatical forms, seemingly at random, from the three newly created languages and from the original Paonese language.
Palafox looks upon this development with indulgence, failing to realize the tremendous long-term significance.
Beran returns to Pao under the name Ercolo Paraio and works for a few years as a translator at several locations.
Once Beran Panasper reveals to the masses that he is still alive, his uncle Bustamonte's popular support melts virtually overnight and Panasper claims the title of Panarch that is rightfully his.
The Brumbo Clan is repulsed by the warrior caste.
For a few years, the castes of Pao are highly successful in their respective endeavors and the planet experiences a short golden age.
However, Panasper is upset about the divisions in the populace of Pao caused by the Palafox program; the three new castes speak of the rest of the Paonese as "they" rather than "we" and regard them with contempt.
Beran attempts to return the planet to its previous state by re-integrating the castes into the general populace.
Palafox opposes this move and is killed, but the warrior caste stages a coup and takes command of Pao.
Panasper convinces them that they cannot rule the planet alone, since they share no common language with the rest of the population and cannot rely on the cooperation of the other segments of the people of Pao, and they allow him to keep his office.
One interpretation of the end of the novel is that Beran Panasper is only in nominal charge of the planet, on the sufferance of the warrior caste, and that it is uncertain what will become of him and his plans of re-uniting the populace of Pao.
Another way of seeing the ending is that Beran has outfoxed the warriors by getting them to agree to his decree that "every child of Pao, of whatever caste, must learn Pastiche even in preference to the language of his father".
In the end, Beran looks ahead twenty years, to a future when all inhabitants of Pao will be Pastiche-speakers&nbsp;—e, will speak a language which mixes some attributes and mindsets appropriate to peasant cultivators, proud warriors, skilled technicians and smart merchants&nbsp;— which will presumably shape a highly fluid and socially mobile society, composed of versatile and multi-skilled individuals.
<EOS>
Dumas wrote that the idea of revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo came from a story in a book compiled by Jacques Peuchet, a French police archivist, published in 1838 after the death of the author.
Dumas included this essay in one of the editions from 1846.
Peuchet told of a shoemaker, Pierre Picaud, living in Nîmes in 1807, who was engaged to marry a rich woman when three jealous friends falsely accused him of being a spy for England.
Picaud was placed under a form of house arrest in the Fenestrelle Fort, where he served as a servant to a rich Italian cleric.
When the man died, he left his fortune to Picaud, whom he had begun to treat as a son.
Picaud then spent years plotting his revenge on the three men who were responsible for his misfortune.
He stabbed the first with a dagger on which were printed the words "Number One", and then he poisoned the second.
The third man's son he lured into crime and his daughter into prostitution, finally stabbing the man himself.
This third man, named Loupian, had married Picaud's fiancée while Picaud was under arrest.
In another of the "True Stories", Peuchet describes a poisoning in a family.
This story, also quoted in the Pleiade edition, has obviously served as model for the chapter of the murders inside the Villefort family.
The introduction to the Pleiade edition mentions other sources from real life: Abbé Faria existed and died in 1819 after a life with much resemblance to that of the Faria in the novel.
As for Dantès, his fate is quite different from his model in Peuchet's book, since the latter is murdered by the "Caderousse" of the plot.
But Dantès has "alter egos" in two other Dumas works; in "Pauline" from 1838, and more significantly in "Georges" from 1843, where a young man with black ancestry is preparing a revenge against white people who had humiliated him.
On the day of his wedding to Mercédès, Edmond Dantès, first mate of the Pharaon, is accused of treason, arrested, and imprisoned without trial in the Château d'If, a grim island fortress off Marseilles.
A fellow prisoner, Abbé Faria, correctly deduces that his jealous rival, Fernand Mondego, envious crewmate, Danglars, and double-dealing Magistrate, Villefort, betrayed him.
Faria inspires his escape and guides him to a fortune in treasure.
As the powerful and mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, he arrives from the Orient to enter the fashionable Parisian world of the 1830s and avenge himself on the men who conspired to destroy him.
In 1815, Edmond Dantès, a young merchant sailor who has recently been granted the succession of his captain Leclère, returns to Marseille to marry his Catalan fiancée Mercédès.
Leclère, a supporter of the exiled Napoléon I, found himself dying at sea and charged Dantès to deliver two objects: a package to General Bertrand (exiled with Napoleon Bonaparte on Elba), and a letter from Elba to an unknown man in Paris.
On the eve of Dantès' wedding to Mercédès, Fernand Mondego (Mercédès' cousin and a rival for her affections) is given advice by Dantès' colleague Danglars (who is jealous of Dantès' rapid rise to captain) to send an anonymous note accusing Dantès of being a Bonapartist traitor.
Caderousse (Dantès' cowardly and selfish neighbor) is drunk while the two conspirators set the trap for Dantès and stays quiet as Dantès is arrested, then sentenced.
Villefort, the deputy crown prosecutor in Marseille, destroys the letter from Elba when he discovers that it is addressed to his own father, Noirtier (who is a Bonapartist), since if this letter came into official hands, it would destroy his ambitions and reputation as a staunch Royalist.
To silence Dantès, he condemns him without trial to life imprisonment.
After six years of imprisonment in the Château d'If, Dantès is on the verge of suicide when he befriends the Abbé Faria ("The Mad Priest"), a fellow prisoner who had dug an escape tunnel that ended up in Dantès' cell.
Over the next eight years, Faria gives Dantès an extensive education in language, culture, and science.
Knowing himself to be close to death, Faria tells Dantès the location of a treasure on the island of Monte Cristo.
When Faria dies, Dantès takes his place in the burial sack.
When the guards throw the sack into the sea, Dantès breaks through and swims to a nearby island.
He is rescued by a smuggling ship that stops at Monte Cristo.
After recovering the treasure, Dantès returns to Marseille.
He later purchases the island of Monte Cristo and the title of Count from the Tuscan government.
Traveling as the Abbé Busoni, Dantès meets Caderousse, now living in poverty, who regrets not intervening and possibly saving Dantès from prison.
He gives Caderousse a diamond that can be either a chance to redeem himself or a trap that will lead to his ruin.
Learning that his old employer Morrel is on the verge of bankruptcy, Dantès buys Morrel's debts and gives Morrel three months to fulfill his obligations.
At the end of the three months and with no way to repay his debts, Morrel is about to commit suicide when he learns that his debts have been mysteriously paid and that one of his lost ships has returned with a full cargo, secretly rebuilt and laden by Dantès.
Reappearing as the rich Count of Monte Cristo, Dantès begins his revenge on the three men responsible for his unjust imprisonment: Fernand, now Count de Morcerf and Mercédès' husband; Danglars, now a baron and a wealthy banker; and Villefort, now procureur du roi.
The Count appears first in Rome, where he becomes acquainted with the Baron Franz d'Épinay, and Viscount Albert de Morcerf, the son of Mercédès and Fernand.
Dantès arranges for the young Morcerf to be captured by the bandit Luigi Vampa and then seemingly rescues him from Vampa's gang.
The Count then moves to Paris and dazzles Danglars with his wealth, persuading him to extend him a credit of six million francs.
The Count manipulates the bond market and quickly destroys a large portion of Danglars' fortune.
The rest of it begins to rapidly disappear through mysterious bankruptcies, suspensions of payment, and more bad luck in the Stock Exchange.
Villefort had once conducted an affair with Madame Danglars.
She became pregnant and delivered the child in the house that the Count has now purchased.
To cover up the affair, Villefort told Madame Danglars that the infant was stillborn, smothered the child, and thinking him to be dead, buried him in the garden.
While Villefort was burying the child, he was stabbed by the smuggler Bertuccio, who unearthed the child and resuscitated him.
Bertuccio's sister-in-law brought the child up, giving him the name "Benedetto".
Benedetto takes up a life of crime as he grows into adolescence.
He decides to rob his adoptive mother (Bertuccio's sister-in-law) and ends up killing her, then runs away.
Bertuccio later becomes the Count's servant and informs him of this history.
Meanwhile, Benedetto has grown up to become a criminal and is sentenced to the galleys with Caderousse, who had sold the diamond, but killed both his wife and the buyer out of greed.
After Benedetto and Caderousse are freed by Dantès, using the alias "Lord Wilmore", the Count induces Benedetto to take the identity of "Viscount Andrea Cavalcanti" and introduces him into Parisian society.
Andrea ingratiates himself to Danglars, who betroths his daughter Eugénie to Andrea (not knowing they are half-siblings) after cancelling her engagement to Albert.
Meanwhile, Caderousse blackmails Andrea, threatening to reveal his past if he doesn't share his new-found wealth.
Cornered by "Abbé Busoni" while attempting to rob the Count's house, Caderousse begs to be given another chance.
Dantès forces him to write a letter to Danglars exposing Cavalcanti as an impostor and allows Caderousse to leave the house.
The moment Caderousse leaves the estate, he is stabbed by Andrea.
Caderousse dictates a deathbed statement identifying his killer, and the Count reveals his true identity to Caderousse moments before he dies.
Years before, Ali Pasha of Janina had been betrayed to the Turks by Fernand.
After Ali's death, Fernand sold Ali's wife Vasiliki and his daughter Haydée into slavery.
While Vasiliki died shortly afterwards, Dantès found and purchased Haydée.
The Count manipulates Danglars into researching the event, which is published in a newspaper.
As a result, Fernand is brought to trial for his crimes.
When Albert blames the Count for his father's downfall and challenges him to a duel, Mercédès, having already recognized Monte Cristo as Dantès, goes to the Count and begs him to spare her son.
During this interview, she learns the truth of his arrest and imprisonment.
She later reveals the truth to Albert, which causes Albert to make a public apology to the Count.
Albert and Mercédès disown Fernand, who is confronted with Dantès' true identity and commits suicide.
Albert and Mercédès renounce their titles and wealth and depart to begin new lives.
Valentine, Villefort's daughter by his late first wife, stands to inherit the fortune of her grandfather (Noirtier) and of her mother's parents (the Saint-Mérans), while Villefort's second wife Héloïse seeks the fortune for her son Édouard.
The Count is aware of Héloïse's intentions and introduces her to the technique of poison.
Héloïse fatally poisons the Saint-Mérans, so that Valentine inherits their fortune.
Valentine is disinherited by Noirtier in an attempt to prevent Valentine's impending marriage with Franz d'Épinay, whom she does not love.
The marriage is cancelled when d'Épinay learns that his father (believed assassinated by Bonapartists) was actually killed by Noirtier in a fair duel.
Afterwards, Valentine is reinstated in Noirtier's will.
After a failed attempt on Noirtier's life, Héloïse targets Valentine so that Édouard will get the fortune.
However, Valentine is the prime suspect in her father's eyes in the deaths of the Saint-Mérans and Noirtier's servant, Barrois.
On learning that Morrel's son Maximilien is in love with Valentine, the Count saves her by making it appear as though Héloïse's plan to poison Valentine has succeeded and that Valentine is dead.
Villefort learns from Noirtier that Héloïse is the real murderer and confronts her, giving her the choice of a public execution or committing suicide.
Fleeing after Caderousse's letter exposes him, Andrea is arrested and returned to Paris, where Villefort prosecutes him.
While in prison awaiting trial, Andrea is visited by Bertuccio, who tells him the truth about his father.
At his trial, Andrea reveals that he is Villefort's son and was rescued after Villefort buried him aliveVillefort admits his guilt and flees the court.
He rushes home to stop his wife's suicide but is too late; she has poisoned her son as well.
Dantès confronts Villefort, revealing his true identity, but this drives Villefort insane.
Dantès tries but fails to resuscitate Édouard, causing him to question if he has gone too far.
After the Count's manipulation of the bond market, Danglars is left with a destroyed reputation and 5,000,000 francs he has been holding in deposit for hospitals.
The Count demands this sum to fulfil their credit agreement, and Danglars embezzles the hospital fund.
Abandoning his wife, Danglars flees to Italy with the Count's receipt and 50,000 francs.
While leaving Rome, he is kidnapped by the Count's agent Luigi Vampa and is imprisoned.
Forced to pay exorbitant prices for food and nearly starved to death, Danglars signs away his ill-gotten gains.
Dantès anonymously returns the stolen money to the hospitals.
Danglars finally repents his crimes, and a softened Dantès forgives him and allows him to leave with his freedom and 50,000 francs.
Maximilien Morrel, believing Valentine to be dead, contemplates suicide after her funeral.
Dantès reveals his true identity and explains that he rescued Morrel's father from bankruptcy years earlier; he then tells Maximilien to reconsider his suicide.
On the island of Monte Cristo, Dantès presents Valentine to Maximilien and reveals the true sequence of events.
Having found peace, Dantès leaves the newly reunited couple part of his fortune and departs for an unknown destination to find comfort and a new life with Haydée, who has declared her love for him.
The reader is left with a final thought: "all human wisdom is contained in these two words, 'Wait and Hope'".
<EOS>
At the opening of the book, the narrator, an everyman named John (but calling himself Jonah), describes a time when he was planning to write a book about what important Americans did on the day Hiroshima was bombed.
While researching this topic, John becomes involved with the children of Felix Hoenikker, a Nobel laureate physicist who helped develop the atomic bomb.
John travels to Ilium, New York, to interview the Hoenikker children and others for his book.
In Ilium John meets, among others, dr Asa Breed, who was the supervisor "on paper" of Felix Hoenikker.
As the novel progresses, John learns of a substance called ice-nine, created by the late Hoenikker and now secretly in the possession of his children.
Ice-nine is an alternative structure of water that is solid at room temperature.
When a crystal of ice-nine contacts liquid water, it becomes a seed crystal that makes the molecules of liquid water arrange themselves into the solid form, ice-nine.
Felix Hoenikker's reason to create this substance was to aid in the military's plight of wading through mud and swamp areas while fighting.
That is, if ice-nine could reduce the wetness of the areas to a solid form, soldiers could easily maneuver across without becoming entrapped or slowed.
John and the Hoenikker children eventually end up on the fictional Caribbean island of San Lorenzo, one of the poorest countries on Earth, where the people speak a barely comprehensible creole of English (for example "twinkle, twinkle, little star" is rendered "Tsvent-kiul, tsvent-kiul, lett-pool store").
It is ruled by the dictator, "Papa" Monzano, who threatens all opposition with impalement on a giant hook.
San Lorenzo has an unusual culture and history, which John learns about while studying a guidebook lent to him by the newly appointed US ambassador to the country.
He learns about an influential religious movement in San Lorenzo, called Bokononism, a strange, postmodern faith that combines irreverent, nihilistic, and cynical observations about life and God's will with odd, but peaceful rituals (for instance, the supreme act of worship is an intimate act consisting of prolonged physical contact between the bare soles of the feet of two persons, supposed to result in peace and joy between the two communicants).
Though everyone on the island seems to know much about Bokononism and its founder, Bokonon, the present government calls itself Christian and practicing Bokononism is punishable by death on "the hook".
As the story progresses, it becomes clear that San Lorenzo society is more bizarre and cryptic than originally revealed.
In observing the interconnected lives of some of the island's most influential residents, John learns that Bokonon himself was at one point a de facto ruler of the island, along with a US Marine deserter.
The two men created Bokononism as part of a utopian project to control the population.
The ban was an attempt to give the religion a sense of forbidden glamour, and it is found that almost all of the residents of San Lorenzo, including the dictator, practice the faith, and executions are rare.
When John and the other travelers arrive on the island, they are greeted by President "Papa" Monzano, his adopted daughter Mona, and around five-thousand San Lorenzans.
It becomes clear that "Papa" Monzano is extremely ill, and he intends to name Franklin Hoenikker his successor.
Franklin, who finds it hard to talk with people, is uncomfortable with this arrangement, abruptly hands the presidency to John, who grudgingly accepts.
Franklin also suggests that John should marry Mona.
The dictator later uses ice-nine to commit suicide rather than succumb to his inoperable cancer.
Consistent with the properties of ice-nine, the dictator's corpse instantly turns into solid ice at room temperature.
This is followed by the freezing of Dr Schlichter von Koenigswald, "Papa" Monzano's doctor and a formerS.
Auschwitz physician, who accidentally ingests the ice-nine upon Monzano's examination.
John and the Hoenikkers plan to gather the bodies of both Monzano and his physician in order to ritualistically burn them on a funeral pyre, thereby eliminating the traces of ice-nine.
They also systematically cleanse the room with various heating methods, taking the utmost care.
It is here where John inquires as to how the ice-nine came into Papa Monzano's possession.
The Hoenikkers explain that when they were young, their father would riddle them with the concept of ice-nine.
One day, they find their father has died taking a break from freezing and unfreezing ice-nine to test its properties.
With the sweep of a cloth, Frank Hoenikker collects residual amounts of ice-nine from a cooking pan, as was the various collection and examination methods of their father when creating the substance.
A dog licks the cloth and also instantly freezes.
Witnessing this, the young Hoenikkers finally deduce the properties of ice-nine.
They collectively cannot determine who had what part in gathering the ice-nine, but chunks of the substance were chipped from the cooking pan supply and placed in mason jars then later in thermoses.
The Hoenikkers explain that this is how they had become fortunate throughout their lives, each one selling off the substance to various buyers.
During John's inauguration festivities, in which the American ambassador to San Lorenzo was going to speak, San Lorenzo's small air force was supposed to present a brief air show.
One of the airplanes crashes into the dictator's seaside palace and causes his still-frozen body to tumble into the ocean, and all the water in the world's seas, rivers, and groundwater turns into ice-nine, killing almost all life in a few days.
John manages to escape with Mona to a secret bunker.
They later discover a mass grave where all the surviving San Lorenzans had killed themselves with ice-nine, on the facetious advice of Bokonon.
Displaying a mix of grief and resigned amusement, Mona kills herself as well.
John takes refuge with a few other survivors (an American couple he had met on the plane to San Lorenzo and Felix Hoenikker's two sons), and lives in a cave for several months, during which time he writes a memoir revealed to be the novel itself.
The book ends by his meeting a weary Bokonon, who is contemplating what the last words of The Books of Bokonon should be.
Bokonon states that if he were younger, he would have climbed to the top of Mt.
McCabe, placed a book about human stupidity at the peak, and, through the administration of ice-nine, "make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who".
<EOS>
In 1838, Thomas Hutter lives in the fictional German city of Wisborg.
His employer, Knock, sends Hutter to Transylvania to visit a new client named Count Orlok.
Hutter entrusts his loving wife Ellen to his good friend Harding and Harding's sister Annie, before embarking on his long journey.
Nearing his destination in the Carpathian Mountains, Hutter stops at an inn for dinner.
The locals become frightened by the mere mention of Orlok's name and discourage him from traveling to his castle at night, warning of a werewolf on the prowl.
The next morning, Hutter takes a coach to a high mountain pass, but the coachmen decline to take him any further than the bridge as nightfall is approaching.
A black-swathed coach appears after Hutter crosses the bridge and the coachman gestures for him to climb aboard.
Hutter is welcomed at a castle by Count Orlok.
When Hutter is eating dinner and accidentally cuts his thumb, Orlok tries to suck the blood out, but his repulsed guest pulls his hand away.
Hutter wakes up to a deserted castle the morning after and notices fresh punctures on his neck which, in a letter he sends by courier on horseback to be delivered to his devoted wife, he attributes to mosquitoes.
That night, Orlok signs the documents to purchase the house across from Hutter's own home in Wisborg and notices a photo of Hutter's wife remarking that she has a lovely neck.
Reading a book about vampires that he took from the local inn, Hutter starts to suspect that Orlok is Nosferatu, the "Bird of Death".
He cowers in his room as midnight approaches, but there is no way to bar the door.
The door opens by itself and Orlok enters, his true nature finally revealed, and Hutter hides under the bedcovers and falls unconscious.
At the same time this is happening, his wife awakens from her sleep and in a trance walks towards the balcony and onto the railing.
Alarmed, Harding shouts Ellen's name and she faints while he asks for a doctor.
After the doctor arrives, she shouts Hutter's name remaining in the trance and apparently able to see Orlok in his castle threatening her unconscious husband.
The doctor believes this trance-like state is due to "blood congestion".
The next day, Hutter explores the castle.
In its crypt, he finds the coffin in which Orlok is resting dormant.
Hutter becomes horrified and dashes back to his room.
Hours later from the window, he sees Orlok piling up coffins on a coach and climbing into the last one before the coach departs.
Hutter escapes the castle through the window, but is knocked unconscious by the fall and awakens in a hospital.
When he is sufficiently recovered, he hurries home.
Meanwhile, the coffins are shipped down river on a raft.
They are transferred to a schooner, but not before one is opened by the crew, revealing a multitude of rats.
The sailors on the ship get sick one by one; soon all but the captain and first mate are dead.
Suspecting the truth, the first mate goes below to destroy the coffins.
However, Orlok awakens and the horrified sailor jumps into the sea.
Unaware of his danger, the captain becomes Orlok's latest victim when he ties himself to the wheel.
When the ship arrives in Wisborg, Orlok leaves unobserved, carrying one of his coffins, and moves into the house he purchased.
The next morning, when the ship is inspected, the captain is found dead.
After examining the logbook, the doctors assume they are dealing with the plague.
The town is stricken with panic, and people are warned to stay inside.
There are many deaths in the town, which are blamed on the plague.
Knock, who had been committed to a psychiatric ward, escapes after murdering the warden.
The townspeople give chase, but he eludes them by climbing a roof, then using a scarecrow.
Meanwhile, Orlok stares from his window at the sleeping Ellen.
Against her husband's wishes, Ellen had read the book he found.
The book claims that the way to defeat a vampire is for a woman who is pure in heart to distract the vampire with her beauty all through the night.
She opens her window to invite him in, but faints.
(In a deleted scene, the actress who played the hero's sister, Ruth Landshoff, was featured in this scene, where she was running along a beach fleeing from the vampire.
That scene is not in any version or restoration of the film, nor in the original script).
When Hutter revives her, she sends him to fetch Professor Bulwer.
After he leaves, Orlok comes in.
He becomes so engrossed drinking her blood that he forgets about the coming day.
When a rooster crows, Orlok vanishes in a puff of smoke as he tries to flee.
Ellen lives just long enough to be embraced by her grief-stricken husband.
The last scene shows Count Orlok's ruined castle in the Carpathian Mountains, symbolizing the end of his reign of terror.
<EOS>
The book details the everyday life of Mildred Lathbury, a spinster in her thirties in 1950s England.
Perpetually self-deprecating, but with the sharpest wit, Mildred keeps busy with near-romances (her own and those of others), church jumble sales, and of course the ubiquitous cup of tea.
Mildred's life grows more exciting with the arrival of new neighbours, anthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky - with whom Mildred fancies herself in love.
Through the Napiers, she meets another anthropologist, Everard Bone, and it is with him that Mildred will eventually form a relationship.
A sub-plot revolves around the activities of the local vicar, Julian Malory, who becomes engaged to a glamorous widow, Allegra Gray.
Allegra proceeds to ease out Julian's sister, Winifred, a close friend of Mildred's.
Eventually matters come to a head and Allegra leaves the vicarage after a quarrel.
In the meantime, Helena, who has been on the verge of leaving Rocky for Everard, accepts that Everard does not care for her and leaves the neighbourhood, along with Rocky.
As with most of Pym's books, the plot is less important than the precise drawing of the comic characters (such as Everard's elderly mother who is obsessed with the suppression of woodworm) and situations.
<EOS>
Alan Hook is a highly-strung and often unfortunate individual, constantly getting frustrated with the endeavours of his father Brian, and forever venting his anger at the world around him.
His long-suffering wife Beryl tries her best to keep her husband calm, though this proves difficult due to Brian, who, without meaning to, is always getting on his son's nerves with his over engineered ideas, and old fashioned ways.
Then there is Alan's own son Vincent, a typical moody teenager who Alan seems to be forever embarrassing.
<EOS>
In 1975, bodybuilders are preparing for the upcoming mr Universe amateur competition and mr Olympia professional competition in Pretoria, South Africa.
The first part of the film documents the life of Mike Katz, a hopeful for the title of mr Universe.
Katz was bullied in his youth for being Jewish and wearing glasses, which spurred him to become a pro football player; when his career with the New York Jets was ended by a leg injury, he became a bodybuilder.
His psychological balance is thrown off by a prank by fellow contender Ken Waller, who steals Katz's lucky shirt before the competition.
Waller wins mr Universe and Katz comes in fourth.
Fighting back tears, Katz cheerfully appraises the situation before calling home to check on his wife and children.
He then congratulates Waller.
The film then switches focus to the rivalry between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, professional bodybuilders competing for the title of mr Olympia.
Schwarzenegger, at this point a ten-year veteran of bodybuilding, has won mr Olympia for five consecutive years and intends to retire after a final competition.
Ferrigno, who at a height of 6 ft 5 in (196 m) and 275&nbsp;lb (125&nbsp;kg) is the largest bodybuilder to date, is determined to be the man to finally dethrone Schwarzenegger.
The film contrasts each man's personality, home environment, and training style: Schwarzenegger is extroverted, aggressive, and works out with other bodybuilders at Gold's Gym and Muscle Beach, whereas the quiet, reserved Ferrigno—who went partially deaf after a childhood ear infection—trains with his father in a dimly lit, private, basement gym.
While Ferrigno surrounds himself with his family, Schwarzenegger is accompanied wherever he goes by other bodybuilders, reporters, and beautiful women.
In between interviews and workout demonstrations with Ferrigno and Schwarzenegger, the latter explains the basic concepts behind bodybuilding.
Although he emphasizes the importance of physique in bodybuilding, Schwarzenegger also stresses the psychological aspects of competition, crediting meticulously crafted strategies of psychological warfare against his opponents for his numerous victories.
The film briefly looks at Schwarzenegger's training partner, Franco Columbu, a favorite to win the under-200 lb division at mr Olympia.
A former boxer from the tiny village of Ollolai, Sardinia, Columbu returns home to celebrate a traditional dinner with his family, who still adhere to old world values and are skeptical of the overt aggression of boxing and bodybuilding.
Nevertheless, Columbu impresses his family with a display of strength by lifting the back end of a car and moving it down a street.
In South Africa, Schwarzenegger wages his psychological warfare on Ferrigno, befriending Ferrigno and then subtly insulting him over breakfast with Ferrigno's family.
Schwarzenegger later attends the judging for the under-200 lb class to scope out who his competition will be for the overall mr Olympia title, jokingly disparaging Columbu.
The appearance of Ed Corney stuns Schwarzenegger, who praises another bodybuilder for the only time in the film, openly admiring Corney's physique and posing prowess.
Columbu places first and he moves on to compete against the winner of the over-200 lb category.
Schwarzenegger, Ferrigno, and Serge Nubret prepare to go onstage and compete for the over-200 lb category.
In the locker room, Schwarzenegger engages in some last-minute intimidation of Ferrigno, who is visibly shaken onstage and subsequently ends up placing third behind Nubret and Schwarzenegger, who is declared the winner.
Schwarzenegger and Columbu engage in a posedown for the title of mr Olympia.
Schwarzenegger uses his stage presence and intimidating looks to unnerve Columbu, and is declared mr Olympia.
In a post-victory speech, he announces his official retirement from professional bodybuilding.
Later, at an after-party for the competitors, Schwarzenegger celebrates his victory by smoking marijuana and eating fried chicken.
With the competition over, he wishes Ferrigno happy birthday and leads the other competitors in singing "Happy Birthday to You" as a cake is revealed.
The film ends with Schwarzenegger, Ferrigno, and Ferrigno's parents riding together to the airport.
<EOS>
The Wise Little Hen of the title is looking for someone to help her plant her corn.
Peter Pig and Donald Duck both feign belly aches to get out of the chore since they would rather play than work.
So, with help from her chicks, she plants it herself.
Harvest time comes; again, Peter and Donald claim belly aches, but the hen sees through this when boards of their clubhouse fall off showing their little act when they shake hands with each other for getting out of doing work.
She cooks up a variety of corn dishes, and heads over to Peter and Donald to help her eat them, but before she can open her mouth, they already fake their belly aches.
Once she asks, they are miraculously "cured" but all she gives them is castor oil, to teach them a lesson.
As the hen and her chicks eats the corn themselves, Peter and Donald, with nothing but an appetite, repent with all their might by kicking each other on the rear.
<EOS>
The Scarlet Pimpernel is set in 1792, during the early stages of the French Revolution.
Marguerite st Just, a beautiful French actress, is the wife of wealthy English fop Sir Percy Blakeney, a baronet.
Before their marriage, Marguerite took revenge upon the Marquis de st Cyr, who had ordered her brother to be beaten for his romantic interest in the Marquis' daughter, with the unintended consequence of the Marquis and his sons being sent to the guillotine.
When Percy found out, he became estranged from his wife.
Marguerite, for her part, became disillusioned with Percy's shallow, dandyish lifestyle.
Meanwhile, the "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel", a secret society of twenty English aristocrats, "one to command, and nineteen to obey", is engaged in rescuing their French counterparts from the daily executions of the Reign of Terror.
Their leader, the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, takes his nickname from the small red flower he draws on his messages.
Despite being the talk of London society, only his followers and possibly the Prince of Wales know the Pimpernel's true identity.
Like many others, Marguerite is entranced by the Pimpernel's daring exploits.
At a ball attended by the Blakeneys, a verse by Percy about the "elusive Pimpernel" makes the rounds and amuses the other guests.
Meanwhile, Marguerite is blackmailed by Citizen Chauvelin, the wily new French envoy to England.
Chauvelin's agents have stolen a letter proving her beloved brother Armand is in league with the Pimpernel.
Chauvelin offers to trade Armand's life for her help against the Pimpernel.
Contemptuous of her seemingly witless and unloving husband, Marguerite does not go to him for help or advice.
Instead, she passes along information which enables Chauvelin to learn the Pimpernel's true identity.
Later that night, Marguerite finally tells her husband of the terrible danger threatening her brother and pleads for his assistance.
Percy promises to save him.
After Percy unexpectedly leaves for France, Marguerite discovers to her horror (and simultaneous delight) that he is the Pimpernel.
He had hidden behind the persona of a dull, slow-witted fop to deceive the world.
He had not told Marguerite because of his worry that she might betray him, as she had the Marquis de st Cyr.
Desperate to save her husband, she decides to pursue Percy to France to warn him that Chauvelin knows his identity and his purpose.
She persuades Sir Andrew Ffoulkes to accompany her, but because of the tide and the weather, neither they nor Chauvelin can leave immediately.
At Calais, Percy openly approaches Chauvelin in the Chat gris, a decrepit inn whose owner is in Percy's pay.
Despite Chauvelin's best efforts, the Englishman manages to escape by offering Chauvelin a pinch of snuff, which turns out to be pure pepper.
Through a bold plan executed right under Chauvelin's nose, Percy rescues Marguerite's brother Armand and the Comte de Tournay, the father of a schoolfriend of Marguerite's.
Marguerite pursues Percy right to the very end, resolute that she must either warn him or share his fate.
Percy, heavily disguised, is captured by Chauvelin, who does not recognise him so he is able to escape.
With Marguerite's love and courage amply proven, Percy's ardour is rekindled.
Safely back on board their schooner, the Day Dream, the happily reconciled couple returns to England.
Sir Andrew marries the count's daughter, Suzanne.
<EOS>
By late 1944, it is obvious that the Germans will lose the war.
American Colonel Devlin (Gary Merrill) leads a military intelligence unit that recruits German prisoners of war to spy on their former comrades.
"Tiger" (Hans Christian Blech), a cynical older thief and ex-circus worker, is willing to work for the winning side.
On the other hand, "Happy" (Oskar Werner) is a young idealist who volunteers to spy after his friend is killed by fanatical fellow prisoners for voicing doubts about the war's outcome.
Monique (Dominique Blanchar) trains Happy and the others in espionage techniques; she takes a liking to the young man, despite her hatred for Germans.
One day, Devlin receives word that a German general is willing to negotiate the surrender of his entire corps.
Naturally, this is given top priority; because of the importance of the mission, an American officer has to go along.
Devlin selects Lieutenant Rennick (Richard Basehart), a newcomer who distrusts the German turncoats.
Tiger is chosen because he is the only one who knows the area, but he is under suspicion after returning from his last mission without his teammate.
Happy is assigned the related task of locating the 11th Panzer Corps, which might oppose the wholesale defection.
They parachute out of the same plane into Germany, then split up.
In the course of his search on bus and train rides, in guest houses and taverns, and braving Allied air raids, Happy encounters Germans with differing attitudes towards the war, some still defiant, such as Waffen SS courier Scholtz (Wilfred Seyferth), some resigned, like the young war widow Hilde (Hildegard Knef).
Happy accomplishes his mission by a stroke of luck.
Posing as a medic returning to his unit, he is commandeered to stay and treat Oberst von Ecker (OE.
Hasse), the commander of the 11th Panzer, at his castle headquarters.
Happy has an opportunity to inject von Ecker with a lethal overdose of medicine, but does not do so.
Afterwards, Happy narrowly escapes being captured by the Gestapo.
He makes his way to the safe house in the ruins of the heavily-bombed Mannheim, where the other two agents are hiding out.
Meanwhile, Tiger and Rennick have learned that the general they were to contact was supposedly injured, but the hospital where he has been taken is under SS guard; without him, the other German officers cannot and will not surrender to the Allies.
Their radio is knocked out, so Happy, Tiger, and Rennick are forced to try to swim across the heavily defended Rhine River to get to the American lines with the vital information.
At the last moment, Tiger loses his nerve and runs away, forcing Rennick to shoot him.
He and Happy then swim to an island in the middle of the river.
When they start for the other shore, they are spotted by the German defenders.
Happy creates a diversion, is captured and executed as a deserter, but his sacrifice enables the lieutenant to make it to safety, with a changed attitude about some Germans.
<EOS>
The book explores the aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus through the experiences of the Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio and his Greek slave Demetrius.
Prince Gaius, in an effort to rid Rome of Marcellus, banishes Marcellus to the command of the Roman garrison at Minoa, a port city in southern Palestine.
In Jerusalem during Passover, Marcellus ends up carrying out the crucifixion of Jesus but is troubled since he believes Jesus is innocent of any crime.
Marcellus and some other soldiers throw dice to see who will take Jesus' seamless robe.
Marcellus wins and asks Demetrius to take care of the robe.
Following the crucifixion, Marcellus takes part in a banquet attended by Pontius Pilate.
During the banquet, a drunken centurion insists that Marcellus wear Jesus' robe.
Reluctantly wearing the garment, Marcellus apparently suffers a nervous breakdown and returns to Rome.
Sent to Athens to recuperate, Marcellus finally gives in to Demetrius' urging and touches the robe, and his mind is subsequently restored.
Marcellus, now believing the robe has some sort of innate power, returns to Judea, follows the path Jesus took, and meets many people whose lives Jesus had affected.
Based upon their experiences first Demetrius and then Marcellus becomes a follower of Jesus.
Marcellus then returns to Rome, where he must report his experiences to the emperor, Tiberius.
Marcellus frees Demetrius, who escapes.
However, later on, because of his uncompromising stance regarding his Christian faith, both Marcellus and his new wife Diana are executed by the new emperor, Caligula.
Marcellus arranges that the robe be given to "The Big Fisherman" (Simon Peter).
<EOS>
The action occurs between 2 and 29 December 1170, chronicling the days leading up to the martyrdom of Thomas Becket following his absence of seven years in France.
Becket's internal struggle is the main focus of the play.
The book is divided into two parts.
Part one takes place in the Archbishop Thomas Becket's hall on 2 December 1170.
The play begins with a Chorus singing, foreshadowing the coming violence.
The Chorus is a key part of the drama, with its voice changing and developing during the play, offering comments about the action and providing a link between the audience and the characters and action, as in Greek drama.
Three priests are present, and they reflect on the absence of Becket and the rise of temporal power.
A herald announces Becket’s arrival.
Becket is immediately reflective about his coming martyrdom, which he embraces, and which is understood to be a sign of his own selfishness—his fatal weakness.
The tempters arrive, three of whom parallel the Temptations of Christ.
The first tempter offers the prospect of physical safety.
The second offers power, riches and fame in serving the King.
The third tempter suggests a coalition with the barons and a chance to resist the King.
Finally, a fourth tempter urges him to seek the glory of martyrdom.
Becket responds to all of the tempters and specifically addresses the immoral suggestions of the fourth tempter at the end of the first act:  The Interlude of the play is a sermon given by Becket on Christmas morning 1170.
It is about the strange contradiction that Christmas is a day both of mourning and rejoicing, which Christians also do for martyrs.
He announces at the end of his sermon, "it is possible that in a short time you may have yet another martyr".
We see in the sermon something of Becket's ultimate peace of mind, as he elects not to seek sainthood, but to accept his death as inevitable and part of a better whole.
Part II of the play takes place in the Archbishop's Hall and in the Cathedral, 29 December 1170.
Four knights arrive with "Urgent business" from the king.
These knights had heard the king speak of his frustration with Becket, and had interpreted this as an order to kill Becket.
They accuse him of betrayal, and he claims to be loyal.
He tells them to accuse him in public, and they make to attack him, but priests intervene.
The priests insist that he leave and protect himself, but he refuses.
The knights leave and Becket again says he is ready to die.
The chorus sings that they knew this conflict was coming, that it had long been in the fabric of their lives, both temporal and spiritual.
The chorus again reflects on the coming devastation.
Thomas is taken to the Cathedral, where the knights break in and kill him.
The chorus laments: “Clean the air.
Clean the sky.
", and "The land is foul, the water is foul, our beasts and ourselves defiled with blood".
At the close of the play, the knights step up, address the audience, and defend their actions.
The murder was all right and for the best: it was in the right spirit, sober, and justified so that the church's power would not undermine stability and state power.
<EOS>
The story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town (historical Tarrytown, New York), in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow.
Sleepy Hollow is renowned for its ghosts and the haunting atmosphere that pervades the imaginations of its inhabitants and visitors.
Some residents say this town was bewitched during the early days of the Dutch settlement.
Other residents say an old Native American chief, the wizard of his tribe, held his powwows here before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson.
The most infamous spectre in the Hollow is the Headless Horseman, said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper that had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head".
The "Legend" relates the tale of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel.
Crane, a Yankee and an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassel's extravagant wealth.
Bones, the local hero, vies with Ichabod for Katrina's hand, playing a series of pranks on the jittery schoolmaster, and the fate of Sleepy Hollow's fortune weighs in the balance for some time.
The tension between the three is soon brought to a head.
On a placid autumn night, the ambitious Crane attends a harvest party at the Van Tassels' homestead.
He dances, partakes in the feast, and listens to ghostly legends told by Brom and the locals, but his true aim is to propose to Katrina after the guests leave.
His intentions, however, are ill-fated.
After having failed to secure Katrina's hand, Ichabod rides home "heavy-hearted and crestfallen" through the woods between Van Tassel's farmstead and the Sleepy Hollow settlement.
As he passes several purportedly haunted spots, his active imagination is engorged by the ghost stories told at Baltus' harvest party.
After nervously passing under a lightning-stricken tulip tree purportedly haunted by the ghost of British spy Major André, Ichabod encounters a cloaked rider at an intersection in a menacing swamp.
Unsettled by his fellow traveler's eerie size and silence, the teacher is horrified to discover that his companion's head is not on his shoulders, but on his saddle.
In a frenzied race to the bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burying Ground, where the Hessian is said to "vanish, according to rule, in a flash of fire and brimstone" upon crossing it, Ichabod rides for his life, desperately goading his temperamental plow horse down the Hollow.
However, to Crane's horror, the ghoul clambers over the bridge, rears his horse, and hurls his severed head into Ichabod's terrified face.
The next morning, Ichabod has mysteriously disappeared from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was said "to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related".
Indeed, the only relics of the schoolmaster's flight are his wandering horse, trampled saddle, discarded hat, and a mysterious shattered pumpkin.
Although the nature of the Headless Horseman is left open to interpretation, the story implies that the ghost was really Brom (an agile stunt rider) in disguise.
Irving's narrator concludes, however, by stating that the old Dutch wives continue to promote the belief that Ichabod was "spirited away by supernatural means," and a legend develops around his disappearance and sightings of his melancholy spirit.
<EOS>
In 1984, in a Pennsylvania countryside, an Amish community attends the funeral of Jacob Lapp, who leaves behind a widow Rachel (McGillis) and an eight-year-old son Samuel (Haas).
In her grief, she and Samuel travel by train to visit Rachel's sister, which takes them into the city of Philadelphia.
Samuel is amazed by the sights in the big city.
While waiting for a connecting train at the 30th Street Station, Samuel goes into the men's room and witnesses two men attack and murder a third (Carhart), narrowly escaping detection as he hides in the bathroom stalls.
Detective John Book (Ford) is assigned to the case and he and his partner, Sergeant Elton Carter (Jennings), question Samuel.
It turns out the victim was an undercover police officer.
Samuel is unable to identify the lone perpetrator whose face he saw in the bathroom from a number of mug shots or a police lineup.
However, as Samuel walks around the police station, he notices a newspaper clipping in a display case in which narcotics officer James McFee (Glover) is honored for his exemplary service in the line of duty.
Book sees Samuel point to the picture and quickly covers over his hand.
John remembers that McFee was previously responsible for a drug raid on expensive chemicals used to make amphetamines, but the evidence had mysteriously disappeared.
John confides his suspicions to his superior officer, Chief Paul Schaeffer (Sommer), who advises John to keep the case secret so they can work out how to move forward.
But John is later ambushed in a parking garage and badly wounded by McFee.
Since only Schaeffer knew of John's suspicions, John realizes Schaeffer must have tipped McFee off, and is also corrupt.
John calls Carter and orders him to remove the Lapp file from the records.
He then hides his car and uses his sister's car to return Rachel and Samuel to Lancaster County.
While attempting to return to the city, John passes out in the vehicle in front of their farm.
Rachel argues that taking John to a hospital would allow the corrupt police officers to find him while also putting Samuel in danger as well.
Her father-in-law Eli (Rubes) reluctantly agrees to shelter him, despite his distrust for the gun-carrying outsider.
John slowly recovers in their care, and begins to develop feelings for Rachel, who is likewise drawn to him.
The Lapps' neighbor Daniel Hochleitner (Godunov) had hoped to court her, and this becomes a cause of friction.
Later Rachel and John are caught dancing, and Eli takes her aside and warns that she could be shunned by the community if she continues on this path.
John's relationship with the Amish community grows as they learn he is skilled at carpentry.
He is invited to participate in a barn raising for a newly married couple and gains Hochleitner's respect.
However, the attraction between John and Rachel is evident and clearly concerns Eli and others, especially when she serves John first at a meal.
That night, John comes upon Rachel as she bathes, and she stands half-naked before him, but he walks away, explaining the next morning that if they had made love the night before he would have to stay or she would have to leave.
John goes into town with Eli to use a payphone, and learns that Carter has been killed.
He deduces that it was Schaeffer and McFee, who are intensifying their efforts to find him and are joined by a third corrupt officer, "Fergie" Ferguson (MacInnes), who helped McFee commit the murder at the station.
In town, Hochleitner and the other Amish men are harassed by locals.
Breaking with the Amish tradition of nonviolence, John retaliates with a punch.
The fight is reported to the local police.
Thus far, Schaeffer had been unable to track down which 'Lapp' family John was hiding out with, but such an incident would surely tip off Schaeffer where to go.
His cover blown, John knows he must leave.
Rachel is upset at the news.
When she is alone she removes her bonnet and goes to John, and they passionately kiss.
The next day, the corrupt officers arrive at the Lapp farm and search for John and Samuel, taking Rachel and Eli hostage in the process, but not before Eli shouts a warning to John about the officers' presence.
John orders Samuel to run to Hochleitner's home for safety, then tricks Fergie into the corn silo and suffocates him under tons of corn.
He retrieves Fergie's shotgun and kills McFee.
Schaeffer then forces Rachel and Eli out of the house at gunpoint; Eli signals to Samuel (who has returned unseen) to ring the farm's bell.
John confronts Schaeffer, who forces him to give up his shotgun by threatening to kill Rachel.
However, the loud clanging from the farm bell summons the Amish neighbors within earshot.
With so many witnesses, Schaeffer realizes he can't escape, and gives up; the local police arrive and arrest him.
As John prepares to leave, he says goodbye to Samuel in the fields.
He and Rachel share a long, speechless stare on the porch, as both realize their feelings for each other could not continue.
Finally, Eli wishes him well "out there among the English".
Book smiles, drives away in his now-fixed car, and exchanges a wave of farewell to Hochleitner along the road out.
<EOS>
The novel is set during May and June 1914; war was evident in Europe, Richard Hannay the protagonist and narrator, an expatriate Scot, returns to his new home, a flat in London, after a long stay in Rhodesia to begin a new life.
One night he is buttonholed by a stranger, a well-travelled American, who claims to be in fear for his life.
The man appears to know of an anarchist plot to destabilise Europe, beginning with a plan to assassinate the Greek Premier, Constantine Karolides, during his forthcoming visit to London.
The man reveals his name to be Franklin Scudder, a freelance spy, and remarks that he is dead, which holds Hannay's attention.
Scudder explains that he has faked his own death in order to avert suspicion.
Scudder claims to be following a ring of German spies called the Black Stone who are trying to steal British plans for the outbreak of war.
Hannay lets Scudder hide in his flat, and sure enough the next day another man is discovered having apparently committed suicide in the same building.
Four days later Hannay returns home to find Scudder dead with a knife through his heart.
Hannay fears that the murderers will come for him next, but cannot ask the police for help because he is the most likely suspect for the murders as he lived in the same building.
He also feels a duty to take up Scudder's cause and save Karolides from the assassination.
He decides to go into hiding in Scotland and then to contact the authorities at the last minute.
In order to escape from his flat unseen, he bribes the milkman into lending him his uniform and exits wearing it, escaping from the German spies watching the house.
Carrying Scudder's pocket-book, he catches an express train leaving from London st Pancras station.
Hannay fixes upon Galloway, in south-west Scotland, as a suitably remote place in which to make his escape and remembers somehow the town of Newton-Stewart, which he names as his destination when he buys his ticket from the guard.
Arriving at a remote station somewhere in Galloway (apparently not Newton Stewart itself), Hannay lodges in a shepherd's cottage.
The next morning he reads in a newspaper that the police are looking for him in Scotland.
Reasoning that the police would expect him to head for a port on the West Coast, he boards a local train heading east, but jumps off between stations.
He is seen but escapes, finding an inn where he stays the night.
He tells the innkeeper a modified version of his story, and the man is persuaded to shelter him.
While staying at the inn, Hannay cracks the substitution cipher used in Scudder's pocket-sized book.
The next day two men arrive at the inn looking for Hannay, but the innkeeper sends them away.
When they return later, Hannay steals their car and escapes.
On his way, Hannay reflects on what he has learnt from Scudder's notes.
They contradict the story that Scudder first told to him, and mention an enemy group called the Black Stone and the mysterious Thirty-nine Steps.
The United Kingdom appears to be in danger of an invasion by Germany and its allies.
By this time, Hannay is being pursued by an aeroplane, and a policeman in a remote village has tried to stop him.
Trying to avoid an oncoming car, Hannay crashes his own, but the other driver offers to take him home.
The man is Sir Harry, a local landowner and prospective politician, although politically very naïve.
When he learns of Hannay's experiences in South Africa, he invites him to address an election meeting that afternoon.
Hannay's speech impresses Sir Harry, and Hannay feels able to trust him with his story.
Sir Harry writes an introductory letter about Hannay to a relation in the Foreign Office.
Hannay leaves Sir Harry and tries to hide in the countryside, but is spotted by the aeroplane.
Soon he spots a group of men on the ground searching for him.
Miraculously, he meets a road mender out on the moor, and swaps places with him, sending the workman home.
His disguise fools his pursuers, who pass him by.
On the same road he meets, in a passing touring car, a Society sycophant whom he recognizes from London and whom he forces to exchange clothes with him and drive him off the moor.
The next day, Hannay manages to stay ahead of the pursuers, and hides in a cottage occupied by an elderly man.
Unfortunately, the man turns out to be one of the enemy, and with his accomplices he locks Hannay into his storage room.
Fortunately, the room in which Hannay is locked is full of bomb-making materials, which he uses to break out of the cottage, injuring himself in the process.
A day later, Hannay retrieves his possessions from the helpful road mender and stays for a few days to recover from the explosion.
He dines at a public house in Moffat before walking to the junction at Beattock to catch a southbound train to England, changing at Crewe, Birmingham New Street and Reading, to meet Sir Harry's relative at the Foreign Office, Sir Walter Bullivant, at his country home in Berkshire.
As they discuss Scudder's notes, Sir Walter receives a phone call to tell him that Karolides has been assassinated.
Sir Walter, now at his house in London, lets Hannay in on some military secrets before releasing him to go home.
Hannay,unable to shake off his sense of involvement, returns to Sir Walter's house where a high-level meeting is in progress.
As one of the men, ostensibly the First Sea Lord, leaves the meeting, Hannay recognizes him as one of his former pursuers in Scotland.
Hannay warns Sir Walter and the other officials that the man was an impostor, and they realise the spy is about to return to Europe with the information he has obtained from their meeting.
At that point, Hannay realises that the phrase "the thirty-nine steps" could refer to the landing-point in England from which the spy is about to set sail.
Throughout the night, Hannay and the British military leaders try to work out the meaning of the mysterious phrase.
After some reasoning worthy of Sherlock Holmes, and with the help of a knowledgeable coastguard, the group decide on a coastal town in Kent.
They find a path down from the cliff that has thirty-nine steps.
Just offshore they see a yacht.
Posing as fishermen, some of the party visit the yacht, the Ariadne, and find that at least one of the crew appears to be German.
The only people onshore are playing tennis by a villa and appear to be English, but they match Scudder's description of the conspirators, The Black Stone.
Hannay, alone, confronts the men at the villa.
After a struggle, two of the men are captured while the third flees to the yacht, which meanwhile has been seized by the British authorities.
The plot is thwarted, and the United Kingdom enters the First World War, having kept its military secrets from the enemy.
On the outbreak of war, Hannay joins the New Army and is immediately commissioned captain.
<EOS>
In 1986 Yokosuka, Japan, teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki returns to his family dojo to witness a confrontation between his father Iwao and a Chinese man, Lan Di.
Ryo intervenes, but is easily incapacitated.
Lan Di demands Iwao give him a mysterious stone artifact known as the dragon mirror.
When he threatens to kill Ryo, Iwao tells him the mirror is buried under the cherry blossom tree outside.
As his men recover the mirror, Lan Di mentions a man Iwao allegedly killed in China.
He delivers a finishing blow and Iwao dies in Ryo's arms.
Ryo swears revenge on Lan Di.
He begins his investigation by interviewing people about what they witnessed.
Just as he is about to run out of leads, a letter addressed to Ryo's father arrives from a Chinese man named Zhu Yuanda suggesting he seek the aid of Master Chen, who works at Yokosuka Harbor.
Through Chen and his son Guizhang, Ryo learns that the dragon mirror taken by Lan Di is one of two mirrors.
He locates the second, the phoenix mirror, in a hidden basement beneath his father's dojo.
Chen reveals that Lan Di has left Japan for Hong Kong.
Ryo borrows money to buy a plane ticket from a disreputable travel agency; when he goes to collect the ticket, he is ambushed by Chai, a member of Lan Di's criminal organization, the Chi You Men, who destroys his ticket.
Ryo learns that the Chi You Men is connected to the local harbor gang, the Mad Angels, and takes a job at the harbor as a forklift driver to investigate.
After he causes trouble, the Mad Angels kidnap his schoolfriend Nozomi.
Ryo rescues her and makes a deal with the Mad Angels leader to beat up Guizhang in exchange for a meeting with Lan Di.
Ryo realizes the deal is a trap and teams up with Guizhang to defeat the Mad Angels.
Ryo arranges to take a boat to Hong Kong with Guizhang.
On the day of departure, they are attacked by Chai.
Ryo defeats him, but Guizhang is injured in the fight and urges Ryo to go without him, saying he will meet him in China later.
Chen advises Ryo to seek the help of a martial artist in Hong Kong named Lishao Tao.
Ryo boards the boat and leaves for Hong Kong.
<EOS>
After his wife is killed in a car accident (later retconned in Season Eight to have been brought about by a drunk driver), news anchorman Danny Tanner recruits his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis (a rock musician) and best friend Joey Gladstone (who works as a stand-up comedian) to help raise his three young daughters:J, Stephanie, and Michelle, in his San Francisco home.
Over time, the three men as well as the children bond and become closer to one another.
In season two, Danny is reassigned from his duties as sports anchor by his television station to become co-host of a local morning television show, Wake Up, San Francisco, and is teamed up with Nebraska native Rebecca Donaldson.
Jesse and Becky eventually fall in love and get married in season four.
In season five, Becky gives birth to twin sons, Nicky and Alex.
<EOS>
The book revolves around the life of Ken Nott, a radio DJ on a London station called Capital Live.
The first person narrative begins on 11 September 2001, and Banks uses the protagonist's conversations - both on the radio and off - to discuss the consequences of the terrorist attacks in the United States on that day.
Ken Nott is at a loft party in London at the crucial moment.
The reader hears many of Nott's shock-jock lines ("Guns for nutters only; makes sense".
) and sees him described as a sexually promiscuous party animal fuelled by alcohol and other drugs.
His politics are left-wing and libertarian, and he rants at every chance.
Nott's various girlfriends (including Jo, who does public relations for an indie band called Addicta), his long-suffering radio show colleague Phil, and his black DJ friend Ed are described.
Apart from the expected difficulties associated with being a politically controversial radio DJ, everything is going smoothly for Ken until he meets Celia (or "Ceel"), a gangster's wife, who he falls in love with.
An indiscretion with a mobile phone and an answering machine leads him into some difficult and frightening situations.
<EOS>
An elderly Jesuit priest named Father Lankester Merrin is leading an archaeological dig in northern Iraq and is studying ancient relics.
After discovering a small statue of the demon Pazuzu (an actual ancient Assyrian demigod), a series of omens alerts him to a pending confrontation with a powerful evil, which, unknown to the reader at this point, he has battled before in an exorcism in Africa.
Meanwhile, in Georgetown, a young girl named Regan MacNeil is living with her famous mother, actress Chris MacNeil, who is in Georgetown filming a movie.
As Chris finishes her work on the film, Regan begins to become inexplicably ill.
After a gradual series of poltergeist-like disturbances in their rented house, for which Chris attempts to find rational explanations, Regan begins to rapidly undergo disturbing psychological and physical changes: she refuses to eat or sleep, becomes withdrawn and frenetic, and increasingly aggressive and violent.
Chris initially mistakes Regan's behavior as a result of repressed anger over her parents' divorce and absent father.
After several unsuccessful psychiatric and medical treatments, Regan's mother, an atheist, turns to a local Jesuit priest for help as Regan's personality becomes increasingly disturbed.
Father Damien Karras, who is currently going through a crisis of faith coupled with the loss of his mother, agrees to see Regan as a psychiatrist, but initially resists the notion that it is an actual demonic possession.
After a few meetings with the child, now completely inhabited by a diabolical personality, he turns to the local bishop for permission to perform an exorcism on the child.
The bishop with whom he consults does not believe Karras is qualified to perform the rites, and appoints the experienced Merrin—who has recently returned to the United States—to perform the exorcism, although he does allow the doubt-ridden Karras to assist him.
The lengthy exorcism tests the priests both physically and spiritually.
When Merrin, who had previously suffered cardiac arrhythmia, dies during the process, completion of the exorcism ultimately falls upon Father Karras.
When he demands that the demonic spirit inhabit him instead of the innocent Regan, the demon seizes the opportunity to possess the priest.
Karras heroically surrenders his own life in exchange for Regan's by jumping out of her bedroom window and falling to his death, regaining his faith in God as his last rites are read.
<EOS>
Sarah Bailey, a troubled teenager, has just moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles with her father and stepmother.
At her new school, she forms a friendship with a group of girls rumored to be witches, Bonnie, Nancy and Rochelle.
At the same time, Sarah becomes attracted to the popular Chris.
Bonnie, Nancy and Rochelle worship a powerful deity named "Manon".
Sarah exhibits supernatural powers from the onset of the film (revealed to being a "natural witch,"e.
born of a parent who practiced witchcraft) and her new friends believe that she will complete their coven, making them all-powerful.
When Sarah is harassed by a vagrant with a snake (whom she had encountered before in her new house), he is immediately hit by a car and the girls believe that together they willed it to happen.
After a date with Chris, Sarah is upset to learn that he has spread a false rumor that they had sex.
When Sarah confronts him, he treats her disrespectfully in front of his friends.
Sarah casts a love spell upon him; Rochelle casts a revenge spell on a hateful racist bully, Laura Lizzie; Bonnie casts a spell for beauty; and Nancy for liberation from working-class poverty.
It becomes clear that the spells have been successful: Chris becomes infatuated with Sarah, scars that Bonnie has on her back are completely healed by an experimental gene therapy, Laura loses her hair, and Nancy's abusive stepfather has a heart attack and dies, leaving a large insurance policy which makes her mother rich.
Nancy lusts for more power and encourages the others to join her in a rite called "Invocation of the Spirit".
To do so, she plans to "call the corners" by creating a fire on a beach, so that all four natural elements (earth, fire, air, and water) can be called upon by the four separate girls, to grant them further supernatural abilities.
On completion of the spell, Nancy is struck by lightning, and all four girls fall unconscious.
Afterward Nancy is seen walking on water, claims to sense Manon in all things, lacks empathy and begins taking risks with her life and those of others.
The girls' spells soon bring negative consequences: Bonnie becomes aggressively narcissistic; Laura Lizzie is traumatized by her baldness and becomes hysterical; and Chris attempts to rape Sarah when she rejects his continual advances.
Nancy uses a glamour spell to make herself look like Sarah, and then seduces Chris.
They are interrupted by the real Sarah, who insists that Nancy leave with her.
Chris is upset about being fooled, and taunts Nancy that she is jealous.
Nancy uses her power to push him out of a second-story window, killing him.
Sarah performs a binding spell to prevent Nancy from doing more harm.
The binding fails, and the coven turns on Sarah.
They invade her dreams, threaten her, and use their powers of illusion to make Sarah believe that her father and Stepmother were killed in a plane accident.
They try to persuade her to commit suicide, before Nancy cuts Sarah's wrists herself.
Sarah successfully invokes the spirit of Manon and is able to heal herself and fight back, demonstrating far superior power to her former sisters in coven.
Sarah scares off Bonnie and Rochelle creating hallucinations about their worst fears (Bonnie sees her face completely covered in deforming burn scars and Rochelle sees herself as bald as Laura Lizzie) and tells Nancy that Manon is angry at her for abusing her power; she tries binding her, but Nancy attacks her.
Both girls fight until Sarah strikes Nancy against a mirror and finally she binds her power to prevent her from doing harm.
Days later, Bonnie and Rochelle visit Sarah to apologize, arguing that they only caused her harm because Nancy made them.
Sarah accepts their apology with a friendly coldness; Bonnie asks her if she still has any power, since both her and Rochelle lost theirs.
Sarah doesn't answer.
Both girls leave, mocking Sarah under their breath, believing that she has also lost her powers.
Sarah overhears them and creates a storm.
She uses a thunder to break a tree branch, scaring Rochelle and Bonnie.
She warns them to be careful if they don't want to end up like Nancy.
The final scene shows Nancy committed to a psychiatric hospital for insanity.
She is bound to a bed, believing she is still empowered by Manon and she is flying.
The nurse gives her a shot and she reacts, still laughing maniacally and completely delusional.
<EOS>
The Sweet Hereafter is a multiple first person narrative depicting life in a small town in Upstate New York in the wake of a terrible school bus accident in which numerous local children are killed.
Hardly able to cope with the loss, their grieving parents are approached by a slick city lawyer who wants them to sue for damages.
At first the parents are reluctant to do so, but eventually they are persuaded by the lawyer that filing a class action lawsuit would ease their minds and also be the right thing to do.
As most of the children are dead, the case now depends on the few surviving witnesses to say the right things in court.
In particular, it is 14-year-old Nichole Burnell, who was sitting at the front of the bus and is now paralyzed from the waist down, and whose deposition is all-important.
However, she unexpectedly accuses Dolores Driscoll, the driver, of speeding and thus causing the accident.
When she does so, all hopes of ever receiving money are thwarted.
All the people involved know that Nichole is lying but cannot do anything about it.
Only her father knows why, but he is unable to publicly reveal his daughter's motives.
The novel captures the atmosphere in a small town suddenly shaken by catastrophe.
Fathers take to drinking; secret affairs are abruptly ended; whole families move away.
Only the reader/viewer knows that Mitchell Stephens, the lawyer, has himself effectively lost his own child&mdash;his estranged, drug-addicted daughter informs him over the phone that she has just tested HIV positive.
<EOS>
Martin Lynch-Gibbon is a well-to-do 41-year-old wine merchant whose childless marriage to an older woman called Antonia has been one of convenience rather than love.
It never occurs to him that his ongoing secret affair with Georgie, a young academic in her twenties, could be immoral.
Martin is shocked when his wife tells him that she has been having an affair with Palmer Anderson, her psychoanalyst and a friend of the couple's.
Antonia informs Martin that she wants to divorce him and marry Anderson.
Martin moves out of their London house in Hereford Square.
Before officially moving, Martin visits his brother Alexander's home near Oxford.
While there he learns that Antonia has already written to Alexander about the divorce, leaving Alexander quite shaken.
Later Martin returns to Hereford Square, where Antonia, now acting as a mother figure for him, tries to set up his new accommodation.
After arguing with Antonia, he goes to the train station to pick up Palmer's half-sister Honor Klein, a lecturer in anthropology who is visiting from Cambridge.
Martin still does not want to publicly acknowledge his affair with Georgie, let alone become engaged to her.
A few days later, Martin finally visits Georgie.
While Georgie wants to publicize their affair, Martin refuses because he believes it will "hurt" Antonia.
However, they decide to go to Hereford Square so that Georgie can see the house.
While Martin is showing her around, they hear someone arrive at the house.
Assuming it is Antonia, Martin rushes Georgie out the back door, despite her protests that she wishes to meet Antonia.
The unexpected visitor turns out to be Honor, who notices Georgie's handbag, left behind in her rush out the door.
After the event, Martin tries to contact Georgie but is unsuccessful and soon returns to the house.
There he finds out that Palmer and Antonia know about his relationship with Georgie.
Martin finds Georgie and learns that Honor Klein has exposed their secret.
Soon after Georgie meets Antonia in an awkward situation.
Later, after a breakfast with Antonia, where they decide that Martin should take a short vacation, Martin calls on Georgie, only to discover his brother Alexander there.
Martin is made even more furious when he discovers that Honor Klein was the person who introduced them to each other.
After drunkenly returning to Hereford Square, Martin gets into a fight with Honor.
After writing apology letters and waiting two days, Martin tries to find Antonia and Honor, only to find out that Antonia has gone and Honor is back in Cambridge.
Around this time, Martin also realizes that he is now madly in love with Honor.
He follows her to Cambridge and, in the middle of the night, breaks into her house, only to find her in bed with her half-brother Palmer.
Even though Martin doesn’t tell Antonia of this incestuous encounter, Palmer believes he has, and begins to act strangely around Antonia.
Antonia decides that she should be with Martin instead, causing Martin to cut off his affair with Georgie.
A few days later, Alexander comes by to inform Martin that he has become engaged to Georgie, rekindling Martin's feelings for her and making him very upset.
After an angry confrontation with Palmer, who announces that he and Honor will be travelling abroad, Martin receives a package of hair from Georgie.
Martin discovers an unconscious Georgie, who has attempted suicide, and is joined by Honor while waiting for the ambulance.
After a scene in the hospital where everyone is gathered, Martin confesses his love to Honor.
Honor says she knows but it does not matter because she is going away.
Shortly afterwards, Antonia confesses to Martin that she has also been sleeping with his older brother Alexander ever since he introduced them, and that they will be getting married.
In the end, Palmer and Georgie go away together, Alexander and Antonia are together, and Honor stays in England with Martin.
<EOS>
f="List%20of%20graphing%20software">List of graphing software.
<EOS>
The shipwrecked castaways want to leave the remote island, and various opportunities present themselves.
They typically fail owing to some bumbling error committed by Gilligan (with the exception of "The Big Gold Strike", where everyone except Gilligan is responsible for their failed escape).
Sometimes this would result in Gilligan saving the others from some unforeseen flaw in their plan.
Recurring elements center on one of five primary themes.
The first deals with life on the island.
A running gag is the castaways' ability to fashion a vast array of useful objects from bamboo and other local material.
Some are simple everyday things, while others are stretches of the imagination.
Russell Johnson noted in his autobiography that the production crew enjoyed the challenge of building these props.
Some bamboo items include framed huts with thatched grass sides and roofs, along with bamboo closets strong enough to withstand hurricane-force winds and rain; the communal dining table and chairs, pipes for Gilligan's hot water, a stethoscope, and a pedal-powered car.
Many scenes occur at the dining table, where the castaways enjoy a large number of dishes that Ginger and Mary Ann prepare while the radio provides news and entertainment.
Gilligan and the Skipper often catch fish, and the island has citrus trees to avoid scurvy and a good supply of fresh water to drink and to prepare tropical drinks.
Naturally, despite their obvious skill and inventiveness, the castaways never quite manage to put together a functional raft out of bamboo (or repair the holes in the Minnow, though the entire ship fell apart in the eighth episode, "Goodbye Island").
In the television movie Rescue from Gilligan's Island, the castaways tie all their huts together and use that as a raft for escape.
The second theme involves visitors to the "uncharted" island.
One challenge to a viewer's suspension of disbelief is the frequency with which the castaways are visited by people who do nothing to assist them.
Some have hidden motives for not assisting the castaways.
Others are simply unable to help, incompetent, or are foiled in their efforts to help the castaways by Gilligan's bumbling.
Bob Denver, Jim Backus, and Tina Louise each had feature episodes in which look-alikes come to the island (who were, of course, played by themselves in dual roles).
The island itself is also home to an unusual assortment of animal life, some native, some visiting.
The third recurring theme is the use of dream sequences in which one of the castaways "dreams" he or she is some character related to that week's storyline.
All of the castaways appeared as other characters within the dream.
In later interviews and memoirs, almost all of the actors stated that the dream episodes were among their personal favorites.
The fourth recurring theme is a piece of news concerning the castaways arriving from the outside world that causes discord among them.
Then, a second piece of news arrives that says the first was incorrect.
An exception to the latter part of this statement is the episode "The Postman Cometh", where Gilligan and the Skipper hear over the radio that Mary Ann's boyfriend eloped and the three single men try to cheer her up by wooing her; Mary Ann actually lied about having a boyfriend, and she created a romance with "a real creep" so that the others would think she had someone waiting for her back home.
The fifth recurring theme is the appearance or arrival of strange objects, like a WWII mine or a "Mars Rover" that the scientists back in the USA think is sending them pictures of Mars, and in one episode a meteorite.
Most of the slapstick comedic sequences between Hale and Denver were heavily inspired by Laurel and Hardy, particularly by Hale breaking the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera expressing his frustration with Denver's clumsiness as Oliver Hardy often did.
<EOS>
The themes of the book are nostalgia, the folly of trying to go back and recapture past glories and the easy way the dreams and aspirations of one's youth can be smothered by the humdrum routine of work, marriage and getting old.
It is written in the first person, with George Bowling, the forty-five-year-old protagonist, who reveals his life and experiences while undertaking a trip back to his boyhood home as an adult.
At the opening of the book, Bowling has a day off work to go to London to collect a new set of false teeth.
A news-poster about the contemporary King Zog of Albania sets off thoughts of a biblical character Og, King of Bashan that he recalls from Sunday church as a child.
Along with 'some sound in the traffic or the smell of horse dung or something' these thoughts trigger Bowling's memory of his childhood as the son of an unambitious seed merchant in "Lower Binfield" near the River Thames.
Bowling relates his life history, dwelling on how a lucky break during the First World War landed him in a comfortable job away from any action and provided contacts that helped him become a successful salesman.
Bowling is wondering what to do with a modest sum of money that he has won on a horserace and which he has concealed from his wife and family.
He and his wife attend a Left Book Club meeting where he is horrified by the hate shown by the anti-fascist speaker, and bemused by the Marxist ramblings of the communists who have attended the meeting.
Fed up with this, he seeks his friend Old Porteous, the retired schoolmaster.
He usually enjoys Porteous' company, but on this occasion his dry dead classics makes Bowling even more depressed.
Bowling decides to use the money on a 'trip down memory lane', to revisit the places of his childhood.
He recalls a particular pond with huge fish in it which he had missed the chance to try and catch thirty years previously.
He therefore plans to return to Lower Binfield but when he arrives, he finds the place unrecognisable.
Eventually he locates the old pub where he is to stay, finding it much changed.
His home has become a tea shop.
Only the church and vicar appear the same but he has a shock when he discovers an old girlfriend, for in his eyes she has been so ravaged by time that she is almost unrecognisable and is utterly devoid of the qualities he once adored.
She fails to recognise him at all.
Bowling remembers the slow and painful decline of his father's seed business—resulting from the nearby establishment of corporate competition.
This painful memory seems to have sensitised him to – and given him a repugnance for – what he sees as the marching ravages of "Progress".
The final disappointment is to find that the estate where he used to fish has been built over, and the secluded and once hidden pond that contained the huge carp he always intended to take on with his fishing rod, but never got around to, has become a rubbish dump.
The social and material changes experienced by Bowling since childhood make his past seem distant.
The concept of "you can't go home again" hangs heavily over Bowling's journey, as he realises that many of his old haunts are gone or considerably changed from his younger years.
Throughout the adventure he receives reminders of impending war, and the threat of bombs becomes real when one lands accidentally on the town.
<EOS>
Oedipus sent his brother-in-law Creon to ask advice of the oracle at Delphi concerning a plague ravaging Thebes.
Creon returns to report that the plague is the result of religious pollution, since the murderer of their former King, Laius, had never been caught.
Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for causing the plague.
Oedipus summons the blind prophet Tiresias for help.
When Tiresias arrives he claims to know the answers to Oedipus's questions, but refuses to speak, instead telling him to abandon his search.
Oedipus is enraged by Tiresias' refusal, and verbally accuses him of complicity in Laius' murder.
Outraged, Tiresias tells the king that Oedipus himself is the murderer.
Oedipus cannot see how this could be, and concludes that the prophet must have been paid off by Creon in an attempt to undermine him.
The two argue vehemently, as Oedipus mocks Tiresias' lack of sight, and Tiresias in turn tells Oedipus that he himself is blind.
Eventually Tiresias leaves, muttering darkly that when the murderer is discovered he shall be a native citizen of Thebes, brother and father to his own children, and son and husband to his own mother.
Creon arrives to face Oedipus's accusations.
The King demands that Creon be executed; however, the chorus persuades him to let Creon live.
Jocasta enters and attempts to comfort Oedipus, telling him he should take no notice of prophets.
As proof, she recounts an incident in which she and Laius received an oracle which never came true.
The prophecy stated that Laius would be killed by his own son; however, Jocasta reassures Oedipus by her statement that Laius was killed by bandits at a crossroads on the way to Delphi.
The mention of this crossroads causes Oedipus to pause and ask for more details.
He asks Jocasta what Laius looked like, and Oedipus suddenly becomes worried that Tiresias's accusations were true.
Oedipus then sends for the one surviving witness of the attack to be brought to the palace from the fields where he now works as a shepherd.
Jocasta, confused, asks Oedipus what the matter is, and he tells her.
Many years ago, at a banquet in Corinth, a man drunkenly accused Oedipus of not being his father's son.
Oedipus went to Delphi and asked the oracle about his parentage.
Instead of answers he was given a prophecy that he would one day murder his father and sleep with his mother.
Upon hearing this he resolved to leave Corinth and never return.
While traveling he came to the very crossroads where Laius was killed, and encountered a carriage which attempted to drive him off the road.
An argument ensued and Oedipus killed the travelers, including a man who matches Jocasta's description of Laius.
Oedipus has hope, however, because the story is that Laius was murdered by several robbers.
If the shepherd confirms that Laius was attacked by many men, then Oedipus is in the clear.
A man arrives from Corinth with the message that Oedipus's father has died.
Oedipus, to the surprise of the messenger, is made ecstatic by this news, for it proves one half of the prophecy false, for now he can never kill his father.
However, he still fears that he may somehow commit incest with his mother.
The messenger, eager to ease Oedipus's mind, tells him not to worry, because Merope was not in fact his real mother.
It emerges that this messenger was formerly a shepherd on Mount Cithaeron, and that he was given a baby, which the childless Polybus then adopted.
The baby, he says, was given to him by another shepherd from the Laius household, who had been told to get rid of the child.
Oedipus asks the chorus if anyone knows who this man was, or where he might be now.
They respond that he is the same shepherd who was witness to the murder of Laius, and whom Oedipus had already sent for.
Jocasta, who has by now realized the truth, desperately begs Oedipus to stop asking questions, but he refuses and Jocasta runs into the palace.
When the shepherd arrives Oedipus questions him, but he begs to be allowed to leave without answering further.
However, Oedipus presses him, finally threatening him with torture or execution.
It emerges that the child he gave away was Laius's own son, and that Jocasta had given the baby to the shepherd to secretly be exposed upon the mountainside.
This was done in fear of the prophecy that Jocasta said had never come true: that the child would kill his father.
Everything is at last revealed, and Oedipus curses himself and fate before leaving the stage.
The chorus laments how even a great man can be felled by fate, and following this, a servant exits the palace to speak of what has happened inside.
When Jocasta enters the house, she runs to the palace bedroom and hangs herself there.
Shortly afterward, Oedipus enters in a fury, calling on his servants to bring him a sword so that he might cut out his mother's womb.
He then rages through the house, until he comes upon Jocasta's body.
Giving a cry, Oedipus takes her down and removes the long gold pins that held her dress together, before plunging them into his own eyes in despair.
A blind Oedipus now exits the palace and begs to be exiled as soon as possible.
Creon enters, saying that Oedipus shall be taken into the house until oracles can be consulted regarding what is best to be done.
Oedipus's two daughters (and half-sisters), Antigone and Ismene, are sent out, and Oedipus laments their having been born to such a cursed family.
He asks Creon to watch over them and Creon agrees, before sending Oedipus back into the palace.
On an empty stage the chorus repeat the common Greek maxim, that no man should be considered fortunate until he is dead.
<EOS>
Thundarr the Barbarian is set in a future (c.
3994) post-apocalyptic wasteland divided into kingdoms or territories — the majority of which are ruled by wizards – and whose ruins typically feature recognizable geographical features from the United States, starting in New York City and working itself to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Mount Rushmore, San Francisco and Washington,C.
Other episodes with recognizable settings are located in Mexico, while one is in London.
Another notable feature of this future Earth is that the Moon was broken in two pieces.
The shattered moon and the ruins of the former human civilization were caused by the passage of a runaway planet between the Earth and the Moon in 1994, which, from scenes shown in the opening sequence, caused radical changes in the Earth's climate and geography.
However, by the time period in which the series is set, the Earth and Moon seem to have settled into a new balance.
Earth is reborn in a world of "savagery, super-science, and sorcery".
The hero Thundarr (voiced by Robert Ridgely), a muscular warrior, whose companions include Princess Ariel, a formidable young sorceress, and Ookla the Mok traveled the world on horseback, battling mostly evil wizards who combine magical spells with reanimating technologies from the pre-catastrophe world.
Some of these malevolent wizards enlist the service of certain mutant species in doing their bidding.
Other enemies include The Brotherhood of Night (a group of werewolves who could transform others into werewolves by their touch), the cosmic Stalker from The Stars (a predatory, malevolent cosmic vampire), and various mutants.
Intelligent humanoid-animal races include the rat-like Groundlings, the crocodile-like Carocs, and talking hawk and pig-like mutants.
New animals that existed include fire-shooting whales, a giant green snake with a grizzly bear head, and mutated dragonflies and rabbits.
Thundarr's weapon of choice, the Sunsword, projects a blade-like beam of energy when activated, and can be deactivated so that it is only a hilt.
The Sunsword's energy blade can deflect other energy attacks as well as magical ones, can cut through nearly anything, and can disrupt magical spells and effects.
The Sunsword is magically linked to Thundarr and as such, only he can use it; however, this link can be disrupted.
Comic book writer-artist Jack Kirby worked on the production design for the show.
The main characters were designed by fellow comic book writer-artist Alex Toth.
Toth, however, was unavailable to continue working on the show, so most of the wizards and other villains and secondary characters that appear on the show were designed by Kirby.
He was brought onto the show at the recommendation of comic writer Steve Gerber and Mark Evanier.
The series was the creation of Steve Gerber.
Gerber and friend Martin Pasko were having dinner in the Westwood area one night during the time Gerber was developing the series.
Gerber commented to Pasko that he had not yet decided upon a name for the Wookiee-like character the network insisted be added to the series, over Gerber's objections.
As the two walked past the gate to the UCLA campus, Pasko quipped, "Why not call him Oo-clah.
" Pasko later became one of several screenwriters also known for their work in comics, such as Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, to contribute to the show.
After writing several scripts, singly and in collaboration with Gerber, Pasko became a story editor on the second season.
Other writers included Buzz Dixon and Mark Jones.
<EOS>
Author Gordie Lachance writes about a childhood incident when he and three buddies undertook a journey to find the body of a missing boy near the town of Castle Rock, Oregon, over Labor Day weekend in 1959.
Young Gordie is a quiet, bookish boy who likes to tell stories.
His parents, grieving the recent death of Gordie's older brother Denny, neglect their youngest son.
Gordie's friends are Chris Chambers, whose relatives are criminals and alcoholics; Teddy Duchamp, an eccentric and physically scarred boy; and Vern Tessio, who is overweight and timid.
Vern overhears his older brother, Billy, and Billy's friend, Charlie Hogan, discussing Ray Brower, a young boy who was reportedly struck and killed by a train.
Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern decide to find Ray's body, hoping to become local heroes.
Chris steals his father's M1911 pistol, and the boys set out, stopping at a nearby junkyard to drink from its water pump.
The boys hang out in the junkyard for a while, while Gordie leaves to buy food for the journey.
When Gordie returns, he sees his friends jumping the fence to escape Milo Pressman, the junkman, and his dog.
Gordie escapes as well.
Pressman, infuriated, threatens to call the boys' parents and calls Teddy's father a "loony"; Teddy attempts to attack Pressman, but the boys restrain him and they leave.
At nighttime, Gordie tells the other boys a story of Davie "Lard-Ass" Hogan, an overweight boy who is constantly teased and bullied.
Hogan enters a pie-eating contest, but his goal was not to win, but to exact revenge.
Prior to the contest, Hogan consumed a full bottle of castor oil and a raw egg.
After eating several pies and briefly dominating the contest, Hogan vomits, inducing the vomiting of the contestants and crowd members, humiliating and embarrassing his tormentors.
After a series of misadventures and self-revelation, the boys locate the body.
However, local hoodlum "Ace" Merrill and his gang, including Chris' older brother "Eyeball" Chambers, Billy Tessio, Charlie Hogan, and three other gang members, arrive in cars to claim the body and the credit for finding it.
When Chris refuses to allow this, Ace draws a switchblade with intent to kill him, but Gordie intervenes with the pistol Chris had stolen.
Ace and his gang leave and Ace vows revenge.
The boys agree to report the body via an anonymous phone call to the authorities and hike back to Castle Rock and bid each other farewell until they see each other in a few days, at junior high school.
The present-day Gordie writes that while he and Chris remained friends, they drifted apart from Teddy and Vern shortly after that day.
Gordie notes how everyone's life turned out: Vern married immediately after high school, has four children, and drives a forklift at a local lumberyard.
Teddy tried enlisting in the army but was turned down because of bad eyesight and an ear injury; he later served time in prison and now does odd jobs around town.
Chris went to college and became a lawyer; when attempting to break up a fight in a fast-food restaurant, he was fatally stabbed.
After finishing the story, Gordie walks outside and drives away with his son and his son's friend.
<EOS>
A cosmic entity called the Beyonder observes the mainstream Marvel universe.
Fascinated by the presence of superheroes on Earth and their potential, this entity chooses a group of both heroes and supervillains and teleports characters against their will to "Battleworld," a planet created by the Beyonder in a distant galaxy.
This world has also been stocked with alien weapons and technology.
The Beyonder then declares: "I am from beyond.
Slay your enemies and all that you desire shall be yours.
Nothing you dream of is impossible for me to accomplish.
"  The heroes include the Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hawkeye, Iron Man II, She-Hulk, Thor, the Wasp); three members of the Fantastic Four (Human Torch, Mister Fantastic and Thing); solo heroes Spider-Man, Spider-Woman II and the Hulk; and the mutant team X-Men (Colossus, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Rogue, Storm, Wolverine, and Lockheed the Dragon).
Magneto is featured as a hero, but immediately becomes non-aligned when the Avengers question his presence.
The villains include the Absorbing Man, Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, the Enchantress, Kang the Conqueror, Klaw, the Lizard, Molecule Man, Titania, Ultron, Volcana, and the Wrecking Crew.
The cosmic entity Galactus also appears as a villain who immediately becomes a non-aligned entity.
The heroes (the X-Men choose to remain a separate unit) and villains have several skirmishes.
There are several significant developments in the series: villainesses Titania and Volcana are created; the second Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter, is introduced; Spider-Man finds and wears the black costume for the first time, initially unaware that it is actually an alien symbiote (the symbiote would subsequently bond with journalist Eddie Brock, giving birth to the villain known as Venom); Doctor Doom temporarily steals the Beyonder's power; having fallen in love with the alien healer Zsaji (who sacrifices her life on Battleworld to save the heroes), mutant Colossus ends his romantic relationship with a heartbroken Kitty Pryde; and the Thing chooses to remain behind on Battleworld and explores the galaxy for a year, with She-Hulk temporarily joining the Fantastic Four as his replacement.
Years later, it was revealed that—while the heroes and villains fought on Battleworld—the Thing's girlfriend Alicia Masters was replaced by Lyja, a Skrull spy.
When the Fantastic Four returned to Earth without the Thing, she began a relationship with the Human Torch.
The two eventually married, and remained a happy couple until the Skrull's true identity was exposed by the Thing and the Puppet Master.
<EOS>
In 1593 London, William Shakespeare is a sometime player in the Lord Chamberlain's Men and poor playwright for Philip Henslowe, owner of The Rose Theatre.
Shakespeare is working on a new comedy, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter.
Suffering from writer's block, he has barely begun the play, but starts auditioning players.
Viola de Lesseps, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, who has seen Shakespeare's plays at court, disguises herself as "Thomas Kent" to audition, then runs away.
Shakespeare pursues Kent to Viola's house and leaves a note with the nurse, asking Thomas Kent to begin rehearsals at the Rose.
He sneaks into the house with the minstrels playing that night at the ball, where her parents are arranging her betrothal to Lord Wessex, an impoverished aristocrat.
While dancing with Viola, Shakespeare is struck speechless, and after being forcibly ejected by Wessex, uses Thomas Kent as a go-between to woo her.
Wessex also asks Will's name, to which he replies that he is Christopher Marlowe.
When he discovers her true identity, they begin a secret affair.
Inspired by her, Shakespeare writes quickly, with help from his friend and rival playwright Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, completely transforming the play into what will become Romeo and Juliet.
Then, Viola is summoned to court to receive approval for her proposed marriage to Lord Wessex.
Shakespeare accompanies her, disguised as her female cousin.
There, he persuades Wessex to wager £50 that a play can capture the true nature of love, the exact amount Shakespeare requires to buy a share in the Chamberlain's Men.
Queen Elizabeth I declares that she will judge the matter when the occasion arises.
When Richard Burbage, owner of the Curtain, finds out that Shakespeare has cheated him out of both money and the play, he goes to the Rose Theatre with his Curtain Theatre Company and starts a brawl.
The Rose Theatre company drives Burbage and his company out and then celebrate at the local pub.
Viola is appalled when she learns Shakespeare is married, albeit separated from his wife, and she realises she cannot escape her duty to marry Wessex.
Will discovers that Marlowe is dead, and thinks he is to blame.
Lord Wessex suspects an affair between Shakespeare and his bride-to-be.
Because Wessex thinks that Will is Kit Marlowe, he approves of Kit's death, and tells Viola the news.
It is later learned that Marlowe had been killed in an accident.
Viola finds out that Will is still alive, and declares her love for him.
When Edmund Tilney, the Master of the Revels, is informed there is a woman player at The Rose, he closes the theatre for breaking the ban on women.
Viola's identity is exposed, leaving them without a stage or lead actor, until Richard Burbage offers them his theatre.
Shakespeare takes the role of Romeo, with a boy actor as Juliet.
Following her wedding, Viola learns that the play will be performed that day, and runs away to the Curtain.
Planning to watch with the crowd, Viola overhears that the boy playing Juliet cannot perform, and offers to replace him.
While she plays Juliet to Shakespeare's Romeo, the audience is enthralled, despite the tragic ending, until Master Tilney arrives to arrest everyone for indecency due to Viola's presence.
But the Queen is in attendance and restrains Tilney, instead asserting that Kent's resemblance to a woman is, indeed, remarkable.
However, even a queen is powerless to end a lawful marriage, and she orders Kent to "fetch" Viola because she must sail with Wessex to the Colony of Virginia.
The Queen also tells Wessex, who followed Viola to the theatre, that Romeo and Juliet has won the bet for Shakespeare, and has Kent deliver his £50 with instructions to write something "a little more cheerful next time, for Twelfth Night".
Viola and Shakespeare say their goodbyes, and he vows to immortalise her, as he imagines the beginnings of Twelfth Night, imagining her as a castaway disguised as a man after a voyage to a strange land.
<EOS>
In suburban Chicago, high school senior Ferris Bueller fakes sickness to stay home.
Ferris frequently breaks the fourth wall, giving the audience advice on how to skip school, and to narrate about his friends.
His older sister Jeannie is less convinced, but goes to school anyway.
Dean of Students Edward Rooney notes and suspects Ferris is being truant again and commits to catching him.
However, Ferris uses a computer to alter the school's records to reduce his absences from 9 to 2.
Ferris convinces his friend Cameron Frye, who really is absent due to illness, to report that his girlfriend Sloane Peterson's grandmother has died.
Rooney doubts this, but they succeed as planned.
Borrowing Cameron's father's prized 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder against Cameron's wishes, Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane drive into Chicago to sightsee.
Leaving the car with two parking attendants, who promptly take it on a joyride, the trio visit the Art Institute of Chicago, Sears Tower, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and Wrigley Field.
They then go to a French restaurant for lunch where Ferris poses as Abe Froman, the "Sausage King of Chicago," while narrowly avoiding his father, who is eating lunch at the restaurant.
Meanwhile, after humiliatingly failing to find Ferris, Rooney visits the Bueller residence and fails to enter, being attacked by the family rottweiler as his car is towed.
Jeannie, skipping class, returns home and discovers her brother's ruse, but encounters Rooney snooping.
She kicks him and calls the police, who arrest her for false reporting after Rooney leaves.
While at the station, Jeannie meets a juvenile delinquent, who advises her not to worry so much about Ferris.
After a cab ride where Cameron exclaims disinterest, Ferris impromptu joins a parade float during the Von Steuben Day parade and lip-syncs Wayne Newton's cover of "Danke Schoen", as well as a rendition of The Beatles' "Twist and Shout" that gets the entire crowd dancing.
Just as things shine bright, they retrieve the car and notice that, due to the attendants' joyride, over 100 miles have been added.
The revelation shocks Cameron into a state of self-analysis, realizing his life is controlled by his father's figure.
After coming sane again, they return the car to Cameron's garage and unsuccessfully try to run it backwards to remove the miles; Ferris suggests that they crack it open and turn it back manually.
Cameron refuses and vents anger towards his father, kicking, severely denting, and leaning on the car, which falls off the jack and flies out the back, crashing into a ravine behind.
Despite Ferris' insistence, Cameron decides to take a stand against his father after destroying the car.
At the police station, mrs Bueller picks up Jeannie, whom she finds kissing the delinquent.
Ferris returns Sloane home, but realizes he only has a limited time to return home to avoid trouble.
He rushes back to the house, but is spotted by Jeannie driving their mother home, who tries to run him down.
Ferris avoids being noticed by mrs Bueller and mr Bueller, who is coming from another direction.
They make it home at the same time, but Rooney catches Ferris trying to enter the back door and rhetorically asks if he would like to spend another year under supervision.
However, Jeannie discovers his wallet on the kitchen floor as proof he broke in, and she has a change of heart in the moment, letting Ferris in and telling Rooney he was hospitalized – indicating awareness of the break-in.
She slams the door, and their dog, who arouses from the sound, attacks Rooney again.
Ferris leaps into his bed at the last second, ensuring his parents don't suspect a thing.
As they leave, Ferris reminds the audience, "Life moves pretty fast.
If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it".
Ferris then smiles at the camera before fading to black.
As the credits roll, the defeated Rooney heads home and is picked up by a school bus, further humiliated by the students, one offering him a gummy bear.
In a post-credits scene, Ferris emerges from his room and bids everyone that "It's over," and to go home.
<EOS>
Peter, Ender's brother, is now Hegemon of Earth.
Accepting a tip from inside China, where Achilles is held prisoner, Peter had planned for Bean to operate the mission, but at the last minute (because he doubted Bean would cooperate) assigns Suriyawong, a Battle School student from Thailand, to rescue Achilles in transport, believing that he can spy on Achilles, take over his network, and then turn Achilles over to some country for trial (at the time of this story, Achilles has betrayed Russia, Pakistan, and India).
Achilles is known to kill anyone who has seen him vulnerable.
Bean and his friend Petra, who also served under Ender and who is travelling with Bean, have both seen Achilles so and immediately go into hiding, preparing for a future confrontation.
Bean believes Peter has seriously underestimated Achilles, and that he (Bean) is not safe unless he is hidden.
During their travels, Petra convinces Bean to marry her and have children with her by taking him to Anton, the person who Anton's Key (Bean's Condition) was named after.
Bean is reluctant to have children, as he does not want his Anton's Key gene to be passed on.
He finds Volescu, the original doctor who activated the key in his genes, and has him prepare nine embryos through artificial insemination.
Volescu pretends to identify three embryos with Anton's Key and they are discarded.
One of the remaining six is implanted into Petra, while the rest of them are placed under guard.
At the same time, a message is passed to Bean that Han Tzu, a comrade from Battle School, was not in fact the informant in the message sent to Peter about Achilles.
Realizing that it had been a setup, Bean gets a message to Peter's parents, and they flee with Peter from the Hegemon's compound.
Bean narrowly escapes an assassination attempt himself, and escapes to Damascus.
There they find that another Battle School comrade, Alai, is the unrivaled Caliph of a nearly unified Muslim world.
Meanwhile, their embryos are stolen, and Bean expects Achilles to use them to bait a trap for them.
Peter and his parents escape to the colonization platform in space that used to be the battle school, relying on the protection of Colonel Graff, the former commander of that school, now Minister of Colonization.
Shortly after they arrive, however, a message is sent betraying their presence.
Faking their departure from the space station, Peter and his parents discover the traitor, one of the teachers at battle school.
The unmanned shuttle sent as a decoy is shot down over Brazil (the location of the former compound of the Hegemon, now occupied by Achilles).
In the previous novel, China had conquered India and Indochina.
Alai plans to liberate them by invading first China (in a feint), and then India (once China has withdrawn its armies to defend the homeland).
His invasion is successful, and in the midst of realizing their danger, the Chinese government disavows Achilles, providing evidence that he stole the missile launcher that destroyed the decoy space shuttle.
Left with nowhere to turn, Achilles contacts Bean and offers the embryos in exchange for safe passage.
Bean and Peter return to the Hegemon's compound.
Achilles expects Bean to be so besotted with the idea of retrieving his children that he can be killed with a bomb in the transport container for them.
When Bean sees through that trap, Achilles offers up fake embryos in petri dishes, expecting to lure Bean into a vulnerable position where Bean can be killed.
However, Bean has already decided that Achilles was faking and refuses to fall for any of his traps.
Finally, Bean pulls out a pistol and shoots him in the eye.
Thus, Achilles is killed in a similar fashion to his first victim Poke, who he killed with a knife to the eye earlier in the series.
The novel ends with Peter restored as Hegemon, Petra reunited with Bean, a Caliph in command of the world's Muslims, a China severely reduced in territory and forced to accept humiliating surrender terms, and the embryos still lost.
<EOS>
The Key to Time tracer points the Doctor and Romana to the cold and boring planet of Calufrax, but when they arrive they find an unusual civilisation that lives in perpetual prosperity.
A strange band of people with mysterious powers known as the Mentiads are feared by the society, but the Doctor discovers that they are good people but with an unknown purpose.
He instead fears the Captain, the planet's leader and benefactor.
After meeting the Captain on the bridge he learns that they are actually on a hollowed-out planet named Zanak, which has been materialising around other planets to plunder their resources.
After repairing Zanak's engines, which were damaged when the planet materialised in the same place as the TARDIS, the Captain plans to take Zanak to Earth.
The Doctor finds the true menace controlling the Captain is the ancient tyrant Queen Xanxia, disguised as the Captain's nurse, who uses the resources mined from planets in an attempt to gain immortality.
Despite the Captain's apparent insanity, he is a calculating person who plans to destroy Xanxia.
The Mentiads learn that their psychic powers are strengthened by the destruction of entire worlds beneath their feet.
Throughout Zanak, the Key to Time locator has been giving odd signals that seem to indicate that the segment is everywhere.
Once the Doctor and Romana see the Captain's trophy room of planets, they conclude that Calufrax is the segment that they are looking for.
They use the TARDIS to once again disrupt Zanak's materialisation around Earth while the Mentiads sabotage the engines.
Xanxia kills the Captain when he finally turns against her.
The Doctor, Romana, and the Mentiads destroy Zanak's bridge and Queen Xanxia, ending the devastation caused by Zanak's travels.
This is the second of six linked serials that comprise the whole of Season 16, known collectively as The Key to Time.
While unconscious on the Bridge, the Doctor mumbles "No more Janis thorns", the admonishment he used several times on former companion Leela, particularly in The Face of Evil.
The Pirate Captain appears in the regeneration montage in Logopolis.
The Tenth Doctor mentions Calufrax Minor as being one of the missing planets in "The Stolen Earth".
<EOS>
While leisurely enjoying the city of Paris with Romana, the Doctor feels the effects of time distortion.
At the Louvre while admiring the Mona Lisa, he encounters the Countess Scarlioni wearing an alien bracelet used to scan security systems.
The Doctor and Romana meet Inspector Duggan, who has been tailing Count Scarlioni for some time; Scarlioni has placed a large number of lost art treasures on the market, and Duggan fears the Scarlionis are looking to steal the Mona Lisa.
Though the three are briefly captured by the Countess, the Doctor helps them to escape and explore the Count's mansion, where they discover equipment by dr Kerensky to experiment with time, the source of the Doctor's time distortions.
They also discover, behind a wall, six exact copies of the Mona Lisa, each painted by Leonardo da Vinci himself.
Leaving Romana and Duggan to continue to investigate in the present, the Doctor uses his TARDIS to visit Leonardo's workshop.
There he is captured by Captain Tancredi, whose appearance is the same as Count Scarlioni.
Tancredi reveals he is Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth race, stranded on Earth and fragmented through time due to an explosion of their spacecraft on Earth 400 million years ago.
Seeking to restore himself and his race, Scaroth has aided human technological advancement, while remaining in contact with the other fragments of himself.
Tancredi, in this era, has convinced Leonardo to paint 6 copies of the Mona Lisa, so that when Scarlioni steals the known painting in 1979, he can then sell it seven times, substantially funding the completion of dr Kerensky's work.
When Tancredi leaves the Doctor under watch by a human guard, the Doctor knocks out the guard, uses a felt-tip marker to write "This is a fake" on the six blank canvases and leaves instructions for Leonardo to paint over the text, as to allow them to track the copies in the future by X-raying them.
The Doctor escapes when Tancredi suffers a temporary collapse caused by his other selves.
The Doctor returns to the present and learns that Scaroth has succeeded in stealing the Mona Lisa.
Furthermore, Scaroth has killed dr Kerensky and threatens to do the same to the entire city of Paris if Romana does not complete Kerensky's work.
The Doctor convinces the Countess that her husband is not human, and she sees his true face, but the Count kills her before she can react.
With the time equipment fixed, Scaroth uses it to travel back 400 million years in hopes to stop the explosion of his ship.
Though Romana reveals that the equipment will bring him back after two minutes, the Doctor asserts that it is enough time for Scaroth to stop the explosion of the Jagaroth ship, itself the source of the spark of energy that created the beginnings of life on Earth; should Scaroth prevent the explosion, every native living being on the planet will never have existed.
The Doctor, Romana, and Duggan race to the TARDIS and travel back to intercept Scaroth.
Duggan punches Scaroth unconscious before he can stop the ship.
Scaroth's body returns to the present as the ship attempts to take off and explodes, assuring the development of life on Earth.
In the present, Scaroth is killed by his henchman Hermann, who does not recognise him without his human mask, and a failure in the time equipment sets the mansion ablaze.
By the time the Doctor, Romana, and Duggan arrive, the original and five of the six copies of the Mona Lisa have been destroyed, but one of the copies remains untouched.
The Doctor proposes that since a copy of a painting by the original artist is not a fake, the painting should be considered the real work of art, reminding Duggan that art is worthless if its monetary value is all that matters.
The Doctor and Romana say goodbye to Duggan at the Eiffel Tower.
<EOS>
The game world is set in a geographically diverse land, which includes mountains and bodies of water.
Each region has distinct characteristics held by its inhabitants; Mushroom Kingdom is inhabited by Toads, Moleville is inhabited by moles, Monstro Town is populated by reformed monsters, Yo'ster Isle is where Yoshi and his eponymous species reside, and Nimbus Land is an area inhabited by cloud people.
Bowser's Castle is another prominent location in the game, as it holds the portal to the main antagonist's home world.
As in most Mario series games, the main protagonist is Mario, whose initial goal is to rescue Princess Peach (Toadstool) from Bowser.
However, the story takes on an unusual and very important twist.
Soon after the start of his journey, the Smithy Gang invades the world.
While attempting to stop the group, Mario is joined by Mallow, a cloud boy who thinks he is a tadpole; Geno, a doll possessed by a celestial spirit from the Star Road; Bowser, whose armies have deserted him out of fear of the Smithy Gang; and Princess Toadstool, who was lost in the turmoil that occurred when the Smithy Gang arrived.
The Smithy Gang is led by Smithy, a robotic blacksmith from an alternate dimension with aspirations of world domination.
The game begins when Mario enters Bowser's Castle to rescue Princess Toadstool.
During the battle, a giant sword falls from the sky, breaks through the Star Road (a pathway that helps grant people's wishes), and crashes into Bowser’s castle, sending Mario, Princess Toadstool, and Bowser flying in different directions, as well as scattering seven star fragments.
Mario is sent flying back to his pad and meets up with Toad who tells him he has to rescue Toadstool.
Mario again returns to Bowser's castle, and the giant sword (who reveals that it can talk) destroys the bridge, preventing him from enteringMario makes his way to the Mushroom Kingdom, where the mushroom chancellor insists that Mario recover the Princess.
Upon returning, Mario encounters Mallow, a "tadpole" who has lost a frog coin to Croco, a local thief.
Mario agrees to help him, but when they return to the castle, he finds that the kingdom is overrun by creatures from the Smithy Gang led by an evil robotic blacksmith king named Smithy.
He and Mallow enter the castle and are met by the first boss in the game, a giant knife and spring-like creature named Mack.
When Mack is defeated, they find a mysterious Star Piece, which Mario takes.
Mallow accompanies Mario as they travel through the Kero Sewers and after they defeat a monster named Belome, they reach Tadpole Pond where they meet Mallow's grandfather, who reveals that Mallow isn't really a tadpole and claims that his real parents are waiting for him to return home.
The duo travel to Rose Town where they meet a star spirit who has taken control of a doll named Geno.
After battling the bow-like creature, Bowyer, who is immobilizing residents of Rose Town with his arrows, they retrieve another Star Piece and Geno joins Mario and tells him that the Star Piece is a part of the shattered Star Road, where he resides.
Geno has been tasked with repairing Star Road and defeating Smithy, so that the world's wishes may again be heard, and he must find the seven pieces held by members of the Smithy gang.
The three retrieve the third Star Piece from Punchinello, and continue to Booster Tower where they encounter Bowser, who is trying to reassemble his forces.
Though former enemies, they join forces to fight a common enemy as Bowser wishes to reclaim his castle.
The new team intercepts the princess, just before she is forcibly married to the eccentric amusement-venue owner, Booster, but it turns out that the wedding wasn't real and that Booster only wanted the wedding cake.
After her rescue, the princess initially returns to Mushroom Kingdom but later joins the party as its final member.
After recovering six of the Star Pieces, Mario's group learns that the final piece is held by Smithy in Bowser's castle.
Upon battling their way through the assembled enemies and returning to the giant sword, they discover that it is actually a gateway to Smithy's factory and they fight it to gain access to the factory, where Smithy mass-produces his army.
In the end, Smithy is defeated, the giant sword disappears, and the collected Star Pieces are used to repair the Star Road.
<EOS>
The game is set in the Mushroom Kingdom, beginning as Mario and Luigi are relaxing in their house when the mail arrives with a letter, which turns out to be an invitation from Peach to a party.
Mario and Luigi then head to the castle, and as Mario is about to have some quiet time with Peach, her castle is suddenly lifted by Bowser's fortress.
After his invasion and victory over Mario, the attached fortress serves as the location for playable side quests of the kidnapped Peach.
In the main quest, Mario tries to retrieve all of the 7 imprisoned Star Spirits on land, where most of the locations are linked to the central Toad Town, which acts as the game's hub area.
The story's main conflict arises when Bowser invades Star Haven, the residence for the Star Spirits, and steals the Star Rod.
The game's story centers on Mario as he tries to reclaim the seven Star Spirits, who have been incarcerated in playing cards by Bowser and his assistant, Kammy Koopa.
Their combined power is required to negate the effects of the Star Rod, which makes Bowser invincible.
Once Mario rescues all of them, he uses their assistance to defeat Bowser and rescue Peach.
The story is presented in the context of a novel, with each adventure involving the rescue of a Star Spirit denoted as a single chapter.
Peach is playable between chapters, where she allies with a star kid named Twink in the castle to relay vital information to Mario regarding his quest.
Mario allies with eight partners in total, each of whom represents a different type of enemy from the Mario series.
These allies are: After Peach's castle is sent back to the ground and Mario defeats Bowser, he recounts his tale to Luigi, who had remained at home while Mario went on the adventure.
Peach throws a huge party to honor Mario and his allies for saving the entire kingdom, which is then followed by a parade during the credits.
In the end, Mario and Peach exit their parade float and gaze up the sky, seeing fireworks.
This part will not end until the player turns off the console.
When restarted, the file will restart from the last save.
<EOS>
In 2286, an enormous cylindrical probe moves through space, sending out an indecipherable signal and disabling the power of ships it passes.
As it takes up orbit around Earth, its signal disables the global power grid and generates planetary storms, creating catastrophic, sun-blocking cloud cover.
Starfleet Command sends out a planetary distress call and warns starships not to approach Earth.
On the planet Vulcan, the former officers of the USS Enterprise are living in exile (after the events of ).
Accompanied by the Vulcan Spock, still recovering from his resurrection, the crew — except for Saavik, who remains on Vulcan — take their captured Klingon Bird of Prey vessel (renamed the Bounty, after the Royal Navy ship) and return to Earth to face trial for their actions.
Hearing Starfleet's warning, Spock determines that the probe's signal matches the song of extinct humpback whales, and that the object will continue to wreak havoc until its call is answered.
The crew uses their ship to travel back in time via a slingshot maneuver around the Sun, planning to return with a whale to answer the alien signal.
Arriving in 1986, the crew finds their ship's power drained.
Hiding their ship in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park using its cloaking device, the crew split up to accomplish several tasks: Admiral James Kirk and Spock attempt to locate humpback whales, while Montgomery Scott, Leonard McCoy, and Hikaru Sulu construct a tank to hold the whales they need for a return to the 23rd century.
Uhura and Pavel Chekov are tasked to find a nuclear reactor, whose energy leakage will enable their ship's power to be restored.
Kirk and Spock discover a pair of whales in the care of dr Gillian Taylor at a Sausalito aquarium, and learn they will soon be released into the wild.
Kirk tells her of his mission and asks for the tracking frequency for the whales, but she refuses to cooperate.
Meanwhile, Scott, McCoy, and Sulu trade the formula of transparent aluminum for the materials needed for the whale tank.
Uhura and Chekov locate a nuclear powered ship, the aircraft carrier Enterprise.
They collect the power they need, but are discovered on board.
Uhura is beamed back but Chekov is captured and severely injured in an escape attempt.
Taylor learns the whales have been released early, and goes to Kirk for assistance.
Taylor, Kirk, and McCoy rescue Chekov and return to the now recharged Bird of Prey.
After transporting the whales aboard the ship, the crew returns with Taylor to their own time.
On approaching Earth, the ship loses power and comes down in San Francisco Bay.
Once released, the whales respond to the probe's signal, causing the object to reverse its effects on Earth and return to the depths of space.
All charges against the Enterprise crew are dropped, save one for insubordination: for disobeying a superior officer, Kirk is demoted from Admiral back to the rank of Captain where he is returned to command of a starship.
The crew departs on their ship, the newly christened USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A), and leaves on a new mission.
<EOS>
In the Pride Lands of Africa, a lion rules over the animal kingdom from Pride Rock.
King Mufasa's newborn son, Simba, is presented to the assembled animals by Rafiki, a mandrill who serves as shaman and advisor.
Mufasa shows young Simba the Pride Lands and explains to him the responsibilities of kingship and the "circle of life" which connects all living things.
Mufasa's younger brother, Scar, covets the throne and plots to eliminate Mufasa and Simba so he may become king.
He tricks Simba and his best friend Nala—to whom Simba is betrothed—into exploring a forbidden elephants' graveyard, where they are attacked by three spotted hyenas who are in league with Scar.
Mufasa is alerted to the danger by his majordomo, the hornbill Zazu, and rescues the cubs.
Though angry with Simba, Mufasa forgives him and explains that the great kings of the past watch over them from the night sky, from which he will one day watch over Simba.
Scar sets a trap for his brother and nephew, luring Simba into a gorge and having the hyenas drive a large herd of wildebeest into a stampede that will trample him.
He informs Mufasa of Simba's peril, knowing the king will rush to save his son.
Mufasa saves Simba but ends up hanging perilously from the gorge's edge and is betrayed by Scar, who sends him falling to his death.
Scar convinces Simba that the tragedy was Simba's own fault and advises him to flee the kingdom.
He orders the hyenas to kill the cub, but Simba escapes.
Scar tells the pride that both Mufasa and Simba were killed in the stampede and steps forward as the new king, allowing a large pack of hyenas to live in the Pride Lands.
Simba collapses in a desert and is rescued by Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and warthog who are fellow outcasts.
Simba grows up in the jungle with his two new friends, living a carefree life under the motto "hakuna matata" ("no worries" in Swahili).
Now a young adult, Simba rescues Timon and Pumbaa from a hungry lioness who turns out to be Nala.
She and Simba reunite and fall in love, and she urges him to return home, telling him the Pride Lands have become a drought-stricken wasteland under Scar's reign.
Feeling guilty over his father's death, Simba refuses and storms off.
He encounters Rafiki, who tells him that Mufasa' spirit lives on in Simba.
Simba is visited by the ghost of Mufasa in the night sky, who tells him he must take his rightful place as king.
Realizing he can no longer run from his past, Simba decides to return home.
Aided by his friends, Simba sneaks past the hyenas at Pride Rock and confronts Scar.
Scar taunts him over his role in Mufasa's death and backs him to the edge of the rock, where he reveals to Simba that he murdered Mufasa.
Enraged, Simba pins Scar to the ground and forces him to reveal the truth to the rest of the pride.
Timon, Pumbaa, Rafiki, Zazu, and the lionesses fend off the hyenas while Scar, attempting to escape, is cornered by Simba at the top of Pride Rock.
Scar begs for mercy and attempts to blame the hyenas for his actions; Simba spares his life but orders him to leave the Pride Lands forever.
Scar attacks his nephew, but Simba manages to toss him from the top of the rock.
Scar survives the fall but is killed by the hyenas, who overheard him betray them to Simba.
With his enemies gone, Simba takes over the kingship as the rains begin to fall, restoring life to the land.
Later, with Pride Rock restored to its former glory, Rafiki presents Simba and Nala's newborn cub to the assembled animals, continuing the circle of life.
<EOS>
Police Officer China O'Brien (Cynthia Rothrock) is a good cop who teaches martial arts class to her fellow officers.
After an altercation with a gang that leads to the accidental death of a young boy, China resigns from the force, and returns to her hometown of Beaver Creek, Utah.
Her father, John O'Brien (David Blackwell), is the sheriff and is very pleased to see her.
China discovers that John is gradually losing control of the town to local crime boss Edwin Sommers (Steven Kerby), who controls corrupt deputy Marty Lickner (Patrick Adamson) and corrupt local judge Harry Godar (Wil Hazlett).
When John and honest deputy Ross Tyler (Chad Walker) are killed by car bombs that were planted by Sommers's henchmen, there is an emergency election to elect a new sheriff.
After seeing that nothing is being done to find her father and friends killer, China runs for sheriff against Lickner to see who take John's place while, at the same time, she starts cleaning up the town with the help of her former high school sweetheart Matt Conroy (Richard Norton).
They get extra help from a Native American biker named Dakota (Keith Cooke), whose mother (Judy Kotok) was murdered by Sommers.
China wins the election, and then Maria (Gae Cowley), who had been her father's housekeeper up until his death, is murdered by Sommers's men in a drive-by shooting during the victory celebration.
Having won the election, China ends up having to force Godar to swear her in as the new sheriff.
China deputizes Matt and Dakota, and they set out to free Beaver Creek from Sommers's stranglehold.
During the altercation at the Beaver Creek Inn, Dakota stops Lickner and confronts him about his mother.
Lickner admits Sommers was responsible for his mother's death and Dakota gets on his motorcycle to Sommers's home.
China and Matt continue to take on Sommers' men and head to Sommers' house after they defeat all of the goons.
When Dakota finds Sommers at the stables, he points a gun at him.
However, he restrains himself and when China and Matt show up, Matt handcuffs himself to Sommers.
However, en route to the police car, a woman Sommers had imprisoned fires a gun, killing Sommers and knocking Matt down with him.
The next day, China asks Dakota what he will do next.
Dakota says he will stay for the trial and China tells him she could use a man like him.
Dakota laughs off being a cop to which Matt replies that they can talk it over a beer.
<EOS>
A team of outlaw mercenaries, led by the character Rorian are hired to destroy all of the illegally bio-engineered organisms on the planet Graveyard via means of a fusion induced thermonuclear explosion.
Which is to be achieved by collecting four fusion power core rings, and depositing them in the corresponding field coil generator located at Graveyard Central Spaceport.
The secondary mission objective is to reconnoitre ground installations.
<EOS>
The action of the film starts with Colonel Dodge (Henry O'Neill) arriving on the first train and subsequently opening the new railroad line that links Dodge City with the rest of the world.
A few years later, Dodge City has turned into the "longhorn cattle center of the world and wide-open Babylon of the American frontier, packed with settlers, thieves and gunmen—the town that knew no ethics but cash and killing".
In particular, it is Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot) and his gang who kill, steal, cheat and, generally, control life in Dodge City without ever being brought to justice.
Any new sheriff, sworn into office in Dodge, is quickly driven out of town by Surrett and his cronies.
Colonel Dodge's friend Wade Hatton (Errol Flynn), a lone Irish cowboy who was instrumental in bringing the railroad to Dodge City, is now on his way to the town leading a trek of settlers from the East coast.
At Hatton's side are his old companions Rusty (Alan Hale) and Tex (Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams), who are prepared to stay with him through thick and thin.
Among the settlers are beautiful Abbie Irving (Olivia de Havilland) and her irresponsible brother Lee (William Lundigan), who, drunk, causes a stampede (which eventually kills him) and is shot by Hatton in self-defense.
When the group arrive in Dodge City, Hatton is confronted with the full extent of the anarchy which is dictating everyday life there.
Asked by anxious citizens—Abbie's uncle, dr Irving (Henry Travers) among them—to be the new sheriff, Hatton politely declines, saying he is not cut out for this kind of job.
Hatton changes his mind when, during a school outing, a young boy, Harry Cole is inadvertently killed by Surrett and his men.
The new sheriff and his deputies—Rusty and Tex among them of course—have a hard time not just fighting the criminals but also convincing all the farmers who have been wronged by Surrett that mob rule ("Come on, boys, let's take 'em out to the plaza") is out of the question.
Regardless, all in all, Hatton was quite capable of his new job and was off to a good start cleaning up the town.
Meanwhile, Hatton, Abbie and the likable newspaperman Joe Clemens (Frank McHugh) uncover evidence of Surrett's shady dealings enough to stand a chance in court.
Before Joe could publish a story, one of Surrett's thugs, Yancey (Victor Jory) shoots the editor in the back.
The only witness who can put Surrett behind bars now is Abbie whom Hatton, out of love for her, arranges to leave town for safety until further notice.
When Yancey is in jail for Joe's killing, Hatton has to protect him against the furious men outside who, not caring for Yancey's right to a fair trial, want to take the law into their own hands and lynch him right then and there.
Intending to ensure that Yancey deserves a fair trial, Hatton and Rusty were able to manage to smuggle him out of town in a hearse to the train station whereas a train (which Abbie happens to be on) for Wichita was just about to leave.
However, Surrett and his gang were waiting and sneak board to try and spring Yancey.
A gunfight then ensues and inadvertently causes a fire in the baggage car.
Fearing for Hatton's life, Abbie rushes to the baggage car to warn him of the danger.
Using her as a shield, Surrett orders Hatton and Rusty to release Yancey immediately.
Afterwards, Surrett locks Hatton, Abbie and Rusty in the burning car.
After the three manage to escape from the car, Hatton and Rusty kill Surrett and his gang who were trying to make a getaway.
In the end, Hatton succeeds in both overwhelming and catching the baddies and winning Abbie's heart.
Everything has been prepared for a quiet family life in newly civilized Dodge City, but Hatton is asked by Colonel Dodge to clean up Virginia City, Nevada, another railroad town more dangerous than Dodge City had ever been.
Understanding how much Hatton is needed to settle the West, a loving Abbie heartily suggests she and her new husband join the next wagon train for their new life together.
<EOS>
Operation Market Garden envisions 35,000 men being flown 300 miles from air bases in England and dropped behind enemy lines in the Netherlands.
Two divisions ofS.
paratroopers, the 82nd & 101st Airborne, are responsible for securing the road and bridges as far as Nijmegen.
A British division, the 1st Airborne, under Major-General Roy Urquhart, is to land near Arnhem and hold both sides of the bridge there, backed by a brigade of Polish paratroopers under General Stanisław Sosabowski.
XXX Armoured Corps are to push up the road over the bridges captured by the American paratroopers and reach Arnhem two days after the drop.
The British are to land using gliders near Arnhem.
When General Urquhart briefs his officers, some of them are surprised they are going to attempt a landing so far from the bridge.
The consensus among the British top brass is that resistance will consist entirely of "Hitler Youth or old men on bicycles".
Although reconnaissance photos show German tanks at Arnhem, General Browning dismisses them and also ignores reports from the Dutch underground.
He does not want to be the one to tell Field Marshall Montgomery of any doubts since many previous airborne operations had been cancelled.
Though British officers note that the portable radios are not likely to work for the long distance from the drop zone to the Arnhem Bridge, they choose not to convey their concerns up the chain of a command intent on silencing all doubt.
Speed is the vital factor.
Arnhem’s is the crucial bridge, the last means of escape for the German forces in the Netherlands and an excellent route to Germany for Allied forces.
The road to it, however, is only a single highway linking the various key bridges - trucks and tanks have to squeeze to the shoulder to pass.
The road is also elevated, causing anything moving on the road to stand out.
The airborne drops catch the Germans by surprise and there is little resistance.
Most of the men come down safely and assemble quickly, but the Son bridge is blown up by the Germans just before the 101st Airborne secures it.
However, soon after landing, troubles beset Urquhart's division.
Many of the Jeeps either do not arrive by their gliders at all or are shot up in an ambush.
Their radio sets are also useless.
XXX Corps' progress to relieve them is slowed by German resistance, the narrowness of the highway and the need to construct a Bailey bridge to replace the one destroyed at Son.
They are then halted at Nijmegen.
There, soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division perform a dangerous daylight river crossing in flimsy canvas-and-wood assault boats and the Nijmegen bridge is captured, but XXX Corps has to wait several hours for infantry to secure the town.
The Germans close in on the isolated British paratroops occupying part of Arnhem at the bridge, although armoured attacks are repelled.
Urquhart had been separated from his men and the supply drop zones overrun by the Germans.
Finally, Sosabowski's troops, held up by fog in England, enter the battle too late and are unable to reinforce the British.
After days of house-to-house fighting, pitted against crack SS infantry and panzers, the outgunned troops are captured or forced to withdraw.
Arnhem itself is indiscriminately razed in the fighting.
Urquhart escapes the battle zone with fewer than a fifth of his original ten thousand crack troops; those who were too badly injured to flee stay behind and cover the withdrawal, surrendering afterwards.
On arriving at British headquarters, Urquhart confronts Browning about his personal sentiments regarding the operation: does he think it went as well as was being claimed by Montgomery.
Browning's reply (and the film's last line of dialogue) contradicts his earlier optimism: "Well, as you know, I always felt we tried to go a bridge too far".
In the film's final scene, a young Dutch woman, whose elegant and beautifully furnished home was used as an overflow hospital by the British, abandons the mostly destroyed house.
Passing through the front yard, now converted to a graveyard for fallen troops, she and her children trek along the high riverbank, with her father, an elderly doctor, pushing a few salvaged possessions in a wheelbarrow.
<EOS>
Maria Owens, a young witch, is exiled to Maria's Island in Massachusetts with her unborn child for escaping her execution.
When her lover does not come to rescue her, she desperately casts a spell upon herself to stop falling in love due to heartbreak, only to die soon after.
The spell becomes a curse for several generations.
Gillian and Sally Owens, two descendants of the Owens family, are taken in by their aunts Frances and Jet after the death of their parents.
Sally is the more gifted of the two while Gillian's talents are more in charm and persuasion, and have been subject to ridicule during their youth.
After witnessing their aunts cast a spell on a man for a woman who seems obsessed with having his love, Gillian decides to fall in love and Sally casts a true love spell to protect herself.
The sisters cast an oath to each other using blood from both of their hands and Gillian leaves for Los Angeles.
Sally meets and marries Michael, a local apple salesman.
They have two young daughters, Kylie and Antonia.
One morning, after several blissful years of marriage, Sally hears the "death-watch beetle," and knows it is coming for her husband.
Despite tearing up the floor in an effort to find and kill the beetle, Michael is killed by a truck during his early morning routine of taking apples to the local farmers market.
Sally and her daughters return to the Owens home to live with the aunts, and realize that the aunts cast a spell so she could fall in love.
Sally decides that she and her daughters will not perform magic.
As Gillian begins a relationship with Jimmy Angelov in Orlando, Sally is devastated by her husband's death.
Gillian feels that Sally needs her and drugs Jimmy to return to Massachusetts.
Gillian returns to Sally after Jimmy becomes abusive, but the sisters are kidnapped.
Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy's tequila, inadvertently killing him.
The sisters resurrect him using the forbidden spell from their aunts' book of spells, but Jimmy attempts to kill Gillian after being revived.
Sally kills him again, and the sisters bury his remains in their home's garden.
State investigator Gary Hallett arrives from Tucson, Arizona in search of Jimmy, who is also a serial killer.
As Gary begins to suspect Sally, Gillian, Kylie and Antonia create a potion to banish Gary; however, the girls realize he is the one described in Sally's true love spell, and remove the potion.
Later, Sally has Gary record her testimony and sees the letter she had once written Gillian, and realizes he must have read it more times than he had let on.
Unable to deny their feelings for each other, they kiss and Sally realizes that he was there because of the spell she cast years earlier.
Sally discovers that Jimmy's spirit has possessed Gillian's body and Gary sees Jimmy's spirit emerge.
Jimmy attempts to possess Gary, only to be hurt by his silver star-shaped badge and is temporarily exiled.
Later, Sally tells Gary that he is there because of her spell and the feelings they have for each other are not real.
Gary replies that curses are only true if one believes in them and reveals that he also wished for her, before returning to Tucson.
Jimmy possesses Gillian again and attempts to kill Sally before Frances and Jet return.
Sally, realizing she must embrace magic to save her sister, asks the aid of the townswomen and they form a coven to exorcise Jimmy's spirit.
Sally makes them stop when she sees that the effort might kill Gillian.
Getting inside the circle, Sally and the townswomen reenact her oath with Gillian.
They are able to break the Owens curse, exorcising Jimmy's spirit and allowing the coven to exile him permanently.
Sally receives a letter from Gary telling her that she and her sister are cleared of any suspicion of wrongdoing in Jimmy's case and Gary returns to Massachusetts to be with Sally.
The Owens women celebrate All Hallow's Eve dressed up in witch costumes, and are embraced and welcomed by the townsfolk.
<EOS>
Catherine's marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales, ends with his early death.
Over the next few years, Catherine faces money trouble and arrangements for her to marry Prince Henry are unclear.
When Henry VII dies, Henry VIII chooses Catherine as his wife, as his dying father requested.
After a short scene of Catherine's son's death (her second pregnancy, after a stillbirth), and her weeping in Henry's arms, the programme cuts to her older days where Henry falls in love with Anne Boleyn.
Henry wants a male heir and after several pregnancies only one child of Catherine's and Henry's has survived, the princess Mary (the future Queen Mary I).
Catherine is heartbroken when Henry tells her he wants a divorce.
There are several court scenes discussing the annulment.
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey does all he can to accomplish Henry's desire for a divorce from Catherine, but ultimately fails (and later dies en route to the Tower of London).
Henry attempts to have a Papal Trial in England, to call into question the validity of his marriage to Catherine.
But when Rome and the Pope revoke this attempt, Henry begins his break with the Catholic Church and starts to sow the seeds of the eventual English Reformation.
Catherine is eventually told her marriage to Henry has been annulled, and that Henry has married Anne.
Catherine is moved to Wolsey's house until she dies, with María de Salinas (her most faithful servant) by her side.
While there, they receive the news that Anne has had her child, the future queen Elizabeth The episode ends with Catherine dying in her bed, María de Salinas beside her and Henry reading a loving final letter from Catherine.
Henry crushes the letter callously, and walks dominatingly towards the camera, resembling the Hans Holbein portrait.
Having seen Anne's rise in the preceding episode, this episode focuses primarily on her downfall, documenting the disintegration of her marriage in the face of two miscarriages and the king's infidelities.
Anne's brother, Sir George Boleyn (with whom she was accused of having incest), is shown anxiously trying to advise and counsel her to be more prudent and cautious in her conduct with the King.
But Anne continues to berate Henry for his infidelities, which elicits not-so-veiled threats from him in return.
Anne's final failure to give Henry a son seals her doom.
The storyline was heavily influenced by academic theories that believed Anne was the victim of a factional and political plot, concocted by her many enemies (among them, Thomas Cromwell and Lady Rochford, Anne's treacherous sister-in-law), who capitalised on the king's disillusionment with her.
As with most media treatments of Anne's destruction, the episode followed the historical research, which has all but proved her innocence.
The scriptwriter used Anne's final confession of her sins (a burden that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer would have to bear to the end of his days), to suggest her total innocence on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft.
Jane gives birth to Prince Edward, (the future Edward VI).
When she is taken to her child's christening, she is in pain and is near death; while lying in her sickbed, the events of her life flash before her in a fever dream.
She remembers how Henry fell in love with her, and how her relatives (and certain of Henry's councillors like Thomas Cromwell, Bishop Stephen Gardiner, and others), schemed to bring about the downfall of Anne Boleyn and the subsequent rise of Jane.
Directly after Anne is executed, Henry and Jane are married.
During her short time as queen, Jane tries with some success to reconcile the Princess Mary with Henry.
Her pregnancy is a guilt-filled one.
She is tormented by the fact that her predecessor was innocent; the victim of false witness.
After Jane gives birth to the prince, she falls ill; this brings the episode full circle.
Jane dies, and the last images we see here are her body lying in state, arrayed like a queen and Henry weeping by Jane's funeral bier.
With three dead wives behind him, Henry is urged by his counselors to marry again and further secure the succession.
Thomas Cromwell encourages him in an alliance with Protestant Germany, so he considers one of the Duke of Cleves' sisters, Anne or Amelia.
He sends artist Hans Holbein, who paints both girls.
Based on this portrait and good reports of her, Henry chooses Anne and she is sent to marry the king.
When she reaches England, Henry wishes to surprise her, so he goes to see her for the first time in disguise.
He arrives unannounced, and Anne is horrified when she learns the obese and bawdy "messenger" is really her betrothed.
Henry, rattled by her reaction, declares her ugly and attempts to nullify the marriage contract, but the marriage proceeds with two unwilling participants.
When the time comes to consummate their union, Anne sees a possible escape from the marriage by stalling the already unenthusiastic king.
In the weeks that follow, Anne and Henry live separate lives at court, although Anne is shown as being close to his children, especially little Elizabeth.
Politics then take centre stage as Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, plans Cromwell's downfall by playing on Henry's infatuation with his young niece, Catherine Howard.
The reasons for the German alliance have also shifted, making the marriage to Anne politically inconvenient.
Cromwell, the architect of the alliance, knows he is doomed and warns Anne, who plans an exit from the marriage rather than risk a worse fate.
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer offers Anne advice and sympathy; they both regret Cromwell's and Robert Barnes' downfall.
Encouraging Henry to think it is his own idea, Anne tells Henry that she understands his demands for an annulment, and suggests that he give her a household of her own, and continued contact with Henry's children, of whom she is fond.
She points out that if they both agree that the marriage was never consummated, it should be easy to have it annulled.
Given a graceful exit from a marriage and wife he has no interest in, Henry gradually agrees, saying "Good night, my dear sister".
The episode ends on Anne's bittersweet but relieved expression.
The portrayal of Anne of Cleves is based largely on the writer's interpretation of obscure historical events.
She is shown to have a strong grasp of politics, which is historically unlikely, although it provides an interesting interpretation to the facts of the annulment and the even more unlikely fact that Anne of Cleves survived her marriage to Henry.
The Duke of Norfolk visits his elderly mother to see if one of his nieces would be a likely enticement for the king.
His ambition is clear: he wants a Howard on the throne of England.
We meet Catherine Howard, a pretty and foolhardy teenager, who confides in her cousin Anne Carey that she had sexual relations with a young man named Francis Dereham the previous summer.
She is taken by her governess, Lady Rochford (the former sister-in-law of the late queen Anne Boleyn), to her uncle, who informs her that she is to be the next Queen of England.
She states her concerns because of what happened to Anne but Norfolk assures her if she listens to him all will be well, and stresses that she must not show fear or timidity when addressing the king.
Norfolk is unaware of his niece's sexually active past, and Catherine lies about it, telling him that she is untouched.
She is taken to meet the king.
Henry, long ill with an ulcer on his leg, is immediately taken with the pretty young girl.
She nurses and flirts with him and Norfolk's dream seems closer.
The king decides to take her as his wife but on their wedding night Henry's impotence is an obstacle.
Another obstacle comes when the young Dereham comes to visit the queen and blackmails her regarding their prior romance.
She gives him the job of Private Secretary to her, to keep him quiet.
To secure her future, Norfolk insists she produce a male heir, in any way possible.
Catherine (with the help of Lady Rochford as a go-between) begins a desperate affair with Thomas Culpeper, Henry's young and dashing personal aide, who is already overwhelmingly smitten with her.
But months pass with no sign of a child, and the court begins to know about the affair; as well the rampant rumours concerning Catherine's past indiscretions with both Dereham and a music teacher named Henry Mannox.
With disclosure threatened, Norfolk betrays his niece to the king before his enemies can.
Culpeper and Dereham are taken to the Tower, tortured, and later executed.
There is then a dramatic scene where Norfolk and the king's guards come to arrest Catherine and the Lady Rochford.
Catherine demands to see the king, but is denied.
She is taken to the Tower where she rehearses the speech she will give at her execution.
The episode ends with the king preparing for an operation on his ulcerated leg and banishing Norfolk, who is now very violently out of favour.
Henry tells him that if he ever looks on him again, it will be only on his head.
Catherine Parr, the recently widowed Lady Latimer, is called to an audience with the King.
Henry, looking old in his fifties, corpulent, sick and lonely, takes to the mature twice-widowed lady; her honesty and calmness entice him.
She turns down his offer of marriage, however, only to be persuaded by the ambitious Seymour brothers, Edward and Thomas (brothers of the late queen Jane Seymour) to accept Henry's proposal.
Thomas, even though he and Catherine have romantic feelings for each other, is especially eager to have Catherine marry Henry.
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer also encourages the devoutly Protestant Catherine to marry the King.
Catherine soon becomes Queen of England; her natural maternal instinct is put into practice with the king's children, Mary, Elizabeth and Edward.
However, Catholic Bishop Gardiner takes a dislike to Catherine's religious views.
He plots her downfall, and questions her ladies.
Gardiner even has one woman, Anne Askew (not one of Catherine's ladies, but a notable religious writer and speaker whose works Catherine had read), on the rack.
Catherine is horrified by Askew's story and confronts her husband and Gardiner.
Henry is angered by her liberal opinions and angrily rejects her.
Soon, a warrant for the queen to be arrested and "examined" (which is practically a death sentence), is made out.
Catherine is terrified, but Archbishop Cranmer advises her to assume a modest, humble, apologetic pose to the king, and Henry forgives her.
Soon after, Henry suddenly collapses, obviously near death.
After a long wait, the King dies, and Thomas Seymour asks Catherine to marry him.
Still in her mourning clothes, Catherine berates him for trying to take the king's place, but accepts.
<EOS>
Sung Tse-Ho (Ti Lung) works for the Triad, whose principal operation is printing and distributing counterfeit US bank notes.
Ho is a respected member of the organization and is entrusted the most important transactions.
Mark Lee (Chow Yun-Fat), another high-ranking member of the group, is his best friend and partner in crime.
Ho is close to his younger brother, Kit (Leslie Cheung), who is training to become a police officer.
Ho keeps his criminal life secret from his brother and encourages Kit's career choice.
Ho's father is aware of Ho's criminal activities and appeals to him to go straight.
Ho agrees, deciding that his next deal in Taiwan will be his last one before leaving the Triad.
Shing (Waise Lee), a new member, is sent along as an apprentice.
The deal turns out to be a trap by the Taiwanese gang.
A shootout ensues in which Ho and Shing flee, pursued by local law enforcement.
Meanwhile, a gang member attempts to kidnap Ho's father to ensure Ho's silence if he is caught by police; in the ensuing fight also involving Kit and his girlfriend, Ho's father is killed.
Just before dying, he pleads with Kit to forgive his brother.
Ho eventually surrenders to the police in order to buy time for Shing to escape.
After learning of Ho's capture, Mark finds and kills the Taiwanese gang leader and his bodyguards.
However, Mark's leg is shot in the gunfight, leaving him crippled.
Ho is released from prison three years later.
Remorseful and determined to start a new life, he finds work as a driver for a taxi company, run by another ex-con.
Ho spots Mark during one of his shifts; in contrast to Mark's letters, he realizes that Mark has been reduced to an errand boy for Shing (who is the new leader of the Triad).
During an emotional reunion, Mark asks Ho to take revenge on Shing and reclaim their positions in the organization, but Ho refuses.
Ho seeks Kit out and attempts to reconcile with his brother (who is now a police officer), but is disowned by Kit, who sees Ho as a criminal who is responsible for their father's death.
Additionally, Kit is resentful that his familial tie to Ho is preventing him from advancement in the department.
In an effort to prove himself to his superiors and further distance himself from his brother's criminal past, Kit becomes obsessed with bringing down Shing's criminal group, despite Ho's warnings to stay away from the dangerous case.
Shing finds Ho and presses him to come back to his organization, offering to reinstate Mark if he returns.
Ho flatly refuses.
Consequently, Shing begins harassing Ho in order to get him to return, including luring Kit into a trap and injuring Kit, attacking Ho's co-workers, and having Mark beaten severely.
Ho is dismayed but is still hesitant to take action, but an impassioned speech by Mark finally convinces Ho to join Mark in taking revenge on Shing.
Mark steals a computer tape containing printing plate data from the counterfeiting business and wins a shootout with gang members, with Ho arriving to aid Mark's escape.
The film then reveals that it was Shing who betrayed Ho three years ago in Taiwan.
Ho and Mark use the tape to ransom Shing in exchange for money and an escape boat.
However, Ho ensures that the tape is passed to Kit to hand to the police.
Using Shing as a hostage, Ho and Mark take the money to a pier, where Shing's men await.
There, Ho persuades Mark to escape by himself in the boat.
After Mark leaves, Kit arrives on the scene intending to make an arrest where he is captured by Shing's men.
A deal is made to exchange Shing with Kit, but the trade explodes into a wild shootout.
Ho and Kit are wounded, but Mark returns with guns blazing out of loyalty to Ho.
After Ho, Kit and Mark kill many of Shing's men, Mark berates Kit, telling him that Ho's actions had atoned for whatever wrongdoings he had done in the past.
Mark is in turn killed by Shing.
As the police approach, Shing mocks Ho (who has run out of ammunition), stating that he will surrender, but his money and power will ensure his swift release.
Kit, finally seeing eye to eye with his brother, hands Ho a revolver, with which Ho kills Shing.
Immediately afterwards, Ho handcuffs himself to Kit, expressing his desire for redemption and his admiration that Kit always walked the right path.
The film ends with the reconciled brothers walking together towards the gathered crowd of police.
<EOS>
Master thief Arsène Lupin III and his colleague, Daisuke Jigen, flee the Monte Carlo Casino with huge quantities of stolen money.
They escape in Lupin's Fiat 500, but Lupin recognizes the bills as distinctively high quality counterfeits.
Deciding to seek out the source, they head to the Grand Duchy of Cagliostro, the alleged wellspring of the counterfeits.
Shortly after arriving, they rescue a young woman being pursued by a gang of thugs, with her and Lupin falling off a cliff while escaping.
Lupin is knocked unconscious, and the woman captured, but she leaves him a signet ring.
Lupin recognizes the woman as Clarisse, the princess of Cagliostro, who will soon be married to Count Cagliostro, the country's regent.
The Count's arranged marriage will cement his power and recover the fabled ancient treasure of Cagliostro, for which he needs both his and Clarisse's ancestral rings.
A squad of assassins attack Lupin and Jigen at their inn but fail to kill them or recover the ring.
Lupin leaves his calling card on the back of Jodo, the Count's butler and chief assassin, announcing he is going to steal Clarisse.
Lupin summons Goemon Ishikawa XIII to aid their quest to rescue the princess and tips off his longtime pursuer, Inspector Koichi Zenigata, to his whereabouts to provide a distraction.
Zenigata's presence and a party give Lupin enough time to sneak into the castle.
There he finds his on-off lover, Fujiko Mine, posing as Clarisse's lady-in-waiting, who tells him where the princess is being held.
Lupin makes his way to Clarisse and returns her ring, vowing to help her to escape.
Before he can act, the Count drops Lupin down a trapdoor into the castle's catacombs, as Lupin had planned.
Lupin mocks the Count through the ring he gave to Clarisse – a fake containing a transmitter – and the Count sends three assassins to retrieve the real ring.
Lupin encounters Zenigata, who was accidentally dropped down earlier, and they form a pact to help each other escape.
After overpowering the assassins, they escape into a room full of printing presses—the source of the counterfeits.
Zenigata wants to collect evidence, but Lupin points out they must escape the castle first.
They start a fire as a distraction and steal the Count's autogyro.
However, as they attempt to rescue Clarisse, Lupin is shot.
Clarisse offers the ring to the Count in exchange for Lupin's life.
After securing the ring, the Count's attempt at betrayal is foiled when Fujiko's actions allow her, Lupin, and Zenigata to flee.
As Lupin recovers from his injuries, Zenigata attempts to convince his superiors at Interpol to prosecute the Count for counterfeiting, but fearing political repercussions, they halt the investigation and remove him from the case.
Meanwhile, Lupin intends to stop the wedding and rescue the princess.
He also reveals his reasons for rescuing Clarisse to Jigen, Goemon and her former groundskeeper—as a young girl, she had saved his life during his unsuccessful first attempt to find the source of the counterfeit bills ten years earlier.
Fujiko tips off Lupin on a way to sneak into the castle, and forms a plan with Zenigata to publicly reveal the counterfeiting operation under the cover of pursuing Lupin.
The wedding appears to go as planned with a drugged Clarisse until Lupin's "ghost" disrupts the ceremony, and despite the Count's precautions Lupin makes off with both Clarisse and the Count's rings.
Meanwhile, Zenigata and his squadron arrive in the chaos and the inspector leads Fujiko, posing as a television reporter, to the Count's counterfeiting facility to expose the operation to the world.
The Count pursues Lupin and Clarisse to the face of the castle's clock tower.
Lupin is forced to surrender the rings to save Clarisse, and they are both knocked into the lake surrounding the tower.
After using the rings to reveal the secret of Cagliostro, the Count is killed by the mechanism unveiling the treasure.
Lupin and Clarisse watch as the lake around the castle drains to reveal exquisite ancient Roman ruins—the true treasure of Cagliostro.
Lupin and his friends bid farewell to Clarisse, now the rightful ruler of Cagliostro.
With Zenigata pursuing them again and Fujiko fleeing with the plates from counterfeit printing presses, Lupin and the gang drive off into the city of Cagliostro, with the police behind them.
<EOS>
Facing foreclosure of their homes in the Goon Docks area of Astoria, Oregon to an expanding country club, a group of children who call themselves "the Goonies", gather for a final weekend together.
The Goonies include optimist Mikey Walsh, his older brother, Brand, the inventive Data, the talkative Mouth, and the overweight klutz Chunk.
While rummaging through the Walshes' attic, they come across a 1632 doubloon and an old treasure map purporting to lead to the famous pirate "One-Eyed" Willy's hoard located nearby.
Evading Brand for one last adventure together, the kids find themselves at a derelict restaurant near the coast, which coincides with the doubloon and the map.
They encounter the Fratellis, a family of criminals hiding out at the restaurant.
Evading detection by returning outside, the kids run into Brand and two girls: the popular cheerleader Andy, who has a crush on Brand, who shares the same feelings for her, and Stef, a nerdy, tough-talking girl and Andy's best friend.
Mikey convinces Brand to return to the restaurant to explore after the Fratellis leave, discovering that the criminals are running a counterfeiting operation.
As the Fratellis return, the group finds a tunnel beneath the restaurant and hides in there, sending Chunk to notify the authorities.
They explore the tunnel and find the remains of a previous explorer, who also searched for the treasure, and Mikey is sure they are on the right trail.
Evading various booby traps, set up by Willy, they find themselves under an old wishing well.
The kids have a chance to be pulled out of the tunnel by Andy's obnoxious boyfriend Troy, whose family owns the country club, but Mikey convinces the group to continue on their journey.
Meanwhile, Chunk, who has escaped the restaurant, tries to flag down several passing cars, but is intercepted and kidnapped by Jake and Francis Fratelli.
When the Fratellis threaten to shred his hands with an active blender, a terrified Chunk reveals not only where his friends are, but also the existence of the treasure.
The Fratellis tie Chunk to a chair and lock him in the basement next to Sloth, their deformed younger brother kept chained to the wall.
While the Fratellis pursue both the Goonies and the treasure, Chunk befriends Sloth, and Sloth is able to break their bonds; they form a third party headed into the tunnel.
Mikey and the others discover the Fratellis on their trail, and hasten through the remaining traps.
They ultimately find an enclosed grotto and Willy's pirate ship, the Inferno, which has been sealed in the cave for centuries.
They explore the ship, finding a hoard of treasure in front of the skeletal remains of Willy and his crew.
Mikey gives a sober speech to Willy, naming him as the first "Goonie", then he and the others fill their pockets with riches; Mikey insists that the coins directly in front of Willy remain untouched, as Willy's tribute.
As they leave, however, the Fratellis have already caught up with them.
They make them drop the treasure before threatening to kill them by forcing them to walk the plank, when suddenly Sloth and Chunk arrive.
Sloth, angered by how the other Fratellis have treated him in the past, easily subdues them and helps the rest of the Goonies to escape the boat.
Though Mikey insists they go back for the treasure, Brand worries more for their lives, and the group escapes through a hole in the grotto, eventually arriving on a nearby beach shore.
Police quickly come to their help and reunite them with their families.
Meanwhile, the Fratellis free themselves and begin to loot the boat.
When they take the coins that Mikey had left earlier, they trigger another booby trap that causes the grotto to start to cave in.
The Fratellis are forced to abandon the loot and flee to the beach, where police quickly take them into custody.
As the Goonies are taken care of by their families, including Chunk offering to bring Sloth into his family, the owners of the country club show up and demand that mr Walsh sign away their homes and the Goon Docks.
As he is about to do so, their housekeeper, Rosalita, finds Mikey's marble bag in his wet clothes, filled with gems that the Fratellis had neglected to confiscate.
mr Walsh triumphantly tears up the paperwork, as the gems are more than enough to negate the foreclosure.
As the Goonies celebrate, the attention of all on the beach is caught by the sight of the unmanned Inferno, now clear of the grotto, and the Goonies wave her goodbye as she sets off once more upon the sea.
<EOS>
The story begins in 1913 in Denmark, when Karen Dinesen (a wealthy but unmarried woman) asks her friend Baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer) to enter into a marriage of convenience with her.
Although Bror is a member of the aristocracy, he is no longer financially secure; therefore, he agrees to the marriage, and the two of them plan to move to Africa to begin a dairy farm.
Upon moving to British East Africa, Karen marries Bror in a brief ceremony, thus becoming Baroness Blixen.
She meets and befriends various other colonial residents of the country, most of whom are British.
She also meets Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), a local big-game hunter with whom she develops a close friendship.
However, things turn out differently from her expectations, since Bror has used her money to purchase a coffee plantation rather than a dairy farm.
He also shows little inclination to put any real work into it, preferring instead to become a game hunter.
Although theirs was a marriage of convenience, Karen does eventually develop feelings for Bror, but she is distressed when she learns of his extramarital affairs.
To make matters worse, Karen contracts syphilis from her philandering husband (at the time, cures were uncertain) and is forced to return to Denmark for a long and difficult period of treatment using the then-new medicine Salvarsan.
Bror agrees to look after the plantation in her absence.
After she has recovered and returns to Africa, the First World War is drawing to an end.
However, it becomes clear that her marriage to the womanizing Bror has not changed, and she eventually asks him to move out of their house.
No longer able to have children of her own due to the effects of the syphilis, she decides to open a school to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and also some European customs to the African tribal children of the area.
However, her coffee plantation runs into financial difficulties, and she is forced to rely on bank loans to make ends meet.
Her friendship with Denys Finch Hatton develops further.
Despite her expectation and desire to have what begins as an affair turn into a lasting relationship, Karen realizes that Denys is as impossible to domesticate as the wild animals he hunts and often refers to.
Although he moves into Karen's house, he criticizes her desire to "own" things; this implies even people.
He refuses to commit to marriage or give up his free lifestyle and tells her that he will not love her more just because of a "piece of paper".
Karen grudgingly continues in the relationship, knowing it will not ever be official.
He decides to invite Felicity, a female mutual acquaintance on one of his safaris, which exceeds Karen's ability to tolerate his justifications for his lifestyle and behavior.
Karen asks him to accede to her request to not take her along, and he refuses.
She asks him to move out.
The plantation finally yields a good harvest at long last, but a devastating fire breaks out in the processing shed, and the crops and all of the factory equipment are destroyed.
Now financially broke, and her relationship with Denys over, Karen prepares to leave Africa to return home to Denmark, just as British East Africa is becoming Kenya Colony.
She arranges to sell everything that she owns and empties the house of all her luxurious items for a rummage sale.
In the now empty house, Denys visits her that night, and the two of them enjoy a drink and a dance.
He asks her if he might escort her to Mombasa in his biplane to begin her journey home.
She agrees and he promises to return after a few days.
However, Denys never returns, and Karen is told that his plane has crashed and that he has been killed.
Her loss now complete, Karen attends his funeral in the Ngong Hills.
With Denys gone, Karen's head servant, Farah, takes her to the station, for the train to Mombasa.
Karen later became an author and a storyteller, writing about her experiences and letters in Africa, though she never returned there.
<EOS>
Ahmad ibn Fadlan is a court poet to the Caliph of Baghdad, until his amorous encounter with the wife of an influential noble gets him exiled as an "ambassador" to Northern Barbarians.
Traveling with Melchisidek, his caravan is saved from Turkic raiders by the appearance of Norsemen (presumably Varangian).
Taking refuge at their settlement on the Volga river, communications are established through Melchisidek and Herger, a Norseman who speaks Latin.
Ahmad and Melchisidek are in time to witness a fight, which establishes Buliwyf as heir apparent, followed by the Viking funeral of their dead king, cremated together with a young woman who agreed to accompany him to Valhalla.
A youth enters the camp requesting Buliwyf's aid: his father's kingdom in the far north is under attack from an ancient evil so frightening that even the bravest warriors dare not name it.
The "angel of death", a völva (wisewoman), determines the mission will be successful if thirteen warriors go to face this danger—but the thirteenth must not be a Norseman.
Ahmad is recruited against his will.
Ahmad learns Norse during their journey by listening intently to his companions' conversations.
He is looked down upon by the huge Norsemen, who mock his physical weakness and his small Arabian horse, but he earns a measure of respect by his fast learning of their language, his horsemanship, ingenuity, and ability to write.
Reaching King Hrothgar's kingdom, they confirm that their foe is indeed the ancient "Wendol", fiends who come with the mist to kill and eat human flesh.
While the group searches through a raided cabin they find a venus figurine.
On their first night three of their number - Hyglak, Ragnar and Haltaf are killed.
In a string of clashes, Buliwyf's band establishes that the Wendol are humanoid cannibals who appear as, live like, and identify with bears.
Their numbers dwindling and their position all but indefensible, an ancient völva of the village tells them to track the Wendol to their lair and destroy their leaders, the "Mother of the Wendol" and their Warlord who wears "the horns of power".
Buliwyf and the remaining warriors infiltrate the Wendol cave-complex and kill the Mother, but not before Buliwyf is scratched deeply across the shoulder by her poisoned "fingernail claw".
The remaining warriors return to the village and prepare for a final battle they do not expect to survive.
Buliwyf staggers outside before the fight and inspires the warriors with a Viking prayer for the honored dead who will enter Valhalla.
Buliwyf succeeds in killing the Wendol Warlord, causing their defeat, before succumbing to the poison.
Ahmad ibn Fadlan witnesses Buliwyf's royal funeral before returning to his homeland, grateful to the Norsemen for helping him to "become a man, and a useful servant of God".
He is shown at the movie's end writing down the tale of his time with them.
<EOS>
Told from the point of view of Professor Bill Reynolds, a scholar in the (formerly) fictitious discipline of 'micropaloentology', this novel is set in the 24th and 25th Centuries, when the solar system has been colonised.
Reynolds is writing a thesis on fame and in his research discovers a dissertation on comedy submitted by Carlton, a robotic secretary for two stand-up comedians on an interplanetary comedy circuit.
Most of the action in the novel follows this trio's adventures during the time when Reynolds believes Carlton was developing his theories.
During this time, Carlton and his owners, Alex Muscroft and Lewis Ashby get caught up in a series of disasters including loss of work, parental responsibility and close scrapes with terrorists, the law, other entertainers, and a refugee crisis.
Carlton seeks to understand the nature of comedy and human laughter, and attempts to describe humor as a mathematical formula.
<EOS>
Red Mars starts in 2026 with the first colonial voyage to Mars aboard the Ares, the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built and home to a crew who are to be the first hundred Martian colonists.
The ship was built from clustered space shuttle external fuel tanks which, instead of reentering Earth's atmosphere, had been boosted into orbit until enough had been amassed to build the ship.
The mission is a joint American–Russian undertaking, and seventy of the First Hundred are drawn from these countries (except, for example, Michel Duval, a French psychologist assigned to observe their behavior).
The book details the trip out, construction of the first settlement on Mars (eventually called Underhill) by Nadia Cherneshevsky, as well as establishing colonies on Mars' hollowed out asteroid-moon Phobos, the ever-changing relationships between the colonists, debates among the colonists regarding both the terraforming of the planet and its future relationship to Earth.
The two extreme views on terraforming are personified by Saxifrage "Sax" Russell, who believes their very presence on the planet means some level of terraforming has already begun and that it is humanity's obligation to spread life as it is the most scarce thing in the known universe, and Ann Clayborne, who stakes out the position that humankind does not have the right to change entire planets at their will.
Russell's view is initially purely scientific but in time comes to blend with the views of Hiroko Ai, the chief of the Agricultural Team who assembles a new belief system (the "Areophany") devoted to the appreciation and furthering of life ("viriditas"); these views are collectively known as the "Green" position, while Clayborne's naturalist stance comes to be known as "Red".
The actual decision is left to the United Nations Organization Mars Authority (UNOMA), which greenlights terraforming, and a series of actions get underway, including the drilling of "moholes" to release subsurface heat; thickening of the atmosphere according to a complicated bio-chemical formula that comes to be known as the "Russell cocktail" after Sax Russell; and the detonation of nuclear explosions deep in the sub-surface permafrost to release water.
Additional steps are taken to connect Mars more closely with Earth, including the insertion of an Areosynchronous asteroid "Clarke" to which a space elevator cable is tethered.
Against the backdrop of this development is another debate, one whose principal instigator is Arkady Bogdanov of the Russian contingent (possibly named in homage to the Russian polymath and science fiction writer Alexander Bogdanov - it is later revealed in Blue Mars that Alexander Bogdanov is an ancestor of Arkady's).
Bogdanov argues that Mars need not and should not be subject to Earth traditions, limitations, or authority.
He is to some extent joined in this position by John Boone, famous as the "First Man on Mars" from a preceding expedition and rival to Frank Chalmers, the technical leader of the American contingent.
Their rivalry is further exacerbated by competing romantic interest in Maya Katarina Toitovna, the leader of the Russian contingent.
(In the opening of the book, Chalmers instigates a sequence of events that leads to Boone being assassinated; much of what follows is a retrospective examination of what led to that point)  Earth meanwhile increasingly falls under the control of transnational corporations (transnats) that come to dominate its governments, particularly smaller nations adopted as "flags of convenience" for extending their influence into Martian affairs.
As UNOMA's power erodes, the Mars treaty is renegotiated in a move led by Frank Chalmers; the outcome is impressive but proves short-lived as the transnats find ways around it through loop-holes.
Things get worse as the nations of Earth start to clash over limited resources, expanding debt, and population growth as well as restrictions on access to a new longevity treatment developed by Martian science—one that holds the promise of lifespans into the hundreds of years.
In 2061, with Boone dead and exploding immigration threatening the fabric of Martian society, Bogdanov launches a revolution against what many now view as occupying transnat troops operating only loosely under an UNOMA rubber-stamp approval.
Initially successful, the revolution proves infeasible on the basis of both a greater-than-expected willingness of the Earth troops to use violence and the extreme vulnerability of life on a planet without a habitable atmosphere.
A series of exchanges sees the cutting of the space elevator, bombardment of several Martian cities (including the city where Bogdanov is himself organizing the rebellion; he is killed), the destruction of Phobos and its military complex, and the unleashing of a great flood of torrential groundwater freed by nuclear detonations.
By the end, most of the First Hundred are dead, and virtually all who remain have fled to a hidden refuge established years earlier by Ai and her followers.
(One exception is Phyllis Boyle, who has allied herself with the transnats; she is on Clarke when the space elevator cable is cut and sent flying out of orbit to a fate unknown by the conclusion of the book) The revolution dies and life on Mars returns to a sense of stability under heavy transnat control.
The clash over resources on Earth breaks out into a full-blown world war leaving hundreds of millions dead, but cease-fire arrangements are reached when the transnats flee to the safety of the developed nations, which use their huge militaries to restore order, forming police-states.
But a new generation of humans born on Mars holds the promise of change.
In the meantime, the remaining First Hundred—including Russell, Clayborne and Cherneshevsky—settle into life in Ai's refuge called Zygote, hidden under the Martian south pole.
Green Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has allowed plants to grow.
It picks up the story 50 years after the events of Red Mars in the dawn of the 22nd century, following the lives of the remaining First Hundred and their children and grandchildren.
Hiroko Ai's base under the south pole is attacked by UN Transitional Authority (UNTA) forces, and the survivors are forced to escape into a (less literal) underground organization known as the Demimonde.
Among the expanded group are the First Hundred's children, the Nisei, a number of whom live in Hiroko's second secret base, Zygote.
As unrest in the multinational control over Mars's affairs grows, various groups start to form with different aims and methods.
Watching these groups evolve from Earth, the CEO of the Praxis Corporation sends a representative, Arthur Randolph, to organize the resistance movements.
This culminates into the Dorsa Brevia agreement, in which nearly all the underground factions take part.
Preparations are made for a second revolution beginning in the 2120s, from converting moholes to missiles silos or hidden bases, sabotaging orbital mirrors, to propelling Deimos out of Mars' gravity well and out into deep space so it could never be used as a weapons platform as Phobos was.
The book follows the characters across the Martian landscape, which is explained in detail.
As Russell's character infiltrates the transnat terraforming project, the newly evolving Martian biosphere is described at great length and with more profound changes most aimed at warming up the surface of Mars to the brink of making it habitable, from continent sized orbital mirrors, another space elevator built (using another anchored asteroid that is dubbed "New Clarke"), to melting the northern polar ice cap, and digging moholes deep enough to form volcanoes.
A mainstay of the novel is a detailed analysis of philosophical, political, personal, economical, and geological experiences of the characters.
The story weaves back and forth from character to character, providing a picture of Mars as seen by them.
Russell eventually becomes romantically involved with Phyllis under his assumed identity, but she discovers his true identity and has him arrested.
Members of the underground launch a daring rescue from the prison facility where Russell suffers torture and interrogation that causes a stroke; Maya kills Phyllis in the process of the rescue.
The book ends on a major event which is a sudden, catastrophic rise in Earth's global sea levels not caused primarily by any greenhouse effect but by the eruption of a chain of volcanoes underneath the ice of west Antarctica, disintegrating the ice sheet and displacing the fragments into the ocean.
The resultant flooding causes global chaos on Earth, creating the perfect moment for the Martian underground to seize control of Martian society from Earth-based control.
Following a series of largely bloodless coups, an extremist faction of Reds bombs a dam near Burroughs, the major city where the remaining United Nations forces have concentrated, in order to force the security forces to evacuate.
The entire city is flooded and the population of the city has to walk in the open Martian atmosphere (which just barely has the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and gas mixture to support human life) to the base of the new space elevator in Sheffield.
With this, control of Mars is finally wrested away from Earth with minimal loss of life, although Hiroko and some of her followers are said to have been killed in the conflict.
Blue Mars takes its title from the stage of terraforming that has allowed atmospheric pressure and temperature to increase so that liquid water can exist on the planet's surface, forming rivers and seas.
It follows closely in time from the end of Green Mars and has a much wider scope than the previous two books, covering an entire century after the second revolution.
As Earth is heavily flooded by the sudden melting of the Antarctic ice cap, the once mighty metanats are brought to their knees; as the Praxis Corporation paves a new way of "democratic businesses".
Mars becomes the "Head" of the system, giving universal healthcare, free education, and an abundance of food.
However, this sparks illegal immigration from Earth, so to ease the population strain on the Blue Planet, Martian scientists and engineers are soon put to the task of creating asteroid cities; where small planetoids of the Belt are hollowed out, given a spin to produce gravity, and a mini-sun is created to produce light and heat.
With a vast increase in sciences, technologies, and spacecraft manufacturing, this begins the "Accelerando"; where humankind spreads its civilization throughout the Solar System, and eventually beyond.
As Venus, the Jovian moons, the Saturnian moons, and eventually Triton are colonized and terraformed in some way, Jackie Boone (the granddaughter of John Boone, the first man to walk on Mars from the first book) takes an interstellar vessel (made out of an asteroid) to another star system twenty light-years away, where they will start to terraform the planets and moons found there.
The remaining First Hundred are generally regarded as living legends.
Reports of Hiroko's survival are numerous, and purported sightings occur all over the colonized solar system, but none are substantiated.
Nadia and Art Randolph lead a constitutional congress in which a global system of government is established that leaves most cities and settlements generally autonomous, but subject to a central representative legislature and two systems of courts, one legal and the other environmental.
The environmental court is packed with members of the Red faction as a concession (in exchange for their support in the congress, as much of their power was broken when they attempted and failed to violently expel remaining UN forces early on after the second revolution of Green Mars; yet they still retained enough power to stymie constitutional negotiations).
Vlad, Marina, and Ursula, the original inventors of the longevity treatments, introduce a new economic system that is a hybrid of capitalism, socialism, and environmental conservationism.
During a trip to Earth occurring alongside the congress, Nirgal (one of the original children to be born on Mars to the First Hundred and something of a Mars-wide celebrity), Maya, and Sax negotiate an agreement that allows Earth to send a number of migrants equal to 10% of Mars' population to Mars every year.
Following the adoption of the new constitution, Nadia is elected the first president of Mars and serves competently, although she does not enjoy politics.
She and Art work together closely, and eventually fall in love and have a child.
Sax Russell devotes himself to various scientific projects, all the while continuing to recover from the effects of his stroke.
Since the second revolution, he feels enormous guilt that his pro-terraforming position became the dominant one at the expense of the goals of Ann's anti-terraforming stance, as Sax and Ann have come to be regarded as the original champions of their respective positions.
Sax becomes increasingly preoccupied with seeking forgiveness and approval from Ann, while Ann, depressed and bitter from her many political and personal losses, is suicidal and refuses to accept any more longevity treatments.
However, during one attempt to demonstrate to Ann the beauty of the terraformed world, Sax witnesses Ann collapse into a coma.
While she remains unconscious he arranges for her to be resuscitated and for her to be treated with the longevity treatment, both against her will.
The longevity treatments themselves begin to show weaknesses once those receiving them reach the two-century mark in age.
The treatments reduce most aging processes to a negligible rate, but are much less effective when it comes to brain function, and in particular memory.
Maya in particular suffers extreme lapses in memory, although she remains high functioning most of the time.
Further, as people age, they begin to show susceptibility to strange, fatal conditions which have no apparent explanation and are resistant to any treatment.
Most common is the event that comes to be known as the "quick decline", where a person of extremely advanced age and in apparently good health suffers a sudden fatal heart arrythmia and dies abruptly.
The exact mechanism is never explained.
Michel dies of the quick decline, while attending the wake of another First Hundred member.
Russell speculates that Michel's quick decline was brought on by the shock of seeing Maya fail to remember Frank Chalmers (who was killed while escaping security forces in the first revolution) upon looking at a treasured photo of him on her refrigerator.
As a result of this and Russell's own problems with memory, he organizes a team of scientists to develop medicine that will restore memory.
The remaining members of the First Hundred, of which there are only 12, congregate in Underhill, and take the medicine.
It works so well that Russell remembers his own birth.
He and Ann Clayborne finally recall that they had been in love prior to leaving Earth the very first time, but both had been too socially inept and nervous about their chances for selection for the Mars voyage to reveal this to each other.
Their famous argument over terraforming had been a mere continuation of a running conversation they had been having since they still lived on Earth.
Through the memory treatment it is also revealed that Phyllis had been lobbying to free Sax from his torturers when she was murdered by Maya.
Maya herself declines the treatment.
Sax also distinctly recalls Hiroko assisting him in finding his rover in a storm before he nearly froze to death before disappearing once again and is convinced she remains alive, although the question of whether she is actually alive is never resolved.
Eventually, the anti-immigration factions of the Martian government provoke massive illegal immigration from Earth, risking another war; however, under the leadership of Ann and Sax, who have fallen in love again following their reconciliation, along with Maya, the Martian population unites to reconstitute the government to accept more immigration from Earth, diffusing the imminent conflict and ushering in a new golden age of harmony and security on Mars.
The Martians is a collection of short stories that takes place over the timespan of the original trilogy of novels, as well as some stories that take place in an alternate version of the novels where the First Hundred's mission was one of exploration rather than colonization.
Buried in the stories are several hints about the eventual fate of the Martian terraforming program.
<EOS>
The novel begins as Dr Rivers, an army psychiatrist at Craiglockhart War Hospital, learns of poet Siegfried Sassoon's declaration against the continuation of the war.
Labelled as "shell-shocked", a government board influenced by Robert Graves, Sassoon's friend, sends Sassoon to the hospital trying to discredit his public declaration of opposition.
Rivers feels uneasy about Sassoon entering Craiglockhart, doubting that he is shell-shock and not wanting to shelter a conscientious objector.
Soon after Sassoon arrives, Rivers meets him and they discuss why Sassoon objects to the war: he objects to its horrors, out of no particular religious belief, a common criteria for conscientious objectors.
Though troubled by these horrors, Rivers affirms his duty to return Sassoon to combat.
Sassoon feels conflicted about his safety at Craiglockhart while others die on the Western Front.
In addition to Sassoon's conflict, the opening chapters of the novel describe the suffering of other soldiers in the hospital.
Anderson, a former surgeon, now cannot stand the sight of blood.
Haunted by terrible hallucinations after being thrown into the air by an explosion and landing head first in the ruptured stomach of a rotting dead soldier, Burns experiences a revulsion to eating.
Another patient, Billy Prior, suffers from mutism and will only write communications with Rivers on a notepad.
Prior eventually regains his voice, but remains a difficult patient for Rivers avoiding any discussion of his war memories.
At the beginning of Part II, Sassoon meets the young aspiring poet Wilfred Owen who admires Sassoon's poetry and Sassoon helps workshop Owen's poem "The Dead-Beat".
Sassoon becomes Anderson's golf partner.
On a day off, Prior goes into Edinburgh and meets Sarah Lumb, a munitionette whose boyfriend was killed at the Battle of Loos.
They nearly have sex, but Sarah refuses Prior at the last minute.
The doctors punish Prior for being gone from Craiglockhart for too long, confining him there for two weeks.
During that time, Rivers tries hypnosis on Prior to help him recover his memories of the trenches.
Meanwhile, Rivers invites Sassoon to visit the Conservative Club.
At the lunch, Rivers realises it will be difficult to convince Sassoon return to the war and does not want to force him.
Later, Owen convinces Sassoon to publish his poetry in the hospital magazine The Hydra.
During this time, Prior meets Sarah in town and explains why he missed their meetings.
Reconciled, they take a train to the seaside and walk along the beach together, where he feels relieved, though he is distracted thinking about the plight of fellow soldiers.
Caught in a storm, he and Sarah have sex while sheltering in a bush.
Meanwhile, Rivers, exhausted by the taxing work of caring for the shell shocked soldiers, is ordered by his superiors to holiday for three weeks away from Craiglockhart.
Rivers' departure resurrects Sassoon's feelings of abandonment when his father left him, and he realises that Rivers has taken the place of his father.
While away from Craiglockhart, Rivers attends church near his brother's farm and reflects on the sacrifices of younger men in the war for the desires of the older generation.
Afterward, tiring labour on his brother's farm allows a cathartic release and a thorough reflection on his experiences.
During one flashback, Rivers reflects on his father's role in his life, remembering his father's speech therapy practice on both himself and Charles Dodgson, who was later known by his pen name Lewis Carroll.
At Craiglockhart, Sassoon helps Owen draft one of his most famous poems, "Anthem for Doomed Youth".
Meanwhile, Sarah accompanies her friend Madge to a local wounded soldier hospital.
Sarah gets separated and walks into a tent housing amputee soldiers.
She feels shocked that society hides these injured soldiers away.
During Sarah's experience, Prior is examined by a medical board.
Prior fears that they suspect he is faking illness and want to send him back to war.
While away, Rivers meets with some old friends, Ruth and Henry Head, who discuss Sassoon.
Rivers suggests that Sassoon has the freedom to disagree with the war.
However, Rivers affirms that his job is to make Sassoon return to military duty.
At the end of their conversation Head offers Rivers a job in London, which Rivers is unsure if he should take out of fear of not fulfilling his duties.
Burns, who has since been discharged from hospital, invites Rivers to visit him at his family home in seaside Suffolk.
Rivers finds Burns alone.
They spend a few days together.
One night, during a severe thunderstorm, Burns walks outside and suffers flashbacks to his experiences with trench warfare in France.
The trauma facilitates' Burn's ability to talk about his frontline experience.
The experience also helps Rivers decide to take the job in London, and notifies his commander at Craiglockhart.
When Rivers returns, Sassoon describes his recent hallucinations of dead friends knocking on his door.
Sassoon admits to guilt for not serving the soldiers and decides to return to the trenches.
Rivers, though pleased with Sassoon's decision, worries about what may happen to him there.
Starting the section, Sarah tells her mother, Ada, about her relationship with Billy Prior.
Ada scolds her daughter for having sex outside marriage.
A few chapters later, Sarah discovers that another munitions worker attempted a home abortion with a coat-hanger, but only harms herself.
Meanwhile, Sassoon tells Graves of his decision to return to war.
In the same conversation, Graves stresses his heterosexuality, leaving Sassoon feeling of unease about his own sexual orientation.
During a counselling session Sassoon talks to Rivers about the official attitude towards homosexuality.
Rivers theorises that during wartime the authorities are particularly hard on homosexuality, wanting to clearly distinguish between the "right" kind of love between men (loyalty, brotherhood, camaraderie), which is beneficial to soldiers, and the "wrong" kind (sexual attraction).
Soon, the medical board review the soldiers' cases deciding on their fitness for combat.
Prior receives permanent home service due to his asthma.
Prior breaks down, fearing that he will be seen as a coward.
Sassoon, tired of waiting for his board, leaves the hospital to dine with a friends, causing conflict with Rivers.
Following the medical board, Prior and Sarah meet again and admit their love.
Sassoon and Owen discuss Sassoon's imminent departure and Owen is deeply affected.
Sassoon comments to Rivers that Owen's feelings may be more than mere hero worship.
Rivers spends his last day at the clinic saying goodbye to his patients, then travels to London and meets dr Yealland from the National Hospital, who will be his colleague in his new position.
dr Yealland uses electro-shock therapy to force patients to quickly recover from shell-shock; he believes that some patients do not want to be cured and that pain is the best method of treatment for such reluctant patients.
Rivers questions whether he can work with a man who uses such techniques.
Soon Sassoon is released for combat duty; Willard is able to overcome his psychosomatic paralysis and walks again; Anderson is given a staff job.
The novel ends with Rivers completing his notes, meditating on the effect that the encounter with Sassoon, and the last few months, have had on him.
<EOS>
Mel Coplin and his wife, Nancy, live in New York, near Mel's neurotic, Jewish, adoptive parents, Ed and Pearl Coplin.
Mel and Nancy have just had their first child, and Mel won't decide on a name for their son until he can discover the identity of his biological parents.
After an adoption agency employee locates his biological mother's name in a database, Mel decides to meet her personally.
Tina, the sexy but highly incompetent adoption agency employee, decides to accompany Mel, Nancy, and the newborn on a trip to San Diego to meet Mel's biological mother.
The trip, of course, does not go as planned, and ends up becoming a tour of the United States.
First, Mel is introduced to Valerie, a blond Scandinavian woman with Confederate roots whose twin daughters are at least six inches taller than Mel.
They quickly realize that Valerie is not Mel's biological mother, and Tina scrambles to get the correct information from the agency database.
Meanwhile, Nancy becomes jealous as Tina and Mel begin to flirt.
Next, the group heads to Battle Creek, Michigan with the hope of meeting the man whose name appears as the person who delivered infant Mel to the adoption agency.
The man, Fritz Boudreau, turns out to be a trucker with a violent streak.
However, when he discovers that Mel might be his son, he becomes instantly friendly and lets Mel drive his semi-trailer truck, which Mel immediately crashes into a Post Office building.
This leads to a run-in with two ATF agents, Tony and Paul, who are gay and in a relationship with each other.
It is discovered that Tony and Nancy went to high school together.
Charges are dismissed, and Fritz Boudreau tells Mel that he is not Mel's father, but only handled Mel's adoption because Mel's biological parents were indisposed.
Tina locates the current address of Mel's biological parents, which turns out to be in rural New Mexico.
Tony and Paul surprise everyone by deciding to tag along on the trip.
While Mel and Tina become close, Nancy finds herself flirting with Tony, who returns the compliment, causing friction.
The trip through rural New Mexico is fraught with more problems.
At last the whole crowd descends on the front porch of Mel's true biological parents, Richard and Mary Schlichting.
They are asked to stay the night.
While Richard and Mary are more than welcoming, Mel's biological brother Lonnie is overly rude and jealous.
It is during dinner that Mel discovers that Richard and Mary had to let Mel be adopted because they were in jail for making and distributing LSD in the late 1960s.
Not only that, but Richard and Mary continue to manufacture LSD, as becomes apparent when Lonnie, in an attempt to dose Mel with acid at dinner, accidentally doses Paul, the ATF agent.
In his drugged state Paul tries to arrest Richard and Mary but Lonnie knocks him out with a frying pan.
They attempt to escape and decide to take Mel's car, hiding their supply of acid in the trunk.
Mel's adoptive parents arrive but then change their minds and decide to leave, taking the wrong car.
When they change their minds again and make a blind U-turn, the two families crash.
Mel's adoptive parents are arrested while his biological parents escape to Mexico.
Not realizing what has happened Mel recounts the stories from dinner to Nancy and they agree to name the baby Garcia.
The next day Paul explains the situation and is able to get Mel's parents released, and they are happy and reassured to hear Mel call them his parents.
A montage of their relationships continues over the credits.
They all still have their troubles but Mel and Nancy are happy together.
<EOS>
House of Leaves begins with a first-person narrative by Johnny Truant, a Los Angeles tattoo parlor employee and professed unreliable narrator.
Truant is searching for a new apartment when his friend Lude tells him about the apartment of the recently deceased Zampanò, a blind, elderly man who lived in Lude's apartment building.
In Zampanò's apartment, Truant discovers a manuscript written by Zampanò that turns out to be an academic study of a documentary film called The Navidson Record, though Truant says he can find no evidence that the film or its subjects ever existed.
The rest of the novel incorporates several narratives, including Zampanò's report on the fictional film; Truant's autobiographical interjections; a small transcript of part of the film from Navidson's brother, Tom; a small transcript of interviews of many people regarding The Navidson Record by Navidson's partner, Karen; and occasional brief notes by unidentified editors, all woven together by a mass of footnotes.
There is also another narrator, Truant's mother, whose voice is presented through a self-contained set of letters titled The Whalestoe Letters.
Each narrator's text is printed in a distinct font, making it easier for the reader to follow the occasionally challenging format of the novel (Truant in Courier New in the footnotes, and the main narrative in Times New Roman in the American version).
Zampanò's narrative deals primarily with the Navidson family: Will Navidson, a photojournalist (partly based on Kevin Carter), his partner, Karen Green, an attractive former fashion model, and their two children, Chad and Daisy.
Navidson's brother, Tom, and several other characters also play a role later in the story.
The Navidson family has recently moved into a new home in Virginia.
Upon returning from a trip to Seattle, the Navidson family discovers a change in their home.
A closet-like space shut behind an undecorated door appears inexplicably where previously there was only a blank wall.
A second door appears at the end of the closet, leading to the children's room.
As Navidson investigates this phenomenon, he finds that the internal measurements of the house are somehow larger than external measurements.
Initially there is less than an inch of difference, but as time passes the interior of the house seems to expand while maintaining the same exterior proportions.
A third and more extreme change asserts itself: a dark, cold hallway opens in an exterior living room wall that should project outside into their yard, but does not.
Navidson films the outside of the house to show where the hallway should be but clearly is not.
The filming of this anomaly comes to be referred to as "The Five and a Half Minute Hallway".
This hallway leads to a maze-like complex, starting with a large room (the "Anteroom"), which in turn leads to a truly enormous space (the "Great Hall"), a room primarily distinguished by an enormous spiral staircase which appears, when viewed from the landing, to spiral down without end.
There is also a multitude of corridors and rooms leading off from each passage.
All of these rooms and hallways are completely unlit and featureless, consisting of smooth ash-gray walls, floors, and ceilings.
The only sound disturbing the perfect silence of the hallways is a periodic low growl, the source of which is never fully explained, although an academic source "quoted" in the book hypothesizes that the growl is created by the frequent re-shaping of the house.
There is some discrepancy as to where "The Five and a Half Minute Hallway" appears.
It is quoted by different characters at different times to have been located in each of the cardinal directions.
This first happens when Zampanò writes that the hallway is in the western wall (House of Leaves, page 57), directly contradicting an earlier page where the hallway is mentioned to be in the northern wall (House of Leaves, page 4); Johnny's footnotes point out the contradiction.
Navidson, along with his brother Tom and some colleagues, feel compelled to explore, photograph, and videotape the house's seemingly endless series of passages, eventually driving various characters to insanity, murder, and death.
Ultimately, Will releases what has been recorded and edited as The Navidson Record.
Will and Karen purchased the house because their relationship was becoming strained with Will's work-related absences.
While Karen was always adamantly against marriage (claiming that she valued her freedom above anything else), she always found herself missing and needing Will when he was gone: "And yet even though Karen keeps Chad from overfilling the mold or Daisy from cutting herself with the scissors, she still cannot resist looking out the window every couple of minutes.
The sound of a passing truck causes her to glance away" (House of Leaves, pages 11–12).
Zampanò's narrative is littered with all manner of references, some quite obscure, others indicating that the Navidsons' story achieved international notoriety.
Luminaries such as Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, Douglas Hofstadter, Ken Burns, Harold Bloom, Camille Paglia, Hunter Thompson, Anne Rice, and Jacques Derrida were apparently interviewed as to their opinions about the film.
However, when Truant investigates, he finds no history of the house, no evidence of the events experienced by the Navidsons, and nothing else to establish that the house or film ever existed anywhere other than in Zampanò's text.
Many of the references in Zampanò's footnotes, however, are real, existing both within his world and our world outside the novel.
For example, several times Zampanò cites an actual Time-Life book, Planet Earth: Underground Worlds (House of Leaves, page 125).
An adjacent story line develops in Johnny's footnotes, detailing what is progressing in Johnny's life as he is assembling the narrative.
It remains unclear if Johnny's obsession with the writings of Zampanò and subsequent delusions, paranoia, etc.
are the result of drug use, insanity, or the effects of Zampanò's writing itself.
Johnny recounts tales of his various sexual encounters, his lust for a tattooed stripper he calls Thumper, and his bar-hopping with Lude throughout various footnotes.
The reader also slowly learns more about Johnny's childhood living with an abusive foster father, engaging in violent fights at school, and of the origin of Johnny's mysterious scars (House of Leaves, page 505).
More information about Johnny can be gleaned from the Whalestoe Letters, letters his mother Pelafina wrote from The Three Attic Whalestoe Institution.
Though Pelafina's letters and Johnny's footnotes contain similar accounts of their past, their memories also differ greatly at times, due to both Pelafina's and Johnny's questionable mental states.
Pelafina was placed in the mental institution after supposedly attempting to strangle Johnny, only to be stopped by her husband.
She remained there after Johnny's father's death.
Johnny claims that his mother meant him no harm and claimed to strangle him only to protect him from missing her, etc.
It is unclear, however, if Johnny's statements about the incident—or any of his other statements, for that matter—are factual.
This story is included in an appendix near the end of the book, as well as in its own, self-contained book (with additional content included in the self-contained version).
It consists of Johnny's mother's letters to him from a psychiatric hospital.
The letters start off fairly normal but Pelafina quickly descends into paranoia and the letters become more and more incoherent.
There are also secret messages in the letters which can be decoded by combining the first letters of consecutive words.
<EOS>
Pelafina writes these letters to Johnny from The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute, a mental institution where she has been residing for a number of years.
While a number of these letters appear in House of Leaves, The Whalestoe Letters introduces a number of new letters which serve to more fully develop Pelafina's character as well as her relationship with Johnny.
<EOS>
Lauper plays Sylvia Pickel (pronounced with an emphasis on the "kel", as she points out), a trance-medium who has contact with a wisecracking spirit guide named Louise.
She first began communicating with Louise after falling from a ladder at the age of twelve and remaining comatose for two weeks.
Subsequently, Louise taught her astral projection while Sylvia was placed in special homes for being "different".
At a study of physics, she meets fellow psychic Nick Deezy (Goldblum), a psychometrist who can determine the history of events surrounding an object by touching it.
Sylvia has a history of bad luck with men, and her overly flirtatious behavior turns off Nick right away.
Sylvia comes home to her apartment one night to find Harry Buscafusco (Falk) lounging in her kitchen.
He claims to want to hire her for $50,000 if she'll accompany him to Ecuador where his son has allegedly gone missing.
Sylvia recruits Nick who is reluctant but also eager to leave his job as a museum curator where his special talents are abused like a circus act.
Once the two get there, they initially set out to where Harry's son was last seen, only to have Nick's powers tell them that Harry is up to something.
Harry confesses that what he is actually looking for is a lost city of gold up in the mountains and that his last partner, who discovered it, went insane.
Nick angrily retreats back to the hotel followed by Sylvia who feels embarrassed over being fooled by yet another man.
At the hotel Nick is attacked by a woman who tries to drug and then stab him, saying "You think you can just come here and take it away from us.
" Convinced that there is something important, if dangerous, at work he agrees to trek back into the mountains to search for this lost city.
The group makes a detour to visit Harry's former partner, who is in a vegetative state in the hospital.
When Nick lays hands on him he receives a jolt of tremendous psychic energy; the former partner immediately dies.
Unexpectedly, the three are set upon by Ingo Swedlin (Googy Gress), another psychic from their test group.
He holds them at gunpoint and threatens to kill them, but Sylvia uses Louise to get in touch with his long lost mother and the group escapes.
They begin their journey anew only to once again be confronted by Ingo and by Doctor Harrison Steele (Sands).
Ingo throws a knife into Harry's back and kills him, and the other two are taken hostage.
They are forced to lead the way to this alleged city of gold.
Upon arriving, the group discovers an ancient pyramid shaped structure with mystical carvings.
Sylvia translates them and they appear to reveal that the location was built by an ancient alien race who has embedded all of the psychic energy of the world into this pyramid.
Using the translation Sylvia provided, Ingo attempts to decipher the secret to harnessing the energy, but before he can, Sylvia lays hands on the pyramid and allows the dangerous forces to flow through her.
She kills their captors and is nearly killed herself, but survives.
However, she permanently loses contact with her spirit guide Louise, who sacrifices her connection to Sylvia in order to save her and Nick, in the process.
The two return to their hotel, battered and bruised but thankful that they played a part in releasing a dangerous force.
Later that night they reconvene in Sylvia's room and bring to fruition a romantic flirtation that has permeated the film.
Before they can make love, however, Sylvia hits her head on the headboard and reveals that a spirit guide has re-entered her life.
It is not Louise, however, but the ghost of Harry.
<EOS>
Struggling former child actor and now-adult screenwriter Monkey Zetterland (Antin) is working on a historical screenplay based around the defunct Red Car subway of Los Angeles.
He lives in a building owned by his neurotic mother Honor Zetterland (Katherine Helmond), who is a famous soap opera star.
Secretly hoping there is a future in acting for Monkey, she is trying to turn her hairdresser son (his brother) Brent Zetterland (Tate Donovan) into a film star.
As the film begins, Honor shows up at Monkey's house to borrow his epsom salts at the same time that his disagreeable girlfriend Daphne (Debi Mazar) arrives.
From this point on the film dissolves into a character study with little plot development as new and old characters interact and form a quirky family unit.
Sister Grace Zetterland (Patricia Arquette) arrives in tears to reveal that her lesbian girlfriend (Sophia Coppola) has gotten pregnant in an attempt to bring the two of them closer.
Honor rents the basement apartment to Sascha (Rupert Everett) and Sofie (Martha Plimpton), a gay man and lesbian posing as husband and wife while publishing an underground newsletter that outs closeted homosexuals in the entertainment industry.
As if this weren't enough, a creepy woman (Ricki Lake) shows up with a fan letter for Honor, and another kooky lady, Imogene (Sandra Bernhard), begins heavily, openly pursuing Monkey's attention.
After a series of confrontations, Daphne moves out, and around the same time the family's absentee father (who has frequently left home for long periods of time throughout their lives) surfaces in time for Thanksgiving.
While everyone busies themselves with their personal issues, Grace discovers that Sascha and Sofie are in fact terrorists who intend to bomb a local insurance agency that is denying medical coverage to people with HIV and AIDS.
Sofie comes up with a plan to send Grace into the agency with a bomb, which Grace and Sascha believe is set up to give Grace enough time to escape.
It is not, and Grace dies in the explosion.
This event pulls everyone out of their own selfish interests and forces them to re-examine their lives and the people around them.
The patriarch of the family disappears again; Grace's lover and her baby are taken in by the family, and Monkey decides to let Imogene get closer to him.
Then, just as things are starting to fall into place, Monkey comes home to find his apartment ransacked and his finally finished script stolen.
It was his only copy.
Later that evening the woman who left a fan letter for Honor arrives with Monkey's stolen script and a gun.
She tries to shoot Honor, but hits the family dog instead.
She is taken down, but the ensuing drama pulls the remaining emotional conflicts of the family into place.
Honor accepts that Monkey is never going to become a famous actor.
Instead of pushing him that way, she uses her connections to get his script produced - with brother Brent as the star.
<EOS>
Scrooge, Donald and the nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie are off to find the legendary Trojan Horse.
Little do they know that the Beagle Boys are spying on them.
The Ducks encounter an albatross named Alby, who works as a trained pet for the Beagle Boys.
<EOS>
High school senior Daniel LaRusso and his mom, Lucille, move from Newark, New Jersey to Reseda, Los Angeles, California.
When they arrive, Daniel meets a neighbor named Freddy Fernandez, who invites him to a beach party taking place the next day.
Their maintenance man is an eccentric but kind and humble Okinawan immigrant named Kesuke Miyagi.
At the beach party, Daniel meets Ali Mills, a high school cheerleader from Encino.
The two fall for each other, which draws the attention of Johnny Lawrence, Ali's ex-boyfriend.
Johnny is the top student of a karate dojo called "Cobra Kai," who attacks Daniel when he intervenes after Johnny breaks Ali's radio.
Johnny and his gang continue to bother and harass him.
At a Halloween party, Daniel douses Johnny with water, leading to a chase.
Daniel is eventually caught and beaten, but mr Miyagi arrives and rescues him and beats up the five attackers with ease.
Amazed, Daniel asks Miyagi to teach him to fight.
Miyagi refuses, but agrees to accompany Daniel to the Cobra Kai dojo to resolve the conflict.
They meet with the sensei, John Kreese, an ex-Special Forces Vietnam veteran, who dismisses the peace offering and demands to set up a match between Daniel and the other Cobra Kai students.
Miyagi proposes that Daniel will enter the Under-18 All-Valley Karate Tournament, where he can compete with all the Cobra Kai students, and he requests that the bullying cease while Daniel trains.
Kreese agrees to the terms, but warns that if Daniel doesn't show up at the tournament, the harassment will continue on Daniel and Miyagi.
Daniel's training starts with menial chores he believes only makes him Miyagi's slave.
When he becomes frustrated, it is explained that these actions have helped him learn defensive blocks through muscle memory.
Their bond develops and Daniel learns about Miyagi's dual loss of his wife and newborn son due to complications arising from childbirth at Manzanar internment camp while he was serving with the 442nd Infantry Regiment during World War II in Europe, where he received the Medal of Honor, the Army's highest award for valor.
Through Miyagi's teaching, Daniel learns not only karate but also important life lessons such as the importance of personal balance, reflected in the principle that martial arts training is as much about training the spirit as the body.
Daniel applies the life lessons that Miyagi taught him to strengthen his relationship with Ali.
At the tournament, Daniel unexpectedly reaches the semi-finals.
After Johnny defeats a highly skilled opponent, Kreese instructs Bobby Brown, one of his more compassionate students and the least vicious of Daniel's tormentors, to disable Daniel with an illegal attack to the knee.
Bobby reluctantly does so, getting disqualified in the process.
Daniel is taken to the locker room, where the physician determines that he can't continue, but Daniel believes that if he doesn't continue, his tormentors would have gotten the best of him.
So he convinces Miyagi to use a pain suppression technique so that he can continue.
As Johnny is about to be declared the winner by default, Ali tells the master of ceremonies that Daniel will fight.
Daniel then hobbles into the ring and faces Johnny.
The match is halted when Daniel uses a scissor leg technique to trip Johnny and deliver a blow to the back of the head, giving him a nose bleed.
Kreese orders Johnny to sweep Daniel's injured leg, an unethical move.
Johnny is horrified at the order, insisting he can beat Daniel legitimately, but obeys under Kreese's intimidation.
As the match continues, Johnny seizes Daniel's leg and delivers a vicious blow, doing further damage.
Daniel, standing with difficulty, assumes the "Crane" stance, a technique he observed Miyagi performing on the beach.
Johnny lunges toward Daniel, who jumps and delivers a kick to Johnny's chin, winning the tournament.
Having gained respect towards his nemesis, Johnny takes Daniel's trophy from the master of ceremonies and presents it to Daniel himself as Daniel is carried off by the enthusiastic crowd.
<EOS>
Restoree is the story of Sara, an introverted, beak-nosed, 24-year-old virginal librarian from New York who is abducted by the Mil, amorphous alien creatures that eat human flesh.
She is kept alive, with her skin removed and in a catatonic state from the physical and mental shock, on a meat hook as a Mil meal until the alien ship she is on is captured by human inhabitants of the planet Lothar.
Without her skin, some Lotharians mistake her for one of their own and perform controversial "restoration" procedures on her, including a nose job.
Sara comes to her senses in a mental institution on Lothar with no memory of what happened, little knowledge of the local language, and a beautiful, golden-skinned body.
At the institution, she is treated as if she were retarded and given menial tasks to do, as are other "restorees" who have been clandestinely salvaged from Mil ships; it is apparently some factor of Sara's Terran origins that allows her to fully recover from the shock of the Mil ordeal, while Lotharian restorees are of limited intellect at best.
One of her jobs is to care for Harlan, the deposed planetary regent, who is being drugged into a moronic state.
Recognizing what is being done, Sara helps Harlan to regain his senses and escape the mental institution.
Sara and Harlan then gain the advantage over Harlan's political enemies, defeat the Mil, solve some of Lothar's emerging domestic problems and, of course, fall in love.
<EOS>
A young American secretary, Maria Williams (Maggie McNamara), arrives in Rome and is greeted by Anita Hutchins (Jean Peters), the woman she is replacing at the "United States Distribution Agency".
They drive to the "Villa Eden" Anita shares with Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire), the longtime secretary of the American author John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb), an expatriate living in Rome for the past fifteen years.
On their way into town, the three women stop at the famous Trevi Fountain.
Frances and Anita tell Maria that according to legend, if she throws a coin in the fountain and makes a wish to return to Rome, she will.
Maria and Frances throw in their coins, but Anita, who is returning to the United States to marry, declines.
Anita takes Maria to the agency and introduces her to Giorgio Bianchi (Rossano Brazzi), a translator with whom she works.
Maria senses that Anita and Giorgio are attracted to each other, though Anita states that the agency forbids its American and Italian employees to fraternize.
Later that evening at a party, Maria is attracted by the handsome Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan), despite being warned by Frances and Anita about him being a notorious womanizer.
His girlfriends become known as "Venice girls" after he takes them to Venice for romantic trysts.
Dino charms Maria, telling her to ignore what she's heard about him.
After the party, Anita and Maria walk home and Anita admits that she has no fiancé waiting back in the United States.
She's leaving because she believes she has a better chance of finding a husband in America; wealthy Italian men are not interested in mere secretaries, and the men who are interested are too poor.
As they walk, Maria is pinched by a man who pesters her until she is rescued by Giorgio, who then asks Anita to go with him the next day to his family's country farm to attend a celebration.
Anita reluctantly agrees.
The next morning, Giorgio picks Anita up in his cousin's dilapidated truck.
On their way out of town, they are spotted by her boss, Burgoyne (Howard st John).
On Giorgio's family farm, Giorgio tells Anita that he hopes to become a lawyer, despite his poverty.
Anita then climbs into the truck and is almost killed when it rolls down the hill.
After Giorgio rescues her, the breathless couple gives in to their attraction and they kiss.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Dino calls for Maria and asks if she will accompany him to Venice.
Desiring to see Venice but not wanting to lose Dino's respect, Maria arranges for Frances to chaperone them, to Dino's disappointment.
At the agency on Monday, Burgoyne questions Maria about Anita's weekend with Giorgio, and although she maintains that Anita did nothing wrong, Burgoyne assumes Anita is having an affair with Giorgio.
The following day he fires Giorgio.
When Anita finds out, she blames Maria for betraying her confidence and insists on moving out of their apartment.
She visits Giorgio, worried that she may have ruined his chances of becoming a lawyer.
Giorgio has no regrets.
Meanwhile, Maria sets out to attract Dino's affections.
She learns about the modern art he loves, his favorite food and wine, and pretends to learn the piccolo (his favorite instrument).
Maria even lies about her background, telling Dino she is three-quarters Italian.
Beguiled by how much he apparently has in common with Maria, Dino introduces her to his mother, the Principessa, who expresses her approval.
Later, Dino confides in Maria that she is the only girl who he has ever completely trusted.
Troubled by her deception, Maria confesses her subterfuge, even showing Dino her notebook listing his interests.
He angrily takes her home.
Frances meets with Anita, who admits that she and Giorgio are in love but will not marry because he is too poor.
Frances returns home to comfort the guilt-stricken Maria, who is also determined to leave Rome because Dino has not contacted her since her admission.
Frances tells her she is glad she is no longer young and susceptible to romance.
The next morning, however, Frances suddenly announces to Shadwell that she is returning to the United States, explaining that she does not want to wind up an old maid in a foreign country.
Shadwell, unaware that Frances has been deeply in love with him for fifteen years, offers her a marriage of convenience, based on mutual respect.
Eager to be with him under any circumstances, Frances accepts.
The next day, Shadwell learns that he is terminally ill and has less than a year to live unless he goes to America for experimental treatment.
Shadwell returns to his villa and coldly breaks off his engagement with Frances.
After Shadwell leaves, Frances learns from his doctor the truth about Shadwell's condition, and then follows him to a café, where she proceeds to match him drink for drink while bickering about whether he should pursue treatment.
Completely drunk, Frances climbs into a nearby fountain and sobs about her life.
After Shadwell takes her back to the villa and tucks her in, he goes to see Dino at the di Cessi palace.
Shadwell tells Dino he is leaving for the United States, where he will marry Frances.
He uses reverse psychology to provoke Dino into realizing that he loves Maria.
After Anita and Maria are packed and ready to leave, Frances telephones and asks to meet them at the Trevi Fountain.
When they arrive, Maria and Anita are disappointed to see the fountain emptied for cleaning.
When they are joined by Frances, however, the water springs up again and the women are thrilled by its beauty.
Dino and Giorgio then arrive, and as the men embrace their girlfriends, Frances is joined by Shadwell, and they happily admire the fountain, which has proved lucky to them all.
<EOS>
The title character, a Lieutenant Junior Grade naval officer, defends his crew against the petty tyranny of the ship's commanding officer during World War II.
Nearly all action takes place on a backwater cargo ship, the USS Reluctant that sails, as written in the 1948 play, "from apathy to tedium with occasional side trips to monotony and ennui".
<EOS>
Hal Carter (William Holden) is a former college football star, adrift and unemployed after army service and a failed acting career in Hollywood.
On Labor Day (September 5, 1955), he arrives by freight train in a Kansas town to visit his fraternity friend Alan Benson (Cliff Robertson).
Working for his breakfast by doing chores in the backyard of kindly mrs Potts (Verna Felton), Hal meets Madge Owens (Kim Novak), her sister Millie (Susan Strasberg), and their mother (Betty Field).
Hal tries to be accepted and gets along with most.
Alan is very happy to see the "same old Hal", whom he takes to his family's sprawling grain elevator operations.
Alan promises Hal a steady job as a "wheat scooper" (though Hal had unrealistic expectations of becoming an executive) and invites Hal to swim and to attend the town's Labor Day picnic.
Hal is wary about going to the picnic, but Alan nudges him into it, saying Hal's "date" will be Millie, who is quickly drawn to Hal's cheerful demeanor and charisma.
Alan reassures mrs Owens that although Hal flunked out of college, there are no reasons to be concerned about him.
The afternoon carries on happily, until Hal starts talking about himself too much, and Alan stops him with cutting remarks.
It's obvious that Hal and Madge like each other.
When the sun sets, everyone wanders off.
Millie draws a sketch of Hal and tells him she secretly writes poetry, growing fond of him despite his lack of interest.
Madge is named the town's annual Queen of Neewollah ("Halloween" spelled backward), and Hal longingly gazes at her while she is brought down the river in a swan-shaped paddle-boat.
They shyly say "Hi" to each other as she glides by.
Middle-aged schoolteacher Rosemary (Rosalind Russell), who rents a room at the Owens house, has been brought to the picnic by store owner Howard Bevens (Arthur O'Connell); both had been drinking whiskey.
When the band plays dance music, Howard says he can't dance, so Rosemary dances with Millie.
Hal and Howard then start dancing together, which angers Rosemary; she grabs Howard, who then dances with her.
Hal tries to show Millie a dance he learned in LA to the song, Moonglow, but Millie cannot quite get the beat.
Madge stumbles upon them, seductively transforming the moves Hal is showing Millie, and sways toward him, thus initiating a dance with him in which they both become increasingly mesmerized.
Millie, having been cast aside and ignored by both Rosemary and Hal, sulks off and starts drinking Howard's whiskey.
Rosemary, now quite drunk, jealously breaks up the dance between Madge and Hal.
Rosemary flings herself at Hal, saying he reminds her of a Roman gladiator.
When Hal tries to ward off the schoolteacher, she rips his shirt, then bitterly calls him a bum.
mrs Owens and Alan arrive and believe Hal has caused a scandal, made all the worse when Millie breaks down, screaming, "Madge is the pretty one.
" and becomes ill from the whiskey.
Rosemary, blinded by her anger, tells mrs Owens that Hal gave Millie the whiskey, while Howard's plea that he brought the whiskey seems to fall on deaf ears.
Alan blames Hal for the mess and says he is ashamed that he brought Hal in the first place.
By now a crowd is watching, and Hal flees into the darkness.
Madge follows Hal to Alan's car, ashamed of Alan and Rosemary's behavior, and gets in with him.
He angrily tells her to go home.
She won't budge, so he drives her to town.
By the river, he tells her he was sent to reform school as a boy for stealing a motorcycle and that his whole life is a failure.
Madge kisses Hal, which astonishes him and he responds.
Later, outside Madge's house, they kiss goodbye and promise to meet after she finishes work at six the next evening.
Hal drives back to Alan's house to return the car, but Alan has called the police and wants Hal arrested.
After trying to talk things out, Alan physically attacks Hal.
Hal fights back against Alan and the two police officers.
Hal flees the house in Alan's car with the police following close behind.
Leaving the car by the river, Hal goes into the water, gets away from them and shows up at Howard's apartment, asking to spend the night there.
Howard is very understanding and now has his own worries: a highly distraught, desperate, and remorseful Rosemary has begged him to marry her.
Back at the Owens house, Madge and Millie cry themselves to sleep in their shared room.
The next morning, Howard comes to the Owens house, intending to tell Rosemary he wants to wait, but at the sight of him she is overjoyed, thinking he has come to take her away.
Flustered in front of the whole household and other schoolteachers, Howard wordlessly goes along with the misunderstanding.
As he passes Madge on the stairs, he tells her Hal is hiding in the backseat of his car.
Hal is able to slip away before the other women gleefully paint and attach streamers and tin cans to Howard's car, throwing rice and asking where he'll take Rosemary for their honeymoon.
While Howard and Rosemary happily drive off to the Ozarks, Hal and Madge meet by a shed behind the house.
He tells her that he loves her and asks her to meet him in Tulsa, where they can marry and he can get a job at a hotel as a bellhop and elevator operator.
mrs Owens finds them by the shed and threatens to call the police.
Madge and Hal embrace and kiss.
Hal runs to catch a passing freight train, crying out to Madge, "You love me.
You love me.
"  Upstairs in their room, Millie tells Madge to "do something bright" for once in her life and go to Hal.
Madge packs a small suitcase and, despite her mother's tears (but urged on by mrs Potts), boards a bus for Tulsa.
<EOS>
The film is set in Jennings County, Indiana in 1862.
Jess Birdwell (Gary Cooper) is a farmer and patriarch of the Birdwell family whose Quaker religion conflicts with his love for the worldly enjoyments of music and horse racing.
Jess's wife Eliza, (Dorothy McGuire) a Quaker minister, is deeply religious and steadfast in her refusal to engage in violence.
Jess's daughter Mattie (Phyllis Love) wants to remain a Quaker but has fallen in love with dashing cavalry officer Gard Jordan (Peter Mark Richman), a love that is against her mother's wishes.
Jess's youngest child "Little" Jess (Richard Eyer) is a feisty child whose comical feud with his mother's pet goose causes her heartache.
Jess's elder son Josh (Anthony Perkins) is torn between his hatred of violence and a conviction that to protect his family he must join the home guard and fight the invaders.
We are introduced to the family via its youngest member, "Little" Jess, who is forever at war with his mother's pet goose.
The story begins as an easygoing and humorous tale of Quakers trying to maintain their faith as they go to meeting on First Day (Sunday); contrasted with the Birdwells' neighbor Sam Jordan (Robert Middleton) and other members of the nearby Methodist Church.
The mood shifts dramatically when the meeting is interrupted by a Union officer who asks how the Quaker men can stand by when their houses will be looted and their families terrorized by approaching Confederate troops.
When confronted with the question of his being afraid to fight, Josh Birdwell responds that it might be the case.
His honesty provokes the wrath of Purdy, a Quaker elder who condemns people who don't believe as he does.
The film returns to its lighter tone as the Quakers try to maintain their ways, despite the temptations of amusements at a county fair, and a new organ (which Jess buys over Eliza's opposition), but one is always reminded that the Confederate Army is drawing closer.
On a business trip, Jess acquires a new horse from the widow Hudspeth (Marjorie Main), and is finally able to defeat Sam in their weekly horse race.
One day, Jess is cultivating his fields and notices an immense cloud of smoke on the horizon produced by the burning of buildings.
Josh soon arrives and tells them the neighboring community has been reduced to ash and corpses.
Josh believes that he must fight, a conviction that threatens to destroy the family.
Eliza tells him that by turning his back to their religion he's turning his back on her, but Jess sees things a different way.
Josh finds himself on the front line of the battle to stop the advance of the raiders, fires his gun, and is injured by the Confederates.
Meanwhile, Jess is reticent to fight, only picking up a rifle when the family horse gallops back to the farm riderless.
When Confederates arrive, they loot the farm for food when only Eliza and the younger children are present.
Sam Jordan is bushwhacked by a "Reb" and Jess struggles with the Confederate soldier and takes away his gun, but ultimately lets him go free and unhurt.
Each member of the family faces the question of whether it is ever right for a Christian to engage in violence.
<EOS>
Wealthy Texas rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict Jr.
travels to Maryland to buy a horse.
There he meets and courts socialite Leslie Lynnton, who ends a budding relationship with British diplomat Sir David Karfrey and marries Bick after a whirlwind romance.
They return to Texas to start their life together on the family ranch, Reata, where Bick's older sister Luz runs the household.
Leslie meets Jett Rink, a local handyman, and he becomes infatuated with her.
Leslie discovers on a ride with Jett that the local Mexican workers' living conditions are terrible.
After tending to one of the Mexican children, Angel Obregon II, she presses Bick to take steps to improve their condition.
When riding Leslie's beloved horse, War Winds, Luz expresses her hostility for Leslie by cruelly digging in her spurs; War Winds bucks her off, killing her.
She leaves Jett a small piece of land on the Benedict ranch.
Bick, who despises Jett, tries to buy back the land, but Jett refuses to sell.
Jett makes the land his home and names it Little Reata.
Over the next ten years, Leslie and Bick have twins, Jordan II ("Jordy") and Judy, and later have a daughter, Luz II.
Jett strikes oil on his land and drives to the Benedict house, covered in crude, to proclaim to the Benedicts that he will be richer than them.
Jett makes a pass at Leslie, and this leads to a brief fistfight with Bick before he drives off.
Jett's oil drilling company prospers over the years, and he tries to persuade Bick to let him drill for oil on Reata.
Bick is determined to preserve his family legacy, however, and refuses.
Meanwhile, tensions arise regarding the now-grown children.
Bick insists that Jordy succeed him and run the ranch, but Jordy wants to become a doctor.
Leslie wants Judy to attend finishing school in Switzerland, but Judy wants to study animal husbandry at Texas Tech.
Both children succeed in pursuing their own vocations, each asking one parent to convince the other to let them have their way.
At the family Christmas party, Bick tries to interest Judy's new husband, Bob Dace, in working on the ranch after he returns from the recently declared war, but Dace refuses.
Jett arrives and persuades Bick to allow oil production on his land.
Realizing that his children will not take over the ranch when he retires, Bick agrees.
Luz II, now in her teens, starts flirting with Jett.
Once oil production starts on the ranch, the Benedict family becomes even wealthier and more powerful.
Meanwhile, the now-grown Angel is killed in the war, and his body is shipped home for burial.
The Benedict–Rink rivalry comes to a head when the Benedicts discover that Luz II and the much older Jett have been dating.
At a huge party given by Jett in his own honor at his hotel in Austin, he orders his staff not to serve Jordy's Mexican wife, Juana.
Enraged, Jordy tries to start a fight with Jett, who beats him up and has him thrown out.
Fed up, Bick challenges Jett to a fight.
Drunk and almost incoherent, Jett leads the way to a wine storage room.
Seeing that Jett is in no state to defend himself, Bick lowers his fists, and instead topples Jett's wine cellar shelves.
The Benedict family leaves the party.
Jett staggers into the banquet hall, takes his seat of honor, and passes out on the table.
Later, Luz II sees Jett drunkenly bemoaning his unrequited love for Leslie.
Luz II leaves, heartbroken, as Jett falls over onto the floor.
The next day, on their way home, the Benedicts stop at a diner with a sign hung at the counter saying, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone," which during the mid-twentieth century in the southern United States was often taken as meaning that ethnic minorities were not welcome.
The racist owner, Sarge, insults Juana and her and Jordy's son Jordan IV.
When the owner goes on to eject a Mexican family from the diner, Bick tells Sarge to leave them alone.
Bick fights Sarge, who beats him up, but then takes down the sign and tosses it on top of Bick.
Back at the ranch, Bick laments that he has failed to preserve the Benedict family legacy.
Leslie replies that, after the fight in the diner, he was her hero for the first time, and that she considers their own family legacy a success.
<EOS>
Major Lloyd "Ace" Gruver (Marlon Brando), the son of aS.
Army general, is stationed at Itami Air Force Base near Kobe, Japan.
He falls in love with a Japanese entertainer, Hana-ogi (Miiko Taka), who is a performer for a Takarazuka-like theater company, whom he meets through his enlisted crew chief, Airman Joe Kelly (Red Buttons).
Joe is about to wed a Japanese woman, Katsumi (Miyoshi Umeki), in spite of the disapproval of the United States military, which will not recognize the marriage.
The Air Force, including Ace, is against the marriage.
Ace and Joe have an argument during which Ace uses a racial slur to describe Katsumi.
Ace eventually apologizes, then agrees to be Joe's best man at the wedding.
Joe suffers further prejudice at the hands of a particularly nasty colonel, pulling extra duty and all the less attractive assignments.
When he and many others who are married to Japanese are ordered back to the States, Joe realizes that he will not be able to take Katsumi, who is now pregnant.
Finding no other way to be together, Joe and Katsumi commit double suicide.
This strengthens Ace's resolve to marry Hana-ogi.
When a Stars and Stripes reporter asks him what will he say to the "big brass" as well as to the Japanese, neither of which will be particularly happy, Ace says, "Tell 'em we said, 'Sayonara.
'".
<EOS>
In a New York City courthouse a jury commences deliberating the case of an 18-year-old boy from a slum, on trial for allegedly stabbing his father to death.
If there is any reasonable doubt they are to return a verdict of not guilty.
If found guilty, the boy will receive a death sentence.
In a preliminary vote, all jurors vote "guilty" except Juror 8, who argues that the boy deserves some deliberation.
This irritates some of the other jurors, who are impatient for a quick deliberation, especially Juror 7 who has tickets to the evening's Yankees game, and 10 who demonstrates blatant prejudice against people from slums.
Juror 8 questions the accuracy and reliability of the only two witnesses, and the prosecution's claim that the murder weapon, a common switchblade (of which he possesses an identical copy), was "rare".
Juror 8 argues that reasonable doubt exists, and that he therefore cannot vote "guilty," but concedes that he has merely hung the jury.
Juror 8 suggests a secret ballot, from which he will abstain, and agrees to change his vote if the others unanimously vote "guilty".
The ballot is held and a new "not guilty" vote appears.
An angry Juror 3 accuses Juror 5, who grew up in a slum, of changing his vote out of sympathy towards slum children.
However, Juror 9 reveals it was he that changed his vote, agreeing there should be some discussion.
Juror 8 argues that the noise of a passing train would have obscured the verbal threat that one witness claimed to have heard the boy tell his father "I'm going to kill you".
Juror 5 then changes his vote.
Juror 11 also changes his vote, believing the boy would not likely have tried to retrieve the murder weapon from the scene if it had been cleaned of fingerprints.
Jurors 5, 6 and 8 question the witness's claim to have seen the defendant fleeing 15 seconds after hearing the father's body hit the floor, since he was physically incapable of reaching an appropriate vantage point in time due to a stroke.
An angry Juror 3 shouts that they are losing their chance to "burn" the boy.
Juror 8 accuses him of being a sadist.
Jurors 2 and 6 then change their votes, tying the vote at 6–6.
Juror 4 doubts the boy's alibi of being at the movies, because he could not recall it in much detail.
Juror 8 tests how well Juror 4 remembers previous days, which he does, with difficulty.
Juror 2 questions the likelihood that the boy, who was almost a foot shorter than his father, could have inflicted the downward stab wound found in the body.
Jurors 3 and 8 then conduct an experiment to see whether a shorter person could stab downwards on a taller person.
The experiment proves the possibility but Juror 5 then steps up and demonstrates the correct way to hold and use a switchblade; revealing that anyone skilled with a switchblade, as the boy would be, would always stab underhanded at an upwards angle against an opponent who was taller than them, as the grip of stabbing downwards would be too awkward and the act of changing hands too time consuming.
Increasingly impatient, Juror 7 changes his vote to hasten the deliberation, which earns him the ire of other jurors (especially 11) for voting frivolously.
Coincidentally, it begins to thunderstorm shortly afterwards, rendering his selfish decision pointless.
Jurors 12 and 1 then change their votes, leaving only three dissenters: Jurors 3, 4 and 10.
Juror 10 then vents a torrent of condemnation of slum-born people, claiming they are no better than animals who kill for fun.
Most of the others turn their backs to him.
When the remaining "guilty" voters are pressed to explain themselves, Juror 4 states that, despite all the previous evidence, the woman from across the street who saw the killing still stands as solid evidence.
Juror 12 then reverts his vote, making the vote 8–4.
Juror 9, seeing Juror 4 rub his nose (which is being irritated by his glasses), realizes that the woman who allegedly saw the murder had impressions in the sides of her nose, indicating that she wore glasses, but did not wear them in court out of vanity.
Other jurors, most notable Juror 1, confirm that they saw the same thing.
Juror 8 adds that she would not have been wearing them while trying to sleep, and points out that on her own evidence the attack happened so swiftly that she wouldn't have had time to put them on.
Jurors 12, 10 and 4 then change their vote to "not guilty", leaving only Juror 3.
Juror 3 gives a long and increasingly tortured string of arguments, building on earlier remarks that his relationship with his own son is deeply strained, which is ultimately why he wants the boy to be guilty.
He finally loses his temper and tears up a photo of him and his son, but suddenly breaks down crying and changes his vote to "not guilty", making the vote unanimous.
Outside, Jurors 8 (Davis) and 9 (McCardle) exchange names, and all of the jurors descend the courthouse steps to return to their individual lives.
<EOS>
Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton), a master barrister in ill health, takes on Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power) as a client, despite the objections of his private nurse, Miss Plimsoll (Elsa Lanchester), who says the doctor warns him against taking on any criminal cases.
Vole is accused of murdering Mrs Emily French (Norma Varden), a rich, older widow who had become enamoured with him, going so far as to make him the main beneficiary of her will.
Strong circumstantial evidence points to Vole as the killer, but Sir Wilfrid believes Vole is innocent.
When Sir Wilfrid speaks with Vole's German wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich), he finds her rather cold and self-possessed, but she does provide an alibi.
Therefore, he is greatly surprised when she is called as a witness for the prosecution.
While a wife cannot be compelled to testify against her husband, Christine was in fact still married to a German man when she wed Leonard (who was in the Royal Air Force and part of the occupation forces in Germany).
She testifies that Leonard admitted to her that he had killed Mrs French, and that her conscience forced her to finally tell the truth.
During the trial in the Old Bailey, Sir Wilfrid is contacted by a mysterious woman who, for a fee, provides him with letters written by Christine herself to a mysterious lover named Max.
The affair revealed by this correspondence gives Christine such a strong motive to have lied that the jury finds Leonard not guilty.
However, Sir Wilfrid is troubled by the verdict.
His instincts tell him that it was ".
too neat, too tidy, and altogether.
too symmetrical.
" His belief proves correct when Christine, left alone with him by chance in the courtroom, takes the opportunity to take credit for the verdict.
Sir Wilfrid had told her before the trial that ".
no jury would believe an alibi given by a loving wife".
So, she had instead given testimony implicating her husband, had then forged the letters to the non-existent Max, and had herself in disguise played the mysterious woman handing over the letters which then discredited her own testimony and led to the acquittal.
She furthermore admits that she saved Leonard even though she knew he was guilty because she loves him.
Leonard has overheard Christine's admission and, now protected by double jeopardy, cheerfully confirms to Sir Wilfred that he had indeed killed Mrs French.
Sir Wilfrid is infuriated at being had.
Leonard then coldly tells Christine that he has met a younger woman (Ruta Lee) and is leaving Christine.
In a jealous rage, Christine grabs a knife, which had earlier been used as evidence by the defence (and subtly highlighted by Sir Wilfrid's monocle light-reflection), and stabs Leonard to death.
After she is taken away by the police, Sir Wilfrid, urged on by Miss Plimsoll, declares that he will take on Christine's defence.
<EOS>
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the story of a Southern family in crisis, especially the husband Brick and wife Margaret (usually called Maggie or "Maggie the Cat"), and their interaction with Brick's family over the course of one evening gathering at the family estate in Mississippi.
The party is to celebrate the birthday of patriarch Big Daddy Pollitt, "the Delta's biggest cotton-planter", and his return from the Ochsner Clinic with what he has been told is a clean bill of health.
All family members (except Big Daddy and his wife, Big Mama) are aware of Big Daddy's true diagnosis: he is dying of cancer.
His family has lied to Big Daddy and Big Mama to spare the aging couple from pain on the patriarch's birthday but, throughout the course of the play, it becomes clear that the Pollitt family has long constructed a web of deceit for itself.
Maggie, determined and beautiful, has escaped a childhood of poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitts, but finds herself unfulfilled.
The family is aware that Brick has not slept with Maggie for a long time, which has strained their marriage.
Brick, an aging football hero, infuriates her by ignoring his brother Gooper's attempts to gain control of the family fortune.
Brick's indifference and his drinking have escalated with the suicide of his friend Skipper.
Maggie fears that Brick's malaise will ensure that Gooper and his wife Mae end up with Big Daddy's estate.
Through the evening, Brick, Big Daddy and Maggie—and the entire family—separately must face down the issues which they have bottled up inside.
Big Daddy attempts a reconciliation with the alcoholic Brick.
Both Big Daddy and Maggie separately confront Brick about the true nature of his relationship with his pro football buddy Skipper, which appears to be the source of Brick's sorrow and the cause of his alcoholism.
Brick explains to Big Daddy that Maggie was jealous of the close friendship between Brick and Skipper because she believed it had a romantic undercurrent.
He states that Skipper took Maggie to bed to prove her wrong.
Brick believes that when Skipper couldn't complete the act, his self-questioning about his sexuality and his friendship with Brick made him "snap".
Brick also reveals that, shortly before he committed suicide, Skipper confessed his feelings to Brick, but Brick rejected him.
Disgusted with the family's "mendacity", Brick tells Big Daddy that the report from the clinic about his condition was falsified for his sake.
Big Daddy storms out of the room, leading the party gathered out on the gallery to drift inside.
Maggie, Brick, Mae, Gooper, and Doc Baugh (the family's physician) decide to tell Big Mama the truth about his illness and she is devastated by the news.
Gooper and Mae start to discuss the division of the Pollitt estate.
Big Mama defends her husband from Gooper and Mae's proposals.
Big Daddy reappears and makes known his plans to die peacefully.
Attempting to secure Brick's inheritance, Maggie tells him she is pregnant.
Gooper and Mae know this is a lie, but Big Mama and Big Daddy believe that Maggie "has life".
When they are alone again, Maggie locks away the liquor and promises Brick that she will "make the lie true".
<EOS>
The film starts with a truck driving at night.
It swerves to miss another truck and crashes through a barrier.
The rescuers clear up the debris and cover the people killed.
mainly prisoners in the back.
It is revealed that two are missing: a black man shackled to a white man, because "the warden had a sense of humor".
They are told not to look too hard as "they will probably kill each other in the first five miles".
Nevertheless, a large posse and many bloodhounds are dispatched the next morning to find them.
The setting is in the American South, the men are the black Noah Cullen (Poitier) and the white John "Joker" Jackson (Curtis).
Despite their mutual loathing, they are forced to cooperate, as they are chained together.
At first their cooperation is motivated by self-preservation but gradually, they begin to respect and like each other.
Cullen and Joker flee through difficult terrain and weather, with a brief stop at a turpentine camp where they attempt to break into a general store, in hopes of obtaining food and tools to break the chain that holds them together.
Instead, however, they are captured by the inhabitants, who form a lynch mob; they are saved only by the interference of "Big" Sam (Chaney), a man who is appalled by his neighbors' blood-thirst.
Sam persuades the onlookers to lock the convicts up and turn them in the next morning, but that night, he secretly releases them, after revealing to them that he is also a former chain-gang prisoner.
Finally, they run into a young boy named Billy.
They make him take them to his home and his mother (Williams), whose husband has abandoned his family.
The escapees are finally able to break their chains.
When they spend the night there, the lonely woman is attracted to Joker and wants to run off with him.
She advises Cullen to go through the swamp to reach the railroad tracks, while she and Joker drive off in her car.
The men agree to split up.
However, after Cullen leaves, the woman reveals that she had lied—she sent Cullen into the dangerous swamp to die to eliminate any chance he would be captured and perhaps reveal where Joker had gone.
Furious, Joker runs after his friend; as he leaves, Billy shoots him.
Wounded, Joker catches up to Cullen and warns him about the swamp.
As the posse led by humane Sheriff Max Muller (Bikel) gets close, the escapees can hear the dogs hot on their trail.
But they also hear a train whistle and run towards the sound.
Cullen hops the train and tries to lift Joker on as well, but is unable to drag him aboard.
Both men tumble to the ground.
Too exhausted to run anymore, they realize all they can do is wait for their pursuers.
The sheriff finds Cullen singing defiantly and Joker lying in his arms.
<EOS>
In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, small-town lawyer Paul Biegler (Stewart), a former district attorney who lost his re-election bid, spends most of his time fishing, playing the piano, and hanging out with his alcoholic friend and colleague Parnell McCarthy (O'Connell) and sardonic secretary Maida Rutledge (Arden).
One day, Biegler is contacted by Laura Manion (Remick), the wife of US Army Lieutenant Frederick "Manny" Manion (Gazzara), who has been arrested for the first-degree murder of innkeeper Bernard "Barney" Quill.
Manion does not deny the murder, but claims that Quill raped his wife.
Even with such a motivation, getting Manion cleared of murder would be difficult, but Manion claims to have no memory of the event, suggesting that he may be eligible for a defense of irresistible impulse—a version of a temporary insanity defense.
Biegler's folksy speech and laid-back demeanor hide a sharp legal mind and a propensity for courtroom theatrics that has the judge busy keeping things under control.
However, the case for the defense does not go well, especially since the local district attorney (Brooks West) is assisted by high-powered prosecutor Claude Dancer (Scott) from the Attorney General's office.
Furthermore, the prosecution tries at every instance to block any mention of Manion's motive for killing Quill.
Biegler eventually manages to get Laura Manion's rape into the record and Judge Weaver (Joseph Welch) agrees to allow the matter to be part of the deliberations.
However, during cross-examination, Dancer insinuates that Laura openly flirted with other men, including the man she claimed raped her.
Psychiatrists give conflicting testimony to Manion's state of mind at the time that he killed Quill.
Dancer says that Manion may have suspected Laura of cheating on him because he asked his wife, a Catholic, to swear on a rosary that Quill raped her.
This raises doubt as to whether the act was nonconsensual.
Quill's estate is to be inherited by Mary Pilant (Kathryn Grant), whom Dancer accuses of being Quill's mistress.
McCarthy learns that she is in fact Quill's daughter, a fact she is anxious to keep secret since she was born out of wedlock.
Biegler, who is losing the case, tries to persuade Pilant that Al Paquette, (Murray Hamilton) the bartender who witnessed the murder, may know that Quill admitted to raping Laura, but Paquette is covering this up, either because he loves Pilant or out of loyalty to Quill.
Through Pilant, Biegler tries to persuade Paquette to testify for the defense, but Paquette refuses.
During the trial, Laura claims that Quill tore off her panties while raping her; these panties were not found in the crime scene, where she alleges the rape took place.
Pilant, unaware of any details of the case, voluntarily returns to the courtroom to testify that she found the panties in the inn's laundry room.
Biegler suggests Quill may have dropped the panties down the laundry chute, located next to his room, to avoid suspicion.
Dancer tries to establish that Pilant's answers are founded on her jealousy.
When Dancer asserts forcibly that Quill was Pilant's lover and that Pilant lied to cover this fact, Pilant shocks everyone by stating that Quill was her father.
Manion is found "not guilty by reason of insanity".
After the trial, Biegler decides to open a new practice, with a newly sober McCarthy as his partner.
The next day, Biegler and McCarthy travel to the Manions' trailer park home to get Manion's signature on a promissory note which they hope will suffice as collateral for a desperately needed loan.
It turns out the Manions have vacated the trailer park, however, with the trailer park superintendent commenting that Laura Manion had been crying.
Manion left a note for Biegler, indicating that his flight was "an irresistible impulse"—the same terminology Biegler used during the trial.
Biegler states that Mary Pilant has retained him to execute Quill's estate.
McCarthy says that working for her will be "poetic justice".
<EOS>
In late 1940s Yorkshire, England, Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey), an ambitious young man who has just moved from the dreary factory town of Dufton, arrives in Warnley to assume a secure, but poorly paid, post in the Borough Treasurer's Department.
Determined to succeed, and ignoring the warnings of a colleague, Soames (Donald Houston), he pursues Susan Brown (Heather Sears), daughter of the local industrial magnate, Mr Brown (Donald Wolfit).
Mr and Mrs Brown (Ambrosine Phillpotts) deal with Joe's social climbing by sending Susan abroad.
Joe turns for solace to Alice Aisgill (Simone Signoret), an unhappily married older woman.
Joe and Alice have an affair and eventually fall in love with each other, but when they decide that she should ask for a divorce, her brutal husband George Aisgill (Alan Cuthbert) threatens Joe with the ruin of them both.
Meanwhile, Joe and Susan, who has returned from abroad, meet again and end up having sex.
Susan gets pregnant and her parents now insist that Susan and Joe quickly marry, forcing Joe to give Alice up.
The heartbroken Alice gets drunk, crashes her car and dies.
Distraught over the loss of Alice, Joe disappears and, after being beaten unconscious by a gang of thugs for making a drunken pass at one of their women, is recovered by Soames in time to marry Susan.
<EOS>
One thousand years have passed since the Seven Days of Fire, an apocalyptic war that destroyed civilization and created the vast Toxic Jungle, a poisonous forest swarming with giant mutant insects.
In the kingdom of the Valley of the Wind, a prophecy predicts a saviour "clothed in blue robes, descending onto a golden field, to join bonds with the great Earth and guide the people to the pure lands at last".
Nausicaä, the princess of the Valley of the Wind, explores the jungle and communicates with its creatures, including the gigantic, armored trilobite-like creatures called Ohm.
She hopes to understand the jungle and find a way for it and humans to co-exist.
One night, during a visit by the Valley's swordsmaster Lord Yupa, a cargo aircraft from the kingdom of Tolmekia crashes in the Valley.
Nausicaä tries to rescue a passenger, the wounded Princess Lastelle of Pejite, who pleads with Nausicaä to destroy the cargo before dying.
The cargo is an embryo of a Giant Warrior, one of the lethal bioweapons that caused the Seven Days of Fire.
The Tolmekians, a military state, seized the embryo and Lastelle from Pejite, but their plane was attacked by mutant insects and crashed.
One of the insects emerges wounded from the wreckage and seems poised to attack the frightened villagers, but Nausicaä uses a small bullroarer to calm it and guides it away from the Village on her jet-powered glider.
The next morning, Tolmekian troops, led by Princess Kushana and Officer Kurotowa, kill Nausicaä's father and take the Giant Warrior embryo.
Kushana plans to mature the Giant Warrior and use it to burn the Toxic Jungle.
Nausicaä kills several Tolmekian soldiers before Yupa intervenes.
Kushana announces her decision to leave for the Tolmekian capital with Nausicaä and five hostages from the Valley.
Before they leave, Yupa discovers a secret garden of jungle plants reared by Nausicaä; according to Nausicaä's findings, plants that grow in clean soil and water are not toxic, but the jungle's soil has been tainted by humankind.
An agile Pejite interceptor shoots down the Tolmekian ship carrying Kushana and her detachment.
It crash-lands in the jungle, disturbing several Ohm, which Nausicaä soothes.
She leaves to rescue Asbel, the Pejite pilot and twin brother of Lastelle, but both are swallowed by quicksand and arrive in a non-toxic area below the jungle.
Nausicaä realizes that the jungle plants purify the polluted topsoil, producing clean water and soil underground.
Nausicaä and Asbel return to Pejite but find the capital ravaged by insects.
A band of surviving Pejites reveal that they lured the creatures to eradicate the Tolmekians, and are doing the same in the Valley to recapture the Giant Warrior.
They capture Nausicaä, but with the help of Asbel and his mother, Nausicaä escapes on a glider.
While flying home, she finds a team of Pejite soldiers using a wounded baby Ohm to lead a furious herd of thousands of Ohm into the Valley.
The Tolmekians deploy tanks and later the Giant Warrior against the herd, but their tanks' firepower cannot stop the Ohm, and the Giant Warrior, hatched prematurely, disintegrates.
Nausicaä liberates the baby Ohm and gains its trust.
Her dress stained by its blue blood, she and the baby Ohm stand before the raging herd and are both run over, seemingly killing Nausicaä.
The herd calms, and the Ohm use their golden tentacles to resuscitate her.
She walks atop the hundreds of golden Ohm tentacles as through golden fields, revealing Nausicaä to be the saviour from the prophecy.
The Ohm and Tolmekians leave the Valley and the Pejites remain with the Valley people, helping them to rebuild.
Meanwhile, deep underneath the Toxic Jungle, a new non-toxic tree sprouts next to Nausicaä's lost aviation goggles.
<EOS>
The refined daughter of a "good old burgher family," Gertrude Coppard meets a rough-hewn miner, Walter Morel, at a Christmas dance and falls into a whirlwind romance characterised by physical passion.
But soon after her marriage to Walter, she realises the difficulties of living off his meagre salary in a rented house.
The couple fight and drift apart and Walter retreats to the pub after work each day.
Gradually, mrs Morel's affections shift to her sons beginning with the oldest, William.
As a boy, William is so attached to his mother that he doesn't enjoy the fair without her.
As he grows older, he defends her against his father's occasional violence.
Eventually, he leaves their Nottinghamshire home for a job in London, where he begins to rise up into the middle class.
He is engaged, but he detests the girl's superficiality.
He dies and mrs Morel is heartbroken, but when Paul catches pneumonia she rediscovers her love for her second son.
Both repulsed by and drawn to his mother, Paul is afraid to leave her but wants to go out on his own, and needs to experience love.
Gradually, he falls into a relationship with Miriam, a farmer's daughter who attends his church.
The two take long walks and have intellectual conversations about books but Paul resists, in part because his mother disapproves.
At Miriam's family's farm, Paul meets Clara Dawes, a young woman with, apparently, feminist sympathies who has separated from her husband, Baxter.
After pressuring Miriam into a physical relationship, which he finds unsatisfying, Paul breaks with her as he grows more intimate with Clara, who is more passionate physically.
But even she cannot hold him and he returns to his mother.
When his mother dies soon after, he is alone.
Lawrence summarised the plot in a letter to Edward Garnett on 12 November 1912:.
<EOS>
Irish-Australian Paddy Carmody (Robert Mitchum) is a sheep drover and shearer, roving the sparsely-populated back country with his wife Ida (Deborah Kerr) and son Sean (Michael Anderson, Jr).
They are sundowners, constantly moving, pitching their tent whenever the sun goes down.
Ida and Sean want to settle down, but Paddy has wanderlust and never wants to stay in one place for long.
While passing through the bush the family meet refined Englishman Rupert Venneker (Peter Ustinov) and hire him to help drive a large herd of sheep to the town of Cawndilla.
Along the way, they survive a dangerous brush fire.
mrs Firth (Glynis Johns), who runs the pub in Cawndilla, takes a liking to Rupert.
He takes to spending nights with her, but, like Paddy, he has no desire to be tied down.
Ida convinces Paddy to take a job at a station shearing sheep; she serves as the cook, Rupert as a wool roller, and Sean as a tar boy.
Ida enjoys the company of another woman, their employer's lonely wife, Jean Halstead (Dina Merrill).
When fellow shearer Bluey Brown's (John Meillon) pregnant wife Liz (Lola Brooks) shows up unannounced, she sees the young woman through her first birth.
Ida is saving the money the family earns for a farm that they stayed at for a night on the sheep drive.
Even though Paddy has agreed to participate in a shearing contest against someone from a rival group, he decides to leave six weeks into the shearing season.
Ida persuades him to stay.
He loses the contest to an old veteran.
Paddy wins a lot of money and a race horse playing two-up.
Owning such an animal has been his longstanding dream.
They name him Sundowner and enter him, with Sean as his jockey, at local races on their travels after the shearing is done.
Sean and Sundowner win their first race.
Ida finally convinces a still reluctant Paddy to buy the farm she and Sean have their hearts set on.
However, he loses everything Ida has saved for the down payment in a single night of playing two-up.
By way of apology, he tells her that he has found a buyer for Sundowner if he wins the next race.
The money would recoup their down payment.
Though Sundowner does win, he is disqualified for interference and the deal falls through.
Nevertheless, Paddy's deep remorse heals the breach with Ida, and they resolve to save enough money to buy a farm one day.
<EOS>
In 1870, two young men, Jim Averill and Billy Irvine, graduate from Harvard College.
The Reverend Doctor speaks to the graduates on the association of "the cultivated mind with the uncultivated" and the importance of education.
Irvine, brilliant but obviously intoxicated, follows this with his opposing, irreverent views.
A celebration is then held after which the male students serenade the women present, including Averill's girlfriend.
Twenty years later, Averill is passing through the booming town of Casper, Wyoming, on his way north to Johnson County where he is now a Marshal.
Poor European immigrants new to the region are in conflict with wealthy, established cattle barons organized as the Wyoming Stock Growers Association; the newcomers sometimes steal their cattle for food.
Nate Champion – a friend of Averill and an enforcer for the stockmen – kills a settler for suspected rustling and dissuades another from stealing a cow.
At a formal board meeting, the head of the Association, Frank Canton, tells members, including a drunk Irvine, of plans to kill 125 named settlers, as thieves and anarchists.
Irvine leaves the meeting, encounters Averill, and tells him of the Association's plans.
As Averill leaves, he exchanges bitter words with Canton.
Canton slaps Averill across the face, which is immediately retaliated, knocking Canton to the floor.
That night, Canton recruits men to kill the named settlers.
Ella Watson, a Johnson County bordello madam from Quebec who accepts stolen cattle as payment for use of her prostitutes, is infatuated with both Averill and Champion.
Averill and Watson skate in a crowd, then dance alone, in an enormous roller skating rink called "Heaven's Gate", which has been built by local entrepreneur John Bridges.
Averill gets a copy of the Association's death list from a baseball-playingS.
Army captain and later reads the names aloud to the settlers, who are thrown into terrified turmoil.
Cully, a station master and friend of Averill's, sees the train with Canton's posse heading north and rides off to warn the settlers but is murdered en route.
Later, a group of men come to Watson's bordello and rape her.
All but one are shot and killed by Averill.
Champion, realizing that his landowner bosses seek to eliminate Watson, goes to Canton's camp and shoots the remaining rapist, then refuses to participate in the slaughter.
Canton and his men encounter one of Champion's friends leaving a cabin with Champion and his friend Nick inside, and a gunfight ensues.
Attempting to save Champion, Watson arrives in her wagon and shoots one of the hired guns before escaping on horseback.
Champion and his two friends are killed in a massive, merciless barrage which ends with his cabin in flames.
Watson warns the settlers of Canton's approach at another huge, chaotic gathering at "Heaven's Gate".
The agitated settlers decide to fight back; Bridges leads the attack on Canton's gang.
With the hired invaders now surrounded, both sides suffer casualties (including a drunken, poetic Irvine) as Canton leaves to bring help.
Watson and Averill return to Champion's charred and smoking cabin and discover his body along with a hand written letter documenting his last minutes alive.
The next day, Averill reluctantly joins the settlers, with their cobbled-together siege machines and explosive charges, in an attack against Canton's men and their makeshift fortifications.
Again there are heavy casualties on both sides, before theS.
Army, with Canton in the lead, arrives to stop the fighting and save the remaining besieged mercenaries.
Later, at Watson's cabin, Bridges, Watson and Averill prepare to leave for good.
But they are ambushed by Canton and two others who shoot and kill Bridges and Watson.
After killing Canton and his men, a grief-stricken Averill holds Watson's body in his arms.
In 1903 – about a decade later – a well-dressed, beardless, but older-looking Averill walks the deck of his yacht off Newport, Rhode Island.
He goes below, where an attractive middle-aged woman is sleeping in a luxurious boudoir.
The woman, Averill's old Harvard girlfriend (perhaps now his wife), awakens and asks him for a cigarette.
Silently he complies, lights it, and returns to the deck.
<EOS>
Judgment at Nuremberg centers on a military tribunal convened in Nuremberg, Germany, in which four German judges and prosecutors stand accused of crimes against humanity for their involvement in atrocities committed under the Nazi regime.
Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) is the Chief Trial Judge of a three-judge panel that will hear and decide the case against the defendants.
Haywood begins his examination by trying to learn how the defendant Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster) could have sentenced so many people to death.
Janning, it is revealed, is a well-educated and internationally respected jurist and legal scholar.
Haywood seeks to understand how the German people could have turned blind eyes and deaf ears to the crimes of the Nazi regime.
In doing so, he befriends the widow (Marlene Dietrich) of a German general who had been executed by the Allies.
He talks with a number of Germans who have different perspectives on the war.
Other characters the judge meets are US Army Captain Byers (William Shatner), who is assigned to the American party hearing the cases, and Irene Hoffmann (Judy Garland), who is afraid to provide testimony that may bolster the prosecution's case against the judges.
German defense attorney Hans Rolfe (Maximilian Schell) argues that the defendants were not the only ones to aid, or at least turn a blind eye to, the Nazi regime.
He also suggests that the United States has committed acts just as bad or worse as those the Nazis perpetrated.
He raises several points in these arguments, such as:S.
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
's support for the first eugenics practices (see Buck Bell ); the German-Vatican Reichskonkordat of 1933, which the Nazi-dominated German government exploited as an implicit foreign recognition of Nazi leadership; Stalin's part in the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, which removed the last major obstacle standing in the way of Germany's invasion and occupation of western Poland, initiating World War II; and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the final stage of the war in August 1945.
Janning, meanwhile, decides to take the stand for the prosecution, stating that he is guilty of the crime he is accused of: condemning to death a Jewish man of "blood defilement" charges—namely, that the man slept with a 16-year-old Gentile girl—when he knew there was no evidence to support such a verdict.
During his testimony, he explains that well-meaning people like himself went along with Hitler's anti-Semitic policies out of a sense of patriotism, even though they knew it was wrong.
Haywood must weigh considerations of geopolitical expediency and ideals of justice.
The trial takes place against the background of the Berlin Blockade, and there is pressure to let the German defendants off lightly so as to gain German support in the growing Cold War against the Soviet Union.
All four defendants are found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Haywood visits Janning in his cell.
Janning affirms that Haywood's decision was just, but asks him to believe that he and the other defendant judges never desired the mass murder of innocents.
"We never knew," he insists, "that it would come to that".
Judge Haywood replies, "Herr Janning, it came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent".
Haywood departs; a title card informs the audience that, of 99 defendants sentenced to prison terms in Nuremberg trials that took place in the American Zone, none were still serving their sentences as of the film's 1961 release.
<EOS>
The President of the United States is caught making advances on an underage "Firefly Girl" less than two weeks before Election Day.
Conrad Brean (De Niro), a top-notch spin doctor, is brought in to take the public's attention away from the scandal.
He decides to construct a diversionary war with Albania, hoping the media will concentrate on this instead.
Brean contacts Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Hoffman) to create the war, complete with a theme song and fake film footage of a photogenic orphan (Kirsten Dunst) in Albania.
When the CIA learns of the plot, they send Agent Young (Macy) to confront Brean who convinces him that revealing the deception is against his best interests.
The CIA announces that the war has ended, but otherwise maintains the deception and the media begins to turn back to the President's abuse scandal.
Motss decides to invent a hero who was left behind enemy lines, and inspired by the idea that he was "discarded like an old shoe" has the Pentagon provide him with a soldier named Schumann (Harrelson) around whom he constructs a further narrative including T-shirts, additional patriotic songs, and faux-grassroots demonstrations of patriotism.
At each stage of the plan, Motss continually dismisses setbacks as "nothing" and compares them to past movie-making catastrophes he averted.
When the team goes to retrieve Schumann, they discover he is in fact a criminally insane Army prison convict before their plane crashes en route to Andrews Air Force Base.
The team survives and is rescued by a farmer, but Schumann attempts to rape the farmer's daughter and the farmer kills him.
Motss then stages an elaborate military funeral, claiming that Schumann died from wounds sustained during his rescue.
While watching a political talk show Motss gets frustrated that the media are crediting the president's win to a tired campaign slogan of "Don't change horses in mid-stream" rather than Motss's hard work.
Despite previously claiming he was inspired by the challenge, Motss announces that he wants credit and will reveal his involvement, despite Brean's warning that he is "playing with his life".
Motss refuses to back down, so Brean reluctantly has him killed and makes it look as if he had a heart attack.
The president is successfully re-elected and a news report about a violent incident in Albania is shown, but it is ambiguous whether this is a true event or simply a continuation of the fictional war.
<EOS>
Second Lieutenant Lionel Hardcastle (Geoffrey Palmer) and Middlesex Hospital nurse Jean Pargetter (Judi Dench) met in the summer of 1953 and fell head over heels in love, calling her "Pooh", but then Lionel was posted to Korea.
He wrote, but Jean didn't receive his letter (it becomes a topic in a later episode).
Because of this mix-up, each assumed the other had lost interest.
After his war service Lionel emigrated to Kenya, became a coffee planter, and married Margaret, whom he later divorced on grounds of "mutual boredom".
Some time after his divorce he returned to England.
Meanwhile, Jean had also married and bore one child, Judith (Moira Brooker).
After her husband's death, Jean opened Type for You, a secretarial agency.
Her daughter Judith, 32 years old during the series, is twice divorced (from Ken, who had "sad eyes", and Edward, who was "very clever") and, during most of the series, lives with her mother and also works at the secretarial agency.
Lionel, now writing his memoir, hires a typist through Type for You, unaware that Jean owns the agency.
His and Jean's awareness of each other occurs as Lionel picks up Judith for a dinner date.
Although Lionel's and Jean's reunion is full of missteps and miscues, their romance gradually rekindles.
In the third season, Lionel moves into Jean's house in Holland Park, London; they marry during the following season.
In the first season Judith develops a crush on Lionel while Lionel's publisher, Alistair Deacon (Philip Bretherton), who likes to call her "Lovely Lady", takes a similar interest in Jean.
Both crushes are brief; eventually Judith and Alistair fall for each other and, in the final season, marry.
Other story arcs feature Lionel being asked to write an American TV mini-series, Just Two People, based on his early romance with Jean.
The mini-series fails after much rewriting and network interference.
Jean eventually retires from Type for You and later volunteers at a charity shop.
Jean's very efficient secretary, and Judith's best friend, is Sandy (Jenny Funnell), who eventually moves in with the Hardcastles after splitting with her boyfriend Nick.
After Jean's retirement, Judy and Sandy become co-managers of Type for You.
Sandy dates Harry (David Michaels, later replaced by Daniel Ryan), a policeman and rugby player, whom she marries at the end of the series.
Other notable characters include Lionel's irrepressible father, Rocky whose favorite saying is to "Rock On".
(Frank Middlemass), who owns a large country house in Hampshire which he later gives to Lionel; the housekeeper, mrs Bale (Janet Henfrey), who has an unusual interest in the Shipping Forecast, and gives exact times that meals are ready, and the gardener, Lol Ferris (Tim Wylton), who says Jean is a "tender woman".
(In the early seasons of the show, Lionel received news from Rocky's physician that his father was dying and had less than a year to live.
But this plotline was dropped and Rocky continued to appear throughout the show's later seasons, including the final "Reunion Special" in 2005.
)  Rocky marries Madge (Joan Sims), as much a character as Rocky is, when he is 85 and she is 78.
They travel the world, listen to country music, tool about in Madge's classic convertible (with steer horns on the grille), and hang out at the local pub, where Madge sings.
In Series Nine, Madge is mentioned as being on an archaeological dig in Egypt; in reality Joan Sims died before filming began.
Jean's first husband's neurotic sister Penny (Moyra Fraser), who always calls Jean "poor Jean", and Penny's flaky dentist husband, Stephen (Paul Chapman), who once accidentally declined the OBE, also make many appearances.
<EOS>
In an upscale New York City mansion, wealthy and popular teenager Kathryn Merteuil (Gellar) is discussing her prep school with mrs Caldwell (Christine Baranski) and mrs Caldwell's daughter, Cecile (Blair).
Kathryn promises mrs Caldwell that she will look out for the sheltered and naïve Cecile.
Kathryn's step-brother, Sebastian (Phillippe), enters the room, whereupon mrs Caldwell reacts to him coldly and leaves with Cecile.
Kathryn reveals to him that her real intention is to use Cecile to take revenge on her ex-lover Court Reynolds (Charlie O'Connell), who has dumped her for Cecile.
Kathryn asks Sebastian to seduce Cecile; he refuses as he is planning to seduce Annette Hargrove (Witherspoon), the virgin daughter of their prep school's new headmaster.
Annette is a 'paradigm of chastity and virtue' who recently wrote a published essay about saving herself for marriage and has been temporarily staying with Sebastian's aunt.
The two make a wager: if Sebastian fails to bed Annette, Kathryn gets Sebastian's vintage Jaguar XK140; if he succeeds, Kathryn will have sex with him.
It is mentioned that Sebastian keeps a journal detailing his conquests.
Sebastian's first attempt to seduce Annette fails, as she had already been told of his reputation as a womanizer.
He vents to his friend, Blaine Tuttle (Joshua Jackson), who suggests that the informant might be Annette's ex-boyfriend and closeted jock, Greg McConnell (Eric Mabius), revealing to Sebastian that Greg tried to make a pass at him.
He uses that to seduce Greg while being secretly filmed by Sebastian.
Sebastian confronts Greg with the photographs, but he denies warning Annette.
Greg is pressured into investigating who did, and Sebastian also orders him to present him in a good light to Annette.
Later, while gushing about Sebastian to Annette, Greg discovers that the culprit is Cecile's mother, mrs Caldwell.
Wanting revenge on the Caldwells, Sebastian agrees to seduce Cecile.
Meanwhile, Cecile's music teacher, Ronald Clifford (Sean Patrick Thomas), is in love with her.
Cecile confesses this to Kathryn.
Kathryn tells mrs Caldwell about Ronald and Cecile's romance and mrs Caldwell orders Cecile to end it.
Sebastian, in turn, calls Cecile to his house, ostensibly to give her a letter from Ronald.
There he blackmails Cecile in order to perform oral sex on her.
The next day, Cecile confides in Kathryn, who advises her to learn from Sebastian so that she can make Ronald happy in bed.
Sebastian begins to fall in love with Annette, who returns his feelings but still resists him.
Sebastian calls her a hypocrite because she claims to be waiting for her one true love, but when her one true love chooses to love her back, she resists.
She relents, but Sebastian refuses her, confused about his feelings colliding with his stolid sexuality.
Annette flees to the estate of her friend's parents.
Sebastian tracks her down, professes his love, and makes love to her.
As he has won the bet, Kathryn offers herself to Sebastian the next day, but he refuses; he now only wants Annette.
Kathryn taunts him and threatens to ruin Annette's reputation, so Sebastian pretends indifference to Annette and coldly breaks up with her.
After Sebastian tells Kathryn that he has broken up with Annette and arranged for Cecile and Ronald to be together, Kathryn reveals that she has known all along that he was truly in love with Annette and manipulated him into giving her up.
Sebastian angrily dismisses Kathryn, saying he no longer wants her, and she then rejects him.
Sebastian leaves to apologize to Annette, and Kathryn calls Ronald, telling him that Sebastian slept with Cecile and lying to him that Sebastian hit her.
Annette refuses Sebastian's apology; he sends her his journal, in which he has detailed all of Kathryn's manipulative schemes as well as their bet, and written the true feelings he had for Annette all along.
As he heads home, Ronald intercepts him on the street, starting a fight.
Annette runs out and tries to stop it, but is accidentally thrown into the way of traffic.
Sebastian pushes her to safety, and is hit by a cab.
Before he dies, Sebastian and Annette profess their love for each other.
Watching this, Ronald realizes that Kathryn lied to him and used him to kill Sebastian.
He walks away intending to press charges against Kathryn for her actions.
At Sebastian's funeral, Cecile distributes copies of his journal, made into a book by Annette, titled Cruel Intentions.
Kathryn is humiliated and rejected by her former friends, and her reputation is ruined when cocaine is discovered in her rosary.
In the final scene, Annette drives away in Sebastian's car with his journal at her side as she remembers the moments they shared.
<EOS>
Nomi Malone is a young drifter who hitchhikes to Las Vegas hoping to make it as a showgirl.
After being cheated of her money by her driver, Nomi meets Molly Abrams, a seamstress and costume designer who takes her in as a roommate.
Molly invites Nomi backstage at Goddess, the Stardust Casino show where she works, to meet Cristal Connors, the diva star of the topless dance revue.
When Nomi tells Cristal she dances at Cheetah's Topless Club, Cristal derisively tells her that what she does is akin to prostitution.
When Nomi is too upset to go to work that night, Molly takes her dancing at The Crave Club.
After getting into a fight with James, a bouncer at the club, Nomi is arrested.
James bails her out of jail, but she pays him little notice.
Shortly thereafter, Cristal and her boyfriend Zack Carey, the entertainment director at the Stardust, visit Cheetah's and request a lap dance from Nomi.
Although the bisexual Cristal is attracted to Nomi, her request is also based upon her desire to humiliate Nomi by proving she is little more than a prostitute.
Nomi reluctantly performs the lap dance after Cristal offers her $500.
James happens to be at the strip club as well and witnesses the lap dance.
He visits Nomi's trailer the next morning and, like Cristal, tells Nomi that what she is doing is no different from prostitution.
Cristal arranges for Nomi to audition for the chorus line of Goddess.
Tony Moss, the show's director, humiliates Nomi by asking her to put ice on her nipples to make them hard.
Furious, Nomi leaves the audition and again runs into James, who says he has written a dance number for her and contends that Nomi is too talented to be a stripper or showgirl.
Despite her outburst at the audition, Nomi gets the job and quits Cheetah's.
Cristal further humiliates Nomi by suggesting she make a "goodwill appearance" at a boat trade show which turns out to be a thinly disguised form of prostitution.
Undeterred, Nomi sets out to get revenge against Cristal and claim her mantle.
She seduces Zack, who secures an audition for her to be Cristal's understudy.
Nomi wins the role, but when Cristal threatens legal action against the Stardust, the offer is rescinded.
After Cristal gloats and taunts Nomi at a performance, Nomi pushes her down a flight of stairs, and Cristal breaks her hip.
Unable to perform, Cristal is replaced by Nomi as the show's lead.
Although Nomi has finally secured the fame she sought, she alienates Molly, the only one who witnessed her push Cristal.
Later, Molly relents and attends Nomi's opening night at a posh hotel, where she meets her idol, musician Andrew Carver.
Carver lures Molly to a room, where he brutally beats her and helps one of his bodyguards rape her.
Molly is hospitalized after the assault.
Nomi wants to prosecute Carver, but Zack tells her the Stardust will bribe Molly to quiet her in order to protect their celebrity client.
Zack then confronts Nomi with the details of her sordid past: her real name is Polly, and she became a runaway and prostitute after her father murdered her mother and then killed himself.
She has been arrested several times for drug possession, prostitution, and assault with a deadly weapon.
Zack blackmails Nomi by vowing to keep her past quiet if she will not press charges for Molly's assault.
Unable to obtain justice for Molly without exposing her own past, Nomi decides to take justice into her own hands.
She gets Carver alone in his hotel room and beats him bloody.
Nomi then pays two hospital visits; one to Molly to deliver news of the assault and let her know that Carver's actions did not go unpunished, and another to Cristal to apologize for injuring her.
Cristal admits she pulled a similar stunt to get cast in the lead of a show years before.
Because of her world-weariness, and the fact that her lawyers managed to secure her a large cash settlement, Cristal forgives Nomi, and they exchange an 'It's all good' kiss.
Nomi leaves Las Vegas and hitches a ride to Los Angeles, coincidentally with the same driver who earlier stole her possessions when she arrived.
Nomi pulls her knife, and says "I want my fucking suitcase," as they pass a billboard advertising Nomi, and the film fades to credits.
<EOS>
Tigger searches through the Hundred Acre Wood for somebody to bounce with him, but all of his friends are too busy getting ready for the coming winter.
While he searches for a playmate, Tigger accidentally destroys Eeyore's house with a boulder.
He later wrecks the complex pulley system that Rabbit has rigged up to remove the boulder and sends his friends flying into a pond.
Rabbit is furious at Tigger for destroying his Rock Remover, and the rest of Tigger's friends admit they are not quite as bouncy as he is because they are not Tiggers.
Tigger sadly wanders off in loneliness, wishing there was somebody else like him.
Roo, who wants to play with Tigger, catches up to him and asks if Tigger has a Tigger family he could bounce with.
Tigger is fascinated by the idea and the two go to visit Owl for advice on finding Tigger's family.
Owl shows them portraits of his own family and mentions the concept of family trees.
Tigger accidentally knocks the portraits over.
When he quickly hangs them back up, all of Owl's ancestors appear to be perched on a single tree.
Tigger concludes that his family tree must be a real tree and he and Roo go searching for it.
After searching the wood without turning up any giant, Tigger-striped trees, Tigger and Roo go back to Tigger's house to search for clues to his family's whereabouts.
They find a heart-shaped locket that Tigger hopes will contain a picture of his family, but it is empty.
Roo suggests that Tigger try writing a letter to his family, which Tigger does.
During this scene, Tigger teaches Roo the awesome Whoop-de-Dooper-Loop-de-Looper-Alley-Ooper Bounce.
When Tigger's letter gets no response, Roo gathers Tigger's friends together to write him a letter.
Everyone contributes a bit of friendly advice and they sign it "your family".
Tigger is overjoyed to receive the letter, but, "reading between the lines," misinterprets it and announces that his whole family is coming to visit him tomorrow.
Tigger's friends do not have the heart to tell Tigger that the letter is from them, so they disguise themselves as Tiggers and attend his family reunion.
Rabbit does not join in, but, rather, berates them for not getting ready for the approaching winter storm and slams off.
Tigger completely falls for the Tigger disguises until Roo attempts Tigger’s complex Whoop-de-Dooper-Loop-de-Looper-Alley-Ooper Bounce, crashes into the closet again and knocks his mask off.
Tigger is struck with astonishment, and soon finds out that all of his friends are in on it.
Frustrated thinking that his friends have betrayed him, Tigger goes out in a ferocious snowstorm to search for his family after a final "TTFE, Ta-ta forever.
"  Tigger's friends form an expedition to find him and convince Rabbit to lead them.
They find Tigger sitting in a large tree with patches of snow on the trunk that resemble stripes.
Rabbit insists that Tigger come home, but Tigger refuses to leave his "family tree" until his Tigger family returns.
They argue and Tigger's shouting causes an avalanche.
Tigger bounces all of his friends to safety in the tree branches, but is swept away by the snow himself.
Roo performs a perfect Whoop-de-Dooper-Loop-de-Looper-Alley-Ooper Bounce and rescues Tigger.
When the avalanche subsides, Tigger realizes he has lost the letter from his family.
All his friends each recite their parts of the letter from memory and Tigger finally sees that they are his real family.
He throws a new family reunion party with presents for everyone, including a beautiful new home for Eeyore.
Roo receives the heart-shaped locket and Christopher Robin takes a picture of Roo, Tigger, and the rest of their family to go in it.
<EOS>
The game's single-player story mode takes place in the world of , where Bowser and his minions have cursed all of Yoshi's friends.
Playing as Yoshi, the player must defeat each of his friends in order to remove the curse.
Once all friends have been freed, the game proceeds to a series of Bowser's minions, and then to Bowser himself.
During these final matches, the player can select Yoshi or any of his friends to play out the stage.
<EOS>
The titular Neverhood is a surreal landscape dotted with buildings and other hints of life, all suspended above an endless void.
However, the Neverhood itself is bizarrely deserted, with its only inhabitants being Klaymen (the main protagonist and player character), Willie Trombone (a dim individual who assists Klaymen in his travels), Klogg (the game's antagonist who resembles a warped version of Klaymen), and various fauna that inhabit the Neverhood (most infamously the 'weasels', monstrous, crablike creatures that pursue Klaymen and Willie at certain points in the game).
Much of the game's background information is limited to the 'Hall Of Records' which is notorious for its length, taking several minutes to travel from one end of the hall to the other.
The game begins with Klaymen waking up in a room and exploring the Neverhood, collecting various discs appearing to contain a disjointed story narrated by Willie.
As Klaymen travels the Neverhood, he occasionally crosses paths with Willie, who agrees to help him in his journey while Klogg, who is spying on Klaymen from afar, tries to threaten Klaymen into giving up his quest.
Eventually, Klaymen's quest directs him to Klogg's castle, and for this Klaymen enlists the help of Big Robot Bil, a towering automaton and a friend of Willie's.
As Bil (with Klaymen and Willie on board) marches to Klogg's castle, Klogg unleashes his guardian, the Clockwork Beast, to intercept Bil.
The two giants clash and Bil proves victorious, but as he forces open the castle door for Klaymen to enter, Klogg gravely injures Bil by firing a cannon at him.
Klaymen manages to get in, but Bil loses his footing and falls into the void with Willie still inside.
Alone in Klogg's castle, Klaymen finds a terminal, and should he collect all of Willie's discs, the full extent of his tale is revealed; the Neverhood itself is the creation of a godlike being named Hoborg, who created the Neverhood in the hopes of making himself happy.
Realizing that he was still alone, Hoborg creates himself a companion by planting a seed into the ground, which grows into Klogg.
As Hoborg welcomes Klogg to the Neverhood, the latter tries to take Hoborg's crown, which Hoborg forbids Klogg from doing.
Envious, Klogg manages to steal Hoborg's crown, rendering Hoborg inert in the process, and the crown's energies disfigure Klogg.
With Hoborg lifeless, any further development of the Neverhood ground to a halt.
Having witnessed this, Willie (himself and Bil being creations of Hoborg's brother Ottoborg) discovers that Hoborg was about to plant a seed to create another companion.
Willie takes the seed and plants it faraway from Klogg, with Willie hoping that whoever grew from the seed would defeat Klogg.
That seed in turn grew into Klaymen.
Afterwards, Klaymen manages to reach the throne room, with Klogg and a motionless Hoborg waiting for him.
Klogg tries to dissuade Klaymen from reviving Hoborg by tempting him with Hoborg's crown.
From here, the player may choose to take up Klogg's offer or take the crown to revive Hoborg.
If the player chooses to take the crown for himself, Klogg gloats at his apparent victory, only for the crown to disfigure Klaymen similarly to Klogg.
The now-villanous Klaymen overpowers Klogg and declares himself the new ruler of the Neverhood.
If the player chooses to revive Hoborg, Klaymen distracts Klogg and manages to put the crown atop Hoborg's head, reviving him.
As Hoborg thanks Klaymen, Klogg attempts to ambush them both, only to set off his own cannon which blasts him out of the castle and into the void.
Returning to the building where Klaymen first started, Hoborg continues populating the Neverhood and orders a celebration when he is finished.
However, Klaymen remains sorrowful over the loss of Willie and Bil, and Hoborg decides to use his powers to save Willie and Bil (to Klaymen's delight).
The game ends with Hoborg telling Klaymen "Man, things are good".
<EOS>
In the book, every member of the Creedish Cult learns how to be a servant for the human race—most of them are butlers and maids—and fear most human pleasures.
They await a sign from God to tell them to deliver themselves unto Him; that is, they must commit suicide.
The sign finally comes, and a good ten years later, Tender becomes the last surviving member of the cult.
He is thrown into mainstream culture and becomes a personal icon for many people.
Tender Branson sits in the cockpit of a Boeing 747-400, telling his life story to the black box.
He is alone in the plane, having hijacked it; he has released all of the plane's passengers and crew prior to this point.
He explains the events leading up to the hijacking.
Tender is a member of the fanatical Creedish cult, which engaged in a mass suicide ten years previously.
He is one of the Creedish members who was sent out into the world to work as a servant, and send his income back to the Creedish community.
Creedish members have been steadily killing themselves since the mass suicide, in keeping with their belief that the deliverance is at hand.
At the start of his story, Tender works as the housekeeper for a rich couple he never sees in Oregon.
They issue directions via a daily planner and a speaker phone.
At his dingy apartment, he gets phone calls from people who want to kill themselves - the result of a newspaper misprint which printed his phone number as the number for a suicide prevention hotline.
Tender, enjoying the thrill of passing divine judgment on these people tells them to kill themselves as often as not, and sees this as an act of mercy.
Although the newspaper prints a retraction, the calls keep coming, and when they dwindle, Tender prints up fliers for a fake crisis hotline with his number on them so the calls will continue.
One of the calls comes from a Trevor Hollis, a man who wants to kill himself because of the nightmares he has been having about disasters, like plane crashes or fires.
Tender tells Trevor to kill himself, and soon after, reads his obituary in the paper.
One day, Tender goes to the mausoleum to steal fake flowers for his employer's garden (a common pastime), and decides to visit Trevor's tomb while he is there.
At the tomb, he meets Trevor's sister, Fertility, and they talk.
Later that night, Tender has his weekly meeting with his caseworker from the Federal Survivor Retention Program, a government agency that keeps tabs on the survivors of suicide cults.
As usual, he asks how many survivors of the Creedish faith there are remaining, and she tells him, "One hundred and fifty-seven survivors.
Nationwide".
Tender begins to explain how the Creedish Church works.
Only the firstborn sons and their wives get to stay and reside in the community (located in rural Nebraska) - the rest, like Tender, are sent out to work as humble servants, and are considered to be the Church's missionaries.
They are extensively trained in etiquette, housecleaning, and other menial labor, after which they are baptized and sent out into the world to make a living.
Every month, they are expected to send back money and a letter of confession.
"Tender" is not really a name, but a title, which is given to all male children except the firstborn, who is called "Adam".
Likewise, all female children are called "Biddy", including the eldest.
"Tender" is meant to denote one who tends; "Biddy", one who is biddable.
Once a girl is married, her title is changed to "Author".
All but the firstborn sons and their wives are discouraged from having sex of any kind and are forbidden to marry, and the latter are expected to have sex only for procreation.
All the Creedish wear highly recognizable clothing, both inside the community and out.
This makes it easy to spot another member of the Church in the outside world.
Tender further describes how, ten years previously, someone leaked the Church's doings (ie.
cult brainwashing, tax evasion, unregistered births) to the police of Bolster County, Nebraska, and the FBI are put on the case.
The FBI move in to arrest the cult leaders only to find the entire community dead in an act of mass suicide upon hearing the news.
The remaining survivors are expected to be prepared for such an event (called the "Deliverance" by the Church), and kill themselves as soon as they hear the news.
After their meeting, Fertility calls Tender thinking she has called the crisis hotline.
Tender soon realizes it's Fertility, so he begins to talk to her in a fake voice.
Because it is revealed later that Fertility is psychic and knows "everything", it is understood that she knows at this point that she is speaking to Tender.
She talks about her brother's suicide and how she met Tender ("a pretty weird guy") at the mausoleum, mentioning how he reminded her of a Creedish cult member, and adding that he was extremely unattractive and she believed him to be Trevor's ex-homosexual lover.
Eventually, she asks the man at the "crisis hotline" (ie.
Tender) to have phone sex with her, but he hangs up after turning her down.
He then stops answering his phone in fear that Fertility will be on the other line, wanting to have phone sex or growing more attracted to him as a mysterious voice than as a person.
During another meeting with his caseworker (which regularly takes place at his employers' house), Tender gets frustrated and tells her that if she wants to help him, she can start by scrubbing the shower tiles.
Burnt out over a decade of lost suicide cases, the caseworker quickly grows obsessed with cleaning and soon takes over Tender's job, drifting more and more away from helping him confront his past.
She reveals at this time that many of the Creedish suicides were really murders masked to look like suicides to encourage more survivors to kill themselves.
A week from their last meeting, Tender and Fertility meet again at Trevor's tomb in the mausoleum.
Fertility teaches him to dance, while revealing that Trevor had been psychic, and all the things he had dreamt about had really happened.
At home, Tender receives a suspicious call from a man he recognizes as a member of the Creedish Church, and he soon realizes that the murderer of Creedish survivors is actually Creedish himself.
The call scares him, for he fears that he will be the next victim.
Abruptly after the call, Fertility also calls Tender, again trying to reach the crisis hotline, and she tells him about dancing with the man at the mausoleum and asks him to get together with her.
Tender (as the man at the crisis hotline) agrees, on the condition that she agrees to take the man from the mausoleum (ie.
him) out on a date.
She agrees.
On their date, Tender and Fertility ride the bus downtown, where a stranger rudely begins telling them facile jokes pointed at the Creedish mass suicide.
Tender laughs at all the jokes, secretly wondering if the joker can tell he's Creedish.
Fertility snaps at the joker for making fun of suicide.
When the joker rises to exit the bus, Tender recognizes the man's pants as Creedish dress, and suddenly recognizes the man as Adam, his twin brother.
Tender speaks Adam's name aloud, but when Adam asks if they are brothers, he desperately denies it.
After the bus incident, Fertility takes Tender to a department store that she presciently knows will catch on fire, but that she knows will not harm them.
Fertility explains that she has the same talent as her brother for dreaming the future.
Tender soon learns that he has become one of the last two survivors of the Creedish Church.
The caseworker has him go over photos of dead Creedish to see if he can identify the other survivor, but he already knows it to be his brother Adam.
He begins receiving phone calls from journalists and agents wanting his story.
The caseworker manages to suffocate on a chemical solution of ammonia and chlorine that she was using to clean the fireplace, which had been secretly mixed together by Adam, and whose intended target was Tender.
Adam steals the caseworker's files on the Creedish suicides immediately after the murder.
The police suspect Tender, but he claims innocence and slips away.
Tender, meanwhile, calls an agent and takes a flight to New York that very night.
Thus begins his road to stardom.
The agent's company has been planning for years to turn the last survivor of the Creedish cult into a religious celebrity.
They create a fake history for Tender and completely overhaul his body.
He is given steroid injections, health food, teeth caps, and is made to exercise and diet incessantly until he is the model of attractiveness.
It is made clear by the agent that no one will worship an ugly religious leader.
Tender is entirely agreeable to all of it, as he has no will to live and desires fame only in order to have an enormous audience for when he commits suicide.
As his agent's plans are realized, Tender's fame grows.
These plans include the publication of Tender's "autobiography" and the "Book of Very Common Prayer", as well as the conversion of the former Creedish land into the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Sanitary Landfill (a repository for America's outdated porn).
Tender is constantly waiting for the opportune moment to kill himself, and continually puts it off as circumstances fail to meet his criteria.
Then, as his popularity starts to wane, the agent tells him that he needs to perform a miracle in order to stay famous.
It is then that Fertility finds Tender and gives him a prediction to make on TV that will seem like a miracle when it comes true.
Naturally, it does, and Tender's fame swells to even greater proportions.
It is unclear at this point why Fertility has shown up and decided to help.
This pattern goes on for some time, until the Super Bowl comes up and Tender's agent plans him an elaborate wedding to take place at half-time, following which, Tender will issue another miraculous prediction.
Tender goes wandering around, trying to meet up with Fertility, which he finally does in a men's bathroom where they've taken adjacent stalls.
Adam appears then with a gun, and reveals that he's already laid a trap to kill Tender's agent the same way he killed the caseworker, so that Tender would be suspect for both murders.
Fertility confirms that the agent will die the next day at the Super Bowl, and comes up with a plan for Tender to make a prediction big enough to distract the police long enough for him to escape.
Adam, intending this all along, plans to escape with Tender and Fertility.
Agreed on their course of action, the three part.
The day of the Super Bowl, the agent dies, Tender is married, and as the police come to arrest him, Tender predicts that the Colts will beat the Cardinals 27-24.
The stadium erupts in a chaos as angry football fans pour out of their seats to chase Tender and it is all the police can do to stop the crowd from mobbing him to death.
Tender escapes with Adam and Fertility to a Ronald McDonald House.
The three then begin their journey across the country by hitching rides in semi-trucks transporting incomplete sections of houses from one location to another.
During their journey, Fertility intentionally gets separated from the brothers.
Adam and Tender, then, steal a car that Fertility foretold would be unlocked in a particular parking lot.
Attached to the dashboard is a little commercial figurine of Tender.
The brothers, heading north to Canada, come to the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Sanitary Landfill on the way.
As they drive through it, Adam begins recounting the way the Church leaders terrorized the children into fearing sex by forcing them to watch every time a woman went into labor.
Tender denies this, but it is unclear whether he simply doesn't want to remember, or whether he actually can't remember because the trauma is buried so deep in his memory.
Adam believes the only way to cure Tender is for Tender to have sex - to reject the Church doctrine at its core.
Tender resists, and as Adam recounts the details of the "mental castration" (as he calls it), Tender loses control and crashes the car into a giant concrete pylon in the middle of the landfill.
The crash causes the airbags to deploy, and the one on the passenger's side sends the Tender figurine into Adam's left eye.
Adam pulls out the figurine and asks Tender to find a rock and hit him with it.
Tender refuses, but Adam asks him to find any rock that he can just to disfigure him with, pleading that if he goes to jail for his murders, he doesn't want the other inmates to even think about sexually abusing him.
Tender reluctantly agrees to do this, as long as Adam will tell him when to stop, but Adam keeps telling him to swing again until it is too late and Adam dies.
Immediately afterwards, Fertility shows up in a taxicab and takes Tender away from the landfill.
They go back to Oregon, and Fertility plans to go on a quick job assignment to make some money.
Fertility's job is being a surrogate mother for couples who can't conceive (Fertility is actually a pseudonym - her real name is Gwen); however, Fertility actually happens to be barren, so her job is, in essence, prostitution.
The job she takes coincidentally happens to be for Tender's former employers.
In the middle of the night, Tender sneaks into the house, and Fertility has sex with him in the guest bedroom (for a short while, for according to Tender, he only got in her a half an inch and it was over).
The next morning, Tender wakes up; and Fertility tells him that she's pregnant.
She then leaves for the airport to board a plane to Sydney, Australia.
In her planner that she leaves behind, Tender reads that someone is going to hijack the plane and crash it into the Australian outback.
Following Fertility to the airport, Tender finds her, takes Adam's gun (which she has stashed in an urn purportedly containing her brother's cremated remains), and uses it to board the plane.
He then begins searching for the "real" hijacker until the joke dawns on him and he realizes that he is the hijacker.
The plot thus returns to the beginning, with Tender telling his life story.
He mentions that Fertility told him there was a way for him to escape the plane before it crashes, but on the record, he can't seem to figure it out.
The book ends mid-sentence, but without any definitive answer as to whether Tender lives or dies.
However, it has been stated by the author that Tender survives, and an explanation is available on Chuck Palahniuk's official website.
<EOS>
Peter Gibbons, a programmer at a company called Initech, is frustrated and unmotivated at his job.
His co-workers include Samir Nagheenanajar and Michael Bolton, also programmers, and Milton Waddams, a meek collator who is mostly ignored by the rest of the office.
The staff is constantly mistreated by management – especially by Initech's smarmy, callous vice president, Bill Lumbergh, whom Peter loathes – and is further agitated by the arrival of two consultants, Bob Slydell and Bob Porter, who are brought in to help the company through downsizing and outsourcing.
Peter's girlfriend, Anne, persuades him to attend an occupational hypnotherapy session, but the therapist, dr Swanson, dies of a heart attack right after hypnotizing Peter.
Peter wakes up the next morning newly relaxed, and ignores repeated phone calls both from Lumbergh, who had been expecting Peter to work over the weekend, and from Anne, who responds by angrily breaking up with him and admitting she has been cheating on him, confirming his friends' suspicions.
The following workday, Peter decides to skip work and asks Joanna, a waitress at Chotchkie's, a nearby chain restaurant, out to lunch.
Joanna and Peter bond over their shared loathing of idiotic management and love of the television series Kung Fu.
When Peter finally shows up at work, he casually disregards office protocol, including violating Initech's dress code, taking Lumbergh's reserved parking spot, refusing to follow Lumbergh's directions, and removing a cubicle wall that blocks his view out the window.
The consultants, however, are impressed by his frank insights into the office's problems, and decide to promote him.
They also confide that Michael and Samir's jobs will be eliminated, and when Peter relays this news to them, the trio decide to get even by infecting Initech's accounting system with a computer virus designed to divert fractions of pennies into a bank account they control, transactions they believe are small enough to avoid detection, but which over time will result in a substantial amount of money.
On Michael and Samir's last day at Initech, Peter takes one last item: a frequently malfunctioning printer, which the three take to a field and smash to pieces to vent their frustration.
At a barbecue, Peter learns that Joanna had previously slept with a colleague, identified as "Lumbergh".
Assuming it to be his boss, he becomes disgusted with Joanna and confronts her; after she questions his financial scheme, the two split up.
Peter then discovers that a bug in Michael's code has caused their virus to steal over $300,000 in only a few days, which is far more conspicuous to the company; Michael put the decimal point in the wrong place.
Peter later admits to Joanna – who has finally stood up to her boss at Chotchkie's and quit, and whom Peter has discovered had in fact slept with a different "Lumbergh" – that the scheme was a bad idea and plans to accept responsibility for the crime; they also make-up.
He writes a letter confessing everything and slips it and anonymous checks for the stolen money under the door of Lumbergh's office late at night.
The next morning, Milton – who has become more and more disgruntled at his treatment by management, to the point that he has mumbled threats about setting the building on fire – enters Lumbergh's office to reclaim a red Swingline stapler that was taken from him.
Fully expecting to be arrested upon arriving at work, Peter instead finds that his problem has solved itself: the Initech building is engulfed in flames, and all evidence of the missing money has been destroyed.
Peter finally finds a job that he likes: doing construction work with his next-door neighbor, Lawrence.
Samir and Michael both get jobs at Initech's competitor, Initrode.
Meanwhile, Milton lounges on the beach at a fancy Mexican resort, complaining about his beverage and threatening to take his business to a competitor.
<EOS>
Marta Weiss (Barbara Drapinska), a Polish Jew, arrives by cattle car to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
While there she catches the attention of the guards as she is multilingual and is put to work as a translator.
When she inquires about the factory at the camp a fellow inmate informs her it is a crematorium and that the rest of her family has likely been murdered.
In the barracks many of the women are dying and ill.
Eugenia, a prisoner and doctor, tries her best to administer to them but is unable to do much as supplies are limited.
The women learn that an international commission is coming to the camp to observe the conditions of the prisoners.
Eugenia learns a few key phrases in German and is able to tell the observers that everything they see is a lie and people are dying.
Unfortunately the commanders tell the observers that Eugenia is mentally ill.
Later they torture her to find out who taught her the German phrases but Eugenia refuses to tell them and is murdered.
Eugenia is replaced by Lalunia, a Polish woman who claims to have been rounded up by mistake and who says she is a doctor though she is actually only a pharmacist's wife.
However rather than administer medicine to the women of the camp she distributes them among the capos in exchange for luxuries like clothes and perfume.
When the nurses aid searches her room and confiscates the remaining medicine Lalunia later turns the aid in and has her killed after discovering messages she had written that the Russians were advancing.
Meanwhile Marta is able to temporarily escape in order to smuggle information about the camps to a resistance broadcaster.
When she is returned to the camp she is tortured and then sentenced to death by hanging.
A prisoner frees her wrists and hands her a knife before she is to die and she tells the camp that the Russians are coming and slashes the face of the Nazi commander who tortured her.
Before the guards can retaliate planes are heard overhead and Marta realizes that the Russians have come to liberate them.
<EOS>
The main character in the book is Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant trying to make ends meet in Chicago.
The book begins with his and Ona's wedding feast.
He and his family live near the stockyards and meatpacking district, where many immigrants work who do not know much English.
He takes a job at Brown's slaughterhouse.
Rudkus had thought the US would offer more freedom, but he finds working conditions harsh.
He and his young wife struggle to survive.
They fall deeply into debt and are prey to con men.
Hoping to buy a house, they exhaust their savings on the down-payment for a sub-standard slum house, which they cannot afford.
The family is eventually evicted after their money is taken.
Rudkus had expected to support his wife and other relatives, but eventually all—the women, children, and his sick father—seek work to survive.
As the novel progresses, the jobs and means the family uses to stay alive slowly lead to their physical and moral decay.
Accidents at work and other events lead the family closer to catastrophe.
Rudkus' father dies as a direct result from the unsafe work conditions in the meat packing plant.
One of the children, Kristoforas, dies from food poisoning.
Jonas—the other remaining adult male aside from Rudkus—disappears and is never heard from again.
Then an injury results in Rudkus being fired from the meat packing plant; he later takes a job at Durham's fertilizer plant.
The family's hardships accumulate as Ona confesses that her boss, Connor, had raped her, and made her job dependent on her giving him sexual favors.
In revenge, Rudkus attacks Connor, resulting in his arrest and imprisonment.
After being released from jail, Rudkus finds that his family has been evicted from their house.
He finds them staying in a boarding house, where Ona is in labor with her second child.
She dies in childbirth at age eighteen from blood loss; the infant also dies.
Rudkus had lacked the money for a doctor.
Soon after, his first child drowns in a muddy street.
Rudkus leaves the city and takes up drinking.
His brief sojourn as a hobo in rural United States shows him that there is really no escape—farmers turn their workers away when the harvest is finished.
Rudkus returns to Chicago and holds down a succession of laboring jobs and as a con-man.
He drifts without direction.
One night, he wanders into a lecture being given by a socialist orator, where he finds community and purpose.
After a fellow socialist employs him, Rudkus locates his wife's family.
He finds out that Marija, Ona's cousin, had become a prostitute to support the family and is now addicted to morphine; Stanislovas, the oldest of the children at the beginning of the novel, had died after getting locked in at work and being eaten alive by rats.
Rudkus then resumes his support of his wife's family.
The book ends with another socialist rally, which follows some political victories.
<EOS>
The film opens to a young George Jung (Jesse James) and his parents Fred (Ray Liotta) and Ermine (Rachel Griffiths) of Weymouth, Massachusetts.
When George is ten years old, Fred files for bankruptcy and loses everything, but tries to make George realize that money is not important.
As an adult, George (Johnny Depp) moves to Los Angeles with his friend "Tuna" (Ethan Suplee); they meet Barbara (Franka Potente), an airline stewardess, who introduces them to Derek Foreal (Paul Reubens), a marijuana dealer.
With Derek's help, George and Tuna make a lot of money.
Kevin Dulli (Max Perlich), a college student back in Boston, visits them and tells them of the enormous market—and demand—for pot in Boston.
With Barbara's help, they start bringing the drugs to Boston.
As the demand grows, they decide to start buying the drugs directly from Mexico with the help of Santiago Sanchez (Tony Amendola), a Mexican drug lord.
But two years later, George is caught in Chicago trying to import 660 pounds of marijuana and is sentenced to two years.
After unsuccessfully trying to plead his innocence (by reciting the lyrics of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" and insisting that he did no more than "cross an imaginary line with a bunch of plants"), George skips bail to take care of Barbara, who is suffering from, and eventually succumbs to, cancer.
Her death marks the disbanding of the group of friends; even his friend, Tuna, flees their vacation home in Mexico and is never seen again.
While hiding from the authorities, George visits his parents back in New England.
While he is having a heart-to-heart talk with his father, George's mother calls the police, who come and arrest him.
George is now sentenced to 26 months in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.
His cellmate Diego Delgado (Jordi Molla) has contacts in the Medellín cocaine cartel and convinces George to help him go into business.
Upon his release from prison, George violates his parole conditions and heads down to Cartagena, Colombia to meet up with Diego.
They meet with cartel officer Cesar Rosa to negotiate the terms for smuggling to establish "good faith".
As the smuggling operation grows, Diego gets arrested, leaving George to find a way to sell and get the money in time.
George reconnects with Derek in California, and the two successfully sell all 50&nbsp;kg in 36 hours, amassing a $135&nbsp;million profit.
George is then whisked off to Medellín, Colombia, where he finally meets the group's leader, Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis), who agrees to go into business with them.
With the help of main middleman Derek, the pair becomes Escobar's top US importer.
At Diego's wedding, George meets Cesar's fiancée Mirtha (Penélope Cruz) and marries her.
However, Diego resents George for keeping Derek's identity secret and pressures George to reveal his connection.
George eventually discovers that Diego has betrayed him by cutting him out of the connection with Derek.
Inspired by the birth of his daughter and chastened by a subsequent drug-related heart attack, George severs his relationship with the cartel and vows to leave the drug business forever.
All goes well with George's newfound civilian life for five years, until Mirtha organizes a 38th birthday party for him.
Many of his former drug associates attend, including Derek, who reveals that Diego eventually cut him out as well.
The FBI and DEA raids the party and arrest George.
Following George's conviction, he becomes a fugitive.
Meanwhile, his bank account—heretofore under Manuel Noriega's protection in Panama—is seized.
One night, he and Mirtha get into a fight while driving.
They are pulled over by police and Mirtha tells them Jung is a fugitive and has stashed a kilogram of cocaine in his trunk.
He is sent to jail for three years, during which time Mirtha divorces him and takes custody of their nine-year-old daughter, Kristina "Sunshine" Jung (Emma Roberts).
Upon his release, George finds himself struggling to keep his relationship with his daughter on good terms.
George promises Kristina a vacation in California and seeks one last deal to garner enough money for the trip.
George completes a deal with former accomplices but learns too late that the deal had been set up by the FBI and DEA, with Dulli and Derek having leaked the nature and location of the action in exchange for pardons for their involvement in his prior action.
George is sentenced to 60 years at Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
He explains in the end that neither the sentence nor the betrayal bothered him, but that he can never forgive himself for having to break a promise to his daughter.
While in prison, George requests a furlough to see his dying father, Fred.
His unforgiving mother denies the request, saying a visit would only upset Fred.
George is given a tape recorder to record a final message to his father.
In the message, George recounts his memories of working with his father, his run-ins with the law, and finally, too late, his understanding of what Fred meant when he said that money is not "real".
The film closes with George as an old man in prison, imagining that his daughter (Jaime King) finally comes to visit him.
She slowly fades away as a guard calls for George.
The film concludes with notes indicating that Jung's sentence will not expire until 2015, and that his daughter has yet to visit him.
The film's final image is a photograph of the actual George Jung.
<EOS>
On Christmas Eve, NYPD Detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles.
He aims to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly, at the Christmas party of her employer, the fictional Nakatomi corporation.
McClane is driven to the party by Argyle, an airport limousine driver.
While McClane changes clothes, the party is disrupted by the arrival of a German terrorist named Hans Gruber and his heavily armed team: Karl, Tony, Franco, Theo, Alexander, Marco, Kristoff, Eddie, Uli, Heinrich, Fritz, and James.
The group seizes the tower and secures those inside as hostages, except for McClane, who manages to slip away.
Gruber singles out Nakatomi executive Joseph Takagi, and says he intends to teach the corporation a lesson for its greed.
Isolated from the hostages, Gruber interrogates Takagi for the code to the building's vault and reveals that his endgame is to attempt to steal $640 million in bearer bonds in the vault, with terrorism merely being used as a distraction.
Takagi refuses to cooperate and is murdered by Gruber.
McClane, who had been secretly watching, accidentally gives himself away and is pursued by Tony.
McClane manages to kill Tony, pocketing his weapon and radio, which he uses to contact the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
As Sgt.
Al Powell is sent to investigate, Gruber sends Heinrich and Marco to stop McClane, who kills them both.
Powell arrives and is greeted by Eddie, who is posing as a concierge; he finds nothing strange about the building.
As Powell turns to leave, McClane drops Marco's corpse onto his patrol car to get his attention.
Powell summons the LAPD, who lays siege to the building.
McClane steals Heinrich's bag containing C-4 explosives and detonators.
James and Alexander use anti-tank missiles to knock out a SWAT Greyhound armored car, but before they can finish its destruction, they are killed when their building floor is blown up by C-4 that McClane dropped.
Holly's coworker Harry Ellis attempts to mediate between Hans and McClane for the return of the detonators.
McClane refuses to return them, causing Gruber to murder Ellis.
While checking explosives attached to the roof, Gruber is confronted by McClane.
Gruber passes himself off as an escaped hostage and is given a gun by McClane.
Gruber attempts to shoot McClane but finds that the gun is empty.
Before McClane can act, Karl, Franco, and Fritz arrive.
McClane kills Fritz and Franco, but is forced to flee, leaving the detonators behind.
FBI agents arrive and take command of the police situation outside, ordering the building's power be shut off.
The loss of power—as Gruber had anticipated—disables the vault's final lock.
Gruber demands that a helicopter arrive on the roof for transport, and the FBI prepare to double-cross him by sending helicopter gunships to take down the terrorists.
However, McClane discovers that Gruber's true intention is to detonate the explosives on the roof, thus faking the deaths of his men and himself so they can escape with the bearer bonds, a plan that would also kill the hostages.
Meanwhile, Gruber sees a news report by intrusive reporter Richard Thornburg that features McClane's children, and deduces that McClane is Holly's husband.
The criminals order the hostages to the roof, but Gruber takes Holly with him to use against McClane.
McClane defeats Karl in a fight, kills Uli, and sends the hostages back downstairs before the explosives detonate, destroying the roof and the FBI helicopter.
Theo goes to the parking garage to retrieve their getaway vehicle but is knocked unconscious by Argyle, who had been trapped in the garage throughout the siege.
A weary McClane finds Holly with Gruber and his remaining men, and knocks Kristoff unconscious.
McClane surrenders his machine gun to spare Holly, but then distracts Gruber and Eddie by laughing, allowing him to grab a concealed pistol (still with two bullets) taped to his back.
McClane shoots Gruber in the shoulder and then kills Eddie with his final shot.
Gruber crashes through a window, and while he momentarily saves himself by grabbing Holly's watch, McClane removes it and Gruber falls to his death.
McClane and Holly are escorted from the building and meet Powell in person.
Karl emerges from the building disguised as a hostage and attempts to shoot McClane, but is gunned down by Powell.
Argyle crashes through the parking garage door in the limo.
Thornburg arrives and attempts to interview McClane, but is punched by Holly.
McClane and Holly are then driven away by Argyle.
<EOS>
The story begins with a silent film sequence during which the good Squire Allworthy (George Devine) returns home after a lengthy stay in London and discovers a baby (played by a girl, Lynn Goldsworthy) in his bed.
Thinking that his barber, mr Partridge (Jack MacGowran), and one of his servants, Jenny Jones (Joyce Redman), have "birthed" the infant out of lust, the squire banishes them and chooses to raise little Tom Jones as if he were his own son.
Tom (Albert Finney) grows up to be a lively young man whose good looks and kind heart make him very popular with the opposite sex.
However, he truly loves only one woman, the gentle Sophie Western (Susannah York), who returns his passion.
Sadly, Tom is stigmatized as a "bastard" and cannot wed a young lady of her high station.
Sophie, too, must hide her feelings while her aunt (Edith Evans) and her father, Squire Western (Hugh Griffith) try to coerce her to marry a more suitable man – a man whom she hates.
This young man is Blifil (David Warner, in his film debut), the son of the Squire's widowed sister Bridget (Rachel Kempson).
Although he is of legitimate birth, he is an ill-natured fellow with plenty of hypocritical 'virtue' but none of Tom's warmth, honesty, or high spirits.
When Bridget dies unexpectedly, Blifil intercepts a letter, which his mother intended for her brother's eyes only.
What this letter contains is not revealed until the end of the movie; however, after his mother's funeral, Blifil and his two tutors, mr Thwackum (Peter Bull) and mr Square (John Moffatt), join forces to convince the squire that Tom is a villain.
Allworthy gives Tom a small cash legacy and sorrowfully sends him out into the world to seek his fortune.
In his road-travelling odyssey, Tom is knocked unconscious while defending the good name of his beloved Sophie and robbed of his legacy.
He also flees from a jealous Irishman who falsely accuses him of having an affair with his wife, engages in deadly sword fights, meets his alleged father and his alleged mother, a certain mrs Waters, whom he saves from an evil Redcoat Officer, and later beds the same mrs Waters.
In a celebrated scene, Tom and mrs Waters sit opposite each other in the dining room of the Upton Inn, wordlessly consuming an enormous meal while gazing lustfully at each other.
Meanwhile, Sophie runs away from home soon after Tom's banishment to escape the attentions of the loathed Blifil.
After narrowly missing each other at the Upton Inn, Tom and Sophie arrive separately in London.
There, Tom attracts the attention of Lady Bellaston (Joan Greenwood), a promiscuous noblewoman over 40 years of age.
She is rich, beautiful, and completely amoral, though it is worth noting that Tom goes to her bed willingly and is generously rewarded for his services.
Eventually, Tom ends up at Tyburn Gaol, facing a boisterous hanging crowd after two blackguardly agents of Blifil frame him for robbery and attempted murder.
Allworthy learns the contents of the mysterious letter: Tom is not Jenny Jones's child, but Bridget's illegitimate son and Allworthy's nephew.
Furthermore, since Blifil knew this, concealed it, and tried to destroy his half-brother, he is now in disgrace and disinherited.
Allworthy uses this knowledge to get Tom a pardon, but Tom has already been conveyed to the gallows; his hanging is begun, but is interrupted by Squire Western, who cuts him down and takes him to Sophie.
Tom now has permission to court Sophie, and all ends well with Tom embracing Sophie with Squire Western's blessing.
In its original release, the film ran 2 hours and 7 minutes.
<EOS>
Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) is an itinerant handyman/jack-of-all-trades who stops at a farm in the Arizona desert to obtain some water for his car.
There he sees several women working on a fence, very ineptly.
The women, who speak very little English, introduce themselves as German, Austrian and Hungarian nuns.
The mother superior, the leader of the nuns, persuades him to do a small roofing repair.
He stays overnight, assuming that he will be paid in the morning.
Next day, Smith tries to persuade the mother superior to pay him by quoting Luke 10:7, "The laborer is worthy of his hire".
Mother Maria Marthe (Lilia Skala, called "Mother Maria"), responds by asking him to read another Bible verse from the Sermon on the Mount: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.
And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
”  Mother Maria likes things done her way.
The nuns have essentially no money and subsist by living off the land, on what vegetables the arid climate provides, and some milk and eggs.
Even after being stonewalled when asking for payment, and after being persuaded to stay for a meal, and against his better judgment, Smith agrees to stay another day to help them with other small jobs, always with the faint hope that Mother Maria will pay him for his work.
As Smith's skills and strengths become apparent to the nuns, they come to believe that he has been sent by God to fulfill their dream of building a chapel for the townsfolk—who are Latino and impoverished—as the nearest church is miles away.
When Sunday comes, Mother Maria informs Smith that he will be driving the sisters to Mass in his station wagon.
(The nuns have no vehicle and thus ordinarily would walk the long distance to church) Smith is invited to attend the Catholic Mass, celebrated by a roving priest not in a church but outdoors, but he declines because he is a Baptist.
Instead, he takes the opportunity to get a proper breakfast from the trading post next door.
In talking to the proprietor, Juan (Stanley Adams), Smith learns about the hardships that the nuns, led by the unyielding Mother Maria, overcame to emigrate from Eastern Europe – over the Berlin Wall – only to barely scratch out a meager living on the farm that was willed to their order.
Juan humorously tells Homer that he considers prayer and belief in religion a form of "insurance", and suggests that is why Homer is helping the nuns without being paid.
Though he has come to realize how unlikely it is that he will be paid, and partly out of respect for all the women have overcome, Smith stays longer and finds himself driven to work on at least clearing the construction site for the chapel.
He rationalizes that it would be too hard for the sisters to move the heavy beams.
After losing another duel of Bible quotes with Mother Maria, Smith acknowledges that he has always wanted to be an architect, but couldn't afford the schooling.
His unfulfilled dream impels him to agree to undertake the (unpaid) job of building the sisters a chapel.
To earn money to buy some "real food" to supplement the spartan diet the nuns are able to provide him, Smith gets a part-time job with the nearby construction contractor, Ashton (director Ralph Nelson, uncredited), who is impressed that Smith can handle nearly every piece of heavy equipment he owns.
Smith supplements the nuns' diet as well, shopping for groceries to stock up their kitchen and delighting them with treats such as lollipops.
To pass the evenings, Smith (whom the nuns call "Schmidt") helps the sisters improve their rudimentary English (only Mother Maria speaks the language well enough to converse with him) and joins them in singing.
They share their different musical traditions with one another: their Catholic chants and his Baptist hymns.
He teaches them to join him in the call-and-response song "Amen" by Jester Hairston (dubbed by Hairston in the film).
Smith, determined that the building will be constructed to the highest standards, insists that the work be done by him and only him.
Meanwhile, the nuns write letters to various philanthropic organizations and charities asking for money for supplies, but all their requests are denied.
As word spreads about the endeavor, locals begin to show up to contribute materials and to help in construction, but Smith rebuffs all offers of assistance in the labor.
As he gains a larger and larger audience for his efforts, the locals, impressed with his determination, but no less dogged than he, will content themselves no longer with just watching.
They find ways to lend a hand that Smith cannot easily turn down – the lifting of a bucket or brick, for example.
Once the process is in motion, they end up doing as they intended, assisting in every aspect of the construction, as well as contributing materials.
This greatly accelerates the progress, much to the delight of everyone but Smith.
Even Ashton, who has long ignored Mother Maria's pleas, finds an excuse to deliver some more materials.
Almost overnight, Smith finds that he's become a building foreman and contractor.
Enduring the hassles of coordinating the work of so many, the constant disputes with Mother Maria, and the trial of getting enough materials for the building, Smith brings the chapel to completion, placing the cross on the spire himself and signing his work where only he and God will know.
It is the evening before the Sunday when the chapel is to be dedicated.
All the work has been done and Smith is exhausted.
Now that there is nothing more to keep Smith among them, Mother Maria, too proud to ask him outright to stay, insists that he attend the opening Mass next day to receive proper recognition from the congregation.
She speaks enthusiastically of all that "Schmidt" still can do to aid the town, such as building a school.
Making no reply to any of this, Smith tricks Mother Maria, as part of the night's English lesson, into saying "thank you" to him.
Until then, she stubbornly had thanked only God for the work, assistance, and gifts that Smith had provided to the nuns.
It is a touching moment between two strong personalities.
Later that evening, as he leads the nuns in singing "Amen" once again, Smith slips out the door and, still singing the lead, the nuns' voices chiming softly behind him, he takes one last look at the chapel he built.
Mother Maria hears him start up his station wagon, but remains stolidly in her seat, singing along with the rest of the sisters, as Smith drives quietly off into the night.
<EOS>
Diana Scott (Julie Christie) is a beautiful, bored young model married to Tony Bridges (Trevor Bowen).
One day, Diana meets Robert Gold (Dirk Bogarde), a literary interviewer/director for television arts programmes, by chance when she is spotted on the street by his roving film crew and interviewed by him about young people's views on convention.
Diana is invited to watch the final edit in the TV studio and there their relationship starts.
After liaisons in bleak hotel rooms they leave their spouses (and, in Robert's case, children) and move into an apartment.
As a couple, they become part of the fashionable London media/arts set.
Initially, Diana is jealous when Robert sees his wife (Pauline Yates) while visiting his children, but she quickly loses this attachment when she mixes with the predatory males of the media, arts and advertising scene, particularly Miles Brand (Laurence Harvey), a powerful advertising executive for the "Glass Corporation" who gets her a part in a trashy thriller after she has sex with him.
The bookish Robert prefers the quiet life; it is he who now becomes jealous, but increasingly detached, depressed and lonely.
Diana attends a high-class charity draw for world hunger for which she is the face.
The event, adorned by giant images of African famine victims, is at the height of cynical hypocrisy and bad taste, showing Diana's rich white set, which now includes the establishment, playing at concern, gorging themselves, gambling and generally behaving decadently.
Already showing signs of stress from constantly maintaining the carefree look demanded by the false, empty lifestyle to which she has become a prisoner, Diana becomes pregnant, and has an abortion.
She flies to Paris with Miles for more jet-set sophistication.
She finds the wild party, beat music, strip dance mind game, cross dressing and predatory males and females vaguely repellent and intimidating, but Diana holds her own, gaining the respect of the weird crowd when she taunts Miles in the game.
On her return to London, Robert calls her a whore and leaves her, for which she is not emotionally prepared.
Ironically, Miles casts her as "The Happiness Girl" in the Glass Corporation's advertising campaign for a chocolate firm.
On location at a palazzo near Rome, Diana smiles in her medieval/Renaissance costume and completes "The Happiness Girl" shoot.
She is much taken with the beauty of the building and the landscape and gets on well with the Prince, Cesare (José Luis de Villalonga), who owns the palazzo (The Medici villa in Poggio a Caiano was used in the film).
With the gay photographer Malcolm (Roland Curram) who has created her now famous look and who is the only person who has shown her any real understanding and friendship, Diana decides to stay on in Italy.
They stay in a simple house by a small harbour in Capri.
Diana flirts half-heartedly with Catholicism.
They are visited by Cesare, who arrives in a huge launch, invites them on board and proposes to Diana.
Cesare is widowed and has several children, the oldest of whom is about the same age as Diana.
Diana politely declines his proposal, but Cesare leaves the offer open.
Diana returns to London, and still living in the flat she shared with Robert, has a party with Miles and other assorted media characters.
Robert has aged.
Soon disillusioned with Miles and the vacuous London jet set, Diana flirts with the Catholic Church again.
Impulsively, she flies out to Italy and marries the Prince, which proves to be ill-considered.
Though waited on hand and foot by servants, she is almost immediately abandoned in the vast palazzo by Cesare, who has gone to Rome, presumably to visit a mistress.
Diana flees to London to Robert, who, taking advantage of her emotional vulnerability, charms her into bed and into what she thinks is a stable long-term relationship.
In the morning, in self-disgust, he tells her that he's leaving her and that he fooled her only as an act of revenge.
He reserves a flight to Rome, packs her into his car and takes her to Heathrow airport to send her back to her life as the Princess Della Romita.
At the airport, Diana is hounded by the press, who address her reverentially as Princess.
She boards the plane to leave.
<EOS>
The film takes place mostly against a backdrop of the pre-World War I years, World War I itself, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War.
A narrative framing device, set in the late 1940s or early 1950s, involves KGB Lieutenant General Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the daughter of his half brother, Doctor Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie).
Yevgraf believes a young woman, Tanya Komarova (Rita Tushingham), may be his niece and tells her the story of her father's life.
When Yuri Zhivago is orphaned after his mother's death in rural Russia, he is taken in by his mother's friends, Alexander (Ralph Richardson) and Anna Gromeko (Siobhán McKenna), and grows up with their daughter Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin) in Moscow.
In 1913, Zhivago, as a medical student in training, but a poet at heart, meets Tonya as she returns to Moscow after a long trip to Paris.
Lara, only 17, is involved in an affair with the older and well-connected Victor Ipolitovich Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), a friend of her mother's (Adrienne Corri).
One night, the idealistic reformer Pavel Pavlovich ("Pasha") Antipov (Tom Courtenay) drifts into left-wing extremism after being wounded by sabre-wielding Cossacks during a peaceful demonstration.
Pasha runs to Lara, whom he wants to marry, to treat his wound.
He asks her to hide a gun he picked up at the demonstration.
Lara's mother discovers her affair with Komarovsky and attempts suicide.
Komarovsky summons help from his physician (Geoffrey Keen), Zhivago's former professor, whom he accompanies back to Lara's home to treat her mother.
When Komarovsky learns of Lara's intentions to marry Pasha, he tries to dissuade Lara, and then rapes her.
In revenge, the humiliated Lara takes the pistol she has been hiding for Pasha and shoots Komarovsky at a Christmas Eve party, wounding him.
Komarovsky insists no action be taken against Lara, who is escorted out by Pasha.
Zhivago tends Komarovsky's wound.
Although enraged and devastated by Lara's affair with Komarovsky, Pasha marries Lara, and they have a daughter named Katya.
During World War I, Yevgraf Zhivago is sent by the Bolsheviks to subvert the Imperial Russian Army.
Pasha is reported missing in action following a daring charge attack on German forces.
Lara enlists as a nurse to search for him.
Yuri Zhivago is drafted and becomes a battlefield doctor.
During the February Revolution in 1917, Zhivago enlists Lara's help to tend to the wounded.
Together they run a field hospital for six months, during which time radical changes ensue throughout Russia as Vladimir Lenin arrives in Moscow.
Before their departure, Yuri and Lara fall in love, but Yuri remains true to Tonya, who is now his wife.
After the war, Yuri returns to his wife Tonya, son Sasha, and Alexander (Anna has since died), whose house in Moscow has been divided into tenements by the new Soviet government.
Yevgraf, now a member of the CHEKA, informs him his poems have been condemned by Soviet censors as antagonistic to Communism.
Yevgraf arranges for passes and documents in order for Yuri and his family to escape from the new political capital of Moscow to the far-away Gromeko estate at Varykino, in the Ural Mountains.
Zhivago, Tonya, Sasha, and Alexander board a heavily guarded cattle train, at which time they are informed that they will be travelling through contested territory, which is being secured by the infamous Bolshevik commander named Strelnikov.
While the train is stopped early one morning, Zhivago wanders away.
He stumbles across the armoured train of Strelnikov sitting on a hidden siding.
Yuri is summoned before Strelnikov, whom he recognizes as the former Pasha Antipov.
During a tense interview, Strelnikov informs Yuri that his estranged wife Lara is now living in the town of Yuriatin, then occupied by the anti-Communist White Army forces.
He permits Zhivago to return to his family, although it is hinted by Strelnikov's right-hand man that most people interrogated by Strelnikov end up being shot.
The family lives a peaceful life in a cottage at the Varykino estate until Zhivago finds Lara in nearby Yuriatin, at which point they surrender to their long-repressed feelings.
When Tonya becomes pregnant, Yuri breaks off with Lara, only to be abducted and conscripted into service by Communist partisans.
After two years, Zhivago at last deserts and trudges through the deep snow to Yuriatin where he finds Lara.
Lara tells Yuri that Tonya had discovered her while searching for him, and that his family is now in Moscow.
She reveals a sealed letter Tonya had mailed to Lara 6 months ago to give to Yuri: Tonya, her father, and their children are being deported and will live in Paris.
Yuri and Lara renew their relationship.
One night, Komarovsky arrives and informs them they are being watched by the CHEKA due to Lara's connection by marriage to Strelnikov and Yuri's "counter-revolutionary" poetry and desertion.
Komarovsky offers Yuri and Lara his help in leaving Russia.
They refuse.
Instead, they return to the abandoned Varykino estate, taking up residence in the banned main house, where Yuri begins writing the "Lara" poems.
These will later make him famous but also incur government displeasure.
Komarovsky reappears and tells Yuri that Strelnikov was captured only five miles away while apparently returning to Lara, but then committed suicide en route to his own execution.
Therefore, Lara is in immediate danger of execution herself, as the CHEKA had only left her free to lure Strelnikov out of hiding.
Zhivago sends Lara and Katya away with Komarovsky, who has been appointed a government official in the nominally independent Far Eastern Republic of the early 1920s.
Refusing to accompany a man he despises, Yuri remains behind to face his fate.
Years later, Yevgraf finds a sick and destitute Yuri in Moscow during the Stalinist era and gives him a new suit and a job.
While riding a tram, Yuri spots a woman he surely thinks is Lara walking on a nearby street.
Unable to call her from the tram, Yuri struggles to get off at the next stop.
Yuri runs after her but suffers a fatal heart attack before he can even signal to her, and the woman walks away oblivious to Yuri's presence.
Yuri's funeral is well attended, a surprise to Yevgraf as Yuri's poetry was officially "unattainable at the time".
Lara approaches Yevgraf at the funeral and reveals she had given birth to Yuri's daughter, but lost her in the collapse of the White-controlled government in Mongolia.
After vainly looking over hundreds of orphans with Yevgraf's help, Lara disappears during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of the late 1930s, and "died or vanished somewhere.
in one of the labour camps," according to Yevgraf.
While Yevgraf strongly feels that Tanya Komarova is Yuri and Lara's daughter, he is still not convinced.
But as Tanya leaves, Yevgraf notices that she carries a balalaika, an instrument that Yuri's mother was especially gifted at playing.
Questioning her further, he learns that Tanya is self-taught — in fact, her fiancé proclaims her an 'artist' with the balalaika.
Yevgraf smiles, "Ah.
Then it's a gift," thereby implying she truly must be Yuri and Lara's daughter after all.
<EOS>
Unemployed television writer Murray Burns (Jason Robards) lives in a cluttered New York City studio apartment with his 12-year-old nephew, Nick (Barry Gordon).
Murray has been unemployed for five months after quitting his previous job: writing jokes for a children's television show called Chuckles the Chipmunk.
Nick, the illegitimate son of Murray's sister, was left with Murray seven years earlier.
When Nick writes a school essay on the benefits of unemployment insurance, his school requests that New York State send social workers to investigate his living conditions.
Investigators for the Child Welfare Board, Sandra Markowitz (Barbara Harris), and her superior and boyfriend Albert Amundson (William Daniels), threaten Murray with removal of the child from his custody unless he can prove he is a capable guardian.
Murray charms and seduces Sandra.
He convinces her to join him in his delusional charade, in which seeking work is a kind of joke used to keep the conventional, conformist, and inhumane state from his doorstep.
Sandra rationalizes her growing relationship with Murray as encouragement for his attempts to seek employment.
Although Murray tries to avoid actually getting a job, he finds himself in a dilemma: if he wishes to keep his nephew, he must swallow his pride and go back to work.
Murray also feels that he can't let go of Nick until the boy has shown some "backbone".
In a confrontation with his brother and agent Arnold (Martin Balsam), Murray expounds his nonconformist worldview: that a person must fight at all costs to retain a sense of identity and aliveness, and avoid being absorbed by the homogeneous masses.
Arnold retorts that by conforming to the dictates of society, he has become "the best possible Arnold Burns".
Murray agrees to meet with his former employer, the detested Chuckles host Leo Herman (Gene Saks).
When Nick doesn't laugh at Leo's pathetic display of comedy, Leo insults Nick, who quietly but firmly puts Leo in his place.
Nick becomes upset with Murray for tolerating Leo's insults, and Murray sees the boy has finally grown a backbone.
Realizing that Nick has come of age, Murray resigns himself to going back to his old job, and the next morning he joins the crowds of people heading off to work.
<EOS>
The film, set in 1910, deals with the story of the daughter of a minor branch of a European royal house who is being considered as a wife for her cousin, the heir to the throne.
Princess Alexandra (Grace Kelly) is the princess, her cousin the crown prince, Albert (Alec Guinness), and her brothers' tutor dr Nicholas Agi (Louis Jourdan), a commoner for whom she thinks she may feel more affection than she does for the prince.
The princess's relativesplayed by Jessie Royce Landis, Estelle Winwood, and Brian Aherneare comically eccentric, and Agnes Moorehead, as the queen who shows up near the end to find out if the princess has made the grade, is crankily imperious.
Leo Carroll plays their butler.
Van Dyke Parks also appears in this movie.
Princess Alexandra is urged by her mother to accept Albert so that their family may regain a throne that was taken from them by Napoleon.
Princess Alexandra tries to gain Albert's attention; he is otherwise taken with sleeping late, shooting duck and playing football with Alexandra's two younger brothers.
Alexandra's mother urges her to show interest in the tutor, mr Agi, to make Albert jealous and stimulate a proposal from him.
Agi is already taken with Alexandra and when she invites him to the farewell ball for the crown prince he eagerly accepts.
Later when they are dancing at the ball it appears that Albert is getting jealous but instead he is more interested in playing the bass viol in the orchestra.
Later, Agi tells Alexandra how he feels about her.
She tells him that it was all a ploy to get Albert to propose to her and she suspected he felt this way.
She realizes that she has some feelings for him but he refuses her.
Albert comes to find out about this situation and is a little taken aback.
Albert and Agi trade insults.
Agi then storms out and tries to leave the next morning.
Alexandra, distraught over what happened, tries to leave with him, but he refuses her again.
Albert's mother shows up and gets the entire story and is aghast.
Albert gives his blessing to the pair and says that when he is king he will allow them back into the country.
However, Agi ends up leaving the mansion without Alexandra.
Albert tries to console Alexandra by telling her she is like a swan: on the water she looks serene, but on land she is more like a goose.
Albert then offers Alexandra his arm and they walk back into the mansion together.
<EOS>
Handsome Cockney chauffeur Alfie Elkins (Michael Caine) enjoys the favours of women, while avoiding any commitment.
He ends an affair with a married woman, Siddie (Millicent Martin), just as he gets his submissive single girlfriend, Gilda (Julia Foster), pregnant.
Although Alfie refuses to marry Gilda and cheats on her constantly, Gilda decides to have the child, a boy named Malcolm, and keep him rather than give him up for adoption.
Over time, Alfie becomes attached to his son, but his unwillingness to commit to Gilda causes her to break up with him and instead marry Humphrey (Graham Stark), a kindly bus conductor who loves her and is willing to accept Malcolm as his own son.
She also bars Alfie from any further contact with Malcolm, forcing Alfie to watch from a distance as Humphrey steps into his fatherly role.
When a health check reveals Alfie has tubercular shadows on his lungs, the diagnosis, combined with his separation from his son, leads him to have a brief mental breakdown.
Alfie spends time in a convalescent home, where he befriends a fellow patient named Harry (Alfie Bass), a family man devoted to his frumpy wife Lily (Vivien Merchant).
When Alfie flippantly suggests that Lily might be cheating on Harry, Harry confronts Alfie about his attitudes and behaviour.
Alfie is released from the home and meets Ruby (Shelley Winters), an older, voluptuous, affluent and promiscuous American, while freelancing taking holiday photos of tourists near the Tower of London.
Alfie returns to the convalescent home to visit Harry, who asks him to give Lily a ride home.
Neither Alfie nor Lily initially want to spend time together, but they agree to please Harry, and the ride home turns into a one-night stand.
Later, Alfie picks up a young hitchhiker, Annie from Sheffield (Jane Asher) who is looking to make a fresh start in London and moves in with him.
She proves preoccupied with a love left behind, scrubbing Alfie's floor, doing his laundry, and preparing his meals to compensate.
He grows resentful of the relationship and drives her out with an angry outburst, later regretting it.
Around the same time, Lily informs him that she is pregnant from their one encounter, and the two plan for her to have an illegal abortion to keep Harry from finding out.
The abortion proves traumatic for both Lily and Alfie, with Alfie breaking down in tears upon seeing the aborted fetus.
The stress of the situations with Annie and Lily makes Alfie decide to change his non-committal ways and settle down with the rich Ruby.
However, upon visiting Ruby, he finds a younger man in her bed.
He encounters Siddie again, but she has lost interest in him and returned to her husband.
Alfie is left lonely and wondering about his life's choices, then asks the viewers "What's it all about.
You know what I mean".
The film concludes as Alfie comes across an old, stray dog and they walk the empty street together.
<EOS>
A Russian submarine called Спрут ("Octopus") draws too close to the New England coast one morning when its captain (Theodore Bikel) wants to take a good look at America and runs aground on a sandbar near the fictional Gloucester Island, which, from other references in the movie, is located off the coast of Cape Ann or Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and has a significant population of summer visitors.
Rather than radio for help and risk an embarrassing international incident, the captain sends a nine-man landing party, headed by his zampolit (Political Officer) Lieutenant Yuri Rozanov (Alan Arkin), to find a motor launch to help free the submarine from the bar.
The men arrive at the house of Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner), a vacationing playwright from New York City.
Whittaker is eager to get his wife Elspeth (Eva Marie Saint) and two children, obnoxious but precocious nine and half-year-old Pete (Sheldon Collins) and three-year-old Annie (Cindy Putnam), off the island now that summer is over.
Pete tells his dad that "Russians with machine guns" dressed in black uniforms are near the house, but Walt is met by the men who identify themselves as Norwegian fishermen.
Walt buys this, and to teach Pete a lesson about judging others, asks if they are "Russians with machine guns", which startles Rozanov into admitting that they are Russians and pulling a gun on Walt.
Rozanov promises no harm to the Whittakers if they hand over their station wagon and provide information on the military and police forces of their island.
Although Walt and Elspeth provides the keys, the sailors are perplexed as to why there are no military personnel on the island, and only a small police force.
Before the Russians depart, Rozanov orders one of the sailors, Alexei Kolchin (John Phillip Law), to prevent the Whittakers from fleeing.
An attractive 18-year-old neighbor, Alison Palmer (Andrea Dromm), who works as a babysitter for Annie, expected to work that day and finds herself captive as well.
The Whittakers' station wagon quickly runs out of gasoline, forcing the Russians to walk.
They steal an old sedan from Muriel Everett (Doro Merande), the postmistress; she calls Alice Foss (Tessie O'Shea), the gossipy telephone switchboard operator, and before long, wild rumors throw the entire island into confusion.
As level-headed Police Chief Link Mattocks (Brian Keith) and his bumbling assistant Norman Jonas (Jonathan Winters) try to squelch an inept citizens' militia led by blustering Fendall Hawkins (Paul Ford), Walt, accompanied by Elspeth, manages to overpower Kolchin, because the Russian is reluctant to hurt anyone.
During the commotion Kolchin flees, but when Walt and Elspeth leave to find help, he reappears to the house, where only Alison and Annie remain.
Alexei says that although he does not want any fighting, he must obey his superiors in guarding the residence.
He promises he will not harm anyone and offers to surrender his submachine gun as proof.
Alison tells him that she trusts him and does not need to hand over his firearm.
Alexei and Alison become attracted to each other, taking a walk along the beach with Annie, and finding commonality despite their different cultures and the Cold War hostility between their countries.
Trying to find the Russians on his own, Walt is re-captured by them in the telephone central office.
After subduing mrs Foss and disabling the island's telephone switchboard, seven of the Russians appropriate civilian clothes from the dry cleaners, manage to steal a cabin cruiser, and head to the submarine, still aground on the sandbar.
Back at the Whittaker house, Kolchin is by now falling in love with Alison.
At the phone exchange, Walt manages to free himself.
He and Elspeth return to the house and almost shoot Rozanov, who arrives there just before they do.
With the misunderstandings cleared up, the Whittakers, Rozanov, and Kolchin decide to head into town together to explain to everyone just what is going on.
As the tide rises, the sub floats up off the sandbar and proceeds on the surface to the island's main harbor.
Chief Mattocks arrives with the rest of the villagers and the militia force, the men armed with everything from a harpoon and a bow and arrows to.
22s, Winchester lever actions, 12 gauge shotguns, and military surplus rifles.
With Political Officer Rozanov acting as translator, the Russian captain threatens to open fire on the town with his deck gun and machine guns unless the seven missing sailors are returned to him, his crew facing upwards of a hundred armed, apprehensive, but determined townspeople.
Chief Mattocks warns the Soviet officer, "You come in here, scaring people half to death, you steal cars and motorboats, and you cause damage to private property and you threaten the whole community with grievous bodily harm and maybe murder.
Now, we ain't going to take any more of that, see.
We may be scared, but maybe we ain't so scared as you think we are, see.
Now you say you're going to blow up the town, huh.
Well, I say, all right.
You start shooting, and see what happens.
" As the Captain and Chief Mattocks glare at each other, two small boys go up in the church steeple to see better.
With tension approaching the breaking point, one of the boys (Johnny Whitaker) slips and falls from the steeple, but his belt catches on a gutter, leaving him precariously hanging forty feet in the air.
Immediately uniting to save the child, the American islanders and the Russian submariners form a human pyramid and Kolchin rescues him.
Peace and harmony is established between the two parties, but unfortunately the over-eager Hawkins has contacted the Air Force by radio.
In a joint decision, the submarine heads out of the harbor with a convoy of villagers in small boats protecting it.
Kolchin says goodbye to Alison, the stolen boat with the missing Russian sailors aboard intercepts the group shortly thereafter, and the seven board the submarine, just before two Air Force F-101B Voodoo jets arrive.
They break off after seeing the escorting flotilla of small craft, and the Octopus is free to proceed to deep water and safety.
<EOS>
In 1926, Machinist's Mate First Class Jake Holman transfers to the Yangtze River Patrol gunboat USS San Pablo.
The ship is nicknamed the "Sand Pebble" and its sailors "Sand Pebbles".
The officers have hired coolies to do most of the work, leaving the sailors free for military drills.
Because he takes an interest in mechanical work, Holman involves himself directly in the operation and maintenance of the ship's engine.
As a result, the chief engine room coolie, Chien, is insulted.
Holman also earns the antipathy of most of his fellow sailors.
He does become close friends with one seasoned, sensitive seaman, Frenchy.
Holman eventually discovers a serious problem with a crank bearing that the superstitious coolies, believing the engine is haunted, have not fixed.
Holman informs the captain, Lieutenant Collins, who declines to repair it.
Only after the executive officer declares an emergency does the angry Collins acquiesce.
Chien insists on taking Holman's place to make the repair and is accidentally killed.
The chief coolie, Lop-eye Shing, blames Holman, believing that the "ghost in the machine" killed Chien.
As a replacement for Chien, Holman selects Po-Han, and trains him.
In time, the two become friends.
Po-Han is harassed by a large, heavy-drinking, bullying sailor named Stawski, leading to a boxing match on which the crewmen place bets.
Holman is in the corner of his friend Po-Han, who ends up winning.
His victory leads to more friction between Holman and the rest of the crew.
An (off screen) incident involving British gunboats leads to Collins ordering the crew not to fire on, or return fire from, the Chinese, to avoid a diplomatic incident or providing fuel for xenophobic propaganda, especially by the Communists.
The boat is quickly prepared and disembarks.
As revenge for the death of Chien and what he viewed as Holman's usurpation of his power, Lop-eye Shing had sent Po-Han ashore, where he is chased down the beach, captured, and tortured by a mob of Chinese in full view of the crew.
Collins attempts to buy Po-Han's release, but without success.
Po-Han begs for someone to kill him.
Holman disobeys orders and ends Po-Han's torture with a rifle shot.
The San Pablo is moored on the Xiang River at Changsha, due to low water levels, during the winter of 1926–27.
It must deal with increasingly hostile crowds surrounding it in numerous smaller boats.
lt Collins also fears a possible mutiny.
Frenchy has saved an educated Chinese woman, Maily, from prostitution by paying her debts.
He marries her and regularly swims to shore to visit her, but he dies of pneumonia one night.
Holman finds Maily sitting by Frenchy's corpse.
Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) militia burst in, beat Holman, and drag Maily away.
The next day, several Chinese demand Holman be turned over to them as the "murderer" of Maily and her unborn baby.
When the demand is rejected, the Chinese blockade the gunboat.
The crew fear for their safety and demand that Holman surrender to the Chinese.
Order is not restored until Collins fires a Lewis gun across the bow of one of the Chinese sampans.
With spring's arrival, Collins orders preparations to restart their river patrols, but soon receives word of the Nanking Incident, with orders to return to the Yangtze River and the coast.
On his own, he chooses to disobey orders and decides to first travel upstream of Dongting Lake to evacuate idealistic, anti-imperialist missionary Jameson and his school-teacher assistant, Shirley Eckert, from their remote China Light Mission.
Holman had met Eckert in Hangkow months earlier, and the two had romantic feelings for each other that did not have time to develop.
To reach the missionaries, the San Pablo must fight past a boom made up of junks carrying a massive bamboo rope blocking the river.
A boarding party is sent to cut the rope.
Fighting breaks out in which about a dozen sailors and many Chinese are killed.
Holman cuts the rope while under fire.
He kills a Chinese attacker, a friend of Jameson and Eckert.
The ship then proceeds upriver.
Collins leads three sailors, including Holman, ashore.
Jameson resists being rescued, claiming that Eckert and he have renounced theirS.
citizenship.
Collins orders Holman to forcibly remove Eckert and Jameson, but as Holman declares he is going to stay with them, Nationalist soldiers suddenly attack the mission.
They kill Jameson, despite his attempt to assure them he has no sympathy with the San Pablo rescue mission.
Collins orders the patrol to return to the ship with Eckert, and remains behind to provide covering fire.
Collins is killed, ironically leaving the normally rebellious Holman in command.
Holman and Eckert have a tearful parting, finally making clear their love for each other.
Eckert only leaves after Holman assures her he will be along shortly.
Holman kills several soldiers before he himself is fatally shot just when he is about to rejoin the others.
His last bewildered words are: "I was home.
what happened.
what the hell happened.
" Eckert and the remaining sailors reach the ship, and the San Pablo sails away.
<EOS>
Bartleby (Affleck) and Loki (Damon) are fallen angels, eternally banished from Heaven to Wisconsin for insubordination, after an inebriated Loki (with Bartleby's encouragement) resigned as the Angel of Death.
In a newspaper article that arrives anonymously, the angels discover a way home: The trendy Cardinal Ignatius Glick (Carlin) is rededicating his church in Red Bank, New Jersey in the image of the "Buddy Christ".
Anyone entering during the rededication festivities will receive a plenary indulgence, remitting all sins, and permitting direct entry into Heaven.
They receive encouragement from an unexpected source: the demon Azrael (Lee), and the Stygian Triplets, three teenage hoodlums who serve Azrael in Hell.
Bethany Sloane (Fiorentino)—a depressed, infertile, divorced abortion clinic counselor—attends a service at her church in Illinois.
Donations are solicited for a campaign to stop a New Jersey hospital from disconnecting life support on John Doe Jersey (Cort), a homeless man who was beaten senseless by the Triplets.
Metatron (Rickman)—a seraph, and the voice of God—appears to Bethany in a pillar of fire and explains that if Bartleby and Loki succeed in re-entering Heaven, they will overrule the word of God, disprove the fundamental concept of God's omnipotence, and nullify all of existence.
Bethany, aided by two prophets, must stop the angels and save the universe.
Now a target, Bethany is attacked by the Triplets, who are driven off by the two foretold prophets—drug-dealing stoners Jay and Silent Bob (Mewes and Smith).
Bethany and the prophets are joined by Rufus (Rock), the thirteenth apostle (never mentioned in the Bible, he says, because he is black), and Serendipity (Hayek), the Muse of creative inspiration, now working in a strip club in search of inspiration of her own.
Azrael summons the Golgothan—a vile creature made of human excrement—but Bob immobilizes it with aerosol air freshener.
On a train to New Jersey, a drunken Bethany reveals her mission to Bartleby, who tries to kill her; Bob throws the angels off the train.
Bartleby and Loki now realize the consequences of their scheme; Loki wants no part of destroying all existence, but Bartleby remains angry at God for his expulsion—and for granting free will to humans while demanding servitude of angels—and resolves to proceed.
In New Jersey, Bethany demands answers: Who told the angels about the plenary indulgence loophole, and why must she stop them.
Why hasn't God intervened himself.
Metatron confesses that God's whereabouts are unknown; he disappeared while visiting New Jersey in human form to play skee ball.
So the task falls to Bethany, because—she now learns—she is the last scion, the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandniece of Jesus.
The group attempts in vain to persuade Glick to cancel the celebration; a frustrated Jay steals one of Glick's golf clubs.
Their only remaining option is to keep the angels out of the church; but Azrael and the Triplets trap them in a bar to prevent them from doing so.
Azrael reveals that he sent the news clipping to the angels; he would rather end all existence than spend eternity in Hell.
Bob kills Azrael with the golf club, which Glick had blessed to improve his game.
Bethany blesses the bar sink's contents, and the others drown the Triplets in the holy water.
They race to the church, where Bartleby is venting eons of frustration by killing Glick and his parishioners.
When Loki—who is now wingless, and therefore a mortal, with a conscience—attempts to stop him, Bartleby kills him.
In a desperate attempt to seduce Bethany before all existence ends, Jay mentions John Doe Jersey, and Bethany puts it all together.
Bethany and Bob race across the street to the hospital, as the others try to block Bartleby's path to the church.
Bethany disconnects John's life support, liberating God, but killing herself.
Bartleby reaches the church entrance, where he confronts God (Morissette), who annihilates him with her voice.
Bob arrives with Bethany's lifeless body; God resurrects her and conceives a child—the new last scion—within her womb.
God, Metatron, Rufus, and Serendipity return to Heaven, leaving Bethany and the prophets to reflect on the past, and future.
<EOS>
In early Victorian England, Matthew Mugg (Anthony Newley) takes his young friend Tommy Stubbins (William Dix) to visit eccentric Doctor John Dolittle (Rex Harrison) for a sick duck that Tommy had found in the streets, Dolittle, a former physician, lives with an extended menagerie, including a chimpanzee named Chee-Chee (Cheeta), a dog named Jip, and a talking parrot named Polynesia (the uncredited voice of Ginny Tyler).
Dolittle claims that he can talk to animals.
In a flashback, he explains that he kept so many animals in his home that they created havoc with his human patients, who took their medical needs elsewhere.
His sister, who served as his housekeeper, demanded that he dispose of the animals or she would leave; he chose the animals.
Polynesia taught him that different animal species can talk to each other, prompting Dolittle to study animal languages so that he could become an animal doctor.
While treating a horse, Dolittle's lack of human empathy offends the horse's owner, General Bellowes (Peter Bull).
Bellowes' niece, Emma Fairfax (Samantha Eggar), chides Dolittle for his irresponsibility and rudeness to her uncle.
Matthew falls in love with her at first sight.
After she has gone, Dolittle admits he also finds her attractive.
A friend of Dolittle's sends him a rare Pushmi-pullyu, a creature that looks like a llama with a head on each end of its body.
Dolittle takes the creature to a nearby circus, where the Pushmi-Pullyu becomes the star attraction.
The doctor befriends a circus seal named Sophie who longs to return to her husband at the North Pole.
Dolittle disguises her in women's clothing to convey her to the coast, and then throws her into the ocean.
Fishermen mistake the seal for a woman, and have Doctor Dolittle arrested on a charge of murder.
General Bellowes is the magistrate in his case, but Dolittle proves he can converse with animals by talking with Bellowes' dog.
Though Dolittle is acquitted, the vindictive judge sentences him to a lunatic asylum.
Dolittle's animal friends rescue him, and he, Matthew, Tommy, Polynesia, Chee-Chee and Jip set sail in search of the legendary Great Pink Sea Snail.
Emma stows away, seeking adventure.
They randomly choose their destination: Sea-Star Island, a floating island currently in the Atlantic Ocean.
The ship is torn apart during a storm, but everyone washes ashore on Sea-Star Island.
Emma and Dolittle admit they have grown to like each other.
The party is met by the island's natives, whom they mistake for hostile savages.
The populace are in fact highly educated and cultured from reading books that have washed ashore from innumerable shipwrecks.
Their leader is William Shakespeare the Tenth (Geoffrey Holder); his name reflects the tribe's tradition of naming children after favorite authors.
William explains that they are wary of strangers coming to the island, and that the tropical island is currently endangered because it is drifting north into colder waters.
Mistrust leads the islanders to blame the doctor and his party.
Dolittle persuades a whale to push the island south, but this causes a balancing rock to drop into a volcano, fulfilling a prophecy that dooms Dolittle and party to be burned at the stake.
The whale also causes the island to rejoin the mainland, fulfilling another prophecy that dictates that the doctor and his friends be heralded as heroes, and they are freed.
While treating the animals on the island, Dolittle receives a surprise patient - the Great Pink Sea Snail, which has caught a severe cold.
Dolittle discovers that the snail's shell is watertight and can carry passengers.
Dolittle sends Matthew, Tommy, Emma, Polynesia, Chee-Chee, and Jip back to England with the snail.
Emma wishes to stay on the island with him, but the Doctor is adamant that a relationship would never work.
She finally admits her love for the Doctor, and kisses him goodbye.
Dolittle cannot go back because he is still a wanted man.
Furthermore, he wishes to investigate the natives' stories of another creature, the Giant Lunar Moth.
After his friends leave, Dolittle realizes painfully that he has feelings for Emma.
Sophie the seal arrives, accompanied by her husband.
They bring a message: the animals of England have gone on strike to protest his sentence, and Bellowes has agreed to pardon him.
Dolittle and the islanders construct a saddle for the Giant Lunar Moth, and Dolittle flies back to England.
<EOS>
Rachel Cameron (Joanne Woodward) is a shy, 35-year-old spinster schoolteacher living with her widowed mother in an apartment above the funeral home once owned by her father in a small town in Connecticut.
School is out for summer vacation and Rachel figures it will just be another lonely and boring summer for her.
(Its implied that she may even hate summer as her job provided somewhat of an escape from her rather domineering mother who's always trying to compare her to her sister who married a successful man) Fellow unmarried teacher and best friend Calla Mackie (Estelle Parsons) persuades her to attend a revival meeting, where a visiting preacher encourages Rachel to express her need for the love of Jesus Christ.
Rachel is overwhelmed by God's grace, baring so much pent-up emotion, that she is humbled after the service; comforting her, Calla suddenly begins to kiss Rachel passionately.
Is Calla a lesbian, bisexual, or did she merely react to the emotion of the moment.
The film does not answer this question, but Rachel's reaction is to withdraw from the friendship for the time being.
Into the void steps Rachel's high-school classmate Nick Kazlik (James Olson), a fellow teacher who teaches at an inner city school in The Bronx who's in town to visit his parents for a couple weeks.
Upon first seeing her in town, Nick had made a crude pass that Rachel rebuffed, but after the episode with Calla, she succumbs to his charms and has her first sexual experience.
Mistaking lust for love, she begins to plan a future with Nick, who rejects her once he realizes she views their relationship as more than a casual and temporary affair.
He rejects her softly by using a fake photo of a woman and a young child claiming that they are his wife and son back in New York.
She later discovers through his mother that he isn't really married.
Believing that she is pregnant, Rachel plans to leave town and raise the child.
With Calla's assistance, she finds another teaching job in Oregon, but before the summer ends, she learns that her symptoms actually are due to a benign cyst.
She is bitterly disappointed.
After undergoing surgery to have the cyst removed, she tells her mother, in the hospital, that she has decided to relocate, and that her mother may accompany her or not, as she wishes.
Her mother quickly agrees to go, in a way that suggests she realizes her dependence on Rachel and perhaps even will take her less for granted from now on.
Rachel sets out with hope for the future, having learned that she has choices, that she is able to give and receive sexual pleasure, that it is possible for her to take on life actively, rather than wait for it to find her.
The film is punctuated by brief flashbacks to Rachel's lonely childhood with a forbidding undertaker father and rather neglectful mother.
Brief daydreaming sequences of the adult Rachel also appear, including those showing her imagining seizing a stolen moment with the school's possibly sexual-harassing principal; taking an underloved boy in her classroom home with her; and rocking the expected baby in a park while children play nearby.
<EOS>
In Verona, Italy, the longstanding feud between the Montague and the Capulet clans breaks out in a street brawl, broken up by the Prince of the city.
The same night, two teenagers of the two families — Romeo (Montague ("Montecchi" in Italian) ) and Juliet (Capulet ("Capuleti" in Italian) ) — meet at a Capulet masked ball and become deeply infatuated.
Later, Romeo stumbles into the secluded garden under Juliet's bedroom balcony and the two exchange impassioned pledges.
They are soon secretly married by Romeo's confessor and father figure, Friar Laurence, with the assistance of Juliet's nursemaid.
Unfortunately, another street duel breaks out between Juliet's first cousin Tybalt and Romeo's best friend Mercutio when Tybalt insults Romeo.
Since Tybalt is Juliet's cousin and Romeo has just been married to Juliet, he sees Tybalt as family and refuses to fight him, leading Mercutio to be a loyal friend and fight for him.
This leads to Mercutio's death.
Romeo retaliates by fighting Tybalt and killing him, and is punished by the Prince with banishment instead of the death penalty.
Romeo, however, sees his banishment as worse than death, as Verona is the only home he has known and does not want to be pulled away from Juliet.
Friar Laurence eventually convinces Romeo that he is very lucky and should be thankful for what he has.
Romeo and Juliet secretly spend their wedding night together and consummate their marriage.
Unaware of Juliet's secret marriage, her father has arranged for her to marry wealthy Count Paris.
In order to escape this arranged marriage and remain faithful to Romeo, Juliet consumes a potion prepared by Friar Laurence intended to make her appear dead for forty-two hours.
Friar Laurence plans to inform Romeo of the hoax so that Romeo can meet Juliet after her burial and escape with her when she recovers from her swoon, so he sends another Friar, John, to give Romeo a letter describing the plan.
However, when Romeo's servant, Balthasar, sees Juliet being buried, under the impression that she is dead, he goes to tell Romeo and reaches him before Friar John.
In despair, Romeo goes to Juliet's tomb and kills himself by drinking poison.
Awakening shortly after he expires, Juliet discovers a dead Romeo and proceeds to stab herself with his dagger, piercing her abdomen.
Later, the two families attend their joint funeral and agree to end the feud.
<EOS>
In late 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever, talkative leader of the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang.
His closest companion is the laconic dead-shot "Sundance Kid".
The two return to their hideout at Hole-in-the-Wall (Wyoming) to discover that the rest of the gang, irked at Butch's long absences, have selected Harvey Logan as their new leader.
Harvey challenges Butch to a knife fight over the gang's leadership.
Butch defeats him using trickery, but embraces Harvey's idea to rob the Union Pacific Overland Flyer train on both its eastward and westward runs, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and likely reap even more money than the first.
The first robbery goes well.
To celebrate, Butch and Sundance visit a favorite brothel in a nearby town and watch, amused, as the town sheriff unsuccessfully attempts to organize a posse to track down the gang.
They then visit Sundance's lover, schoolteacher Etta Place.
On the second train robbery, Butch uses too much dynamite to blow open the safe, blowing up the baggage car.
As the gang scrambles to gather up the money, a second train arrives carrying a six-man team of lawmen pursuing Butch and Sundance, who unsuccessfully try to hide out in the brothel and to seek amnesty from the friendly Sheriff Bledsoe by enlisting in the army.
As the posse remains in pursuit, despite all attempts to elude them, Butch and Sundance determine that the group includes renowned Indian tracker "Lord Baltimore" and relentless lawman Joe Lefors, recognizable by his white skimmer.
Butch and Sundance finally elude their pursuers by jumping from a cliff into a river far below.
They learn from Etta that the posse has been paid by Union Pacific head Harriman to remain on their trail until Butch and Sundance are both killed.
Butch convinces Sundance and Etta that the three should escape to Bolivia, which Butch envisions as a robber's paradise.
On their arrival there, Sundance is dismayed by the living conditions and regards the country with contempt, but Butch remains optimistic.
They discover that they know too little Spanish to pull off a bank robbery, so Etta attempts to teach them the language.
With her as an accomplice, they become successful bank robbers known as Los Bandidos Yanquis.
However, their confidence drops when they see a man wearing a white hat (the signature of determined lawman Lefors) and fear that Harriman's posse is still after them.
Butch suggests "going straight", and he and Sundance land their first honest job as payroll guards for a mining company.
However, they are ambushed by local bandits on their first run and their boss, Percy Garris, is killed.
Butch and Sundance ambush and kill the bandits, the first time Butch has ever shot someone.
Etta recommends farming or ranching as other lines of work, but they conclude the straight life isn't for them.
Sensing they will be killed if they return to robbery, Etta decides to go back to the United States.
Butch and Sundance steal a payroll and the mules carrying it, and arrive in a small town.
A boy recognizes the mules' brand and alerts the local police, leading to a gunfight with the outlaws.
They take cover in a building but are both seriously wounded, after Butch makes a futile attempt to run to the mules in order to bring more ammunition, while Sundance provides cover fire.
As dozens of Bolivian soldiers surround the area, Butch suggests the duo's next destination should be Australia.
The film ends with a freeze frame shot on the pair charging out of the building, guns blazing, before the Bolivian forces open fire.
<EOS>
Los Angeles SWAT officers Jack Traven and Harry Temple thwart an attempt by a bomber to hold an elevator full of people for a $3 million ransom.
They corner the bomber, but as he grabs Harry, Jack shoots Harry in the leg, forcing the bomber to release him.
The bomber turns away, appearing to die in an explosion using his own bombing device.
Jack and Harry are praised by their superior, Lieutenant "Mac" McMahon, and awarded medals for bravery.
Some time later, Jack sees a city bus explode.
The bomber from the elevator then contacts Jack, letting him know that he is not dead and explaining that a similar bomb is rigged on another bus and will be armed once the bus reaches and will blow up when the speed decreases below 50 mph.
The bomber demands a larger ransom of $37 million and threatens to detonate the bus if passengers are offloaded.
Jack races through traffic and manages to catch up to the bus but by which point it has already gone over 50 mph.
He manages to board the bus and explains the situation to the driver, Sam, and everyone aboard, but a small-time criminal fires his gun, wounding Sam.
Another passenger, Annie Porter, takes Sam's place behind the wheel.
Jack examines the bomb under the bus and phones Harry, who uses clues to identify the bomber.
The police clear a route for the bus to the unopened 105 Freeway.
Mac insists they offload the passengers onto a pacing flatbed truck, but Jack warns about the bomber's demands.
The bomber allows the officers to offload the injured Sam for medical attention, but detonates an explosive under the bus's front stairs, killing another passenger who attempts to escape.
Jack learns that part of the freeway ahead is incomplete but persuades Annie to accelerate the bus and jump the gap.
Jack then directs Annie to nearby Los Angeles International Airport to drive on the runway.
Meanwhile, Harry identifies the bomber as Howard Payne, a retired Atlanta bomb squad officer with a local address, and takes a SWAT team there.
However, the house is rigged with explosives and explodes, killing Harry and his team.
Jack attempts to defuse the bomb while riding on a towed sledge under the bus, but it hits debris on the runway, causing him to puncture the fuel tank while trying to hang onto the bus.
After being pulled back aboard by the passengers, Jack learns that Harry has been killed and that Payne has been watching the bus the entire time with a hidden camera.
Mac gets a local news crew to record a transmission, then rebroadcast it in a continuous loop to fool Payne while the passengers are offloaded onto an airport bus before all the fuel leaks out.
The bus suffers a flat tire, forcing Jack and Annie to escape via a floor access panel.
The empty bus then reduces to 50 mph, causing it to explode as it reaches an empty Boeing 707 cargo plane.
Jack and Mac continue the ruse and head to Pershing Square to drop the ransom.
Realizing he has been fooled, Payne poses as a police officer and seizes Annie.
When the drop is made into a waste can, Jack discovers a hole under the can leading into the Metro Red Line subway.
Jack finds Payne and Annie, but she is wearing a vest covered with explosives and rigged to a pressure-release detonator.
Payne hijacks a subway train, handcuffs Annie to a pole, and sets the train in motion while Jack pursues them.
After killing the train driver, Payne attempts a bribe with the ransom money but is enraged when a paint bomb in the money bag goes off.
He and Jack engage in a fight on the roof of the train until Payne is decapitated by an overhead signal.
Jack removes the vest from Annie, but she is still handcuffed.
Since they cannot stop the train, Jack instead sets it for full speed, causing it to derail through a construction site and onto Hollywood Boulevard before coming to a stop.
Jack and Annie both survive and kiss passionately while onlookers take pictures.
<EOS>
In 1923 Tennessee, two young boys, Rafe McCawley (Jesse James) and Danny Walker (Reiley McClendon), play together in the back of an old biplane, pretending to be soldiers fighting the Germans in World War After Rafe's father lands his biplane and leaves, Rafe and Danny climb into the plane and Rafe accidentally starts it, giving the boys their first experience at flight.
Rafe manages to stop the plane at the end of the runway, but Danny's father beats Rafe and Danny for climbing into the plane.
Rafe stands up to Danny's father calling him a "dirty German".
However, Danny's father then reveals that he fought the Germans in World War I, and that he prays no one will ever have to experience what he experienced.
Eighteen years later, in January 1941, Danny (Josh Hartnett) and Rafe (Ben Affleck) are both first lieutenants under the command of Major Jimmy Doolittle (Alec Baldwin).
Doolittle informs Rafe that he has been accepted into the Eagle Squadron (a RAF outfit for American pilots during the Battle of Britain).
A nurse named Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale) meets Rafe and passes his medical exam despite his dyslexia.
That night, Rafe and Evelyn enjoy an evening of dancing at a nightclub and later a jaunt in New York harbor in a borrowed police boat.
Rafe shocks Evelyn by saying that he has joined the Eagle Squadron and is leaving the next day.
Danny, Evelyn and their fellow pilots and nurses are transferred to Pearl Harbor.
Meanwhile, Rafe flies in numerous dogfights with the RAF against the Luftwaffe, becoming a flying ace, but is shot down over the English Channel and presumed to be killed in action.
Danny gives Evelyn the news and she is devastated.
Three months later, Evelyn and Danny begin to develop feelings for each other.
Danny takes Evelyn on a sunset flight over the harbor and the two begin a relationship.
On the night of December 6, Evelyn is shocked to discover Rafe standing outside her door, having survived his aircraft crash.
He goes to the Hula bar where he is welcomed back by his overjoyed fellow pilots.
Danny finds Rafe in the bar with the intention of making things right, but the two get into a fight.
They drive away, avoiding being put in the brig when the authorities arrive at the bar.
The two later fall asleep in Danny's car.
Early the next morning, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese navy begins its attack on Pearl Harbor.
The USS Arizona is obliterated with when an armor-piercing bomb detonates the ship's forward ammunition magazine, literally lifting the bow out of the water.
The USS Oklahoma capsizes after several torpedoes strikes her, trapping hundreds of men inside.
On the USS West Virginia suffers severe damage.
One bomb mortally wounds Captain Mervyn Bennion (Peter Firth).
Cook Dorie Miller (Cuba Gooding, Jr), with no training with firearms, mans a.
50 caliber machine gun and shoots down a Japanese plane.
The USS Nevada makes a run for the sea, becoming a primary target during the second wave.
Danny and Rafe drive away in search of a still standing airfield, while Evelyn and the other nurses rush for the hospital.
The nurses struggle to give emergency treatment to hundreds of injured.
Rafe and Danny manage to get in the air in two P-40s.
After causing four planes to crash into each other and another getting shot down by ground fire, the two shoot down seven Japanese Zeros.
After landing, the two donate blood, rescue the men out of the capsized USS Oklahoma, and try to rescue the men out of the sinking remains of the USS Arizona, but are too late.
The next day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Jon Voight) delivers his Day of Infamy Speech to the nation and asks the US Congress to declare a state of war with the Empire of Japan.
The survivors attend a memorial service to honor the numerous dead, including fellow nurses and pilots.
Later, Danny and Rafe are assigned to travel stateside under newly promoted lt Colonel Doolittle for a secret mission.
Before they leave, Evelyn reveals to Rafe that she is pregnant with Danny's child and that she will remain with Danny.
Upon their arrival in California, Danny and Rafe are both promoted to Captain and awarded the silver star.
Doolittle asks them to volunteer for a top secret mission, which they both accept.
During the next three months, Rafe, Danny and other pilots train with specially modified B-25 Mitchell bombers.
In April, the raiders are sent towards Japan on board the , and are informed that their mission will involve bombing Tokyo and then landing in China.
However, the Japanese discover them early, forcing the raiders to launch from a longer distance than planned.
After a successful bombing run against Tokyo, the raiders crash-land on Japanese-occupied territory in China in a rice paddy.
The Japanese Army pin down Rafe's plane, but Danny's crew flies over and shoots the Japanese patrol before crashing.
Danny is shot during the attack by Japanese patrols while the other pilots, Red (Ewen Bremner) and Gooz (Michael Shannon), kill the remaining Japanese patrolmen.
Danny tells Rafe that he will have to be the father and dies.
Back in California, a pregnant Evelyn sees Rafe getting off the aircraft, carrying Danny's coffin.
Afterward, Evelyn and Miller are awarded medals and Rafe is awarded his medal by President Roosevelt.
Rafe and Evelyn, now married, visit Danny's grave with Danny and Evelyn's infant son, also named Danny.
Rafe then asks his son if he would like to go flying, and they fly off into the sunset in the old biplane that his father once had.
<EOS>
General George Patton addresses an unseen audience of American troops.
Following the humiliating American defeat at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in 1943, Patton is placed in charge of the American II Corps in North Africa.
Upon his arrival, he enforces discipline amongst his troops,g.
fining a cook $20 for not wearing his army issue leggings.
Patton is then summoned to a meeting with Air Marshal Coningham of the Royal Air Force, where he claims that the American defeat was caused by lack of air cover.
Coningham promises Patton that he will see no more German aircraft – but seconds later the compound is strafed by Luftwaffe planes.
Patton then defeats a German attack at the Battle of El Guettar; his aide Captain Jenson is killed in the battle, and is replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Codman.
Patton is bitterly disappointed to learn that Erwin Rommel, Commander of the German-Italian Panzer Army, was on medical leave due to having diphtheria, but Codman reassures him that: "If you've defeated Rommel's plan, you've defeated Rommel".
After success in the North Africa campaign, Patton and Bernard Montgomery separately come up with plans for the Allied invasion of Sicily.
Patton's proposal to land his Seventh Army in the northwest of the island with Montgomery in the southeast (therefore potentially trapping the German and Italian forces in a pincer movement), initially impresses their superior General Alexander, however General Eisenhower rejects it in favor of Montgomery's more cautious plan, which places Patton's army in the southeast, covering Montgomery's left flank.
Whilst the landing is successful, the Allied forces become bogged down, causing Patton to defy orders and push his army northwest to Palermo, and then to the port of Messina in the northeast, narrowly beating Montgomery to the prize, although several thousand German and Italian troops are able to flee the island.
Patton insists that his feud with Montgomery is due to the latter's determination to be the "war-hero," and to deny the Americans any chance of glory.
However, Patton's aggression does not sit well with his subordinates Bradley and Lucian Truscott.
Whilst on a visit to a Field Hospital where many American soldiers lie wounded or dead, Patton notices a soldier, shell-shocked and crying.
Calling him a coward, Patton slaps the soldier and even threatens to shoot him, before demanding his immediate return to the frontline.
Because of this, Patton is relieved of command and by order of Eisenhower, forced to apologize to the soldier, to those present in the Field Hospital, and to his entire command, unit by unit.
Because of this, and for being too liberal to the press, Patton is sidelined during the D-Day landings in 1944.
Instead, he is placed in command of the phantom First United States Army Group in southeast England as a decoy.
German General Alfred Jodl is convinced that Patton will lead the invasion of Europe.
After begging his former subordinate Bradley for a command before the war ends, Patton is placed under him in command of the Third Army and performs brilliantly by rapidly advancing through France, but his tanks are forced to a standstill after they run out of fuel – the supplies being given to Montgomery's bold Operation Market Garden, much to his fury.
Later, during the Battle of the Bulge, Patton relieves the town of Bastogne and then smashes through the Siegfried Line and into Germany.
At a war-drive in Knutsford, England, General Patton had remarked that the United States and the United Kingdom would dominate the post-war world, viewed as an insult to the Soviet Union.
After Germany capitulates, Patton directly insults a Russian general at a post-war dinner; fortunately, the Russian insults Patton back, defusing the situation.
Patton then makes an offhand remark comparing the Nazi Party to the political parties in the US.
In the end, Patton's outspokenness loses him his command once again, though he is kept on to see to the rebuilding of Germany, with the disconcerting incident of a runaway ox-cart narrowly missing Patton foreshadowing the general's ignominious actual death in a car accident in December 1945.
The film ends with Patton walking his dog, a bull terrier named Willie, and relating in a voice over that a returning hero of ancient Rome was honored with a "triumph," a victory parade in which "a slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory.
is fleeting".
<EOS>
Chicago is paralyzed by a snowstorm affecting Lincoln International Airport.
A Trans Global Airlines (TGA) Boeing 707 flight crew misjudge their turn from Runway 29 onto the taxiway, becoming stuck in the snow and closing that runway.
Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) is forced to work overtime, causing tension with his wife, Cindy (Dana Wynter).
A divorce seems imminent as he nurtures a closer relationship with a co-worker, TGA customer relations agent Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg).
Vernon Demarest (Dean Martin) is a TGA captain scheduled to be the checkride captain for the airline to evaluate Captain Anson Harris (Barry Nelson) during its Flight 2 to Rome.
TGA's flagship service, named The Golden Argosy, is being operated by a Boeing 707.
Although Demarest is married to Bakersfeld's sister, Sarah (Barbara Hale), he is secretly having an affair with Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), chief stewardess on the flight, who informs him before takeoff that she is pregnant with his child.
Bakersfeld borrows TWA mechanic Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) to assist with TGA's disabled plane.
Bakersfeld and Livingston also deal with mrs Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes), an elderly lady from San Diego who is a habitual stowaway.
Demolition expertO.
Guerrero (Van Heflin), down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, buys life insurance with the intent of committing suicide by blowing up the plane.
He plans to set off a bomb in an attaché case while over the Atlantic so that his wife, Inez (Maureen Stapleton), will collect the insurance money of $225,000.
His erratic behavior at the airport, including using his last cash to buy the insurance policy and mistaking a Customs officer for an airline ramp agent, attracts airport officials' attention.
Guerrero's wife finds a Special Delivery envelope from a travel agency and, realizing her husband might be doing something desperate, goes to the airport to try to dissuade him.
She informs airport officials that he had been fired from a construction job for "misplacing" explosives and that the family's financial situation was desperate.
mrs Quonsett manages to evade the TGA employee assigned the task of putting her on a flight back to San Diego, talks her way past the gate agent (passenger security screening did not yet exist), boards Flight 2, and happens to sit next to Guerrero.
When the Golden Argosy crew is made aware of Guerrero's presence and possible intentions, they turn the plane back toward Chicago without informing the passengers.
Once Quonsett is discovered, her help is enlisted by the crew to get to Guerrero's briefcase, but the ploy fails when a would-be helpful male passenger unwittingly returns the case to Guerrero.
Captain Demarest goes back into the passenger cabin and tries to persuade Guerrero not to trigger the bomb, informing him that his insurance policy will be useless.
Guerrero briefly considers giving Demarest the bomb, but just then another passenger exits the lavatory at the rear of the aircraft, and the same would-be helpful passenger yells out that Guerrero has a bomb.
Guerrero runs into the lavatory, locks it, and sets off the device.
Guerrero dies instantly and is sucked out through the hole blown in the fuselage by the explosion.
Gwen, just outside the door, is injured in the explosion and subsequent explosive decompression, but the pilots retain control of the airplane.
With all airports east of Chicago unusable due to bad weather, they return to Lincoln International for an emergency landing.
Due to the bomb damage, Captain Demarest demands the airport's longest runway&mdash;Runway 29, which is still closed due to the stuck airliner.
Eventually Bakersfeld orders the plane to be pushed off the runway by snowplows, despite the costly damage they would do to it.
Patroni, who is "taxi-qualified" on Boeing 707s, has been trying to move the stuck aircraft in time for Demarest's damaged aircraft to land.
By exceeding the Boeing 707's engine operating parameters, Patroni frees the stuck jet without damage, allowing Runway 29 to be reopened just in time for the crippled Golden Argosy to land.
In a brief epilogue, Ada Quonsett is enjoying her reward of free first-class travel on TGA.
But as she arrives at the gate, she laments that it was "much more fun the other way".
<EOS>
In Marseille, an undercover detective is following Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), a wealthy French criminal who runs the largest heroin-smuggling syndicate in the world.
The policeman is assassinated by Charnier's hitman, Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi).
Charnier plans to smuggle $32 million worth of heroin into the United States by hiding it in the car of his unsuspecting friend, French television personality Henri Devereaux (Frédéric de Pasquale).
In New York City, detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider) are conducting an undercover stakeout in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
After seeing a drug transaction take place in a bar, Cloudy goes in to make an arrest, but the suspect makes a break for it, cutting Cloudy on the arm with a knife.
After catching up with their suspect and severely beating him, the detectives interrogate the man, who reveals his drug connection.
Later, Popeye and Cloudy go out for drinks at the Copacabana, where Popeye notices Salvatore "Sal" Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his young wife Angie (Arlene Farber) entertaining mob members involved in narcotics.
They decide to tail the couple, and soon learn that the Bocas, who run a modest newsstand luncheonette, have criminal records: Sal for armed robbery and murder, and Angie for shoplifting.
The detectives suspect that the Bocas, who frequent several nightclubs and drive expensive cars, are involved in some kind of criminal operation.
They soon establish a link between the Bocas and lawyer Joel Weinstock (Harold Gary), who is part of the narcotics underworld.
Soon after, Popeye learns from an informant that a major shipment of heroin will arrive in the New York area.
The detectives convince their supervisor, Walt Simonson (Eddie Egan), to wiretap the Bocas' phones, and they use several ruses to obtain additional information.
Popeye and Cloudy are joined in the investigation by a federal agent named Mulderig (Bill Hickman).
Popeye and Mulderig dislike each other based on having worked together in the past, with Mulderig holding Popeye responsible for the death of a policeman.
After Devereaux's Lincoln Continental Mark III arrives in New York City, Weinstock's chemist (Pat McDermott) tests a sample of the heroin and declares it the purest he has ever seen, establishing that the shipment could make as much as $32 million on a half-million dollar investment.
Boca is impatient to make the purchase—reflecting Charnier's desire to return to France as soon as possible—while Weinstock, with more experience in smuggling, urges patience, knowing Boca's phone is tapped and that they are being investigated.
Charnier soon realizes he has been observed since his arrival in New York.
He "makes" Popeye and escapes, waving tauntingly on the departing subway shuttle from Grand Central Terminal.
To avoid being tailed, he has Sal Boca instead meet him in WashingtonC, where Boca asks for a delay to avoid the police.
Charnier, however, wants to conclude the deal quickly so he can return to France.
On the flight back to New York, Nicoli offers to kill Popeye, but Charnier objects, knowing that Popeye would be replaced by another policeman.
Nicoli insists, however, saying they will be back in France before a replacement is assigned.
Soon after, Nicoli attempts to shoot Popeye from the roof of Doyle's apartment complex but misses.
Popeye chases after the fleeing sniper, who boards an elevated train at the Bay 50th Street Station in Gravesend.
Doyle commandeers a car and gives chase along Stillwell Avenue.
Realizing he is pursued, Nicoli works his way forward through the carriages, shoots a policeman who tries to intervene and then hijacks the motorman at gunpoint forcing him to drive straight through the next station, also shooting the train conductor who gets too close.
The motorman passes out and they are just about to slam into another, stationary, train, when an emergency trackside brake engages violently hurling the assassin against a glass window.
Popeye arrives limping, having wrecked the commandeered car, and sees the killer descending from the platform.
When the killer sees Popeye, he turns to run but is shot dead by Popeye with a single shot.
After a lengthy stakeout, Popeye impounds Devereaux's Lincoln.
In a police garage, he and his team take it apart piece by piece, searching for the drugs, but seemingly come up empty-handed.
Then Cloudy notes that the vehicle's shipping weight is 120 pounds over its listed manufacturer's weight; they realize the contraband must still be in the car.
This time they remove the rocker panels and discover the obloid packages (some light blue and some light green) of heroin concealed therein.
The police then restore the car to its original condition and return it to Devereaux, who delivers the Lincoln to Charnier.
Charnier drives to an old factory on Wards Island to meet Weinstock, and about a dozen others, and deliver the drugs.
After Charnier has the rocker panels removed, Weinstock's chemist tests one of the bags and confirms its quality.
Charnier removes the bags of drugs and hides the money, concealing it beneath the rocker panels of another car that was purchased at an auction of junk cars, which he will then take back to France.
With their transaction complete, Charnier and Sal drive off in the Lincoln, but almost immediately hit a roadblock with a large contingent of police led by Popeye Doyle, who playfully waves to Charnier.
The police chase the Lincoln back to the factory, where Sal is killed with two shotgun blasts during a shootout with the police and most of the other criminals surrender.
Charnier, however, escapes into the old warehouse and Popeye follows after him, with Cloudy joining in the hunt.
When Popeye sees a shadowy figure in the distance, he empties his revolver a split-second after shouting a warning.
The man whom Popeye kills, however, is not Charnier but Mulderig.
Undaunted, Popeye tells Cloudy that he will get Charnier.
After reloading his gun, Popeye runs into another room, and a few seconds later, a single gunshot is heard.
Title cards before the closing credits note that Joel Weinstock was indicted but had his case dismissed for "lack of proper evidence"; Angie Boca received a suspended sentence for an unspecified misdemeanor; Lou Boca received a reduced sentence; Devereaux served four years in a federal penitentiary for conspiracy; and Charnier was never caught.
Popeye and Cloudy were transferred out of the narcotics division and reassigned.
<EOS>
The story begins with the birth of Tsarevich Alexei on 12 August 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War.
Tsar Nicholas (Michael Jayston) is warned by the Prime Minister Count Witte (Laurence Olivier) and his cousin Grand Duke Nicholas (Harry Andrews) that the war is futile and costing too many lives.
They tell him the Russian people want representative government, health care, voting and workers' rights, but Nicholas wants to maintain the autocracy.
Meanwhile, underground political parties led by Vladimir Lenin (Michael Bryant), Joseph Stalin (James Hazeldine) and Leon Trotsky (Brian Cox) have formed.
Alexei is diagnosed with hemophilia.
The Tsarina Alexandra (Janet Suzman), a German princess, is disliked by the Russian royal court.
She befriends Grigori Rasputin (Tom Baker), a Siberian peasant who describes himself as a holy man.
Alexandra asks him to pray for Alexei, and believes in his healing abilities.
Working under appalling conditions, the factory workers are encouraged by Father Georgy Gapon (Julian Glover) to take part in a peaceful procession to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the Tsar.
However, hundreds of soldiers standing in front of the palace fire into the crowd.
Nicholas hears of the Bloody Sunday massacre and, though horrified, admits he wouldn't have granted the people's requests.
1913 marks the 300th anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty.
The family holidays at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin (Eric Porter) has preserved the Russian Empire.
He presents Nicholas with police reports about Rasputin's dissolute behaviour, which is damaging the Tsar's reputation.
Nicholas dismisses Rasputin from the court.
Alexandra demands his return, as she believes only Rasputin can stop the bleeding attacks, but Nicholas stands firm in his decision.
The Tercentenary celebrations occur and a lavish Royal Tour across Imperial Russia ensues, but crowds are thin.
Other national festivities and Church celebrations go ahead, but an event at the Kiev Opera House ends horribly when Prime Minister Stolypin is assassinated.
Nicholas executes the killers and closes the Duma, allowing police to terrorise the peasants.
Alexei falls at the Spała Hunting Lodge, which leads to another bleeding attack.
It is presumed he will die.
The Tsarina writes to Rasputin, who responds with words of comfort.
The Tsarevich recovers and Rasputin returns.
World War I begins a few weeks after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of Austria-Hungary.
Nicholas orders a full mobilization of the Russian army on the German border and as a result Germany declares war, activating a series of alliances that enlarges the war.
He decides to command the troops in 1915 and leaves for the front, taking over from the experienced Grand Duke Nicholas.
Meanwhile Alexandra is left charge at home, and under Rasputin's influence, she makes poor decisions.
The Tsarina is losing control and Rasputin's behavior has not changed.
Nicholas is visited in late 1916 by his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (Irene Worth), who is critical of his incompetence.
She scolds him about avoiding domestic issues and implores him to eliminate Rasputin and to send Alexandra to Livadia in the Crimea.
Concerned about Rasputin's influence, Grand Duke Dmitri (Richard Warwick) and Prince Felix Yusupov (Martin Potter), invite Rasputin to a party and murder him in December, 1916.
Despite Rasputin's death, Alexandra continues her misrule.
The army is ill supplied, and starving and freezing workers revolt in st Petersburg in March 1917.
Nicholas decides to return to Tsarskoye Selo too late and is forced to abdicate in his train at Mogilev.
The family with dr Botkin (Timothy West) and attendants leave Tsarskoye Selo and are exiled by Kerensky to Tobolsk in Siberia in August 1917.
They live guarded under less grand conditions.
In October 1917, Russia falls to the Bolsheviks.
The family is transferred to the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.
Under harsher conditions they are guarded by the cold-blooded Yakov Yurovsky (Alan Webb).
One of the guards attempts to steal Alexei's gold chain and Nagorny leaps to his defence.
Nagorny is taken away and shot.
In a near-final scene, the family are laughing as they read withheld letters from friends and relatives.
In the early hours of 17 July 1918, the Bolsheviks awaken the Romanov family and dr Botkin telling them they must leave.
They wait in the cellar.
Yurovsky and his assistants enter the room and open fire.
<EOS>
This is Spinal Tap is presented as a serious rock documentary, purportedly filmed and directed by the fictional Marty Di Bergi (Rob Reiner, who was also the actual director of the movie).
The faux documentary covers a 1982 United States concert tour by the fictional British rock group "Spinal Tap" to promote their new album Smell the Glove, interspersed with Di Bergi's one-on-one interviews with the members of the group and footage of the group from previous periods in their career.
The band was started by childhood friends, David st Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), during the 1960s.
Originally named "The Originals", then "The New Originals" to distinguish themselves from an existing group of the same name, they settled on the name "The Thamesmen", finding success with their skiffle/rhythm and blues single "Gimme Some Money".
They changed their name again to "Spinal Tap" and enjoyed limited success with the flower power anthem "Listen to the Flower People".
Ultimately, the band became successful with heavy metal and produced several albums.
The group was joined eventually by bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), keyboardist Viv Savage (David Kaff), and a series of drummers, each of whom mysteriously died in odd circumstances, including spontaneous human combustion, a "bizarre gardening accident" and choking to death on the vomit of unknown person(s); their current drummer is Mick Shrimpton (R.
Parnell).
Di Bergi's interviews with st Hubbins and Tufnel reveal that they are competent composers and musicians, but are dimwitted and immature.
Tufnel, in showing his guitar collection to Di Bergi, reveals an amplifier that has volume knobs that go to eleven; when Di Bergi asks, "Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder.
" Tufnel can only reply, "These go to eleven".
Tufnel later plays a somber quasi-classical music composition on piano for Di Bergi, claiming it to be a "Mach piece" (a hybrid between Mozart and Bach), before revealing the composition to be entitled "Lick My Love Pump".
As the tour starts, concert appearances are repeatedly canceled because of low ticket sales.
Tensions continue to increase when several major retailers refuse to sell Smell the Glove because of its sexist cover art and there is growing resentment shown towards the group's manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra).
Tufnel becomes even more perturbed when st Hubbins' girlfriend Jeanine (June Chadwick)—a manipulative yoga and astrology devotee—joins the group on tour, begins to participate in band meetings, and attempts to influence their costumes and stage presentation.
The band's distributor, Polymer Records, opts to release Smell the Glove with an entirely black cover without consulting the band.
The album fails to draw crowds to autograph sessions with the band.
To revive interest, Tufnel suggests staging a performance of "Stonehenge", an epic song that is to be accompanied in concert by a lavish stage show, and asks Ian to order a giant Stonehenge megalith for the show.
However, Tufnel, rushing a sketch on a napkin, mislabels its dimensions, using a double prime symbol instead of single prime.
The resulting prop, seen for the first time by the group during a show, is only 18&nbsp;inches high (instead of the intended 18 feet), making the group a laughingstock on stage.
The group accuses Faith of mismanagement, and when st Hubbins suggests Jeanine should co-manage the group, Faith quits in disgust.
The tour continues, rescheduled into smaller and smaller venues.
Tufnel becomes marginalized by Jeanine and st Hubbins.
At their next gig (at a United States Air Force base near Tacoma, Washington) Tufnel is upset by an equipment malfunction and leaves the group in the middle of a show.
In their next gig, in an amphitheater at an amusement park in Stockton, California, they find that Nigel's absence severely limits their repertoire.
They are forced to improvise a fusion-esque, experimental song entitled "Jazz Odyssey", which is poorly received.
At the last show of the tour, the remaining group considers retirement and venturing into forgotten side projects such as a musical theatre production on the theme of Jack the Ripper entitled Saucy Jack, and acoustic pieces with the London Philharmonic.
Just before they go on stage, Tufnel reappears and informs them that he is "a messenger" from Ian Faith and the Spinal Tap song "Sex Farm" is wildly popular in Japan; in fact it has reached number 5 in the charts there.
He then tells st Hubbins that Faith would like to arrange a new tour in that country.
st Hubbins is initially cool to the idea, but later on during their show, st Hubbins convinces Tufnel to join them on stage, reuniting the band.
With Faith as manager once again, and despite losing their drummer Mick as he inexplicably explodes onstage, the film ends with Spinal Tap playing a series of sold-out arena shows for enthusiastic fans on their Japanese tour.
<EOS>
Nathaniel Mayweather (Chris Elliott) is a snobbish, self-centered, virginal man.
After graduation, he is invited by his father to sail to Hawaii aboard the Queen Catherine.
After annoying the limo driver who is taking him to board the boat, he is forced to walk the rest of the way.
Nathaniel makes a wrong turn into a small fishing village where he meets the imbecilic cabin boy/first mate Kenny (Andy Richter).
He thinks the ship, The Filthy Whore, is a theme boat.
It is not until the next morning that Captain Greybar (Ritch Brinkley) finds Nathaniel in his room and explains that the boat will not return to dry land for three months.
Nathaniel unsuccessfully tries to convince each fisherman to set sail to Hawaii, but convinces Kenny into doing so.
However, the crew reaches Hell's Bucket, a Bermuda Triangle-like area where weird events occur.
The ship is caught in a fierce storm and Kenny is knocked overboard and drowns.
Without a cabin boy, Greybar forces Nathaniel to do the chores in return for taking him to Hawaii.
And with only one island in the entire area, the crew decides to sail there to fix up the boat.
The fishermen decide to give Nathaniel another chore that involves dragging him on a floating raft for a week.
Nathaniel has little to eat or drink, begins consuming salt water and suffers extreme sunburn after confusing cooking oil as lotion.
He also realizes he might be going insane after sighting Kenny's ghost and seeing a floating cupcake that spits tobacco.
After falling into the water he is saved by a "shark-man".
After nine days, Nathaniel is pulled back in and tells what happened.
It is revealed by Skunk (Brian Doyle-Murray) and Big Teddy (Brion James) that the shark-man is known as Chocki (Russ Tamblyn), the offspring of a male viking and female shark, who can be trouble because he can like one person one way, but then hate them in the other.
Nathaniel spots a beautiful young woman named Trina (Melora Walters) swimming in the ocean.
After she is pulled up in a net, Nathaniel becomes smitten with her.
Not pleased with another passenger on board, the fishermen decide to strand Trina and Nathaniel on the island they're sailing toward.
Finally reaching the island, the crew searches for components to fix their boat.
Nathaniel tries to get closer to Trina, who constantly rejects him.
Greybar and Skunk suggest to Nathaniel that a woman named Calli (Ann Magnuson) can help build his confidence.
After an encounter with blue-skinned, six-armed Calli that results in his first sexual experience, Nathaniel again meets Trina, who becomes attracted to him immediately.
Calli's husband Mulligan (Mike Starr), a giant, comes home to find a man's bag.
Realizing what Calli has done, Mulligan decides to find her lover and kill him.
Nathaniel tries to save everyone by confessing to the giant he's the one who slept with Calli.
Mulligan is about to kill Nathaniel with a giant nail clipper when Chocki saves him.
Nathaniel then kills Mulligan by choking him with his own belt.
Finally reaching Hawaii, Nathaniel offers his newfound companions a job at the hotel where his father is the owner.
They refuse because all they know how to do is fish and stink.
They tell Nathaniel he's a fancy lad who should stay in Hawaii with his dad where he belongs.
Nathaniel and the fishermen part ways, including Trina.
His father, William Mayweather (Bob Elliott, Chris Elliott's real-life father), expresses disappointment of his son's actions.
Not wanting to live the fancy-lad life, Nathaniel leaves to find Trina, and then both join the crew on the The Filthy Whore.
<EOS>
Miguel Ángel González is a member of one of Caracas' richest families while Estrella is a poor but hard-working beautiful girl who sells newspapers in a corner everyday to earn a living.
When they meet, they fall in love and begin a beautiful romance that leads to marriage.
However, not everything is rosy for the couple.
Miguel Ángel's parents Horacio and Rebecca are opposed to the relationship, and the obsessive passion Santa Ortigoza, Miguel Ángel's ex-girlfirend has over him.
Horacio's declining mental health makes him become ore and more dangerous, and he hides a secret from the past: many years ago, he murdered Estrella's mother because she rejected him and let her father be blamed for the crime.
The secret is revealed once Leonardo Montenegro, Estrella's father, is released from prison and reunited with his daughter.
Rebecca, Miguel Ángel's mother, begins to accept his relationship with Estrella once she learns about Horacio's secret and that she was wrong about Estrella being a gold digger, when it was actually Santa who was after their family's money.
Later, Horacio kidnaps Estrella and Miguel Ángel's twin boys, and during this time, he has begun loving them like he sons.
He shoots himself after a police stand-off when the babies are wrestled away from him while Santa dies after her car is driven off a cliff.
<EOS>
Super Mario 64 is set in Princess Peach's Castle, which consists of three floors, a basement, a moat, and a courtyard.
The area outside the castle is an introductory area in which the player can experiment, testing his or her player skills.
Scattered throughout the castle are entrances to courses via secret walls and paintings.
Super Mario 64 begins with a letter from Princess Peach inviting Mario to come to her castle for a cake she has baked for him.
However, when he arrives, Mario discovers that Bowser has invaded the castle and imprisoned the princess and her servants within it using the power of the castle's 120 Power Stars.
Many of the castle's paintings are portals to other worlds, in which Bowser's minions keep watch over the stars.
Mario explores the castle for these portals to enter the worlds and recover the stars.
He gains access to more rooms as he recovers more Power Stars, and eventually traverses three different obstacle courses, each leading to its own battle with Bowser.
Defeating Bowser the first two times earns Mario a key for opening another level of the castle.
After Mario defeats Bowser in the final battle, Peach is released from the stained-glass window above the castle's entrance.
Peach rewards Mario by kissing him on the nose and baking the cake that she had promised him.
<EOS>
During his forced residence at a deep underground offensive-warfare complex, X-127 is ordered to push missile firing buttons to begin World War&nbsp;III (which lasts a total of 2 hours and 58 minutes).
From that point, humanity's few civilian survivors are situated within a collection of underground shelter complexes on Levels 1 through 5 at various depths from the irradiated surface, while military personnel already occupy the deepest and safest Levels 6 and&nbsp;7.
It later emerges that the orders given have been wholly automatic due to a launch on warning strategy, and the war has taken place as a series of automated electronic responses to an initial accident.
X-127 and his fellow shelter inhabitants belatedly learn the criteria that had determined admission to the shelters: civilians were granted only an illusion of protection, while government officials and military personnel were granted significantly more security.
Those who were assigned to launch the nuclear missiles, and their support staff, were selected for their ability to behave like machines, yet are counted upon to preserve the human spirit and rebuild the human race.
X-127 and his colleagues attempt to carry on human life, but discover that institutions such as marriage and preparations for child-rearing have been hollowed out by conditions and attitudes in the antiseptic underground.
Toward the end of the novel, the inhabitants of surviving shelters within collaterally hit neutral nations, the former enemy nation and the unnamed protagonist nation gradually meet their deaths as radioactive surface contamination makes its way down past air filters and into water sources in the ground.
As Level 7's safety falls into question, its inhabitants confront their growing isolation, overconfidence in technology, loneliness below a dead world, and the insanity of a society whose momentum toward annihilation exceeded its collective will to live.
At last, the inhabitants of "Level&nbsp;7" are wiped out after a malfunction in their nuclear power pile results in lethal contamination of their erstwhile sanctuary.
They are apparently the last human beings on Earth to perish, and X-127 is the very last one at the story's conclusion.
The extinction of humanity has taken four months from the time that the missiles were first fired.
<EOS>
Eddie "Hudson Hawk" Hawkins (Bruce Willis)—"Hudson Hawk" is a nickname for the bracing winds off the Hudson River—is a master burglar and safe-cracker, attempting to celebrate his first day of parole from prison with a cappuccino.
Before he can get it, he is blackmailed by various entities, including his own parole officer, a minor Mafia family headed by the Mario Brothers, and the CIA into doing several dangerous art heists with his singing partner in crime, Tommy "Five-Tone" Messina (Danny Aiello).
The holders of the puppet strings turn out to be a "psychotic American corporation", Mayflower Industries, run by husband and wife Darwin (Richard Grant) and Minerva Mayflower (Sandra Bernhard) and their blade-slinging butler, Alfred (Donald Burton).
The company, headquartered in the Esposizione Universale Roma, seeks to take over the world by reconstructing La Macchina dell'Oro, a machine purportedly invented by Leonardo da Vinci (Stefano Molinari) that converts lead into gold.
A special assembly of crystals needed for the machine to function are hidden in a variety of Leonardo's artworks: the maquette of the Sforza, the Da Vinci Codex, and a scale model of DaVinci's helicopter design.
Sister Anna Baragli (Andie MacDowell) is an operative for a secretive Vatican counter-espionage agency, which has arranged with the CIA to assist in the Roman portion of Hawk's mission, though apparently intending all along to foil the robbery at st Peter's Basilica.
Throughout the adventure, Hudson is foiled in attempts to drink a cappuccino.
After blowing up an auctioneer to cover up the theft of the Sforza, the Mario Bros.
take Hawk away in an ambulance.
Hawk sticks syringes into Antony Mario's face and falls out of the ambulance on a gurney, and the Marios try to run him down with the ambulance as his gurney speeds along the highway.
The brothers are killed when their driver, startled by the array of syringes in Antony's face, crashes the ambulance.
Immediately afterwards, Hawk meets CIA head George Kaplan (James Coburn) and his CIA agents–Snickers (Don Harvey), Kit Kat (David Caruso), Almond Joy (Lorraine Toussaint), and Butterfinger (Andrew Bryniarski)–who take him to Darwin and Minerva Mayflower.
Hawk successfully steals the Da Vinci Codex from another museum, but later refuses to steal the helicopter design.
Tommy Five-Tone fakes his death so they can escape.
They are discovered and attacked by the CIA Agents, and Kaplan reveals that he and his agents stole the piece, and unlike Tommy and Hudson, had no problem killing the guards.
Hawk and Tommy cause Snickers and Almond Joy to be killed by their own explosive device, and they escape.
Kit Kat and Butterfinger take Anna to the castle where the Macchina dell'Oro is being reconstructed.
A showdown takes place at the castle between the remaining CIA agents, the Mayflowers, and the team of Hudson, Five-Tone, and Baragli.
Kit Kat and Butterfinger are betrayed and killed by Minerva.
Tommy fights Darwin and Alfred inside Darwin's speeding limo, and Hudson fights George Kaplan on the roof of the castle.
Kaplan topples from the castle and lands of the roof of the limo.
Alfred plants a bomb in the limo and escapes with Darwin; Tommy is trapped inside and Kaplan is hanging onto the hood.
The bomb detonates as the limo speeds over a cliff.
Darwin and Minerva force Hawk to put together the crystal powering the machine, but Hawk intentionally leaves out one small piece.
When the Mayflowers activate the machine, it malfunctions and explodes, killing Minerva and Darwin.
Hawk battles Alfred, using Alfred's own blades to decapitate him.
Hawk and Baragli escape the castle and discover Tommy waiting for them at a cafe, having miraculously escaped death.
Hawk finally gets to enjoy a cappuccino.
<EOS>
Super Mario Land 2 takes place immediately following Super Mario Land.
While Mario was away in Sarasaland, his old childhood friend Wario put an evil spell over Mario's castle and his world, Mario Land, brainwashing its inhabitants into believing Wario is their master and Mario is their enemy.
Wario's motive behind this sudden attack on Mario's castle was his desire to have a palace of his own.
After traveling through Mario Land and collecting the six Golden Coins, Mario regains entry to his castle.
Mario enters and defeats Wario, who flees, breaking his spell and causing Mario's castle to revert to its normal form.
<EOS>
In Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune, the Bene Gesserit are a secretive matriarchal order who have achieved somewhat superhuman abilities through physical and mental conditioning and the use of the drug melange.
Under the guise of humbly "serving" the Empire, the Sisterhood is in fact a major power in the universe, using its many areas of influence to subtly guide humanity along the path of its own plan for humanity's future.
Herbert notes that over 10,000 years before the events of Dune, in the chaotic time after the Butlerian Jihad and before the unveiling of the Orange Catholic Bible, the Bene Gesserit "consolidated their hold upon the sorceresses, explored the subtle narcotics, developed prana-bindu training and conceived the Missionaria Protectiva, that black arm of superstition.
But it is also the period that saw the composing of the litany against fear and the assembly of the Azhar Book, that bibliographic marvel that preserves the great secrets of the most ancient faiths".
Millennia later in Dune, the Bene Gesserit base of power is the Mother School on the planet Wallach IX, whose graduates are fit mates for Emperors, and whose specially trained Truthsayers can detect falsehood.
But beyond the outer virtues of poise, self-control, and diplomacy, Bene Gesserit training includes superior combat skills and precise physiological control that grants them direct control over conception and embryotic sex determination, ageing, and even the ability to render poisons harmless within their bodies.
The Bene Gesserit power of Voice allows them to control others by merely modulating their vocal tones.
Sisters who survive a ritualized poisoning known as the spice agony achieve increased awareness and abilities through access to Other Memory, and are subsequently known as Reverend Mothers.
Every member of the Bene Gesserit is conditioned into singular loyalty to the order and its goals with allegiances to even family being secondary, and no goal is more paramount than the Sisterhood's large-scale breeding program.
It aims to create a superbeing that can tap into abilities even the Bene Gesserit cannot, a being whom they can use in order to gain more direct control over the universe.
To this end, the Bene Gesserit have subtly manipulated bloodlines for generations, using breeding sisters to "collect" the genes they require.
The Bene Gesserit super-being – whom they call the Kwisatz Haderach – arrives a generation earlier than expected in the form of Paul Atreides, who is free from their direct control though his mother is the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica.
In Dune, Paul seizes control of the harsh desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the all-important spice melange; by threatening to destroy all spice production, he maneuvers himself into the Imperial throne.
With Paul holding a tight monopoly on melange, a decade later the Bene Gesserit participate in a conspiracy to topple his rule in Dune Messiah (1969).
Even after a blinded Paul walks into the desert to die, his sister Alia rules his empire and keeps the Bene Gesserit at bay until Paul's young son Leto II takes control himself in Children of Dune (1976).
Over 3,500 years later, Leto–now a hybrid of human and sandworm–still dominates the universe as the tyrant God Emperor in God Emperor of Dune (1981).
Through prescience, he has foreseen humanity's possible destruction, and has forced humanity into what he calls the Golden Path, a plan which he believes will assure their survival.
Having halted all spice production and thus making his own stockpile the only source of melange left in the universe, Leto is able to maintain firm control over the various factions and effects a "forced tranquility".
He has taken the Bene Gesserit breeding program from them and uses it for his own mysterious purposes, and their limited spice supply is subject to their obedience to Leto, and his prescient vision.
Recognizing that his work is finally done, Leto allows himself to be assassinated.
Fifteen hundred years later in Heretics of Dune (1984), the Bene Gesserit have regained their power and relocated to a hidden homeworld they call Chapterhouse, and the spice cycle has been renewed on Arrakis, now called Rakis.
New opposition arrives in the form of a violent matriarchal order calling themselves the Honored Matres, a ruthless and brutal force who seek domination over the Old Empire and who do not use or rely on melange for their powers.
As the Matres all but exterminate the Tleilaxu race and next target the Sisterhood, Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Taraza implements a bold plan to release humanity from the oracular hold of Leto II by goading the Honored Matres into destroying Rakis.
Meanwhile, the Bene Gesserit have terraformed Chapterhouse into a desert planet like Rakis, and bring a single sandworm there to begin a new spice cycle.
In (1985), the Honored Matres begin to destroy all of the Bene Gesserit-controlled planets and enslave the populaces of the other planets they conquer.
The Matres themselves are being hunted by a far more powerful force from out in the Scattering.
The new Mother Superior Darwi Odrade recognizes that the threat of this unknown enemy is greater than that of the Honored Matres, and forms another bold plan.
The captive Honored Matre Murbella, who has been assimilated into the Bene Gesserit and gained the full powers of a Reverend Mother, defeats the leader of the Honored Matres in combat and thus becomes Great Honored Matre.
She immediately succeeds Odrade as Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit, joining the two forces under a single leader in an uneasy truce that is hoped will be able to defeat the unknown enemy.
In Hunters of Dune, the 2006 continuation of the series by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson, Murbella adopts the new title of Mother Commander and struggles to bring the opposing factions of her New Sisterhood together.
Among the Bene Gesserit, some are willing to accept the merger with the Honored Matres, while others oppose allying with their enemies; a group of dissenters led by Reverend Mother Sheeana had previously fled Chapterhouse aboard a no-ship upon Murbella's ascension to leadership.
Within the Honored Matres, many admire Murbella's strength and abilities and desire Bene Gesserit training, but resist assimilation.
Additionally, a number of Honored Matres refuse to acknowledge Murbella as their leader; the largest such rebel group is led by Matre Superior Hellica on Tleilax.
As Murbella amasses weaponry for the coming battle with the unknown enemy, she trains an elite force of commando troops with the combined battle talents of Bene Gesserit, Honored Matres, and even the Swordmasters of Ginaz.
These "Valkyries" are able to effect Hellica's defeat, galvanizing many dissenters into finally joining Murbella's cause against the unknown enemy, now revealed to be the resurrected thinking machines thought destroyed 15,000 years before.
In the 2007 sequel, Sandworms of Dune, the thinking machines have unleashed decimating viruses on planet after planet, while Face Dancers infiltrate human civilization in their own insidious plot to take over the universe.
The New Sisterhood's fleet of warships succumbs to Face Dancer sabotage, but is saved from thinking machine attack by a host of Guild Navigators in heighliners, brought together by the Oracle of Time, Norma Cenva.
Thinking machine leader Omnius is wiped out of existence by the Oracle, and the Face Dancer threat eliminated.
As Murbella joins Duncan Idaho in his plan to rule a universe in which humanity and thinking machines co-exist, Sheeana introduces sandworms to the former thinking machine planet Synchrony, where she will found an orthodox Sisterhood.
In the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy (2002–2004) by Brian Herbert and Anderson it is revealed that the Sorceresses of Rossak, who possess destructive telekinetic powers existing only in women and have a breeding plan to create more powerful telepaths, had been the predecessors of the Bene Gesserit.
As a Sorceress is always killed when she unleashes her full power, they sacrifice themselves to destroy some of the Titans and Neo-Cymeks during the Butlerian Jihad, over 10,000 years before the events in Dune.
Later, they expand their genetic program to preserve human bloodlines when humanity is endangered by a widespread plague called the "Demon Scourge," genetically engineered and unleashed by the thinking machines.
Raquella Berto-Anirul becomes their leader after surviving a poisoning attempt by being the first to internally render the toxin harmless.
The ordeal also makes Raquella the first to access Other Memory and use the power of Voice; she later establishes the Bene Gesserit, instituting a similar ritualized poisoning to unlock the same abilities in others.
In Sisterhood of Dune (2012), 80 years have passed since the end of the Butlerian Jihad, and an aging Raquella remains the only Sister to have survived the Agony.
Ambitious young Valya Harkonnen has hopes of using her Bene Gesserit training to complete her family's vendetta against Vorian Atreides and his entire bloodline.
Valya is one the Sisters trusted with the records of Raquella's breeding program, which are maintained by a secret cache of forbidden computers, concealed in a cave outside the Sisterhood School on Rossak.
Raquella's granddaughter Dorotea undergoes the Agony and becomes a Reverend Mother, discovering the truth about her parentage and the existence of computers.
As a devout anti-technology Butlerian, she assists Emperor Salvador Corrino in his raid on the Rossak school.
Salvador has several dozen Sisters executed and disbands the Sisterhood, except for Dorotea's Orthodox followers, who return to the Imperial capital on Salusa Secundus to serve as court Truthsayers.
Raquella has reestablished her school on Wallach IX in Mentats of Dune (2014), thanks to the help of industrialist Josef Venport.
Valya, now a Reverend Mother, retrieves the hidden computers from Rossak and hopes to succeed the declining Raquella as Mother Superior.
Raquella believes that the only hope for the Sisterhood to survive is for the Wallach IX sisters to reconcile with Dorotea's faction on Salusa Secundus; her health failing, she summons Dorotea to the School and forces Dorotea and Valya to put their differences aside and agree to work together for the good of the Sisterhood.
Naming them co-leaders, Raquella dies; Valya however, still bitter about Dorotea's betrayal, uses her newly discovered power of Voice to force Dorotea to commit suicide.
Valya declares herself to be the sole Mother Superior, and ingratiates herself to the new Emperor, Roderick Corrino.
<EOS>
A woman is driving dangerously down a winding road, recklessly passing cars until she comes upon a slow moving Mack truck.
As she goes to pass, her car is clipped by a truck going in the opposite direction, then slammed full-force by the Mack, killing her.
(This is used to set up the plot of the film)  Meanwhile, John Quincy Archibald and his wife Denise witness their young son Michael collapse at his baseball game and take Michael to the hospital.
After a series of tests at the hospital, John is informed by dr Raymond Turner and Rebecca Payne, the hospital administrator, that his son has an enlarged heart and will need a heart transplant to live.
The procedure is very expensive: $250,000 (at a minimum), with a down payment of $75,000 (30%) required to get Michael's name on the organ donor list.
John tells them he is insured, but after looking through his policy, they tell him that because the company he works for dropped John from full-time to part-time, his health insurance has been changed, and the new policy does not cover the surgery, which leaves John and Denise to raise $75,000 on their own.
The family tries to raise the money but are only able to come up with a third of the necessary payment.
The hospital tires of waiting and releases Michael; Denise urges John to do something.
Unwilling to let his child die, John walks into the hospital ER with a handgun, gathers eleven hostages, and sets demands: his son's name on the recipient list as soon as possible.
The hostage negotiator, lt Frank Grimes, stands down to let John cool off.
Meanwhile, John and the eleven hostages learn more about each other.
They begin to understand John's situation and support him a little as he ensures each of them receive the treatment they came to the emergency room for.
One of them, Miriam, is pregnant, and her husband Steve is hoping that their first child is healthy.
A young hostage, Julie, has a broken arm, and she and her boyfriend Mitch claim that a car crash caused it.
Due to holes in their story, John and another hostage, Lester, conclude the two are lying and that Mitch beat up Julie.
After a while, John agrees to release some hostages to have his son's name added to the list an hour afterward.
He releases Steve, Miriam, and a hostage named Rosa with her baby.
The Chicago Chief of Police, Gus Monroe, gives a SWAT unit permission to insert a sniper into the building via an air shaft.
John is shot but ends up receiving only a minor wound, which is treated right away.
After taking the shot, the sniper's leg falls through the ceiling tiles.
Outraged, John pulls him out of the air shaft and beats him up.
Using the bound SWAT policeman as a human shield, he steps outside to the sight of dozens of policemen pointing weapons at him and a large, supportive crowd.
John demands that his son be brought to the emergency room.
The police agree to his demand in exchange for the SWAT sniper.
Once his son arrives, John reveals to the hostages his intention to commit suicide so his heart can be used to save his son.
He persuades dr Turner to perform the operation, and two of his hostages bear witness to a will stating his last request.
John says his last goodbyes to Michael and enters the operating room.
He loads a single bullet into the gun and pulls the trigger, but the safety is on.
As he prepares to end his life a second time, his wife learns about an organ donor (which happens to be the female driver that was killed in the beginning of the movie) who has been flown to the hospital for organ recovery.
She runs to the emergency room and stops John from shooting himself, and John allows the hostages to go free.
Michael is given the life-saving operation and, after watching the procedure with Denise, John is taken into police custody.
Afterwards the entire ordeal becomes subject to a national debate about the quality and accessibility of insurance and healthcare.
Three months later at his trial, all of the witnesses speak on his behalf.
He is later acquitted of charges of attempted murder and armed criminal action but is found guilty of kidnapping.
It is never revealed what his sentence for the crime will be, but his lawyer is overheard and saying that no judge will give him "more than three to five (years)" and that she will try to get it reduced to two.
<EOS>
The series revolves around a group of children and teenagers who performed in their own rock group, Kids Incorporated.
They struggled to deal with issues ranging from schoolyard crushes to peer pressure to child abuse, while performing regularly at a local former musical club (now a kids' hangout) called The P*lace (called "The Malt Shop" in the pilot on September 7, 1983).
It had originally been named The Palace and had been a theater where, supposedly, the biggest names in entertainment, such as Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, had once performed.
But the first "a" in the neon sign burned out and was never replaced.
It was never explained how the group funded or profited from their performances, but the show did not aim for strict realism.
The action took place on abstract "stagey" sets and the plots involved many fantasy elements, such as the group meeting a robot (Season 1, Episode 10), a runaway princess (Season 1, Episode 6) and even a wise-cracking bicycle (Season 1, Episode 17).
In addition to their performances on stage, the group would break into song when they were off-stage (much like in a stage musical).
The city in which the P*lace was located was never disclosed.
The school depicted on the set had signage readingS, and later, Public School 127.
In one episode in the first (Season 1, Episode 20 (1984)) season, The P*lace was expected to be torn down, but was saved as a National Historical Landmark.
<EOS>
The film follows the plot of the original play.
<EOS>
In Denmark, Prince Hamlet finds himself involved in a conspiracy of power to the royal palace.
Cruel uncle Claudius kills his brother and takes the power of the kingdom.
After an encounter with the restless ghost of his murdered father, Hamlet feigns madness and plots to take vengeance.
<EOS>
After getting a restraining order from Randal Graves (Clerks) for selling drugs outside the Quick Stop, Jay and Silent Bob find out from Brodie Bruce (Mallrats) that Bluntman and Chronic, the comic book based on their likenesses, has been adapted into a film in production by Miramax Films.
In response, the two sue Holden McNeil (Chasing Amy), the co-writer of Bluntman and Chronic for the royalties of the film.
However, Holden tells Jay and Silent Bob that he sold his part of the creative and publishing rights of the comic over to his former friend Banky Edwards.
Upon learning of the film, as well as the negative reaction it has received so far on the Internet, the two set out on a quest to Hollywood, to prevent the film from being made and tainting their image, or at the very least receive the money from the royalties owed to them.
On the way, they befriend an animal liberation group, consisting of four women: Justice, Sissy, Missy, and Chrissy; and one man, Brent, who they had picked up for the cause.
It is revealed that the organization is a front; Brent is a patsy, intended as a diversion by freeing an animal from a testing laboratory while the girls rob a diamond depository nearby.
Jay tricks Brent and throws him out of the van in order to get closer to Justice, with whom he is smitten.
Justice, who becomes close to Jay and Silent Bob (particularly the former), reluctantly accepts the two as the new patsies.
While the girls are robbing the diamond depository they accidentally set off the alarm, prompting them to break the glass and steal the diamonds.
While this is going on Jay and Silent Bob free the animals and take an orangutan named Suzanne with them.
They escape outside to see the police arriving and the van exploding, which they believe has killed the girls.
Jay then takes the orangutan with him as a memorial to Justice.
Quickly afterwards, Federal Wildlife Marshal Willenholly (whose name is taken from the three characters in the TV show Land of the Lost: Marshal, Will and Holly) shows up at the scene.
Blinded to the diamond heist, he claims to have jurisdiction because of the large number of animals that escaped.
He learns that all the animals have been recovered except for the orangutan.
The officers then find and watch footage of a video Sissy recorded of Jay making remarks about "the clit", claiming to be "the Clit commander".
The literature accompanying the tape says that "Clit" is an acronym for Coalition for the Liberation of Itinerant Tree-Dwellers.
Willenholly blindly finds this as an act of terrorism and calls for police support to hunt down what he considered "the two most dangerous men on the planet".
When the officers later have the trio cornered inside a diner and threaten to open fire, Jay and Silent Bob dress the orangutan as a child and walk out, claiming that they want to get their "son" out of the danger zone.
Willenholly, thinking about the political repercussions of arresting a gay couple, decides to let them leave, but he quickly realizes his mistake and resumes the chase.
When they jump into a sewer system, only Willenholly himself follows them while the other police officers, led by the Sheriff, leave him, and he is soon tricked into jumping off of a dam.
Having escaped the law, Jay and Silent Bob once again return to their quest to reach Hollywood, only to have Suzanne taken by a Hollywood animal acting agency car.
Now on a quest to rescue Suzanne and clear their names, the two arrive in Hollywood and find themselves in the background of an E.
News newscast about their online threat against Miramax.
Justice watches the news and takes the diamonds to Hollywood to set things right.
Marshal Willenholly learns of their mission to reach Hollywood and leaves to find them.
After a long chase with studio security and reclaiming Suzanne from a fictional Scream 4 in production, Jay and Silent Bob end up in Jason Biggs and James Van Der Beek's dressing room, where they quickly realize that these are the actors that will play the roles of Bluntman and Chronic.
Suzanne beats both of them up effortlessly and Jay and Silent Bob assume the roles of their characters.
Production staff throw them on stage with racist director Chaka Luther King, and they must engage in a duel with Mark Hamill playing a comic book supervillain called Cocknocker.
Eventually Willenholly arrives to capture Jay and Silent Bob, but Justice arrives to save them.
Justice admits that the CLIT organization was not real and that the two were used as a diversion while she, Missy, Sissy and Chrissy, were stealing jewels.
As the rest of jewel thieves arrive, a climactic final battle ensues, after which Jay and Silent Bob get their royalties to the film from Banky, and Justice turns herself and her former team in to Willenholly in exchange for a shorter sentence and letting Jay and Silent Bob go.
The film ends with Jay and Silent Bob spending their royalty to locate everyone who expressed negative opinions on the internet about the movie and characters, ranging from kids to clergy, and traveling to their towns to beat them up.
The scene then cuts to everyone leaving a movie theater, having just watched the Bluntman and Chronic movie and expressing negative reception.
Jay and Silent Bob, with Justice and Willenholly, then go across the street to enjoy a performance from Morris Day and The Time.
After the credits, God closes the View Askewniverse book.
<EOS>
The movie opens in June 1950 with a local neighbourhood drunk Čika Franjo serenading field workers.
He sings Mexican songs (as it turns out, he does so out of self-preservation, figuring it's safer for him to steer clear of songs originating from either of the two dominant global powers — United States and Soviet Union — in the current climate of Cold War and Yugoslavia's paranoid repressive internal apparatus looking to identify and remove enemies of the state in the wake of the Tito–Stalin Split) while local children, including Malik, climb trees and play around.
The story is from the perspective of the boy, Malik, whose mother Sena tells him that his father is on a business trip.
Malik is a chronic sleepwalker.
After a while, Meša's wife and children rejoin him in Zvornik.
Malik meets Maša, the daughter of a Russian doctor.
He falls in love with her, but last sees her when the ambulance takes her away.
At the wedding of his maternal uncle Fahro, Malik witnesses his father's affair with a woman pilot.
She later tries to commit suicide by using a toilet's flush cord.
Sena reconciles with her brother Zijah, who's been diagnosed with diabetes.
<EOS>
Jack Campbell is a single Wall Street executive living in New York City.
He is in the midst of putting together a multi-billion dollar merger and has ordered an emergency meeting on Christmas Day.
In his office, on Christmas Eve, he hears that his former girlfriend, Kate, called him after many years.
He walks into a convenience store where a lottery contestant, Cash, has a winning ticket worth $238.
The store clerk does not believe Cash, so Cash pulls out a gun and Jack offers to buy the ticket.
Jack offers to help Cash.
In return, Cash questions Jack, asking him if he is missing anything in his life.
Jack says he has everything he needs.
Cash tells Jack that actions have consequence and that Jack has brought whatever is coming on himself.
Jack returns to his penthouse and sleeps.
On Christmas Day, Jack wakes up in a suburban New Jersey bedroom with Kate and two children.
He hurries back to his office and condo in New York, but his closest friends do not recognize him.
Jack runs out to the street and encounters Cash driving Jack's Ferrari.
We find out Cash is a guardian angel.
Cash explains that Jack is experiencing a glimpse of an alternate universe in order to learn a lesson.
He advises Jack to take the time to learn whatever it is that he needs to learn.
Jack is living the life he could have had, had he stayed in the United States with his girlfriend.
He has a modest family life, where he is a car tire salesman for Kate's father and Kate is a non-profit lawyer.
Jack's young daughter realizes his secret, thinks he is an alien and decides to assist him in surviving his new life.
Jack struggles to fit into the role of a family man, such as missing opening Christmas presents, flirting with a married woman and forgetting his anniversary.
He begins to succeed in his life, bonding with his children, falling in love with his wife and working hard at his job.
At a chance meeting, he is offered a contract to work at the same investment firm from his real life, having impressed the Chairman with his business savvy when he came in for a tire change.
His old mentor offers him a job, while a formerly sycophantic employee is in Jack's old position, with an assertiveness he did not possess as a subordinate.
While he is wowed by the potential salary and other complimentary extreme luxuries, Kate argues that they are very happy and they should be thankful for their life.
Just as Jack is finally realizing the true value of his new life, he sees Cash again as a store clerk and demands to stay in this life, but Cash informs him that there is nothing he can do.
His epiphany jolts him back to his wealthy former life on Christmas Day.
Jack forgoes closing the pharmaceutical acquisition deal to intercept Kate.
He finds her moving out of a luxury townhouse.
Like Jack, she also focused on her career and became a very wealthy corporate lawyer.
She only called him to give back some of his old possessions.
Before she moves to Paris, he runs after her at the airport and describes the family they had in the alternate universe in an effort to win back her love.
She agrees to have a cup of coffee at the airport, suggesting that they will have a future.
<EOS>
Four Atlanta men, Lewis Medlock (Burt Reynolds), Ed Gentry (Jon Voight), Bobby Trippe (Ned Beatty) and Drew Ballinger (Ronny Cox), decide to canoe down a river in the remote northern Georgia wilderness, expecting to have fun and witness the area's unspoiled nature before the fictional Cahulawassee River valley is flooded by construction of a dam.
Lewis and Ed are experienced outdoorsmen, while Bobby and Drew are novices.
While traveling to their launch site, the men (Bobby in particular) are condescending towards the locals, who are unimpressed by the "city boys".
Traveling in pairs, the group's two canoes are briefly separated, with Ed and Bobby getting stranded on the riverbank.
They encounter a pair of local men with a shotgun, who force them into the woods at gunpoint.
Ed is tied to a tree, while Bobby is forced to strip and raped by one of the men while being forced to "squeal like a pig".
As the men prepare to sexually assault Ed, Lewis sneaks up and kills the rapist with an arrow from his recurve bow while the other escapes.
After a brief but hotheaded debate between Lewis and Drew about whether to inform the authorities, the men vote to side with Lewis' recommendation to bury the dead man's body and continue on as if nothing had happened.
The four continue downriver but encounter a dangerous stretch of rapids, during which Drew suddenly falls into the water and disappears.
The other three crash their canoes into rocks, which results in Lewis breaking his leg.
Encouraged by Lewis, who believes Drew was shot by the rapist's partner and they are now being stalked, Ed climbs a nearby rock face with the bow while Bobby stays behind to look after Lewis.
Ed hides out until the next morning when the stalker appears on the top of the cliff with a rifle; Ed clumsily shoots and kills the man, while accidentally stabbing himself with one of the spare arrows.
Ed and Bobby weigh down the body in the river to ensure it will never be found, and repeat the same with Drew's body which they encounter downriver.
Upon finally reaching the small town of Aintry, they take Lewis to the hospital.
The men carefully concoct a cover story for the authorities about Drew's death and disappearance being an accident, lying about their ordeal to Sheriff Bullard in order to escape a possible double murder charge.
The sheriff clearly doesn't believe them, but has no evidence to arrest them and simply tells the men never to come back, to which they agree.
The trio vow to keep their story of death and survival a secret for the rest of their lives.
Later on, Ed awakens, startled by a nightmare in which a bloated human hand rises from the lake.
<EOS>
A black sharecropper's family is poor and hungry.
The father and his dog, Sounder, go hunting each night, but the hunting is poor.
The family subsists on fried corn mush, biscuits, and milk gravy until one morning they wake up to the smell of boiling ham.
They feast for three days, but finally the sheriff and two of his deputies burst into the cabin and arrest the father.
Sounder runs after them, and one of the deputies shoots him with a shotgun.
The arrested man's son goes looking for Sounder but cannot find him anywhere.
Returning to the scene of the shooting, the boy finds a part of Sounder's ear.
He puts the ear under his pillow that night, but loses it under the cabin the next day while crawling in the dirt looking for the dog.
While his mother cautions him not to "be all hope", the boy searches the surrounding countryside for the dog every day for weeks.
In the father's absence, the family survives on the money the mother makes by selling cracked walnuts.
The boy helps to look after his three younger siblings, and experiences the intense loneliness of the cabin.
For Christmas, the boy's mother makes a four-layer cake for him to take to his father in jail.
On the way, the boy is nervous about being stopped and made fun of by the townspeople.
When he arrives, he has to wait and the jail guard treats him rudely.
Finally the boy is admitted, and the guard breaks the cake into pieces with his hands, saying he suspects it could hide something which could help the boy's father escape.
The boy gives the mangled cake to his father anyway and tells his father that Sounder might not be dead.
Their conversation is strained and difficult.
The father tells the boy not to come back to the jail.
The boy feels guilty that he has grieved his father by not acting "perkish", as his mother had told him to.
He fantasizes about the guard coming to a violent end.
In the morning, the boy awakes to the sound of faint whining, goes outside, and finds Sounder standing there.
The dog can only use three of its legs and has only one ear and one eye, and no longer barks.
The boy and his mother tend to the dog.
When the family receives word that the father was convicted and sentenced to hard labor, traveling county to county, the boy resolves to search for his father.
During the late fall and winter months over a period of several years, he journeys within and among counties, looking for convicts working, seeking word of his father.
He also tries with some success to teach himself to read newspapers.
One day he is leaning in against a fence, watching a group, trying to make out his father's form, when a guard whacks the boy on the fingers with a piece of iron and tells him to leave.
While the boy walks toward the outskirts of town immediately following this, he sees someone putting a book in a trashcan.
It is a large volume of Montaigne, and the boy takes it with him, but cannot make sense of it.
The boy finds a school where he tries to wash the blood off his hands.
While he is at the pump, school lets out, and the boy meets an old teacher who dresses his wounds, takes him in, and asks what happened to him.
The boy tells the teacher about Sounder and his father and, observing the book, the teacher extends an offer to the boy to live with him and learn to read.
The boy's mother tells him to go, and he stays with the teacher during the winter, working in the fields in summer.
One August, the boy is at home helping with chores when they see his father walking back toward them.
One side of his father's body is crippled from being crushed in a quarry.
Sounder, who has anticipated the man's return for days, runs out to meet him, and barks.
Weeks later, the man and his dog go hunting.
It is their first night hunting since the man's return.
The man has been waiting until he can invite his son, but now he sees that the boy is tired from fieldwork, and the man further senses that the activity might no longer interest the boy.
At dawn Sounder comes back without his master and, when the boy follows Sounder to the man, he finds him dead.
When the boy returns to the teacher, he tells his mother that Sounder will be dead before he can come back for the holiday.
Two weeks before Christmas, Sounder crawls under the porch and dies.
Despite their deaths, there is a sense of peace and resolution over the family—especially the boy, who has achieved the single thing he most wanted in the world—to become literate.
<EOS>
In 1844 in the Swedish province of Småland, the Nilsson family lives in Ljuder Parish a small farm in the woods at Korpamoen.
The eldest son, Karl Oskar, inherits the farm from his father Nils, after meeting a young girl named Kristina Johansdotter, who becomes his bride.
She moves to Korpamoen to live with him and his parents.
In the following years, Karl Oskar and Kristina start a family, starting with a daughter, Anna, followed by Johan, Marta and Harald.
The family struggles with poor weather and harvests and hunger.
Karl Oskar's rebellious younger brother Robert first comes across the idea of emigrating to America, tired of being treated poorly as a farmhand.
He first asks his friend Arvid, another farmhand at Nybacken to come along with him, who eagerly agrees to do so, but the pair's hopes are dashed when they realize they do not have the money needed for their passage.
Robert confronts Karl Oskar about selling his share of the farm in order to afford the passage, only to find out that Karl Oskar himself had been considering the idea of moving his family to the United States.
Despite the offerings of a better life, Kristina adamantly rejects the notion, not wanting to leave her homeland as well as being fearful of risking the lives of their four young children on the ocean.
However, the family loses Anna to hunger.
Devastated by this loss, Kristina agrees to Karl Oskar's plan to emigrate to the United States, and they begin making preparations for the journey.
Meanwhile, Kristina's uncle Danjel Andreasson comes into conflict with the parish clergy for preaching in his home the teachings of the Akian sect to which he belongs.
This leads to him, his wife Inga Lena, and their four young children being exiled from Sweden.
After this, Danjel arrives at Korpamoen to join the emigration party.
Danjel also plans to bring two of his followers to America as well, Ulrika of Vastergohl, a former prostitute, and her sixteen-year-old daughter Elin.
Robert persuades Danjel to hire Arvid and pay his fare to America.
Not long afterwards, a friend and neighbor of Karl Oskar, Ulas Petterson, also expresses an interest of going with them to North America as an escape from his unhappy marriage.
The night before their departure, Kristina reveals to Karl Oskar that she is expecting another child.
The party travels south from Korpamoen to the port city of Karlshamn, where they board the wooden brig Charlotta, which is bound for New York City.
On board, Karl Oskar and Kristina meet Mans and Fina Kajsa Andersson, an elderly couple heading for the Minnesota Territory, where they plan to settle on their son's farm near a town called Taylor's Falls.
After hearing how good the land is there, Karl Oskar and Kristina decide to follow them to Minnesota.
During the voyage, Inga Lena and Mans Andersson die of sudden illnesses, which nearly claims Kristina as well.
Upon their arrival in New York, Karl Oskar and his party along with Fina Kajsa begin the long journey westward to Minnesota, first by train, then by riverboat.
During the journey from Sweden, Karl Oskar and Kristina have had difficulties dealing with Ulrika, but they quickly reconcile during a stop during the journey on the riverboat when one of Karl Oskar and Kristina's children becomes lost, only to be found by Ulrika.
Not long afterwards, tragedy strikes the party again when Danjel's infant daughter dies after a brief illness.
The party finally arrives at the town of Stillwater and with the help of a friendly Baptist minister they are able to find their way to the widow's son's farm in what is now known as the Chisago Lakes area.
After Danjel and Ulas Petterson make their claims to fine tracts of farmland, Karl Oskar heads deep into the woods to explore the lands along the shore of lake Ki Chi Saga, now known as Chisago Lake.
Upon his arrival, he finds the topsoil to be of excellent quality and makes a claim to the land for himself and Kristina and their family by carving his initials into a tree overlooking the lake.
<EOS>
Vickie Allessio (Glenda Jackson) is a divorced British mother of two.
Steve Blackburn (George Segal) is an American married man who "has never cheated on his wife.
in the same town".
After sharing a London taxi, Steve invites Vickie to tea, then lunch, then takes Vickie to a hotel room, hoping to have sex.
Vickie admits she would like to have uncomplicated sex, but isn't impressed by the setting, wanting somewhere sunny.
Steve arranges a trip to Málaga.
Steve's wife Gloria turns up just as they are about to go, with Vickie traveling as his "mother".
He arranges plane tickets for his wife, children and in-laws.
Once at the airport, Steve bumps into friend Walter Menkes (Paul Sorvino), an American movie producer.
Unable to admit that he's with Vickie, Steve spends the flight next to Walter, and Vickie sits elsewhere.
On arrival in Málaga, Steve ends up giving the last decent car to Walter to get rid of him.
He takes an Italian car with an awkward clutch, which he has trouble driving to Vickie's discomfort and annoyance.
At the hotel, they end up struggling up several flights of stairs in order to a double room.
Once settled, the atmosphere becomes awkward, as both argue over their respective sides during sex.
Steve is persuaded to just get on top of her, but turns suddenly and causes a spasm in his back.
A doctor is called and Steve is put to sleep, while Vickie sleeps atop the bedding.
In the morning, Vickie bumps into an American lady, Patty (K Callan), but declines an invitation to dinner.
Steve wakes up to find Vickie sunning herself in a bikini on the balcony.
The two finally have sex.
Getting dressed after, Steve is disappointed in Vickie's lack of enthusiasm about their sex and becomes angered.
During a game of golf, Vickie becomes offended by Steve's need to defeat a local boy, who has placed a bet with him while playing.
As the tension mounts between them, Vickie decides to go to dinner with Patty and Steve arranges dinner with Walter.
When they arrive separately, Vickie discovers Patty is Walter's wife and the two are forced into an uncomfortable dinner with the couple.
Steve becomes offended when Vickie is amused that Steve's daughter is fat and has crooked teeth.
After an argument in the bedroom, Steve and Vickie decide to head back to London.
Steve decides not to bother reserving any plane tickets, but at the airport the last two tickets have just been sold.
Returning to the hotel, they begin to attack each other in the room.
Steve grabs Vickie atop the bed, almost ripping her dress off.
Suddenly excited, Steve tries to have sex with her, but can't undo his trouser zip.
Vickie responds, "My god, my one chance to be raped, and you can't get your bloody trousers off".
The two collapse laughing and their relationship blossoms over the remainder of the holiday.
Walter and Patty notice their blossoming relationship, and Walter confides to Steve that he had a similar holiday romance.
Walter warns that it won't work out, knowing Steve won't be able to leave his wife and kids.
Steve decides that he still wants to see Vickie when they get back to London.
They get a secret flat together, in a building occupied by "French" prostitutes.
Steve and Vickie find opportunities to meet secretly.
Steve takes the dog for a walk to go join her, but on returning home forgets the dog.
On another occasion he sneaks out during the symphony, then comes back wearing golf socks, claiming his kids must have mixed his stuff up.
Gradually, the relationship becomes more complicated.
Vickie is going to a lot of effort to be with him.
Steve comes around for sex after a baseball game in the park, but must leave in a hurry, not knowing that she has prepared a lavish meal.
Vickie, wanting some human companionship, invites her gay co-worker Cecil (Michael Elwyn) to spend the day with her, but he's not available.
Steve, feeling guilty for rushing off, gets flowers and takes them back to Vickie, finding her in the kitchen sitting in front of the meal she made.
Steve leaves without saying a word.
Vickie cancels lunch with him.
Steve's co-workers are aware something's going on, secretary,Derek (Ian Thompson) asking if he is having a "short lunch or a long lunch".
He arranges to meet with her in the evening, despite having a very heavy workload, forgetting that he is attending the theatre with his wife.
When his wife then calls demanding to know why he is late for the Harold Pinter play, he tries to call Vickie, but is unable to reach her.
Vickie sees Steve and Gloria at the theatre together as she is out shopping for the meal she is cooking.
When Steve eventually turns up at their flat, he tells Vickie he's been working late, but she confronts him about the theatre.
Eventually she breaks down and sits quietly at the table, concerned that she is "beginning to sound like a wife".
The next morning Steve sends a telegram to the flat for Vickie, telling her that it is over between them.
However, on returning home later he changes his mind, and runs out the door.
Vickie, however has been given the telegram, which he thought had been cancelled, and begins packing her belongings to leave.
When Steve gets to the flat, having bought food to cook for them, he finds a record playing and Vickie gone.
Looking out the window he sees her standing at the bus stop.
He bangs on the window to get her attention but she doesn't seem to notice and gives up waiting for a bus.
She walks along and hails a taxi, which another man hails down in an echo of Vickie and Steve in the beginning of the film.
Vickie asks the man, who is handsome and smiles, if he is married.
When he says yes, Vickie walks off and leaves him the taxi.
<EOS>
Architect Doug Roberts returns to San Francisco for the dedication of the Glass Tower, which he designed for owner James Duncan.
At 138 stories (1,800&nbsp;ft/550&nbsp;m), it is the world's tallest building, a combination of offices on the lower floors and apartments starting on the 80th floor, billed as a self-contained place where people can both work and live.
Shortly after his arrival, an electrical short starts an undetected fire on the 81st floor.
While Roberts accuses the building's electrical engineer, Roger Simmons of cutting corners, Simmons insists the building is up to standards.
During the dedication ceremony, public relations chief Dan Bigelow is ordered to turn on the tower's exterior lights to impress the guests and dignitaries.
The lighting overloads the electrical system and Roberts orders it shut off.
Smoke is seen on the 81st floor and the San Francisco Fire Department is summoned.
Roberts and engineer Will Giddings go to the 81st floor but fail to prevent a security guard opening a door, leading to a fire flash which results in Giddings being hospitalized (then later revealed died from this accident).
Roberts reports the fire to a dismissive Duncan, who refuses to order an evacuation.
Ill-equipped firefighters arrive to tackle the blaze, which soon spreads out of control.
SFFD Chief Michael O'Halloran forces Duncan to evacuate the guests in the Promenade Room on the 135th floor, directing them to express elevators.
A guest, Lisolette Mueller, who is being wooed by con man Harlee Claiborne, rushes to the 87th floor to check on a young family.
Simmons admits to Duncan that he did indeed cut corners, at a time when Duncan had over-budgeted construction and was ordering subcontractors back under budget.
Evacuation of the Promenade Room via the express elevators begins and is directed by Duncan, with Senator Parker and Mayor Ramsey assisting.
The elevator evacuation, however, is soon halted as the fire renders the express elevators unsafe.
Ignoring Duncan's warning, one group of people board an elevator in an attempt to escape.
However, this proves fatal as the group is killed when the elevator stops on the fire's floor.
The fire also traps Bigelow and his secretary/mistress Lorrie in his 65th floor office, killing them.
Senator Parker suggests using the stairs to escape, but one stairway is smoke-filled, and the other stairway door is blocked due to a wheelbarrow full of hardened cement on the other side.
Security Chief Harry Jernigan and Roberts rescue Mueller and the family from 87.
Jernigan gets the mother out safely but Roberts, Mueller and the two children are halted by a collapsed stairwell.
They make a perilous climb down the stairs but fire forces them up to the Promenade Room.
With fire suppression efforts becoming ineffective, the building loses electrical power and O'Halloran's men are forced to rappel down an elevator shaft.
A rooftop rescue results in disaster as guests rush the helicopter, causing it to crash, setting the roof ablaze and rendering further rooftop rescues impossible.
Naval rescue teams attach a breeches buoy to the adjacent Peerless Building and rescue a number of guests, including Patty Simmons, who is Duncan's daughter.
Roberts rigs a gravity brake on the external scenic elevator allowing twelve people, to include Mueller, the children, and a fireman one trip down, with the remaining eight being ladies chosen by lottery, one of whom is Roberts' girlfriend Susan.
An explosion leaves the descending elevator hanging by a single cable at the 110th floor, where Mueller falls to her death.
A Navy helicopter (with O'Halloran aboard) saves the rest by latching itself to the elevator.
Simmons tells Duncan that he and the men will use the breeches buoy next, but Duncan punches him, saying everyone drew numbers and will go when its their turn, and that he and his son-in-law will be the last to leave.
The fire reaches the Promenade Room and Simmons and some men force their way onto the buoy, leading to a struggle.
Senator Parker tries to stop Simmons and the buoy, but is pushed to his death by Simmons.
An explosion follows soon after, severing the lines to the breeches buoy, causing Simmons and others to also fall to their deaths.
An SFFD deputy chief summons O'Halloran with a plan to explode the million-gallon water tanks atop the building to extinguish the fire.
Knowing it could result in his death, O'Halloran meets with Roberts and they set C-4 on the six water tanks on the 138th floor.
They return to the Promenade Room, where the remaining guests tie themselves down.
O'Halloran, Roberts, Duncan, Claiborne and most of the party-goers survive as water rushes through the building, extinguishing the flames.
On the ground, Claiborne learns that Mueller did not survive and is heartbroken.
Jernigan gives him Mueller's pet cat.
Duncan consoles Patty over her husband's death (but does not disclose the cowardly way he died).
Looking up at the tower, Duncan promises that such a tragic debacle will never happen again in the future.
Roberts says to Susan that he does not know what will become of the building, and perhaps it should be left in its fire-damaged state as "a kind of shrine to all the bullshit in the world".
Informing Roberts that the casualty toll numbered less than 200, O'Halloran says they were lucky.
Roberts agrees to consult with fire officials in the future when such buildings are designed.
O'Halloran drives away, exhausted.
<EOS>
On August 22, 1972, first-time crook Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino), his friend Salvatore "Sal" Naturale (John Cazale), and Stevie (Gary Springer) attempt to rob the First Brooklyn Savings Bank.
The plan immediately goes awry when Stevie loses his nerve shortly after Sal pulls out his gun, and Sonny is forced to let him flee the scene.
In the vault, Sonny discovers that he and Sal have arrived after the daily cash pickup, and only $1,100 in cash remains in the bank.
To compensate, Sonny takes a number of traveler's cheques.
He attempts to prevent the cheques from being traced by burning the bank's register in a trash can, but this causes smoke to billow out the side of the building, alerting the business across the street to suspicious activities.
Within minutes, the building is surrounded by the police.
Unsure of what to do, the two robbers camp out in the bank, holding all the workers hostage.
Police Detective Sergeant Eugene Moretti (Charles Durning) calls the bank to tell Sonny that the police have arrived.
Sonny warns that he and Sal have hostages and will kill them if anyone tries coming into the bank.
Sal tells Sonny that he is ready to kill the hostages if necessary.
Detective Moretti acts as hostage negotiator, while FBI Agent Sheldon (James Broderick) monitors his actions.
Howard Calvin (John Marriott), the security guard, has an asthma attack, so Sonny releases him when Moretti asks for a hostage as a sign of good faith.
Moretti convinces Sonny to step outside the bank to see how aggressive the police forces are.
Using head teller Sylvia "The Mouth" (Penelope Allen) as a shield, Sonny exits the bank and begins a dialogue with Moretti that culminates in his shouting "Attica.
Attica.
" (invoking the recent Attica Prison riot), and the civilian crowd starts cheering for Sonny.
After realizing they cannot make a simple getaway, Sonny demands that a helicopter be landed on the roof to fly him and Sal out of the country.
When they are informed that the asphalt roof of the bank will not support a helicopter, Sonny demands that a vehicle drive him and Sal to an airport so that they can board a jet.
He also demands pizzas for the hostages (which are delivered to the scene) and that his wife be brought to the bank.
When Sonny's wife, Leon Shermer (Chris Sarandon), a pre-operative transgender woman, arrives, she reveals to the crowd and officials one of Sonny's reasons for robbing the bank is to pay for Leon's sex reassignment surgery, and that Sonny also has an estranged divorced wife, Angie (Susan Peretz), and children.
As night sets in, the lights in the bank all shut off.
Sonny goes outside again and discovers that Agent Sheldon has taken command of the scene.
He refuses to give Sonny any more favors, but when the bank manager, Mulvaney (Sully Boyar), goes into a diabetic shock, Agent Sheldon lets a doctor (Philip Charles MacKenzie) through.
While the doctor is inside the bank, Sheldon convinces Leon to talk to Sonny on the phone.
The two have a lengthy conversation that reveals Leon had attempted suicide to "get away from" Sonny.
She had been hospitalized at the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital until the police brought her to the scene.
Leon turns down Sonny's offer to join him and Sal to wherever they take the plane.
Sonny tells police listening to the phone call that Leon had nothing to do with the robbery attempt.
After the phone call, the doctor asks Sonny to let Mulvaney leave and Sonny agrees.
Mulvaney refuses, instead insisting that he remain with his employees.
The FBI calls Sonny out of the bank again.
They have brought his mother to the scene.
She unsuccessfully tries persuading him to give himself up, and Agent Sheldon signals that a limousine will arrive in 10 minutes to take them to a waiting jet.
Once back inside the bank, Sonny writes out his will, leaving money from his life insurance to Leon for her sex change and to Angie.
When the limousine arrives, Sonny checks it for any hidden weapons or booby traps.
When he decides the car is satisfactory, he settles on Agent Murphy (Lance Henriksen) to drive Sonny, Sal, and the remaining hostages to Kennedy Airport.
Per Sonny's earlier agreement, an additional hostage, Edna (Estelle Omens) is released, and the remaining hostages get into the limousine with Sonny and Sal.
Sonny sits in the front next to Murphy while Sal sits behind them.
Murphy repeatedly asks Sal to point his gun at the roof so Sal won't accidentally shoot him.
As they wait on the airport tarmac for the plane to taxi into position, he again reminds Sal to aim his gun up so he does not fire by accident.
Sal does so, and Agent Sheldon forces Sonny's weapon onto the dashboard, creating a distraction which allows Murphy to pull a revolver hidden in his armrest and shoot Sal in the head.
Sonny is immediately arrested and the hostages are all escorted to the terminal.
The film ends with Sonny watching Sal's body being taken from the car on a stretcher.
Subtitles reveal that Sonny was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Angie and her children subsisted on welfare, and Leon had her sex reassignment surgery.
<EOS>
During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Midwesterner Guthrie (David Carradine) plays music locally but cannot make enough as a sign painter to support his wife (Melinda Dillon) and children.
With only his paintbrushes, Woody joins the migration westward from the Dust Bowl to supposedly greener California pastures via boxcar and hitchhiking.
Much of the film is based on Guthrie's attempt to humanize the desperate Okie Dust Bowl refugees in California during the Great Depression.
<EOS>
Howard Beale, the longtime anchor of the Union Broadcasting System's UBS Evening News, learns from friend and news division president Max Schumacher that he has just two more weeks on the air because of declining ratings.
The two get drunk and lament the state of their industry.
The following night, Beale announces on live television that he will commit suicide on next Tuesday's broadcast.
UBS fires him after this incident, but Schumacher intervenes so that Beale can have a dignified farewell.
Beale promises he will apologize for his outburst, but once on the air, he launches back into a rant claiming that life is "bullshit".
Beale's outburst causes the newscast's ratings to spike, and much to Schumacher's dismay, the upper echelons of UBS decide to exploit Beale's antics rather than pull him off the air.
In one impassioned diatribe, Beale galvanizes the nation, persuading his viewers to shout out of their windows "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore.
"  Diana Christensen heads the network's programming department; seeking just one hit show, she cuts a deal with a band of radical terrorists for a new docudrama series called The Mao Tse-Tung Hour for the upcoming fall season.
When Beale's ratings seem to have topped out, Christensen approaches Schumacher and offers to help him "develop" the news show.
He says no to the professional offer, but not to the personal one, and the two begin an affair.
When Schumacher decides to end Beale as the "angry man" format, Christensen convinces her boss, Frank Hackett, to slot the evening news show under the entertainment division so she can develop it.
Hackett agrees, bullying the UBS executives to consent and fire Schumacher.
Soon afterward, Beale is hosting a new program called The Howard Beale Show, top-billed as "the mad prophet of the airwaves".
Ultimately, the show becomes the most highly rated program on television, and Beale finds new celebrity preaching his angry message in front of a live studio audience that, on cue, chants Beale's signature catchphrase en masse: "We're as mad as hell, and we're not going to take this anymore".
At first, Max and Diana's romance withers as the show flourishes, but in the flush of high ratings, the two ultimately find their way back together, and Schumacher leaves his wife of over 25 years for Christensen.
But Christensen's fanatical devotion to her job and emotional emptiness ultimately drive Max back to try returning to his wife, even though he doesn't think she'll agree, and he warns his former lover that she will self-destruct at the pace she is running with her career.
"You are television incarnate, Diana," he tells her, "indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy.
All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality".
When Beale discovers that Communications Corporation of America (CCA), the conglomerate that owns UBS, will be bought out by an even larger Saudi Arabian conglomerate, he launches an on-screen tirade against the deal, encouraging viewers to send telegrams to the White House telling them, "I want the CCA deal stopped now.
" This throws the top network brass into a state of panic because the company's debt load has made the merger essential for its survival.
Hackett takes Beale to meet with CCA chairman Arthur Jensen, who explicates his own "corporate cosmology" to Beale, describing the interrelatedness of the participants in the international economy and the illusory nature of nationality distinctions.
Jensen persuades Beale to abandon the populist messages and preach his new "evangel".
However, television audiences find his new sermons on the dehumanization of society depressing, and ratings begin to slide, yet Jensen will not allow UBS executives to fire Beale.
Seeing its two-for-the-price-of-one value—solving the Beale problem plus sparking a boost in season-opener ratings—Christensen, Hackett, and the other executives decide to hire the Ecumenical Liberation Army to assassinate Beale on the air.
The assassination succeeds, putting an end to The Howard Beale Show and kicking off a second season of The Mao Tse-Tung Hour.
<EOS>
Dancer Paula McFadden (Marsha Mason) and her ten-year-old daughter Lucy (Quinn Cummings) live in a Manhattan apartment with her married boyfriend, Tony DeForrest, until one day, he deserts her to go act in a movie in Italy.
Before he left and unbeknownst to Paula, Tony subleased the apartment to Elliot Garfield (Richard Dreyfuss), a neurotic but sweet aspiring actor from Chicago, who shows up in the middle of the night expecting to move in.
Though Paula is demanding, and makes clear from the start that she doesn't like Elliot, he allows her and Lucy to stay.
Paula struggles to get back into shape to resume her career as a dancer.
Meanwhile, Elliot has landed the title role in an off-off-Broadway production of Richard III, but the director, Mark (Paul Benedict), wants him to play the character as an exaggerated stereotype of a homosexual, in Mark's words, "the queen who wanted to be king".
Reluctantly, Elliot agrees to play the role, despite full knowledge that it may mean the end of his career as an actor.
Many theater critics from television stations and newspapers in New York City attend opening night, and they all savage the production, especially Elliot's performance.
The play quickly closes, much to his relief.
Despite their frequent clashes and Paula's ungrateful attitude to Elliot helping her, the two fall in love and sleep together.
However, Lucy, although she likes Elliot, sees the affair as a repeat of what happened with Tony.
Elliot convinces Paula that he will not be like that and later picks up Lucy from school and takes her on a carriage ride, during which Lucy admits that she likes Elliot, and he admits that he likes her and Paula and will not do anything to hurt them.
Elliot gets a job at an improv theater, and is soon seen by a movie producer.
He is offered an opportunity for a role in a movie that he cannot turn down, the only catch is that the job is in Seattle and Elliot will be gone for four weeks.
Paula is informed of this and is scared that Elliot is leaving her, never to return, like all the other men in her life.
Later, Elliot calls Paula from the phone booth across the street from the apartment, telling her that the flight was delayed, and at the last minute, Elliot invites Paula to go with him while he is filming the picture and suggests Lucy stay with a friend until they return.
Paula declines but is happy because she knows that Elliot's invitation is evidence that he loves her and will come back.
Before hanging up, Elliot asks Paula to have his prized guitar restrung, which he had deliberately left at the apartment, and she realizes this as further proof that he will indeed return and that he really does love her.
<EOS>
In the final days of the Italian Campaign of World War II, Hana, a French-Canadian nurse working and living in a bombed-out Italian monastery, looks after a critically burned man who speaks English but cannot remember his name.
They are joined by Kip, a Sikh sapper in the British Army who defuses bombs and has a love affair with Hana before leaving, and David Caravaggio, a Canadian Intelligence Corps operative who was questioned by Germans and has had his thumbs cut off during a German interrogation.
He questions the patient, who gradually reveals his past.
The patient tells Hana and Caravaggio that, in the late 1930s, he was exploring the desert of Libya.
He is revealed to be Hungarian cartographer Count László de Almásy, who was mapping the Sahara as part of a Royal Geographical Society archeological and surveying expedition in Egypt and Libya with Englishman Peter Madox and others.
Their expedition is joined by a British couple, Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton.
Katharine and Almásy have an affair, which she abruptly ends.
The explorers find and document the Cave of Swimmers and the surrounding area until they are stopped due to the onset of the war.
Madox leaves his Tiger Moth plane at Kufra oasis before returning to England.
While Almásy is packing up their base camp, Geoffrey, in attempted murder-suicide, deliberately crashes his plane, narrowly missing Almásy.
Geoffrey is killed instantly, Katharine is seriously injured.
Almásy carries her to the cave, leaving her with provisions, and begins a three-day walk to get help.
At British-held El Tag he attempts to explain the situation, but is detained as a possible German spy and transported on a train.
He escapes from the train and trades the Geographical Society maps to the Germans for gasoline.
He finds Madox's Tiger Moth and flies back to the cave, but Katharine has died.
As he flies himself and Katharine's body away, they are shot down by German anti-aircraft guns.
Katharine's body is not recovered; Almásy is badly burned but is rescued by a Bedouin.
After he has related the story, Almásy asks Hana for a lethal dose of morphine; she complies and reads Katharine's final journal entries to him as he dies.
She and Caravaggio leave the monastery for Florence.
<EOS>
The film follows Kaspar Hauser, who lived the first seventeen years of his life chained in a tiny cellar with only a toy horse to occupy his time, devoid of all human contact except for a man, wearing a black overcoat and top hat, who feeds him.
One day, in 1828, the same man takes Hauser out of his cell, teaches him a few phrases, and how to walk, before leaving him in the town of Nuremberg.
Hauser becomes the subject of much curiosity, and is exhibited in a circus before being rescued by Professor Georg Friedrich Daumer, who patiently attempts to transform him.
Hauser soon learns to read and write, and develops unorthodox approaches to logic and religion; but music is what pleases him most.
He attracts the attention of academics, clergy and nobility, but is then physically attacked by the same unknown man who brought him to Nuremberg.
The attack leaves him unconscious with a bleeding head.
He recovers, but is again mysteriously attacked; this time, stabbed in the chest.
Hauser rests in bed describing visions he has had of nomadic Berbers in the Sahara Desert, and then dies.
An autopsy reveals an enlarged liver and cerebellum.
<EOS>
In 1964, in Erie, Pennsylvania, aspiring jazz drummer Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) is asked by Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech) and Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn) to sit in with their band at an annual talent show, after their regular drummer breaks his arm trying to jump over a parking meter.
The band, which also includes a bass player (Ethan Embry), adopts the name "The Oneders" (pronounced "wonders", but often mispronounced "oh-NEE-ders").
At the talent show, Guy launches into a faster tempo than intended for Jimmy's ballad, "That Thing You Do", and the band wins the competition.
The Oneders' performance at the talent show earns them a paying gig at a local restaurant, where they begin to sell recordings of "That Thing You Do" and are noticed by talent promoter Phil Horace (Chris Ellis), whom they hire as their manager.
Horace achieves radio airplay for the song and books the band at a rock & roll showcase concert in Pittsburgh, after which they are offered a contract by Play-Tone Records A&R representative mr White (Hanks).
White changes the band's name to "The Wonders" as they join a Midwestern Play-Tone tour, taking along Jimmy's girlfriend, Faye (Liv Tyler) as their official "costume mistress".
During the tour, "That Thing You Do" garners national radio airplay and becomes a bona-fide hit.
As the band's popularity soars, Jimmy grows frustrated that the group is not focused on creating more music, while the remainder of the band enjoys their time in the spotlight.
All the while, Guy and Faye grow closer as friends.
When the song enters the top ten on the Billboard charts, the band is taken off the tour and sent to Los Angeles.
Faye falls ill on the trip and is nursed by Guy.
Jimmy is seemingly uninterested in her well-being, being preoccupied with trying to convince White to let the band record more of his original songs.
After a publicity tour, the band is set to appear on The Hollywood Television Showcase, a nationally-televised live variety show.
They begin to show signs of discord.
Jimmy continues to vent frustration at White over the band's direction.
The bass player (who was leaving to join the United States Marine Corps in a few weeks) goes to Disneyland with a group of Marines and never returns; he is replaced in the broadcast by a session bassist.
During the performance, as the band is being visually introduced to the viewing audience, the caption "Careful girls, he's engaged.
" appears under Jimmy's name.
Jimmy becomes upset with Faye in the dressing room afterward, and says that he has no intention of marrying her.
Heartbroken and weary with his arrogant personality and lack of devotion, Faye terminates their relationship.
The next day at a scheduled recording session, Lenny is missing, and Jimmy's grievances with White reach a boiling point and he quits the band.
Guy is sorry to see the end of the band.
White confronts him, and declares the band a one-hit wonder, but commends Guy for his smarts and integrity.
After an impromptu jam session with his idol, jazz pianist Del Paxton (Bill Cobbs), Guy returns to the band's hotel, where he meets Faye and shares a long kiss with her.
In an epilogue, it is revealed that Jimmy went back to Play-Tone and forms another band (The Heardsmen) and has a successful career as an artist and producer, Lenny becomes a casino manager, and the bass player earns a Purple Heart for injuries suffered at Khe Sanh.
Guy and Faye start a family in Washington, where Guy teaches jazz composition at a music conservatory that he and Faye open.
<EOS>
Dr.
Robotnik's space station, the Death Egg, crash-lands on a mystical floating landmass called Angel Island after Sonic and Tails defeat him at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
As Robotnik begins to repair the damaged station, he meets Knuckles the Echidna, the last surviving member of an ancient echidna civilization that once inhabited the island, as well as the guardian of the Master Emerald, which grants the island its levitation powers.
Realizing Sonic and Tails will try to track him down, Robotnik dupes Knuckles into believing Sonic is trying to steal the Master Emerald, turning the two against each other while Robotnik tries to repair his space station.
Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails approach Angel Island in their biplane, the "Tornado".
Sonic jumps off the plane and, using the Chaos Emeralds, turns into Super Sonic, and zooms towards the island.
When they arrive, Knuckles ambushes Sonic from underground, steals the emeralds, and disappears inland.
As Sonic and Tails travel through the island, they frequently encounter Knuckles and Robotnik, who hinder their progress with various traps.
Sonic and Tails eventually arrive at the Launch Base, where the destroyed Death Egg is being repaired.
They fight with Knuckles, but the Death Egg launches back into the sky, leaving him behind.
They fight Robotnik one last time on a platform attached to the underside of the Death Egg.
They defeat him, and the resulting explosion drops Sonic and Tails away from the Death Egg, which crash-lands farther off on Angel Island again.
The story is continued in Sonic & Knuckles.
<EOS>
The novel is set in an era in which interstellar travel is in the process of being discovered and perfected.
Before the novel's opening, "hyper-assistance", a technology allowing travel at a little slower than the speed of light, is used to move a reclusive space station colony called Rotor from the vicinity of Earth to the newly discovered red dwarf, Nemesis.
There, it takes up orbit around the semi-habitable moon, Erythro, named for the red light that falls on it.
It is eventually discovered that the bacterial life on Erythro forms a collective organism that possesses a form of consciousness and telepathy (a concept similar to the Gaia of Asimov's Foundation series).
While the colonists argue over the direction of future colonization—down to Erythro, or up to the asteroid belts of Nemesis system—events catch up with them.
Back on Earth superluminal flight is perfected, ending Rotor Colony's isolation and opening the galaxy to human exploration.
The story also relates the breakup and reunion of a family (the mother, the discoverer of Nemesis, and the daughter were separated from the Earthbound father when the colony departed; the father becomes part of the hyperjump research project as a result); the startling discovery that the bacterial inhabitants of Erythro, collectively, constitute a sentient and telepathic organism; and the discovery and resolution of a massive crisis: Nemesis' trajectory threatens to gravitationally destabilize the Solar System.
<EOS>
Tucker Case (Tuck), is a pilot for a cosmetics company, who crashes the company plane while having sex.
This event causes Tuck to be blacklisted from flying in the United States, so he accepts a lucrative offer from a doctor-missionary on a remote Micronesian island to transport cargo to and from the island and Japan.
Tuck moves to the island with a Filipino trans woman navigator and a talking fruit bat.
There Tuck eventually uncovers a horrible secret harbored by the doctor and his wife, who capitalized on fact that the island natives are under the influence of a cargo cult that developed as a result of establishment by Allies of an air runway there during World War II.
Tuck's shock over the gruesome immorality of the situation leads to an adventurous and suspenseful climax.
<EOS>
Pine Cove suffers a major crisis when the town psychiatrist, Val Riordan &mdash; who has been haphazardly issuing prescriptions instead of dealing with the real mental problems of her patients &mdash; suffers a sudden bout of guilt and substitutes all of her patients' anti-depressants with placebos.
At this same time, by coincidence, human-generated environmental activity stirs a prehistoric sea-beast from its underwater keep to come ashore.
In addition to its ability to change form, the beast exudes a pheromone that inspires uncontrollable lust among the residents of Pine Cove and also lures some of them as prey.
After mistakenly trying to mate with a fuel truck (causing an explosion), the beast hides in a trailer park, attracting the curiosity of local crazy lady and former B-movie star Molly Michon, who builds a rapport with the injured beast.
Meanwhile, Theophilus Crowe, the town constable, investigates a strange suicide, the activities of his corrupt boss, and his adversely affected marijuana habit.
When the beast (whom Molly has named "Steve") starts eating residents of Pine Cove and interfering with Theo's boss's methamphetamine business, Molly (who has become romantically involved with the beast) and Theo band together to make possible the beast's safe escape and to take down the boss at the same time.
<EOS>
Generals Miki and Washizu are Samurai commanders under a local lord, Lord Tsuzuki, who reigns in the castle of the Spider's Web Forest.
After defeating the lord's enemies in battle, they return to Tsuzuki's castle.
On their way through the thick forest surrounding the castle, they meet a spirit, who foretells their future.
The spirit tells them that today Washizu will be named Lord of the Northern Garrison and Miki will now be commander of the first fortress.
She then foretells that Washizu will eventually become Lord of Spider's Web Castle, and finally she tells Miki that his son will also become lord of the castle.
When the two return to Tsuzuki's estate, he rewards them with exactly what the spirit had predicted.
As Washizu discusses this with Asaji, his wife, she manipulates him into making the second part of the prophecy come true by killing Tsuzuki when he visits.
Washizu kills him with the help of his wife, who gives drugged sake to the lord's guards, causing them to fall asleep.
When Washizu returns in shock at his deed, Asaji grabs the bloody spear and puts it in the hands of one of the three unconscious guards.
She then yells "murder" through the courtyard, and Washizu slays the guard before he has a chance to plead his innocence.
Tsuzuki's vengeful son Kunimaru and an advisor to Tsuzuki, Noriyasu, both suspect Washizu as the traitor and try to warn Miki, who refuses to believe what they are saying about his friend.
Washizu is unsure of Miki's loyalty, but chooses Miki's son as his heir, since he and Asaji have been unable to bear a child of their own.
Washizu plans to tell Miki and his son about his decision at a grand banquet, but Asaji tells him that she is pregnant, which leaves him with a quandary concerning his heir, as now Miki and his son have to be eliminated.
During the banquet Washizu drinks sake copiously because he is clearly agitated, and at the sudden appearance of Miki's ghost, begins losing control.
In his delusional panic, he reveals his betrayal to all by exclaiming that he is willing to slay Miki for a second time, going so far as unsheathing his sword and striking over Miki's mat.
Asaji, attempting to pick up the pieces of Washizu's blunder, tells the guests that he is drunk and that they must retire for the evening.
Then one of his men arrives with the severed head of Miki.
The guard also tells them that Miki's son escaped.
Later, distraught upon hearing of his child is stillborn and in dire need of help with the impending battle with his foes, he returns to the forest to summon the spirit.
She tells him that he will not be defeated unless the very trees of Spider's Web forest rise against the castle.
Washizu believes this is impossible and is confident of his victory.
Washizu knows he must kill all his enemies, so he tells his troops of the last prophecy, and they share his confidence.
The next morning, Washizu is awakened by the screams of attendants.
Striding into his wife's quarters, he finds Asaji in a semi-catatonic state, trying to wash clean the imaginary foul stench of blood from her hands, obviously distraught at her grave misdeeds.
Distracted by the sound of his troops moving outside the room, he investigates and is told by a panicked soldier that the trees of Spider's Web forest "have risen to attack us".
The prophecy has come true and Washizu is doomed.
As Washizu tries to get his troops to attack, they remain still.
Disillusioned with his increasingly unstable leadership, the troops finally accuse Washizu of the murder of Tsuzuki.
For his treachery they turn on their master and begin firing arrows at him, also to appease Miki's son and Noriyasu.
Washizu finally succumbs to his wounds just as his enemies approach the castle gates.
It is revealed that the attacking force is using trees cut down during the previous night to disguise and protect themselves in their advance on the castle.
<EOS>
In the spring of 1968 in California, Sally (Jane Fonda), a loyal and conservative military wife, is married to Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern), a captain in the United States Marine Corps who is about to be deployed to Vietnam.
As a dedicated military officer, Bob sees it primarily as an opportunity for progress.
At first, Sally dreads being left alone, but after a while she feels liberated.
Forced to find housing off the base, she moves into a new apartment by the beach and buys a sports car.
With nothing else to do, she decides to volunteer at a local veterans' hospital.
This, in part, is motivated by her bohemian friend Vi Munson (Penelope Milford), whose brother Billy has come home after just two weeks in Vietnam with grave emotional problems and now resides in the VA hospital.
At the hospital, Sally meets Luke Martin (Jon Voight), a former high school classmate.
Like his friend Billy (Robert Carradine), Luke had gone to Vietnam but come back wounded.
He is recuperating at the hospital from the injuries he sustained which left him a paraplegic.
Filled with pain, anger, and frustration, Luke is now opposed to the war.
Luke at first is a bitter young man, but as he is increasingly thrown into contact with Sally, a relationship starts to develop.
Eventually, Luke is released from the hospital, and, newly mobile with his own wheelchair, begins to rebuild his life.
His relationship with Sally deepens.
She is also transformed by him and her outlook on life starts to change.
They have happy times, play at the beach, and the two fall in love.
Meanwhile, Billy, traumatized by his experiences at war, commits suicide by injecting air into his veins.
After Billy’s suicide, Luke has only one obsession: do anything to stop sending young men off to war.
Sally and Luke eventually make love, confronting his handicap.
It is the first time Sally has had an orgasm.
However, she remains loyal to her husband, and both she and Luke know their relationship will have to end when her husband returns home.
Bob does return, too soon, claiming he accidentally wounded himself in the leg.
He is also suffering from post traumatic stress disorder from what he has seen in combat.
Bob then discovers Sally’s affair from Army Intelligence and both Sally and Luke agree that Sally should try to patch things up with Bob.
Bob loses control; menacingly confronting the lovers with a loaded rifle, but ultimately turns away.
The film ends with Luke speaking to young men about his experience in Vietnam, intercut with Bob placing his neatly folded Marine dress uniform on the beach, and swimming out into the ocean in the nude.
<EOS>
Joe Pendleton, a backup quarterback for the American football team Los Angeles Rams, is looking forward to leading his team to the Super Bowl.
While riding his bicycle through the older west side of tunnel one on Kanan-Dume road in Malibu, he collides with a truck.
An over-anxious guardian angel, known only as The Escort, on his first assignment plucks Joe out of his body early, in the mistaken belief that his death is imminent, and Pendleton arrives in the afterlife.
Once there, he refuses to believe that his time was up and, upon investigation, the mysterious mr Jordan discovers that he is right: he was not destined to die until much later (10:17 am on March 20, 2025, to be exact).
Unfortunately, his body has already been cremated, so a new body must be found.
After rejecting several possibilities of men who are about to die, Joe is finally persuaded to accept the body of a millionaire industrialist.
Leo Farnsworth has just been drugged and drowned in his bathtub by his cheating gold digger wife Julia Farnsworth and her lover, Farnsworth's personal secretary, Tony Abbott.
Julia and Tony are naturally confused when Leo reappears, alive and well.
Leo buys the Los Angeles Rams to lead them to the Super Bowl as their quarterback.
To succeed, he must first convince, and then secure the aid of, long-time friend and trainer Max Corkle to get his new body in shape.
At the same time, he falls in love with an environmental activist, Betty Logan, who disapproves of the original Farnsworth's policies and actions.
With the Rams about to play in the Super Bowl, the characters all face a crisis.
mr Jordan informs Farnsworth that he must give up this body as well.
Farnsworth resists, but hints to Betty that she might someday meet someone else and should think of him.
Julia and Abbott continue their murderous plans, and Abbott shoots Farnsworth dead.
The Rams are forced to start another quarterback, Tom Jarrett, in the climactic game.
A detective, lt Krim, interrogates the suspects while they watch the game on TV.
With the help of Corkle, he gets Julia and Abbott to incriminate one another.
After a brutal hit on the field, Jarrett is himself killed.
With mr Jordan's help, Joe then occupies his final body.
He is shown snapping to life in Jarrett's body, then leading the Rams to victory.
During the team's post-game celebration, mr Jordan removes Joe's memory of his past life and departs.
Joe becomes Tom Jarrett and the cosmic balance is restored.
The one left crestfallen is Corkle, who understands what really happened.
Jarrett bumps into Betty while leaving the stadium.
They strike up a conversation, and Betty suddenly experiences a realization who he really is.
<EOS>
On October 6, 1970, while on holiday in Istanbul, Turkey, American college student Billy Hayes straps 2&nbsp;kg of hashish blocks to his chest.
While attempting to board a plane back to the United States with his girlfriend, Billy is arrested by Turkish police on high alert due to fear of terrorist attacks.
He is strip-searched, photographed and questioned.
After a while, a shadowy American (who is never named, but is nicknamed "Tex" by Billy due to his thick Texan accent) arrives, takes Billy to a police station and translates Billy's English for one of the detectives.
On questioning Billy tells them that he bought the hashish from a taxicab driver, and offers to help the police track him down in exchange for his release.
Billy goes with the police to a nearby market and points out the cab driver, but when they go to arrest the cabbie, it becomes apparent that the police have no intention of keeping their end of the deal with Billy.
He sees an opportunity and makes a run for it, only to get cornered and recaptured by the mysterious American.
During his first night in holding at a local jail, a freezing-cold Billy sneaks out of his cell and steals a blanket.
Later that night he is rousted from his cell and brutally beaten by chief guard Hamidou for the blanket theft.
He wakes a few days later in Sağmalcılar Prison, surrounded by fellow Western prisoners Jimmy (an American—in for stealing two candlesticks from a mosque), Max (an English heroin addict) and Erich (a Swede) who help him to his feet.
Jimmy tells Billy that the prison is a dangerous place for foreigners like themselves, and that no one can be trusted—not even the young children.
Billy meets his father along with aS representative and a Turkish lawyer to discuss what will happen to him.
Billy is sent to trial for his case where the angry prosecutor makes a case against him for drug smuggling.
The lead judge is sympathetic to Billy and gives him only a four-year sentence for drug possession.
Billy and his father are horrified at the outcome but their Turkish lawyer insists that the term is a very good result.
Jimmy tries to encourage Billy to become part of an escape attempt through the prison's tunnels.
Believing he is to be released soon, Billy rebuffs Jimmy who goes on to attempt an escape himself; he is brutally beaten when he's caught.
In 1974, Billy's sentence is overturned by the Turkish High Court in Ankara after a prosecution appeal (the prosecutor originally wished to have him found guilty of smuggling and not the lesser charge of possession), and he is ordered to serve a 30-years-to-life term for his crime.
Billy goes along with a prison-break Jimmy has masterminded.
Billy, Jimmy, and Max try to escape through the catacombs below the prison, but their plans are revealed to the prison authorities by fellow-prisoner Rifki.
His stay becomes harsh and brutal: terrifying scenes of physical and mental torture follow one another, culminating in Billy having a breakdown.
He beats up and nearly kills Rifki.
Following this breakdown, he is sent to the prison's ward for the insane where he wanders in a daze among the other disturbed and catatonic prisoners.
He meets fellow prisoner Ahmet whilst participating in the regular inmate activity of walking in a circle around a pillar.
Ahmet claims to be a philosopher from Oxford University and engages him in conversation to which Billy is unresponsive.
In 1975, Billy's girlfriend Susan comes to see him.
Devastated at what has happened to Billy, she tells him that he has to escape or else he will die in there.
She leaves him a scrapbook with money hidden inside as "a picture of your good friend mr Franklin from the bank", hoping Billy can use it to help him escape.
Her visit moves Billy strongly, and he regains his senses.
He says goodbye to Max, telling him not to die and promising to come back for him.
He bribes Hamidou into taking him to the sanitarium, where there are no guards.
Instead, Hamidou takes Billy past the sanitarium to another room—and prepares to rape him.
Fighting back, Billy inadvertently kills Hamidou by pushing him onto a coat hook.
He seizes the opportunity to escape by putting on a guard's uniform and walking out of the front door.
In the epilogue, it is explained that—on the night of October 4, 1975—he successfully crossed the border to Greece, and arrived home three weeks later.
<EOS>
Wealthy New York City wife Erica Benton's (Jill Clayburgh) perfect life is shattered when her stockbroker husband Martin (Michael Murphy) leaves her for a younger woman.
The film documents Erica's attempts at being single again, where she suffers confusion, sadness, and rage.
As her life progresses, she begins to bond with several friends and finds herself inspired and even happier by her renewed liberation.
The story also touches on the overall sexual liberation of the 1970s.
Erica eventually finds love with a rugged, yet sensitive British artist (Alan Bates).
<EOS>
Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) is a workaholic advertising executive who has just been assigned a new and very important account.
Ted arrives home and shares the good news with his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) only to find that she is leaving him.
Saying that she needs to find herself, she leaves Ted to raise their son Billy (Justin Henry) by himself.
Ted and Billy initially resent one another as Ted no longer has time to carry his increased workload and Billy misses his mother's love and attention.
After months of unrest, Ted and Billy learn to cope and gradually bond as father and son.
Ted befriends his neighbor Margaret (Jane Alexander), who had initially counseled Joanna to leave Ted if she was that unhappy.
Margaret is a fellow single parent, and she and Ted become kindred spirits.
One day, as the two sit in the park watching their children play, Billy falls off the jungle gym, severely cutting his face.
Ted sprints several blocks through oncoming traffic carrying Billy to the hospital, where he comforts his son during treatment.
Fifteen months after she walked out, Joanna returns to New York to claim Billy, and a custody battle ensues.
During the custody hearing, both Ted and Joanna are unprepared for the brutal character assassinations that their lawyers unleash on the other.
Margaret is forced to testify that she had advised an unhappy Joanna to leave Ted, though she also attempts to tell Joanna on the stand that her husband has profoundly changed.
Eventually, the damaging facts that Ted was fired because of his conflicting parental responsibilities which forced him to take a lower-paying job come out in court, as do the details of Billy's accident.
The court awards custody to Joanna, a decision mostly based on the assumption that a child is best raised by his mother.
Ted discusses appealing the case, but his lawyer warns that Billy himself would have to take the stand in the resulting trial.
Ted cannot bear the thought of submitting his child to such an ordeal, and decides not to contest custody.
On the morning that Billy is to move in with Joanna, Ted and Billy make breakfast together, mirroring the meal that Ted tried to cook the first morning after Joanna left.
They share a tender hug, knowing that this is their last daily breakfast together.
Joanna calls on the intercom, asking Ted to come down to the lobby.
She tells Ted how much she loves and wants Billy, but she knows that his true home is with Ted, and therefore will not take custody of him.
She asks Ted if she can see Billy, and Ted says that would be fine.
As they are about to enter the elevator together, Ted tells Joanna that he will stay downstairs to allow Joanna to see Billy in private.
After she enters the elevator, Joanna wipes tears from her face and asks her former husband "How do I look.
" As the elevator doors start to close on Joanna, Ted answers, "You look terrific".
<EOS>
Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher are working-class friends living in the college town of Bloomington, Indiana.
Now turning 19, they all graduated from high school the year before and are not sure what to do with their lives.
They spend much of their time together swimming in an old abandoned water-filled quarry, but also often clash with the more affluent Indiana University students in their hometown, who habitually refer to them as "cutters", a derogatory term for locals stemming from the local Indiana Limestone industry and the stonecutters who worked the quarries.
Dave is obsessed with competitive bicycle racing, and Italian racers in particular, because he recently won a Masi bicycle.
His down-to-earth father Ray, a former stonecutter who now operates his own used car business (sometimes unethically), is puzzled and exasperated by his son's love of Italian music and culture, which Dave associates with cycling.
However, his mother Evelyn is more understanding.
Dave develops a crush on a university student named Katherine and masquerades as an Italian exchange student in order to romance her.
One evening, he serenades "Katerina" outside her sorority house (Friedrich von Flotow's aria "M' Apparì Tutt' Amor"), with Cyril providing guitar accompaniment.
When her boyfriend Rod finds out, he and some of his fraternity brothers beat Cyril up, mistaking him for Dave.
Though Cyril wants no trouble, Mike insists on tracking down Rod and starting a brawl.
The university president (real-life then President dr John Ryan) reprimands the students for their arrogance toward the "cutters" and, over their objections, invites the latter to participate in the annual Indiana University Little 500 race.
When a professional Italian cycling team comes to town for a race, Dave is thrilled to be competing with them.
However, the Italians become irked when Dave is able to keep up with them.
One of them jams a tire pump in Dave's wheel, causing him to crash, which leaves him disillusioned and depressed upon realizing that the reason the Italians were winning races was because they were cheating.
He subsequently confesses his deception to Katherine, who tearfully slaps him before storming off.
Dave's friends persuade him to join them in forming a cycling team for the Little 500.
Dave's parents provide T-shirts with the name "Cutters" on them.
Ray privately tells his son how, when he was a young stonecutter, he was proud to help provide the material to construct the university, yet he never felt comfortable on campus.
Later, Dave runs into Katherine, who's going to be leaving for a job in Chicago; they patch things up, and she wishes him luck in the race.
Dave is so much better than the other competitors in the Little 500 that while the college teams switch cyclists every few laps, he rides without a break and builds up a sizable lead.
However, he is injured in a crash and has to stop.
After some hesitation, Moocher, Cyril, and Mike take turns pedaling, but soon the Cutters' lead vanishes.
Finally Dave has them tape his feet to the pedals and starts to make up lost ground; he overtakes Rod, the current rider for the favored fraternity team, on the last lap and wins for the jubilant Cutters.
Ray is proud of his son's accomplishment and takes to riding a bicycle himself.
Dave later enrolls at the university, where he meets a pretty French student.
Soon, he is extolling to her the virtues of the Tour de France and French cyclists.
<EOS>
Norma Rae Webster is a minimum-wage worker in a cotton mill that has taken too much of a toll on the health of her family for her to ignore their poor working conditions.
After hearing a speech by a New York union organizer, Reuben Warshowsky, Norma Rae decides to join the effort to unionize her shop.
This causes conflict at home when Norma Rae's husband, Sonny, says she's not spending enough time in the home.
Despite being pressured by management, when confronted, Norma Rae takes a piece of cardboard, writes the word "UNION" on it, stands on her work table, and slowly turns to show the sign around the room.
One by one, the other workers stop their mill machines, and eventually, the entire room becomes silent.
After all the machines have been switched off, Norma Rae is taken to jail but is freed by Reuben.
She then decides to talk to her children and tell them the story of her life.
After discussing it with Reuben, Sonny tells Norma there's no other woman in his mind and he will always remain with her.
Norma Rae then successfully orchestrates an election to unionize the factory, resulting in a victory for the union.
Finally, Reuben says goodbye to Norma; despite his being smitten with her throughout the movie, they only shake hands because he knows she is married and loves her husband, and Reuben heads back to New York.
<EOS>
In the opening scene, John Hay Forrest (George Gaynes), noted scientist and cheesemaker, dies in a single-vehicle car accident (represented by the car wreck scene from Keeper of the Flame).
In the next scene, private investigator Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin) is reading a newspaper when Forrest's daughter, Juliet (Rachel Ward), enters his office and faints when the paper's headline reminds her of her father's death.
Upon coming to, she hires Rigby to investigate the death, which she thinks was murder.
In dr Forrest's lab, Rigby finds two lists, one titled "Friends of Carlotta" and the other "Enemies of Carlotta", as well as an affectionately autographed photo of singer Kitty Collins, whose name appears on one of the lists.
His search is interrupted by a man posing as an exterminator (Alan Ladd, in This Gun for Hire), who shoots Rigby in the arm and frisks the lists from the seemingly dead investigator.
Rigby manages to find his way to Juliet's house, where she sucks out the bullet, snakebite-style, and points Rigby to the club at which Kitty sings.
Juliet also reveals a note to her father from her alcoholic brother-in-law, Sam Hastings, which in turn reveals that dr Forrest gave him a dollar bill "for safekeeping".
Despite warnings that the mentally disturbed Leona will not be of much use, Rigby calls Leona, who after a rambling discussion, hangs up (Barbara Stanwyck, in Sorry, Wrong Number).
On the way out, Juliet asks Rigby to leave further news with her butler or cleaning woman.
Mention of the latter causes Rigby to go berserk due to his own father running off with the cleaning woman and his mother dying of a broken heart.
Rigby tracks down alcoholic Sam (Ray Milland, from Lost Weekend) and gets dr Forrest's dollar, which has "FOC" (Friends of Carlotta) names scrawled on it — including Kitty Collins and Swede Anderson (Kitty's boyfriend).
Rigby tracks down Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner, from The Killers) at the Brentwood Room.
He asks if she's one of Carlotta's friends, which causes her to leave abruptly.
He trails her to a restaurant, where she ditches her brooch into her soup.
Rigby subsequently retrieves the brooch, which contains an "EOC" (Enemies of Carlotta) list, on which all names are crossed out, except Swede Anderson's.
Rigby visits Swede (Burt Lancaster, from The Killers) but while Rigby prepares his famous "java", Swede is killed.
Rigby is also shot, in the same arm as last time, causing Juliet to suck out another bullet.
Rigby calls waking Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart, from The Big Sleep), his mentor, for assistance.
Juliet hands over a key from dr Forrest's desk, a key to a train station locker.
The accompanying note, "most recent rat", tells Rigby to look for locker 1936, the last Chinese Year of the Rat.
Upon exiting, she asks Rigby to call with any progress.
Marlowe arrives (Bogart, from In a Lonely Place), and picks up the EOC list to check against unsolved murders.
Rigby goes to the train station to collect the contents of locker 1936, which contains more lists.
A "handsome" guy (Cary Grant, from Suspicion) follows him onto a train, but Rigby puts him to sleep with the help of his harmonica.
Rigby findsX.
Huberman, whose name he found on one of the lists and who turns out to be a "classy dame with bedroom eyes," throwing a party (Ingrid Bergman, from Notorious).
She flirts with Rigby (represented by Cary Grant's silhouette), then drugs his drink and steals the locker key.
Rigby wakes up after crawling back to his office, where Juliet finds him.
She informs Rigby that Sam Hastings has died falling out of a window reaching for a bottle of whiskey.
She also has a New York Times reference for him from her father's office.
The reference is to an article about a South American cruise ship called Immer Essen (German for always eating) on whose last voyage Sam Hastings was a passenger.
When Marlowe (Bogart, from The Big Sleep) calls, Rigby questions him about Walter Neff, the ship's owner, and learns that Neff cruises supermarkets looking for blondes.
Juliet offers to dye her hair to serve as bait, but Rigby is protective of her as more than a client.
He first tries to recruit Monica Stillpond (Veronica Lake, from The Glass Key), but she's not as willing as she used to be.
Next he tries Doris Devermont (Bette Davis, from Deception), she offers Rigby coffee and sandwiches but he ruins his chances with her by strangling her for saying "cleaning woman".
Then he successfully recruits Jimmie Sue Altfeld (Lana Turner, from Johnny Eager, and the apartment scene from The Postman Always Rings Twice) and unsuccessfully attempts to make peace with her father (Edward Arnold, from Johnny Eager) by giving him a puppy.
He then is beaten up by four thugs (Kirk Douglas and others from I Walk Alone).
After this, Rigby disguises himself as a blonde and meets Neff (Fred MacMurray from Double Indemnity).
Rigby drugs him and finds documents about the Immer Essen, including a passenger list identical to an EOC list, and articles about the ship's imprisoned captain, Cody Jarrett, who refuses to talk to anyone about it but his mother.
Rigby then dresses up as Jarrett's mother to visit Jarrett in prison without arousing the prison guards' suspicion (James Cagney from White Heat).
He tries to win Jarrett's confidence by explaining the Friends of Carlotta are after him.
Rigby doesn't learn anything from Jarrett though, so he cashes in a favor with the warden to act as a prisoner for a few days.
Jarrett turns out to be a Friend of Carlotta after all, kidnaps Rigby on a jail break, and shoots him while he's still in the trunk of the getaway car.
After sucking out a third bullet, Juliet leaves for the drugstore for medicine.
On her way out, a call comes in from an old flame (Joan Crawford, in Humoresque).
Juliet overhears parts of it on an extension in the next room, and thinking Rigby is two-timing her, calls Rigby from a pay phone and closes the case.
While Rigby is drinking, thinking himself betrayed by Juliet, Marlowe (Bogart from Dark Passage) calls and tips Rigby off that Carlotta is an island off Peru.
At a cafe, Rigby finds Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner, from The Bribe) there.
Carlos Rodriguez (Reni Santoni), a local policeman from Rigby's gun-running past, warns Rigby of the locals, including Kitty's new boyfriend, Rice.
The next day, one of the characters Rodriguez warned Rigby of (Charles Laughton, from The Bribe) approaches him and tries to bribe Rigby into leaving the island.
Next, Kitty drops by Reardon's room.
Carlos calls to tell him Rice is in town with a group of Germans when the telephone line is cut.
Kitty then drugs Rigby's drink, causing him to pass out.
He wakes up to see Rice (Vincent Price, from The Bribe) trying to suffocate him.
After exchanging shots and chasing through the "Fiesta de Carlotta" fireworks celebration (much of it archived footage from The Bribe), Rigby shoots Rice and frisks the corpse for instructions leading him to a hideout where he finds Juliet, her father (actually still alive), and her butler, who introduces himself as Field Marshal Wilfried von Kluck (Carl Reiner).
Rigby and the Field Marshal compete about the right to explain what happened by interrupting each other's monologue.
It turns out that dr Forrest had been tricked into divulging a secret cheese mold by Nazis posing as a humanitarian organization.
Once he discovered their true intent, to use the mold's corrosive properties to destroy America with strategically placed cheese bombs and make a comeback, he assembled a list of Nazi agents, the "Friends of Carlotta".
Before he could divulge the names to the FBI, he was abducted and his death faked to prevent a police investigation.
The Immer Essen, a cruise ship passing by, witnessed the corrosive effects of the mold tests, making all passengers "Enemies of Carlotta" and targets for murder.
Rigby is captured but Juliet gets the Field Marshal to say "cleaning woman," causing Rigby to go berserk, break his chains and overpower the Nazis.
While Juliet gets Rodriguez, the Field Marshal manages to pull one of the switches, destroying Terre Haute, Indiana, before being shot dead by Rigby.
Rodriguez rounds up the other Nazis while Rigby shares a long kiss with Juliet.
<EOS>
On an alternate Earth, an industrial civilization is flourishing amid an impending war between two bordering nations: the Kingdom of Honneamise and "The Republic".
Shirotsugh Lhadatt is an unmotivated young man who has drifted into his nation's lackadaisical space program.
After the death of a fellow astronaut, he nurtures a close acquaintance with a young religious woman named Riquinni Nonderaiko.
Seeing Lhadatt as a prime example of what mankind is capable of, and understanding the godliness and ground-breaking nature of his work, she inspires him to become the first man in space.
His training as an astronaut parallels his coming of age, and he and the rest of the members of the space project overcome technological difficulties, doubt, the machinations of their political masters, and a botched assassination attempt by the enemy nation.
Amidst the debacle, Lhadatt becomes worn out by the overbearing publicity, prompting him to stay with Riquinni for a while; he then comes close to raping her one night while catching her undressing, causing a temporary rift between them that is later mended thanks to Riquinni's kindness.
These events culminate in the eventual space launch, which is taking place in a demilitarized zone, with the government's hope that the launch of the rocket will provoke the enemy nation into war.
As planned, the Republic launches a vast combined arms invasion, resulting in a visually stunning finale as fighter planes duel high above an armored advance towards a defensive trench network.
Despite calls to pull out, Lhadatt, already in the space capsule and determined to finish what he started, convinces the frightened and vulnerable ground crew to complete the launch.
The spectacular launch stuns both sides into inaction as Lhadatt goes into orbit.
With no more reference to the world below (beyond a slight suggestion that both nations' plans for war have been foiled), Lhadatt prays for humanity's forgiveness.
In a symbolic moment, Lhadatt's capsule is suddenly bathed in sunlight, and a montage of his own life and his world's history and achievements are shown.
Meanwhile, on the planet's surface, Riquinni witnesses the first snow fall and gazes into the sky, thinking of Lhadatt.
<EOS>
A man finds himself alone on a dirt road, walking towards a diner.
Inside he finds a jukebox playing loudly, and a pot of hot coffee on the stove, but there are no other people.
He inquires for some breakfast, but no chef or waitress is to be found.
He is dressed in an Air Force flight suit, but he does not remember who he is or how he got there.
After leaving the diner, he walks to a nearby town called Oakwood.
The town seems deserted, but everywhere the man goes, he seems to find proof that someone had been there recently: food is cooking on a stove, water dripping in a sink, and a cigar is burning in an ashtray.
He grows more and more unsettled as he wanders through the empty town, looking for someone—anyone—to talk to, all the while having the strange feeling that he is being watched.
He even mistakes a mannequin sitting in the cab of a delivery truck for a live person.
In a soda shop after talking to himself he idly spins racks filled with paperback books until he comes to an already spinning rack filled from top to bottom with the same book: "The Last Man on Earth, Feb.
1959", upon noticing it he is upset and leaves.
Day turns to night and the man is still alone in the town.
Street lights turn on all around him.
The marquee of the movie theater is illuminated.
As he goes into the theater, he sees a poster advertising the film playing Battle Hymn, which causes him to remember that he is in the US Air Force.
Finding no one in the audience, he begins to wonder if he is the last survivor of a nuclear war, until the film begins onscreen.
He runs to the projection booth, again finding it empty.
He desperately runs through the theater until he crashes into a mirror.
In a panic, the man runs through the streets, even more paranoid that he is being watched, until he finally collapses next to a street crossing and presses a button labeled WALK.
As he screams for someone to help him, it is revealed that the walk button is actually a panic button.
The man is not alone in a deserted town, but is instead in an isolation booth being observed by a group of uniformed servicemen.
Along with the panic button, the isolation booth shows a clock with its glass shattered from the man pounding on it.
His name is Mike Ferris, an astronaut in training who has been confined to an isolation room located within an aircraft hangar for 484 hours and 36 minutes, with all of his vitals being monitored and recorded.
He has been undergoing tests to determine his fitness for spaceflight and whether he can handle the psychological stress of a prolonged trip to the Moon alone, without any contact with others.
The town was a complete hallucination, an escape valve for his sensory-deprived mind.
One of the officers explains that while all of his physical needs such as nutrition, water, and oxygen, along with rudimentary entertainment can be provided, the one thing that can't be supplied: companionship.
As Ferris is carried out of the hangar on a stretcher, he sees the Moon above him, and says wistfully, "Hey.
Don't go away up there.
Next time it won't be a dream or a nightmare.
Next time it'll be for real.
So don't go away.
We'll be up there in a little while".
<EOS>
A Big sidewalk pitchman named Lou Bookman makes a living selling toys, notions, and trinkets.
All the children in the neighborhood enjoy this gentle, kindly man.
One summer day, mr Bookman is accosted by Death and told that he is to die of natural causes at midnight.
Lou argues that his life's work as a pitchman is not quite complete, and convinces mr Death to give him enough time to give one last, great sales pitch—"one for the angels" as Lou puts it.
Once mr Death agrees, Bookman announces his intention to quit his profession and find another line of work.
Proud of having outsmarted mr Death and now virtually assured of immortality, Lou is informed by mr Death that "other arrangements" must now be made, that someone else will have to take his place.
mr Death chooses a little girl, one of Lou's good friends who lives in the same building.
When she is hit by a truck Lou immediately offers to go with mr Death, but his pleas are ignored.
Later that night, as the girl lies comatose, Death comes to claim her.
Bookman again pleads with mr Death to take him instead, despite their agreement.
mr Death is adamant; a deal is a deal.
He must be in the little girl's room at midnight to take her.
As the appointed time nears, Bookman distracts Death by beginning a sales pitch.
Bookman describes the wonders of his wares so well that mr Death is enticed into purchasing everything.
mr Death is enthralled with Lou's eloquence, and he forgets to claim the girl's life.
The town clock tower tolls midnight before Death realizes that he's missed his appointment.
The little girl will live.
In making this marvelous pitch, one so compelling that even Death himself was moved—"a pitch for the angels"—Bookman has willingly sacrificed his own life to save that of his friend, thus fulfilling his original agreement.
Before leaving with Death, Bookman packs up his suitcase on legs containing his wares, hopefully remarking, "You never know who might need something up there".
He repeats, with a note of uncertainty, "Up there.
" mr Death smiles, "Up there, mr Bookman.
You made it".
Rod Serling, in his summation, notes that while Lou Bookman lived a very ordinary life as lives go, he was ".
throughout his life a man beloved by the children and, therefore, a most important man".
<EOS>
Al Denton was once known as the quickest draw in town, but riddled with increasing guilt over the losers in his gun duels (one of whom was a teenage boy), he became an alcoholic wreck and the laughing stock of the community.
A mysterious salesman named Henry Fate causes Denton to inexplicably regain his expert shooting touch and once again inspire the respect and awe of the townsfolk, which Denton explains will only cause reputation-hungry gunslingers from miles around to seek him out and, inevitably, kill him.
He cleans himself up and goes sober but only, he says, so as to die with dignity.
Just as Denton predicted, soon enough a challenge is delivered which Denton dare not refuse.
The still-weary and not-so-sure-handed Denton practices in the desert for his suicidal duel, but he misses his targets miserably and concludes that he must skip town.
As he packs his things and tries to flee under the cover of night, he strikes up a conversation with Fate, who seems to know things about Denton and offers him a way out.
Fate offers him a potion guaranteed to make the drinker the fastest gun in the West for exactly ten seconds.
Denton is skeptical but Fate goads him into drinking a free sample, after which Denton immediately realizes its benefits.
At the appointed time, Denton faces his challenger, Pete Grant, a brash young gunfighter.
Denton downs his potion only to find his opponent holding an identical empty bottle.
Grant and Denton both realize that Fate tricked them, but it is too late to back out of the duel.
Each man shoots the other in the hand, causing injuries which are minor but forever ruin both men's ability to pull a trigger.
Denton tells his young opponent that they have both been blessed because they will never again be able to fire a gun in anger.
He adds to himself that Grant is lucky because he was given this lesson early.
Henry Fate tips his hat to Denton and rides quietly out of town.
<EOS>
Aging film star Barbara Jean Trenton secludes herself in her private screening room, where she reminisces about her past by watching her old films.
In an attempt to bring her out into the real world, her agent Danny Weiss arranges a part for her in a new movie and brings a former leading man—now also older, many years retired from acting and managing a chain of grocery stores—to visit her.
This horrifies Barbara Jean and only drives her further into seclusion.
Then one day, Barbara Jean's maid finds the screening room empty—and is horrified by what she sees on the screen.
Danny comes over and sees on the screen the living room of the house, filled with movie stars and Barbara Jean as they appeared in the old films.
She throws her scarf toward the camera and departs just before the film ends.
In the living room, Danny finds Barbara Jean's scarf.
"To wishes, Barbie", he says wistfully.
"To the ones that come true".
<EOS>
While driving his car in the countryside (c.
1959), thirty-six-year-old advertising executive Martin Sloan stops to have his car serviced at a gas station within walking distance of his hometown, named Homewood.
After walking into town, he sees that it apparently has not changed since he was a boy.
He visits the town drugstore and he soon discovers that it is the year 1934.
Martin walks to the park where he is startled to see himself as a young boy.
Following his younger self home, he meets his parents as they were in his childhood.
Confused and worried, Martin wanders around town and ends up at his former home again later that evening, where he again tries to convince his parents who he is, but is turned away.
Martin wanders back to the park and finds his tween self on a carousel, and tries to tell him to enjoy his boyhood while it lasts.
His advances scare young Martin, who falls off the merry-go-round and injures his leg.
After twelve-year-old Martin is carried away, adult Martin is confronted by his father who, having seen the documents and money with future dates on them in the mature Martin Sloan's lost wallet, now believes his story.
Martin's dad advises his son that everyone has his time and that instead of looking behind him, he should look ahead, because as delightful and rewarding as he may remember childhood to be, adulthood holds its own delights and rewards.
When Martin walks back into the drugstore, he finds himself back in the 1959 Homewood, during the afternoon.
He discovers that he now has a limp from the carousel injury, having unknowingly caused his younger self to fall off and injure his leg which in turn has given the adult Martin a limp.
Martin makes his way back to the gas station.
He picks up his car and drives away, content to live his life in his current age group.
<EOS>
Mean-spirited, abusive hypochondriac Walter Bedeker sells his soul to the devil (appearing as a rotund rogue who calls himself "Ted Cadwallader" here) in exchange for immortality, adding enough conditions to keep him out of Cadwallader's clutches forever.
Cadwallader readily agrees to his demands, only stipulating an escape clause which allows Bedeker to choose the time of his death if he tires of being immortal.
Bedeker uses his newfound invulnerability to collect insurance money and cheap thrills by hurling himself into life-threatening accidents.
Soon growing bored with this, he comes to the realization that his constant fear of fatal illness was the one thing which gave him any interest in life.
He tells his wife that he is going to attempt to regain the thrill by jumping off the roof of their apartment building.
While trying to stop him, his wife accidentally falls off the edge herself.
Bedeker tells the authorities he murdered his wife, hoping to experience the electric chair.
However, due to his lawyer's defense strategy, he is instead sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Cadwallader visits Bedeker in his holding cell to remind him of the escape clause.
Realizing he will face eternity in prison if he does not use it, Bedeker nods and suffers a fatal heart attack.
The guard discovers his lifeless body and sighs, "Poor devil.
".
<EOS>
In 2046, an inmate named Corry is sentenced to solitary confinement on a distant asteroid for 50 years.
In his fourth year of confinement, he is visited by a spacecraft (flown by a Captain Allenby) that regularly brings him supplies and news from the Earth four times a year.
The ship and crew can stay for only a few minutes each visit, as the asteroid's orbit and the ship's fuel consumption rate make longer visits impossible, lest the space-traveling delivery crew would be stuck for 2 weeks or more, awaiting favorable orbit conditions to depart.
Captain Allenby has been trying to make Corry's stay humanely tolerable by bringing him things to take his mind off the loneliness.
On this trip on the 15th day of the 6th month of the fourth year, however, Allenby tells Corry not to open a certain crate that has just been delivered until after the transport crew leaves.
Upon opening the special container, Corry discovers that Allenby has left him with a feminine robot, named Alicia, to keep him company.
At first, Corry detests it, rejecting Alicia as a mere machine; synthetic skin and wires inside.
However, when Corry sees that Alicia is in fact capable of crying, he begins to fall in love with it.
When the ship returns, Captain Allenby brings news that Corry has been pardoned after a review of past murder cases, but they only have 20 minutes to leave.
Corry, it seems, can return home to Earth immediately.
Corry is delighted, until he learns that there is only room for 15 pounds of luggage, far too little for his robot companion, as there are seven other passengers on the ship from other asteroids.
He frantically tries to find some way to take Alicia with him, arguing that it is not a robot, but a woman, and insisting that Allenby simply does not know it as he does.
At that point, just as the rest of the transport crew is surprised at the sight of Alicia, Allenby suddenly draws his gun and shoots the robot in the face.
The robot breaks down, malfunctioning, its face a mass of wire and broken circuitry which repeats the word "Corry".
He then takes Corry back to the ship, assuring him he will only be leaving behind loneliness.
"I must remember that", Corry says tonelessly.
"I must remember to keep that in mind".
<EOS>
Henpecked, far sighted bank teller and avid bookworm Henry Bemis (Meredith) works at his window in a bank, while reading David Copperfield, which causes him to shortchange an annoyed customer.
Bemis's angry boss (Taylor), and later his nagging wife (deWit), both complain to him that he wastes far too much time reading "doggerel".
As a cruel joke, his wife asks him to read poetry from one of his books to her; he eagerly obliges, only to find that she has inked over the text on every page, obscuring the words.
Seconds later, she destroys the book by ripping the pages from it much to Henry's dismay.
The next day, as usual, Henry takes his lunch break in the bank's vault, where his reading will not be disturbed.
Moments after he sees a newspaper headline, which reads "H-Bomb Capable of Total Destruction", an enormous explosion outside the bank violently shakes the vault, knocking Bemis unconscious.
After regaining consciousness and recovering the thick glasses required for him to see, Bemis emerges from the vault to find the bank demolished and everyone in it dead.
Leaving the bank, he sees that the entire city has been destroyed, and realizes that a nuclear war has devastated the Earth, but that his being in the vault has saved him.
Finding himself totally alone in a shattered world with food to last him a lifetime but no one to share it with, Bemis succumbs to despair.
As he prepares to commit suicide using a revolver he has found, Bemis sees the ruins of the public library in the distance.
Investigating, he finds that the books are still intact and readable; all the books he could ever hope for are his for the reading, and (as he gazes upon a huge fallen face of a clock) learns that he has all the time in the world to read them without interruption.
His despair gone, Bemis contentedly sorts the books he looks forward to reading for years to come.
Just as he bends down to pick up the first book, he stumbles, and his glasses fall off and shatter.
In shock, he picks up the broken remains of the glasses he is virtually blind without, and says, "That's not fair.
That's not fair at all.
There was time now.
There was—was all the time I needed….
It's not fair.
It's not fair.
" and bursts into tears, surrounded by books he now can never read.
<EOS>
Edward Hall (Conte), a man with a severe heart condition, believes that if he falls asleep, he'll die.
On the other hand, keeping himself awake will put too much of a strain on his heart.
He believes this due to his constantly overactive imagination.
He believes that his imagination is severely out of control, to the point where he'd be able to see and feel something that was not there.
Due to this, his heart condition is especially dangerous.
He seeks out the aid of psychiatrist Rathmann and explains that he has been dreaming in chapters, as if in a movie serial.
In his dreams, Maya, a carnival dancer, lures him first into a funhouse and later onto a roller coaster in an attempt to scare him to death.
Realizing that Rathmann cannot help him, Hall starts to leave, but stops when he realizes that Rathmann's receptionist looks exactly like Maya.
Terrified, he runs back into Rathmann's office and jumps out of the window.
In reality, the doctor calls his receptionist, who does in fact look exactly like Maya, into his office, where Hall lies on the couch, his eyes closed.
Rathmann tells the receptionist that Hall came in, laid down, immediately fell asleep, and then a few moments later let out a scream and died.
"Well, I guess there are worse ways to go," the doctor says philosophically.
"At least he died peacefully.
".
Rod Serling's narration then reveals that in a split-second, a person can dream up a thirty-minute dream.
<EOS>
Marcia, Letty, Norman and Edwin all work together in the same office.
None is married (Edwin being a widower) and each is nearing retirement age.
Letty has plans to share a country retreat with her longtime friend, Marjorie.
Her hopes are dashed when Marjorie suddenly announces that she is to marry a clergyman some years younger than she.
After Marcia and Letty retire, each is faced with challenges.
Letty suddenly has to move and Marcia has to deal with a loss of the routine that was an essential part of her life.
Marcia gradually withdraws from the outside world, while Letty has to engage with it.
Marcia eventually gives up eating and dies in pathetic circumstances.
She has unexpectedly left her estate to Norman, in whom she had indulged a brief and secret semi-romantic interest.
When Marjorie's fiancé deserts her for a younger widow, Letty and her friend decided to take the country cottage after all.
By now she has come to terms with retirement, her world has expanded, and so she does not immediately move.
She realizes that she has opportunities to make her own choices.
Norman and Edwin play less central roles in the "quartet," as their characters develop in response to the absences and actions of Marcia and Letty.
At the end of the book, Letty is looking forward to inviting Norman and Edwin to meet Marjorie in the country.
She thinks this would be a huge "opportunity" for the quartet, which was previously so urban and parochial, even though they have lost Marcia.
<EOS>
Many of the characters in the book are based on Pym's own circle, as she pictured them in twenty or thirty years' time.
The two heroines, Belinda and Harriet Bede, are Barbara herself and her sister, Hilary.
Archdeacon Hoccleve, a married clergyman for whom Belinda has long nurtured a passion, is believed to be based on Pym's first love, Henry Harvey.
In the course of the book, both sisters receive proposals of marriage which they feel obliged to reject, partly because they are not attracted to the men in question, but mainly because they are so used to living together and have become devoted to one another.
In fact, Pym and her sister did end up living together in a quiet village in Oxfordshire.
Pym's friend, the British writer Robert Liddell, appears in the novel in the guise of dr Nicholas Parnell.
Another character, Count Ricardo Bianco, is based on the real-life count and academic, Roberto Weiss.
<EOS>
In 1999 a city-sized alien spacecraft crashes in South Ataria Island on Earth.
Over the course of 10 years the military organizationN.
Spacy reverse-engineers its technology and rebuilds the spacecraft, naming it the SDF-1 Macross.
In 2009 at the launch ceremony of the Macross, a young civilian pilot, Hikaru Ichijyo, comes to visit the Macross uponN.
Spacy pilot Roy Focker's request.
During the launch ceremony, a space war fleet from an alien race of humanoid giants arrives into the solar system and identifies the Macross as a former battleship used by their enemies, the Supervision Army.
As the aliens, known as the Zentradi, approach the Macross, the original systems override the crew's commands and fire its main cannon, wiping out the advance alien scouts and starting a war.
While Hikaru takes the new VF-1 Valkyrie on a test flight the aliens retaliate.
He then encounters Lynn Minmay and rescues her from the aliens.
The Macross crew attempts to use the experimental "Fold System" (Faster-than-light drives) to escape to the Moon's orbit, but instead it accidentally takes the Macross and South Ataria Island to the edge of the solar system.
The people from the Macross salvage everything they can, including the city surrounding the ship and its civilians (who have survived in special safety shelters, which were transported along intact), and attach two aircraft carriers to the ship.
Since the fold systems have vanished after the jump, the Macross is forced to make its way back to Earth by conventional power.
The Zentradi suspect the humans might be their creators, the Protoculture.
Under the command of Britai Kridanik and Exsedol Folmo, they plot ways to understand them.
Fearful of their old combat directives of not interfering with Protoculture, the Zentradi perform attacks to test their theories about the people on board the Macross, and even have their Zentradi soldiers "micloned" (miniaturized) to learn more about their culture.
The Zentradi capture several Macross personnel including Officer Misa Hayase and Hikaru to study.
Boddole Zer, Supreme Commander of the Zentradi, is puzzled over things such as relationships amongst males and females.
He confirms that the Miclones "are" protoculture during a demonstrated kiss between Hayase and Hikaru.
After escaping, Hikaru and the others report their findings to their superiors, who have trouble accepting the reasons behind the Zentradi attacks as well as the huge forces the aliens possess.
After much difficulty returning to Earth, the UN Spacy refuses to allow the Macross and the civilian passengers to return to land.
Minmay's cousin, Lynn Kaifun, decides to join the Macross to see his parents and also look after Minmay.
Because of Kaifun's relationship and constant contact with Minmay, the pair eventually enter a romantic relationship.
After deliberation, the UN Spacy orders the Macross to leave Earth as a means to get the Zentradi away from them.
During all these events, a female Zentradi ace fighter pilot, Milia Fallyna, is micloned and attempts to assassinate Maximilian Jenius, an ace UN Spacy pilot.
Attempting to kill him during a knife duel, Milia is defeated and falls in love with Max, and the two are subsequently married.
Their wedding aboard the Macross is broadcast to the Zentradi as a message that aliens and humans can co-exist.
Since the Zentradi's exposure to culture and to Lynn Minmay's songs, some of them become eager to join the humans.
Believing the "miclone contamination" is becoming a threat to all Zentradi forces, Boddole Zer orders his entire army to exterminate the human race and all those Zentradi previously exposed to human culture.
Because Britai Kridanik was "contaminated" as well, he works with the humans to defeat the main Zentradi forces.
The resulting battle culminates in the large scale devastation of Earth, but the people of the SDF-1 survive.
After Boddole Zer is killed and his armada defeated, the surviving humans and their Zentradi allies begin rebuilding Earth.
Two years after the end of the first Space War the transition into the Human ways becomes difficult to some Zentradi who can't stand the idea of a pacified life.
Quamzin Kravshera constantly incites conflicts towards the civilians.
He repairs a damaged Zentradi warship to return to his old ways and attacks the new Macross City built around the SDF-1.
Moments before the final Zentradi attack, Misa Hayase tells Hikaru Ichijyo of her feelings for him and her decision to leave to space in a colonization mission to preserve human culture across the galaxy.
Lynn Minmay, who was left by Kaifun and now loves Hikaru, doesn't want him to leave to join the fight.
However, Hikaru still goes to defend the city anyway.
Eventually Quamzin is killed.
After a long emotional conflict Hikaru finally decides to be with Misa and join the colonization mission, but the two remain good friends with Minmay in the end.
<EOS>
In the British city of "Everytown", businessman John Cabal (Raymond Massey) cannot enjoy Christmas Day, 1940, with the news everywhere of possible war.
His guest, Harding (Maurice Braddell), shares his worries, while his other friend, the over-optimistic Pippa Passworthy (Edward Chapman), believes it will not come to pass, but if it does, it will accelerate technological progress.
An aerial bombing raid on the city that night results in general mobilisation and then global war.
Cabal, now piloting a biplane, shoots down a one-man enemy bomber.
He lands and pulls his badly injured enemy (John Clements) from the wreckage.
As they dwell on the madness of war, they have to put on their gas masks, as poison gas drifts in their direction.
When a little girl runs towards them, the wounded man insists she take his mask, saying he is done for anyway.
Cabal takes the girl to his aeroplane, pausing to leave the doomed man a revolver.
The man dwells on the irony that he may have gassed the child's family and yet he has saved her.
A gun shot is then heard.
The war continues into the 1960s, long enough for the people of the world to have forgotten why they are fighting.
Humanity enters a new Dark Age.
The world is in ruins and there is little technology left, apart from the firearms used to wage war.
In 1966 a biological weapon called the "wandering sickness" is used by the unnamed enemy in a final desperate bid for victory.
dr Harding and his daughter struggle to find a cure, but with little equipment it is hopeless.
The plague kills half of humanity and extinguishes the last vestiges of central government.
By 1970 a local warlord called Rudolf, but known as the "Boss" or "Chief" (Ralph Richardson) has risen to power in southern England and eradicated the sickness by killing the infected.
He dreams of conquering the "hill people" to obtain coal and shale to render into oil so his biplanes can fly again.
On May Day 1970, a sleek, futuristic aeroplane lands outside of what remains of Everytown.
The sole pilot, John Cabal, emerges and proclaims that the last surviving band of "engineers and mechanics" have formed a civilisation of airmen called "Wings Over the World".
They are based in Basra, Iraq and have renounced war and outlawed independent nations.
The Boss takes the pilot prisoner and forces him to work for Gordon, a mechanic struggling to keep the Boss's remaining aeroplanes flying.
Together, they manage to repair one of them.
When Gordon takes it up for a test flight, he leaves to alert Cabal's friends.
Gigantic flying wing aircraft arrive over Everytown and saturate its ruins and population with sleeping gas globes.
The Boss orders his biplanes to attack, but they prove to be ineffective.
The people awaken shortly thereafter to find themselves under the control of the airmen of Wings Over the World and the Boss dead from a fatal reaction to the sleeping gas.
Cabal observes, "Dead, and his old world dead with him.
and with a new world beginning".
A montage follows, showing decades of technological progress, beginning with Cabal explaining plans for global consolidation by Wings Over the World.
By 2036, mankind lives in modern underground cities, including the new Everytown.
All is not well, however.
The sculptor Theotocopulos (Cedric Hardwicke) incites the populace to demand a "rest" from all the rush of progress, symbolised by the coming first manned flight around the Moon.
The modern-day Luddites are opposed by Oswald Cabal, the head of the governing council and grandson of John Cabal.
Oswald Cabal's daughter Catherine (Pearl Argyle) and Maurice Passworthy (Kenneth Villiers) insist on manning the capsule.
When a mob later forms and rushes to destroy the space gun, used to propel the projectile toward the Moon, Cabal launches it ahead of schedule.
Later, after the projectile is just a tiny light in the immense night sky, Oswald Cabal delivers a stirring philosophical monologue about what is to come for mankind to his troubled and questioning friend, Raymond Passworthy (Chapman), the father of Maurice.
He speaks passionately to progress and humanity's unending quest for knowledge and advancement as it journeys out into immensity of space to conquer the stars and beyond.
He concludes with the rhetorical questions, "All the universe or nothingness.
Which shall it be, Passworthy.
Which shall it be.
".
<EOS>
Andy Kaufman's (Jim Carrey) "foreign man" character appears in black and white, declaring that (due to massive editing), this is actually the end of the film, not the beginning.
He plays a phonograph record alongside the credits before walking somberly off.
Kaufman then comes back, and, in his normal voice, claiming he "had to get rid of the people who don't understand me, and don't want to try," he proceeds to show the story of his life on a film projector, starting with his childhood home in Great Neck, New York, circa 1957.
Kaufman is a struggling performer whose act fails in nightclubs because, while the audience wants comedy, he sings children's songs and refuses to tell conventional jokes.
As the audience begins to believe that Kaufman may have no real talent, his peculiar "foreign man" puts on a rhinestone jacket and does a dead-on Elvis impersonation and song.
The audience bursts into applause, realizing Kaufman had tricked them.
He catches the eye of talent agent George Shapiro (Danny DeVito), who signs Kaufman as a client and immediately lands him a network TV series, Taxi, much to Kaufman's dismay, since he dislikes sitcoms.
Because of the money, visibility, and promise that he can do his own television special, Kaufman accepts the role on Taxi, turning his foreign man into a mechanic named Latka Gravas.
He secretly hates doing the show, however, and expresses a desire to quit.
Invited to catch a different act at a nightclub, Shapiro witnesses a performance from a rude, loud-mouthed lounge singer, Tony Clifton, whom Andy wants to guest-star on Taxi.
Clifton's bad attitude is matched by his horrible appearance and demeanor.
But backstage, when he meets Shapiro in person, Clifton takes off his sunglasses and reveals that he is actually Kaufman.
Clifton is a "villain character" created by Kaufman and his creative partner, Bob Zmuda (Paul Giamatti).
Once again, the gag is on the audience.
Kaufman's fame increases with his Saturday Night Live appearances, but he has problems with his newfound fame.
When he travels to college campuses, audiences dislike his strange sense of humor and demand that he perform as Latka, so he deliberately antagonizes them by reading The Great Gatsby aloud from start to finish.
Kaufman shows up on the Taxi set as Clifton and proceeds to cause chaos until he is removed from the studio lot.
He relates to Shapiro that he never knows exactly how to entertain an audience "short of faking my own death or setting the theater on fire".
Kaufman decides to become a professional wrestler—but to emphasize the "villain" angle, he would wrestle only women (hired actresses) and then berate them after winning, declaring himself "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion".
He becomes smitten with one woman he wrestles, Lynne Margulies (Courtney Love), and they begin a romantic relationship.
Problems arise when an appearance on a live TV comedy show, ABC's Fridays, turns into a fiasco when Kaufman refuses to speak his lines.
Also, the wrestling Kaufman enjoys getting a rise out of the crowds and feuds publicly with Jerry Lawler, a professional male wrestler, who challenges Kaufman to a "real" wrestling match, which Kaufman accepts.
Lawler easily overpowers and seriously injures Kaufman, resulting in the comedian wearing a neck brace.
Lawler and an injured Kaufman appear on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman, theoretically to call a truce, but Lawler insults Kaufman, who throws a drink at the wrestler and spews a vicious tirade of epithets.
It is later revealed, however, that Kaufman and Lawler were in fact good friends, and staged the entire feud, but despite this, Andy pays a price when he is banned from Saturday Night Live by a vote of audience members, weary of his wrestling antics.
Shapiro advises Kaufman and Lawler not to work together again, and later calls Kaufman to inform him that Taxi has been canceled.
After a show at a comedy club, Kaufman calls together Lynne, Zmuda, and Shapiro to disclose that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer and may die soon.
They aren't sure whether to believe this, thinking it could be yet another Kaufman stunt, with Zmuda actually believing a fake death would be a fantastic prank.
With a short time to live, Kaufman gets a booking at Carnegie Hall, his dream venue.
The performance is a memorable success, culminating with Kaufman inviting the entire audience out for milk and cookies.
His health deteriorates.
Desperate, he heads to the Philippines to seek a medical "miracle" (actually psychic surgery), where doctors supposedly pull out infected organs from the body – he discovers the scam and laughs at the irony.
He dies soon after.
Friends and loved ones do a sing-along with a video of Andy at his funeral.
One year later, in 1985, Tony Clifton appears at Andy Kaufman's tribute at The Comedy Store's main stage performing, "I Will Survive".
The camera pans over the crowd and reveals Zmuda in the audience.
During the final credits, Kaufman briefly peeks in black-and-white again.
<EOS>
Ivan Drago, a Russian Soviet boxer, arrives in the United States with his wife, Ludmilla, and a team of trainers from the USSR and Cuba.
His manager, Nicolai Koloff, takes every opportunity to promote Drago's athleticism as a hallmark of Soviet superiority.
Motivated by patriotism and an innate desire to prove himself, Apollo Creed challenges Drago to an exhibition bout.
Rocky has reservations, but agrees to train Apollo despite his misgivings about the match.
He asks Apollo whether the fight is against the Soviet, or "you against you.
"  During a press conference regarding the match, hostility sparks between Apollo and Drago's respective camps.
The boxing exhibition takes place at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
Apollo enters the ring in an over-the-top patriotic entrance with James Brown performing "Living in America" complete with showgirls.
The bout starts tamely with Apollo landing several punches that have no effect on Drago.
It soon turns serious though, as Drago starts to retaliate with devastating effect.
By the end of the first round, Rocky and Apollo's trainer, Duke, plead with him to give up, but Apollo refuses to do so, and tells Rocky not to stop the match no matter what.
Drago continues to pummel him in the second round, Duke begs Rocky to throw in the towel.
Eventually, Drago lands one final punch that knocks Apollo out and kills him.
In the immediate aftermath, Drago displays no sense of remorse commenting to the assembled media: "If he dies, he dies".
Enraged by guilt and the Russians' cold indifference, Rocky challenges Drago himself.
Drago's camp agrees to an unsanctioned 15-round fight in the Soviet Union on Christmas Day, an arrangement meant to protect Drago from the threats of violence he has been receiving in America.
Rocky travels to the USSR without Adrian, setting up his training base in Krasnogourbinsk with only Duke and brother-in-law Paulie to accompany him.
To prepare for the match, Drago uses high-tech equipment, steroid enhancement, and a team of trainers and doctors monitoring his every movement.
Rocky, on the other hand, lifts and throws heavy logs, chops down trees, pulls an overloaded snow sleigh with Paulie atop, jogs through heavy snow under treacherous icy conditions, and climbs the largest icy mountain.
Adrian arrives unexpectedly to give Rocky her support after initially refusing to travel to the Soviet Union because of her worry that Rocky would be killed like Apollo.
Drago is introduced with an elaborate, patriotic ceremony and the home crowd is squarely on Drago's side and against Rocky booing the American as he approaches the ring.
In contrast to his match with Apollo, Drago immediately goes on the offensive.
Rocky takes a fierce pounding and is thrown and shoved across the ring but comes back toward the end of the second round and cuts Drago's left eye causing the crowd to hesitate in their cheering for Drago and prompting Rocky to continue punching even after the bell rings.
While Duke and Paulie encourage Rocky, they remind him that Drago is not a machine, he's a man.
Drago ironically comments to his trainers that Rocky "is not human, he is like a piece of iron" after his trainers reprimand him for not beating the "weak" American yet.
The two boxers continue their battle over the next dozen rounds, with Rocky managing to continually hold his ground despite Drago's powerful punches.
His resilience rallies the previously hostile Soviet crowd to his side, which unsettles Drago to the point that he shoves Koloff off the ring for berating his performance.
In the last round, Rocky attempts the Rope-a-dope tactic against Drago, a tactic that successfully worked against Clubber Lang.
However, this tactic does not work with Drago.
Rocky then goes toe to toe and lands rapid punches to the body of the Russian following shouted orders from Duke.
Rocky follows up with punches to the face that daze Drago and finally cause him to fall to the canvas, winning by knockout to the shock of the Soviet politburo members watching the match.
A bloody and battered Rocky gives a victory speech, acknowledging how the local crowd's disdain of him had turned to respect during the fight.
He compares it to the animosity between Soviets and Americans, and says that seeing him and Drago fight was "better than 20 million," implying war between their two countries.
Rocky finally declares, "If I can change, and you can change, then everybody can change.
" The Soviet General Secretary stands and reluctantly applauds Rocky, and his aides follow suit.
Rocky ends his speech by wishing his son watching the match on TV a Merry Christmas, and raises his arms into the air in victory as the crowd applauds.
<EOS>
A man is seen standing aboard the deck of a British passenger liner crossing the Atlantic in 1942.
The man's name is Carl Lanser and he appears disoriented, with no idea of how he got aboard or who he really is.
He is staring into a thick fog when a man calls him to dinner.
He enters the ship's dining cabin and joins the crew and passengers.
The captain discusses German U-boats seen in the area and tries to reassure the nervous passengers that there is no sign that the ship has caught the attention of any lurking "wolfpacks".
Lanser becomes annoyed and, displaying an unusually comprehensive knowledge of submarines, explains in great detail that a single ship would be of no interest to a wolfpack and instead would most likely be pursued by a single submarine.
The diners ask Lanser about his profession and how long he has been in England.
Lanser hesitantly tells them that he has not been there long and that he was born in Frankfurt, Germany.
Lanser appears confused, claims that he is ill and takes his leave.
While still on deck, he speaks to a female passenger that he met at the dinner.
Lanser explains to her that he has no memory of how he came aboard the ship – he knows who he is and finds each of the passengers and crew dimly familiar but can't recall specific details.
His irritation grows and he begins to rant about impending doom.
The captain, suspicious due to Lanser's claims of German nationality, sends an officer to escort him to the bridge.
His suspicion is compounded when Lanser cannot provide details of his life and does not have his passport on hand to verify his identity.
A steward is sent to Lanser's cabin.
The steward finds the cap of a German naval officer among Lanser's possessions as he helps him unpack.
Inspecting it in private, Lanser discovers that sewn into the lining of the cap is his own name.
Disturbed, he leaves for the ship's bar.
On the bridge, the captain and first officer are faced with a dilemma posed by the ship's engines.
They are long due an overhaul and cannot maintain top speed without generating noise and thus giving away their position to any lurking U-boats.
Stopping for repairs will leave them without chance of escape should they be attacked.
Down in the bar, Lanser is drinking but remarks to the bartender that the engines "don't sound right" and that they are laboring.
The ship comes to a halt to effect repairs at 12:05 which causes Lanser to undergo a moment of realization.
Despite the crew's reassurances, he becomes certain that the ship will be attacked and announces that they will all be killed at 1:15.
Unable to convince the crew of the danger, Lanser runs throughout the vessel desperately trying to persuade the other passengers to abandon ship only to find the corridors and cabins now mysteriously empty.
At 1:15, a searchlight illuminates the deck and Lanser watches in horror as a surfaced U-boat, commanded by a Captain-Lieutenant Carl Lanser, immediately begins shelling the British ship.
Lanser and the other passengers, now having reappeared, are killed as the ship sinks with Lanser suffering the agony of watching the innocent people die at precisely the time that he had predicted and being powerless to help them.
Some time later, Captain Lanser is in his cabin aboard the U-boat, recording that night's kill.
With him is the second-in-command who is deeply disturbed by their merciless killing of civilians and speculates whether the crew of the U-boat are now damned.
Lanser replies that they are surely damned in the eyes of the British but the first mate clarifies that he fears they are now damned in the eyes of God and believes that they may be condemned to relive the final moments of the passengers on the doomed ship for eternity.
The first mate's fears are realized – the attacking U-boat and its crew are condemned to sink the defenseless vessel over and over, with Lanser as an unwitting victim among those slaughtered without mercy.
The story thus recounts Carl Lanser's private hell as the former U-boat commander re-materializes on the deck of the ship and the nightmare begins again.
<EOS>
United States Air Force Colonel Clegg Forbes arrives at a military hospital to visit his friend and co-pilot Major William Gart.
The two had recently piloted an experimental spaceplane, the X-20 DynaSoar, on a mission that took them 900 miles beyond the confines of the Earth's atmosphere for the first time.
During their voyage the men blacked out for four hours and the craft itself disappeared from radar screens for a full day before reappearing and crash landing in the desert leaving Gart with a broken leg.
Gart inquires as to the status of the plane but Forbes is clearly agitated and asks Gart if he remembers how many people were on the mission, producing a newspaper whose front page shows the likenesses of the two men and a headline stating that two astronauts were rescued from the desert crash.
Gart confirms that only he and Forbes piloted the plane but Forbes insists that a third man – Colonel Ed Harrington, his best friend of 16 years – accompanied them.
In flashback, on the previous morning, Harrington and Forbes are shown joking with Gart as they are discharged from the hospital after passing their physical exams leaving the Major to recuperate alone.
The same newspaper that Forbes would later show Gart is present but instead asserts three astronauts were recovered from the crash of the X-20 with a photo depicting a crew of three.
The two men visit a bar downtown.
While there, Harrington is suddenly overcome by a feeling that he no longer "belongs" in the world.
Disturbed, he phones his parents who tell him they have no son named Ed Harrington and believe the person calling them to be a prankster.
Harrington then mysteriously vanishes from the phone booth and no one in the bar but Forbes remembers his existence.
Increasingly desperate, Forbes searches for any trace of his friend but can find nothing in the bar.
His girlfriend, Amy, does not remember Harrington, and neither does his commanding officer.
Returning to the closed bar, he breaks in looking for Harrington, calling his name repeatedly.
He returns to the hospital the next morning to talk with Gart.
Back in the present, Forbes is dismayed by Gart's claim that he doesn't know anyone named Harrington.
Forbes then glances at a mirror and discovers he casts no reflection, causing him to flee the room in terror.
Gart tries to hobble after him only to find that Forbes has disappeared.
Calling the duty nurse to ask if she saw where Forbes went, Gart is stunned at the nurse's claim that nobody named Forbes has been in the building and that Gart was the only man who was aboard his plane.
After getting back into bed, he notices the newspaper headline has changed.
It now says that Gart was the sole pilot of the X-20 – all mention of Forbes, including his photo, is gone.
Horrified, Gart also disappears.
An officer enters the building and asks the duty nurse if there are any unused rooms available to accommodate new patients.
The nurse takes him to the now completely empty room which hosted the three astronauts, stating that it has been unoccupied.
In the hangar which previously housed the X-20, the sheet covering the craft is shown lying on the ground.
There is no trace of the plane.
<EOS>
Pedott is a peddler who has the curious ability to give people exactly what they need before they need it.
The old man enters a cafe where he first gives a woman a vial of cleaner.
Then, he gives a down-on-his-luck ex-baseball player a bus ticket to Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Moments later the ball player receives a phone call at the cafe with a job offer in the city the bus ticket is for.
The ball player then notices a spot on his jacket, for which the woman just happens to have cleaner.
Fred Renard, a small-time thug, asks Pedott to give him what he needs, and the peddler gives him a pair of scissors which save Renard's life when his scarf later gets caught in an elevator's doors.
Renard shows up at Pedott's apartment, asking for another thing he "needs", and the peddler comes up with a leaky fountain pen that predicts a winning racehorse when a drop of ink lands on a newspaper racing column.
Renard continues menacing Pedott for more and then helps himself to a pair of new shoes from Pedott's peddler case.
When a car suddenly heads toward Renard, he tries to run, but the new leather soles are so slippery he cannot escape on the wet pavement.
He is struck and killed.
The shoes, Pedott explains to Renard's corpse, were what Pedott needed, because he foresaw that Renard would eventually kill him.
At the end of the episode the peddler gives a couple a comb, which they use to groom themselves just before they are photographed as witnesses for a newspaper story covering the "hit and run" accident that killed Fred Renard.
<EOS>
Arch Hammer (Harry Townes) is a con man who can change his face to make it look like anyone he chooses.
He walks into a nightclub where he impersonates deceased trumpeter Johnny Foster (Ross Martin) to steal Foster's girlfriend Maggie (Beverly Garland), a sultry singer.
Hammer then pays a visit to mr Pennell (Bernard Fein) while impersonating murdered gangster Virgil Sterig (Phillip Pine) to extort money from Pennell, the man who had had Sterig killed.
Pennell sends his men after Hammer.
Trying to escape down an alley, Hammer changes his face to one he sees on a poster of boxer Andy Marshak (Don Gordon).
Thinking he is in the clear, he runs into Marshak's father (Peter Brocco) at a street newsstand, who mistakes him for the son who broke his mother's heart and "did dirt" to a sweet decent little girl who would've "cut off an arm" for him.
As mr Marshak states how he hates him for his actions, Hammer pushes the old man out of the way and returns to his hotel room.
A detective comes to the hotel to pick him up for questioning at the police station.
In order to escape from the police officer in a revolving door, Hammer assumes Marshak's appearance again.
On the street, he again bumps into Marshak's father who pulls a gun on him.
Hammer tries to show the old man he is not who he thinks he is.
Before he can concentrate and change, mr Marshak shoots him.
As Hammer lies dying, his face shifts from one person to another until he dies wearing his own face as Marshak's father is surprised at what he sees.
<EOS>
Will Sturka, a scientist who works at a military base, has been producing a great number of H-bombs in preparation for imminent nuclear war.
Sturka realizes that there is only one way to escape—steal an experimental, top-secret spacecraft stored at the base.
He plans to bring his co-worker Jerry Riden, along with their wives and Sturka's daughter Jody.
The two plot for months, secretly supplying the ship and making arrangements for their departure.
When production of the bombs increases, Sturka realizes that time is running short.
He and Riden decide to put their plan in action—take their families to the craft to tour it, and then overpower the guards and take off.
Sturka's superior Carling overhears the two men talking.
Later that night, everyone gathers for a game of cards where Riden reveals that he has found a place to go—a small planet 11 million miles away.
During the game, Carling unexpectedly appears at the door and makes it clear that he knows what the group is planning.
He also hints at trouble: "A lot can happen in forty-eight hours".
After he leaves, Sturka and Riden inform the women that they must leave that very moment.
When the five arrive at the site of the spacecraft, Sturka and Riden spot their contact, who flashes a light.
When the contact steps forward, though, he is revealed to be Carling, armed with a gun.
He forces Sturka and Riden away from the gate and prepares to call the authorities.
The women, who have been waiting in the car, watch as Carling orders them out.
Jody suddenly throws the car's door open, knocking the gun from Carling's hand and giving the men enough time to overpower him.
The group rushes into the ship, fighting off the guards that rush them.
Later that evening, the group has safely escaped their doomed planet and are on course.
Sturka comments that he cannot believe that there is a planet full of people like themselves.
Riden smiles as he points out on the ship's viewer their mysterious destination, 11 million miles away—the third planet from the Sun, called "Earth".
<EOS>
The film opens in 2016C.
with Sarman, a young man from the ancient village of Amri, who lost his parents when young.
Sarman's uncle gives him an amulet that contains an inscription of a unicorn Sarman sees in his dreams.
This animal is also the emblem of the city of Mohenjo Daro.
Arriving in Mohenjo Daro to sell his wares, Sarman learns that the city is ruled by the tyrant chief Maham and his wicked son Moonja.
Maham proposes to impose an additional tax on the farmers, but Sarman leads the farmers to oppose the taxes so that their families don't starve.
Sarman gains access to the upper city by showing his uncle’s amulet and falls in love with Chaani, daughter of the head priest of Mohenjo Daro.
The head priest, strangely, appears to recognize him.
Chaani reveals that she has been forcibly betrothed to Moonja.
Maham realizes Sarman and Chaani love each other and that Sarman is the leader of the tax revolt.
Realizing that the people are rallying behind him, Maham gives Sarman the Bakar-Zokhar challenge.
Sarman proposes that if he wins, Chaani will be released from her engagement.
It is accepted.
The head priest reveals to Sarman how Maham was expelled from Harappa for illegal trade with Sumerians.
Maham entered Mohenjo Daro as a trader and quickly rose to become the trade chief.
Maham had discovered that the mighty Sindhu river held vast gold deposits so he decided to dam the river and divert its course to mine the gold.
The wise Senate Chief Srujan opposed this but Maham built the dam anyway and had Srujan framed and arrested for hoarding gold.
Chaani's father and Durjan - Sarman’s uncle - were threatened by Maham to go against Srujan, and Srujan was killed.
Maham then took his place as the new Senate Chief.
The head priest then reveals that Sarman is Srujan’s son.
It is now up to Sarman to purge the evil Maham.
Sarman faces the ferocious Tajik mountain cannibals Bakar and Zokhar in an arena before the city.
After a vicious battle, he kills one of the cannibals but spares the other and the people of Mohenjo Daro surge even stronger behind him.
Enraged, Maham urges Moonja to finish off Chaani and the priest.
Moonja kills the priest but Sarman saves Chaani and kills Moonja.
Chaani exposes Maham’s plan to use the gold from the Sindhu to enrich himself and to smuggle in weapons from the West.
All the chiefs now stand against Maham.
The people elect Sarman as the new chief but Sarman suggests Mohenjo Daro needs a people’s government, not a chief.
Sarman realizes that the dam will burst and the Sindhu River will flood the city.
He rallies the people to lash boats together and form a floating bridge.
They evacuate Mohenjo Daro and cross to the other side of the river.
The dam collapses, and Maham, chained in the city square, is drowned.
The once renowned Mohenjo Daro is no more.
The survivors migrate to another river, which Sarman names Ganga.
<EOS>
Maggie (Liane Curtis) is a shy high school girl that isn't very good with men.
This changes after she's possessed by Satan, who uses Maggie's body to seduce the souls out of various men.
Satan is followed by an angelic Chaser (Dana Ashbrook), who is intent on capturing her once and for all.
<EOS>
Melvin Ferd (Mark Torgl) is a stereotypical 98-pound weakling who works as a janitor at a health club in the fictional town of Tromaville, New Jersey where the customers—particularly Bozo (Gary Schneider), Slug (Robert Prichard), Wanda (Jennifer Babtist) and Julie (Cindy Manion)—harass him constantly.
His tormentors get more and more violent, even deliberately killing a young boy on a bike with their car and taking photos of the carnage afterward.
One day, they trick Melvin into wearing a pink tutu and kissing a sheep.
He is chased around the health club and out a second story window.
He lands in a drum of toxic waste, which sets him on fire.
After running down the street in a ball of flames, Melvin douses the flames in his bathtub.
The chemicals cause him to transform into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength.
A group of drug dealers, led by the criminal Cigar Face (Dan Snow), are harassing a police officer by the name of O'Clancy (Dick Martinsen), trying to buy him off.
When he refuses to accept the money, Cigar Face and his gang prepare to castrate him.
Melvin appears out of nowhere and violently kills the criminals, then leaves a mop on their faces as a call sign.
Melvin then tries to return home, but his mother is terrified of him and will not let him in the house; so Melvin - publicly dubbed "The Monster Hero" and hailed as a hero - builds a makeshift home in the junkyard.
Elsewhere in Tromaville, a gang of three men are holding up a Mexican food restaurant and attack a blind woman named Sarah (Andree Maranda).
They kill her guide dog and attempt to rape her, but are stopped by the Toxic Avenger, who wreaks bloody vengeance on them.
The Toxic Avenger takes Sarah back to her home, where they begin to get to know one another and subsequently become romantically involved.
The Toxic Avenger returns to the health club, attacks popular girl Wanda in a sauna and burns her rear side on the heater.
Afterwards, the Avenger is relieving himself in a back alley when a limo pulls up and a pimp tries to push a 12-year-old girl onto him, but he fights the pimp and his goons off and saves the girl.
Melvin later returns to the health club, pursues Julie into the basement, and cuts off her hair (offscreen).
He then confronts Bozo and Slug after they brutally stole a car, ending in Slug getting thrown out of the moving car and Bozo driving off the side of a cliff.
As Melvin continues to fight crime and aid the people in the city, Mayor Belgoody (Pat Ryan Jr), the leader of Tromaville's extensive crime ring, is horrified of what is happening to his goons.
He is worried that it will lead back to him and wants Melvin to be taken care of.
A group of men, led by Cigar Face, surround Melvin with guns.
Just before they fire on him, he leaps up to a fire escape, so that they end up shooting each other.
When the Toxic Avenger kills a seemingly innocent old woman in a dry cleaning store (she is in fact a leader of an underground white slave trade), Belgoody uses this opportunity to call in the National Guard.
Back in his junkyard home, the Toxic Avenger is terrified of what he has become, and he and Sarah decide to move away from the city and take a tent into nearby woods.
They are eventually discovered, and the Mayor and the National Guard come to kill him, but the people of Tromaville will have none of it.
The Mayor's evil ways are revealed, and the Toxic Avenger proceeds to rip out Belgoody's organs to see if he has "any guts".
The movie ends with a reassurance that the Toxic Avenger will continue to combat crime in Tromaville.
<EOS>
The film follows the events that unfold at Tromaville High School in New Jersey, which is conveniently located next to a nuclear power plant.
An accident at the nuclear plant is covered up by plant owner Mr Paley who doesn't want the facility shut down by the safety commission.
The accident causes a radioactive water leak which ends up gruesomely killing a student at the school after the tainted water reaches the drinking fountain.
The gang of the school, called "The Cretins," who were originally part of the honor society, torments the school, and it's implied that they have been turned into violent psychopaths by the runoff from the plant.
They pick leaves from a radioactive marijuana plant located in the yard of the nuclear plant and sell it to Eddie for $10.
At his "indoor bikini beach party" that night, Eddie pressures his friend Warren and Warren's girlfriend Chrissy into smoking the radioactive joint, but it is accidentally ruined by the dancers before anyone else can try it.
The mutated drug shows itself to have potent aphrodisiac effects, leading to Warren and Chrissy having sex in Eddie's loft.
However, that same night, both of them have disturbing nightmares about hideously mutating, though these effects are seemingly gone by morning.
Some time later, Chrissy discovers that she is pregnant, and spits a little monster into a nearby toilet.
The creature travels through the water pipes and lands in a barrel filled with radioactive waste, and mutates into a bigger creature.
Meanwhile, Warren, tired of the Cretins' constant harassment, ends up going on a radiation-fueled rampage, killing two of them, with no memory of the event once he comes to his senses.
The Cretins, expelled from the school and cut off from their customer base, assault the principal and forces him to use the school's Radiation Alarm to cause an evacuation, letting the Cretins bar the building and occupy it.
Capturing Chrissy as bait for Warren, the leader of the gang holds her hostage in the basement and plans to kill her in front of Warren, only to be interrupted by the now adult monster.
Warren goes into the school to save her, and he discovers the adult monster, who kills every one of the Cretins.
Warren finally zaps the beast with a laser in the physics laboratory, and he and Chrissy flee from the school, right after the monster explodes along with the school, also killing mr Paley inside.
The students celebrate victory as over the loudspeakers that the school will be shut down for remodeling.
While reconstruction is taking place, one of the monster "babies" appears squirming through the remains of the destroyed school.
The screen freeze frames on the creature as the screen inverts, shortly before fading out and the credits roll.
<EOS>
Set in modern-day Manhattan, the film begins with the narrator (Lemmy of Motörhead) introducing two families: the Capulets and the Ques.
At the center of these families are Tromeo Que and Juliet Capulet.
Tromeo lives in squalor with his alcoholic father Monty and works at a tattoo parlor with his cousin Benny and friend Murray.
Juliet is sequestered in her family’s mansion, watched over by her abusive father Cappy, passive mother Ingrid, and overprotective cousin Tyrone, all the while being sexually satisfied by family servant Ness (Debbie Rochon).
Both Tromeo and Juliet are trapped in cases of unrequited love: Tromeo lusts for the big-bosomed, promiscuous Rosie; Juliet is engaged to wealthy meat tycoon London Arbuckle as prelude to an arranged marriage.
In the meantime, a bloody brawl between Murray and Sammy Capulet catches the attention of Detective Ernie Scalus, who gathers the heads of the two families together and declares that they will be held personally accountable for any further breaches of peace.
Almost immediately afterwards, Monty and Cappy start threatening each other with weapons.
Sammy gets caught in the window of Monty’s speeding car, where he is thrown head-first into a fire hydrant and (very slowly) dies.
On the insistence of Murray and Benny, Tromeo attends the Capulets' masquerade ball in the hopes of meeting Rosie, only to find another man performing cunnilingus on her.
Tromeo staggers around the party in disillusion until he locks eyes with those of Juliet.
The two instantly fall for each other and share a dance until an angry Tyrone chases him out of the house.
Tromeo and Juliet continue to be enamored by one another from afar.
Cappy, disgusted at his daughter’s active libido, forcefully imprisons her in a plastic cage as punishment.
Tromeo sneaks into the house of Capulet and the two meet once again.
After proclaiming their love for each other both verbally and physically, they agree to be married.
Juliet breaks her engagement with Arbuckle and, with the help of Father Lawrence, the two are married in secrecy the next day.
Tyrone, upon discovering Juliet‘s secret affair, gathers his gang together and challenges Tromeo to a duel.
Now a kinsman to the Capulets, Tromeo refuses to fight, suggesting to both sides to bring the lifelong feud to an end.
Murray accepts the duel on Tromeo’s behalf and, in the ensuing brawl, is mortally wounded by Tyrone‘s club.
Tromeo, enraged by his friend’s death, pursues Tyrone and slays him (through a series of car crashes which dismember him) and goes into hiding from the police.
Learning that she is involved with Tromeo, Cappy savagely beats Juliet and forces her to reconcile with Arbuckle.
Arbuckle accepts her re-proposal and the marriage is set.
Juliet visits Father Lawrence, who reunites her with Tromeo and enlists the help of Fu Chang, the apothecary, who sells Juliet a special potion which will aide her predicament.
On the day of her wedding, Juliet swallows the apothecary’s potion, transforming her into a hideous cow monster, complete with a three-foot penis.
The mere sight of her causes Arbuckle to leap out of Juliet’s window in fright, committing suicide.
Enraged over the loss of his would-be son-in-law and meat inheritance, Cappy attempts to rape and murder Juliet, but Tromeo arrives just in time, knocking Cappy unconscious and bringing Juliet’s appearance back to normal by a single kiss.
Cappy awakens, taking both lovers captive by crossbow-point.
While he is distracted, Juliet performs one last act of defiance against her father and electrocutes him.
As Tromeo and Juliet leave the house of Capulet, they are confronted by Ingrid and Monty, who reveal to them the real reason behind the Capulet/Que feud: Long ago, Cappy and Monty were the owners of the successful Silky Films production company.
Ingrid, married to Monty at time, struck up an affair with Cappy, eventually birthing a son which Monty raised as his own.
Faced with a divorce from Ingrid and the threat of having his son taken away from him, Monty was forced to sign over all the rights of Silky Films to the Capulets in exchange for his son.
After the initial shock at the revelation that they are siblings, Tromeo and Juliet are determined not to let their whole ordeal be for naught; they passionately embrace and drive off into the sunset.
The film picks up six years later in Tromaville, New Jersey, where Tromeo and Juliet, now married, have become suburban yuppies with a house and (birth defected/deformed) children of their own.
The film ends with the narrator’s brief poem for the lovers: "And all of our hearts free to let all things base go/As taught by Juliet and her Tromeo".
A brief shot of William Shakespeare laughing uproariously is shown before the end credits.
<EOS>
Heroin addict Mark Renton and his circle of friends are introduced: amoral con artist Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson (also an addict); slow-witted, kind-hearted Daniel "Spud" Murphy (another addict); clean-cut athlete Thomas "Tommy" MacKenzie; and aggressive psychopath Francis "Franco" Begbie, who picks fights with people who get in his way.
Renton decides to quit heroin and buys opium suppositories from dealer Mikey Forrester to ease the transition.
After his final hit (and a violent spell of diarrhea caused by cessation of heroin), he locks himself in a cheap hotel room to endure the withdrawal period.
He later goes with his friends to a club and, finding that his sex drive has returned, he eventually leaves with a girl named Diane and they have sex in her home.
In the morning, he realises that Diane is a 15-year-old schoolgirl and that her "flatmates" are actually her parents.
Anxious, Renton tries to ignore the incident, but is forced to remain in touch after Diane blackmails him.
Spud, Sick Boy, and Renton start using heroin again.
Tommy, whose girlfriend Lizzy dumped him after a chain of events initiated by Renton, begins using as well.
One day, the group's heroin-induced stupor is interrupted when Allison, their friend and fellow addict, discovers that her infant daughter Dawn has died from neglect without any of the group noticing.
All are horrified, especially Sick Boy, who is stated to have secretly been Dawn's father.
Renton and Spud are caught stealing from a bookshop and arrested.
Spud goes to prison, but Renton avoids punishment by entering a drug interventions programme, where he is given methadone.
Despite support from his family, Renton is desperate for a more substantial high and escapes to his drug dealer's flat, where he nearly dies of an overdose, and his dealer sends him to hospital in a taxicab.
After he leaves the hospital, Renton's parents take him home and lock him in his bedroom to force him through withdrawal.
As Renton goes through severe withdrawal symptoms, he has hallucinations of Diane singing on the bed, his friends giving him advice, Dawn crawling on the ceiling, and an imagined TV game show in which host Dale Winton asks Renton's parents questions about HIV.
Renton is finally awoken from his nightmares and hallucinations by his parents, who tell him that he needs to get tested.
Despite years of sharing syringes with other addicts, Renton tests negative.
Low-spirited and depressed, he visits Tommy, who has succumbed to addiction and is now severely ill and HIV-positive.
Renton moves to London and takes a job as a property letting agent.
He begins to enjoy his new life of sobriety, and saves money on the side while corresponding with Diane.
However, Begbie, who has committed an armed robbery, and Sick Boy, now a pimp and drug dealer, move into Renton's bedsit unannounced, to Renton's annoyance.
In Edinburgh, Tommy dies from HIV-related toxoplasmosis and the three travel back to Scotland for his funeral.
They meet Spud, who has been released from prison.
Sick Boy suggests a lucrative yet dangerous heroin transaction, but needs Renton to supply half of the initial £4,000.
Renton injects himself with a sample to test the heroin's purity and the four sell the heroin to a dealer in London for £16,000.
During their celebration at a pub, Renton secretly suggests to Spud that they steal the money, but Spud is too scared of Begbie to even consider it.
Renton is finally fed up with Begbie after witnessing him glass and then severely beat a man whom he bumped into, causing beer to be spilled on him, injuring Spud's hand in the process.
Early in the morning, as the others sleep, Renton quietly takes the money from sleeping Begbie.
Spud wakes up just as Renton is leaving the hotel room.
The pair stare at each other for a few moments until Renton walks out.
Spud remains silent and does not tell the others.
When Begbie awakens, he destroys the hotel room in a violent rage, the subsequent arrival of the police causes Spud and Sick Boy to flee.
Renton reiterates his vow to live a stable, traditional life and leaves Spud £4,000.
<EOS>
Alicia Silverstone plays Cherilyn "Cher" Horowitz, a well-intentioned but somewhat superficial girl who is attractive, popular and extremely wealthy.
A few months shy of her sixteenth birthday, she has risen to the top of the high school social scene.
She lives in a Beverly Hills mansion with her father Mel, a ferocious $500-an-hour litigator; her mother died from a freak accident during a routine liposuction procedure when Cher was a baby.
Cher's best friend is Dionne Davenport, who is also rich, pretty, and hip, and understands what it's like to be envied.
Though Dionne has a long-term relationship with popular student Murray, Cher claims that this is a pointless endeavor on Dionne's part.
Among the few people to find fault with Cher is Josh, her socially-conscious stepbrother, who visits her during a break from college.
Josh and Cher spar continually but without malice; she mocks his scruffy idealism, while he teases her for being selfish, vain, and superficial, and says that her only direction in life is "toward the mall".
Cher plays matchmaker for two lonely, nerdy, hard-grading teachers, mr Hall and Miss Geist.
She achieves her ostensible purpose, to make them relax their grading standards so she can renegotiate a bad report card; but when she sees their newfound happiness, she realizes she enjoys doing good deeds.
Cher decides to give back to the community by "adopting" a "tragically unhip" new girl at school, Tai Frasier.
Cher and Dionne give Tai a makeover and initiate her into the mysteries of popularity.
Cher also tries to extinguish the attraction between Tai and Travis Birkenstock, an amiable skateboarding slacker, and to steer her toward Elton, a popular rich snob.
Her second matchmaking scheme backfires when Elton rejects Tai and attempts to seduce Cher.
When a handsome new student named Christian arrives at their school, Cher takes a shine to him and attempts to secure him as her boyfriend.
Eventually, Murray spells it out to her and Dionne that Christian is not interested in her because he is gay.
Despite the failure of this endeavor, Cher remains on good terms with Christian, primarily due to her admiration of his taste in art and fashion.
Matters take a turn for the worse when Cher's "project" works too well, and Tai's popularity surpasses her own.
The situation reaches crisis stage after Cher fails her driver's test and can't "renegotiate" the result.
When she returns home, crushed, Tai confides that she's taken a fancy to Josh and wants Cher to help her "get" him.
Cher says she doesn't think Josh is right for Tai, and they quarrel.
Feeling "totally clueless", Cher reflects on her priorities and her repeated failures to understand or appreciate the people in her life.
After much soul searching, Cher realizes she is romantically interested in Josh.
She begins making awkward but sincere efforts to live a more purposeful life, including captaining the school's Pismo Beach disaster relief effort.
Cher and Josh eventually admit their feelings for one another, culminating in a tender kiss.
In the end, mr Hall and Miss Geist wed; Cher's friendships with Tai and Dionne are solidified; Tai and Travis are in love; and Cher wins a $200 bet for catching the bouquet at the wedding.
She embraces Josh, and they kiss as the film closes.
<EOS>
Darius II takes place sometime after the first Darius game.
The colonized planet Darius is recuperating from its invasion from the alien Belser Army thanks to that game's heroes Proco and Tiat.
Darius' inhabitants have since situated themselves on the planet Olga while Darius' societies, architecture and attacked areas were being repaired.
The space flight Headquarters established on Olga picks up an SOS signal coming from Earth, where the first colonists originated before colonizing Darius.
The signal included the description of alien ships similar to those of the Belser Army.
Suspecting that these might be their remaining Earthling ancestors, the people of Darius sends both Proco Jr.
and Tiat Young to help them.
<EOS>
In 1978, narcissistic, manipulative Madeline Ashton performs in a campy musical version of Sweet Bird of Youth on Broadway.
She invites long-time rival Helen Sharp, an aspiring writer, backstage along with Helen's fiancé, plastic surgeon Ernest Menville.
Ernest is smitten with Madeline, breaking off his engagement with Helen to marry her.
Helen winds up in a psychiatric hospital after fixating upon Madeline.
Obese and depressed, Helen feigns rehabilitation and is released, plotting revenge on Madeline.
Seven years later, Madeline lives in Beverly Hills with Ernest, but they are miserable.
Madeline's career has faded, and Ernest is an alcoholic reduced to working as a reconstructive mortician.
Receiving an invitation to a party celebrating Helen's new book, Madeline rushes to a spa where she regularly receives facial treatments.
Understanding Madeline's situation, the spa owner gives her the business card of Lisle von Rhoman, a woman specializing in youth rejuvenation.
Madeline and Ernest attend the party for Helen's novel, Forever Young, and discover Helen is slim, youthful and beautiful.
Dumbfounded and depressed by Helen's appearance, Madeline visits her young lover but discovers he is with a woman his age.
Dejected, Madeline drives to Lisle's home.
Lisle is a mysterious, wealthy socialite claiming to be 71, but looks much younger.
She reveals to Madeline the secret of her beauty: an expensive potion that promises eternal life and an ever-lasting youthful appearance.
Madeline purchases and drinks the potion and is rejuvenated.
As a condition of purchase, Madeline must disappear from public life after ten years to keep the existence of the potion secret.
Lisle warns Madeline to take good care of her body.
Helen seduces Ernest and convinces him to kill Madeline.
When Madeline returns home, she and Ernest argue, during which Madeline falls down the stairs, breaking her neck.
Believing Madeline dead, Ernest phones Helen for advice, not seeing Madeline stand and approach him with her head twisted backward.
Ernest assumes she has a dislocated neck and drives her to the emergency room.
Madeline is told she is technically dead and faints.
She is taken to the morgue due to her body having no pulse and a temperature below 80°F.
After rescuing Madeline, Ernest takes the sign of her "resurrection" as a miracle, returns home with Madeline and uses his skills to repair her body.
Helen demands information about Madeline's situation.
Overhearing Helen and Ernest discussing their plot to stage Madeline's death, Madeline shoots Helen with a shotgun.
Although the blast creates a hole in her stomach, Helen survives, revealing that she drank the same potion.
Fed up with the pair, Ernest prepares to leave, but Helen and Madeline convince him to do one last repair on their bodies.
They realize they will need constant maintenance and scheme to have Ernest drink the potion to ensure he will always be available.
After bringing Ernest to Lisle, she offers to give him the potion free of charge in exchange for his surgical skills.
Ernest refuses rather than being immortal.
He pockets the potion and flees, but becomes trapped on the roof.
Helen and Madeline implore Ernest to drink the potion to survive an impending fall.
Ernest refuses and drops the potion to the ground several stories below, but after falling he lands in Lisle's pool and escapes.
After Lisle banishes Madeline and Helen from her group, the pair realize they must rely on each other for companionship and maintenance.
Thirty-seven years later, Madeline and Helen attend Ernest's funeral, where he is eulogized as having lived an adventurous and fulfilling life with a large family and friends.
They are parodies of their former selves, with cracked, peeling paint and putty covering most of their grey and rotting flesh.
Helen trips and teeters at the top of a staircase.
After Madeline hesitates to help her, Helen grabs Madeline and the two tumble down the stairs, breaking to pieces.
As their disembodied heads totter together, Helen sardonically asks Madeline, "Do you remember where you parked the car.
".
<EOS>
Two friends, Thelma Dickinson (Geena Davis) and Louise Sawyer (Susan Sarandon), set out for a two-day vacation to take a break from their dreary lives in Arkansas.
Thelma is married to a controlling man, Darryl (Christopher McDonald), while Louise works as a waitress in a diner, and is dating a musician who spends most of his time on the road.
They head out in Louise's 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible.
They stop for a drink at a roadhouse where Thelma meets and dances with Harlan Puckett (Timothy Carhart).
Thelma starts to feel sick, so Harlan takes her outside into the parking lot to get some fresh air.
He starts kissing her and taking her clothes off.
Thelma resists, but Harlan slaps her and begins to rape her.
Louise finds them and threatens to shoot Harlan with a gun that Thelma brought with her.
Harlan stops, but as the women walk away, he yells profanities and insults them.
Louise responds by killing him.
Thelma wants to go to the police, but Louise says that because Thelma was drunk and had been dancing with Harlan, no one would believe her claim of attempted rape.
Afraid that she will be prosecuted, Louise decides to go on the run and Thelma reluctantly accompanies her.
Louise is determined to travel from Oklahoma to Mexico, but refuses to go through Texas.
Something happened to her in Texas years earlier, but she refuses to say exactly what.
Heading west, they come across an attractive young man namedD.
(Brad Pitt), and Thelma convinces Louise to let him hitch a ride with them.
Louise contacts her boyfriend Jimmy Lennox (Michael Madsen) and asks him to wire transfer her life savings to her.
When she goes to pick up the money, she finds that Jimmy has come to see her to deliver the money in person.
Thelma invitesD.
into her room and learns he is a thief who has broken parole.
They sleep together, andD.
describes how he conducted his hold-ups.
At the same time, Jimmy asks Louise to marry him, but she declines.
In the morning, Thelma tells Louise about her night withD.
When they return to the motel room, they discoverD.
has stolen Louise's life savings and fled.
Louise is distraught and frozen with indecision, so the guilty Thelma takes charge and robs a convenience store using the tactics she learned from listening toD.
Meanwhile, the FBI are getting closer to catching the fugitives, after questioningD.
and Jimmy, and tapping the phone line at Darryl's house.
Arkansas State Police Investigator Hal Slocumb (Harvey Keitel) discovers that Louise had been raped years earlier in Texas.
During a couple of brief phone conversations with her, he expresses sympathy for her predicament and pledges to protect her, but he is unsuccessful in his attempts to persuade her to surrender.
When they are pulled over by a New Mexico state trooper (Jason Beghe), Thelma holds him at gunpoint and locks him in the trunk of his car, while Louise takes his gun and ammunition.
They then encounter a truck driver (Marco st John) who repeatedly makes obscene gestures at them.
They pull over and demand his apology, but when he refuses, they fire at the fuel tanker he is driving, causing it to explode.
Leaving the man furious (and stealing his hat), they drive off.
Thelma and Louise are finally cornered by the authorities only from the edge of the Grand Canyon.
Hal arrives on the scene, but he is refused the chance to make one last attempt to talk the women into surrendering themselves.
Rather than be captured and spend the rest of their lives in jail, Thelma proposes that they "keep going" (over the cliff).
Louise asks Thelma if she is certain, and Thelma says yes.
They kiss, Louise steps on the accelerator, and they ride the car over the cliff to their presumed deaths.
<EOS>
Nick Marshall, a Chicago advertising executive and alpha male, who grew up with his Las Vegas showgirl mother, is a chauvinist.
He is skilled at selling to men and seducing women.
Just as he thinks he's headed for a promotion, his manager, Dan, informs him that he is hiring Darcy McGuire instead, to broaden the firm's appeal to women.
Also, his estranged 15-year-old daughter Alex is spending two weeks with him while his ex-wife Gigi goes on her honeymoon with her new husband Ted.
Alex is embarrassed by Nick, and resents his being protective when he meets her boyfriend.
Desperate to prove himself to Darcy and Dan, Nick attempts to think of copy for a series of feminine products that Darcy distributed at the day's staff meeting.
He slips and falls into his bathtub while holding an electric hairdryer, shocking himself.
The next day, Nick wakes up and comes to realize that he can hear the innermost thoughts of all women.
This proves to be an epiphany for him as he realizes that most women, especially at work, dislike him and consider him to be sleazy.
When he goes to his old divorce therapist, dr Perkins (who also disliked him), she realizes his gift and encourages him to learn to use it to his advantage.
Nick eavesdrops on Darcy and sabotages her ideas to use as his own.
As he spends more time with Darcy, he realizes he is attracted to her.
When he tries to get closer to his daughter, she resents him for trying after so many years of neglect.
He is able to bond with her by helping her shop for a prom dress.
Using his gift, Nick detects that her boyfriend, who is older than Alex, plans to sleep with her and then dump her, but she does not want Nick's advice.
Nick and Darcy begin to spend more time together, and ultimately they kiss.
When he manages to trump Darcy out of her idea for a new Nike ad campaign aimed at women, he later regrets his selfishness, especially as it leads to her being fired.
Nick persuades his boss to give Darcy her job back by saying that it was all Darcy's idea.
Over time, Nick succeeds to rekindle some of his female acquaintance/ relationships especially at work.
Nick loses his gift during a storm while trying to find a company secretary, Erin, who (telepathic ability revealed) is contemplating suicide.
He stops her just in the nick of time and offers her a position for which she previously applied.
When Alex's boyfriend dumps her for refusing his sexual advances, Nick consoles her and is able to restore their relationship.
Nick finally visits Darcy and explains everything.
She forgives him and agrees to save him from himself, to which he responds "My hero".
<EOS>
In 1993, following the ousting of the central government and start of a civil war, a major United Nations military operation in Somalia is authorized with a peacekeeping mandate.
After the bulk of the peacekeepers are withdrawn, the Mogadishu-based militia loyal to Mohamed Farrah Aidid declares war on the remaining UN personnel.
In response,S.
Army Rangers, Delta Force counter-terrorist operators, and 160th SOAR aviators are deployed to Mogadishu to capture Aidid, who has proclaimed himself president of the country.
To consolidate his power and subdue the population in the south, Aidid and his militia seize Red Cross food shipments, while the UN forces are powerless to intervene directly.
Outside Mogadishu, Rangers and Delta Force capture Osman Ali Atto, a faction leader selling arms to Aidid's militia.
A mission is planned to capture Omar Salad Elmi and Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdiid, two of Aidid's top advisers.
TheS.
forces include experienced men as well as new recruits, including PFC Todd Blackburn and a desk clerk, SPC Grimes, going on his first mission.
When his Lieutenant is removed from duty after having an epileptic seizure, Staff Sergeant Matthew Eversmann is placed in command of Ranger Chalk Four, his first command.
The operation begins and Delta Force operators capture Aidid's advisers inside the target building.
The Rangers and helicopters escorting the ground-extraction convoy take heavy fire, while Eversmann's Chalk Four is dropped a block away by mistake.
Blackburn is severely injured when he falls from one of the Black Hawk helicopters, so three Humvees led by SSG Jeff Struecker are detached from the convoy to return Blackburn to the UN-held Mogadishu Airport.
SGT Dominick Pilla is shot and killed just as Struecker's column departs, and shortly thereafter Black Hawk Super Six-One, piloted by CWO Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott crashes when shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Both pilots are killed, the two crew chiefs are wounded, and one Delta Force sniper on board escapes in another helicopter.
The ground forces are rerouted to converge on the crash site.
The Somali militia erects roadblocks, and LTC Danny McKnight's Humvee column is unable to reach the crash area while sustaining heavy casualties.
Meanwhile, two Ranger Chalks, including Eversmann's unit, reach Super-Six One's crash site and set up a defensive perimeter to await evacuation with the two wounded men and the fallen pilots.
In the interim, Super Six-Four, piloted by CWO Michael Durant, is also shot down by an RPG and crashes several blocks away.
With CPT Mike Steele's Rangers pinned down and sustaining heavy casualties, no ground forces can reach Super Six-Four 's crash site nor reinforce the Rangers defending Super Six-One.
Two Delta Force snipers, SFC Randy Shughart and MSG Gary Gordon are inserted by helicopter to Super Six-Four 's crash site, where they find Durant still alive.
The site is eventually overrun, Gordon and Shughart are killed, and Durant is captured by Aidid's militia.
McKnight's column relinquish their attempt to reach Six-One's crash site and return to base with their prisoners and the casualties.
The men prepare to go back to extract the Rangers and the fallen pilots, and MG Garrison sends LTC Joe Cribbs to ask for reinforcements from the 10th Mountain Division, including Malaysian and Pakistani armored units.
As night falls, Aidid's militia launch a sustained assault on the trapped Americans at Super Six-One's crash site.
The militants are held off throughout the night by strafing runs and rocket attacks from AH-6J Little Bird helicopter gunships, until the 10th Mountain Division's relief column is able to reach and save the American soldiers.
The wounded and casualties are evacuated in the vehicles, but a few of Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are forced to run from the crash site back to the Pakistani Compound UN Safe Zone.
<EOS>
The Jarretts are an upper-middle-class family in suburban Chicago trying to return to normal life after the death of one teenaged son and the attempted suicide of their surviving son, Conrad (Timothy Hutton).
Conrad has recently returned home from a four-month stay in a psychiatric hospital.
He feels alienated from his friends and family and begins seeing a psychiatrist, dr Berger (Judd Hirsch).
Berger learns that Conrad was involved in a sailing accident in which his older brother, Buck, whom everyone idolized, died.
Conrad now deals with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor's guilt.
Conrad's father, Calvin (Donald Sutherland), awkwardly tries to connect with his surviving son and understand his wife.
Conrad's mother, Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), denies her loss, hoping to maintain her composure and restore her family to what it once was.
She appears to have loved her older son more (though perhaps more what he represented), and because of the suicide attempt, has grown cold toward Conrad.
She is determined to maintain the appearance of perfection and normality.
Conrad works with dr Berger and learns to try to deal with, rather than control, his emotions.
He starts dating a fellow student, Jeannine (Elizabeth McGovern), who helps him to begin to regain a sense of optimism.
Conrad, however, still struggles to communicate and re-establish a normal relationship with his parents and schoolmates, including Stillman (Adam Baldwin), with whom he gets into a fist fight.
He cannot seem to allow anyone, especially Beth, to get close.
Beth makes several constrained attempts to appeal to Conrad for some semblance of normality, but she ends up being cold and unaffectionate towards him.
She is consistently more interested in getting back to "normal" than in helping her son heal.
Mother and son often argue while Calvin tries to referee, generally taking Conrad's side for fear of pushing him over the edge again.
Things come to a climax near Christmas, when Conrad becomes furious at Beth for not wanting to take a photo with him, swearing at her in front of his grandparents.
Afterward, Beth discovers Conrad has been lying about his after-school whereabouts.
This leads to a heated argument between Conrad and Beth in which Conrad points out that Beth never visited him in the hospital, saying, "You would have visited Buck if he was in the hospital".
Beth replies, "Buck would have never been in the hospital.
" Beth and Calvin take a trip to see Beth’s brother in Houston, where Calvin confronts Beth, calling her out on her attitude.
Conrad suffers a setback when he learns that Karen (Dinah Manoff), a friend of his from the psychiatric hospital, has committed suicide.
A cathartic breakthrough session with dr Berger allows Conrad to stop blaming himself for Buck's death and accept his mother's frailties.
Calvin, however, emotionally confronts Beth one last time.
He questions their love and asks whether she is capable of truly loving anyone.
Stunned, Beth decides to flee her family rather than deal with her own, or their, emotions.
Calvin and Conrad are left to come to terms with their new family situation.
<EOS>
London Hospital surgeon Frederick Treves finds John Merrick in a Victorian freak show in London's East End, where he is kept by a mr Bytes.
His head is kept hooded, and his "owner", who views him as retarded, is paid by Treves to bring him to the hospital for exams.
Treves presents Merrick to his colleagues and highlights his monstrous skull, which forces him to sleep with his head on his knees, since if he were to lie down, he would asphyxiate.
On Merrick’s return he is beaten so badly by Bytes that he has to call Treves for medical help.
Treves brings him back to the hospital.
John is tended to by mrs Mothershead, the formidable matron, as the other nurses are too frightened of Merrick.
mr Carr-Gomm, the hospital's Governor, is against housing Merrick, as the hospital does not accept "incurables".
To prove that Merrick can make progress, Treves trains him to say a few conversational sentences.
Carr-Gomm sees through this ruse, but as he is leaving, Merrick begins to recite the 23rd Psalm, which Treves did not teach him.
Merrick tells the doctors that he knows how to read, and has memorized the 23rd Psalm because it is his favorite.
Carr-Gomm permits him to stay, and Merrick spends his time practicing conversation with Treves and building a model of a cathedral he sees from his window.
Merrick has tea with Treves and his wife, and is so overwhelmed by their kindness that he shows them his mother's picture.
He believes he must have been a "disappointment" to his mother, but hopes she would be proud to see him with his "lovely friends".
Merrick begins to take guests in his rooms, including the actress Madge Kendal, who introduces him to the work of Shakespeare.
Merrick quickly becomes an object of curiosity to high society, and mrs Mothershead expresses concerns that he is still being put on display as a freak.
Treves begins to question the morality of his actions.
Meanwhile, a night porter named Jim starts selling tickets to locals, who come at night to gawk at the "Elephant Man".
The issue of Merrick's residence is challenged at a hospital council meeting, but he is guaranteed permanent residence by command of the hospital’s royal patron, Queen Victoria, who sends word with her daughter-in-law Alexandra.
However, Merrick is shortly kidnapped by mr Bytes during one of Jim's raucous late night showings.
mr Bytes leaves England and takes Merrick on the road as a circus attraction once again.
Treves confronts Jim about what he has done, and mrs Mothershead fires him.
Merrick escapes from Bytes with the help of his fellow freakshow attractions.
Upon returning to London, he is harassed through Liverpool Street station by several young boys and accidentally knocks down a young girl.
Merrick is chased, unmasked, and cornered by an angry mob.
He cries, "I am not an elephant.
I am not an animal.
I am a human being.
I&nbsp;.
am&nbsp;.
a&nbsp;.
man.
" before collapsing.
Policemen return Merrick to the hospital and Treves.
He recovers some of his health, but is dying of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Treves and mrs Mothershead take Merrick to see one of Madge Kendal's shows at the theatre, and afterwards, Kendal dedicates the performance to him.
A proud Merrick receives a standing ovation from the audience.
Back at the hospital, Merrick thanks Treves for all he has done, and completes his church model.
He lies down on his back in bed, imitating a sleeping child in a picture on his wall, and dies in his sleep.
Merrick is consoled by a vision of his mother, who quotes Lord Tennyson's "Nothing Will Die".
<EOS>
Sally (Susan Sarandon) is a young waitress in an Atlantic City casino who has dreams of becoming a blackjack dealer in Monte Carlo.
Sally's estranged husband Dave (Robert Joy) returns to her one day with the intention of selling a large amount of cocaine that he had stolen in Philadelphia and meets Lou (Burt Lancaster), an aging former gangster who lives in Sally's apartment building and runs numbers in poor areas of the city; he also acts as a caretaker for Grace (Kate Reid), an elderly invalid.
Dave convinces Lou to sell the cocaine for him, but as Lou sells the first batch, Dave is attacked and killed by the mobsters from whom he had stolen the drugs.
Lou is left with the remaining cocaine and continues to sell to impress Sally, whom he has long pined for, with money.
Sally and Lou make love one day, but she returns to her apartment to find it trashed; she has been tracked down by Dave's killers, who beat her to find out if she has the drugs.
They leave, but Lou laments not being able to protect her.
Sally is fired from the casino when her late husband's criminal record is discovered.
Lou sells the remainder of the cocaine, while both Sally and the mobsters discover Lou's affiliation with Dave.
The mobsters corner them one night, but are killed when Lou produces a gun and shoots them.
He and Sally then steal their car and leave the city.
That night, from a hotel outside Atlantic City, they watch the TV news reporting on the killing.
A police sketch of the suspect is shown.
It looks nothing like Lou.
Lou is overjoyed with relief and pride.
He confesses to Sally that this was the first time he had ever killed anyone.
At a motel during the night, Lou takes the phone to the bathroom to call Grace and brag about the killings.
Sally also wakes and steals the money with the intention of sneaking off; Lou witnesses this, allowing her to leave and giving her the car keys so she can escape to France, rather than go to Miami with Lou.
Lou returns to Atlantic City to be with Grace and continue selling a portion of the cocaine that he had stashed away.
<EOS>
Frank Galvin (Paul Newman) was once a promising graduate of Boston College Law School and a lawyer at an elite Boston law firm.
But he was framed for jury tampering some years back by the firm's senior partner because he was going to expose their corrupt practices.
The firm fired him and his marriage ended in divorce.
Although he retains his license to practice law, Frank has become an alcoholic ambulance chaser who has had only four cases over the last three years, all of which he has lost.
As a favor, his friend and former teacher Mickey (Jack Warden) sends him a medical malpractice case in which it is all but assured that the defense will settle for a large amount.
The case involves a young woman who was given an anesthetic during childbirth, after which she choked on her own vomit and was deprived of oxygen.
The young woman is now comatose and on a respirator.
Her sister and brother-in-law are hoping for a monetary award in order to give her proper care.
Frank assures them they have a strong case.
Meanwhile, Frank, who is lonely, becomes romantically involved with Laura (Charlotte Rampling), a woman he meets at a local bar.
Frank visits the comatose woman and is deeply affected.
He then meets with the bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston (Edward Binns), which owns the Catholic hospital where the incident took place.
As expected, the bishop's representative offers a substantial amount of settle out of court, but Frank declines the offer as he fears that this may be his last chance to do something right as a lawyer, and that merely taking the handout would render him "lost".
Everyone, including the presiding judge and the victim's relatives, is stunned by Frank's decision (Frank fails to communicate the offer to his client's family before rejecting it).
Things quickly go wrong for Frank: his client's brother-in-law finds out from "the other side" that he has turned down the $210,000, and angrily confronts Frank; his star medical expert disappears; a hastily arranged substitute's credentials and testimony are called into serious question on the witness stand.
His opponent, the high-priced attorney Ed Concannon (James Mason), has at his disposal a large legal team that is masterful with the press; the presiding judge (Milo O'Shea) makes deliberate efforts to obstruct Frank's questioning of his expert; and no one who was in the operating room is willing to testify that there was any negligence.
Frank's big break comes when he discovers that Kaitlin Costello (Lindsay Crouse), the nurse who admitted his client to the hospital, is now a preschool teacher in New York.
Frank travels there to track her down, leaving Mickey and Laura working together in Frank's Boston office.
Frank confronts Costello, asking, "Will you help me.
"  Meanwhile, in Boston, Mickey is looking for cigarettes in Laura's handbag and discovers a check from Concannon's law firm.
He infers that she is a mole, providing information on their legal strategy to the opposing lawyers.
Mickey flies to New York to tell Frank that Laura has been betraying them.
He suggests to Frank that it would be easy to get the case declared a mistrial, but Frank decides to continue.
Shortly thereafter, Frank meets Laura, who has also traveled to New York.
In a display of cold fury, Frank strikes her in the face, knocking her to the floor.
Costello testifies that, shortly after the patient had become comatose, the anesthesiologist (one of the two doctors on trial, along with the archdiocese of Boston) told her to change her notes on the admitting form to hide his fatal error.
She had written down that the patient had had a full meal only one hour before being admitted.
The doctor had failed to read the admitting notes.
Thus, in ignorance, he gave her an anesthetic that should never be given to a patient with a full stomach.
As a result, the patient vomited and choked.
Costello further testifies that, when the anesthesiologist realized his mistake, he met with Costello in private and forced her to change the number "1" to the number "9" on her admitting notes.
But Costello made a photocopy of the notes before she made the change, which she brought with her to court.
She was subsequently fired, leading her to exclaim in court, "Who are these men.
I wanted to be a nurse.
" But Concannon quickly turns the situation around by getting the judge to declare the nurse's testimony stricken from the record on technicalities.
Feeling that his case is hopeless, Frank gives a brief but passionate closing argument, telling the jury "you are the law" and entreating them to seek "truth and justice" in their hearts before they vote.
In the penultimate scene, the jury – apparently disregarding the judge's instructions to ignore the nurse's testimony – announces that they have found in favor of Frank's clients.
As Frank, Mickey, and Frank's clients quietly rejoice, the foreman asks the judge whether the jury can award more than the amount the plaintiffs sought.
The judge resignedly replies that they can, but the amount they decide on is not revealed.
As Frank is congratulated by his clients, Mickey, and colleagues and strangers alike, he catches a glimpse of Laura watching him across the atrium.
That night, Laura, in a drunken stupor on her bed, drops her whiskey on the floor, drags the phone toward her, and puts in a call to Frank.
As the phone rings, Frank sits in his office with a cup of coffee.
He moves to answer it, but ultimately decides not to.
The film ends with the phone continuing to ring.
<EOS>
The majority of Ozs story arcs are set in "Emerald City", named for a setting from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).
In this experimental unit of the prison, unit manager Tim McManus emphasizes rehabilitation and learning responsibility during incarceration, rather than carrying out purely punitive measures.
Emerald City is an extremely controlled environment, with a carefully managed balance of members from each racial and social group, intended to ease tensions among these various factions.
Under McManus and Warden Leo Glynn, all inmates in "Em City" struggle to fulfill their own needs.
Some fight for power&nbsp;– either over the drug trade or over other inmate factions and individuals.
Others, corrections officers and inmates alike, simply want to survive, some long enough to make parole and others just to see the next day.
The show offers a no holds barred account of prison life.
The show's wheelchair-bound narrator, inmate Augustus Hill, explains the show, and provides context, thematic analysis, and a sense of humor.
Oz chronicles McManus' attempts to keep control over the inmates of Em City.
There are many groups of inmates throughout the show, and not everyone within each group survives the show's events.
There are the African American Homeboys (Wangler, Redding, Poet, Keane, Supreme Allah) and Muslims (Said, Arif, Hamid Khan), the Wiseguys (Pancamo, Nappa, Schibetta, Zanghi, Urbano), the Aryan Brotherhood (Schillinger, Robson, Mark Mack), the Latinos of El Norte (Alvarez, Morales, Guerra, Hernandez), the Irish (the O'Reily brothers), the gays (Hanlon, Cramer), the bikers (Hoyt, Sands), the Christians (Cloutier, Coushaine, Cudney) and many other individuals not completely affiliated with one particular group (Rebadow, Busmalis, Keller, Stanislofsky).
In contrast to the dangerous criminals, character Tobias Beecher gives a look at a usually law-abiding man who made one fatal drunk-driving mistake.
The ensemble cast includes Lee Tergesen, Christopher Meloni, Ernie Hudson, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Harold Perrineau Jr, Eamonn Walker, Rita Moreno, Terry Kinney, Betty Buckley, Kathryn Erbe, Wong,D.
Williams, Simmons, Dean Winters, Scott William Winters, Kirk Acevedo, Erik King, Evan Seinfeld, David Zayas, Lauren Vélez, Otto Sanchez, Robert Clohessy, and Edie Falco.
Mason Adams, Bill Boggs, Didi Conn, Peter Criss, Jonathan Demme, Charles Dutton, Gordon Elliott, Bill Fagerbakke, Rick Fox, Uta Hagen, Roxanne Hart, Edward Herrmann, Dana Ivey, Lord Jamar, David Johansen, Eartha Kitt, Robert Klein, Tom Ligon, LL Cool J, Gavin MacLeod, Master P, Anne Meara, Method Man, Milo O'Shea, Luke Perry, Roger Rees, Eric Roberts, Grant Shaud, Ally Sheedy, Elaine Stritch, Roy Thinnes, Treach, Joyce Van Patten, Ben Vereen, Kathleen Widdoes and Manny Yarbrough have made appearances on the show.
<EOS>
The game is set some time after a catastrophic comet impact, which brought a deadly virus onto the planet.
The resulting plague caused deaths of millions of people, while other victims were mutated and began hearing the voice of a malevolent deity.
They formed an organization called "The Order" and enslaved the rest of the populace.
However, a rag-tag resistance movement, called "The Front", is trying to topple The Order's reign.
The unnamed protagonist of the game is a wandering mercenary, captured by Order troops near the town of Tarnhill.
After killing the guards and escaping, he comes in contact with a man named Rowan, who makes him an offer to join the Front.
The protagonist receives a communication device through which he can remain in contact with a female member of the Front, codenamed Blackbird.
From then on, Blackbird provides assistance and commentary throughout the game.
The protagonist heads to the Front's base, where the rebel leader, Macil, sends him on a number of missions in order to weaken the Order.
After several acts of sabotage, the Front proceeds to assault the Order's castle; the protagonist, accompanying them in the attack, finds and kills a major member of the Order called "The Programmer".
He loses consciousness upon touching the weapon that the Programmer had been using.
The mercenary wakes up in the castle, now taken over by the Front.
Macil explains that the Programmer's weapon is one of the five fragments of the "Sigil", a powerful weapon worshipped by the Order.
He orders the protagonist to find the remaining four.
To this end, the mercenary visits a knowledgeable being called "The Oracle", who reveals that the next fragment is being held by another of the Order's leaders, The Bishop.
After killing the Bishop and acquiring the second fragment, the protagonist returns to the Oracle only to be told that the third fragment is being held by Macil himself; the Oracle claims that Macil is a traitor who has been using the protagonist as a pawn in his scheme.
At this point, the player must make a decision: either disbelieve the Oracle and kill it, or trust the Oracle and kill Macil.
The choice has bearing on the rest of the plot.
Assuming the player trusts Macil and kills the Oracle - acquiring the third fragment - he receives another task from Macil: to deactivate a factory, built on the comet's impact site, where the Order is turning captured people into "bio-mechanical soldiers".
Upon completing his mission, the protagonist learns that Macil has gone insane; he returns to the base and attempts to speak to Macil, who declares in his madness that he wishes to free the "one god", then attacks the protagonist.
Upon killing Macil, the protagonist receives the fourth Sigil fragment.
He then returns to the factory, where lies the laboratory of the Loremaster, another of the Order's leaders.
After killing Loremaster and thus acquiring the final Sigil piece, he proceeds to use the weapon to unlock a door leading to the comet's impact site.
Inside, he finds an extraterrestrial spaceship.
Within the ship waits an alien being known as "The Entity"; it is the one responsible for creating the Order and taking over the minds of mutated people.
The mercenary kills it with the Sigil; its death means the end of the Order.
He then finally meets Blackbird face to face.
She tells him that his victory allowed mankind to create a vaccine for the virus, then kisses him.
The plot takes a different direction if the player decides to trust the Oracle and immediately kill Macil.
Once he does so (claiming Macil's Sigil piece in the process), the Oracle dispatches him to the Loremaster's laboratory.
Having killed the Loremaster and obtained the fourth fragment of the Sigil, the protagonist returns to the Oracle, who then reveals that it was using him all along in a bid to acquire the complete Sigil, use it to free the "one god", and attain eternal life.
The mercenary kills the Oracle and, with all five fragments of the Sigil now in his possession, heads to the alien ship.
There he encounters the Entity; however, the being speaks with Blackbird's voice, and implies that it was manipulating the protagonist throughout the game in order to regain freedom and take over the planet.
After killing the Entity, the ending sequence is shown, this time less optimistic: the cure for the virus has not been invented and mankind's future is uncertain.
<EOS>
Jaime Escalante (Olmos) becomes a math teacher at James Garfield High School in Eastern Los Angeles.
The school is full of Hispanic students from working-class families who are way below their grade level in terms of academic skills and have a lot of social problems.
Escalante seeks to change the school culture to help the students excel in academics.
He soon realizes the untapped potential of his class and sets a goal of having the students taking AP Calculus by their senior year.
Escalante instructs his class under the philosophy of "ganas", roughly translating into "desire" or "motivation".
The students begin taking summer classes in advanced mathematics with Escalante having to withstand the cynicism of the other faculty, who feel the students are not capable enough.
As the students struggle with the lower expectations they face in society, Escalante helps them overcome this adversity and pass the AP Calculus exams.
To his dismay, the Educational Testing Service questions the success of the students, insisting there is too much overlap in their errors and suggests the students cheated.
Escalante defends his students, feeling that the allegations are based more on racial and economic perceptions.
He offers to have the students retake the test months later and the students all succeed in passing the test again, despite only having a day to prepare, dispelling all concerns of cheating.
<EOS>
The anime series is divided into four story arcs, in each of which Utena comes to face a different challenge at Ohtori Academy (Enoki Films calls it "Otori Junior High School").
In all of them, Utena must defend her title as the owner of the Rose Bride, with the intention of protecting Anthy.
The duels almost always occur when someone with the Rose Crest ring challenges the current Engaged, though the Engaged may challenge other Duelists as well.
No refusal is accepted.
The matches occur in the dueling arena, a large, high platform in the academy's outskirts, which is only open to duelists.
The Rose Bride pins roses to the Duelists' jackets.
They then sword fight until one duelist wins by knocking away the opponent's rose with his or her blade.
The plot of the manga starts off with Utena at a different school.
She is seen as having conflict with the staff of her current school and they call in her aunt, who is an interior decorator.
Utena's friend Kaido is introduced and the two seem to have a strong friendship.
It is then explained that Utena may be as headstrong as she is because of her parents' death at such an early age.
Utena gets a letter from someone who has been sending her letters every year when the roses bloom.
She says it started after she was rescued by her prince as a little girl.
Kaido is intent on finding out who is sending her the letters.
Later on Utena meets a co-worker of her aunt's, Aoi Wakaouji.
He seems to bear a strong resemblance as well as the same ring as Utena's prince.
She is drawn to him but only to have her hopes that Aoi is her prince shattered when she catches him and her aunt in a passionate moment.
From there the scene from her childhood is recreated right in front of Kaido's eyes.
He informs her that he found that all the letters reveal themselves to be a picture of Aoi's alma mater, an exclusive prep school.
From this knowledge Utena decides to change schools.
She leaves a heartbroken Kaido, who it seems has feelings for Utena, to find her prince.
<EOS>
Keiichi Morisato is a college sophomore who accidentally calls the Goddess Help Line and the goddess Belldandy materializes.
She tells him that her agency has received a system request from him and has been sent to grant him a single wish.
Believing that a practical joke is being played on him, he wishes that she will stay with him forever, and his wish is granted.
Unable to live with Belldandy in his male-only dorms, they are forced to look for alternative housing, eventually seeking shelter in an old Buddhist temple.
They are allowed to stay there indefinitely after the young monk living there leaves on a pilgrimage to India upon being impressed by Belldandy's intrinsic goodness.
Keiichi's life with Belldandy becomes even more hectic when her elder sister Urd and her younger sister Skuld move in as well.
A series of adventures ensue as his relationship with Belldandy develops.
The Oh My Goddess.
universe is fashioned loosely around Celtic/Norse Mythology; various names and concepts are recycled for humor.
Three worlds exist in the Universe of Oh My Goddess: Heaven, Hell, and Earth.
Heaven is the realm of the All Mighty and goddesses, Hell is the realm of Hild and demons, and Earth is the realm of humans.
Reality is controlled by an enormous and complex computer system, named Yggdrasil.
Each goddess is assigned Class, Category, and Restrictions.
Class indicates power and skill in performing pure magic.
First Class goddesses are held to a stricter standard regarding the prohibition to lie.
There are also three categories: Administration, Commercial (Field), and Special Duty.
Limited and Unlimited restrictions indicates boundaries on permitted actions.
Goddesses may be penalized for dereliction of duty and may have their license suspended for a time.
A goddess using her powers during suspension will have her license permanently revoked.
Belldandy is a Goddess First Class, Second Category, Unlimited License.
Urd and Skuld are Goddesses Second Class, First Category, Limited License.
Goddesses also wear power limiters, usually in the form of jewelry.
The goddesses' purpose is to bring happiness to everyone around them.
Toward that end, Heaven has created the Goddess Technical Helpline (also called Goddess Relief Agency), designed to bring happiness to the people of Earth, especially those with great virtue but terrible misfortune.
A competing institution named the Earth Assistance Center, also is staffed by goddesses.
In most scenarios, a goddess appears before one that the system has deemed worthy and grants him or her one wish.
The wish must be approved by the system, after which a contract is created between the human and the goddess and stored on the Yggdrasil system as a file.
The wish contract file is protected by a passcode known to the Goddess.
As demons work toward the opposite end, the total happiness on Earth must remain in balance.
Heaven and Hell strictly abide by an agreement to work through contracts and never kill each other.
Demons have similar class and license restrictions, and are accompanied by familiars instead of angels.
A seal exists between the demon world and Earth, named the Gate to the Netherworld.
It was "created by the gods and can only be broken by an instrument of the gods".
As such, demons require a catalyst to manifest on Earth.
The demons possess a system similar to Yggdrasil, named Nidhogg.
Both demons and goddesses possess the power to seal beings away.
The demons also operate in a fashion similar to goddesses by creating contracts with humans and offering them wishes, but often at a price.
A goddess does not have an angel automatically, but receives one in egg form.
When her power matures, the egg hatches into an angel, becoming a lifetime companion.
The angel always obeys the goddess, being a reflection of the goddess' inner self.
Other creatures that exist in the Earth plane are a multitude of spirits that are responsible for almost every aspect of life.
These include the spirits of Money, Wind, Engine and such.
More specific entities include Earth spirits, which are guardians over a specific area of land.
Morgan le Fay, a villain from the movie, is probably a high ranking Earth spirit (or a being from another dimension, but that is less likely because her tragic love story with a human must have happened on Earth) who demonstrates great strength fighting Belldandy and Urd, even though her powers are less potent than the ones of goddesses of their level.
<EOS>
In modern-day Tokyo, Kagome Higurashi lives on the grounds of her family's Shinto shrine with her mother, grandfather and little brother.
On her fifteenth birthday, when she goes to retrieve her cat, a centipede demon bursts out of the enshrined and drags Kagome into it.
But instead of hitting the bottom of the well, Kagome time travels to the past during Japan's Sengoku period.
The centipede demon seeks the , an artifact that would grant any wish the bearer desires; it had previously been defeated by a warrior priestess named Kikyo, and Kagome looks just like her.
In fact, Kagome is a reincarnation of Kikyo and houses the Shikon Jewel in her own body.
Kagome finds a young man pinned by a sacred arrow on a tree and, in a moment of desperation, frees him to defeat the centipede demon.
The man is Inuyasha, a half-dog demon (yōkai) who was pinned by Kikyo for trying to steal the jewel.
However, the Shikon Jewel is extracted from Kagome's body, and in the ensuing fight with another crow demon, the jewel is shattered into numerous shards that disperse across ancient Japan, falling into the hands of those who then gain the individual shards' power.
After Inuyasha gains his father's sword Tessaiga and is subdued by a magical necklace to keep him in line, he aids Kagome in collecting the shards and dealing with the threats they cause.
The two are joined in their quest by the young fox demon Shippo while dealing with third parties groups like Inuyasha's older brother Sesshomaru and the partially revived Kikyo, whose own version of what happened years ago brings the events into question.
When joined by Miroku, a perverted monk whose bloodline is cursed, Inuyasha and Kagome learn the truth: that the initial conflict between Inuyasha and Kikyo, revealed to originally be lovers, was caused by a devious half-demon named Naraku.
The evolving Naraku is revealed to have been born from the soul of an evil man named Onigumo inhabiting a body created by countless demons as part of a pact and who also placed the curse on Miroku's family.
Naraku is after the Shikon Jewel shards for his own ends.
Inuyasha's group is soon joined after by Sango, a demon slayer whose clan was killed when her younger brother Kohaku fell under Naraku's control.
Over time, Inuyasha enhances Tessaiga powers as he contends with Naraku's minion incarnations like Kagura and the reanimated Band of Seven.
Inuyasha's team is loosely allied by Sesshomaru, Kikyo, and a wolf demon named Koga, who wants to avenge his comrades while flirting with Kagome.
While Naraku momentarily removes his heart in the form of the Infant, who later attempts to overthrow Naraku through his vessel Moryomaru, Kohaku regains his freewill and memories, as he attempts to help out of guilt for indirectly killing his father.
During that time, Sesshomaru settles things with Inuyasha to enable his brother to perfect Tessaiga to its optimal abilities.
Eventually, Koga is forced to stand on the sidelines, Kikyo posthumously uses the last of her power to give Kohaku a second chance at life, and Naraku finally reassembles the Shikon Jewel.
Although Inuyasha and his allies defeat him, realizing his true desire is for Kikyo's love despite his hatred towards her and that it can never be granted, Naraku uses his wish to trap himself and Kagome in the Shikon Jewel.
The jewel intends to have Kagome make a selfish wish so she and Naraku will be trapped in conflict for eternity.
But with Inuyasha by her side, Kagome wishes for the Shikon Jewel to disappear.
The action, though, causes Kagome to return to her time with the Well sealed, and she and Inuyasha lose contact for three years.
In that time, the Sengoku period changes drastically: Sango and Miroku have three children together; Kohaku resumes his journey to become a strong demon slayer with Kirara as his companion; and Shippo attains the seventh rank as a fox demon.
Back in the present, Kagome graduates from high school before finally managing to get the Bone Eater's Well in her backyard to work again.
Kagome returns to the Sengoku period, where she stays with Inuyasha and becomes his wife.
<EOS>
Hibiki Amawa is an enthusiastic young man whose dream career is to be a professional teacher, having graduated from college with a certificate in athletics.
When he is unable to pay his landlady, Lulu Sanjo, the monthly rent for his apartment, he rushes off to the nearby Seito Sannomiya Private School to apply for a position that is open, but is summarily denied employment because of his gender.
Offended, and more determined than ever to have his way, Hibiki vows to demonstrate the merits of his educational philosophy to his detractors, and with offered help from Lulu, agrees to disguise himself by cross-dressing in order to deceive the school's female-only administration.
With assistance from some gadgets Lulu engineered for this purpose, he disguises himself very convincingly.
Following an initial demonstration of his merits as an educator, he is hired.
Unfortunately for Hibiki, however, life as a gym teacher at this school does not go completely smoothly.
With interpersonal conflicts among students causing fights and occasional mild missteps endangering his disguise, Hibiki must not only mediate his class, but also keep up appearances and navigate life in disguise.
<EOS>
The series plot revolves around Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) and his life in sleepy, slow-paced fictional Mayberry, North Carolina.
Sheriff Taylor's level-headed approach to law enforcement makes him the scourge of local moonshiners and out-of-town criminals, while his abilities to settle community problems with common-sense advice, mediation, and conciliation make him popular with his fellow citizens.
His professional life, however, is complicated by the repeated gaffes of his inept deputy, Barney Fife (Don Knotts).
Barney is portrayed as Andy's cousin in the first, second, and sixth episodes, but is never again referred to as such.
Andy socializes with male friends in the Main Street barber shop and dates various ladies until a schoolteacher becomes his steady interest in season three.
At home, Andy enjoys fishing trips with his son, Opie (Ronny Howard), and quiet evenings on the front porch with his maiden aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier).
Opie tests his father's parenting skills season after season, and Aunt Bee's ill-considered romances and adventures cause her nephew concern.
Andy's friends and neighbors include barber Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear – but played by Walter Baldwin in the 1960 episode "Stranger in Town"), service station attendants and cousins Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) and Goober Pyle (George Lindsey), and local drunkard Otis Campbell (Hal Smith).
There were two mayors: Mayor Pike, who was more relaxed, and Mayor Stoner, who had a more assertive personality.
On the distaff side, townswoman Clara Edwards (Hope Summers), Barney's sweetheart Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn) and Andy's schoolteacher sweetheart Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut) become semi-regulars.
Ellie Walker (Elinor Donahue) is Andy's girlfriend in the first season, while Peggy McMillan (Joanna Moore) is a nurse who becomes his girlfriend in season 3.
Ernest Bass (Howard Morris) made his first appearance in Episode #94 ("Mountain Wedding").
In the color seasons, County Clerk Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) and handyman Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman) appear regularly, while Barney's replacement deputy Warren Ferguson (Jack Burns) appears in season six.
Unseen characters such as telephone operator Sarah, and Barney's love interest, local diner waitress Juanita Beasley, as mentioned in the first season, are often referenced.
In the series' last few episodes, farmer Sam Jones (Ken Berry) debuts, and later becomes the lead of the show's sequel, MayberryFD.
Don Knotts, Aneta Corsaut, Jack Dodson, and Betty Lynn also appeared on Andy Griffith's later show Matlock.
<EOS>
Jim is a normal earthworm, until a special "super suit" falls from the sky and allows him to operate much like a human, with his "worm-part" acting as a head and the suit acting as arms, body, and legs.
Jim's task is two-fold, he must evade the game's many antagonists, who are after him because they want the suit back, and also rescue and protect Princess What's-Her-Name from them.
The game plays out with Jim eluding and defeating all enemies, and saving Princess What's-Her-Name.
However, not only does she not return Jim's affection, but she is also crushed by the flying cow that was launched at the beginning of the game by Jim himself.
<EOS>
The special begins on a frozen pond, put to use as an ice rink by the Peanuts cast, who skate together as the song "Christmas Time Is Here" is heard over the opening credits.
It's Christmas season, and Charlie Brown is depressed.
He tells Linus about his unhappiness, citing his dismay with the over-commercialization of Christmas and his inability to grasp what Christmas is all about.
Linus dismisses Charlie Brown's feelings as one of Charlie Brown's common moods.
Charlie Brown's depression is only exacerbated by the goings-on in the Peanuts neighborhood.
After the discussion, while the Peanuts cast skate, Snoopy appears.
He grabs the cast and skates with them in a line, then slides on the ice before Charlie Brown and Linus come out skating.
Snoopy grabs Linus's blanket and picks up Charlie Brown.
Snoopy spins the blanket around, releasing Charlie Brown in the process.
Charlie Brown hits a tree and snow falls on him before "A Charlie Brown Christmas" appears on the screen.
A short time later, Charlie Brown finds his mailbox empty of Christmas cards and sarcastically thanks Violet for the card she never sent him, but Violet just uses the opportunity to put Charlie Brown down again.
Feeling dejected, Charlie Brown visits Lucy in her psychiatric booth.
Lucy, after attempting to label him with various phobias and admitting she wants real estate as a Christmas gift, determines that Charlie Brown needs more involvement to combat his depression.
She recommends that he direct a Christmas play.
Charlie Brown is excited at the chance to direct, and Lucy promises to help him.
On his way to the auditorium, Charlie Brown finds Snoopy decorating his doghouse for a neighborhood lights and display contest, and laments that even his dog is focusing on the commercial aspects of Christmas.
Continuing onward, he runs into his sister Sally, who asks him to write her letter to Santa Claus.
When she hints at having an extremely long and specific list of requests, and says she will accept money as a substitute ("tens and twenties," a massive amount for a child of Sally's age in the 1960s), Charlie Brown becomes even more dismayed.
Charlie Brown arrives at the rehearsal, but he is unable to control the situation as the uncooperative Peanuts kids are more interested in modernizing the play with dancing and lively music, mainly Schroeder's rendition of "Linus and Lucy".
Lucy, angling to be the Christmas Queen, is also the Script Girl, handing out scripts.
She and Snoopy would get into a fight after the latter mocked her.
He slurps her and she, as was often the case when Snoopy kissed or licked her, ran off screaming that she had gotten dog germs, demanding hot water, disinfectant and iodine.
She would also argue with Linus about his blanket and demands that he give it up.
He uses it as a costume, which infuriates Lucy yet again.
Thinking the play requires "the proper mood," Charlie Brown decides they need a Christmas tree.
Lucy takes over direction of the play and dispatches Charlie Brown to get a "big, shiny aluminum tree".
With Linus in tow, Charlie Brown sets off on his quest, as an "O Tannenbaum" instrumental plays in the background.
When they get to the tree market, filled with numerous trees fitting Lucy's description, Charlie Brown zeroes in on the only real tree on the lot – a tiny sapling.
Linus is unsure about Charlie Brown's choice, but Charlie Brown is convinced that after decorating it, it will be just right for the play – "and besides," he says, "I think it needs me".
They return to the auditorium with the tree, at which point the children (particularly the girls and Snoopy) ridicule Charlie Brown for selecting such a small and shabby Christmas tree.
Every member of the Peanuts gang except Linus laughs at Charlie Brown.
At his wit's end, Charlie Brown loudly asks if anybody really knows what Christmas is all about.
Linus, standing alone on the stage, says he can tell Charlie Brown what Christmas is about, and recites the annunciation to the shepherds from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verses 8 through 14, as translated by the Authorized King James Version:  Charlie Brown smiles, quietly picks up the little tree, and walks out of the auditorium.
After reflecting on what Linus had said, he decides to take the tree home to decorate, to show the others it will work in the play.
When he arrives, he stops at Snoopy's decorated doghouse, which now sports a first prize blue ribbon for winning the display contest.
He puts an ornamental ball from the doghouse on the top of his tree.
The branch, with the ball still on it, promptly flops over to one side instead of remaining upright, prompting Charlie Brown to declare "I've killed it" and run off in disgust at his perpetual failure.
Linus and the rest of the Peanuts gang (who have all become guilty for laughing at Charlie Brown) arrive outside Snoopy's doghouse.
Linus gently props the drooping branch back in its upright position by wrapping his blanket around the tree.
The group add the remaining decorations from Snoopy's doghouse to the tree, and Lucy admits that the tree does look nice.
They start humming "Hark.
The Herald Angels Sing".
Charlie Brown returns, surprised at the humming and the redecorated tree, as his peers greet him with a joyous "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown.
" The entire group begins to sing the first verse of "Hark.
The Herald Angels Sing," and Charlie Brown joins them as the special ends.
<EOS>
A manned space flight with eight crew members crash lands on what the astronauts believe to be an unknown asteroid.
Their expectations of survival or rescue are bleak.
Only four of the crew survive: the commanding officer Donlin, crewmen Corey and Pierson, and a crewman who is barely alive.
After they bury the dead men, Donlin and Pierson concern themselves with taking care of the injured crewman, but Corey, realizing water is in short supply, is only concerned about saving himself, setting himself at odds with Donlin and Pierson.
After the injured crewman dies, Donlin has Corey and Pierson trek out into the barren desert to see if there is anything that might improve their chances of survival.
Six hours later, Corey returns but Pierson does not, and Corey claims not to know where Pierson is.
Donlin calls Corey out on having more water in his canteen now, than what he left with, and demands to know where Pierson is.
Corey claims that he found Pierson dead and filched the water supply from his dead body.
Donlin forces Corey at gunpoint to lead him to Pierson's body to see for himself.
They find Pierson, still barely alive, who with his last bit of strength draws a primitive diagram in the sand with his finger, and then dies.
Corey confesses that he attacked Pierson earlier, and he then kills Donlin and sets out alone, confident that he will survive longer now that he has all of the water supply.
Corey climbs a nearby mountain and sees a sign for Reno, and then sees telephone poles, which were what Pierson had attempted to draw before he died.
Realizing that they had in fact never left Earth and that he had killed his partners for nothing, Corey breaks down weeping.
<EOS>
27 year old Nan Adams, on a cross-country road trip from New York City to Los Angeles, gets a flat tire onS.
Route 11 in Pennsylvania and has an accident.
A mechanic puts a spare tire on her car, comments that he's surprised she survived the accident, saying "you shouldn't've called for a mechanic, somebody shoulda called for a hearse" and directs her to the nearest town to fix it properly.
Just before she leaves, Nan notices a shabby and strange-looking man hitchhiking, but the mechanic doesn't see him when she mentions it.
Unnerved, she drives away.
As she continues her trip, Nan sees the same hitchhiker thumbing for a ride again in Virginia at several other points on her journey.
She becomes increasingly frightened of him.
When she sees him on the other side of a railroad crossing, she tries to drive away but becomes stuck on the tracks and nearly hit by a train.
She becomes convinced that the hitchhiker is trying to kill her.
She continues to drive, becoming more and more afraid, stopping only when necessary, but every time she does, the same hitchhiker is there.
She takes a side road in New Mexico, but ends up stranded when she runs out of gas.
Upon reaching a gas station on foot, she is refused service as it is after hours.
She's startled by a sailor on his way back to San Diego from leave.
Eager for protection from the hitchhiker, she offers to drive the sailor to San Diego.
The sailor convinces the gas station attendant to provide gas.
As they drive together, discussing their mutual predicaments, she sees the hitchhiker on the road and swerves towards him.
The sailor, who can't see him, questions her driving, and she admits she was trying to run over the hitchhiker.
The sailor begins to fear for her sanity and leaves her.
In Arizona, Nan stops to call her mother.
The woman who answers the phone says that mrs Adams is in the hospital; she had a nervous breakdown after finding out that her daughter, Nan, died in Pennsylvania six days ago when the car she was driving blew a tire and overturned.
Nan realizes the truth: she did not survive the accident, and the hitchhiker is not a man who wants her to die, but rather the personification of death, patiently and persistently waiting for her to realize that she has been dead all along.
She loses all emotion and concern, feeling empty.
Nan returns to the car and looks in the vanity mirror on the visor.
Instead of her reflection, she sees the hitchhiker in her place.
"I believe you're going.
my way.
", he inquires.
<EOS>
Franklin and his wife Flora go to Las Vegas because she won a slogan contest.
He detests gambling, but his wife is excited about their vacation.
Franklin is given a coin by a drunk man at the casino, who makes Franklin use it in a slot machine.
He wins and tells his wife that they should keep the winnings and not lose it back like the other people.
As they depart, Franklin believes he hears the slot machine calling his name.
He continues to hear this as he tries to sleep.
He gets out of bed, telling his wife he cannot keep "tainted" money, and that he is going to get rid of it by putting it back in the machine.
Later, Flora goes to the casino and finds him playing the machine obsessively.
Addicted, Franklin has lost a great deal of their money.
When Flora tries to coax him to stop, Franklin declares that he has lost so much, that he has to try to win some of it back.
He becomes enraged when she presses for him to leave, declaring that the machine is "inhuman", that it "teases you, sucks you in".
Others observe that he has been playing the machine for hours.
When Franklin puts his last dollar into the machine, it malfunctions and will not spin.
Franklin begins yelling and pushes the machine over.
He is taken out of the casino screaming.
Later in bed, Franklin tells Flora that the machine was about to pay off, but deliberately broke down so that it would not have to give him his money.
He then hears the machine again calling his name.
To his horror, he sees the slot machine coming down the hallway towards their room, chasing him, but Flora cannot see it.
The machine hounds him towards the window, repeating his name over and over.
He crashes through the glass and falls to his death.
The police stand over his body, noting that his wife had stated that he had not slept in 24 hours.
A casino manager comments that he's "seen a lot of 'em get hooked before, but never like him".
The last scene shows Franklin's last dollar rolling up and spinning out flat near his outstretched, dead hand.
The camera pans over to where the coin came and there sits the slot machine, "smiling" at him.
<EOS>
Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) and Emma Greenway-Horton (Debra Winger) are mother and daughter searching for love.
Beginning with Emma's marriage, Aurora reveals how difficult and caring she can be.
The film centers around several years as they both find their reasons for going on living and finding joy.
Aurora finds Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson), the retired astronaut next door.
The relationship between Emma and Aurora comes full circle when Emma is diagnosed with cancer that soon becomes terminal.
At film's end, they all show different ways of expressing love.
<EOS>
The plot is based on Harwood's experiences as dresser to English Shakespearean actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit, who is the model for the character "Sir".
The film opens with a performance of Othello at a regional theatre in the United Kingdom during World War II.
In the title role is an ageing, once-famous Shakespearean actor identified to us only as "Sir" (Albert Finney).
He is of the old, bombastic school of British acting, full of grand gestures and fine oratory.
As the curtain comes down on the last act, and as the actors line up for their curtain call, Sir lectures them on the mistakes they've made during the performance, showing us that he is the leader of this travelling band of actors bringing Shakespeare to the provinces during wartime.
Waiting backstage is Norman (Tom Courtenay), who has been Sir's dresser for decades.
Norman is an efficient, somewhat effeminate little man who knows Sir's every whim and fancy, is used to his tirades and temperamental rants and is, for all intents and purposes, Sir's servant.
As Norman waits for Sir to come offstage after a typically florid closing address to the audience, we see one way he copes with his job as he takes a nip from a handy little bottle of brandy always in his back pocket.
The company is hurrying to its next venue, the industrial town of Bradford, where Sir is to give his renowned portrayal of the title character in King Lear.
The train nearly leaves without them, as Sir makes his stately progress through the train station to the platform, Norman scurrying ahead to plead with the train guard to hold the train for Sir's arrival.
But the train begins to pull out of the station, until Sir delivers a loud, commanding "STOP.
THAT.
TRAIN.
" from the platform steps.
The guard, taken aback, does just that and Sir placidly leads his company aboard.
Arriving in Bradford, however, another source of Norman's anxiety soon becomes clear, for it becomes obvious that Sir's mental capacities are rapidly fading.
Norman rescues him from a confused, almost violent rant in the town square that lands Sir in the hospital.
As the company tries to decide what to do, Sir unexpectedly arrives at the theatre, disoriented and exhausted, saying he has checked himself out of the hospital.
Norman ushers Sir to the dressing room, fiercely resisting the stage manager's insistence that the show be canceled and insisting Sir will be ready to go on.
The middle section of the film takes place nearly entirely in the dressing room, as Norman struggles to prepare Sir for the curtain.
Sir's wandering mind and nearly incoherent ramblings gradually become more focused as Norman gets him to concentrate on applying his makeup, remembering his lines; and we see how dependent the two men are on each other.
Sir would have no career left without Norman; Norman, even worse, would have no life without Sir, to whom he has so long dedicated all his time and energy.
By the time Sir's wife, referred to only as "Her Ladyship", who is playing Cordelia to her husband's Lear, arrives in the dressing room for the five-minute call, Sir is ready for the role he has only performed 227 times.
The curtain rises for the opening dialogue among Lear's courtiers, but Sir seems to mentally drift away while waiting for his cue, much to Norman's distress, forcing the hapless actors on stage to improvise speeches while Norman struggles to convince Sir of his entrance.
Air raid sirens sound, signaling the onset of an air raid; and, indeed, distant bombs that can be heard falling seem to rouse Sir and he strides on stage to deliver what all agree is his finest portrayal of Lear in his long career.
After the triumphant performance, however, Sir collapses from exhaustion and Norman helps him to his dressing room to lie down.
Sir requests Norman to read from an autobiography he claims to have been writing.
Although all Sir has written is the opening dedication, Norman reads aloud Sir's gracious "thank you"'s to his audiences, his fellow actors, to Shakespeare, to stage technicians.
but not a word about his dresser who has served him so long and loyally.
About to protest, Norman discovers that Sir has died while he's been reading.
Norman, by now slightly drunk from the evening's brandy nips, flies into a rage, accusing Sir of being a thankless old sod, and in his anger even madly scribbles an addition to Sir's writing thanking himself.
But Norman's anger only temporarily covers his disorientation at losing the only life he has known for so many years and, as Norman tearfully admits, the only man he has ever loved.
The film closes with Norman sprawled across Sir's body, unwilling to let go of his life and his love.
<EOS>
In 1947, the Muroc Army Air Field in California has test pilots fly high-speed aircraft such as the rocket-powered Bell X-1, but they die as a result.
After another pilot, Slick Goodlin, demands $150,000 to attempt to break the sound barrier, war hero Captain Chuck Yeager receives the chance to fly the X-1.
While on a horseback ride with his wife Glennis, Yeager collides with a tree branch and breaks his ribs, which inhibits him from leaning over and locking the door to the X-1.
Worried that he might not fly the mission, Yeager confides in friend and fellow pilot Jack Ridley.
Ridley cuts off part of a broomstick and tells Yeager to use it as a lever to help seal the hatch to the X-1, and Yeager becomes the first person to fly at supersonic speed, defeating the "demon in the sky".
Six years later, Muroc, now Edwards Air Force Base, still attracts the best test pilots.
Yeager (now a major) and friendly rival Scott Crossfield repeatedly break the other's speed records.
They often visit the Happy Bottom Riding Club run by Pancho Barnes, who classifies the pilots at Edwards as either "prime" (such as Yeager and Crossfield) that fly the best equipment or newer "pudknockers" who only dream about it.
Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Virgil "Gus" Grissom and Donald "Deke" Slayton, captains of the United States Air Force, are among the "pudknockers" who hope to also prove that they have "the Right Stuff".
The tests are no longer secret, as the military soon recognizes that it needs good publicity for funding, and with "no bucks, no Buck Rogers".
Cooper's wife, Trudy, and other wives are afraid of becoming widows, but cannot change their husbands' ambitions and desire for success and fame.
In 1957, the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite alarms the United States government.
Politicians such as Senator Lyndon Johnson and military leaders demand that NASA help America defeat the Russians in the new Space Race.
The search for the first Americans in space excludes Yeager because he lacks a college degree.
Grueling physical and mental tests select the Mercury Seven astronauts, including John Glenn of the United States Marine Corps, Alan Shepard, Walter Schirra and Scott Carpenter of the United States Navy, as well as Cooper, Grissom and Slayton; they immediately become national heroes.
Although many early NASA rockets explode during launch, the ambitious astronauts all hope to be the first in space as part of Project Mercury.
Although engineers see the men as passengers, the pilots insist that the Mercury spacecraft have a window, a hatch with explosive bolts, and pitch-yaw-roll controls.
However, Russia beats them on April 12, 1961 with the launch of Vostok 1 carrying Yuri Gagarin into space.
The seven astronauts immediately decide to start the Mercury program.
Shepard is the first American to reach space on the 15-minute sub-orbital flight of Mercury-Redstone 3 on May 5.
After Grissom's similar flight of Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21, the capsule's hatch blows open and quickly fills with water.
Grissom escapes, but the spacecraft, overweight with seawater, sinks.
Many criticize Grissom for possibly panicking and opening the hatch prematurely.
Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth on Mercury-Atlas 6 on February 20, 1962, surviving a possibly loose heat shield, and receives a ticker-tape parade.
He, his colleagues, and their families become celebrities, including a gigantic celebration in the Sam Houston Coliseum to announce the opening of the Manned Space Center in Houston, despite Glenn's wife Annie's fear of public speaking due to a stutter.
Although test pilots at Edwards mock the Mercury program for sending "spam in a can" into space, they recognize that they are no longer the fastest men on Earth, and Yeager states that "it takes a special kind of man to volunteer for a suicide mission, especially when it's on national TV".
While testing the new Lockheed NF-104A, Yeager attempts to set a new altitude record at the edge of space but is nearly killed in a high-speed ejection when his engine fails.
Though seriously burned, after reaching the ground Yeager gathers up his parachute and walks to the ambulance, proving that he still has the Right Stuff.
On May 15, 1963, Cooper has a successful launch on Mercury-Atlas 9, ending the Mercury program.
As the last American to fly into space alone, he "went higher, farther, and faster than any other American.
for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen".
<EOS>
Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall), a washed up, alcoholic country singer, awakens at a run-down Texas roadside motel and gas station after a night of heavy drinking.
He meets the owner, a young widow named Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), and offers to work in exchange for a room.
Rosa Lee, whose husband was killed in the Vietnam War, is raising her young son, Sonny (Allan Hubbard), on her own.
She agrees to let Mac stay under the condition that he does not drink while working.
The two begin to develop feelings for one another, mostly during quiet evenings sitting alone and sharing bits of their life stories.
Mac resolves to give up alcohol and start his life anew.
After some time passes, he and Rosa Lee wed.
They start attending a Baptist church on a regular basis.
One day, a newspaper reporter visits the motel and asks Mac whether he has stopped recording music and chosen an anonymous life.
When Mac refuses to answer, the reporter explains he is writing a story about Mac and has interviewed his ex-wife, Dixie Scott (Betty Buckley), a country music star who is performing nearby.
After the story is printed, the neighborhood learns of Mac's past, and members of a local country–western band visit him to show their respect.
Although he greets them politely, Mac remains reluctant to open up about his past.
Later, he secretly attends Dixie's concert.
She passionately sings several songs that Mac wrote years earlier, and he leaves in the middle of the performance.
Backstage, he talks to Dixie's manager, his old friend Harry (Wilford Brimley).
Mac gives him a copy of a new song he has written and asks him to show it to Dixie.
Mac tries to talk to Dixie, but she becomes angry upon seeing him and warns him to stay away from their 18-year-old daughter, Sue Anne (Ellen Barkin).
Upon his return home, Mac assures Rosa Lee he no longer has feelings for Dixie, whom he describes as "poison" to him.
Later, Harry visits Mac to tell him, seemingly at Dixie's urging, that the country music business has changed and his new song is no good.
Hurt and angry, Mac drives away and nearly crashes the truck.
He buys a bottle of whiskey but, upon returning home to a worried Rosa Lee and Sonny, he tells them he poured it out.
He tells them he tried to leave Rosa Lee, but found he could not.
Some time later, Mac and Sonny are baptized together in Rosa Lee's church.
Eventually, Sue Anne visits Mac, their first encounter since she was a baby.
Mac asks whether she got any of his letters, and she says her mother kept them from her.
Sue Anne also reports that Dixie tried to keep her from visiting Mac and that she plans to elope with her boyfriend despite her mother's objections.
Mac admits he used to hit Dixie and that she divorced him after he tried to kill her in a drunken rage.
Sue Anne asks whether Mac remembers a song about a dove he sang to her when she was a baby.
He claims he does not, but after she leaves he sings to himself the hymn "On the Wings of a Dove," which references a dove from the Lord saving Noah and descending at Jesus' baptism.
Boys at school bully Sonny about his dead father, and he and Mac grow closer.
The members of the local country band ask Mac permission to perform one of his songs, and he agrees.
Mac begins performing with them and they make plans to record together.
His newfound happiness is interrupted  when Sue Anne dies in a car accident.
Mac attends his daughter's funeral at Dixie's lavish home in Nashville and comforts her when she breaks down.
Back home, Mac keeps quiet about his emotional pain, although he wonders aloud to Rosa Lee why his once sorry existence has been given meaning and, on the other hand, his daughter died.
Throughout his mourning, Mac continues his new life with Rosa Lee and Sonny.
In the final scene, Sonny finds a football Mac has left him as a gift.
Mac watches the hotel from a field across the road and sings "On the Wings of a Dove" to himself.
Sonny thanks him for the football and the two play catch together in the field.
<EOS>
A young British schoolmistress, Adela Quested, and her elderly friend, mrs Moore, visit the fictional city of Chandrapore, British India.
Adela is to decide if she wants to marry mrs Moore's son, Ronny Heaslop, the city magistrate.
Meanwhile, dr Aziz, a young Indian Muslim physician, is dining with two of his Indian friends and conversing about whether it is possible to be a friend of an Englishman.
During the meal, a summons arrives from Major Callendar, Aziz's unpleasant superior at the hospital.
Aziz hastens to Callendar's bungalow as ordered but is delayed by a flat tyre and difficulty in finding a tonga and the major has already left in a huff.
Disconsolate, Aziz walks down the road toward the railway station.
When he sees his favourite mosque, he enters on impulse.
He sees a strange Englishwoman there and yells at her not to profane this sacred place.
The woman, Mrs Moore, has respect for native customs.
This disarms Aziz, and the two chat and part as friends.
mrs Moore returns to the British club down the road and relates her experience at the mosque.
Ronny Heaslop, her son, initially thinks she is talking about an Englishman and becomes indignant when he learns the facts.
Adela, however, is intrigued.
Because the newcomers had expressed a desire to see Indians, mr Turton, the city tax collector, invites numerous Indian gentlemen to a party at his house.
The party turns out to be an awkward business, thanks to the Indians' timidity and the Britons' bigotry, but Adela meets Cyril Fielding, principal of Chandrapore's government-run college for Indians.
Fielding invites Adela and mrs Moore to a tea party with him and a Hindu-Brahmin professor named Narayan Godbole.
At Adela's request, he extends his invitation to dr Aziz.
At Fielding's tea party, everyone has a good time conversing about India, and Fielding and Aziz become friends.
Aziz promises to take mrs Moore and Adela to see the Marabar Caves, a distant cave complex.
Ronny Heaslop arrives and rudely breaks up the party.
Aziz mistakenly believes that the women are offended that he has not followed through on his promise and arranges an outing to the caves at great expense to himself.
Fielding and Godbole were supposed to accompany the expedition, but they miss the train.
Aziz and the women explore the caves.
In the first cave, mrs Moore is overcome with claustrophobia.
But worse than the claustrophobia is the echo.
Disturbed by the sound, mrs Moore declines to continue exploring.
Adela and Aziz, accompanied by a guide, climb to the next caves.
As Aziz helps Adela up the hill, she asks whether he has more than one wife.
Disconcerted by the bluntness of the remark, he ducks into a cave to compose himself.
When he comes out, he finds the guide alone outside the caves.
The guide says Adela has gone into a cave by herself.
Aziz looks for her in vain.
Deciding she is lost, he strikes the guide, who runs away.
Aziz looks around and discovers Adela's field glasses lying broken on the ground.
He puts them in his pocket.
Then Aziz looks down the hill and sees Adela speaking to another young Englishwoman, Miss Derek, who has arrived with Fielding in a car.
Aziz runs down the hill and greets Fielding, but Miss Derek and Adela drive off without explanation.
Fielding, mrs Moore, and Aziz return to Chandrapore on the train.
At the train station, Aziz is arrested and charged with sexually assaulting Adela in a cave.
The run-up to his trial releases the racial tensions between the British and the Indians.
Adela says that Aziz followed her into the cave and tried to grab her, and that she fended him off by swinging her field glasses at him.
The only evidence the British have is the field glasses in the possession of Aziz.
Despite this, the British colonists believe that Aziz is guilty.
They are stunned when Fielding proclaims his belief in Aziz's innocence.
Fielding is ostracised and condemned as a blood-traitor.
But the Indians, who consider the assault allegation a fraud, welcome him.
During the weeks before the trial, mrs Moore is apathetic and irritable.
Although she professes her belief in Aziz's innocence, she does nothing to help him.
Ronny, alarmed by his mother's assertion that Aziz is innocent, arranges for her return by ship to England before she can testify at the trial.
mrs Moore dies during the voyage.
Her absence from India becomes a major issue at the trial, where Aziz's legal defenders assert that her testimony would have proven the accused's innocence.
Adela becomes confused as to Aziz's guilt.
At the trial, she is asked whether Aziz sexually assaulted her.
She has a vision of the cave, and it turns out that Adela had, while in the cave, received a shock similar to mrs Moore's.
The echo had disconcerted her so much that she became unhinged.
At the time, Adela mistakenly interpreted her shock as an assault by Aziz.
She admits that she was mistaken, and the case is dismissed.
(Note: In the 1913 draft of the novel, EM Forster had Aziz guilty of the assault and found guilty in the court but changed this in the 1924 draft to create a more ambiguous ending) Ronny Heaslop breaks off their engagement.
Adela stays at Fielding's house until her passage on a boat to England is arranged.
After explaining to Fielding that the echo was the cause of the whole business, she departs India, never to return.
Although he is vindicated, Aziz is angry that Fielding befriended Adela after she nearly ruined his life.
Believing it to be the gentlemanly thing to do, Fielding convinces Aziz not to seek monetary redress from her.
The men's friendship suffers, and Fielding departs for England.
Aziz believes that he is leaving to marry Adela for her money.
Bitter at his friend's perceived betrayal, he vows never again to befriend a white person.
Aziz moves to the Hindu-ruled state of Mau and begins a new life.
Two years later, Fielding returns to India.
His wife is Stella, mrs Moore's daughter from a second marriage.
Aziz, now the Raja's chief physician, comes to respect and love Fielding again.
However, he does not give up his dream of a free and united India.
In the novel's last sentences, he explains that he and Fielding cannot be friends until India is free of the British Raj.
<EOS>
It is the year 1935 and Waxahachie, Texas is a small, segregated town in the midst of a depression.
One evening the local sheriff, Royce Spalding, leaves the family dinner table to investigate trouble at the rail yards.
He dies after being accidentally shot by a young black boy, Wylie.
Local white vigilantes tie Wylie to a truck and drag his body through town, for all the community to see, before hanging him from a tree.
The sheriff's widow, Edna Spalding, is left to raise her children alone and maintain the family farm.
The bank has a note on the farm and money is scarce; the price for cotton is plummeting and many farms are going under.
The local banker, mr Denby, pays her a visit.
He begins to pressure her to sell the farm as he doesn't see how she can afford to make the loan payments on her own let alone run the farm.
A drifter and handyman, a black man by the name of Moses, appears at her door one night, asking for work.
He offers to plant cotton on all her acres and cites his experience.
Edna declines to hire him but offers him a meal instead and sends him on his way.
In desperation, Moses steals some of her silver spoons before he leaves.
Similarly desperate, Edna finally resolves to keep her family together on the farm no matter what.
When the police capture Moses with her stolen silver, and bring him back to confirm the theft, Edna seizes the opportunity.
She lies to the police and says he is her hired man.
She sees there is more to gain from the situation because of what he knows about growing and marketing cotton, so she chooses not to prosecute him but to hire him instead.
The next day, Edna visits the banker, mr Denby, to relay her decision not to sell the farm but to work the land and raise cotton.
He is frustrated by Edna and her decision but ultimately manipulates the situation when he unloads his blind brother-in-law, Will, on Edna, compelling her to take him in as a lodger.
Will lost his sight in the war, but has remained fiercely independent and somewhat marginalized since.
He begins to soften, however, as he and the others living at the farm become more and more like family while they weather life's storms together.
Edna visits mr Denby once more to negotiate and save her farm from foreclosure.
She realizes she cannot make the next payment in full even if she sells all her cotton.
The bank declines Edna's request for relief, but during her visit she learns of the Ellis County contest; a $100 cash prize is awarded to the farmer who produces the first bale of cotton for market each season.
Edna realizes the prize money plus the proceeds from the sale of her cotton would be enough to allow her to pay the bank and keep the farm.
Edna knows she will need more pickers though and despite his initial protests, Moses agrees to help her find the help so they can harvest the cotton on time.
Soon the farm is teeming with people and everyone has an important job to do—even Will who prepares the meals and feeds all the workers.
Everyone is busy with the business of survival.
Their efforts pay off as Edna and Moses eventually find themselves first in line at the wholesaler with the season's very first bale of cotton.
Moses carefully coaches Edna on how to negotiate with the buyer and as a result he is unable to cheat her on a price for her cotton.
She lets the buyer know that if he does not pay her a fair price, she will go to another wholesaler who will.
The buyer does not want to lose the distinction of purchasing the first crop of the season to a competitor, so he agrees to pay Edna's asking price.
It becomes clear to the buyer that Moses is Edna's partner and has helped her throughout.
That night Moses is accosted by Ku Klux Klan members and savagely beaten.
Will, who recognizes all the assailant's voices as local white men, confronts and identifies them one by one; they all run off and Moses' life is saved.
Moses realizes he will have to leave the farm permanently, however, under threat of future attacks.
The story ends, as it began, with community and in the midst of prayer.
In a highly symbolic and imaginary scene, communion is passed among the assembled congregants at the church, hand to hand and mouth to mouth, between both the living and the deceased.
The last line of the film is spoken by Wylie to Royce Spalding, "Peace of God”.
The film closes with all the characters gathered together in church singing in unison.
<EOS>
The time is 1944 during World War II.
Vernon Waters (Adolph Caesar), a master sergeant in a company of black soldiers, is very drunk and staggering along a road along Fort Neal, a segregated Army base in Louisiana.
Waters' last words amidst his raucous laughter were "They still hate you.
They still hate you.
" before he is shot to death with a.
45 caliber pistol.
When Waters' body is found the next day, Captain Richard Davenport (Howard Rollins, Jr), a black officer from the Judge Advocate General is sent to investigate, against the wishes of commanding officer Colonel Nivins (Trey Wilson).
While the general consensus is that he was killed by local members of the Ku Klux Klan, others are doubtful, having heard that Waters' stripes and insignia were still on his uniform and aware that the Klan's typicalO.
is to remove them before lynching their victims.
From the outset, Davenport is faced with obstacles.
Colonel Nivins will only give him three days to conduct his investigation.
Even Captain Taylor (Dennis Lipscomb), the one white officer in favor of a full investigation, is uncooperative and patronizing, fearing that a black officer will have little success in catching those responsible.
While some black soldiers are happy and proud to see one of their own race wearing captain's bars, others are distrustful and evasive.
Davenport learns that Waters' company was officially part of the 221st Chemical Smoke Generator Battalion and while eager to serve their country overseas, when not training they are assigned menial jobs in deference to their white counterparts.
However, most are former baseball players from the Negro Leagues and grouped as a unit in order to play ball, with Waters assigned to manage the players.
Their success as a team playing against white soldiers gives them a good deal of popularity, with talk of the team playing against the New York Yankees in an exhibition game.
James Wilkie (Art Evans), a fellow sergeant whom Waters recently demoted to private for being drunk on duty, initially portrays Waters as a strict "spit-and-polish" disciplinarian but also a just, good-natured NCO who got on well with the men, especially the jovial and well-likedJ.
Memphis (Larry Riley).
But as Davenport probes deeper, he uncovers Waters' true tyrannical nature and his disgust with his fellow black soldiers, particularly those from the rural South.
An interview with Private Peterson (Denzel Washington) revealed how he stood up to Waters when he berated the men after another winning game.
In retaliation, the sergeant challenged Peterson to a fight and beat him badly.
Davenport then learns through interviews with other soldiers how Waters chargedJ.
with the murder of a white MP, after a search conducted by Wilkie turned up a recently discharged pistol underJ.
's bunk.
Confronting him with the evidence, Waters provokedJ.
into striking him, whereupon the weapons charge was dismissed andJ.
was then charged with striking a superior officer.
WhenJ.
's best friend Bernard Cobb (David Alan Grier) visits him in jail,J.
is suffering from intense claustrophobia and tells Cobb of a visit from Sgt.
Waters, who admitted freely toJ.
that it was a set-up and that Waters had done it at least five times before to others like him, saying "the Black race can't afford you no more.
the day of the Geechee is gone, boy.
And you're going with it".
When Davenport asked Corporal Cobb what happened toJ, he is told that the man hanged himself in his cell while awaiting trial.
In protest, the platoon threw the last game of the season, while Waters was left profoundly shaken by the suicide.
The team was disbanded by Taylor and the players assigned to a smoke generating company.
Davenport then finds out that two white officers coming from a military exercise, Captain Wilcox (Scott Paulin) and Lieutenant Byrd (Wings Hauser), had an altercation with the drunk sergeant a short time before his death.
When questioned, both officers admit to physical assault when confronted by Waters on a drunken tirade, but deny killing him, revealing that they had not been issued.
45 ammunition for the exercise as it was in short supply and it was reserved for MPs and soldiers on special duty.
Though Taylor is convinced that Wilcox and Byrd are lying and is eager to arrest them, Davenport releases them.
While a search has begun for Privates Peterson and Smalls who have both gone AWOL, Davenport questions Wilkie once more, and the demoted private is forced to admit that he planted the gun underJ.
's bunk on Waters' orders.
Though he hid it from everyone, Waters divulged in private to Wilkie his intense hatred ofJ.
and others like him whom Waters felt were an unwelcome weight on the Black race.
Davenport then asks why Waters didn't go after Peterson since they had the fight, and Wilkie tells him that Waters liked Peterson because he fought back and was planning to promote him.
Davenport has Wilkie placed under arrest just as an impromptu celebration has begun outside after learning that the platoon is to be shipped out to join the fight overseas.
Realizing that Peterson and Smalls were on guard duty the night of Waters' murder, and thus had been issued.
45 ammunition for their pistols, Davenport interrogates Smalls after he has been found by the MPs and Smalls confesses that it was Peterson who killed Sergeant Waters, as revenge forJ.
When Peterson is captured and brought into the interrogation room, he confesses to the murder, saying "I didn't kill much.
Some things need getting rid of".
The film ends with Taylor congratulating Davenport on getting his man and admitting that he will have to get used to Negroes being in charge.
Davenport assures Taylor that he'll get used to it.
"You can bet your ass on that," he adds, as the platoon marches in preparation for their deployment to the European Theater.
<EOS>
The film tells of two very different men who share a prison cell in Brazil during the Brazilian military government: Valentin Arregui, who is imprisoned (and has been tortured) due to his activities on behalf of a leftist revolutionary group, and Luis Molina, a pederast in prison for having sex with an underage boy.
Molina passes the time by recounting memories from one of his favorite films, a wartime romantic thriller that's also a Nazi propaganda film.
He weaves the characters into a narrative meant to comfort Arregui and distract him from the harsh realities of political imprisonment and the separation from his lover, Marta.
Arregui allows Molina to penetrate some of his defensive self and opens up.
Despite Arregui occasionally snapping at Molina over his rather shallow views of political cinema, an unlikely friendship develops between the two.
As the story develops, it becomes clear that Arregui is being poisoned by his jailers to provide Molina with a chance to befriend him, and that Molina is spying on Arregui on behalf of the Brazilian secret police.
Molina has namely been promised a parole if he succeeds in obtaining information that will allow the secret police to find the revolutionary group's members.
Molina falls in love with Arregui, and Arregui responds after a fashion, culminating in a physical consummation of their love on Molina's last night in prison.
Molina is granted parole in the hopes Arregui will reveal information about his contacts when he knows Molina will be out of prison.
Arregui provides Molina with a telephone number and message for his comrades.
Molina at first refuses to take the number, fearing the consequences of treason, but he relents, and he and Arregui bid farewell with a kiss.
In the final scenes, Molina calls the telephone number, and a meeting is arranged with the revolutionary group.
But the secret police have had Molina under surveillance, and a gun battle ensues, with the revolutionaries, assuming Molina has betrayed them, shooting him.
As he wanders the streets wounded, the policemen catch up with him and demand that he disclose the telephone number in exchange for them taking him to the hospital for treatment, but Molina refuses and succumbs to his wounds.
On the orders of the police chief (Milton Gonçalves), the policemen dump Molina's body in a rubbish pit and fabricate a story about his death and involvement with the revolutionary group.
Meanwhile, back in the prison Arregui is being treated after being tortured once again.
As the doctor administers him morphine to help him sleep, risking his job in the process, Arregui escapes into a dream where he is on a tropical island with Marta.
<EOS>
Charley Partanna is a hit man for a New York crime organization headed by the elderly Don Corrado Prizzi, whose business is generally handled by his sons Dominic and Eduardo and by his longtime right-hand man, Angelo, who is Charley's father.
At a family wedding, Charley is quickly infatuated with a beautiful woman he doesn't recognize.
He asks Maerose Prizzi, estranged daughter of Dominic, if she recognizes the woman, oblivious to the fact that Maerose still has feelings for Charley, having once been his lover.
Maerose is in disfavor with her father for running off with another man after the end of her romance with Charley.
Charley discovers that the mysterious woman, Irene, is a "contractor" who, like himself, performs assassinations for the mob.
He flies to California to spend time with her and quickly falls in love.
Unaware she is married, Charley also carries out a contract to kill Irene's husband, Marksie Heller, for robbing a Nevada casino.
She repays some of the money Marksie stole and in Mexico marries Charley.
Charley is unaware that Irene is suspected by the mob of having the rest of the money Marksie took.
A jealous Maerose travels there on her own to establish for a fact that Irene has double-crossed the organization.
The information restores Maerose to good graces somewhat with her father and the don.
Dominic, acting on his own, wants Charley out of the way and hires someone to do the hit, not knowing that he has just given the job to Charley's own wife.
Angelo sides with his son, and Eduardo is so appalled by his brother's actions that he helps set up Dominic's permanent removal from the family.
Irene and Charley team up on a kidnapping that will enrich the family, but she shoots a police captain's wife in the process, endangering the organization's business relationship with the cops.
The don is also still demanding a large sum of money from Irene for her unauthorized activities in Nevada, which she doesn't want to pay.
In time, the don tells Charley that his wife's "gotta go".
Things come to a head in California when, acting as if everything is all right, Charley comes home to his wife.
(A famous line from the movie, spoken by Charley, is "Do I marry her.
Do I ice her.
Which one of these.
") Each pulls a weapon simultaneously in the bedroom.
Irene ends up dead, and Charley ends up back in New York, missing her, but consoled by Maerose.
<EOS>
In 1967,S.
Army volunteer Chris Taylor arrives in Vietnam and is assigned to an infantry platoon near the Cambodian border.
The platoon is officially led by the young and inexperienced Lieutenant Wolfe, but in reality the soldiers defer to two of his older and more experienced subordinates: the hardened and cynical Staff Sergeant Robert "Bob" Barnes, and the more idealistic Sergeant Elias.
Taylor is immediately sent out with Barnes, Elias and veteran soldiers on a planned night ambush for a North Vietnamese Army force.
The NVA soldiers manage to get close to the sleeping Americans before a brief firefight ensues; Taylor's fellow new recruit Gardener is killed and Taylor himself lightly wounded.
After his return from hospital, Taylor bonds with Elias and his circle of marijuana-smokers while remaining aloof from Barnes and his more hard-edged followers.
During a subsequent patrol, three men are killed by booby traps and unseen assailants.
Already on edge, the platoon is further angered when they discover an enemy supply and weapons cache in a nearby village.
Barnes, through a Vietnamese-speaking soldier, aggressively interrogates the village chief about whether the villagers have been aiding the NVA, and cold-bloodedly shoots his wife dead when she snaps back at him.
Elias then arrives, getting into a physical altercation with Barnes over the killing before Wolfe breaks it up and orders the supplies destroyed and the village razed.
Taylor later prevents a gang-rape of two girls by some of Barnes' men.
When the platoon returns to base, the veteran company commander Captain Harris declares that if he finds out that an illegal killing took place, a court-martial will ensue, leaving Barnes worried that Elias will testify against him.
On their next patrol, the platoon is ambushed and pinned down in a firefight, in which numerous soldiers are wounded.
More men are wounded when Lieutenant Wolfe accidentally directs an artillery strike onto his own unit before Barnes calls it off.
Elias takes Taylor and two other men to intercept flanking enemy troops.
Barnes orders the rest of the platoon to retreat and goes back into the jungle to find Elias' group.
Barnes finds Elias alone and shoots him, then returns and tells the others that Elias was killed by the enemy.
While the platoon is extracting via helicopter, they glimpse Elias, mortally wounded, emerging from the treeline and being chased by a group of North Vietnamese soldiers, who kill him.
Noting Barnes' anxious manner, Taylor realizes that he was responsible.
At the base, Taylor attempts to talk his group into fragging Barnes in retaliation when Barnes, having overheard them, enters the room and mocks them.
Taylor assaults the intoxicated Barnes but is quickly overpowered.
Barnes cuts Taylor near his eye with a push dagger before departing.
The platoon is sent back to the front line to maintain defensive positions, where Taylor shares a foxhole with Francis.
That night, a major NVA assault occurs, and the defensive lines are broken.
Much of the platoon, including Wolfe and most of Barnes' followers, are killed in the ensuing battle.
During the attack, an NVA sapper, armed with explosives, destroys the battalion headquarters in a suicide attack.
Now in command of the defense, Captain Harris orders his air support to expend all their remaining ordnance inside his perimeter.
During the chaos, Taylor encounters Barnes, who is wounded and driven to insanity.
Just as Barnes is about to kill Taylor, both men are knocked unconscious by an air strike.
Taylor regains consciousness the following morning, picks up an enemy Type 56 rifle, and finds Barnes, who orders Taylor to call a medic.
Seeing that Taylor won't help, Barnes contemptuously tells Taylor to kill him; Taylor does so.
Francis, who survived the battle unharmed, deliberately stabs himself in the leg and reminds Taylor that because they have been twice wounded, they can return home.
The helicopter carries the two men away.
Overwhelmed, Taylor sobs as he glares down at multiple craters full of corpses.
<EOS>
Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin) is a troubled young deaf woman working as a janitor at a school for the deaf and hard of hearing in New England.
An energetic new teacher, James Leeds (William Hurt), arrives at the school and encourages her to set aside her insular life by learning how to speak aloud.
As she already uses sign language, Sarah resists James's attempts to get her to talk but she is resistant because of a history of rape.
Romantic interest develops between James and Sarah and they are soon living together, though their differences and mutual stubbornness eventually strains their relationship to the breaking point, as he continues to want her to talk, and she feels somewhat stifled in his presence.
Sarah leaves James and goes to live with her estranged mother (Piper Laurie) in a nearby city, reconciling with her in the process.
However, she and James later find a way to resolve their differences.
<EOS>
The story is told in three main arcs, with most of it occurring during a 24-month period beginning and ending at Thanksgiving parties hosted by Hannah (Mia Farrow) and her husband, Elliot (Michael Caine).
Hannah serves as the stalwart hub of the narrative; most of the events of the film connect to her.
Elliot becomes infatuated with one of Hannah's sisters, Lee (Barbara Hershey), and eventually begins an affair with her.
Elliot attributes his behavior to his discontent with his wife's self-sufficiency and resentment of her emotional strength.
Lee has lived for five years with a reclusive artist, Frederick (Max von Sydow), who is much older.
She finds her relationship with Frederick no longer intellectually or sexually stimulating, in spite of (or maybe because of) Frederick's professed interest in continuing to teach her.
She leaves Frederick after he discovers her affair with Elliot.
For the remainder of the year between the first and second Thanksgiving gatherings, Elliot and Lee carry on their affair despite Elliot's inability to end his marriage to Hannah.
Lee finally ends the affair during the second Thanksgiving, explaining that she is finished waiting for him to commit and that she has started dating someone else.
Hannah's ex-husband Mickey (Woody Allen), a television writer, is present mostly in scenes outside of the primary story.
Flashbacks reveal that his marriage to Hannah fell apart after they were unable to have children because of his infertility.
However, they had twins who are not biologically his, before divorcing.
He also went on a disastrous date with Hannah's sister Holly (Dianne Wiest) when they were set up after the divorce.
A hypochondriac, he goes to his doctor complaining of hearing loss, and is frightened by the possibility that it might be a brain tumor.
When tests prove that he is perfectly healthy, he is initially overjoyed, but then despairs that his life is meaningless.
His existential crisis leads to unsatisfying experiments with religious conversion to Catholicism and an interest in Krishna Consciousness.
Ultimately, an unsuccessful suicide attempt leads him to find meaning in his life after unexpectedly viewing the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup in a movie theater.
The revelation that life should be enjoyed, rather than understood, helps to prepare him for a second date with Holly, which this time blossoms into love.
Holly's story is the film's third main arc.
A former cocaine addict, she is an unsuccessful actress who cannot settle on a career.
After borrowing money from Hannah, she starts a catering business with April (Carrie Fisher), a friend and fellow actress.
Holly and April end up as rivals in auditions for parts in Broadway musicals, as well as for the affections of an architect (Sam Waterston).
Holly abandons the catering business after the romance with the architect fails and decides to try her hand at writing.
The career change forces her once again to borrow money from Hannah, a dependency that Holly resents.
She writes a script inspired by Hannah and Elliot, which greatly upsets Hannah.
It is suggested that much of the script involved personal details of Hannah and Elliot's marriage that had been conveyed to Holly through Lee (having been transmitted first from Elliot).
Although this threatens to expose the affair between Elliot and Lee, Elliot soon disavows disclosing any such details.
Holly sets aside her script, and instead writes a story inspired by her own life, which Mickey reads and admires greatly, vowing to help her get it produced and leading to their second date.
A minor arc in the film tells part of the story of Norma (Maureen O'Sullivan) and Evan (Lloyd Nolan).
They are the parents of Hannah and her two sisters, and still have acting careers of their own.
Their own tumultuous marriage revolves around Norma's alcoholism and alleged affairs, but the long-term bond between them is evident in Evan's flirtatious anecdotes about Norma while playing piano at the Thanksgiving gatherings.
By the time of the film's third Thanksgiving, Lee has married someone she met while taking classes at Columbia, while Hannah and Elliot have reconciled their marriage.
The film's final shot reveals that Holly is married to Mickey and that she is pregnant.
<EOS>
The first part of the novel is set in Florence, Italy, and describes a young English woman's first visit to Florence, at a time when upper middle class English women were starting to lead independent, adventurous lives.
Lucy Honeychurch is touring Italy with her overbearing older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett, and the novel opens with their complaints about the hotel, "The Pension Bertolini".
Their primary concern is that although rooms with a view of the River Arno have been promised for each of them, their rooms instead look over a courtyard.
A mr Emerson interrupts their "peevish wrangling," offering to swap rooms as he and his son, George Emerson, look over the Arno.
This behaviour causes Miss Bartlett some consternation, as it appears impolite.
Without letting Lucy speak, Miss Bartlett refuses the offer, looking down on the Emersons because of their unconventional behaviour and thinking it would place her under an "unseemly obligation" towards them.
However, another guest at the pension, an Anglican clergyman named mr Beebe, persuades the pair to accept the offer, assuring Miss Bartlett that mr Emerson only meant to be kind.
The next day, while Charlotte rests in the pension, Lucy decides to spend a "long morning" in the Basilica of Santa Croce, led by another guest, Miss Eleanor Lavish, a novelist who promises her an adventure.
The older woman immediately takes away Lucy's Baedeker guidebook, which, she says, only touches the surface of things.
She will show Lucy the "true Italy".
But on the way to Santa Croce, chattering away, the two take a wrong turn and get lost.
After drifting for hours through various streets and piazzas, they finally make it back to the square in front of the church only to have the novelist abandon Lucy in pursuit of an old man who, she says, is her "local colour box".
Inside the church, Lucy meets the Emersons again.
Although their manners are awkward and they are deemed socially unacceptable by the other guests, Lucy likes them and continues to run into them in Florence.
One afternoon Lucy witnesses a murder in Florence.
George Emerson happens to be nearby and catches her when she faints.
Lucy asks George to retrieve some photographs of hers that happen to be near the murder site.
George, out of confusion, throws her photographs into the river because they were spotted with blood.
Lucy observes how boyish George is.
As they stop to look over the River Arno before making their way back to the hotel, they have an intimate conversation.
After this, Lucy decides to avoid George, partly because she is confused by her feelings and partly to keep her cousin happy—Miss Bartlett is wary of the eccentric Emersons, particularly after a comment made by another clergyman, mr Eager, that mr Emerson "murdered his wife in the sight of God".
Later on in the week, a party made up of Beebe, Eager, the Emersons, Miss Lavish, Miss Bartlett and Lucy Honeychurch make their way to Fiesole, in carriages driven by Italians.
The driver is permitted to invite a woman he claims is his sister onto the box of the carriage, and when he kisses her, mr Eager promptly forces the lady to get off the carriage box.
mr Emerson remarks how it is defeat rather than victory to part two people in love.
In the fields, Lucy searches for mr Beebe, and asks in poor Italian for the driver to show her the way.
Misunderstanding, he leads her to a field where George stands.
George is overcome by Lucy's beauty among a field of violets and kisses her, but they are interrupted by Lucy's cousin, who is outraged.
Lucy promises Miss Bartlett that she will not tell her mother of the "insult" George has paid her because Miss Bartlett fears she will be blamed.
The two women leave for Rome the next day before Lucy is able to say goodbye to George.
In Rome, Lucy spends time with Cecil Vyse, whom she knew in England.
Cecil proposes to Lucy twice in Italy; she rejects him both times.
As Part Two begins, Lucy has returned to Surrey, England to her family home, Windy Corner.
Cecil proposes yet again at Windy Corner, and this time she accepts.
Cecil is a sophisticated and "superior" Londoner who is desirable in terms of rank and class, even though he despises country society; he is also somewhat of a comic figure in the novel, as he gives himself airs and is quite pretentious.
The vicar, mr Beebe, announces that new tenants have leased a local cottage; the new arrivals turn out to be the Emersons, who have been told of the available cottage at a chance meeting with Cecil; the young man brought them to the village as a comeuppance to the cottage's landlord, whom Cecil thinks to be a snob.
Fate takes an ironic turn as Lucy's brother, Freddy, meets George and invites him to bathe in a nearby pond.
Freddy, George and Mr Beebe go to the pond, in the woods, take off their clothes and swim.
They enjoy themselves so much they end up running around the pond and through the bushes, until Lucy, her mother, and Cecil arrive, having taken a short-cut through the woods.
Freddy later invites George to play tennis at Windy Corner.
Although Lucy is initially mortified at the thought of facing both George and Cecil (who is also visiting Windy Corner that Sunday), she resolves to be gracious.
Cecil annoys everyone by pacing around and reading aloud from a light romance novel that contains a scene suspiciously reminiscent of when George kissed Lucy in Florence.
George catches Lucy alone in the garden and kisses her again.
Lucy realises that the novel is by Miss Lavish (the writer-acquaintance from Florence) and that Charlotte must thus have told her about the kiss.
Furious with Charlotte for betraying her secret, Lucy forces her cousin to watch as she tells George to leave and never return.
George argues with her, saying that Cecil only sees her as an "object for the shelf" and will never love her enough to grant her independence, while George loves her for who she is.
Lucy is moved but remains firm.
Later that evening, after Cecil again rudely declines to play tennis, Lucy sours on Cecil and immediately breaks off her engagement.
She decides to flee to Greece with acquaintances from her trip to Florence, but shortly before her departure she accidentally encounters mr Emerson senior.
He is not aware that Lucy has broken her engagement with Cecil, and Lucy cannot lie to the old man.
mr Emerson forces Lucy to admit out loud that she has been in love with his son George all along.
The novel ends in Florence, in melodramatic fashion, where George and Lucy have eloped without her mother's consent.
Although Lucy "had alienated Windy Corner, perhaps for ever," the story ends with the promise of lifelong love for both her and George.
In some editions, an appendix to the novel is given entitled "A View without a Room," written by Forster in 1958 as to what occurred between Lucy and George after the events of the novel.
It is Forster's afterthought of the novel, and he quite clearly states that "I cannot think where George and Lucy live".
They were quite comfortable up until the end of World War I, with Charlotte Bartlett leaving them all her money in her will, but the war ruined their happiness according to Forster.
George became a conscientious objector, lost his government job but was given non-combatant duties to avoid prison, leaving Mrs Honeychurch deeply upset with her son-in-law.
Mr Emerson died during the course of the war, shortly after having an argument with the police about Lucy continuing to play Beethoven (a German composer) on the piano during the war.
Eventually they had three children, two girls and a boy, and moved to Carshalton from Highgate to find a home.
Despite their wanting to move into Windy Corner after the death of Mrs Honeychurch, Freddy sold the house to support his family as he was "an unsuccessful but prolific doctor".
After the outbreak of World War II, George immediately enlisted as he saw the need to stop Hitler and the Nazi regime, but was not faithful to Lucy during his time at war.
Lucy was left homeless after her flat in Watford was bombed and the same happened to her married daughter in Nuneaton.
George rose to the rank of corporal but was taken prisoner by the Italians in Africa.
Once the Fascist government in Italy fell, George returned to Florence finding it "in a mess" but he was unable to find the Pension Bertolini, stating "the View was still there and that the room must be there, too, but could not be found".
Forster ends by stating that George and Lucy await World War III, but with no word on where they live, for even he does not know.
<EOS>
High school student Casey Becker receives a flirtatious phone call from an unknown person, asking her, "What's your favorite scary movie.
" The situation quickly escalates as the caller turns sadistic and threatens her life.
He reveals that her boyfriend Steve Orth is being held hostage.
After Casey fails to answer a question correctly about horror films, Steve is murdered.
When Casey refuses to cooperate with the caller, she is attacked and murdered by a masked killer.
Her parents come home to find her body hanging from a tree.
The following day, the news media descend on the town and a police investigation begins.
Meanwhile, Sidney Prescott struggles with the impending first anniversary of her mother's murder by Cotton Weary.
While waiting at home for her friend, Tatum Riley, Sidney receives a threatening phone call.
After she hangs up she is attacked by the killer.
Sidney's boyfriend, Billy Loomis, arrives shortly after, but after he drops his cell phone, Sidney suspects him of making the call and flees.
Billy is arrested and Sidney spends the night at Tatum's house.
Billy is released the next day.
Suspicion has shifted to Sidney's father, Neil Prescott, as the calls have been traced to his phone.
School is suspended in the wake of the murders.
After the students have left the school, Principal Himbry is stabbed to death in his office.
Tatum's boyfriend, Stu Macher throws a party to celebrate the school's closure.
The party is attended by Sidney, Tatum, their friend Randy Meeks, and multiple other students.
Reporter Gale Weathers attends uninvited to cover the situation, as she expects the killer to strike.
Tatum's brother deputy sheriff Dewey Riley also looks out for the murderer at the party.
Tatum is killed during the party after having her head crushed by the garage door.
Billy arrives to speak to Sidney privately, and the two ultimately consummate their relationship.
Dewey and Gale investigate a nearby abandoned car.
Many party attendees are drawn away after hearing news of Himbry's death; Sidney, Billy, Randy, Stu, and Gale's cameraman Kenny remain.
After having sex, Sidney and Billy are attacked by the killer, who seemingly murders Billy.
Sidney narrowly escapes the house and seeks help from Kenny, but the killer slits his throat; Sidney then flees again.
Gale and Dewey, having discovered that the car belongs to Neil Prescott, return to the house.
They believe Neil is the killer and has come to the party to continue his spree.
Gale tries to escape in her van, but drives off the road and crashes to avoid hitting Sidney.
Meanwhile, Dewey is stabbed in the back while investigating in the house, and Sidney takes his gun.
Stu and Randy appear and accuse each other of being the killer.
Sidney retreats into the house, where she finds Billy wounded but still alive.
She gives Billy the gun; he lets Randy into the house and shoots him.
Billy reveals he has feigned his injuries and is actually the killer; Stu is his accomplice.
Billy and Stu discuss their plan to kill Sidney and frame her father, whom they have taken hostage, for their murder spree.
The pair also reveal that they, not Cotton, murdered her mother, Maureen, as she was having an affair with Billy's father, which drove his mother away.
Gale, who survived the crash, intervenes, and Sidney takes advantage of this to turn the tables on her attackers, killing Stu.
Randy is revealed to be wounded but alive.
Billy attacks Sidney but she shoots him through the head, killing him.
As the sun rises and police arrive, a badly injured Dewey is taken away by ambulance and Gale makes an impromptu news report about the night's events.
<EOS>
William Blake (Johnny Depp), an accountant from Cleveland, Ohio, rides by train to the frontier company town of Machine to assume a promised job as an accountant in the town's metal works.
During the trip, the train Fireman warns Blake against the enterprise while passengers shoot buffalo from the train windows.
Arriving in town, Blake discovers that the position has already been filled, and he is driven from the workplace at gunpoint by John Dickinson, the ferocious owner of the company.
Jobless and without money or prospects, Blake meets Thel Russell, a former prostitute who sells paper flowers.
He lets her take him home.
Thel's ex-boyfriend Charlie surprises them in bed and shoots at Blake, accidentally killing Thel when she tries to shield Blake with her body.
A wounded Blake shoots and kills Charlie with Thel's gun before climbing dazedly out the window and fleeing Machine on a stolen horse.
Company-owner Dickinson just happens to be Charlie's father, and he hires three legendary frontier killers, Cole Wilson, Conway Twill, and Johnny "The Kid" Pickett to bring Blake back 'dead or alive'.
Blake awakens to find a large American Indian attempting to dislodge the bullet from his chest.
The Indian, calling himself Nobody, reveals that the bullet is too close to Blake's heart to remove, and Blake is effectively walking dead.
When he learns Blake's full name, Nobody decides Blake is a reincarnation of William Blake, a poet whom he idolizes but of whom accountant Blake himself is ignorant.
Nobody resolves to escort Blake to the Pacific Ocean to return him to his proper place in the spirit-world.
Blake and Nobody travel west, leaving a trail of dead and encountering wanted posters announcing higher and higher bounties for Blake's death or capture.
Blake learns of Nobody's past, marked both by Native American and white racism; it is detailed that he is the product of lovers from two opposing tribes, and how as a child he was abducted by English soldiers and brought to Europe as a model savage.
He was briefly educated and learned of the proper William Blake's art and poetry before returning home, where his stories of the white man and his culture were laughed off by fellow Indians.
He gained his name, Nobody, at this point, the literal translation of which is revealed to be "He who talks loud, saying nothing".
Nobody leaves Blake alone in the wild when he decides Blake must undergo a vision quest.
On his quest, Blake kills twoS.
Marshals, experiences visions of nature spirits, and grieves over the remains of a dead fawn that was killed accidentally by his pursuers.
He paints his face with the fawn's blood and rejoins Nobody on their journey.
Meanwhile, the most ferocious member of the bounty hunter posse, Cole Wilson, has killed his comrades (eating one of them) and continued his hunt alone.
At a trading post, a bigoted missionary identifies Blake and attempts to kill him but is killed by Blake, instead.
Shortly after, Blake is shot again; and his condition rapidly deteriorates.
Nobody takes him by river to a Makah village and convinces the tribe to give him a canoe for Blake's ship burial.
Delirious, Blake trudges through the village before collapsing from his injuries.
He awakens in a canoe on a beach wearing Native American funeral dress.
Nobody bids Blake farewell and then pushes the canoe out to sea.
As he floats away, Blake watches Cole sneak up behind Nobody; but he is too weak to cry out and can only watch as the two shoot and kill each other.
As he looks up at the sky one last time, Blake dies and his canoe drifts out into the sea.
<EOS>
Elizabeth Lipp (Melina Mercouri) visits Istanbul, where she sees a traveling fair featuring replicas of treasures from the Topkapı Palace.
Next she cases the Topkapi, fascinated by the emerald-encrusted dagger of Sultan Mahmud Leaving Turkey, she recruits her ex-lover, Swiss master-criminal Walter Harper (Maximilian Schell), to plan a theft of the dagger.
They engage Cedric Page (Robert Morley), master of all things mechanical; Giulio, "The Human Fly" (Gilles Ségal), a mute acrobat; and the burly Hans (Jess Hahn), who will provide the muscle needed for the job.
Harper and Lipp then hire small-time hustler Arthur Simon Simpson (Peter Ustinov) to drive a car into Turkey to transport hidden explosives and firearms for use in the burglary.
Turkish Customs search the car, find the firearms, and conclude that the gang are plotting an assassination.
They then recruit Simpson to spy on Harper and Lipp.
Page, picking up the car in Istanbul, is told a police ruse that only the "importer" Simpson is permitted to drive it in Turkey.
While traveling with the gang, Simpson leaves notes for his police handlers, but most of his intelligence is worthless.
Hans' hands are injured in a scuffle with the drunken cook, Gerven (Akim Tamiroff), and Simpson is engaged as a substitute, prompting him to confess that the police are watching them.
Harper arranges to give the police the slip.
That evening, Harper, Simpson, and Giulio steal the dagger and leave a replica in its place.
Unnoticed by the thieves, during the robbery a bird flies through the window they entered and is trapped inside the room when the window is closed.
The gang deliver the dagger to Joseph, proprietor of the traveling fair display, who will smuggle it out of the country.
The gang members then go to police headquarters to "reveal" their discovery of weapons in the car.
The inspector asks Simpson to vouch for Harper and Lipp's whereabouts that day.
Simpson backs up their alibi; however, the inspector learns that the Topkapi alarm was triggered by the trapped bird.
Simpson's notes to the police provide a connection between the gang and Joseph's replicas of the Topkapi treasures.
Ultimately, the gang is seen in a Turkish prison, where Lipp begins to tell them of her fascination with the Russian Imperial Crown Jewels in the Kremlin.
<EOS>
Six months after the events of the first film, Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) are now romantically involved.
Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) receives a message from Captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) of the Logos calling an emergency meeting of all of Zion's ships.
Zion has confirmed the last transmission of the Osiris: an army of Sentinels is tunneling towards Zion and will reach it within 72 hours.
Commander Lock (Harry Lennix) orders all ships to return to Zion to prepare for the onslaught, but Morpheus asks one ship to remain in order to contact the Oracle (Gloria Foster).
The Caduceus receives a message from the Oracle, and the Nebuchadnezzar ventures out so Neo can contact her.
One of the Caduceus crew, Bane (Ian Bliss), encounters Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who takes over Bane's avatar.
Smith then uses this avatar to leave the Matrix, gaining control of Bane's real body.
In Zion, Morpheus announces the news of the advancing machines to the people.
Neo receives a message from the Oracle and returns to the Matrix to meet her bodyguard Seraph (Collin Chou), who then leads him to her.
After realizing that the Oracle is part of the Matrix, Neo asks how he can trust her; she replies that it is his decision.
The Oracle instructs Neo to reach the Source of the Matrix by finding the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), a prisoner of the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson).
As the Oracle departs, Smith appears, telling Neo that after being defeated, he refused to be deleted, and is now a rogue program.
He demonstrates his ability to clone himself using other inhabitants of the Matrix, including other Agents, as hosts.
He then tries to absorb Neo as a host, but fails, prompting a battle between Smith's clones and Neo.
Neo manages to defend himself, but is forced to retreat from the increasingly overwhelming numbers.
Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity visit the Merovingian and ask for the Keymaker, but the Merovingian refuses.
His wife Persephone (Monica Bellucci), seeking revenge on her husband for his infidelity, betrays him and leads the trio to the Keymaker.
The Merovingian soon arrives with his men.
Morpheus, Trinity and the Keymaker escape, while Neo holds off the Merovingian's servants.
Morpheus and Trinity try to escape with the Keymaker on the freeway, facing several Agents and the Twins, the Merovingian's chief henchmen.
Morpheus defeats the Twins, Trinity escapes, and Neo flies in to save Morpheus and the Keymaker from Agent Johnson.
In the real world, Zion's remaining ships prepare to battle the machines.
Within the Matrix, the crews of the Nebuchadnezzar, Vigilant and Logos help the Keymaker and Neo reach the door to the Source.
The crew of the Logos must destroy a power plant to prevent a security system from being triggered, and the crew of the Vigilant must destroy a back-up power station.
The Logos succeeds, while the Vigilant is bombed by a Sentinel in the real world, killing everyone on board.
Although Neo asked Trinity to remain on the Nebuchadnezzar, she enters the Matrix to replace the Vigilant crew and complete their mission.
However, her escape is compromised by an Agent, and they fight.
As Neo, Morpheus, and the Keymaker try to reach the Source, the Smiths appear and try to kill them.
The Keymaker unlocks the door to the Source, allowing Neo and Morpheus to enter and escape from the Smiths, but the Smiths kill the Keymaker while he tries to close the door to the Source.
Neo enters a door and meets a program called the Architect, the Matrix's creator.
The Architect explains that Neo is part of the design of the sixth iteration of Matrix, designed to stop the fatal system crash that naturally occurs due to the concept of human choice.
As with the five previous Ones, Neo can choose either to return to the Source with his unique code to reboot the Matrix and pick survivors to begin to repopulate the soon-to-be-destroyed Zion, or cause the Matrix to crash and kill everyone connected to it; combined with Zion's destruction, this would mean mankind's extinction.
Neo learns of Trinity's situation and chooses to save her instead.
As she falls off a building, he flies in and catches her, then by somehow phasing his hand into her body he removes a bullet from her body and restarts her heart.
Back in the real world, Sentinels destroy the Nebuchadnezzar.
Neo displays a new ability to disable the machines with his thoughts, but falls into a coma from the effort.
The crew are picked up by another ship, the Hammer.
Its captain, Roland, reveals the other ships were wiped out by the machines after someone activated an EMP too early, and that they found only one survivor afterwards—revealed to be the Smith-possessed Bane.
<EOS>
Randy (Randolph) Bragg lives in the small Central Florida town of Fort Repose and appears to be drifting down a somewhat aimless path in life when his older brother, Colonel Mark Bragg, an Air Force Intelligence officer, sends a telegraph ending in the words, "Alas, Babylon", a pre-established code between the brothers warning of impending disaster.
Mark is flying his family down to Fort Repose for their protection while he stays at Strategic Air Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska.
Soon afterward, an American fighter pilot, attempting to intercept an enemy plane over the Mediterranean, inadvertently fires an AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking missile that goes off course and hits an ammunition depot in Latakia, Syria, resulting in a large explosion.
This event becomes the apparent excuse for the Soviet Union to launch a nuclear strike against the United States and its allies.
The following morning, Soviet missiles are fired over the Arctic, as well as from submarines.
American missiles are sent in response.
Randy and his guests awake to the shaking from the bombing of nearby air force bases and naval air stations; one explosion temporarily blinds Peyton, Randy's niece.
At first, things are chaotic: tourists are trapped in their hotels, communication lines fail to work, the use of the CONELRAD radio system exposes its weaknesses, convicts escape from prisons and a run on the banks results in all of the banks closing.
Randy organizes his neighbors to provide housing, food, and water for themselves.
As the months wear on, news trickles in by radio.
Most of the government, on both sides, has been eliminated.
The current American president, Josephine Vanbruuker-Brown, formerly the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, addresses the surviving United States, noting she is one of the most junior cabinet officials, as everyone above her is dead.
Since Randy was an Army Reserve officer before the Soviet attack, he organizes a community self-defense team against bandits and tries to rid the community of radioactive jewelry smuggled into Fort Repose from the radioactive ruins of Miami.
The following year, Air Force helicopters arrive at Fort Repose.
When they offer to evacuate the residents from Florida, which is considered a "contaminated zone", the residents choose to stay.
It is revealed that the United States won the war, but at a tremendous cost.
It is now receiving aid from third-world countries, such as Brazil and Venezuela.
<EOS>
Each of the three acts of Noises Off contains a performance of the first act of a play within a play, a sex farce called Nothing On.
The three acts of Noises Off are each named "Act One" on the contents page of the script, though they are labelled normally in the body of the script; and the programme for Noises Off will include, provided by the author, a comprehensive programme for the Weston-super-Mare run of Nothing On, including spoof advertisements and acknowledgements to the providers of mysterious props that do not actually appear (eg.
stethoscope, hospital trolley, and straitjacket).
Nothing is seen of the rest of Nothing On.
Nothing On is the type of play in which young girls run about in their underwear, old men drop their trousers, and many doors continually bang open and shut.
It is set in "a delightful 16th-century posset mill", modernised by the current owners and available to let while they are abroad; the fictional playwright is appropriately named Robin Housemonger.
Act One is set at the technical rehearsal at the (fictional) Grand Theatre in Weston-super-Mare; It is midnight, the night before the first performance and the cast are hopelessly unready.
Baffled by entrances and exits, missed cues, missed lines, and bothersome props, including several plates of sardines, they drive Lloyd, their director, into a seething rage and back several times during the run.
Act Two shows a Wednesday matinée performance one month later, at the (fictional) Theatre Royal in Ashton-under-Lyne.
In this act, the play is seen from backstage, providing a view that emphasises the deteriorating relationships between the cast.
Romantic rivalries, lovers' tiffs and personal quarrels lead to offstage shenanigans, onstage bedlam and the occasional attack with a fire ax.
In Act Three, we see a performance near the end of the ten-week run, at the (fictional) Municipal Theatre in Stockton-on-Tees.
Relationships between the cast have soured considerably, the set is breaking down and props are winding up in the wrong hands, on the floor, and in the way.
The actors remain determined at all costs to cover up the mounting chaos, but it is not long before the plot has to be abandoned entirely and the more coherent characters are obliged to take a lead in ad-libbing somehow towards some sort of end.
Much of the comedy emerges from the subtle variations in each version as character flaws play off each other off-stage to undermine on-stage performance, with a great deal of slapstick.
The contrast between players' on-stage and off-stage personalities is also a source of comic dissonance.
<EOS>
During a VIP visit to the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), at Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska, an alert is initiated by USAF's early warning radar that an unidentified flying object is making an unauthorized intrusion into American airspace.
Defense protocols dictate that SAC must keep several bomber groups airborne 24 hours a day in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States.
Following the alert, bombers are ordered to proceed to predetermined aerial "fail-safe points" to await the final go-ahead before proceeding towards Soviet targets.
Shortly after they reach those points, the alert is canceled.
The intruder is identified as an off-course civilian airliner.
However, a computer error results in a "go code" being sent to one bomber group, ordering them to attack their predetermined target, Moscow.
SAC headquarters begins trying to rescind the order.
It fails because a new Soviet countermeasure has begun radio jamming communications between the bomber group and SAC.
With his orders apparently confirmed, Colonel Jack Grady (Edward Binns), the US bomber group's commander, commands the group to continue to their target.
With pressure mounting, the President of the United States (Henry Fonda) and his advisers attempt to recall the group or shoot them down.
Communications are initiated with the Soviet Chairman in which mistakes on both sides (the American accidental launch of the mission and the Soviet jamming) are acknowledged.
The jamming ceases, but the crew follows their training and protocols and dismisses the counter-orders as a Soviet ruse.
The President struggles to find a resolution that will stop the Soviet Union from launching a counterattack; if he fails, an all-out nuclear holocaust will be unavoidable.
He offers to sacrifice an American target to appease the Soviets, and he orders an American bomber towards New York City.
The President's advisers in the Pentagon discover that the President has sacrificed the First Lady, who is visiting New York City.
The lone surviving American bomber devastates Moscow.
The President orders General Black (Dan O'Herlihy), whose wife and children live in New York, to drop the same nuclear payload on that city, using the Empire State Building as ground zero.
After releasing the bombs, Black, who is flying the bomber, commits suicide.
The last scenes of the film show images of people in New York going about their daily lives, unaware of the coming disaster.
<EOS>
In 1970, the Weather Underground planned to detonate a nail bomb at a noncommissioned officers' dance at the base to "bring the war home" and "give the United States and the rest of the world a sense that this country was going to be completely unlivable if the United States continued in Vietnam".
The plot failed the morning of the dance, when a bomb under construction exploded at the group's Greenwich Village, New York City townhouse, killing three members of the group.
On May 8, 2007, six individuals, mostly ethnic Albanian Muslims, were arrested for plotting an attack against Fort Dix and the soldiers within.
The men are believed to be Islamic radicals who may have been inspired by the ideologies of Al-Qaeda.
The men allegedly planned to storm the fort with automatic weapons in an attempt to kill as many soldiers as possible.
The men faced charges of conspiracy to killS.
soldiers.
<EOS>
Construction worker Vince Everett (Elvis) accidentally kills a drunken and belligerent man in a barroom brawl.
He is sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary for manslaughter.
His cellmate, washed-up country singer Hunk Houghton (Shaughnessy) who was jailed for bank robbery, starts teaching Vince to play the guitar after hearing Vince sing and strum Hunk's guitar.
Hunk then convinces Vince to participate in an upcoming inmate show, which is broadcast on nationwide television.
Vince receives numerous fan letters as a result; but out of apparent jealousy, Hunk ensures they are not delivered to Vince.
Hunk then convinces Vince to sign a "contract" to become equal partners in his act.
Meanwhile, during an inmate riot in the mess hall, a guard shoves Vince, who retaliates by striking the guard.
As a result, the warden orders Vince to be lashed with a whip.
Afterwards, it was discovered that Hunk attempted to bribe the guards to drop the punishment, but to no avail.
Upon Vince's release 20 months later, the warden gives Vince his fan mail.
Hunk then promises Vince a singing job at a nightclub owned by a friend, where Vince meets Peggy Van Alden (Tyler), a promoter for pop singer Mickey Alba.
Vince is surprised when the club owner denies him a job as a singer but offers him a job as a bar boy.
Undeterred, Vince takes the stage when the house band takes a break and starts singing "Young and Beautiful".
But one of the customers laughs obnoxiously throughout the performance, enraging Vince, who smashes his guitar on the customer's table and leaves the club.
Peggy follows Vince and persuades him to record a demo so that he can listen to himself sing.
Vince records "Don't Leave Me Now," which Peggy takes to Geneva Records.
The manager seems unimpressed, but he reluctantly agrees to play the tape for his boss in New York.
The next day, Peggy informs Vince that the song has been sold.
She then takes him to a party at her parents' home, but Vince leaves after he offends a guest he mistakenly believes is belittling him.
(The guests were talking about progressive jazz, a genre that Vince hates as much as Elvis himself hated jazz, which he could not understand in real life) Angry and offended, Peggy confronts Vince, who kisses her brutally.
Peggy resentfully calls the gesture "cheap tactics," to which Vince replies, "Them ain't tactics, honey; it's just the beast in me".
Later, Vince and Peggy visit a local record store to check out Vince's new single, but they are shocked to discover that the Geneva Records manager gave the song to Mickey Alba, who recorded and released the song himself, thereby stealing Vince's song.
Outraged, Vince storms into the label's office and confronts the manager, violently slapping him around.
To avoid making the same mistake twice, Vince suggests that he and Peggy should form their own label.
They do, naming the new label Laurel Records and hiring an attorney, mr Shores (Vaughn Taylor), to oversee their business.
Vince then records "Treat Me Nice" and begins pitching it, but it is universally rejected.
Peggy convinces her friend, disc jockey Teddy Talbot (Dean Jones), to air the song.
He does, and it becomes an immediate hit.
Later that evening, Vince asks Peggy out to celebrate the success of his new single, but is disappointed when he learns that she has accepted a dinner date for that evening with Teddy.
Meanwhile, Vince makes arrangements for another television show.
During a party, Hunk visits him after being paroled and persuades Vince to give him a spot on the upcoming show.
Prior to taping, Vince rehearses "Jailhouse Rock" in a stylized cell block (a performance Elvis himself choreographed).
Hunk's number is cut because of his outdated music style.
Afterwards, Vince informs Hunk that according to his lawyer, the above-mentioned "contract" they signed in prison was worthless.
However, as a consolation, and never forgetting that Hunk tried to intercede on his behalf when he was punished for striking the prison guard, Vince offers Hunk a job with his entourage for a fee equal to ten percent of Vince's annual gross, which Hunk accepts.
Within a few months, Vince officially became a star.
However, Peggy is no longer on speaking terms with Vince, as his success has made him arrogant.
Vince then signs a movie deal with Climax Studios.
The studio head asks him to spend the day with Sherry Wilson (Jennifer Holden), the studio's new leading lady, for publicity purposes.
The conceited actress is less than thrilled with her co-star at first; but she eventually falls in love with Vince after shooting a kissing scene, saying that she's "come all unglued" (indicating that she's no longer "stuck up").
Meanwhile, Hunk grows tired of Vince's self-centered attitude.
When Peggy shows up unexpectedly at another of Vince's parties, Vince is happy to see her at first but becomes upset when she says the purpose of her visit is to talk about business.
mr Shores then approaches Vince with an offer from Geneva Records to purchase Laurel Records and sign him to a rich contract.
Peggy refuses to sell, but Vince announces that he will close the deal since he owns a controlling interest, which deeply devastates Peggy.
Enraged by Vince's attitude—and his treatment of Peggy—Hunk provokes Vince to fight, who refuses to fight back.
Hunk then strikes Vince in the throat, endangering his voice and therefore his singing ability.
Vince is then rushed to a hospital, where he forgives Hunk and realizes he loves Peggy and she loves him.
After being released from the hospital, Vince's doctor informs him that his vocal cords are fully recovered, but Vince is worried that his voice might have been affected.
To test it, he sings "Young and Beautiful" to Peggy, which reassures him that his fears are unfounded.
<EOS>
Dissatisfied with life in her rural Wisconsin home, 18-year-old Caroline "Sister Carrie" Meeber takes the train to Chicago, where her older sister Minnie, and Minnie's husband, Sven Hanson, have agreed to take her in.
On the train, Carrie meets Charles Drouet, a traveling salesman, who is attracted to her because of her simple beauty and unspoiled manner.
They exchange contact information, but upon discovering the "steady round of toil" and somber atmosphere at her sister's flat, she writes to Drouet and discourages him from calling on her there.
Carrie soon embarks on a quest for work to pay rent to her sister and her husband, and takes a job running a machine in a shoe factory.
Before long, however, she is shocked by the coarse manners of both the male and female factory workers, and the physical demands of the job, as well as the squalid factory conditions, begin to take their toll.
She also senses Minnie and Sven's disapproval of her interest in Chicago's recreational opportunities, particularly the theater.
One day, after an illness that costs her her job, she encounters Drouet on a downtown street.
Once again taken by her beauty, and moved by her poverty, he encourages her to dine with him, where, over sirloin and asparagus, he persuades her to leave her sister and move in with him.
To press his case, he slips Carrie two ten dollar bills, opening a vista of material possibilities to her.
The next day, he rebuffs her feeble attempts to return the money, taking her shopping at a Chicago department store and securing a jacket she covets and some shoes.
That night, she writes a good-bye note to Minnie and moves in with Drouet.
Drouet installs her in a much larger apartment, and their relationship intensifies as Minnie dreams about her sister's fall from innocence.
She acquires a sophisticated wardrobe and, through his offhand comments about attractive women, sheds her provincial mannerisms, even as she struggles with the moral implications of being a kept woman.
By the time Drouet introduces Carrie to George Hurstwood, the manager of Fitzgerald and Moy's – a respectable bar that Drouet describes as a "way-up, swell place" – her material appearance has improved considerably.
Hurstwood, unhappy with and distant from his social-climbing wife and children, instantly becomes infatuated with Carrie's youth and beauty, and before long they start an affair, communicating and meeting secretly in the expanding, anonymous city.
One night, Drouet casually agrees to find an actress to play a key role in an amateur theatrical presentation of Augustin Daly’s melodrama, "Under the Gaslight," for his local chapter of the Elks.
Upon returning home to Carrie, he encourages her to take the part of the heroine.
Unknown to Drouet, Carrie long has harbored theatrical ambitions and has a natural aptitude for imitation and expressing pathos.
The night of the production – which Hurstwood attends at Drouet's invitation – both men are moved to even greater displays of affection by Carrie's stunning performance.
The next day, the affair is uncovered: Drouet discovers he has been cuckolded, Carrie learns that Hurstwood is married, and Hurstwood's wife, Julia, learns from acquaintances that Hurstwood has been out driving with another woman and deliberately excluded her from the Elks theatre night.
After a night of drinking, and despairing at his wife’s financial demands and Carrie’s rejection, Hurstwood stumbles upon a large amount of cash in the unlocked safe in Fitzgerald and Moy's offices.
In a moment of poor judgment, he succumbs to the temptation to embezzle a large sum of money.
Inventing a false pretext of Drouet’s sudden illness, he lures Carrie onto a train and escapes with her to Canada.
Once they arrive in Montreal, Hurstwood's guilty conscience – and a private eye – induce him to return most of the stolen funds, but he realizes that he cannot return to Chicago.
Hurstwood mollifies Carrie by agreeing to marry her, and the couple move to New York City.
In New York, Hurstwood and Carrie rent a flat where they live as George and Carrie Wheeler.
Hurstwood buys a minority interest in a saloon and, at first, is able to provide Carrie with a satisfactory – if not lavish – standard of living.
The couple grow distant, however, as Hurstwood abandons any pretense of fine manners toward Carrie, and she realizes that Hurstwood no longer is the suave, powerful manager of his Chicago days.
Carrie's dissatisfaction only increases when she meets Robert Ames, a bright young scholar from Indiana and her neighbor’s cousin, who introduces her to the idea that great art, rather than showy materialism, is worthy of admiration.
After only a few years, the saloon's landlord sells the property and Hurstwood's business partner expresses his intent to terminate the partnership.
Too arrogant to accept most of the job opportunities available to him, Hurstwood soon discovers that his savings are running out and urges Carrie to economize, which she finds humiliating and distasteful.
As Hurstwood lounges about, overwhelmed by apathy and foolishly gambling away most of his savings, Carrie turns to New York's theaters for employment and becomes a chorus girl.
Once again, her aptitude for theatre serves her well, and, as the rapidly aging Hurstwood declines into obscurity, Carrie begins to rise from chorus girl to small speaking roles, and establishes a friendship with another chorus girl, Lola Osborne, who begins to urge Carrie to move in with her.
In a final attempt to prove himself useful, Hurstwood becomes a scab, driving a Brooklyn streetcar during a streetcar operator’s strike.
His ill-fated venture, which lasts only two days, prompts Carrie to leave him; in her farewell note, she encloses twenty dollars.
Hurstwood ultimately joins the homeless of New York, taking odd jobs, falling ill with pneumonia, and finally becoming a beggar.
Reduced to standing in line for bread and charity, he commits suicide in a flophouse.
Meanwhile, Carrie achieves stardom, but finds that money and fame do not satisfy her longings or bring her happiness and that nothing will.
<EOS>
The film opens in 1950, five years after the capture of Puyi by the Red Army when the Soviet Union entered the Pacific War in 1945 and his having been kept in their custody.
In the recently established People's Republic of China, Puyi arrives as a political prisoner and war criminal at the Fushun Prison.
Soon after his arrival, Puyi attempts suicide, but is quickly revived and told he must stand trial.
Throughout the film there is a series of flashbacks.
42 years earlier, in 1908, Puyi is summoned to the Forbidden City by the dying Empress Dowager Cixi.
After telling him that the previous emperor had died earlier that day, with her last words, Cixi tells Puyi that he will be the next emperor.
After his coronation, Puyi, frightened by his new surroundings, repeatedly expresses his wish to go home, which is denied him.
Despite having scores of palace eunuchs and maids to wait on him, his only real friend is his wet nurse, who accompanied him and his father to the palace on the Empress Dowager's summons.
The next section of the film continues the series of chronological flashbacks showing Puyi's early life: from his imperial upbringing in the Forbidden City with his younger brother, Pujie, during the Republican era, his tutelage under the kindly Scotsman Reginald Johnston, his marriage to Wanrong, and his increasing rebellion against traditional court practices, to his subsequent exile in Tientsin following the Beijing Coup, his Japanese-supported puppet reign of Manchukuo, and then his capture by the Red Army – all intermixed with flash-forwards portraying his prison life in the 1950s.
Under the "Communist re-education programme" for political prisoners, Puyi is coerced by his interrogators to formally renounce his forced collaboration with the Japanese invaders for war crimes during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Finally, after a heated discussion with the camp commandant and upon watching a film detailing the wartime atrocities committed by the Japanese, Puyi recants his previous stance and is considered rehabilitated by the government; he is subsequently set free in 1959.
The final minutes of the film shows a flash-forward to 1967 during the rise of Mao Zedong's cult of personality and the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
By now, Puyi has become a simple gardener who lives a peasant proletarian existence.
On his way home from work, he happens upon a Red Guard parade, complete with children playing pentatonic music on accordions en masse and dancers who dance the rejection of landlordism by the Communists.
His prison camp commander, who helped him greatly during his rehabilitation, is forced to wear a dunce cap and a sandwich board bearing punitive slogans, and is one of the political prisoners now punished as an anti-revolutionary in the parade.
In the epilogue, Puyi later visits the Forbidden City as an ordinary tourist.
There he meets an assertive little boy wearing the red scarf of the Pioneer Movement.
The young Communist orders Puyi to step away from the throne.
However, Puyi proves to the boy that he was indeed the Son of Heaven, proceeding to approach the throne.
Behind it, Puyi finds a 60-year-old pet cricket that he was given by an elderly Mandarin on his coronation day and gives it to the child.
Amazed by the gift, the boy turns to talk to Puyi, but the emperor has disappeared.
The film ends with a flash-forward to 1987 where a tour guide is leading a group through the palace.
Stopping in front of the throne, the guide sums up Puyi's life in a few, brief sentences, concluding that he died in 1967.
The picture freeze-frames on the throne and the credits roll.
<EOS>
The film revolves around three characters who work in television news.
Jane Craig (Hunter) is a talented, neurotic producer whose life revolves around her work.
Jane's best friend and frequent collaborator, Aaron Altman (Brooks), is a gifted writer and reporter ambitious for on-camera exposure who is secretly in love with Jane.
Tom Grunick (Hurt), a local news anchorman who until recently was a sports anchorman, is likeable and telegenic, but lacks news experience and knows that he was only hired for his good looks and charm.
He is attracted to Jane, although he is also intimidated by her skills and intensity.
All three work out of the Washington,C, office of a national television network.
Craig is drawn to Grunick, but resents his lack of qualifications for his new position as news anchor.
Altman also is appalled by Grunick's lack of experience and knowledge, but accepts his advice when finally getting an opportunity to anchor a newscast himself.
Unfortunately, he lacks Grunick's poise and composure in that seat, and his debut as an anchor is a resounding failure.
Altman acknowledges to Craig that he is in love with her while trying to dissuade her from pursuing a romantic relationship with Grunick.
As a massive layoff hits the network, resulting in many colleagues losing their jobs, Altman tenders his resignation, and tells her he plans to take a job in Portland, Oregon.
However, before he leaves, he tips off Craig to a breach of ethics on Grunick's part.
She decides she cannot in good conscience get personally involved with Grunick, whom the network is transferring to London.
She no longer has either man in her personal or professional life, at least until the three of them reunite several years later.
<EOS>
Dan Gallagher is a successful, happily married Manhattan lawyer whose work leads him to meet Alexandra "Alex" Forrest, an editor for a publishing company.
While his wife, Beth, and daughter, Ellen, are out of town for the weekend, Dan has an affair with Alex.
Though it was initially understood by both as just a fling, Alex starts clinging to him.
Dan spends a second unplanned evening with Alex after she persistently asks him over.
When Dan tries to leave, she cuts her wrists in a suicide attempt.
He helps her to bandage them and later leaves.
He thinks the affair is forgotten, but she shows up at various places to see him.
She waits at his office one day to apologize and invites him to a performance of Madame Butterfly, but he politely turns her down.
She then continues to call him until he tells his secretary that he will no longer take her calls.
She then phones his home at all hours, and confronts him claiming that she is pregnant and plans to keep the baby.
Although he wants nothing to do with her, she argues that he must take responsibility.
After he changes his home phone number, she shows up at his apartment (which is for sale) and meets Beth, feigning interest as a buyer.
Later that night, he goes to her apartment to confront her, which results in a scuffle.
In response, she replies that she will not be ignored.
Dan moves his family to Bedford, but this does not deter Alex.
She has a tape recording delivered to him filled with verbal abuse.
She stalks him in a parking garage, pours acid on his car, and follows him home one night to spy on him, Beth, and Ellen from the bushes in their yard; the sight of their content family literally makes her sick to her stomach.
Her obsession escalates further.
Dan approaches the police to apply for a restraining order against her (claiming that it is "for a client"), to which the lieutenant claims that he cannot violate her rights without probable cause, and that the "client" has to own up to his adultery.
At one point, while the Gallaghers are not home, Alex kills Ellen's pet rabbit, and puts it on their stove to boil.
After this, Dan tells Beth of the affair and Alex's supposed pregnancy.
Enraged, she demands that he leave.
Before he goes, Dan calls Alex to tell her that Beth knows about the affair.
Beth gets on the phone and warns Alex that if she persists, she (Beth) will kill her.
Without Dan and Beth's knowledge, Alex picks up Ellen at school, takes her to an amusement park, buys her ice cream and takes her on a roller coaster.
Beth panics when she realizes that she does not know where Ellen is.
She drives around frantically searching and rear-ends a car stopped at an intersection.
She is injured and hospitalized.
Alex later takes Ellen home, asking her for a kiss on the cheek.
Following Beth's release from the hospital, she forgives Dan and they return home.
Dan barges into Alex's apartment and attacks her, choking her and coming close to strangling her.
He stops himself, but as he does, she lunges at him with a kitchen knife.
He overpowers her, but puts the knife down and leaves, with Alex leaning against the kitchen counter, smiling.
He approaches the police about having her arrested, and they start searching for her.
Beth prepares a bath for herself and Alex suddenly appears, again with the kitchen knife.
She starts to explain her resentment of Beth, nervously fidgeting (which causes her to cut her own leg) and then attacks her.
Dan hears the screaming, runs in, wrestles Alex into the bathtub, and seemingly drowns her.
She suddenly emerges from the water, swinging the knife.
Beth, who went searching for Dan's gun, shoots her in the chest, killing her.
The final scene shows police cars outside the Gallaghers' house.
As Dan finishes talking with the police, he walks inside, where Beth is waiting for him.
They embrace and proceed to the living room as the camera focuses on a picture of them and Ellen.
<EOS>
Beginning just before the start of the Second World War, the film tells the story of the Rohan family: Bill, his sisters Sue and Dawn, and his parents Grace and Clive, living in a suburb of London.
After the war starts, Clive joins the army, leaving Grace alone to watch over the children.
Seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Bill, the "fireworks" provided by the Blitz every night are as exciting as they are terrifying.
His family do not see things in quite the same way as the bombs continue to drop, but their will to survive brings them closer together.
The nightly raids do not provide the only drama, however, as his older sister, Dawn, falls for a Canadian soldier, becomes pregnant and, finding her life turned upside down, soon discovers the value of her family.
The family eventually moves to the Thames-side home of Grace's parents when their house burns down (not in an air raid, but in an ordinary fire).
This provides an opportunity for Bill to spend more time with his curmudgeonly grandfather.
<EOS>
Thirty-seven-year-old Loretta Castorini (Cher), a Sicilian-American widow, is a bookkeeper in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where she lives with her family: her father Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) a successful plumber; her mother Rose (Olympia Dukakis); and her paternal grandfather (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr).
Her boyfriend Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello) proposes to her before leaving for Sicily to be with his dying mother; she accepts, but is insistent that they carefully follow tradition as she believes her first marriage was cursed by her failure to do so, resulting in her husband's death.
Johnny asks Loretta to invite his estranged younger brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) to the wedding.
Loretta returns home and informs her parents of the engagement.
Cosmo dislikes Johnny and is reluctant to commit to paying for the "real" wedding Loretta insists on, while Rose is pleased that Loretta likes Johnny but does not love him; she believes that one can easily be driven crazy by a partner whom one loves.
The next day, Loretta goes to see Ronny at his bakery.
He reveals that he has a wooden prosthetic hand, and he explains that he blames Johnny for the loss of his hand and his own fiancée; Ronny became distracted while talking to Johnny as he cut bread for him, his hand was mangled in the slicer, and his fiancée left him.
Loretta insists that they discuss the matter upstairs in his apartment, where she cooks for him and then tells him that she believes he is a "wolf" who cut off his own hand to escape the trap of a bad relationship.
Ronny reacts furiously and passionately, kissing Loretta (who responds to his kiss) and then carrying her to his bed where they make love.
At the same time, Cosmo is dining with his mistress Mona (Anita Gillette) and giving her jewelry.
That evening, Rose's brother Raymond (Louis Guss) and his wife Rita (Julie Bovasso) join Rose and Cosmo for dinner, and they all wonder where Loretta is.
Raymond recalls that when he was a boy and Cosmo was courting Rose, he thought that a particularly bright moon one night was somehow brought to the house by Cosmo because of his love for Rose.
That night, Loretta remains at Ronny's apartment and sees such a moon; Raymond sees it as well, and it leads him and Rita to make love.
The next morning, Loretta tells Ronny they can never see each other again.
She slaps him when he claims to be in love with her ("Snap out of it.
") and he agrees to never see her again if she will attend the opera (his other great love) with him that night.
She agrees.
She then goes to church and confesses her infidelity.
She unexpectedly sees her mother there, and Rose tells her that Cosmo is having an affair; Loretta is doubtful.
Loretta then goes to Raymond and Rita's store to close out the cash register, after which she impulsively goes to the hair salon and buys a glamorous evening gown.
Loretta and Ronny (wearing a tuxedo) meet at Lincoln Center, and each is impressed with the other's appearance.
Loretta is deeply moved by her first opera, Puccini's La bohème.
But as they leave, Loretta sees Cosmo and Mona, and she confronts her father.
He sees that she is with Ronny, and he suggests that they simply agree that they didn't see each other at all, but Loretta is conflicted.
Loretta then intends to return home alone, but Ronny leads her back to his apartment where he passionately and desperately persuades her into another tryst.
The same night, Rose dines alone at a restaurant and sees a college professor, Perry (John Mahoney), being dramatically dumped by a female student, a similar scene having played out with a different girl the night Johnny proposed to Loretta.
Rose invites Perry to dine with her, asks him why men pursue women, and then shares with him her belief that men pursue women because they fear death.
Perry walks Rose home and tries to convince her to invite him in; she refuses "because I'm married.
Because I know who I am".
Later, Johnny unexpectedly returns from Sicily after his mother's "miraculous" recovery and goes to Loretta's house; Rose explains that she's not there and then asks him why men chase women.
He tells her it may be because they fear death, with which Rose agrees.
After this exchange he leaves, planning to return in the morning to see Loretta.
In the morning, Loretta returns home in a reverie but is then distressed to learn from Rose that Johnny will be there soon.
Ronny then arrives, and Rose notes their matching "love bites" and invites him for breakfast over Loretta's objections.
Cosmo and his father emerge from upstairs, and the older man cajoles Cosmo into agreeing to pay for Loretta's wedding.
Rose then confronts Cosmo and, after he acknowledges in response to her questioning that she has been a good wife, demands that he end his affair; he is upset but agrees and, after insistence from Rose, also agrees to go to confession, and they then affirm their love for each other.
Raymond and Rita also arrive, concerned and seemingly reluctantly suspicious, to find out why Loretta didn't make the previous day's bank deposit; they are relieved to learn that she merely forgot and still has the money.
When Johnny finally arrives, he breaks off the engagement, superstitiously believing that their marriage would cause his mother's death.
Loretta, momentarily offended by his breaking the engagement, chastises Johnny for breaking his promise and throws the engagement ring at him.
Seizing the moment, Ronny borrows the ring and asks Loretta to marry him; she accepts.
To Rose's chagrin, Loretta declares that she loves Ronny.
The family toasts the couple with champagne and a befuddled Johnny joins in at the grandfather's urging, as he will now be part of the family after all.
<EOS>
Charlie Babbitt is in the middle of importing four Lamborghinis to Los Angeles for resale.
He needs to deliver the vehicles to impatient buyers who have already made down payments in order to repay the loan he took out to buy the cars, but the EPA is holding the cars at the port due to the cars failing emissions regulations.
Charlie directs an employee to lie to the buyers while he stalls his creditor.
When Charlie learns that his estranged father has died, he and his girlfriend Susanna travel to Cincinnati, Ohio in order to settle the estate.
He learns he is receiving the classic 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible which he and his father fought over, but the bulk of the $3 million estate is going to an unnamed trustee.
Through social engineering he learns the money is being directed to a mental institution where he meets his older brother, Raymond Babbitt, who he was previously unaware of.
Raymond has savant syndrome and adheres to strict routines.
He has superb recall but he shows little emotional expression except when in distress.
Charlie spirits Raymond out of the mental institution and into a hotel for the night.
Susanna becomes upset with the way Charlie treats his brother and leaves.
Charlie asks Raymond's doctor, dr Gerald Bruner, for half the estate in exchange for Raymond's return, but he refuses.
Charlie decides to attempt to gain custody of his brother in order to get control of the money.
After Raymond refuses to fly back to Los Angeles, they set out on a cross-country road trip together.
During the course of the journey, Charlie learns more about Raymond, including that he is a mental calculator with the ability to instantly count hundreds of objects at once, far beyond the normal range of human subitizing abilities.
He also learns that Raymond actually lived with the family when Charlie was young and he realizes that the comforting figure from his childhood, whom he falsely remembered as an imaginary friend named "Rain Man", was actually Raymond.
They make slow progress because Raymond insists on sticking to his routines, which include watching Judge Wapner on television every day and getting to bed by 11:00 PM.
He also objects to traveling on the interstate after they pass a bad accident.
After the Lamborghinis are seized by his creditor, Charlie finds himself $70,000 in the hole and hatches a plan to return to Las Vegas, which they passed the night before, and win money at blackjack by counting cards.
Though the casino bosses are skeptical that anyone can count cards with a six deck shoe, after reviewing security footage they ask Charlie and Raymond to leave.
Charlie has made enough to cover his debts and has reconciled with Susanna who rejoined them in Las Vegas.
Back in Los Angeles, Charlie meets with dr Bruner, who offers him $250,000 to walk away from Raymond.
Charlie refuses and says that he is no longer upset about what his father left him, but he wants to have a relationship with his brother.
At a meeting with a court-appointed psychiatrist Raymond is shown to be unable to decide for himself what he wants.
Charlie stops the questioning and tells Raymond he is happy to have him as his brother.
In the final scene, Charlie brings Raymond to the train station where he boards an Amtrak train with dr Bruner to return to the mental institution.
Charlie promises Raymond that he will visit in two weeks.
<EOS>
Set in Baltimore, Maryland, the plot revolves around Macon Leary, a writer of travel guides whose son has been killed in a shooting at a fast-food restaurant.
He and his wife Sarah, separately lost in grief, find their marriage disintegrating until she eventually moves out.
When he becomes incapacitated due to a fall involving his disturbed dog and one of his crazy home inventions, he returns to the family home to stay with his eccentric siblings—sister Rose and brothers Porter and Charles.
The siblings' odd habits include alphabetizing the groceries in the kitchen cabinets and ignoring the ringing telephone.
When his publisher, Julian, comes to visit, Julian finds himself attracted to Rose.
They eventually marry, though Rose later somehow leaves him to move back in with her brothers.
Macon hires Muriel Pritchett, a quirky young woman with a sickly son, to train his unruly dog, and soon finds himself drifting into a relationship with the two of them.
Muriel is the exact opposite of Macon's wife: brash, talkative, pushy, less "classy" and less educated, and fond of wearing eccentric outfits.
Despite his initial resistance to this relationship, Macon finds that he is constantly surprised by Muriel's perceptiveness, strength and optimism, as well as her quirky habits and ability to listen.
Macon's natural love of the familiar and resistance to commitment results in a relationship that is quite a struggle between the pushy Muriel and the passive Macon.
But over time, Macon becomes attached to both Muriel and Alexander, the son, and moves in with them in their tawdry little house.
Macon slowly finds that he loves "the surprise of her, and also the surprise of himself when he was with her.
In the foreign country that was Singleton Street he was an entirely different person".
When his wife Sarah becomes aware of the situation, she decides they should reconcile, forcing him to make a difficult decision about his future.
<EOS>
In 1964, three civil rights workers (one white, one Jewish and one black) who organize a voter registry for minorities in Jessup County, Mississippi go missing.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation sends two agents, Rupert Anderson—a former Mississippi sheriff—and Alan Ward, to investigate.
The pair find it difficult to conduct interviews with the local townspeople, as Sheriff Ray Stuckey and his deputies exert influence over the public and are linked to a branch of the Ku Klux Klan.
The wife of Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell reveals to Anderson in a discreet conversation that the three missing men have been murdered.
Their bodies are later found buried in an earthen dam.
Stuckey deduces Mrs Pell's confession to the FBI and informs Pell, who brutally beats his wife in retribution.
Anderson and Ward devise a plan to indict members of the Klan for the murders.
They arrange a kidnapping of Mayor Tilman, taking him to a remote shack.
There, he is left with a black man, who threatens to castrate him unless he talks.
The abductor is an FBI operative assigned to intimidate Tilman, who gives him a full description of the killings, including the names of those involved.
Although his statement is not admissible in court due to coercion, his information proves valuable to the investigators.
Anderson and Ward exploit the new information to concoct a plan, luring identified KKK collaborators to a bogus meeting.
The Klan members soon realize it is a set-up and leave without discussing the murders.
The FBI then concentrate on Lester Cowens, a Klansman of interest, who exhibits a nervous demeanor which the agents believe might yield a confession.
The FBI pick him up and interrogate him.
Later, Cowens is at home when his window is shattered by a shotgun blast.
After seeing a burning cross on his lawn, Cowens tries to flee in his truck, but is caught by several hooded men who intend to hang him.
The FBI arrive to rescue him, having staged the whole scenario; the hooded men are revealed to be other agents.
Cowens, believing that his fellow Klansmen have threatened his life because of his admissions to the FBI, incriminates his accomplices.
The Klansmen are charged with civil rights violations, as this can be prosecuted at the federal level.
Most of the perpetrators are found guilty and receive sentences ranging from three to ten years in prison.
Stuckey, however, is acquitted of all charges, and Tilman is later found dead by the FBI in an apparent suicide.
mrs Pell returns to her home, which has been completely ransacked by vandals, and resolves to stay and rebuild her life, free of her husband.
Before leaving town, Anderson and Ward visit an integrated congregation gathered at an African-American cemetery, where the black civil rights activist's desecrated gravestone reads, "Not Forgotten".
<EOS>
Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is an Irish American working-class stockbroker's secretary from Staten Island with a bachelor's degree in Business from evening classes.
She aspires to reach an executive position.
Tricked by her boss (Oliver Platt) into a date with his lascivious colleague (Kevin Spacey), she gets into trouble by publicly insulting him and is reassigned as secretary to a new financial executive, Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver).
Seemingly supportive, Katharine encourages Tess to share ideas.
Tess suggests that a client, Trask Industries, should invest in radio to gain a foothold in media.
Katharine listens to the idea and says she'll pass it through some people.
Later, she says the idea wasn't well received.
But when Katharine breaks her leg skiing in Europe, she asks Tess to house-sit.
While at Katharine's place, Tess discovers some meeting notes where Katharine plans to pass off the merger idea as her own.
At home, Tess finds her boyfriend (Alec Baldwin) in bed with another woman.
Disillusioned, she returns to Katharine's apartment and begins her transformation.
Tess sets up a meeting with executive Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford), using her boss's name as an entrée.
She wants to see Trainer the evening before the meeting at a party, which she will attend in a dress of Katharine's.
Before the party, when Tess suffers a panic attack, her friend Cynthia (Joan Cusack) gives her a valium from Katharine's bathroom.
At the party, Tess unknowingly meets Jack, who is fascinated by her.
They have a couple of drinks, and the combined effect of valium and alcohol lead to her waking next morning in Jack's bed.
She leaves before he wakes and, entering the meeting, realizes Jack Trainer is the man she had spent the night with.
She feels the pitch goes badly.
Back at her desk, she is mortified about the night before, but Jack comes in and says they are happy with Tess's idea.
Days later, Tess and Jack gatecrash Trask's (Philip Bosco) daughter’s (Barbara Garrick) wedding and pitch their plan.
Trask is interested, and a meeting is set up.
Later, Tess and Jack end up in bed together.
Tess wants to explain her true situation but keeps quiet after learning Jack has been in a relationship with Katharine, which he says is all but over.
Katharine comes home on the day of the meeting with Trask.
Tess overhears Katharine asking Jack to confirm his love for her, but he avoids answering and hurries out.
Tess also rushes off, leaving her appointment book, which Katharine reads.
The meeting goes well until Katharine storms in, accusing Tess, a mere secretary, of having stolen her idea.
Tess protests but leaves, apologizing.
Days later, Tess clears out her desk and then bumps into Jack, Katharine, and Trask in front of the lobby elevators.
Tess confronts Katharine and starts to tell everyone her side of the story.
Katharine tries to lead the group away, but Jack says he believes Tess.
When Trask hears a convincing tidbit, he hops off the closing elevator, leaving Katharine still in the lift.
Trask gets on another elevator with Jack and Tess, where Tess then gives her elevator pitch to Trask, telling him the roundabout way in which she came up with the idea for the merger.
When they get to their office floor, Trask confronts Katharine, asking her how she came up with the idea.
She stumbles and balks and can't really explain where the idea came from.
Katharine is fired on the spot for her fraud, and Trask offers Tess an "entry-level" job with his company.
Tess starts her new job, armed with a lunchbox prepared by Jack.
Directed to an office, she sees a woman on the phone, assumes she is her new boss, and seats herself in the typing pool.
The woman (Amy Aquino) reveals that she is, in fact, Tess’s secretary and that Tess is the new junior executive for whom she is working.
Tess insists they work together as colleagues, showing she will be very different from Katharine.
She then calls Cynthia from her office overlooking Manhattan to say she's landed her dream job.
<EOS>
In 1948, mrs Daisy Werthan, or Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy), a 72-year-old wealthy, white, Jewish, widowed, retired school teacher, lives alone in Atlanta, Georgia, except for a African American housemaid named Idella (Esther Rolle).
When Miss Daisy wrecks her car, her son, Boolie (Dan Aykroyd), hires Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman), an African American chauffeur.
Miss Daisy at first refuses to let anyone else drive her, but gradually gives in.
As Miss Daisy and Hoke spend time together, she gains appreciation for his many skills.
After Idella dies in 1962, rather than hire a new maid, Miss Daisy decides to care for her own house and have Hoke do the cooking and the driving.
The film explores racism against black people, which affects Hoke at that time.
The film also touches on anti-semitism in the South.
After her synagogue is bombed, Miss Daisy realizes that she is also a victim of prejudice (religious).
But American society is undergoing radical changes, and Miss Daisy attends a dinner at which dr Martin Luther King gives a speech.
She initially invites Boolie to the dinner, but he declines, and suggests that Miss Daisy invite Hoke.
However, Miss Daisy only asks him to be her guest during the car ride to the event and ends up attending the dinner alone, with Hoke insulted by the manner of the invitation, listening to the speech on the car radio outside.
Hoke arrives at the house one morning in 1971 to find Miss Daisy agitated and showing signs of dementia.
Hoke calms her down.
Boolie arranges for Miss Daisy to enter a retirement home.
In 1973, Hoke, now 85, retires.
Boolie and Hoke drive to the retirement home to visit Miss Daisy, now 97As Hoke feeds her pumpkin pie, the image fades, with a car driving away in the distance.
<EOS>
In the autumn of 1959, shy Todd Anderson begins his senior year of high school at Welton Academy, an all-male, elite prep school.
He is assigned one of Welton's most promising students, Neil Perry, as his roommate and is quickly accepted by Neil's friends: Knox Overstreet, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks, Gerard Pitts, and Charlie Dalton.
On the first day of classes, they are surprised by the unorthodox teaching methods of the new English teacher John Keating, a Welton alumnus who encourages his students to "make your lives extraordinary", a sentiment he summarizes with the Latin expression carpe diem.
Subsequent lessons include having them take turns standing on his desk to teach the boys how they must look at life in a different way, telling them to rip out the introduction of their poetry books which explains a mathematical formula used for rating poetry, and inviting them to make up their own style of walking in a courtyard to encourage them to be individuals.
His methods attract the attention of strict headmaster Gale Nolan.
Upon learning that Keating was a member of the unsanctioned Dead Poets Society while he was at Welton, Neil restarts the club and he and his friends sneak off campus to a cave where they read poetry and verse, including their own compositions.
As the school year progresses, Keating's lessons and their involvement with the club encourage them to live their lives on their own terms.
Knox pursues Chris Noel, a girl who is dating a football player from a public school and whose family is friends with his.
Neil discovers his love of acting and gets the lead in a local production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, despite the fact that his domineering father wants him in the Ivy League (and ultimately medical school).
Keating helps Todd come out of his shell and realize his potential when he takes him through an exercise in self-expression, resulting in his composing a poem spontaneously in front of the class.
However, Charlie takes things too far when he publishes an article in the school newspaper in the club's name demanding that girls be admitted to Welton.
Nolan uses corporal punishment to coerce Charlie into revealing who else is in the Dead Poets Society, but he resists.
Nolan also speaks with Keating, warning him that he should discourage his students from questioning authority.
Neil's father discovers Neil's involvement in the play and forces him to quit on the eve of the opening performance.
Devastated, Neil goes to Keating, who advises him to stand his ground and prove to his father that his love of acting is something he takes seriously.
Neil's father unexpectedly shows up at the performance.
He takes Neil home and says he has been withdrawn from Welton, only to be enrolled in a military academy to prepare him for Harvard.
Unable to find the courage to stand up to his father, a distraught Neil commits suicide.
Nolan investigates Neil's death at the request of the Perry family.
Richard blames Neil's death on Keating to escape punishment for his own participation in the Dead Poets Society, and names the other members.
Confronted by Charlie, Richard urges the rest of them to let Keating take the fall.
Charlie punches Richard and is expelled.
Each of the boys is called to Nolan's office to sign a letter attesting to the truth of Richard's allegations, even though they know they are false.
When Todd's turn comes, he is reluctant to sign, but does so after seeing that the others have complied.
Keating is fired and Nolan takes over teaching the class.
Keating interrupts the class to collect personal articles; before he leaves Todd shouts that all of them were forced to sign the letter that resulted in his dismissal and that Neil's death was not his fault.
Todd stands on his desk and salutes Keating with the words "O Captain.
My Captain.
".
Over half the rest of the class does the same, ignoring Nolan's orders to sit down.
Keating is deeply touched by their gesture and realizes his teaching has made a lasting impact.
He thanks the boys and departs.
<EOS>
Ray Kinsella is a novice Iowa farmer who lives with his wife, Annie, and daughter, Karin.
In the opening narration, he explains how he had a troubled relationship with his father, John Kinsella, who had been a devoted baseball fan.
While walking through his cornfield one evening, he hears a voice whispering, "If you build it, he will come".
He continues hearing this before finally seeing a vision of a baseball diamond in his field.
Annie is skeptical, but she allows him to plow the corn under in order to build a baseball field.
As he builds, he tells Karin the story of the 1919 Black Sox Scandal.
Months pass and nothing happens; his family faces financial ruin until, one night, Karin spots a uniformed man on the field.
Ray recognizes him as Shoeless Joe Jackson, a deceased baseball player idolized by John.
Thrilled to be able to play baseball again, he asks to bring others to the field to play.
He later returns with the seven other players banned as a result of the 1919 scandal.
Ray's brother-in-law, Mark, can't see the players and warns him that he will go bankrupt unless he replants his corn.
While in the field, Ray hears the voice again, this time urging him to "ease his pain".
Ray attends a PTA meeting at which the possible banning of books by radical author Terence Mann is discussed.
He decides the voice was referring to Mann.
He comes across a magazine interview dealing with Mann's childhood dream of playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
After Ray and Annie both dream about him and Mann attending a baseball game together at Fenway Park, he convinces her that he should seek out Mann.
He heads to Boston and persuades a reluctant, embittered Mann to attend a game with him at Fenway Park.
While there, he hears the voice again, this time urging him to "go the distance".
At the same time, the scoreboard "shows" statistics for a player named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, who played one game for the New York Giants in 1905, but never had a turn at bat.
After the game, Mann eventually admits that he, too, saw it.
Ray and Mann then travel to Chisholm, Minnesota where they learn that Graham had become a doctor and had died sixteen years earlier.
During a late night walk, Ray finds himself back in 1972 and encounters the then-living Graham, who states that he had moved on from his baseball career.
He also says that the greater disappointment would have been not having a medical career.
He declines Ray's invitation to fulfill his dream; however, during the drive back home, Ray picks up a young hitchhiker who introduces himself as Archie Graham.
While Archie sleeps, Ray reveals to Mann that John had wanted him to live out his dream of being a baseball star.
He stopped playing catch with him after reading one of Mann's books at 14.
At 17, he had denounced Shoeless Joe as a criminal to John and that was the reason for the rift between them.
Ray expresses regret that he didn't get a chance to make things right before John died.
When they arrive back at Ray's farm, they find that enough players have arrived to field two teams.
A game is played and Archie finally gets his turn at bat.
The next morning, Mark returns and demands that Ray sell the farm.
Karin says that they will not need to because people will pay to watch the ballgames.
Mann agrees, saying that "people will come" in order to relive their childhood innocence.
Ray, after much thought, refuses and a frustrated Mark scuffles with him, during which Karin is accidentally knocked off the bleachers.
The young Graham runs from the field to help, becoming old Graham, complete with Gladstone bag, the instant he steps off of it, and saves Karin from choking (she had been eating a hot dog when she fell).
Ray realizes that Graham sacrificed his young self in order to save her.
After reassuring Ray that his true calling was medicine and being commended by the other players, Graham leaves, disappearing into the corn.
Suddenly, Mark is able to see the players and urges Ray not to sell the farm.
After the game, Shoeless Joe invites Mann to enter the corn; he accepts and disappears into it.
Ray is angry at not being invited, but Shoeless Joe rebukes him: if he really wants a reward for having sacrificed so much, then he had better stay on the field.
Shoeless Joe then glances towards a player at home plate, saying "If you build it, he will come".
The player then removes his mask, and Ray recognizes him to be John as a young man.
Shocked, Ray realizes that "ease his pain" referred to John, and believes that Shoeless Joe was the voice all along; however, Joe implies that the voice was Ray himself.
Joe then disappears into the corn.
Ray introduces John to Annie and Karin.
As he heads towards the corn, Ray asks him if he wants to play a game of catch.
They begin to play and Annie happily watches.
Meanwhile, hundreds of cars can be seen approaching the baseball field, fulfilling Karin and Mann's prophecy that people will come to watch baseball.
<EOS>
The film opens with Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), who has cerebral palsy, being taken to a charity event, where he meets his handler, a nurse named Mary Carr.
She begins reading his autobiography.
Christy could not walk or talk, but still received love and support from his family, especially his mother.
One day when he was still a young boy, Christy was the only one home to see his mother fall down a flight of stairs while in labor, and he was able to alert some neighbors and summon them over to help.
His father, who had never really believed in him, becomes a supporter the day nine- or 10-year-old Christy uses his left foot, the only body part he can fully control, to write the word "mother" on the floor with a piece of yellow chalk.
Consequently, Christy seeks a hobby in painting.
The neighborhood youngsters include him in their activities, like street football.
But when he paints a picture and gives it to a girl he likes, she returns it.
When his father loses his job and the family faces exceptionally difficult hardships, Christy devises a plan to help his brothers steal coal (to their mother's dismay).
His older sister, who was always very nice to him, gets pregnant and must marry and leave home.
Christy's mother, who had been gradually gathering some savings in a tin in the fireplace, finally saves enough to buy him a wheelchair.
Christy meets dr Eileen Cole, who takes him to her school for cerebral palsy patients and persuades a friend of hers to hold an exhibition of his work.
Christy falls in love with dr Cole, but when he learned during the dinner that she is engaged to be married, he considers suicide.
His mother helps him build a private studio for himself, but soon afterward his father dies of a stroke, and during the wake Christy instigates a brawl.
At this point, Christy starts writing his autobiography, My Left Foot.
dr Cole returns and they resume their friendship.
Meanwhile, at the fete, Christy asks Mary Carr to go out with him and they leave the fete together.
<EOS>
In 1863, First Lieutenant John Dunbar is wounded in battle at st David's Field in Tennessee.
Choosing death in battle over amputation of his leg, he takes a horse and rides up to and along the Confederate lines.
Despite numerous pot shots, the Confederates fail to hit him, and while they are distracted, the Union Army successfully attack the line.
Dunbar survives, receives a citation for bravery, and proper medical care.
He recovers fully and is awarded Cisco, the horse who carried him, and his choice of posting.
Dunbar requests a transfer to the western frontier so he can see it before it disappears.
Dunbar is transferred to Fort Hays, a large fort presided over by a suicidal major who despises Dunbar's enthusiasm, but agrees to post him to the furthest outpost they have, Fort Sedgewick, and kills himself shortly afterwards.
Dunbar travels with Timmons, a mule wagon provisioner; they arrive to find the fort deserted and in poor condition.
Despite the threat of nearby Indian tribes, Dunbar elects to stay and man the post himself.
He begins rebuilding and restocking the fort and prefers the solitude, recording many of his observations in his diary.
Timmons is killed by Pawnee Indians on the journey back to Ft.
Hays; his death, together with that of the major who had sent them there, prevents other soldiers from knowing of Dunbar's assignment, and no other soldiers arrive to reinforce the post.
Dunbar initially encounters his Sioux neighbors when attempts are made to steal his horse and intimidate him.
Deciding that being a target is a poor prospect, he decides to seek out the Sioux camp and attempt dialogue, rather than wait.
On his way he comes across Stands With A Fist, the white adopted daughter of the tribe's medicine man Kicking Bird, who is ritually mutilating herself while mourning for her husband.
Dunbar brings her back to the Sioux to recover, and some of the tribe begin to respect him.
Eventually, Dunbar establishes a rapport with Kicking Bird and Wind In His Hair, initially visiting each other's camps.
The language barrier frustrates them, and Stands With A Fist acts as interpreter, although with difficulty; she only remembers English from her early childhood before the rest of her family was killed during a Pawnee raid.
Dunbar finds that the stories he had heard about the tribe were untrue, and he develops a growing respect and appreciation for their lifestyle and culture.
Learning their language, he is accepted as an honored guest by the Sioux after he tells them of a migrating herd of buffalo and participates in the hunt.
When at Fort Sedgewick, Dunbar also befriends a wolf he dubs "Two Socks" for its white forepaws.
Observing Dunbar and Two Socks chasing each other, the Sioux give him the name "Dances With Wolves".
During this time, Dunbar also forges a romantic relationship with Stands With A Fist and helps defend the village from an attack by the rival Pawnee tribe.
Dunbar eventually wins Kicking Bird's approval to marry Stands With A Fist, and abandons Fort Sedgewick.
Because of the growing Pawnee and white threat, Chief Ten Bears decides to move the tribe to its winter camp.
Dunbar decides to accompany them but must first retrieve his diary from Fort Sedgewick as he realizes that it would provide the army with the means to find the tribe.
However, when he arrives he finds the fort reoccupied by theS.
Army.
Because of his Sioux clothing, the soldiers open fire, killing Cisco and capturing Dunbar, arresting him as a traitor.
Senior officers interrogate him, but Dunbar cannot prove his story, as a corporal has found and discarded his diary.
Having refused to serve as an interpreter to the tribes, Dunbar is charged with desertion and transported back east as a prisoner.
Soldiers of the escort shoot Two Socks when the wolf attempts to follow Dunbar, despite Dunbar's attempts to intervene.
Eventually, the Sioux track the convoy, killing the soldiers and freeing Dunbar.
They assert that they do not see him as a white man, but as a Sioux warrior called Dances With Wolves.
But, at the winter camp, Dunbar decides to leave with Stands With A Fist because his continuing presence would endanger the tribe.
As they leave, Wind In His Hair shouts to Dunbar, reminding him that he is Dunbar's friend, a contrast to their original meeting where he shouted at Dunbar in hostilityS.
troops are seen searching the mountains but are unable to locate them, while a lone wolf howls in the distance.
An epilogue states that thirteen years later the last remnants of the free Sioux were subjugated to the American government, ending the conquest of the Western frontier states and the livelihoods of the tribes on the Great Plains.
<EOS>
In 1969, dr Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) is a dedicated and caring physician at a local hospital in the New York City borough of The Bronx.
After working extensively with the catatonic patients who survived the 1917–1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica, Sayer discovers certain stimuli will reach beyond the patients' respective catatonic states; actions such as catching a ball, hearing familiar music, and experiencing human touch all have unique effects on particular patients and offer a glimpse into their worlds.
Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro) proves elusive in this regard, but Sayer soon discovers that Leonard is able to communicate with him by using a Ouija board.
After attending a lecture at a conference on the subject of the L-Dopa drug and its success with patients suffering from Parkinson's Disease, Sayer believes the drug may offer a breakthrough for his own group of patients.
A trial run with Leonard yields astounding results: Leonard completely "awakens" from his catatonic state.
This success inspires Sayer to ask for funding from donors so that all the catatonic patients can receive the L-Dopa medication and experience "awakenings" back to reality.
Meanwhile, Leonard is adjusting to his new life and becomes romantically interested in Paula (Penelope Ann Miller), the daughter of another hospital patient.
Leonard also begins to chafe at the restrictions placed upon him as a patient of the hospital, desiring the freedom to come and go as he pleases.
He stirs up a revolt by arguing his case to Sayer and the hospital administration.
Sayer notices that as Leonard grows more agitated, a number of facial and body tics are starting to manifest, which Leonard has difficulty controlling.
While Sayer and the hospital staff are thrilled by the success of L-Dopa with this group of patients, they soon find that it is a temporary measure.
As the first to "awaken", Leonard is also the first to demonstrate the limited duration of this period of "awakening".
Leonard's tics grow more and more prominent and he starts to shuffle more as he walks, and all of the patients are forced to witness what will eventually happen to them.
He soon begins to suffer full body spasms and can hardly move.
Leonard puts up well with the pain, and asks Sayer to film him, in hopes that he would someday contribute to research that may eventually help others.
Leonard acknowledges what is happening to him and has a last lunch with Paula where he tells her he cannot see her anymore.
When he is about to leave, Paula dances with him, and for this short period of time his spasms disappear.
Leonard and Sayer reconcile their differences, but Leonard returns to his catatonic state soon after.
The other patients' fears are similarly realized as each eventually returns to catatonia no matter how much their L-Dopa dosages are increased.
Sayer tells a group of grant donors to the hospital that although the "awakening" did not last, another kind — one of learning to appreciate and live life — took place.
For example, he himself overcomes his painful shyness and asks Nurse Eleanor Costello (Julie Kavner) to go out for coffee, many months after he had declined a similar proposal from her.
The nurses also now treat the catatonic patients with more respect and care, and Paula is shown visiting Leonard.
The film ends with Sayer standing over Leonard behind a Ouija board, with his hands on Leonard's hands, which are on the planchette.
"Let's begin," Sayer says.
<EOS>
Sam Wheat, a banker, and his girlfriend Molly Jensen, a potter, renovate and move into an apartment in New York City with the help of Sam's friend and co-worker Carl Bruner.
One afternoon, Sam confides in Carl his discovery of unusually high balances in obscure bank accounts.
He decides to investigate the matter himself, declining Carl's offer of assistance.
That night, Sam and Molly are attacked by a mugger who kills Sam in a scuffle before stealing his wallet.
Sam sees Molly crying over his body and discovers he is now a ghost who can perceive but not interact with the real world.
Molly remains distraught in the days after Sam's death, as Sam remains close to her.
Carl comes over and suggests Molly take a walk with him and Sam cannot bring himself to follow.
Moments later, the mugger enters the apartment in search of something.
When Molly returns, Sam scares their cat into attacking the thug, who flees.
Sam follows the mugger to his Brooklyn apartment and learns that the man, Willie Lopez, was sent by an unknown party.
After leaving Willie's residence, Sam happens upon the parlor of psychic medium Oda Mae Brown, a con artist who is shocked to discover her true psychic gift when she can hear Sam speaking.
Sam convinces her to warn Molly of the danger she is in.
To allay Molly's skepticism, Oda Mae relays information that only Sam could know.
Molly gives Carl Bruner's address; she then goes to the police, who find that Willie has no criminal record, whereas Oda Mae has a lengthy one as a forger and con artist.
Meanwhile, Sam follows Carl and is devastated to learn he and Willie are working together.
Carl is laundering money for drug dealers and he had Willie rob Sam to get his apartment key, which Carl uses to obtains Sam's book of passwords and transfer the money into a single account under the fictitious "Rita Miller".
Sam befriends a violent poltergeist haunting the subway system and learns how to manipulate objects with his mind.
Sam then persuades Oda Mae to help him thwart Carl.
Before Carl can transfer the money for his clients, Oda Mae impersonates Rita Miller, closes the account, and gives the $4 million cashier's check to charity.
As Carl desperately searches for the money, Sam reveals his presence by typing his name on the computer keyboard.
Carl goes to Molly, who reveals she spotted Oda Mae closing an account at the bank.
Carl and Willie go to Oda Mae's place but Sam warns her to take shelter.
When Willie arrives, Sam tosses objects at him until Willie flees into the street in a panic and is killed by an incoming car.
Shadowy creatures emerge from the darkness to drag Willie's ghost down to Hell.
Sam and Oda Mae return to the apartment where—by levitating a penny into Molly's hand—he convinces Molly that Oda Mae is telling the truth about him.
Oda Mae allows Sam to possess her body so he and Molly can share a slow dance.
Carl breaks into the apartment but Sam is too exhausted from the possession to fight Carl.
The women run onto the fire escape, to a loft under construction, but Carl catches Oda Mae and holds her at gunpoint, demanding the money.
A recovered Sam pushes Carl off her so Carl takes Molly hostage, pleading with Sam for the money.
Sam disarms Carl and attacks him again.
Carl tries to escape through a window and tosses a suspended hook at Sam; the hook swings back to shatter the window and it slides down, fatally impaling Carl with a glass shard.
The shadowy creatures return to claim Carl's ghost for Hell.
Sam asks if the women are all right.
Miraculously, Molly can now hear him.
A heavenly light shines in the room, illuminating Sam in sight of both of them.
Realizing that it is his time to go, he and Molly share a tearful goodbye and one final kiss.
Sam thanks Oda Mae for her help, and she tells him that he is being called home.
Sam then walks into the light and onward to Heaven.
<EOS>
In 1979, as Michael Corleone is approaching 60, he regrets his ruthless rise to power and is especially guilt-ridden for having his brother Fredo murdered.
He has semi-retired from the Mafia, leaving management of the family's business to Joey Zasa.
Michael uses his tremendous wealth and power in an attempt to rehabilitate his reputation via numerous charitable acts.
Michael and Kay are divorced; their children, Anthony and Mary, live with Kay.
At a ceremony in st Patrick's Old Cathedral, Michael is named a Commander of the Order of Saint Sebastian.
At the reception, Anthony tells his father that he is leaving law school to become an opera singer.
Kay supports his decision, but Michael asks Anthony to complete his law degree.
Anthony refuses to adhere to his father's wishes.
Michael and Kay have an uneasy reunion, in which Kay reveals that she and Anthony know the truth about Fredo's death.
Vincent Mancini, Sonny Corleone's illegitimate son with Lucy Mancini, arrives at the reception.
He is embroiled in a feud with Zasa, who has involved the Corleone family in drug trafficking and turned Little Italy into a slum.
Michael's sister, Connie, arranges a meeting between Vincent and Zasa.
When Zasa calls Vincent a bastard, Vincent bites Zasa's ear.
Vincent overpowers two hitmen sent to kill him and learns that Zasa was responsible.
Michael, troubled by Vincent's fiery temper but impressed by his family loyalty, agrees to take him under his wing.
Knowing that Archbishop Gilday, head of the Vatican Bank, has accumulated a massive deficit, Michael offers the Bank $600 million in exchange for shares in Internazionale Immobiliare, an international real estate company, which would make him its largest single shareholder with six seats on the company's 13-member board.
He makes a tender offer to buy the Vatican's 25% share in the company, which will give him controlling interest.
Immobiliare's board quickly approve the offer, pending ratification by the Pope.
Don Altobello, an elderly New York Mafia boss and Connie's godfather, visits Michael, telling him that his old partners on the Commission want in on the Immobiliare deal.
Michael wants the deal untainted by Mafia involvement and pays off the mob bosses from the sale of his Las Vegas holdings.
Zasa receives nothing and, declaring Michael his enemy, storms out.
Altobello follows Zasa, saying he will reason with him.
Minutes later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and opens fire.
Most of the bosses are killed, but Michael, Vincent, and Michael's bodyguard, Al Neri, escape.
In New York, Neri tells Michael that the surviving mob bosses made deals with Zasa.
Believing Zasa lacks the mindset to mastermind the massacre, Michael is certain someone else was the mastermind.
Michael forbids Vincent from killing Zasa, realizes that Altobello is the traitor, suffers a diabetic stroke, and is hospitalized.
As Michael recuperates, Vincent and Mary begin a romantic relationship, while Neri and Connie give Vincent permission to retaliate against Zasa.
During a street festival hosted by Zasa's Italian American civil rights group, Vincent kills Zasa.
Michael berates Vincent for his actions and insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary, explaining Vincent's involvement in the family's criminal enterprises endangers her life.
The family travels to Sicily for Anthony's operatic debut in Palermo at the Teatro Massimo.
They stay with Don Tommasino, a long-time friend.
Michael tells Vincent to convince Altobello of his desires to leave the Corleone family.
Altobello introduces Vincent to Don Licio Lucchesi, a powerful Italian political figure and Immobiliare's chairman.
Michael discovers that the Immobiliare deal is an elaborate swindle, conspired by Lucchesi, Archbishop Gilday, and Vatican accountant Frederick Keinszig.
Michael visits Cardinal Lamberto, favored to become the next Pope, to discuss the deal.
Lamberto persuades Michael to make his first confession in 30 years.
Michael tearfully confesses that he ordered Fredo's murder, and Lamberto says Michael deserves to suffer but can be redeemed.
Altobello hires Mosca, a veteran hitman, to assassinate Michael.
Mosca and his son, disguised as priests, kill Don Tommasino as he returns to his villa.
While Michael and Kay tour Sicily, Michael asks for Kay's forgiveness, and they admit they still love each other.
Michael receives word of Tommasino's death, and at the funeral vows never to sin again.
After the Pope dies, Cardinal Lamberto is elected as Pope John Paul I, and the Immobiliare deal is to be ratified.
The plotters against the ratification attempt to cover their tracks.
Vincent tells Michael that Altobello is plotting to have Mosca assassinate Michael.
Michael sees that his nephew is a changed man and names him the new Don of the Corleone family, telling him to adopt the Corleone name.
Vincent ends his romance with Mary.
The family travels to Palermo to see Anthony's performance in Cavalleria rusticana, a tale of murderous revenge in a Sicilian setting.
Meanwhile, Vincent exacts his revenge: After he approves the Immobiliare deal, the Pope is served poisoned tea by Archbishop Gilday and dies soon afterward.
Mosca, armed with a sniper rifle, descends upon the opera house during Anthony's performance and kills three of Vincent's men, but is unable to shoot Michael.
He then attempts to kill Michael outside the opera house, but unintentionally kills Mary.
Vincent shoots him dead.
Michael remembers all the women he has lost as a montage of Mary, Kay, and Apollonia is shown.
An elderly Michael sits alone in the garden of Don Tommasino's villa and suddenly slumps over in his chair, falling to the ground.
<EOS>
Biff is resurrected in the 20th Century to complete missing parts of the Bible, under the inefficient supervision of Raziel; wherefore Biff narrates that he and Joshua (by Biff's account, the Hebrew original of the Hellenized "Jesus") travel Eastward to consult the Three Wise Men (a magician, a Buddhist, and a Hindu Yogi) who attended Joshua's birth, so that Joshua may learn how to become the Messiah.
Over twenty years, Joshua surpasses the trio by incorporating his beliefs into theirs: he learns to multiply food from a Wise Man and learns to become invisible from another, whereas his ability to resurrect the dead, initiates his first meeting with Biff in childhood.
Throughout his role, Biff is sarcastic, practical, and loyal, against Joshua's temperamental and sometimes idealistic character.
The recounting of Jesus' human and godlike qualities, combined with Biff's earthy debauchery, humorously explains the origins of judo and cappuccino; reasons that Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas; and how rabbits became associated with Easter.
The Three Wise Men, Mary Magdalene, Joseph, and Mary all appear as well: Mary Magdalene (here nicknamed 'Maggie') is depicted as harboring love for Joshua, while Joshua remains celibate, and Biff compensates by an active sexuality of his own.
At the novel's conclusion, Biff gives "The Gospel According to Biff" to Raziel and discovers a resurrected Maggie exiting the room opposite his, having finished her own Gospel weeks before.
At Raziel's behest, they are united immediately.
<EOS>
An enchantress, disguised as an old beggar, offers an enchanted rose to a young prince in exchange for shelter in his castle from the bitter cold, but he refuses.
For his arrogance, the enchantress transforms him into a beast and inflicts a spell on the castle.
She gives him a magic mirror that enables him to view faraway events, along with the rose.
To break the spell, the prince must learn to love another and earn her love in return before the rose's last petal falls on his 21st birthday.
If he fails, he will remain a beast forever.
Ten years later, a young bookworm girl named Belle is bored of her village life and seeks excitement.
Because of her nonconformist ideals, she is ridiculed by everyone except her father Maurice (an odd inventor), the town bookseller, and a vain muscular hunter named Gaston.
Despite being popular with the townsfolk, Gaston is determined to marry Belle but she repeatedly rejects his advances.
Maurice and his horse Phillipe get lost in the forest while traveling to a fair to present his newest invention, a wood-chopping machine.
When Phillipe abandons Maurice, he comes across the Beast's castle.
Inside, he meets Lumière the candlestick, Cogsworth the clock, mrs Potts the teapot, and her son Chip the teacup.
They offer him their service; however, the Beast discovers and imprisons Maurice.
After Phillipe leads Belle to the Beast's castle, she offers to take her father's place.
Over her father's objection, the Beast accepts Belle's offer.
While Gaston sulks over Belle's rejection, Maurice returns to town but is unable to convince the others to rescue Belle.
The Beast sulks in his room when Belle refuses to have dinner with him that night.
Despite this, Lumière offers her a meal.
While he and Cogsworth also give her a tour of the castle, she wanders into the forbidden West Wing.
When the Beast frightens her out into the forest, Belle encounters a pack of wolves.
The Beast rescues Belle but he gets injured in the process.
He begins to develop feelings for her while she nurses his wounds and he delights her by showing his extensive library.
While the two bond in the Beast's castle, Gaston pays Monsieur D'Arque to send Maurice to the town's insane asylum if Belle refuses Gaston's proposal again.
Sharing a romantic evening dance together, Belle tells the Beast she misses her father.
He lets her use his magic mirror to see him.
She sees Maurice dying in the woods trying to reach the castle.
The Beast lets her go out to save him and he gives her the mirror to remember him by.
Chip stows away; Belle finds Maurice and brings him home.
As Gaston is about to forcibly bring Maurice to the asylum, Belle proves Maurice's sanity by showing the Beast with the magic mirror.
Realizing that Belle loves the Beast, Gaston convinces the villagers that the Beast is a man-eating monster and leads them to the castle to kill him.
With Chip's aid, Maurice and Belle escape from confinement.
While the villagers are fended off by the servants, Gaston fights the Beast.
The Beast initially is too depressed to fight back, but perks up after seeing Belle return to the castle.
He corners Gaston, but spares his life and orders him to leave.
However, when the Beast turns to Belle, a mad Gaston fatally stabs him, but then loses his footing and falls to his death.
Belle professes her love for the Beast, who dies before the last rose petal falls.
With the spell broken, the Beast reverts to his true form alive.
The servants resume their human forms and the castle is restored to its former glory.
Belle dances with the prince in the ballroom as everyone watches in delight.
<EOS>
Gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who works for the New York mob, goes to California and instantly falls in love with Virginia Hill, a tough-talking Hollywood starlet.
The two meet for the first time when Bugsy visits his friend, actor George Raft, on a film set.
He buys a house in Beverly Hills from opera singer Lawrence Tibbett, planning to stay there while his wife and two daughters remain in Scarsdale.
As a representative for his associates Meyer Lansky and Charlie Luciano, Bugsy is in California to wrestle control of betting parlors away from Los Angeles gangster Jack Dragna.
Mickey Cohen robs Dragna's operation one day.
He is confronted by Bugsy, who decides he should be in business with the guy who committed the robbery, not the guy who got robbed.
Cohen is put in charge of the betting casinos; Dragna is forced to admit to a raging Bugsy that he stole $14,000, and is told he now answers to Cohen.
After arguments about Virginia's trysts with drummer Gene Krupa and a variety of bullfighters and Siegel's reluctance to get a divorce, Virginia makes a romantic move on Bugsy.
On a trip to Nevada to visit a gambling joint, Bugsy comes up with the idea for a hotel and casino in the desert.
He obtains $1 million in funding from lifelong friend Lansky and other New York mobsters, reminding them that in Nevada, gambling is legal.
Virginia wants no part of it until Bugsy puts her in charge of accounting and begins construction of the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, but the budget soon soars to $6 million due to his extravagance.
Bugsy tries everything to ensure it gets completed, even selling his share of the casino.
Bugsy is visited in Los Angeles by former associate Harry Greenberg.
Harry has betrayed his old associates to save himself.
He has also run out of money, from a combination of his gambling habits and being extorted by prosecutors who want his testimony.
Though he is Harry's trusted friend, Bugsy has no choice but to kill him.
He is arrested for the murder, but the only witness is a cab driver who dropped Harry off in front of Bugsy's house.
The driver is paid to leave town.
Lansky is waiting for Bugsy outside the jail.
He gives a satchel of money to his friend.
"Charlie doesn't have to know about it," he tells Bugsy, but warns, "I can't protect you anymore".
The Flamingo's opening night is a total failure, and $2 million of the budget is unaccounted for, whereupon Bugsy discovers that Virginia stole the money.
He tells her to "keep it and save it for a rainy day".
He then tells Lansky never to sell his share of the casino because he will live to thank him someday.
Later that night, Bugsy is shot and killed in his home.
Virginia is told the news in Las Vegas and knows her own days could be numbered.
An epilogue states that Virginia returned the missing money a week later and committed suicide at some point after that.
It also states that by 1991, the $6 million invested in Bugsy's dream of Las Vegas had generated revenues of over $100 billion.
<EOS>
Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte), a teacher and football coach from South Carolina, is asked by his mother, Lila, to travel to New York to help his twin sister's psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein (Barbra Streisand), after his sister Savannah's (Melinda Dillon) latest suicide attempt.
Tom hates New York but reluctantly accepts, largely to take the opportunity to be alone and away from a life that does not satisfy him.
During his initial meetings with Lowenstein, Tom is reluctant to disclose many details of their dysfunctional family's secrets.
In flashbacks, Tom relates incidents from his childhood to Lowenstein in hopes of discovering how to save Savannah's life.
The Wingo parents were an abusive father and an overly proud, status-hungry mother.
The father was a shrimp boat operator and, despite being successful at that profession, spent all of his money on frivolous business pursuits, leaving the family in poverty.
Tom is also torn with his own problems, but hides behind what he calls "the Southern way";e, laughing about everything.
For example, his wife Sallie is having an affair and her lover wants to marry her.
Tom and Lowenstein begin having feelings for each other.
After Tom discovers that she is married to Herbert Woodruff, a famous concert violinist, Lowenstein introduces Tom to her son Bernard (Jason Gould), who is being groomed to become a musician as well but who secretly wants to play football.
Tom starts coaching Bernard along with attending sessions with Lowenstein to help his sister.
Tom discovers that Savannah has been in such a dissociated state that she even had a different identity, Renata Halpern.
As Halpern, she wrote books to disguise the Savannah side of her troubled life.
Tom confronts Lowenstein over not revealing this information before and they argue, during which she throws a dictionary at him.
To apologize, she asks him to dinner and their relationship becomes closer.
Tom has a fateful meeting with his mother and stepfather, bringing up painful memories.
Tom reveals that, when he was 13 years old, three escaped convicts invaded his home and raped him, along with his mother and sister.
His older brother, Luke, killed two of the aggressors with a shotgun, while his mother stabbed the third with a kitchen knife.
They buried the bodies beneath the house and never spoke of it again.
Tom suffers a mental breakdown, having now let loose a key piece of Savannah's troubled life.
After a session of football, Herbert orders Bernard to return to his music lessons and prepare to leave for Tanglewood.
Tom is invited to a dinner at Lowenstein's home, along with poets and intellectuals.
Herbert is overtly rude and reveals that Tom's sister is in therapy with his wife.
Infuriated, Lowenstein voices her suspicions about her husband's affairs.
Tom takes Herbert's "million dollar" violin and threatens to throw it off the balcony unless Herbert apologizes.
Tom spends a romantic weekend with Lowenstein at her country house, both already falling in love at this point.
Savannah recovers and is released from the hospital.
This recovery is due to finally learning about things she has repressed from her childhood, most notably the rapes.
Her first suicide attempt at age 13 was after the rapes and murders of the three convicts.
Tom then receives a call from his wife who has finally decided she wants him back.
He loves Lowenstein and his wife both, but 'has loved his wife longer, not more', he tells Lowenstein.
He returns home, not being a man to abandon his wife and three daughters, wishing that two lives could be given to each man and women, He's happy in his renewed life, thanks to finally working out the traumatic events in his life, thanks to Lowenstein, but thinks of her daily as he reaches the top of the bridge on his drive home from work.
Her name comes to him as a kind of prayer, a blessing.
<EOS>
The film is set in 1880 and 1881 in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, where Little Bill Daggett, the local sheriff and former gunfighter, does not allow guns or criminals in his town.
Two cowboys, Quick Mike and "Davey-Boy" Bunting, disfigure prostitute Delilah Fitzgerald after she laughs at the small size of Quick Mike's penis.
As punishment for the cowboys, Little Bill allows them to pay compensation to the brothel owner, Skinny Dubois.
The rest of the prostitutes, led by Strawberry Alice, are infuriated by this leniency and offer a $1,000 reward to whoever can kill the cowboys.
Miles away in Kansas, the Schofield Kid, a boastful young man, visits the pig farm of William Munny, seeking to recruit him to help kill the cowboys.
In his youth, Munny was a bandit, notorious for being a cold-blooded murderer.
Now a repentant widower raising two children, he has sworn off alcohol and killing.
Though Munny initially refuses to help, his farm is failing, putting his children's future in jeopardy.
Munny reconsiders a few days later and sets off to catch up with the Kid.
On his way, Munny recruits his friend Ned Logan, another retired gunfighter.
Back in Wyoming, Britain-born gunfighter English Bob, an old acquaintance and rival of Little Bill, is also seeking the reward and arrives in Big Whiskey with a biographer, Beauchamp.
Little Bill and his deputies disarm Bob, and Bill beats him savagely, hoping to discourage other would-be assassins.
The next morning he ejects Bob from town, but Beauchamp decides to stay and write about Bill, who has impressed him with his tales of old gunfights and seeming knowledge of the gunfighter's psyche.
Munny, Logan and the Kid arrive later during a rain storm and head into the saloon/whorehouse to discover the cowboys' location.
With a bad fever after riding in the rain, Munny is sitting alone in the saloon when Little Bill and his deputies arrive to confront him.
With no idea of Munny's past, Little Bill beats him and kicks him out of the saloon after finding a pistol on him.
Logan and the Kid, upstairs getting advances in kind on their payment from the prostitutes, escape out a back window.
The three regroup at a barn outside of town, where they nurse Munny back to health.
Three days later, they ambush a group of cowboys and kill Bunting, though Logan and Munny show that they no longer have much stomach for murder.
Logan decides to return home while Munny feels they must finish the job.
Munny and the Kid head to the cowboys' ranch, where the Kid ambushes Quick Mike in an outhouse and kills him.
After they escape, a distraught Kid confesses he had never killed anyone before and renounces life as a gunfighter.
When Little Sue meets the two men to give them the reward, they learn that Logan was captured by Little Bill's men and tortured to death — but not before revealing Munny's identity.
The Kid heads back to Kansas to deliver the reward money to Munny's children and Logan's wife, while an embittered Munny — finishing Ned's bottle of whiskey — returns to town to take revenge on Little Bill.
That night, Munny arrives and sees Logan's corpse displayed in a coffin outside the saloon with a sign reading "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO ASSASSINS AROUND HERE".
Inside, Little Bill has assembled a posse to pursue Munny and the Kid.
Munny walks in alone and kills Dubois.
After some tense dialogue, a gunfight ensues, leaving Bill wounded and several of his deputies dead.
Bill promises to "see [Munny] in hell" before Munny executes him.
Munny then threatens the townsfolk before finally leaving Big Whiskey, warning that he will return for more vengeance if Logan is not buried properly or if any of the prostitutes are harmed.
A title card epilogue says that Munny moved to San Francisco with his children where he prospered in dry goods.
<EOS>
The story takes place in Edwardian England and concerns three families who represent three social classes: the Wilcoxes are wealthy capitalists, the class that is displacing the aristocracy; the Schlegel sisters standing for the enlightened bourgeoisie; and the Basts, a young couple down on their luck, who may be traced to the lower middle class.
(Forster is clear that the novel is "not concerned with the very poor".
) The film asks the question "Who will inherit England.
" and answers it through the ownership of the house, Howards End, as it passes from person to person.
The younger sister, Helen Schlegel (Helena Bonham Carter), briefly becomes engaged to the younger Wilcox son, Paul.
They realise their mistake and break it off by mutual consent.
Later, when the Wilcox family takes a house in the vicinity of the Schlegels in London, the older sister, Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson), resumes her acquaintance with Paul's mother, Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave), whom she had briefly met before.
Ruth is descended from English yeoman stock and it is through her family that the Wilcoxes have come to own Howards End, a house she loves dearly.
It stands symbolically above class distinction (in both the film and the novel), representing rural England, the rich tapestry of its manifold traditions, and the deeply rooted cultural heritage associated with them.
Over the course of the next few months, the two women become very good friends, and Ruth eventually regards Margaret as a kindred spirit.
Hearing that the lease on the Schlegels' London house is due to expire, and knowing she is soon to die, Ruth bequeaths Howards End to Margaret in a handwritten will.
This causes great consternation to the Wilcoxes, who refuse to believe that Ruth was in her "right mind" or could possibly have intended her home to go to a relative stranger.
The Wilcoxes burn the piece of paper on which Ruth's bequest is written, and decide to keep her will a secret.
Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins) is aware, as Margaret is not, that he has prevented the Schlegels from finding a home at Howards End.
Therefore, he offers to help Margaret look for a new place to live.
As a result, they get to know each other quite well.
Henry proposes marriage.
Margaret accepts.
Some time before this the Schlegels had befriended a young, poor, yet highly intellectual clerk, Leonard Bast (Samuel West).
Both sisters find him remarkable, infused with a spirit of "romantic ambition" as Margaret puts it.
Wishing to improve his lot, they pass along advice from Henry to the effect that Leonard must leave his post, because the insurance company he works for is supposedly heading for a crash.
Leonard acts on this advice in good faith, but finds himself in a far worse position; indeed he is unable to find any employment.
The two plot lines converge unexpectedly at the scene of the beautiful wedding party of Evie Wilcox (Henry's daughter with Ruth).
Helen has found the Basts destitute, on the verge of starvation, and brings them from London to Shropshire, where she storms into the garden party, the Basts in tow.
Jacky Bast (Nicola Duffett) overeats and gets drunk; Margaret approaches her with Henry trying to resolve the situation.
Jacky recognises Henry immediately and Margaret learns that many years previously, Henry had had an illicit affair with her.
Humiliated and suspicious, Henry breaks off the engagement.
Nevertheless, he and Margaret make their peace with each other the same evening, and she forgives his moral transgression, valiantly determining: "this is not going to trouble us".
Margaret then writes to Helen, insisting, in accordance with Henry's wishes, that she take the Basts away, so as to avoid further anguish and embarrassment.
Helen in turn feels betrayed and consequently, the Schlegel sisters drift apart.
Hurt and upset, Helen has a brief affair with Leonard Bast, following which she finds herself pregnant and decides to leave the country ~ telling no one of her condition.
Before going away however she offers Leonard Bast (who knows nothing of her pregnancy) some very substantial financial assistance, which he refuses, returning her cheque.
Several months following these events Aunt Juley's illness prompts Helen to travel back to England.
She must reclaim her possessions, and asks if she may stay one night at Howards End (where they are kept) for sentimental reasons, as she has at present no other home.
This of course cannot be done without Henry's permission; but as soon as he learns from Margaret that Helen, still unmarried, is pregnant, he indignantly rules that she cannot stay at his house, and that the man responsible for her condition must be found out and punished for dishonouring her.
Margaret is dismayed by the ruthlessness of Henry's conduct and perceives his attitude as insensitive and unjust.
She remonstrates with him bitterly about the different standards of sexual propriety applied to men and women, and declares her intention to leave him.
At this juncture Leonard and the elder Wilcox son, Charles (James Wilby), make their separate ways to Howards End, where the final tragedy unfolds: Charles attacks Leonard with a sword, inadvertently killing him.
This is discovered by the police and Charles is arrested.
Henry's pride is shaken; his feelings of heartbreak and remorse surface at last, and he and Margaret are reunited, becoming truly close, even closer than they were before the crisis which has plunged a sword (literally and figuratively) through the very heart of their family, had occurred.
Ultimately, Ruth's wish is fulfilled: Henry leaves Howards End to Margaret in his last will and testament.
Helen is happily reconciled with Margaret, who regards Helen's son as the rightful heir.
Henry is aware of his wife's intent to leave the house to her nephew upon her own death and fully approves.
In both the film and the novel, the final ownership of Howards End is emblematic of new class relations in Britain.
It is the wealth of the new industrialists (the Wilcoxes), married to the politically reforming vision of liberalism (the Schlegels,) which will make amends and reward the children of the underprivileged (the Basts); whereupon Howards End is revealed as an instrument of poetic justice and redemption.
<EOS>
Charlie Simms is a student at an exclusive New England prep school.
Unlike most of his peers, Charlie was not born to a wealthy family.
To pay for a flight home to Oregon for Christmas, Charlie accepts a temporary job over Thanksgiving weekend looking after retired Army Ranger Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, whom Charlie discovers to be a cantankerous, blind alcoholic.
Charlie and George Willis, Jr, another student at the preparatory school, witness three students setting up a prank for the school's headmaster, mr Trask.
Following the prank, Trask presses Charlie and George to divulge the names of the perpetrators.
Trask offers Charlie a bribe, a letter of recommendation that would virtually guarantee his acceptance to Harvard.
Charlie continues to remain silent but appears conflicted.
Shortly after Charlie arrives, Slade unexpectedly whisks Charlie off on a trip to New York City.
Slade reserves a room at the Waldorf-Astoria.
During dinner at the Oak Room, Slade glibly states the goals of the trip, which involve enjoying luxurious accommodations in New York before committing suicide.
Charlie is taken aback and does not know if Slade is serious.
They pay an uninvited surprise visit to Slade's brother's home in White Plains for Thanksgiving dinner.
Slade is an unpleasant surprise for the family, as he deliberately provokes everyone and the night ends in acrimony.
During this time, the cause of Slade's blindness is also revealed as a drunken trainee mishap with a grenade.
As they return to New York, Charlie tells Slade about his complications at school.
Slade advises Charlie to inform on his classmates and go to Harvard, warning him that George will probably be pressured into not maintaining his silence.
Later at a restaurant, Slade is aware of Donna, a young woman waiting for her date.
Although blind, Slade leads Donna in a spectacular tango ("Por una Cabeza") on the dance floor.
That night, he hires a female escort.
Deeply despondent the next morning, Slade responds to Charlie's suggestion that they test drive a Ferrari Mondial Charlie lets Slade drive the car and Slade begins speeding, attracting the attention of a police officer, whom Slade manages to appease without giving away his blindness.
When they return to the hotel, Slade sends Charlie out on a list of errands.
Charlie initially leaves the room but quickly becomes suspicious.
Charlie returns to find Slade in his full-dress military uniform, preparing to commit suicide with a gun from which Charlie had made Slade promise to remove the bullets earlier, regarding which Slade states "I lied".
Charlie intervenes and attempts to grab Slade's gun.
Slade, however, easily overpowers him, threatening to shoot Charlie before himself.
They enter a tense argument, with both grappling for the gun; however, after Charlie bravely calms Slade, Slade backs down.
The two return to New England.
At school, Charlie and George are subjected to a formal inquiry in front of the entire student body and the student/faculty disciplinary committee.
As headmaster Trask is opening the proceedings, Slade unexpectedly returns to the school, joining Charlie on the auditorium stage for support.
For his defense, George has enlisted the help of his wealthy father, using his poor vision as an excuse before being pressured by his father into naming all three of the perpetrators.
When pressed for more details, George passes the burden to Charlie.
Although struggling with his decision, Charlie gives no information, so Trask recommends Charlie's expulsion.
Slade cannot contain himself and launches into a passionate speech defending Charlie and questioning the integrity of a system that rewards informing on classmates.
Slade reveals that there was an attempt to buy Charlie's testimony and that regardless of whether his silence is right or wrong, Charlie refuses to sell anybody out to advance his future.
He tells them that Charlie has shown integrity in his actions and insists the committee not expel him because this is what great leaders are made of, and promises he will make them proud in the future.
The disciplinary committee decides to place on probation the students named by George, and to give George neither recognition nor commendation for his testimony.
They excuse Charlie from any punishment and allow him to have no further involvement in the inquiries, to thunderous applause from the student body.
As Charlie escorts Slade to his limo, a female political science teacher, Christine Downes, who was part of the disciplinary committee, approaches Slade, commending him for his speech.
Seeing a spark between them, Charlie tells Downes that Slade served on President Lyndon Johnson's staff.
In their brief encounter, Slade deftly establishes Downes is single and surprises her by correctly identifying her perfume scent as Fleurs de Rocaille; they agree to get together sometime and "talk politics".
Charlie takes Slade home.
The colonel walks towards his house and greets his niece's young children happily as Charlie watches by the limo.
<EOS>
Korean War veteran Lucas Doolin (Robert Mitchum) works in the family moonshine business — delivering the illegal liquor his father distills to clandestine distribution points throughout the south in his souped-up hot rod.
However, Lucas has more problems than evading theS.
Treasury agents ("revenooers"), led by determined newcomer Troy Barrett (Gene Barry).
Lucas is concerned that his younger brother Robin (James Mitchum), who is also his mechanic, will be tempted into following in his footsteps and becoming a moonshine runner.
A well-funded outside gangster, Carl Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon), tries to gain control of the independent local moonshine producers and their distribution points, and is willing to kill anyone who stands in his way.
The stakes rise when an attempt by Kogan to kill Lucas results in the death of a government agent as well as another moonshine driver (Mitchell Ryan).
In a romantic subplot, Lucas becomes involved with nightclub singer Francie Wymore (Keely Smith).
He is unaware one of the neighbor girls, Roxanna Ledbetter (Sandra Knight), has a crush on him and fears for his life.
When a series of government raids destroy their hidden stills, Lucas's father and the other local moonshines shut down production "for a spell" to let the government deal with Kogan in its own time, but Lucas is forced by circumstances and his own code of honor to make a final run.
The film was based loosely on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have crashed to his death on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road.
Per Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum.
<EOS>
A mute Scotswoman named Ada McGrath is sold by her father into marriage to a New Zealand frontiersman named Alisdair Stewart, bringing her young daughter Flora with her.
The voice that the audience hears in the opening narration is "not her speaking voice, but her mind's voice".
Ada has not spoken a word since she was six years old and no one, including herself, knows why.
She expresses herself through her piano playing and through sign language, for which her daughter has served as the interpreter.
Flora later dramatically tells two women in New Zealand that her mother has not spoken since the death of her husband who died as a result of being struck by lightning.
Ada cares little for the mundane world, occupying herself for hours every day with the piano.
Flora, it is later learned, is the product of a relationship with a teacher with whom Ada believed she could communicate through her mind, but who "became frightened and stopped listening", and thus left her.
Ada, Flora, and their belongings, including a hand crafted piano, are deposited on a New Zealand beach by a ship's crew.
As there is no one there to meet them, they spend the night alone on the beach amongst their crated belongings.
The following day, the husband who has bought her, Alisdair, arrives with a Māori crew and his white friend, Baines, a fellow forester and retired sailor who has adopted many of the Maori customs, including tattooing his face.
Alisdair proves to be a shy and diffident man, who is jokingly called "old dry balls" by his Māori neighbours.
He tells Ada that there is no room in his small house for the piano and abandons the piano on the beach.
Ada, in turn, is cold to him and is determined to be reunited with her piano.
Unable to communicate with Alisdair, Ada and Flora visit Baines with a note asking to be taken to the piano.
He explains that he cannot read.
When Flora translates her mother's wishes, he initially refuses, but the three ultimately spend the day on the beach with Ada playing music.
Baines, whose wife is far away in England living a separate life, is taken by the transformation in Ada when she plays her piano.
Baines soon suggests that Alisdair trade the instrument to him for some land.
Alisdair consents, and agrees to his further request to receive lessons from Ada, oblivious to his attraction to her.
Ada is enraged when she learns that Alisdair has traded away her precious piano without consulting her and complains that she does not want a man with filthy hands and no ability to read, touching her piano.
Alisdair shouts the finality of his decision and demands that she fulfill the contract of providing lessons.
On the day she arrives at his hut, she attempts to make an excuse that she cannot play the piano because it is out of tune.
She is stunned to find that Baines has had the piano put into perfect tune.
She begins by asking him to play anything he knows, but he asks to simply listen rather than learn to play himself.
It becomes clear that he procured the piano not for his own interest in music, but because he likes who Ada becomes when she plays.
During one session, Baines proposes that Ada can earn her piano back at a rate of one piano key per "lesson", provided that he can observe her and do "things he likes" while she plays.
She is not eager to accept the deal, but cannot turn down the opportunity to regain her piano.
She agrees, but negotiates for a number of lessons equal to the number of black keys only.
While Ada and her husband Alisdair have had no sexual, nor even mildly affectionate, interaction, the lessons with Baines become a slow seduction for her affection.
Baines requests gradually increased intimacy in exchange for greater numbers of keys.
Ada reluctantly accepts but does not give herself to him the way he desires.
Realizing that she only does what she has to in order to regain the piano, and that she has no romantic feelings for him, Baines gives up and simply returns the piano to Ada, saying that their arrangement "is making you a whore, and me wretched", and that what he really wants is for her to actually care for him.
Despite Ada having her piano back, she ultimately finds herself missing Baines watching her as she plays.
She returns to him one afternoon, where they submit to their desire for one another.
Alisdair, having become suspicious of their relationship, hears them making love as he walks by Baines' house, and then watches them through a crack in the wall.
Outraged, he follows her the next day and confronts her in the forest, where he attempts to force himself on her, despite her intense resistance.
He then boards up his home with Ada inside so she will not be able to visit Baines while Alisdair is working on his timberland.
After this, Ada realizes she must show affection with Alisdair if she is ever to be released from her home prison, though her caresses only serve to frustrate him more because when he tries to touch her, she pulls away.
Eventually resolving to trust her, he removes the barriers from the house, and exacts a promise from Ada that she will not see Baines.
Soon afterwards, Ada sends her daughter with a package for Baines, containing a single piano key with an inscribed love declaration reading "Dear George you have my heart Ada McGrath".
Flora does not want to deliver the package and brings the piano key instead to Alisdair.
After reading the love note burnt onto the piano key, Alisdair furiously returns home with an axe and cuts off Ada's index finger to deprive her of the ability to play the piano.
He then sends Flora who witnessed this to Baines with the severed finger wrapped in cloth, with the message that if Baines ever attempts to see Ada again, he will chop off more fingers.
Later that night, while touching Ada in her sleep, Alisdair hears what he believes to be Ada's voice inside of his head, asking him to let Baines take her away.
Deeply shaken, he goes to Baines' house and asks if she has ever spoken words to him.
Baines assures him she has not.
Ultimately, it is assumed that he decides to send Ada and Flora away with Baines and dissolve their marriage once she has recovered from her injuries.
They depart from the same beach on which she first landed in New Zealand.
While being rowed to the ship with her baggage and Ada's piano tied onto a Māori longboat, Ada asks Baines to throw the piano overboard.
As it sinks, she deliberately tangles her foot in the rope trailing after it.
She is pulled overboard but, deep under water, changes her mind and kicks free and is pulled to safety.
In an epilogue, Ada describes her new life with Baines and Flora in Nelson, where she has started to give piano lessons in their new home, and her severed finger has been replaced with a silver finger made by Baines.
Ada has also started to take speech lessons in order to learn how to speak again.
Ada says that she imagines her piano in its grave in the sea, and herself suspended above it, which "lulls me to sleep".
The story closes with her remarking that "it is a weird lullaby, and so it is; it is mine", before reciting the first three lines of Thomas Hood's poem "Silence", which also opened the film: "There is a silence where hath been no sound.
There is a silence where no sound may be—in the cold grave, under the deep deep sea".
<EOS>
The Remains of the Day tells, in the first person, the story of Stevens, an English butler who has dedicated his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington (described in increasing detail in flashbacks).
The novel begins with Stevens receiving a letter from a former colleague, the housekeeper Miss Kenton, describing her married life, which he believes hints at an unhappy marriage.
His receipt of the letter coincides with Stevens' having the opportunity to revisit this once-cherished relationship, if only under the guise of investigating the possibility of her re-employment.
Stevens' new employer, a wealthy American named Mr Farraday, encourages Stevens to borrow his car to take a well-earned break, a "motoring trip," and Stevens takes the opportunity to arrange to meet with Miss Kenton, now Mrs Benn, in Devon, where she now lives.
As he sets out, Stevens has the opportunity to reflect on his unshakable loyalty to Lord Darlington, who had hosted lavish meetings between German sympathizers and English aristocrats in an effort to influence international affairs in the years leading up to World War II; on the meaning of the term "dignity" and what constitutes a great butler; and even on his relationship with his late father, another no-nonsense man who dedicated his life to service.
Ultimately, Stevens is forced to ponder Lord Darlington's character and reputation, as well as the true nature of his relationship with Miss Kenton.
As the book progresses, increasing evidence of Miss Kenton's and Stevens' past mutual attraction and affection is revealed.
As they worked together during the years leading up to the Second World War, Stevens and Miss Kenton failed to admit their true feelings towards each other.
All of their recollected conversations showed a professional friendship which, at times, came close to crossing the line into romance, but never dared to do so.
Stevens in particular never yielded, even when Miss Kenton tried to draw closer to him.
When they finally meet again, Mrs Benn, now married for over 20 years, admits to wondering occasionally what a life with Stevens might have been like, but says she has come to love her husband and is looking forward to the birth of their first grandchild.
Stevens later muses over lost opportunities, both with Miss Kenton and regarding his decades of selfless service to Lord Darlington, who may not have been worthy of his unquestioning loyalty.
At the end of the novel, Stevens instead focuses on the "remains of [his] day", referring to his future service with Mr Farraday and what is left of his own life.
<EOS>
Raskolnikov, a conflicted former student, lives in a tiny, rented room in Saint Petersburg.
He refuses all help, even from his friend Razumikhin, and devises a plan to murder and rob an elderly pawn-broker and money-lender, Alyona Ivanovna.
His motivation comes from the overwhelming sense that he is predetermined to kill the old woman by some power outside of himself.
While still considering the plan, Raskolnikov makes the acquaintance of Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, a drunkard who recently squandered his family's little wealth.
Raskolnikov also receives a letter from his sister and mother, speaking of their coming visit to Saint Petersburg, and his sister's sudden marriage plans which they plan to discuss upon their arrival.
After much deliberation, Raskolnikov sneaks into Alyona Ivanovna's apartment, where he murders her with an axe.
He also kills her half-sister, Lizaveta, who happens to stumble upon the scene of the crime.
Shaken by his actions, Raskolnikov manages to steal only a handful of items and a small purse, leaving much of the pawn-broker's wealth untouched.
Raskolnikov then flees and, due to a series of coincidences, manages to leave unseen and undetected.
After the bungled murder, Raskolnikov falls into a feverish state and begins to worry obsessively over the murder.
He hides the stolen items and purse under a rock, and tries desperately to clean his clothing of any blood or evidence.
He falls into a fever later that day, though not before calling briefly on his old friend Razumikhin.
As the fever comes and goes in the following days, Raskolnikov behaves as though he wishes to betray himself.
He shows strange reactions to whoever mentions the murder of the pawn-broker, which is now known about and talked of in the city.
In his delirium, Raskolnikov wanders Saint Petersburg, drawing more and more attention to himself and his relation to the crime.
In one of his walks through the city, he sees Marmeladov, who has been struck mortally by a carriage in the streets.
Rushing to help him, Raskolnikov gives the remainder of his money to the man's family, which includes his teenage daughter, Sonya, who has been forced to become a prostitute to support her family.
In the meantime, Raskolnikov's mother, Pulkheria Alexandrovna, and his sister, Avdotya Romanovna (or Dunya), have arrived in the city.
Dunya had been working as a governess for the Svidrigaïlov family until this point, but was forced out of the position by the head of the family, Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigaïlov.
Svidrigaïlov, a married man, was attracted to Dunya's physical beauty and her feminine qualities, and offered her riches and elopement.
Mortified, Dunya fled the Svidrigaïlov family and lost her source of income, only to meet Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, a man of modest income and rank.
Luzhin proposes to marry Dunya, thereby securing her and her mother's financial safety, provided she accept him quickly and without question.
It is for these very reasons that the two of them come to Saint Petersburg, both to meet Luzhin there and to obtain Raskolnikov's approval.
Luzhin, however, calls on Raskolnikov while he is in a delirious state and presents himself as a foolish, self-righteous and presumptuous man.
Raskolnikov dismisses him immediately as a potential husband for his sister, and realizes that she only accepted him to help her family.
As the novel progresses, Raskolnikov is introduced to the detective Porfiry, who begins to suspect him of the murder purely on psychological grounds.
At the same time, a chaste relationship develops between Raskolnikov and Sonya.
Sonya, though a prostitute, is full of Christian virtue and is only driven into the profession by her family's poverty.
Meanwhile, Razumikhin and Raskolnikov manage to keep Dunya from continuing her relationship with Luzhin, whose true character is exposed to be conniving and base.
At this point, Svidrigaïlov appears on the scene, having come from the province to Petersburg, almost solely to seek out Dunya.
He reveals that his wife, Marfa Petrovna, is dead, and that he is willing to pay Dunya a vast sum of money in exchange for nothing.
She, upon hearing the news, refuses flat out, suspecting him of treachery.
As Raskolnikov and Porfiry continue to meet, Raskolnikov's motives for the crime become exposed.
Porfiry becomes increasingly certain of the man's guilt, but has no concrete evidence or witnesses with which to back up this suspicion.
Furthermore, another man admits to committing the crime under questioning and arrest.
However, Raskolnikov's nerves continue to wear thinner, and he is constantly struggling with the idea of confessing, though he knows that he can never be truly convicted.
He turns to Sonya for support and confesses his crime to her.
By coincidence, Svidrigaïlov has taken up residence in a room next to Sonya's and overhears the entire confession.
When the two men meet face to face, Svidrigaïlov acknowledges this fact, and suggests that he may use it against him, should he need to.
Svidrigaïlov also speaks of his own past, and Raskolnikov grows to suspect that the rumors about his having committed several murders are true.
In a later conversation with Dunya, Svidrigaïlov denies that he had a hand in the death of his wife.
Raskolnikov is at this point completely torn; he is urged by Sonya to confess, and Svidrigaïlov's testimony could potentially convict him.
Furthermore, Porfiry confronts Raskolnikov with his suspicions and assures him that confession would substantially lighten his sentence.
Meanwhile, Svidrigaïlov attempts to seduce Dunya, but when he realizes that she will never love him, he lets her go.
He then spends a night in confusion and in the morning shoots himself.
This same morning, Raskolnikov goes again to Sonya, who again urges him to confess and to clear his conscience.
He makes his way to the police station, where he is met by the news of Svidrigaïlov's suicide.
He hesitates a moment, thinking again that he might get away with a perfect crime, but is persuaded by Sonya to confess.
The epilogue tells of how Raskolnikov is sentenced to eight years of penal servitude in Siberia, where Sonya follows him.
Dunya and Razumikhin marry and are left in a happy position by the end of the novel, while Pulkheria, Raskolnikov's mother, falls ill and dies, unable to cope with her son's situation.
Raskolnikov himself struggles in Siberia.
It is only after some time in prison that his redemption and moral regeneration begin under Sonya's loving influence.
<EOS>
Each episode follows the adventures of Pat Clifton, a friendly country postman, and his "black and white cat" Jess, as he delivers the post through the valley of Greendale.
Although he initially concentrates on delivering his letters, he nearly always becomes distracted by a concern of one of the villagers and is usually relied upon to resolve their problems.
Notable villagers include the postmistress, Mrs Goggins; Alf Thompson, the farmer; and the local handyman and inventor, Ted Glen.
<EOS>
Dirk Gently, who calls himself a "holistic detective", has happened upon what he thinks is a rather comfortable situation.
A wealthy man in the record industry has retained him, spinning a story about being stalked by a seven-foot-tall, green-eyed, scythe-wielding monster.
Dirk pretends to understand the man's ravings involving potatoes and a contract signed in blood coming due; when in reality, Dirk is musing about what he might do if he actually receives payment for his "services" – such as getting rid of his refrigerator, which is so filthy inside that it has become the centrepiece of a show-down between himself and his cleaning woman.
The seriousness of his client's claims becomes clear when Dirk arrives several hours late for an appointment to find a swarm of police around his client's estate.
The aforementioned client is found in a sealed and heavily barricaded room, his head neatly removed several feet from his body and rotating on a turn-table.
While at his recently deceased client's house, he discovers that his client had a son.
However, after Dirk disconnects the television set the boy had been watching, the boy promptly breaks Dirk's nose.
Nearly incapacitated by guilt, Dirk resolves to take his now-late client's wild claims seriously.
During his investigation, Gently encounters exploding airport check-in counters, the gods of Norse mythology, insulting horoscopes, a sinister nursing home, a rhino-phagic eagle, an I Ching calculator (to which everything calculated above the value of 4 is apparently 'a suffusion of yellow'), a god who gives his powers to a lawyer and an advertising executive in exchange for clean linen, and an attractive American woman who gets angry when she can't get pizza delivered in London.
<EOS>
Tung Chien is a Vietnamese bureaucrat in a world that has been conquered by Chinese-style atheist communism, where the population is kept docile with hallucinogenic drugs.
When a street vendor gives Tung an illegal anti-hallucinogen, he discovers that the Party leader has a horrible secret.
<EOS>
The first person narrator of the novel is an unnamed medical doctor turned politician (called Dr Stephen Fleming in the Louis Malle film) whose promotion from MP to cabinet member is imminent.
Just then the MP is casually introduced to his grown-up son's enigmatic girlfriend Anna and helplessly falls for her.
For as long as it lasts, Martyn, his son, has no idea that his father is having an extramarital affair with his girlfriend (and later fiancée), and Anna does not seem to mind being a young man's partner and simultaneously his father's lover and object of desire.
The MP enjoys a brief period of sexual bliss, meeting Anna in various European cities and having sex with her in unlikely places.
Eventually, she buys them a small flat in central London where they meet on a regular basis.
One day Martyn happens to get hold of that address and, curious, goes there to investigate.
He climbs up a flight of stairs to the top floor, opens the unlocked door to the apartment, and is shocked to see his father making love to his fiancée.
Dazed and utterly confused, he tumbles backwards, hits the low banister and falls down the stairwell.
The MP runs down the stairs completely naked, finding Martyn dead, sprawled out on the ground floor.
He kneels on the floor and clutches Martyn's body to him until the police arrive.
In the final scene, the MP, stripped of his political office and living abroad as a recluse, sits in his solitary room staring at oversized photographs of Anna and Martyn on the wall.
<EOS>
Mario has a dream of a staircase leading to a door to another world.
A voice identifies the world as the dreamland of Subcon, and asks for Mario's help in defeating the villainous frog known as Wart, a tyrant who has cursed Subcon and its people.
Mario suddenly awakes and decides to tell Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach, who all report experiencing the same dream.
The group decides to go on a picnic, but upon arriving, they discover a cave with a long staircase.
Through a door at the top, the group are transported to Subcon, revealing their dreams to have been real.
After defeating Wart, the people of Subcon are freed and the group celebrates, but Mario suddenly awakes in his bed, unsure if the events that took place were real or just a dream.
<EOS>
In April 2054, Washington,C.
's PreCrime police stops murderers before they act, reducing the murder rate to zero.
Murders are predicted using three mutated humans, called "Precogs", who "previsualize" crimes by receiving visions of the future.
Would-be murderers are imprisoned in their own happy virtual reality.
The Federal government is on the verge of adopting the controversial program.
Since the disappearance of his son Sean, PreCrime Captain John Anderton has both separated from his wife Lara and become a drug addict.
While United States Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer is auditing the program, the Precogs generate a new prediction, saying Anderton will murder a man named Leo Crow in 36 hours.
Anderton does not know Crow, but flees the area as Witwer begins a manhunt.
Anderton seeks the advice of dr Iris Hineman, the creator of PreCrime technology.
She reveals that sometimes, one of the Precogs, usually Agatha, has a different vision than the other two, a "minority report" of a possible alternate future; this has been kept a secret as it would damage the system's credibility.
Anderton resolves to recover the minority report to prove his innocence.
Anderton goes to a black market doctor for a risky eye transplant so as to avoid the citywide optical recognition system.
He returns to PreCrime and kidnaps Agatha, shutting down the system, as the Precogs operate as a group mind.
Anderton takes Agatha to a hacker to extract the minority report of Leo Crow, but none exists; instead, Agatha shows him an image of the murder of Ann Lively, a woman who was drowned by a hooded figure in 2049.
Anderton and Agatha go to Crow's hotel room as the 36-hour time nears, finding numerous photos of children, including Sean's.
Crow arrives and Anderton prepares to kill him, accusing him to be a serial child killer.
Agatha talks Anderton out of shooting Crow by telling him that he has the ability to choose his future now that he is aware of it.
Crow however begs to be killed, having been hired to plant the photos and be killed in exchange for his family's financial well being.
Crow grabs Anderton's gun and pushes the trigger, killing himself.
Anderton and Agatha flee to Lara's house outside the city for refuge.
There they learn Lively was Agatha's drug-addicted mother who sold her to PreCrime.
Lively had sobered up and attempted to reclaim Agatha, but was murdered.
Anderton realizes he is being targeted for knowing about Lively's existence and her connection to Agatha.
Witwer, studying Crow's death, suspects Anderton is being framed.
He examines the footage of Lively's murder and finds there were two attempts on her life, the first having been stopped by PreCrime but the second, occurring minutes later, having succeeded.
Witwer reports this to the director and founder of PreCrime, Lamar Burgess, but Burgess responds by killing Witwer using Anderton's gun.
With the Precogs still offline, the murder is not detected.
Lara calls Burgess to reveal that Anderton is with her, and Anderton is captured, accused of both murders, and fitted with the brain device that puts him permanently into a dreamlike sleep.
As his body is deposited into the prison, the warden tells him, "that all your dreams come true.
”  Agatha is reconnected to the PreCrime system.
While attempting to comfort Lara, Burgess accidentally reveals himself as Lively's murderer.
Lara frees Anderton from stasis, and Anderton exposes Burgess at a PreCrime celebratory banquet by playing the full video of Agatha's vision of Burgess killing Lively.
A new report is generated at PreCrime: Burgess will kill Anderton.
Burgess corners Anderton, and explains that as he could not afford to let Lively take Agatha back without impacting PreCrime, he arranged to kill Lively following an actual attempt on her life, so that the murder would appear as an echo to the technician within PreCrime and be ignored.
Anderton points out Burgess's dilemma: If Burgess kills Anderton, he will be imprisoned for life, but PreCrime will be validated; if he spares Anderton, PreCrime will be discredited and shut down.
Anderton reveals the ultimate flaw of the system: once people are aware of their future, they are able to change it.
Burgess shoots himself.
After Burgess's death, the PreCrime system is shut down.
All the prisoners are unconditionally pardoned and released, although they are kept under occasional surveillance.
Anderton and Lara are soon to have a new child together.
The Precogs are sent to an isolated island to live their lives in peace.
<EOS>
The story concerns a family who move from London to "The Three Chimneys", a house near the railway in Yorkshire, after the father, who works at the Foreign Office, is imprisoned after being falsely accused of spying.
The children befriend an Old Gentleman who regularly takes the 9:15 train near their home; he is eventually able to help prove their father's innocence, and the family is reunited.
The family takes care of a Russian exile, Mr Szczepansky, who came to England looking for his family (later located) and Jim, the grandson of the Old Gentleman, who suffers a broken leg in a tunnel.
The theme of an innocent man being falsely imprisoned for espionage and finally vindicated might have been influenced by the Dreyfus Affair, which was a prominent worldwide news item a few years before the book was written.
The Russian exile, persecuted by the Tsars for writing "a beautiful book about poor people and how to help them" and subsequently helped by the children, was most likely an amalgam of the real-life dissidents Sergius Stepniak and Peter Kropotkin who were both friends of the author.
<EOS>
Duncan Makenzie is the latest generation of the 'first family' of Titan, a colonised moon of Saturn.
Originally settled by his grandfather Malcolm Makenzie in the early 23rd century, Titan's economy has flourished based on the harvest and sale of hydrogen mined from the atmosphere, which is used to fuel the fusion engines of interplanetary spacecraft.
As the plot opens in 2276, a number of factors are combining to make a diplomatic visit to the 'mother world' of Earth a necessity.
Firstly, the forthcoming 500th anniversary of US Independence, which is bringing in colonists from the entire Solar System, obviously needs a suitable representative from Titan.
Secondly, the Makenzie family carry a fatal damaged gene that means any normal continuation of the family line is impossible — so both Duncan and his "father" Colin are clones of his "grandfather" Malcolm.
Human cloning is a mature technology but is even at this time ethically controversial.
And thirdly, technological advances in spacecraft drive systems — specifically the 'asymptotic drive' which improves the fuel efficiency by orders of magnitude — means that Titan's whole economy is under threat as the demand for hydrogen is about to collapse.
The human aspects of the tale center mainly on the intense infatuation (largely unrequited but not unconsummated) that the two main male characters, Duncan and Karl Helmer, develop for the vividly characterized Catherine Linden Ellerman (Calindy), a visitor to Titan from Earth in their youth, and its lifelong consequences.
A number of other sub-plots suggest some sort of greater mystery, but remain unexplored.
The book ends with him returning home with his new "child" Malcolm (who is a clone of his dead friend Karl), leaving the other plot threads dangling.
<EOS>
The plays follows the relationship between a 26-year-old Liverpudlian working class hairdresser and Frank, a middle-aged university lecturer, during the course of a year.
In the play Frank has no surname, but when the film was made he became dr Frank Bryant.
Susan (who initially calls herself Rita), dissatisfied with the routine of her work and social life, seeks inner growth by signing up for and attending an Open University course in English Literature.
The play opens as 'Rita' meets her tutor, Frank, for the first time.
Frank is a middle-aged, alcoholic career academic who has taken on the tutorship to pay for his drink.
The two have an immediate and profound effect on one another; Frank is impressed by Susan's verve and earnestness and is forced to re-examine his attitudes and position in life; Susan finds Frank's tutelage opens doors to a bohemian lifestyle and a new self-confidence.
However, Frank's bitterness and cynicism return as he notices Susan beginning to adopt the pretensions of the university culture he despises.
Susan becomes disillusioned by a friend's attempted suicide and realises that her new social niche is rife with the same dishonesty and superficiality she had previously sought to escape.
The play ends as Frank, sent to Australia on a sabbatical, welcomes the possibilities of the change.
<EOS>
In the late 22nd century, global warming has flooded the coastlines, wiping out coastal cities such as Amsterdam, Venice, and New York City, and drastically reducing the human population.
There is a new class of robots called Mecha, advanced humanoids capable of emulating thoughts and emotions.
David, a prototype, is designed to resemble a human child and to display love for its human owners.
They test their creation with one of their employees, Henry Swinton, and his wife Monica.
The Swintons' son, Martin, had been placed in suspended animation until a cure could be found for his rare disease.
Initially frightened of David, Monica eventually warms up enough to him to activate his imprinting protocol, which irreversibly causes David to have an enduring childlike love for her.
He is also befriended by Teddy, a robotic teddy bear, who takes it upon himself to care for David's well-being.
A cure is found for Martin and he is brought home; as he recovers, it becomes clear he does not want a sibling and soon makes moves to cause issues for David.
First, he attempts to make Teddy choose whom he likes more.
He then makes David promise to do something and in return Martin will tell Monica that he loves his new "brother", making her love him more.
The promise David makes is to go to Monica in the middle of the night and cut off a lock of her hair.
This upsets the parents, particularly Henry, who fears that the scissors are a weapon, and warns Monica that a robot programmed to love may also be able to hate.
At a pool party, one of Martin's friends unintentionally activates David's self-protection programming by poking him with a knife.
David grabs Martin, apparently for protection, but they both fall into the pool.
David sinks to the bottom while still clinging to Martin.
Martin is saved from drowning, but Henry mistakes David's fear during the pool incident as hate for Martin.
Henry persuades Monica to return David to Cybertronics, where he will be destroyed.
However, Monica cannot bring herself to do this and abandons David in the forest (with Teddy) to hide as an unregistered Mecha.
David is captured for an anti-Mecha "Flesh Fair", an event where obsolete and unlicensed Mecha are destroyed in front of cheering crowds.
David is nearly killed, but the crowd is swayed by his fear into believing he is human and he escapes with Gigolo Joe, a male prostitute Mecha on the run after being framed for murder.
The two set out to find the Blue Fairy, who David remembers from The Adventures of Pinocchio.
He is convinced that the Blue Fairy will transform him into a human boy, allowing Monica to love him and take him home.
Joe and David make their way to Rouge City, where information from a holographic answer engine called "Dr.
Know" eventually leads them to the top of Rockefeller Center in the ruins of Manhattan.
There, David meets an identical copy of himself and, believing he is not special, destroys the copy.
David then meets his human creator, Professor Allen Hobby, who excitedly tells David that finding him was a test.
David learns that he is the namesake and image of Professor Hobby's deceased son and that many copies of David, along with female versions called Darlene, are already being manufactured.
Disheartened, David falls from a ledge, but Joe rescues him with their stolen amphibicopter.
David tells Joe he saw the Blue Fairy underwater and wants to go down to her.
Joe is captured by the authorities with the use of an electromagnet, but he sets the amphibicopter on submerge.
David and Teddy take it to the fairy, which turns out to be a statue at Coney Island.
Teddy and David become trapped when the Wonder Wheel falls on their vehicle.
Believing the Blue Fairy to be real, David asks to be turned into a real boy, repeating his wish until the ocean freezes and his internal power source drains away.
Two thousand years later, humans are extinct and Manhattan is buried under glacial ice.
The now highly-advanced Mecha have evolved into an intelligent, silicon-based form.
They find David and Teddy and discover they are original Mecha who knew living humans, making the pair very special.
David is revived and walks to the frozen Blue Fairy statue, which cracks and collapses as he touches it.
Having downloaded and comprehended his memories, the advanced Mecha use them to reconstruct the Swinton home and explain to David via an interactive image of the Blue Fairy that it is impossible to make him human.
However, at David's insistence, they recreate Monica from DNA in her hair, which Teddy had saved.
One of the Mecha warns David that the clone can live for only a single day and that the process cannot be repeated.
The next morning, David is reunited with Monica and spends the happiest day of his life with her and Teddy.
Monica tells David that she has always loved him as she drifts to sleep for the last time.
David lies down next to her, closes his eyes and goes "to that place where dreams are born".
Teddy climbs onto the bed and watches as David and Monica lie peacefully together.
<EOS>
The show is centered on two 12-year-old girls from very different backgrounds, Hannah and Grace, who are best friends.
Hannah is from a middle class Jewish family and lives with her parents, her grandmother, and her uncle.
Her parents are the owners of a furniture factory in the fictitious town of Ashmore, North Carolina, where they have recently moved to from Chicago.
Grace is from a wealthy Catholic family and lives with her mother, a socialite.
Typically, they are depicted as more intelligent, thoughtful, funny, and rebellious than other children of their age.
Set in 1965, the show was compared by some to another look-back-through-the-years show, The Wonder Years.
Fred Savage, the star of that hit ABC series, even appeared in the series' final episode.
The theme song is the original version of "Do You Believe in Magic" by The Lovin' Spoonful.
The show was taped at Ren-Mar Studios stage 4.
<EOS>
Debbie Benton (Bambi Woods), captain of her high school cheerleading squad, has been accepted to try out for the Texas Cowgirls.
Her parents disapprove and refuse to pay her fare to Texas.
In a bid to help Debbie, her cheerleader friends Lisa (Georgette Sanders), Roberta (Misty Winter), Tammy (Arcadia Lake), Pat (Kasey Rodgers), and Annie (Jenny Cole) decide to accompany her to Texas.
With two weeks to raise the money, they swear off sexual activity with their boyfriends and form a company, called Teen Services.
Tammy takes a job in the local record store run by Tony (Tony Mansfield).
Debbie gets a job at a sports store run by mr Greenfield (Richard Balla).
Roberta convinces mr Hardwick (Eric Edwards) to give her a job at the candle store with mrs Hardwick (Robyn Bird).
Rikki (Sherri Tart) and Annie agree to wash mr Bradly's car.
The football team is annoyed by a lack of sex.
Roberta's boyfriend Rick (David Morris) and his teammates join Roberta and Pat in the showers, where they have group sex.
While working for mr Greenfield at the sports store, Debbie is talked into allowing mr Greenfield to see her breasts for $10 and fondle her breasts for another $10.
Then, he sucks them for an additional $20.
Realizing they will not be able to raise enough money by legitimate means, Debbie convinces the other girls to engage in sexual activities for more money.
They agree but only if it is on their terms.
After Roberta is caught masturbating by mrs Hardwick, Roberta engages in sexual activity with mr and mrs Hardwick, earning extra money.
Rikki and Annie go to see mr Bradly (David Suton), to wash his car.
mr Bradly is not home, but they wash his car, anyway.
When mr Bradly returns home, he asks them in to dry off their wet clothes.
They undress for him for $10 each.
He performs oral sex on them, and then has anal sex with Annie.
At the library, Donna (Merril Townsend) flirts with mr Biddle, the librarian.
Visiting her, her boyfriend Tim (Bill Barry) tries to have sex with her.
She fellates him but is caught by mr Biddle (Jack Teague).
Donna allows him to spank her to prevent him from telling her parents.
Hamilton (Peter Lerman) and his friend Ashly (Ben Pierce) are in the tennis club sauna after a tennis game, and Hamilton convinces Lisa to fellate him while Ashly penetrates her.
At the record store, Tammy has been avoiding Tony's advances; she calls Lisa, who joins them at the record store.
Lisa offers Tony "anything" and she begins to fellate him, and then Tammy joins in, and he ejaculates on Tammy's breasts.
Debbie dresses as a "Texas Cowgirl" and goes to see mr Greenfield after hours at the store.
She fellates him, and he penetrates her vagina with his finger and performs cunnilingus on her.
Then they engage in vaginal sex, first in the missionary position, then doggy style, and then with Debbie on top.
They finish in the missionary position, before mr Greenfield ejaculates on Debbie.
<EOS>
Banzai (Peter Weller) prepares to test his Jet Car, a modified Ford F-350 pickup truck powered by a jet engine and capable of exceeding the speed of sound.
The car is also equipped with a secret device called an "oscillation overthruster", which Banzai and his associates hope will allow it to drive through solid matter.
The test is a success: Banzai stuns onlookers by driving the Jet Car directly through a mountain.
Emerging on the other side, Banzai finds that an alien organism has attached itself to the undercarriage.
Hearing of Banzai's success, physicist dr Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow) breaks out of the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane, after being held there for 50 years.
A flashback shows Banzai's mentor, dr Hikita (Robert Ito), was present at Lizardo's failed overthruster experiment in 1938.
Crashing half through the target wall, Lizardo had been briefly trapped in the 8th dimension where his mind was taken over by Lord John Whorfin.
Whorfin is the leader of the Red Lectroids, a race of alien reptiles who wage war against Planet 10.
After being defeated by the less-aggressive Black Lectroids, Whorfin and his group were banished into the eighth dimension.
Lizardo's failed experiment accidentally released Whorfin and he soon brings many of the Red Lectroids to Earth in an incident that was reported in 1938 by Orson Welles in his radio broadcast The War of the Worlds, only to be forced by the aliens to retract it all as fiction.
The Red Lectroids now pose as employees of the defense contracting company named Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems.
They have been working on building a large spacecraft under the guise of a United States Air Force program, the Truncheon bomber.
They intend to rescue the remaining 8th dimension exiles and take over Planet 10.
They were unable to produce a working overthruster like Banzai's, so Whorfin plans to steal it.
Banzai's team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, finds out about Yoyodyne and hacks into their computer.
They discover that everyone there has the first name John, with various last names such as Yaya, Smallberries and Bigbooté.
At first they believe it to be a joke, but then they notice all the Yoyodyne employees applied for Social Security cards on November 1, 1938 and all in the same town: Grover's Mill, New Jersey.
In the meantime, a Black Lectroid spacecraft orbiting Earth contacts Banzai, giving him an electric shock that enables him to see through Lectroids' camouflage.
(Black Lectroids appear to be Rastafarian Jamaicans, while Red Lectroids appear to be Caucasians) The ship also sends a "thermo-pod" to Earth, with a holographic message from the Black Lectroids' leader, John Emdall (Rosalind Cash), explaining Lord Whorfin's motives and giving an ultimatum: stop Whorfin and his army or else the Black Lectroids will protect themselves by staging a fake nuclear attack, causing the start of World War III.
With help from the Black Lectroid messenger John Parker, Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers, a collection of civilian volunteers named "The Blue Blaze Irregulars" and a young woman named Penny Priddy (Ellen Barkin), a long-lost twin sister of Buckaroo's late wife, Buckaroo succeeds in his mission, destroying the Red Lectroids and saving Earth.
The end credits announce an unproduced sequel Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League.
<EOS>
The story takes place at the castellated abbey of the "happy and dauntless and sagacious" Prince Prospero.
Prospero and 1,000 other nobles have taken refuge in this walled abbey to escape the Red Death, a terrible plague with gruesome symptoms that has swept over the land.
Victims are overcome by "sharp pains", "sudden dizziness", and hematidrosis, and die within half an hour.
Prospero and his court are indifferent to the sufferings of the population at large; they intend to await the end of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure refuge, having welded the doors shut.
One night, Prospero holds a masquerade ball to entertain his guests in seven colored rooms of the abbey.
Each of the first six rooms is decorated and illuminated in a specific color: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet.
The last room is decorated in black and is illuminated by a scarlet light, "a deep blood color" cast from its stained glass windows.
Because of this chilling pairing of colors, very few guests are brave enough to venture into the seventh room.
A large ebony clock stands in this room and ominously chimes each hour, upon which everyone stops talking or dancing and the orchestra stops playing.
Once the chiming stops, everyone immediately resumes the masquerade.
At the chiming of midnight, the revelers and Prospero notice a figure in a dark, blood-splattered robe resembling a funeral shroud.
The figure's mask resembles the rigid face of a corpse and exhibits the traits of the Red Death.
Gravely insulted, Prospero demands to know the identity of the mysterious guest so they can hang him.
The guests, too afraid to approach the figure, instead let him pass through the six chambers.
The Prince pursues him with a drawn dagger and corners the guest in the seventh room.
When the figure turns to face him, the Prince lets out a sharp cry and falls dead.
The enraged and terrified revelers surge into the black room and forcibly remove the mask and robe, only to find to their horror that there is nothing underneath.
Only then do they realize the figure is the Red Death itself, and all of the guests contract and succumb to the disease.
The final line of the story sums up, "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held dominion over all".
<EOS>
During his nightly TV weather forecast on February 1, weatherman Phil Connors confidently reassures Pittsburgh viewers that an approaching winter storm will miss western Pennsylvania completely.
He then sets off with news producer Rita Hanson and cameraman Larry for Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the next morning's Groundhog Day festivities.
Phil makes no secret of his contempt for the assignment, the small town, and the "hicks" who live there.
On February 2, Phil awakens at his Punxsutawney bed and breakfast to Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" on the clock radio and the declaration, "It's Groundhog Day.
" He tapes a half-hearted report on Punxsutawney Phil and the town's festivities.
Rita wants to stay and cover some of the other events, but Phil wants to return to Pittsburgh immediately.
The blizzard—the one that Phil predicted would miss the area—resolves the issue by blanketing the region in snow, stranding them in Punxsutawney.
Phil shuns the celebrations and retires to bed early.
Phil wakes to "I Got You Babe" and the same announcement from the radio, and soon discovers the day's events repeating exactly as before.
Thinking it is a bad dream, Phil relives the day and returns to bed, only to discover when he wakes, it is still Groundhog Day.
He finds he is trapped in a time loop that no one else is seemingly aware of.
Phil realizes there are no consequences for his actions, and spends the first several loops in rambunctious behavior, such as binge drinking, one-night stands, and reckless driving.
However, Phil soon becomes depressed being stuck in the loop, leading to him to find ways to commit suicide to end the loop, including electrocuting himself with a toaster in a bathtub, and stealing Punxsutawney Phil and driving off a cliff.
Even with his apparent deaths, he still wakes up to "I Got You Babe" on February 2.
Phil tries to explain his situation to Rita, for whom he has feelings.
To demonstrate his plight to Rita, he points out all the trivial actions of the various townsfolk he has memorized due to being stuck in the loop.
Rita takes sympathy and they spend the entirety of one loop together, ending up falling asleep on Phil's bed that night.
However, Phil still wakes up alone at the start of February 2.
He decides to use his knowledge of the day's events to try to better himself and the lives of the townsfolks.
Over many loops, he learns how to play the piano, sculpt ice, and speak French.
After finding himself unable to prevent the death of a homeless man over several loops, he starts to arrange his actions throughout the day to avert similar accidents and disastrous situations that otherwise would have occurred to the other Punxsutawney residents.
Ultimately, on one loop, Phil eagerly attends the Groundhog Day festivities, and gives a very eloquent report that causes all of the other news-stations to turn their cameras to him, amazing Rita.
Phil and Rita spend the rest of the day together, with Phil impressing her with his apparent overnight transformation through his contributions to the festivities and helpful nature to the townsfolk.
That evening at the town's Groundhog Day dinner-dance, she "wins" Phil with the high bid at the charity bachelor auction.
Phil makes a beautiful snow sculpture of Rita's face, and tells her that no matter what happens, even if he is doomed to continue awakening alone each morning forever, he wants her to know that he is finally happy, because he loves her.
They retire together to Phil's lodgings.
Phil wakes to "I Got You Babe" again, but finds Rita is still in bed with him, and Punxsutawney covered in a fresh blanket of snow; it is February 3 and he has been able to escape the time loop.
As they walk out together and marvel at the peaceful, beautiful town, Phil comments to Rita that they should live there—but will rent to start.
<EOS>
In 1958, the questions and answers to be used for the latest broadcast of NBC's popular quiz show Twenty One are transported from a secure bank vault to the studio as producers Dan Enright (David Paymer) and Albert Freedman (Hank Azaria) watch from the control booth.
The evening's main attraction is Queens resident Herb Stempel (John Turturro), the reigning champion, who correctly answers question after question.
However, both the network and the program's corporate sponsor, the supplementary tonic Geritol, find that Stempel's approval ratings are beginning to level out, meaning the show would benefit from new talent.
Enright and Freedman are surprised when Columbia University instructor Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), son of a prominent literary family, visits their office to audition.
Realizing that they have found an ideal challenger for Stempel, they subtly offer to rig the game in Van Doren's favor, but he refuses.
Enright later informs Stempel that he must lose in order to boost the show's ratings.
Stempel begrudgingly agrees, on the condition that he can remain on television.
He threatens to reveal the true reason for his success: he had been given the answers in advance.
Stempel and Van Doren face each other on Twenty One, where the match comes down to a predetermined question regarding Marty, the 1955 winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Despite knowing the correct film, Stempel gives the wrong answer of On the Waterfront, allowing Van Doren to win by correctly answering a question he had been asked during his audition.
In the weeks that follow, Van Doren's winning streak makes him a national celebrity, but he buckles under the pressure and allows Enright and Freedman to start giving him the answers.
Meanwhile, Stempel, having lost his prize money to an unscrupulous bookie, begins threatening legal action against NBC after weeks go by without his return to television.
He visits New York County District Attorney Frank Hogan, who convenes a grand jury to look into his allegations.
Richard Goodwin (Rob Morrow), a young Congressional lawyer, learns that the grand jury findings have been sealed and travels to New York City to investigate rumors of rigged quiz shows.
Visiting a number of contestants, including Stempel and Van Doren, he begins to suspect that Twenty One is a fixed operation.
However, Stempel's volatile personality damages his credibility, and nobody else seems willing at first to confirm that the show is rigged.
Stempel desperately confesses to Goodwin that he was in on the fix, and further insists that Van Doren must have been involved as well.
As Goodwin collects more evidence, Van Doren deliberately loses.
He is rewarded by NBC with a lucrative contract to appear as a special correspondent on the morning Today show.
The House Committee for Legislative Oversight convenes a hearing, at which Goodwin presents his evidence of the quiz show's corruption.
During the hearing, Stempel's testimony fails to convince the committee.
Both NBC network head Robert Kintner (Allan Rich) and Geritol executive Martin Rittenhome (Martin Scorsese) deny any knowledge of Twenty One being rigged.
After being subpoenaed by Goodwin, Van Doren testifies before the committee and admits his role in the deception.
After the hearing adjourns, he learns from reporters that he has been fired from Today and that Columbia's trustees are going to ask for his resignation.
Goodwin believes he is on the verge of a victory against Geritol and NBC, but realizes that Enright and Freedman will not jeopardize their own futures in television by turning against their bosses.
He silently watches the producers' testimony, vindicating the sponsors and the network from any wrongdoing, and taking full responsibility for rigging the show.
<EOS>
Astronaut Jim Lovell hosts a house party where guests watch Neil Armstrong's televised first human steps on the Moon.
Afterwards Lovell, who had orbited the Moon on Apollo 8, tells his wife Marilyn that he intends to return to the Moon to walk on its surface.
Three months later, as Lovell conducts a VIP tour of NASA's Vertical Assembly Building, his boss Deke Slayton informs him that his crew will fly Apollo 13 instead of 14.
Lovell, Ken Mattingly, and Fred Haise train for their new mission.
A few days before launch, Mattingly is exposed to the measles, and the flight surgeon demands his replacement with Mattingly's backup, Jack Swigert.
Lovell resists breaking up his team, but relents when Slayton threatens to bump his crew to a later mission.
As the launch date approaches, Marilyn has a nightmare about her husband's safety, but goes to the Kennedy Space Center the night before launch to see him off.
On April 11, 1970, Flight Director Gene Kranz gives the go-ahead from Houston's Mission Control Center for the Apollo 13 launch.
As the Saturn V rocket climbs through the atmosphere, a second stage engine cuts off prematurely, but the craft reaches its Earth parking orbit.
After the third stage fires to send Apollo 13 to the Moon, Swigert performs the maneuver to connect the Command/Service Module Odyssey to the Lunar Module Aquarius and pull it away from the spent rocket.
Three days into the mission, the crew makes a television transmission, which the networks decline to broadcast live.
After Swigert turns on the liquid oxygen tank stirring fans as requested, one of the tanks explodes, emptying its contents into space and sending the craft tumbling.
The other tank is soon found to be leaking.
Mission Control aborts the Moon landing, and Lovell and Haise must hurriedly power up Aquarius to use as a "lifeboat" for the return home, as Swigert shuts down Odyssey before its battery power runs out.
In Houston, Kranz rallies his team to come up with a plan to bring the astronauts home safely, declaring "failure is not an option".
Controller John Aaron recruits Mattingly to help him invent a procedure to restart Odyssey for the landing on Earth.
As Swigert and Haise watch the Moon pass beneath them, Lovell laments his lost chance of walking on its surface, then turns their attention to the business of getting home.
With Aquarius running on minimal electrical power, the crew suffers freezing conditions, and Haise contracts a urinary infection and a fever.
Swigert suspects Mission Control is withholding their inability to get them home; Haise angrily blames Swigert's inexperience for the accident; and Lovell quickly squelches the argument.
When carbon dioxide approaches dangerous levels, ground control must quickly invent a way to make the Command Module's square filters work in the Lunar Module's round receptacles.
With the guidance systems on Aquarius shut down, the crew must make a difficult but vital course correction by manually igniting the Lunar Module's engine.
Mattingly and Aaron struggle to find a way to turn on the Command Module systems without drawing too much power, and finally transmit the procedure to Swigert, who restarts Odyssey by transferring extra power from Aquarius.
When the crew jettisons the Service Module, they are surprised to see the extent of the damage.
As they release Aquarius and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, no one is sure that Odysseys heat shield is intact.
The tense period of radio silence due to ionization blackout is longer than normal, but the astronauts report all is well and splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
As helicopters bring the three men aboard the recovery ship USS Iwo Jima for a hero's welcome, Lovell's voice-over describes the subsequent investigation into the explosion, and the careers of Haise, Swigert, Mattingly, and Kranz.
He wonders if and when mankind will return to the Moon.
<EOS>
Babe, an orphaned piglet, is chosen for a "guess the weight" contest at a county fair.
The winning farmer, Arthur Hoggett, brings him home and allows him to stay with a Border Collie named Fly, her mate Rex and their puppies, in the barn.
A duck named Ferdinand, who poses as a rooster to spare himself from being eaten, persuades Babe to help him destroy the alarm clock that threatens his mission.
Despite succeeding in this, they wake Duchess, the Hoggetts' cat, and in the confusion accidentally destroy the living room.
Rex sternly instructs Babe to stay away from Ferdinand (now a fugitive) and the house.
Sometime later, when Fly's puppies are put up for sale, Babe asks if he can call her "Mom".
Christmas brings a visit from the Hoggetts' relatives.
Babe is almost chosen for Christmas dinner but a duck is picked instead after Hoggett remarks to his wife Esme that Babe may bring a prize for ham at the next county fair.
On Christmas Day, Babe justifies his existence by alerting Hoggett to sheep rustlers stealing sheep from one of the fields.
The next day, Hoggett sees Babe sort the hens, separating the brown from the white ones.
Impressed, he takes him to the fields and allows him to try and herd the sheep.
Encouraged by an elder ewe named Maa, the sheep cooperate, but Rex sees Babe's actions as an insult to sheepdogs and confronts Fly in a vicious fight for encouraging Babe.
He injures her leg and accidentally bites Hoggett's hand when he tries to intervene.
Rex is then chained to the dog house, muzzled and sedated, leaving the sheep herding job to Babe.
One morning, Babe is awakened by the sheep's cries and sees three dogs attacking them.
Though he manages to scare them off, Maa is mortally injured and dies as a result.
Hoggett arrives and, thinking that Babe killed her, prepares to shoot him.
Fly is so anxious to find out whether he is guilty or innocent that, instead of barking orders at the sheep, she talks to them to find out what happened.
Learning the truth, she barks to distract Hoggett, delaying him until Esme mentions that the police say feral dogs have been killing sheep on neighboring farms and asks him why he has taken his shotgun out.
When Esme leaves on a trip, Hoggett signs Babe up for a local sheepherding competition.
As it is raining the night before, Hoggett lets him and Fly into the house.
However, Duchess scratches him when he tries to speak to her, so Hoggett immediately confines her outside.
When she is let back in later, she gets revenge on Babe by revealing that humans eat pigs.
Horrified, he runs out to the barn and learns from Fly that this is true.
The next morning, Fly discovers that Babe has run away.
She and Rex alert Hoggett and they all search for him.
Rex finds him in a cemetery and Hoggett brings him home.
However, he is still demoralized and refuses to eat.
Hoggett gives him a drink from a baby bottle, sings to him "If I Had Words" and dances a jig for him.
This restores Babe’s faith in Hoggett's affection and he begins eating again.
At the competition, Babe meets the sheep that he will be herding, but they ignore his attempts to speak to them.
As Hoggett is criticized by the bemused judges and ridiculed by the public for using a pig instead of a dog, Rex runs back to the farm to ask the sheep what to do.
They give him a secret password, first extracting a promise that he will treat them better from now on.
He returns in time to convey the password to Babe, and the sheep now follow his instructions flawlessly.
Amid the crowd’s acclamation, he is unanimously given the highest score.
While he sits down next to the farmer, Hoggett praises him by saying, "That'll do, Pig.
That'll do".
<EOS>
Set in the year 1950, Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, is exiled to a small island in Italy for political reasons.
His wife accompanies him.
On the island, a local, Mario Ruoppolo, is dissatisfied with being a fisherman, like his father.
Mario looks for other work and is hired as a temporary postman, with Neruda as his only customer.
He uses his bicycle to hand deliver Neruda's mail (the island has no cars).
Though poorly educated, the postman eventually befriends Neruda and becomes further influenced by Neruda's political views and poetry.
Meanwhile, Mario falls in love with a beautiful young lady, Beatrice Russo, who works in her aunt's village cafe.
He is shy with her, but he enlists Neruda's help.
Mario constantly asks Neruda if particular metaphors that he uses are suitable for his poems.
Mario is able to better communicate with Beatrice and express his love through poetry.
Despite the aunt's strong disapproval of Mario, because of his sensual poetry (which turns out to be largely stolen from Neruda), Beatrice responds favourably.
The two are married.
The priest refuses to allow Mario to have Neruda as his best man because of politics; however, this is soon resolved.
This was because Di Cosimo was the politician in office in the area with the Christian Democrats.
At the wedding, Neruda receives the welcome news that there is no longer a Chilean warrant for his arrest so he returns to Chile.
Mario writes a letter but never gets any reply.
Several months later, he receives a letter from Neruda.
However, to his dismay, it is actually from his secretary, asking Mario to send Neruda's old belongings back to Chile.
While there Mario comes upon an old phonograph and listens to the song he first heard when he met Neruda.
Moved, he makes recordings of all the beautiful sounds on the island onto a cassette including the heartbeat of his soon-to-be-born child.
Several years later, Neruda finds Beatrice and her son, Pablito (named in honour of Neruda) in the same old inn.
From her, he discovers that Mario had been killed before their son was born.
Mario had been scheduled to recite a poem he had composed at a large communist gathering in Naples; the demonstration was violently broken up by the police.
She gives Neruda recordings of village sounds that Mario had made for him.
<EOS>
On his deathbed, mr Dashwood tells his son from his first marriage, John, to take care of his second wife and three daughters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret, since they will inherit nothing.
John's greedy and snobbish wife Fanny convinces him to give his half sisters practically nothing financially; John and Fanny immediately install themselves in the large house, forcing the Dashwood ladies to look for a new home.
Fanny invites her brother Edward Ferrars to stay with them.
Elinor and Edward soon form a close friendship, but Fanny haughtily tells mrs Dashwood that Edward would be disinherited if he married someone of no importance with no money.
mrs Dashwood understands her meaning completely.
Sir John Middleton, a cousin of the widowed mrs Dashwood, offers her a small cottage house on his estate, Barton Park in Devonshire.
She and her daughters move in, and are frequent guests at Barton Park.
The Dashwoods meet the older Colonel Brandon, who falls in love with Marianne at first sight.
However, Marianne considers him an old bachelor, incapable of feeling love or inspiring it in another.
One afternoon, Marianne takes a walk with Margaret and slips and falls in the rain.
She is carried home by the dashing John Willoughby, with whom Marianne falls in love.
They spend a great deal of time together, but on the morning she expects him to propose marriage to her, he instead leaves hurriedly for London.
Unbeknownst to the Dashwood family, Brandon's ward Beth, the illegitimate daughter of his former love Eliza, is pregnant with Willoughby's child.
Willoughby's aunt Lady Allen disinherited him upon discovering this.
Sir John's mother-in-law, mrs Jennings, invites her daughter and son-in-law, mr and mrs Palmer, to visit.
They bring with them the impoverished Lucy Steele.
Lucy confides in Elinor that she and Edward have been engaged secretly for five years, dashing Elinor's hopes of a future with him.
mrs Jennings takes Lucy, Elinor, and Marianne to London, where they meet Willoughby at a ball.
He greets Marianne uncomfortably and barely acknowledges their acquaintance, and they soon learn he is engaged to the extremely wealthy Miss Grey.
Marianne becomes inconsolable.
Lucy is invited to stay with John and Fanny, as a way for Fanny to avoid inviting the Dashwood sisters to visit them.
Lucy, falsely believing that she has a friend in Fanny, confides her clandestine engagement to Edward and is thrown out of the house.
Edward's mother demands that he break off the engagement.
When he refuses, she arranges to have his fortune transferred to his younger brother, Robert.
On hearing this, Colonel Brandon offers Edward the parish on his estate, feeling sympathy for the unfortunate but honorable Edward.
On their way home to Devonshire, Elinor and Marianne stop for the night at the country estate of the Palmers, who live five and a half miles away from Willoughby's estate.
Marianne cannot resist going to see the estate; she becomes gravely ill trekking up a hill in a torrential rain.
Colonel Brandon finds her in the rain and brings her home.
Elinor stays at her side until she recovers, and the sisters return home.
Colonel Brandon and Marianne begin spending time together, as Marianne has a new appreciation for him.
She admits to Elinor that even if Willoughby had chosen her, she was no longer convinced that love would have been enough to make him happy.
The Dashwoods soon learn that Miss Steele has become mrs Ferrars and assume that she is married to Edward.
Later when Edward visits their house, they learn that Miss Steele unexpectedly jilted him in favor of his brother Robert, and Edward is thus released from his engagement.
Edward proposes to and marries Elinor.
Edward becomes a vicar, under the patronage of Colonel Brandon, whom Marianne marries.
Willoughby is seen watching their wedding from a distance, and then rides away.
<EOS>
In the winter of 1987, Jerry Lundegaard (Macy), the sales manager at a Minneapolis Oldsmobile dealership, is desperate for money.
He floated a $320,000 GMAC loan to disguise his embezzlements from dealership bank accounts and collateralized it with nonexistent dealership vehicles; GMAC is asking questions.
Dealership mechanic and paroled ex-convict Shep Proudfoot (Steve Reevis) refers Jerry to an old partner in crime, Gaear Grimsrud (Stormare).
Jerry travels to Fargo, North Dakota, towing a new car from his dealership's lot, and hires Gaear and Carl Showalter (Buscemi) to kidnap his wife, Jean (Kristin Rudrüd), and extort a ransom from his wealthy father-in-law and boss, Wade Gustafson (Presnell), in return for the dealership car and half of the $80,000 ransom.
Back in Minneapolis, Jerry pitches Gustafson a lucrative real estate deal.
Gustafson checks with his accountant, Stan Grossman (Larry Brandenburg), and agrees to front $750,000.
Jerry considers calling off the kidnapping, but it is already in motion.
Then, he learns that Gustafson and Grossman plan to make the deal themselves, leaving Jerry a paltry finder's fee.
At Jerry's home, Carl and Gaear carry out an inept and violent kidnapping.
As they transport Jean to their remote cabin hideout on Moose Lake, a state trooper pulls them over outside Brainerd for driving without the required temporary tags over the dealership plates.
When the trooper notices a whimpering, blanket-covered body in the back seat, Gaear kills him.
Two passing motorists spot Carl disposing of the body; Gaear chases them down and murders them as well.
The following morning, Brainerd Police Chief Marge Gunderson (McDormand), who is seven months pregnant, initiates a homicide investigation.
She discovers that the dead trooper was ticketing a car with dealership plates; and later, two men driving a dealership vehicle checked into the nearby Blue Ox Motel with two call girls, then placed a call to Proudfoot.
After questioning the prostitutes, she drives to Gustafson's dealership, where Proudfoot feigns ignorance and Jerry insists no cars are missing from his inventory.
While in Minneapolis, Marge reconnects with Mike Yanagita (Steve Park), an old classmate who takes her to dinner, tells her that his wife, another classmate, has died, and makes an awkward pass at her.
Jerry informs Gustafson and Grossman that the kidnappers have demanded $1 million, and will deal only through him.
Meanwhile, Carl, in light of the unanticipated complication of three murders, demands that Jerry hand over the entire $80,000.
GMAC gives Jerry 24 hours to prove the existence of the nonexistent collateral or face legal consequences.
Carl takes another call girl to see José Feliciano at the Carlton Celebrity Room; afterwards, he is attacked and beaten by a furious Proudfoot for involving him in the murder investigation with his late-night phone call.
Carl—bruised, humiliated, and frightened—calls Jerry and orders him to deliver the ransom within 30 minutes.
Gustafson insists on making the money drop himself.
At the pre-arranged drop point in a Minneapolis parking garage, he tells Carl he will not hand over the money without seeing Jean.
An enraged Carl shoots Gustafson, who, before dying, manages to return fire, striking Carl in the jaw.
After fleeing the scene, Carl is astounded to discover that Gustafson's briefcase contains far more than the anticipated $80,000.
He removes that amount to split with Gaear, then buries the rest, intending to recover it later and keep it for himself.
At the cabin, Gaear—oblivious to Carl's serious gunshot wound—informs Carl that he killed Jean after she "started shrieking".
Carl says they must split up and leave the state immediately; but after a heated argument over who will keep the dealership car, Gaear kills Carl with an axe.
Marge learns from a mutual friend that Yanagita's dead wife was never his wife, nor is she dead.
Yanagita, who has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since high school, has been stalking the woman for years.
Reflecting on Yanagita's convincing lies, Marge returns to Gustafson's dealership.
Jerry continues to insist that he is not missing any cars, but offers to inventory the lot anyway.
As Marge waits, she spots Jerry driving away from the dealership, and calls the State Police.
The next morning, she drives to Moose Lake on a tip from a local bar owner who reported a "funny-looking guy" bragging about killing someone.
Outside a cabin, she finds the dealership car; nearby, Gaear is feeding Carl's dismembered body into a wood chipper.
Marge shoots him in the leg as he tries to flee and arrests him.
Meanwhile, North Dakota police track Jerry to a motel outside Bismarck, where he is arrested while attempting to escape through a bathroom window.
Marge's husband Norm (John Carroll Lynch), whose mallard painting has been selected for a 3-cent postage stamp, complains that his friend's painting will be on the first class (29-cent) stamp.
Marge reassures Norm that lots of people use 3-cent stamps; the two happily anticipate the birth of their child in two months.
<EOS>
Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a glossy 35-year-old sports agent working for Sports Management International (SMI).
After having a life-altering epiphany about his role as a sports agent, he writes a mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and his desire to work with fewer clients so as to produce better quality.
In turn, SMI management decides to send Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr), Jerry's protégé, to fire him.
Jerry and Sugar call all of Jerry's clients to try convincing them not to hire the services of the other.
Jerry speaks to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr), one of his clients who is disgruntled with his contract.
Rod tests Jerry's resolve through a very long telephone conversation while Sugar is able to convince the rest of Jerry's clients to stick with SMI instead.
Leaving the office, Jerry announces that he will start his own agency and asks if anyone is willing to join him, to which only 26-year-old single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger) agrees.
Meanwhile, Frank "Cush" Cushman (Jerry O'Connell), a superstar quarterback prospect who expects to be the number one pick in the NFL Draft, initially also stays with Jerry after he makes a visit to the Cushman home.
However, Sugar is able to convince Cushman and his father to sign with SMI over Jerry the night before the draft.
Cushman's father implies they decided to sign with Sugar over Jerry when they saw Jerry attending to Tidwell; an African-American player, versus his son (a white player).
After an argument, Jerry breaks up with his disgruntled fiancée Avery (Kelly Preston).
He then turns to Dorothy, becoming closer to her young son, Ray (Jonathan Lipnicki), and eventually starts a relationship with her.
Dorothy contemplates moving to San Diego as she has a secure job offer there, however she and Jerry agree to get married.
Jerry concentrates all his efforts on Rod, now his only client, who turns out to be very difficult to satisfy.
Over the next several months, the two direct harsh criticism towards each other with Rod claiming that Jerry is not trying hard enough to get him a contract while Jerry claims that Rod is not proving himself worthy of the money for which he asks.
Meanwhile, Jerry's marriage with Dorothy gradually deteriorates and they eventually separate.
During a Monday Night Football game between the Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys, Rod plays well but appears to receive a serious injury when catching a touchdown.
He recovers, however, and dances for the wildly cheering crowd.
Afterwards, Jerry and Rod embrace in front of other athletes and sports agents and show how their relationship has progressed from a strictly business one to a close personal one, which was one of the points Jerry made in his mission statement.
Jerry then flies back home to meet Dorothy.
He then speaks for several minutes, telling her that he loves her and wants her in his life, which she accepts.
Rod later appears on Roy Firestone's sports show.
Unbeknownst to him, Jerry has secured him an $112 million contract with the Cardinals allowing him to finish his pro football career in Arizona.
The visibly emotional Rod proceeds to thank everyone and extends warm gratitude to Jerry.
Jerry speaks with several other pro athletes, some of whom have read his earlier mission statement and respect his work with Rod.
The movie ends with Ray throwing a baseball up in the air surprising Jerry.
Jerry then discusses Ray's possible future career in the sports industry with Dorothy.
<EOS>
A man (Geoffrey Rush) wanders through a heavy rainstorm finding his way into a restaurant.
The restaurant's employees try to determine if he needs help.
Despite his manic mode of speech being difficult to understand, Sylvia learns that his name is David Helfgott and that he is staying at a local hotel.
She returns him to the hotel and despite his attempts to engage her with his musical knowledge and ownership of various musical scores, she leaves.
As a child, David (played by Alex Rafalowicz) is growing up in suburban Adelaide, South Australia and competing in a local music competition.
Helfgott has been taught to play by his father, Peter (played by Armin Mueller-Stahl), a man obsessed with winning who has no tolerance for failure or disobedience.
David is noticed by mr Rosen, a local pianist who, after an initial conflict with Peter, takes over David's musical instruction.
As a teen, David (played by Noah Taylor) wins the state musical championship and is invited to study in America.
Although plans are made to raise money to send David and his family is initially supportive, Peter eventually forbids David to leave and abuses him, thinking David leaving would destroy the family.
Crushed, David continues to study and befriends local novelist and co-founder of the Communist Party of Australia, Katharine Susannah Prichard (Googie Withers).
David's talent grows until he is offered a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London.
David's father again forbids him to go but with the encouragement of Katharine, David leaves.
In London, David enters a Concerto competition, choosing to play Rachmaninoff's enormously demanding 3rd Concerto, a piece he had attempted to learn as a young child to make his father proud.
As David practices, he increasingly becomes manic in his behavior.
David wins the competition, but suffers a mental breakdown and is admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where he receives electric shock therapy.
David recovers to the point where he is able to return to Australia, but is still rejected by his father.
David relapses and is readmitted to a mental institution as a young man.
Years later, a volunteer at the institution recognizes David and knows of his musical talent.
She takes him home but discovers that he is difficult to control, unintentionally destructive, and needs more care than she can offer.
She leaves him at the hotel from earlier in the film.
David has difficulty adjusting to life outside the institution, and often wanders away from the hotel.
David wanders to the nearby restaurant.
The next day David returns to the restaurant, and the patrons are astounded by his ability to play the piano.
One of the owners befriends David and looks after him.
In return David plays at the restaurant.
Through the owner David is introduced to Gillian (Lynn Redgrave).
David and Gillian fall in love and marry.
With Gillian's help and support, David is able to come to terms with his father's death and to stage a well-received comeback concert presaging his return to professional music.
<EOS>
Melvin Udall is a misanthrope who works at home as a best-selling novelist in New York City.
He suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder which, paired with his misanthropy, alienates nearly everyone with whom he interacts.
He avoids stepping on sidewalk cracks while walking through the city due to a superstition of bad luck, and eats breakfast at the same table in the same restaurant every day using disposable plastic utensils he brings with him due to his pathological fear of germs.
He takes an interest in his waitress, Carol Connelly, the only server at the restaurant who can tolerate his behavior.
One day, Melvin's apartment neighbor, a gay artist named Simon Bishop, is assaulted and nearly killed during a robbery.
Melvin is intimidated by Simon's agent, Frank Sachs, into caring for Simon's dog, Verdell, while Simon is hospitalized.
Although he initially does not enjoy caring for the dog, Melvin becomes emotionally attached to it.
He simultaneously receives more attention from Carol.
When Simon is released from the hospital, Melvin is unable to cope emotionally with returning the dog.
Melvin's life is further altered when Carol decides to work closer to her home in Brooklyn so she can care for her acutely asthmatic son Spencer ("Spence").
Unable to adjust to another waitress, Melvin arranges through his publisher, whose husband is a doctor, to pay for her son's considerable medical expenses as long as Carol agrees to return to work.
She is overwhelmed at his generosity, and they agree there will be no physical relationship.
Meanwhile, Simon's assault and rehabilitation, coupled with Verdell's preference for Melvin, causes Simon to lose his creative muse.
Simon is approaching bankruptcy due to his medical bills.
Frank convinces him to go to Baltimore to ask his estranged parents for money.
Because Frank is too busy to take the injured Simon to Baltimore himself, Melvin reluctantly agrees to do so – Frank lends Melvin the use of his Saab 900 convertible for the trip.
Melvin invites Carol to accompany them on the trip to lessen the awkwardness.
She reluctantly accepts the invitation, and relationships among the three develop.
Once in Baltimore, Carol persuades Melvin to take her out to have dinner.
Melvin's comments during the dinner greatly flatter—and subsequently upset—Carol, and she abruptly leaves.
Upon seeing the frustrated Carol, Simon begins to sketch her semi-nude in his hotel room and rekindles his creativity, once more feeling a desire to paint.
He briefly reconnects with his parents, but is able to tell them that he'll be fine.
After returning to New York, Carol tells Melvin that she does not want him in her life anymore.
She later regrets her statement and calls him to apologize.
The relationship between Melvin and Carol remains complicated until Simon (whom Melvin has allowed to move in with him until he can fully heal from his injuries and get a new apartment) convinces Melvin to declare his love for her.
Melvin goes to see Carol, who is hesitant, but agrees to try and establish a relationship with him.
The film ends with Melvin and Carol walking together.
As he opens the door at an early morning pastry shop for Carol, he realizes that he has stepped on a crack in the pavement, but doesn't seem to mind.
<EOS>
The once-successful steel mills of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, have shut down and most of the employees have been laid off.
Former steel workers Gary "Gaz" Schofield and Dave Horsefall have resorted to stealing scrap metal from the abandoned mills to sell.
Gaz is facing trouble from his former wife, Mandy and her boyfriend Barry over child support payments that he has failed to make since losing his job.
Gaz's son, Nathan, loves his father but wishes they could do more "normal stuff" in their time together.
One day, Gaz spots a crowd of women lined up outside a local club to see a Chippendale's striptease act.
He gets the idea to form his own strip tease group using local men in hopes of making enough money to pay off his child support obligations.
The first to join the group is Lomper, a security guard at the steel mill where Dave and Gaz once worked.
Depressed, Lomper attempts suicide, but is rescued by Dave who convinces him to join the group.
Next, they recruit Gerald Cooper, their former foreman at the mill, who is hiding the fact that he is unemployed from his wife.
Gaz and Dave see Gerald and his wife, Linda, at a dance class and recruit him to teach them some actual dance moves.
The four men hold an open audition to recruit more members and settle on Horse, an older man who is nevertheless a good dancer, and Guy, who can't dance but proves himself to be well-endowed.
The six men begin to practice their act.
Gaz then learns that he has to pay £100 in order to secure the club for the night.
He cannot afford this, but Nathan gets the money out of his savings.
When they are greeted by two local women while they put up posters for the show, Gaz boasts they're better than the real Chippendales because they go "the full monty".
Dave drops out due to body image issues and gets a job as a security guard at Asda.
The others do a public rehearsal at the mill in front of some female relatives of Horse, but are caught mid-show by a passing policeman, and Gaz, Gerald and Horse are arrested for indecent exposure.
This costs Gaz the right to see Nathan.
Lomper and Guy manage to escape arrest, and go to Lomper's house where they look lovingly at each other, starting a relationship.
Gerald, meanwhile is thrown out by Linda after bailiffs arrive at their house and seize their belongings to pay Gerald's debts, resulting in him having to stay with Gaz.
Later Gaz goes to Asda and asks Dave if he could borrow a jacket for Lomper's mother's funeral.
Dave agrees and also decides to quit his job and they go to the funeral together.
Soon, the group find the act and arrest has made them famous.
They decide to forgo the plan, until Gaz learns that the show is sold out.
He convinces the others to do it for one night only.
Gerald is unsure as he has now got the job that Gaz and Dave earlier tried to sabotage his interview for, but agrees to do it just once.
Initially, Dave still refuses, however re-gains his confidence after encouragement from his wife, Jean, and joins the rest of the group minutes before they go on stage.
Nathan also arrives with Dave, having secretly come, and tells Gaz that Mandy is there but she would not let Barry go with her.
However, Gaz himself refuses to do the act because there are men in the audience (including the police force members who watched the footage of the security camera's recording of them earlier), when the posters said it was for women only.
The other five are starting the act when Nathan orders his father to go out on stage.
Gaz, proud of his son, joins the others and performs in front of the audience and Mandy, who seems to see him in a new light.
The film ends with the group performing on stage in front of a packed house, stripping to Tom Jones' version of "You Can Leave Your Hat On" (their hats being the final item removed) with an astounding success.
<EOS>
Twenty-year-old Will Hunting (Matt Damon) of South Boston is a self-taught, genius-level intellect, though he works as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and spends his free time drinking with his friends, Chuckie (Ben Affleck), Billy (Cole Hauser) and Morgan (Casey Affleck).
When Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård) posts a difficult mathematics problem as a challenge for his graduate students, Will solves the problem anonymously, stunning both the graduate students and Lambeau.
As a challenge to the unknown genius, Lambeau posts an even more difficult problem.
Will solves the problem, but then flees the scene when Lambeau catches him.
At the bar, Will meets Skylar (Minnie Driver), a British student about to graduate from Harvard, who plans on attending medical school at Stanford.
The next day, as Will and his friends fight a gang at the basketball court, police arrive and arrest Will.
Lambeau visits his court appearance and notices Will's intellect in defending himself.
He arranges for him to forgo jail time if he agrees to study mathematics under Lambeau's supervision and participate in therapy sessions.
Will tentatively agrees, but treats his first few therapists with mockery.
In desperation, Lambeau calls on dr Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), his estranged college roommate, who now teaches psychology at Bunker Hill Community College.
Unlike other therapists, Sean actually challenges Will's defense mechanisms, and after a few unproductive sessions, Will begins to open up.
Will is particularly struck by Sean's story of how he met his wife by giving up his ticket to the historic game six of the 1975 World Series, after falling in love at first sight.
Sean neither regrets his decision, nor does he regret the final years of his marriage, after which his wife died of cancer.
This encourages Will to build a relationship with Skylar, though he lies to her about his past and is reluctant to introduce her to his friends or show her his rundown neighborhood.
Will also challenges Sean to take an objective look at his own life, since Sean cannot move on from his wife's death.
Lambeau sets up a number of job interviews for Will, but Will scorns them by sending Chuckie as his "chief negotiator," and by turning down a position at the National Security Agency with a scathing critique of the agency's moral position.
Skylar asks Will to move to California with her, but he refuses and tells her he is an orphan, and that his foster father physically abused him.
Will breaks up with Skylar and later storms out on Lambeau, dismissing the mathematical research he has been doing.
Sean points out that Will is so adept at anticipating future failure in his interpersonal relationships that he deliberately sabotages them in order to avoid emotional pain.
Chuckie tells Will that he disapproves of Will laying bricks like the rest of his friends, because Will has talent that none of them have.
Will walks in on a heated argument between Sean and Lambeau over his potential.
Sean and Will share and find out that they were both victims of child abuse.
Sean helps Will to see that he is a victim of his own inner demons and to accept that it is not his fault, causing him to break down in tears.
Will accepts one of the job offers arranged by Lambeau.
Having helped Will overcome his problems, Sean reconciles with Lambeau and takes a sabbatical to travel the world.
When Will's friends present him with a rebuilt Chevrolet Nova for his twenty-first birthday, he decides to pass on his job offers and drive to California to reunite with Skylar.
Sometime later, Chuckie goes to Will's house to pick him up, only to find that he is not there; and Sean finds a letter from Will in his mailbox, which tells him that Will is going to see Skylar.
Both Sean and Chuckie are pleased by Will's decision.
<EOS>
In early 1950s Los Angeles, Sergeant Edmund "Ed" Exley, son of the legendary LAPD detective Preston Exley, is determined to live up to his father's reputation.
His intelligence, insistence on following regulations, and cold demeanor contribute to his isolation from other officers.
He exacerbates this resentment by volunteering to testify in the Bloody Christmas case in exchange for a promotion to Detective Lieutenant.
This goes against the advice of Captain Dudley Smith, who states that a detective should be willing to shoot a guilty man in the back for the greater good.
Exley's ambition is fueled by the murder of his father, killed by an unknown assailant, whom Exley nicknames "Rollo Tomasi".
Officer Wendell "Bud" White, whom Exley considers a "mindless thug", is a plainclothes officer obsessed with violently punishing woman-beaters.
One such incident leads him to confront a former cop named Leland "Buzz" Meeks, a driver for Pierce Patchett.
White comes to dislike Exley after White's partner, Dick Stensland, is fired due to Exley's testimony in the Bloody Christmas scandal.
White is sought out by Smith for a job in which they harass and beat up out-of-town criminals trying to fill the void left in Los Angeles following the imprisonment of gangster Mickey Cohen for tax evasion.
The Nite Owl case, a multiple homicide at a coffee shop, becomes personal after Stensland is found to be one of the victims.
Sergeant Jack Vincennes is a narcotics detective who moonlights as a technical advisor on Badge of Honor, a popular TV police drama series.
He is providing Sid Hudgens, publisher of the Hush-Hush tabloid magazine, with tips about celebrity arrests that will attract more readers to Hudgens' magazine.
When he becomes involved in Hudgens' scheme to set up actor Matt Reynolds in a homosexual tryst withA.
district attorney Ellis Loew, and Reynolds is killed as a result, Vincennes becomes determined to find the killer.
Three African Americans are initially charged with the Nite Owl murders, and later killed in a shootout.
Although the Nite Owl crime initially looks like a botched robbery, Exley and White individually investigate it to discover indications of corruption all around them.
White recognizes Nite Owl victim Susan Lefferts as one of Meeks' escorts which leads him back to Pierce Patchett, operator of Fleur-de-Lis, a call girl service that runs prostitutes altered by plastic surgery to resemble film stars.
He begins a relationship with Lynn Bracken, a Veronica Lake look-alike prostitute.
The body count rises when White searches a storage room under Lefferts' mother's house, and finds the decomposed corpse of Meeks.
When Vincennes approaches Smith with the evidence he has found with Exley, Smith realizes his scheme to take over Mickey Cohen's heroin empire is threatened.
Smith shoots Vincennes, who utters "Rollo Tomasi" before dying, the origin of which Exley told Vincennes in confidence.
Exley's suspicions are aroused when Smith asks him who Rollo Tomasi is.
During an interrogation of Hudgens, Smith arranges for White to see photos of Bracken sleeping with Exley, which sends White into a rage.
Confident that White has gone after Exley to kill him, Smith kills Hudgens.
Exley investigates and discovers Meeks and Stensland used to work closely with Smith.
White drives to the police station and begins to fight Exley, but Exley is able to convince White that Smith is corrupt and has set them both up.
The two decide to team together to take down Smith.
They are able to obtain evidence against Smith by threatening Loew, and later find Patchett murdered.
Exley and White realize that Smith himself has been taking over after Cohen, and the killings have been Smith tying up loose ends.
Exley and White are set up with a trap against Smith and his hitmen.
After a gunfight that kills all the hitmen, Smith shoots White in the face, but then is forced to surrender to Exley.
As police arrive, Exley shoots Smith in the back, killing him.
The LAPD cover up Smith's crimes and say he died a hero in the shootout to protect the department's image, and in exchange Exley bargains to also be hailed a hero and receives a medal for his bravery.
Upon leaving City Hall, Exley sees Bracken, who tells him she is returning home to Arizona with White, revealing White survived the shooting.
Exley and White shake hands and Bracken drives off into the sunset.
<EOS>
In 1558, Catholic Queen Mary dies of a uterine tumour.
Mary's Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth, under house arrest for conspiracy charges, is freed and crowned the Queen of England.
As briefed by her adviser William Cecil, Elizabeth inherits a distressed England besieged by debts, crumbling infrastructure, hostile neighbours and treasonous nobles within her administration, chief among them the Duke of Norfolk.
Cecil advises Elizabeth to marry, produce an heir, and secure her rule.
Unimpressed with her suitors, Elizabeth delays her decision and continues her secret affair with Lord Robert Dudley while Cecil appoints Francis Walsingham, a Protestant exile returned from France, to act as Elizabeth's bodyguard and adviser.
Mary of Guise lands an additional 4,000 French troops in neighbouring Scotland.
Unfamiliar with military strategy and browbeaten by Norfolk at the war council, Elizabeth orders a military response, which proves disastrous when the younger, ill-trained English forces are defeated by the professional French soldiers.
Walsingham tells Elizabeth that Catholic lords and priests intentionally deprived Elizabeth's army of proper soldiers and used their defeat to argue for Elizabeth's removal.
Realizing the depth of the conspiracy against her and her dwindling options, Elizabeth accepts Mary of Guise's conditions, to consider marrying her nephew Henry of France.
To stabilize her rule and heal England's religious divisions, Elizabeth proposes the Act of Uniformity, which unites English Christians under the Church of England and severs their connection to the Vatican.
In response to the Act's passage, the Vatican sends a priest to England to aid Norfolk and his cohorts in their growing plot to overthrow Elizabeth.
Unaware of the plot, Elizabeth meets Henry of France but ignores his advances in favour of Lord Robert.
William Cecil confronts Elizabeth over her indecisiveness about marrying and reveals Lord Robert is married to another woman.
Elizabeth rejects Henry's marriage proposal when she discovers he is a cross-dresser and confronts Lord Robert about his secrets, fracturing their idyllic affair and banishing him from her private residence.
Elizabeth survives an assassination attempt, whose evidence implicates Mary of Guise.
Elizabeth sends Walsingham to secretly meet with Mary in Scotland, under the guise of once again planning to marry Henry.
Instead, Walsingham assassinates Guise, inciting French enmity against Elizabeth.
When William Cecil orders her to solidify relations with the Spanish, Elizabeth dismisses him from her service, choosing instead to follow her own counsel.
Walsingham warns of another plot to kill Elizabeth, spearheaded by the priest from Rome carrying letters of conspiracy.
Under Elizabeth's orders, Walsingham apprehends the priest, from whom he learns the names of the conspirators and a Vatican agreement to elevate Norfolk to the English crown if he weds Mary, Queen of Scots.
Walsingham arrests Norfolk, and executes him and every conspirator except Lord Robert, whom Elizabeth allows to live, as a reminder to never be blinded by romance again.
Drawing inspiration from the divine, Elizabeth cuts her hair and models her appearance after the Virgin Mary.
Proclaiming herself married to England, she ascends the throne as "the Virgin Queen".
<EOS>
In 1939 in the Kingdom of Italy, Guido Orefice is a young Jewish man who arrives to work in the city where his uncle Eliseo operates a restaurant.
Guido is comical and sharp, and falls in love with a girl named Dora.
Later, he sees her again in the city where she is a teacher and set to be engaged to a rich but arrogant man, a local government official with whom Guido has regular run-ins.
Guido sets up many "coincidental" incidents to show his interest in Dora.
Finally Dora sees Guido's affection and promise and gives in against her better judgement.
He steals her from her engagement party on a horse, humiliating her fiancé and mother.
They are later married and have a son, Giosuè, and own a book store.
When World War II breaks out, Guido, his uncle, and Giosuè are seized on Giosuè's birthday.
They and many other Jews are forced onto a train and taken to a concentration camp.
After confronting a guard about her husband and son and being told there is no mistake, Dora volunteers to get on the train in order to be close to her family.
However, as men and women are separated in the camp, Dora and Guido never see each other during the internment.
Guido pulls off stunts, such as using the camp's loudspeaker to send messages—symbolic or literal—to Dora to assure her that he and their son are safe.
Eliseo is executed in a gas chamber shortly after their arrival.
Giosuè barely avoids being gassed himself as he hates to take baths and showers, and did not follow the other children when they had been ordered to enter the gas chambers.
In the camp, Guido hides their true situation from his son.
Guido explains to Giosuè that the camp is a complicated game in which he must perform the tasks Guido gives him.
Each of the tasks will earn them points and whoever gets to one thousand points first will win a tank.
He tells him that if he cries, complains that he wants his mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose points, while quiet boys who hide from the camp guards earn extra points.
Giosuè is at times reluctant to go along with the game, but Guido convinces him each time to continue.
Guido maintains this story right until the end when, in the chaos of shutting down the camp as the Allied forces approach, he tells his son to stay in a box until everybody has left, this being the final competition before the tank is his.
Guido goes to find Dora, but while he is out he is caught by a German soldier.
An officer makes the decision to execute Guido, who is led off by the soldier.
While he is walking to his death, Guido passes by Giosuè one last time, still in character and playing the game.
He winks at Giosuè and Giosuè winks back as Guido is led away to be shot.
The next morning, Giosuè emerges from the sweat-box, just as aS.
Army unit led by a Sherman tank arrives and the camp is liberated.
The prisoners travel to safety, accompanied by the Americans.
Giosuè soon spots Dora in the procession leaving the camp and are reunited.
Later, as a man, Giosuè realizes his father's story of sacrifice for his family.
<EOS>
US.
Army Private Witt goes AWOL from his unit and lives among the carefree Melanesian natives in the South Pacific.
He is found and imprisoned on a troop carrier by his company First Sergeant, Welsh.
The men of C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division have been brought to Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to secure Henderson Field and seize the island from the Japanese.
As they wait in a Navy transport, they contemplate their lives and the invasion.
Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Tall talks with Brigadier General Quintard about the invasion and its importance.
C Company lands on Guadalcanal unopposed and marches to the interior of the island, encountering natives and evidence of the Japanese presence.
They arrive near Hill 210, a key Japanese position.
The Japanese have placed bunkers at the top of the hill and anyone attempting the climb will be cut down.
A brief shelling of the hill begins the next day at dawn.
C Company attempts to capture the hill but is repelled by gunfire.
Among the first killed is one of the platoon leaders, Second Lieutenant Whyte.
During the battle, a squad led by Sergeant Keck hides behind a swell safe from enemy fire to wait for reinforcements.
Keck reaches for a grenade but accidentally pulls the pin and dies in the process.
Lieutenant Colonel Tall orders the company commander, Captain James Staros, to take the bunker by frontal assault, at whatever cost.
Staros refuses and Tall decides to join Staros on the front line to see the situation.
The Japanese resistance seems to have lessened, and Tall's opinion of Staros seems to have been sealed.
Private Witt, having been assigned punitively as a stretcher bearer, asks to rejoin the company, and is allowed to do so.
A small detachment of men performs a reconnaissance mission on Tall's orders to determine the strength of the Japanese bunker.
Private Bell reports there are five machine guns in the bunker.
He joins another small team of men (including Witt), led by Captain John Gaff, on a flanking mission to take the bunker.
The operation is a success and C Company overruns one of the last Japanese strongholds on the island.
The Japanese they find are largely malnourished, dying and put up little resistance.
For their efforts the men are given a week's leave: the airfield where they are based comes under enemy artillery bombardment; Bell receives a letter from his wife informing him that she has fallen in love with someone else and wishes to divorce; Captain Staros is relieved of his command by Lieutenant Colonel Tall, who deems him too soft for the pressures of combat and suggests that he apply for reassignment and become a lawyer in the JAG in Washington.
He offers to arrange a Purple Heart for Staros, to avoid the unit's name being stained by having an officer removed from command.
Witt comes across the locals and notices that they have grown distant and distrustful of him and quarrel regularly with one another.
The company is sent on patrol up a river but with the inexperienced 1st Lieutenant George Band at its head.
As Japanese artillery fire falls close to their positions; Band orders some men to scout upriver, with Witt volunteering to go along.
They encounter an advancing Japanese column and are attacked.
To buy time for Corporal Fife to go back and inform the rest of the unit, Witt draws away the Japanese but is then encircled by one of their squads, who demand that he surrender.
He raises his rifle and is gunned down.
The company is able to retreat safely, and Witt is later buried by Welsh and his squadmates.
C Company receives a new commander, Captain Bosche and boards a waiting LCT, departing from the island.
<EOS>
A prologue establishes the courage and journalistic integrity of Bergman (Pacino) and Mike Wallace (Plummer) as they prepare to interview Sheikh Fadlallah for 60 Minutes.
In Louisville, Kentucky, dr Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) arrives home from his office at the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, reluctantly telling his wife Liane (Venora) that he has been fired.
Bergman approaches Wigand for help translating technical documents.
Wigand agrees, but Bergman is intrigued when he cites a corporate confidentiality agreement and refuses to discuss anything further.
Wigand is later summoned to a meeting with the B&W CEO, who threatens legal action and cessation of severance benefits if he does not sign a more restrictive confidentiality agreement.
Wigand angrily leaves, and accuses Bergman of betraying him.
Bergman visits Wigand's home and vigorously defends himself.
Wigand is reassured but hesitant to reveal anything that might threaten his family's medical coverage, apparently possessing very damaging information.
The Wigand family move into a more modest house, Wigand now working as a teacher.
One night his younger daughter Barbara sees someone outside.
Wigand finds a fresh footprint in the garden, and receives a sinister phone call.
Knowing that Wigand's confidentiality agreement obstructs any potential story, Bergman contacts Richard Scruggs (Feore), an attorney representing the State of Mississippi in a lawsuit against the tobacco industry, believing that Wigand could be shielded from legal sanction if he were compelled to break confidentiality and testify.
Scruggs expresses interest.
Some time later Wigand receives an emailed death threat against him and his family, and finds a bullet in his mailbox.
He contacts the FBI, but the agents who attend are hostile, confiscating his computer.
Wigand, furious over the threats, demands Bergman arrange an interview.
In the interview, Wigand states that B&W intentionally make their cigarettes more addictive, and that he was fired after refusing to support this.
Bergman later arranges a security detail for Wigand's home, and the Wigands suffer marital stress.
Wigand is served with a Kentucky court order prohibiting his testimony in Mississippi, but eventually decides to testify anyway, over the objections of B&W attorneys.
On returning to Louisville, Wigand discovers that Liane has left him and taken their daughters.
Bergman, Wallace and Don Hewitt (Hall), the creator and executive producer of 60 Minutes, meet with CBS News' legal counsel, Helen Caperelli (Gershon).
Caperelli invokes and describes a legal theory, tortious interference, whereby one who induces someone to break a legal agreement may be sued for "interfering".
By this theory, CBS exposes itself to legal action from B&W if Wigand breaks confidentiality in his interview.
Eric Kluster (Tobolowsky), the president of CBS News, decides to omit Wigand's interview from the segment.
Bergman objects, believing that CBS Corporate wishes to avoid jeopardizing the pending sale of CBS to Westinghouse, which would enrich both Caperelli and Kluster.
Wigand is appalled, and terminates contact with Bergman.
An investigator probes Wigand's personal history, their findings published and circulated to the news media as a 500-page dossier.
Bergman learns that The Wall Street Journal will soon use this in a piece questioning Wigand's credibility.
Bergman believes that Wigand is being smeared, and arranges for Jack Palladino (playing himself), an attorney and investigator, to evaluate it.
The editor of the Journal agrees to delay his story while his reporters examine Palladino's findings.
Infighting at CBS News about the segment prompts Hewitt to order Bergman to take an immediate "vacation".
During this, the abridged 60 Minutes segment airs.
Bergman, with difficulty, completes a call to Wigand, who is both dejected and furious, accusing Bergman of manipulating him.
Bergman defends his own motives and praises Wigand and his testimony.
Bergman is urged by Scruggs to air the full segment, their own lawsuit under threat by a lawsuit from the governor of Mississippi.
Bergman is powerless to help, and privately questions his own motives in pursuing the story.
Bergman contacts an editor at The New York Times, disclosing the full story and events at CBS.
The Times prints the story on the front page, and condemns CBS in a scathing editorial.
The Journal dismisses the dossier as character assassination, and prints Wigand's deposition in full.
Hewitt accuses Bergman of betraying CBS, but finds that Wallace now agrees that surrendering to corporate pressure was a mistake.
60 Minutes finally airs the original segment, including the full interview with Wigand.
Bergman tells Wallace that he has resigned, believing 60 Minutes' credibility and integrity is now permanently tarnished.
The film ends with text cards summarizing the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, and the careers of Wigand and Bergman after the events of the film.
<EOS>
Vianne Rocher, with her daughter Anouk, come to the small French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes.
They are brought by "the wind" during the last days of Carnival to open a , La Céleste Praline.
The village priest, Francis Reynaud, is initially mystified, because Lent has just begun, but his confusion turns rapidly to anger when he understands that Vianne holds dangerous beliefs, does not obey the church and "flouts" the unspoken rules that he feels should govern his "flock".
Vianne, we learn from her personal thoughts, is a witch, though she does not use the word.
Her mother and she were wanderers, going from one city to another.
Her mother strove to inspire the same need for freedom in her daughter, who is more social and passive.
They were born with gifts, and used a kind of "domestic magic" to earn their living.
Throughout her life, Vianne has been running from the "Black Man", a recurring motif in her mother's folklore.
When her mother is killed by a cab, Vianne continues on her own, trying to evade the Black Man and the mysterious force of the wind and settle down to a normal life.
The chocolaterie is an old dream of hers.
She has an innate talent for cooking and a charming personality.
She tries to fit in and help her customers.
She starts to build a group of regular customers, and, to Reynaud's dismay, she doesn't go out of business.
Reynaud attempts to have Vianne run out of town, and he talks about her every Sunday at church.
Some people initially stay away, but not for long.
His conflict with her becomes his personal crusade.
Vianne, however, announces a "Grand Festival of Chocolate", to be held on Easter Sunday.
<EOS>
In November 1932, Constance, Countess of Trentham (Maggie Smith), and her lady's maid, Mary MacEachran (Kelly Macdonald) travel to Gosford Park for a weekend shooting party.
On the way, they encounter actor Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam), American film producer Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban) and Weissman's valet, Henry Denton (Ryan Phillippe), who are also attending the hunting party.
At the house, they are greeted by Lady Trentham's niece, Lady Sylvia McCordle (Kristin Scott Thomas), her husband Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon), and their daughter, Isobel (Camilla Rutherford).
The other guests include Lady Sylvia's sisters, Louisa, Lady Stockbridge (Geraldine Somerville) and Lady Lavinia Meredith (Natasha Wightman) and their husbands, Raymond, Lord Stockbridge (Charles Dance) and Commander Anthony Meredith (Tom Hollander).
Also in attendance are the Honourable Freddie Nesbitt (James Wilby) and his wife, Mabel (Claudie Blakley); Isobel's suitor, Lord Rupert Standish (Laurence Fox) and his friend Jeremy Blond (Trent Ford).
The servants' hall is divided by a strict social hierarchy, dominated by the head housekeeper, mrs Wilson (Helen Mirren).
She maintains a hostile relationship with the head cook, mrs Croft (Eileen Atkins).
Mary is immediately intrigued by Lord Stockbridge's valet, Robert Parks (Clive Owen), who is new to service and was raised in an orphanage.
The head housemaid, Elsie (Emily Watson), takes a kindly interest in the naive Mary and guides her through the complexities of being in domestic service.
Sir William is an extremely rich industrialist, and much of the company are dependent on him in one way or another.
Commander Meredith is in on the verge of bankruptcy and is outraged when Sir William announces he intends to withdraw his investment in Meredith's latest business venture.
Lady Sylvia reveals to her aunt that William may stop paying Lady Trentham's allowance.
Freddie Nesbitt was having an affair with Sir Williams' daughter Isobel, and is blackmailing her to keep the secret of an aborted pregnancy.
Likewise, Rupert Standish is trying to romance Isobel for her money.
The next morning the men go out early on a pheasant shoot, and Sir William is slightly injured by a stray birdshot.
Later, the ladies join the gentlemen for an outdoor luncheon on the estate grounds, where Commander Meredith pleads with Sir William not to back out of the investment.
Dinner that evening is tense and sombre.
As the conversation progresses, tempers flare and Lady Sylvia attacks Sir William, implying that he was a First World War profiteer.
Elsie rises to his defence, breaking the class barrier, and thus revealing her affair with Sir William to everyone at the table.
Everyone watches in shocked silence at this indiscretion, and Elsie hurries from the room—knowing that she will be dismissed.
Sir William abruptly storms away from the dinner table and goes to the library, where mrs Wilson brings him coffee.
He demands a glass of whisky instead.
Lady Sylvia asks mr Novello to entertain the guests.
During the concert, George (Richard Grant, first footman), Parks, mr Nesbitt and Commander Meredith disappear.
An unknown person goes to the library and stabs Sir William as he sits slumped in his chair, apparently sleeping.
Minutes later, Lady Stockbridge goes to the library to entice Sir William to return to the party and her screams bring everyone to the room.
Commander Meredith and mr Nesbitt do not offer an explanation of their disappearances, while George says he was fetching milk for the coffee service and Parks claims to have been fetching hot water bottles.
Inspector Thompson (Stephen Fry) and Constable Dexter (Ron Webster) arrive to investigate the murder.
Dexter suggests that Sir William was already dead when he was stabbed.
It is eventually discovered that Sir William was poisoned before being stabbed.
Inspector Thompson uncovers a complex web of resentments between the guests and Sir William, realizing that almost everyone had a motive to murder him.
mrs Croft, meanwhile, tells her kitchen staff that Sir William was known for seducing the young girls working in his factories.
If a woman became pregnant, Sir William offered two choices: keep the baby and lose your job, or give the baby up and keep your job.
Those who gave up their babies were told that the adoptions were being arranged with good families.
In reality, Sir William paid squalid orphanages to take the children.
Mary goes to Parks' room and tells him that she knows he is the murderer.
Parks tells her that he discovered Sir William was his father, entered service and attempted to gain employment with someone in his circle.
Parks tells Mary that he only stabbed the corpse, someone else had already poisoned Sir William beforehand.
Mary overhears a conversation between Lady Trentham and Lady Sylvia, who discloses that both mrs Croft and mrs Wilson were once workers in Sir William's factory.
Lady Trentham asks if mrs Wilson was ever married and Lady Sylvia replies that her name was once Parks or Parker.
Mary makes the connection and goes to mrs Wilson, who admits that she poisoned Sir William after realizing that Parks was her son, assuming correctly that he was there to murder his father.
She also reveals that she and mrs Croft are sisters.
mrs Croft kept her own baby from Sir William, who later died from scarlet fever, while mrs Wilson gave hers up, creating a lifelong rift between the two sisters.
Inspector Thompson decides to let everyone leave, as he has their addresses anyway.
The guests depart one by one, while mrs Croft comforts her grieving sister in private, putting to rest their feud.
<EOS>
In the year 1900, a British writer named Christian (Ewan McGregor), suffering from depression, begins writing on his typewriter ("Nature Boy").
As Christian narrates, the film flashes back to one year earlier upon Christian's move to the Montmartre district of Paris to become a writer among members of the area's Bohemian movement.
He soon discovers that his neighbours are a loose troupe of performers led by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo).
Toulouse-Lautrec and the others ask for Christian's help, and his writing skills allow them to finish their proposed show, "Spectacular Spectacular", that they wish to sell to the owner of the Moulin Rouge, Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent).
The group arrives at the Moulin Rouge as Zidler and his "Diamond Dog Dancers" perform for the audience ("Zidler's Rap Medley").
Toulouse arranges for Christian to see Satine (Nicole Kidman), the star courtesan, in her private quarters to present the work, unaware that Zidler is promising Satine to the wealthy and unscrupulous Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh), a potential investor in the cabaret ("Sparkling Diamonds").
Satine mistakes Christian for the Duke, and dances with him before retiring to her private chamber with him to discuss things confidentially ("Rhythm of the Night", "Meet Me in the Red Room"), but soon learns he is just a writer ("Your Song").
The Duke interrupts them; Christian and Satine claim they were practicing lines for "Spectacular Spectacular".
With Zidler's help, Toulouse and the rest of the troupe pitch the show to the Duke with an improvised plot about an evil maharajah attempting to woo an Indian courtesan who loves a poor sitar player ("The Pitch (Spectacular Spectacular)").
The Duke backs the show on the condition that only he may see Satine.
Satine contemplates on Christian and her longing to leave the Moulin Rouge to become "a real actress" ("One Day I'll Fly Away").
Christian goes back to Satine to convince her that they should be together, she eventually falls for him ("Elephant Love Medley").
As the cabaret is converted to a theater, Christian and Satine continue seeing each other under the pretense of rehearsing Satine's lines.
The Duke becomes suspicious of their frequent meetings and warns Zidler that he may stop financing the show; Zidler arranges for Satine to dine with the Duke that evening, but she falls ill from tuberculosis ("If I should die (Górecki)").
Zidler makes excuses to the Duke, claiming that Satine has gone to confession ("Like a Virgin").
Zidler learns that Satine does not have long to live.
Satine tells Christian that their relationship endangers the show, but he counters by writing a secret love song to affirm their love ("Come What May").
As the Duke watches Christian rehearsing with Satine, Nini, a jealous performer, points out that the play is a metaphor for Christian, Satine and the Duke.
Enraged, the Duke demands the ending be changed with the courtesan choosing the maharajah; Satine offers to spend the night with the Duke to keep the original ending.
At the Duke's quarters, Satine sees Christian on the streets below, and realizes she cannot sleep with the Duke.
("El Tango de Roxanne (Roxanne)").
The Duke attempts to rape her, but she is saved by Le Chocolat, one of the cabaret dancers.
Reunited with Christian, he urges her to run away with him.
The Duke tells Zidler he will have Christian killed if Satine is not his.
Zidler reiterates this warning to Satine, but when she refuses to return, he finally informs her she is dying ("A Fool to Believe").
Zidler tells Satine that to save Christian's life, she has to tell him that she will be staying with the Duke and she doesn't love him ("The Show Must Go On").
Christian tries following her, but is denied entry to the Moulin Rouge, and becomes depressed, even though Toulouse insists that Satine does love him.
The night of the show, Christian sneaks into the Moulin Rouge, intending to pay Satine to return his love just as the Duke paid for her ("Hindi Sad Diamonds").
He catches Satine before she steps on stage and demands she tell him she does not love him.
Suddenly they find themselves in the spotlight; Zidler improvises and convinces the audience that Christian is the sitar player in disguise.
Christian denounces Satine and walks off the stage.
From the rafters, Toulouse cries out, "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return", spurring Satine to sing the song Christian wrote to express their love.
Christian returns to the stage, joining her in the song and reaffirming his love for her.
The Duke orders his bodyguard to kill Christian, but is thwarted, while the Duke's own attempt is stopped by Zidler.
The Duke storms out of the cabaret as Christian and Satine complete their song ("Come What May (Reprise)", "Coup d'État (Finale)").
After the curtain closes, Satine succumbs to tuberculosis.
Before she dies, Christian and Satine affirm their love and she tells him to write their story.
A year later the Moulin Rouge has closed down, and Christian finishes writing the tale of his love for Satine, a "love that will live forever" ("Nature Boy (Reprise)").
<EOS>
Cries and Whispers takes place in a lavish mansion in the 19th century, filled with red carpets and white statuary.
It depicts the final days of Agnes (Harriet Andersson), who is near death due to cancer.
Her sisters Maria (Liv Ullmann) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin) have returned to the family home to be with her.
However the two women remain distant and awkward, struggling to comfort their sister while dealing with the shock and the fear of mortality Agnes' death may bring.
The deeply religious maid Anna (Kari Sylwan), whose own daughter died at an early age, is the only person in the house able to comfort the dying woman.
At length Agnes dies and during her wake the priest (Anders Ek) declares Agnes' faith was stronger than his own.
In a dream-like sequence that follows Agnes seemingly returns to life for a short moment and asks her sisters one last time for the love and care denied to her during her lifetime.
For a moment Karin, Maria and Agnes grow closer to each other, but this is short-lived when the two sisters realize that Agnes is actually dead, with Karin declaring such acts "morbid" and "disgusting".
Once again only Anna is able to embrace and comfort Agnes.
The film is characterized by flashbacks that visit the characters' lives and their memories, tracing each woman's personality to the childhood they spent together.
Maria remembers her affair with a handsome doctor juxtaposed with her failed marriage to her ineffectual husband; Agnes remembers her unrequited devotion to their distant mother; and Karin struggles with self-harm, self-mutilating her sexual organs to drive her husband away.
The last flashback, from the deceased Agnes' point of view, is narrated via her diary and shows her sisters descending upon the house clad in white, like angels.
The last words are Agnes whispering, "Come what may, this is happiness.
I cannot wish for anything better.
Now, for a few minutes, I can experience perfection.
And I feel profoundly grateful to my life, which gives me so much.
".
<EOS>
In 1957, explorer Stewart McAlden (Bill Ralston), leads his team out of Skull Island with a captured Sumatran Rat-Monkey &mdash; a hybrid creature that resulted from the rape of tree monkeys on the island by plague-carrying rats.
The team is stopped by warrior natives, who demand the return of the creature.
Stewart gets bitten by the Rat-Monkey during their escape to a waiting jeep.
Seeing the bite mark on Stewart's right hand, his men hold him down and amputate it.
A bite mark and scratches are then seen on his left arm and his head, respectively, and those parts are also removed.
The captured Rat-Monkey is shipped to Wellington Zoo in New Zealand.
Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme) lives with his domineering mother, Vera (Elizabeth Moody).
To Vera's dismay, Lionel falls in love with Spanish Romani shopkeeper's daughter, Paquita María Sánchez (Diana Peñalver).
While snooping on the two during a visit to the zoo, Vera is bitten by the rat-monkey.
The animal's bite turns her into a ravenous zombie.
Lionel tries keeping her locked in the basement while simultaneously trying to maintain his relationship with the oblivious Paquita.
Vera escapes and is hit by a tram.
As the townspeople assume she is dead, Lionel tranquilizes her to keep her still for the funeral.
After she is buried, he returns to the graveyard to administer more anesthetic, but encounters a gang of hoodlums.
Vera bursts from her grave, and kills the hoodlums, creating more zombies.
As their numbers grow, Lionel conceals them in his house, and struggles to keep them under relative control with tranquilizer injections.
Lionel's uncle Les (Ian Watkin) arrives to wrangle with Lionel over Vera's estate.
Discovering the "corpses," Les blackmails his nephew into giving up his inheritance.
Lionel reluctantly administers poison to the zombies to "kill" them and buries them.
However, the poison turns out to be a stimulant.
Meanwhile, Les invites his friends over for a housewarming party.
The zombies burst from the ground to attack the party guests.
Lionel informs Paquita and Les of the zombie outbreak.
Les escapes through a window while Lionel distracts the zombies from Paquita.
Les goes into the basement, where he encounters Vera, who has turned into a giant zombie.
She kills Les.
Lionel kills most of the zombies with a running lawnmower.
He and Paquita fight dozens of zombies and animated body parts.
During the conflict, an open gas pipe ignites, setting the house ablaze.
Lionel manages to kill all of the zombies in the house.
Vera, who has become a gargantuan monster with a grossly distorted head and huge breasts, emerges and pursues Lionel and Paquita to the rooftop.
Paquita is left hanging on to the edge of the roof while Lionel confronts his mother.
During the confrontation, it is revealed that Lionel witnessed Vera killing his father and his father's lover.
Vera causes Lionel to fall toward her as she opens her womb, engulfing him.
Vera then tries to kill Paquita by removing her hands from the roof.
Lionel cuts his way out of his mother's body, causing her to fall into the burning house.
Lionel and Paquita escape the building and walk away arm-in-arm as the fire department arrives.
<EOS>
On his birthday, middle-aged Henry Perkins is going home to Fulham on the underground, looking forward to his birthday dinner, for which he and his wife Jean have invited their old friends, Vic and Betty Johnson.
Nothing out of the ordinary has happened so far, but on the tube train he by mistake picks up a wrong briefcase without noticing it.
He gets off at Fulham Broadway, wants to get out his gloves and scarf and realises that he is actually carrying someone else's briefcase.
In it, he finds £735,000 in used £50 notes.
He goes to a pub and counts the money several times in one of the booths of the gents.
"Bent copper" Davenport—in plain clothes—watches the excited man and believes he has come to the pub to solicit men.
When Henry Perkins reaches his home, Vic and Betty are just arriving.
He is planning to just grab a few things and hurry off to Barcelona with his wife and the money, leaving his old life behind.
As it is Friday night, and he knows that it will take whoever has his own briefcase only till Monday morning to phone his office and get his address—and he wants to be long gone by then.
He knows very well that all the money in the briefcase must be part of some criminal transaction, so from a moral point of view he has no bad conscience whatsoever.
Foreseeably, unforeseeable events intervene.
While he is still explaining to his reluctant wife that they have to leave in a hurry, Davenport—whom Henry does not recognise from the pub—arrives and wants to have a talk with him.
Of course Henry thinks this is about the money, and a whole series of (deliberately) mistaken identities ensues, which also includes Vic and Betty, who are introduced to Davenport as relatives of the Perkinses on their way home to Australia.
Bill, the taxi driver Henry has called to drive his wife and himself to Heathrow, adds to the confusion.
At the same time, "Mr Nasty"—the man whose briefcase Henry accidentally took on the underground—is killed by "Mr Big"—the man he had criminal dealings with—and thrown into the Thames near Putney Bridge—which is quite close to Fulham --, together with Henry's briefcase (which contains, among other things, a cheese and chutney sandwich).
"Mr Big", a Dutchman who does not speak English, keeps phoning the Perkinses but remains monosyllabic throughout his calls ("Brerfcurse").
When Bill answers the phone, he gives the caller the exact address—not knowing what a big mistake he is making.
Immediately after the call, "Mr Big" starts walking towards the Perkinses' Fulham house.
In the meantime, another policeman arrives at the Perkinses': It is Slater (who does not know Davenport, neither personally nor by name), who has come to inform Jean Perkins that her husband's body has been fished out of the river (really mr Nasty, who happened to have Henry's briefcase with him when mr Big shot him).
He wants to take her with him to the mortuary to identify her husband.
This leads to yet another series of mistaken identities on top of the first one, with Henry Perkins—who is supposed to be dead, waiting to be identified—posing as his brother Freddy, also from Australia.
Slater is kept waiting endlessly—both outside and inside the house.
Jean, who used to be a teetotaller, is completely drunk by now since she has been hitting the brandy.
In the course of events, Davenport turns out to be a bent copper who demands ten percent of the money for keeping his mouth shut.
He is introduced to Slater as yet another brother of "Percy's" called Archie.
There is continuous coming and going and also one or two mix-ups as far as the briefcases are concerned.
As Jean still does not want to go to "Barlecona", Betty offers herself as Henry's travelling companion (and more).
It looks like wife-swapping to all of them, with Vic staying behind with Jean and her cat.
Eventually, however, they all decide to go to Barcelona, with Davenport joining the two couples as their bodyguard and Bill joining them as their gardener.
When they finally want to get away, "Mr Brerfcurse" arrives with a gun.
He has been slightly injured in a car accident caused by Bill in his taxi and Slater in his police car, both waiting round the corner.
Some shooting goes on in the house, but eventually the Dutchman can be overwhelmed.
An ambulance is called.
Henry Perkins confesses everything, including all the assumed identities, to Slater.
After Slater has arrested the Dutchman and led him away, Henry willy-nilly readjusts to the old status quo and wants to have his birthday dinner after all.
This is when Bill, the taxi driver, informs the two couples that he has secretly put the money into one of the suitcases.
The chicken is burned, but in the end they do have the money.
<EOS>
Bernard Lawrence (Tony Curtis) is an American journalist stationed in Paris, France.
A playboy, he has devised an ingenious system for juggling three different girlfriends: by dating stewardesses who are assigned to international routes on non-intersecting flight schedules, only one woman is in the country at any given time.
He has their comings and goings timetabled with such precision that he can drop off his British United Airways girlfriend (Suzanna Leigh) for her outgoing flight and pick up his inbound Lufthansa girlfriend (Christiane Schmidtmer) on the very same trip to the airport—while his Air France girlfriend (Dany Saval) is in a holding pattern elsewhere.
With help from his long-suffering housekeeper Bertha (Thelma Ritter)—who swaps the appropriate photos and food in and out of the apartment to match the incoming girlfriend—none of the ladies is aware of each other's presence in the apartment.
They regard Lawrence's flat as their "home" during their Paris layovers.
Bernard is so happy with his life in Paris that he intends to turn down an imminent promotion that would require him to move to New York City.
Bernard's life is turned upside down when his girlfriends' airlines begin putting new, state-of-the-art aircraft into service.
These faster airplanes change all of the existing route schedules and allow the stewardesses to spend more time in Paris.
Most alarming for Bernard, his three girlfriends will now all be in Paris at the same time.
Robert Reed (Jerry Lewis), a fellow journalist and an old acquaintance, complicates Bernard's life even further when he arrives in town and is unable to find a hotel room.
He insists on staying in Bernard's apartment for a few days.
When he sees Bernard's living situation, he schemes to take over Bernard's apartment, his girls, his housekeeper, and Bernard's Paris job while manipulating him into taking the new job in New York.
<EOS>
Prior, despite his new-found peace of mind and engagement to munitions worker Sarah, has been affected by the war and therefore does not have a lot of concern for his safety.
Prior has been cured of shell-shock and is preparing to return to France.
Prior experiences numerous and risky sexual encounters; his only rule is that he never pays for sex - a rule he eventually breaks.
Rivers, concerned for Prior's safety, finally recognises that his relationship with Prior, and his other patients for that matter, is deeply paternal.
In contrast with upper-class officers like Sassoon, with whom Rivers has been able to form warm friendships, he has always found Prior to be a thorn in his side.
As Prior returns to the front, Rivers continues to take care of his patients and his invalid sister, amid this he reminisces uncomfortably about his childhood and memories of his experience ten years earlier on an anthropological expedition to Simbo in the Solomon Islands in Melanesia, then called Eddystone Island).
There, he befriended Nijiru, the local priest-healer who took Rivers on his rounds to see sick villagers and also to the island's sacred Place of the Skulls.
With him on the expedition was Arthur Maurice Hocart.
This episode is a symbolic capitulation to the inevitability of Prior's death at the Western Front, a fate he shares with the poet Wilfred Owen.
In a futile battle that takes place a few days before the Armistice, Billy and his friend Owen are killed.
<EOS>
In 1284, while the town of Hamelin was suffering from a rat infestation, a piper dressed in multicolored clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher.
He promised the mayor a solution to their problem with the rats.
The mayor, in turn, promised to pay him for the removal of the rats.
(According to some versions of the story, the promised sum was 1000 guilders) The piper accepted and played his pipe to lure the rats into the Weser River, where all but one drowned.
Despite the piper's success, the mayor reneged on his promise and refused to pay him the full sum (reputedly reduced to a sum of 50 guilders) even going so far as to hint that he brought the rats himself in an extortion attempt.
The piper left the town angrily, vowing to return later to take revenge.
On Saint John and Paul's day, while the Hamelinites were in church, the piper returned dressed in green like a hunter playing his pipe.
In so doing, he attracted the town's children.
One hundred and thirty children followed him out of town and into a cave and were never seen again.
Depending on the version, at most three children remained behind: one was lame and could not follow quickly enough, the second was deaf and therefore could not hear the music, and the last was blind and unable to see where he was going.
These three informed the villagers of what had happened when they came out from church.
Other versions relate that the Pied Piper led the children to the top of Koppelberg Hill, where he took them to a beautiful land and had his wicked way, or a place called Koppenberg Mountain, or Transylvania, or that he made them walk into the Weser as he did with the rats, and they all drowned.
Some versions state that the Piper returned the children after payment, or that he returned the children after the villagers paid several times the original amount of gold.
<EOS>
At a circus midway, the penniless and hungry Tramp (Chaplin) is mistaken for a condemnable pickpocket and chased by both the police and the real crook (the latter having stashed a stolen wallet and watch in the Tramp's pocket to avoid detection).
Running away, the Tramp stumbles into the middle of a performance and unknowingly becomes the hit of the show.
The ringmaster/proprietor of the struggling circus gives him a tryout the next day, but the Tramp fails miserably.
However, when the property men quit because they have not been paid, he gets hired on the spot to take their place.
Once again, he inadvertently creates comic mayhem during a show.
The ringmaster craftily hires him as a poorly paid property man.
The Tramp befriends Merna (Kennedy), a horse rider who is treated badly by her ringmaster stepfather.
She later informs the Tramp that he is the star of the show, forcing the ringmaster to pay him accordingly.
With the circus thriving because of him, the Tramp also is able to secure better treatment for Merna.
After overhearing a fortune teller inform Merna that she sees "love and marriage with a dark, handsome man who is near you now", the overjoyed Tramp buys a ring from another clown.
Alas for him, she meets Rex (Crocker), the newly hired tightrope walker.
The Tramp eavesdrops as she rushes to tell the fortune teller that she has fallen in love with the new man.
With his heart broken, the Tramp is unable to entertain the crowds.
After several poor performances, the ringmaster warns him he has only one more chance.
When Rex cannot be found for a performance, the ringmaster (knowing that the Tramp has been practicing the tightrope act in hopes of supplanting his rival) sends the Tramp out in his place.
Despite a few mishaps, including several mischievous escaped monkeys, he manages to survive the experience.
However, when he sees the ringmaster slapping Merna around afterward, he beats the man and is fired.
Merna runs away to join him.
The Tramp finds and brings Rex back with him to marry Merna.
The trio go back to the circus.
The ringmaster starts berating his stepdaughter, but stops when Rex informs him that she is his wife.
When the traveling circus leaves, the Tramp remains behind.
He picks himself up and starts walking jauntily away.
<EOS>
Thunderbolt Jim Lang (George Bancroft (actor)), wanted on robbery and murder charges, ventures out with his girl, "Ritzy" (Fay Wray), to a Harlem nightclub, where she informs him that she is going straight.
During a raid on the club, Thunderbolt escapes.
His gang shadows Ritzy and reports that she is living with mrs Moran (Eugenie Besserer), whose son, Bob (Richard Arlen), a bank clerk, is in love with Ritzy.
Fearing for Bob's safety, Ritzy engineers a police trap for Thunderbolt; he escapes but is later captured, tried, and sentenced to be executed at Sing Sing.
From the death house, he successfully plots to frame Bob in a bank robbery and killing.
Bob is placed in the facing cell, and guards frustrate Thunderbolt's attempts to get to his rival.
When Ritzy marries Bob in the death house, Thunderbolt confesses his part in Bob's conviction.
He plots to kill the boy on the night of his execution, but instead at the last minute his hand falls on Bob's shoulder in a gesture of friendship.
<EOS>
A small plane carrying three British citizens — Major Crespin (HB.
Warner), his estranged wife Lucilla (Alice Joyce), and pilot dr Traherne (Ralph Forbes) — becomes lost and is forced to crash land in the tiny realm of Rukh, somewhere near the Himalaya Mountains.
The Raja (George Arliss) who rules the land welcomes them.
However, as his three brothers are soon to be executed for murder by the British, his subjects believe that their Green Goddess has delivered into their hands three victims for their revenge.
The three are to be killed once the brothers are dead.
The Raja professes to his guests no great love for his brothers, as they had posed a danger to the succession of his own children, but sees no reason to anger his people.
However, he becomes attracted to Lucilla and offers to spare her life if she will become his wife.
She refuses.
The prisoners become aware that the Raja has a telegraph, operated by the Raja's renegade British exile and chief assistant, Watkins (Ivan Simpson).
Hoping to send for help, they try to bribe Watkins, but when they realize he is only leading them on, they throw him off the balcony to his death.
Major Crespin manages to send a message before the Raja's men break into the room.
The Raja personally shoots Crespin in the back, killing him in mid-transmission.
The next day, Traherne and Lucilla are taken to the temple of the Green Goddess.
Once more, the Raja renews his offer to Lucilla, but is again turned down.
Given a moment alone, Traherne and Lucilla confess their love for each other.
Then, in the nick of time, six British biplanes appear in the skies over Rukh.
lt Cardew (Reginald Sheffield) lands and demands the release of the couple.
The Raja gives in.
<EOS>
Pierre Mirande (Maurice Chevalier), is a Venetian tour guide from a poor French family who falls in love with Barbara Billings (Claudette Colbert), a wealthy American tourist whose father (George Barbier).
Although Barbara loves Pierre as well, her suitor, Ronnie (Frank Lyon) and her father see him as a fortune-hunter.
Barbara's mother (Marion Ballou) persuades her husband to give Pierre a job in his chewing-gum factory in the States.
Despite living in a dingy boardinghouse and being given the hardest job in the plant, he manages to captivate his landlady (Andrée Corday) and the maid (Elaine Koch) with his humorous songs.
Unfortunately, he falls asleep on the night he is to attend Barbara's party, and is then fired when he is wrongly accused of spilling rum on some chewing gum samples.
He wins back his job, and is promoted as well, when he sells liquor-coated chewing gum as a sales gimmick.
Barbara disapproves, and plans to marry Ronnie, but Pierre whisks her away in a speedboat.
<EOS>
In the 5th century AD, a Christian mob threatens the home of a magician in Hellenistic Egypt.
He tells his daughter Promethea to flee into the desert, hoping the gods of the ancient world will preserve her.
The story shifts to New York City in the late 20th century.
Sophie Bangs is hoping to interview a woman named Barbara Shelley for a college paper on "Promethea", a character who seems to recur in literature and pop culture through the centuries.
Shelley is hostile to her and warns, "You don't wanna go looking for folklore.
And you especially don't want folklore to come looking for you".
After departing, Sophie is tracked and attacked by a creature known as a Smee.
Just as things look bleakest for Sophie, she is rescued by Barbara, who has mystical powers and is now dressed as Promethea.
She informs Sophie that the only reason she would be attacked is if someone suspects she will become the next vessel for Promethea (Barbara is the current).
It turns out that Promethea is called to the world when someone uses their imagination to make her real.
As they hide from the pursuing Smee, the weakened and fatally injured Barbara instructs Sophie to write a poem about Promethea hoping Sophie is indeed the successor and the creative expression is a way to get Sophie in the correct state of mind to allow herself to become Promethea.
Barbara's idea works and from that night Sophie, having defeated the Smee, becomes the next Promethea.
The story continues with Sophie/Promethea learning about Promethea and the previous individuals who have in the past been the vessels for Promethea.
In the days that follow, the hospital where Barbara lies is attacked by demons, an act that leads to Barbara's death.
This motivates Sophie to learn more about magic, mysticism and the Tree of Life and its spheres in order to find Barbara and help her seek Steve Shelly, Barbara's dead husband.
Throughout their climb up the spheres of Tree of Life Sophie/Promethea and Barbara encounter difficulties such as imprisonment by the demon Asmodeus, as well as meeting figures such as Sophie's father Juan (who died when she was little), Barbara's guardian angel Boo Boo and Promethea's father, who she has not seen since his murder in 411D.
Eventually Barbara and Steve find each other and are re-incarnated as twins (who Sophie ends up looking after at the end of the book).
Having been gone a whole summer, Sophie is unaware the FBI has been tracking Promethea, and want to take her into custody for the events Promethea has caused throughout the years.
Moments before the FBI arrives, Sophie's mother instructs her to run away (just as Promethea's father had centuries earlier).
Three years pass and Sophie, having abandoned her duties as Promethea, hides in Millennium City under the alias Joey Estrada with new boyfriend Carl.
However, after being found by the FBI and Tom Strong, Sophie reluctantly becomes Promethea and in turn carries out one final task; bringing about the end of the world.
<EOS>
Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, a demobilized British captain bored of civilian life, places a personal advertisement in The Times offering his services for "any excitement".
One of the many replies intrigues him; Phyllis Benton claims she is in great danger.
He immediately sets out for the Green Bay Inn, where she has reserved some rooms for him.
Unable to persuade him to give up this mad adventure, his friend Algy Longworth follows after, dragging Drummond's valet, Danny, along.
Phyllis turns out to be all Drummond had hoped for: beautiful and desperately in need of help.
Her wealthy uncle, John Travers, is being treated in a hospital by a dr Lakington for a nervous breakdown, but she is sure there is something wrong about the hospital and dr Lakington, and that she is being watched constantly.
She runs away when she spots the outline of two eavesdropping men (Algy and Danny), much to Drummond's annoyance.
She is caught and taken to dr Lakington's Nursing Home by Carl Peterson, Irma and the doctor.
When Drummond follows, he witnesses Travers' unsuccessful attempt to escape.
Drummond drives away, but returns stealthily and rescues Phyllis.
Sending her off with Algy and Danny, he sneaks back once more and overhears Irma convince the others to stay and try to get Travers' signature on a document transferring securities and jewels to them.
Drummond manages to save Travers.
However, he makes a serious error when he takes Travers back to the inn.
The villains soon arrive there.
Drummond manages to disguise himself as Travers; the crooks take him back, along with Phyllis.
When they realise they have the wrong man, they threaten to torture Phyllis.
Drummond tells them Travers is hidden at the inn (whereas he is really being driven to London).
While Peterson and Irma go to check, Drummond is freed by Phyllis before Lakington can kill him.
He strangles the doctor.
Drummond disarms Peterson when he returns, but his gang pose as policemen and take him away.
Phyllis persuades Drummond to let them go, telling him she loves him.
<EOS>
The story takes place in Russia in the year 1910.
Yegor (Lawrence Tibbett), a dashing (as well as singing) bandit leader meets Princess Vera (Catherine Dale Owen) at a mountain inn.
They fall in love, but the relationship is shattered when Yegor kills Vera's brother, Prince Serge, for raping his sister, Nadja, and driving her to suicide.
Yegor kidnaps Vera, forcing her to live a life of lowly servitude among the bandits.
Vera manages to outwit Yegor, who is captured by soldiers and flogged.
Vera begs Yegor's forgiveness.
Although still in love with each other, they realize they cannot be together, at least for the time being.
<EOS>
The series depicts the social and family life of a boy in a typical American suburban middle-class family from 1968 to 1973, covering the ages of 12 through 17.
Each year in the series takes place exactly 20 years before airing (1988 to 1993).
The show's plot centers on Kevin Arnold, son of Jack and Norma Arnold.
Kevin's father holds a management job at NORCOM, a defense contractor, while his mother is a housewife.
Kevin also has an older brother, Wayne, and an older sister, Karen.
Two of Kevin's friends and neighbors are prominently featured throughout the series: his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer, and his crush-turned-girlfriend Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper.
Storylines are told through Kevin's reflections as an adult in his mid-30s, voiced by narrator Daniel Stern.
In the pilot episode, Winnie's older brother Brian, whom Kevin admires, is killed in action in Vietnam in 1968.
Kevin meets Winnie in a nearby wooded area called Harpers Woods.
This unsaid relationship between Winnie and Kevin remains dormant for a long while, with Winnie starting to date a popular 8th grader named Kirk McCray, and Kevin briefly going steady with Becky Slater.
After Kevin breaks up with Becky due to his feelings for Winnie, Becky becomes a recurring nuisance for Kevin.
Winnie eventually dumps Kirk as well, and Kevin and Winnie share a second kiss at the start of the 1969 summer vacation.
Around st Valentine's Day 1970, Winnie temporarily dates Paul, who has broken up with his girlfriend Carla.
Winnie and Kevin start dating each other soon after.
Just before the summer break, Winnie and her family move to a house four miles away.
Although Winnie attends a new school, Lincoln Junior High, she and Kevin decide to remain together and maintain a successful long distance relationship.
A beautiful new student named Madeline Adams joins Kevin's school and quickly catches Kevin's eye, but it is Winnie who breaks up with Kevin after meeting Roger, a jock at her new school.
Neither relationship lasts long, but Winnie and Kevin don't reunite until she is injured in a car crash.
After graduating from junior high, Kevin and Winnie both go to McKinley High and Paul attends a prep school.
Paul would later transfer to McKinley High and join Kevin and Winnie.
Earlier seasons of the show tended to focus on plots involving events within the Arnold household and Kevin's academic struggles, whereas later seasons focused much more on plots involving dating and Kevin's friends.
Kevin has several brief flings during the summer of 1971 and the 1971-1972 academic year.
After Kevin's grandfather gets his driver's license revoked, he sells his car to Kevin for a dollar.
Paul transfers to McKinley High after his first semester at prep school when his father runs into financial troubles.
Wayne decides to join the army as a result of his inability to do well in school.
This gets turned around when Wayne isn't able to get his physical.
Winnie and Kevin are reunited when they go on a double date to a school dance and find themselves more attracted to each other than their respective partners.
In late 1972, Kevin's older brother Wayne starts working at NORCOM, and dates his co-worker Bonnie, a divorcée with a son, but the relationship does not last.
Kevin's father quits NORCOM, and buys a furniture manufacturing business.
In the series finale double episode, Winnie decides to take a job for the summer of 1973 as a lifeguard at a resort.
Kevin, meanwhile, is at his job at his father's furniture factory and calls Winnie, who by all accounts is distant and seems to be enjoying her time away from Kevin.
Eventually, Kevin and his father fight and Kevin announces that he is leaving, reasoning that he needs to "find himself".
Kevin hops in his car and heads to the resort where Winnie is working, hopeful that she can secure him a job and they can spend the rest of the summer together.
Kevin eventually secures a job at the resort, and plays a round of poker with the in-house band.
He wins big, and goes out to search for Winnie to tell her of his good fortune.
To his surprise, he sees Winnie engaged in a passionate kiss with another lifeguard.
The next day, Kevin confronts her actions, and they fight.
Kevin then plays another round of poker, losing his car in a bet in the process.
Desperate, Kevin confronts Winnie and her new beau at the restaurant and ends up punching him in the face.
Kevin then leaves the resort on foot.
On a desolate stretch of highway, Kevin decides to begin hitchhiking.
He finally gets picked up by an elderly couple and much to his surprise he finds Winnie in the backseat.
Winnie was fired over the fight Kevin instigated at the resort.
Kevin and Winnie begin to argue and the elderly couple gets fed up and kicks them out of the car.
A flash rain storm begins and Kevin and Winnie search for shelter.
They find a barn and discuss how much things are changing and the prospects for the future.
They make up and kiss passionately.
(It is loosely implied that the two lose their virginity with each other)  The narrator's monologue states   They soon find their way back to their home town and arrive hand-in-hand to a Fourth of July parade.
During this parade, the adult Kevin (Daniel Stern) describes the fate of the show's main characters: Kevin makes up with his father, graduates from high school in 1974, and leaves for college, later becoming a writer.
Paul studies law at Harvard.
Karen, Kevin's sister, gives birth to a son in September 1973.
Kevin's mother becomes a businesswoman and corporate board chairwoman.
Kevin's father dies in 1975, and Wayne takes over his father's furniture business.
Winnie studies art history in Paris while Kevin stays in the United States.
Winnie and Kevin end up writing to each other once a week for the next eight years.
When Winnie returns to the United States in 1982, Kevin meets her at the airport with his wife and eight-month-old son.
The final sounds, voice-over narration, and dialogue of the episode and series is that of Kevin (voice of Daniel Stern), with children heard in the background: A little boy (Stern's real life son) can be heard asking his dad to come out and play catch during a break in the final narration.
Kevin's narrative responds, "I'll be right there" as the episode—and series—closes.
In 2011, the finale was ranked #11 on the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales.
<EOS>
Film historian Ina Bertrand suggests that the tone of The Story of the Kelly Gang is "one of sorrow, depicting Ned Kelly and his gang as the last of the bushrangers".
Bertrand identifies several scenes that suggest considerable film making sophistication on the part of the Taits.
One is the composition of a scene of police shooting parrots in the bush.
The second is the capture of Ned, shot from the viewpoint of the police, as he advances.
A copy of the programme booklet has survived, containing a synopsis of the film, in six 'scenes'.
The latter provided audiences with the sort of information later provided by intertitles, and can help historians imagine what the entire film may have been like.
According to the synopsis given in the surviving programme, the film originally comprised six sequences.
These provided a loose narrative based on the Kelly gang story.
Some confusion regarding the plot has emerged as a result of a variant poster dating from the time the film was re-released in 1910.
The similar (but different) photos suggest that either the film was being added to for its re-release, or an entirely new version was made by Johnson and Gibson, as the poster proclaims.
In addition, a film fragment (" the Perth fragment ") exists, showing Aaron Sherritt being shot in front of an obviously painted canvas flat.
This is now thought to be from a different film altogether, perhaps a cheap imitation of The Story of the Kelly Gang made by a theatrical company, keen to cash in on the success of the original, or an earlier bushranger short.
<EOS>
The album consists of two disks, which correspond roughly to the two "books" of Wells' novel.
In a prologue, the Journalist notes that in the late 19th century few people had even considered the possible existence of extraterrestrial life, and yet, planet Earth had in fact long been enviously observed by advanced beings.
The Journalist's account begins with the sighting of several bursts of green gas which, for ten consecutive nights, erupt from the surface of Mars and appear to approach Earth.
Ogilvy, an astronomer convinced that no life could exist on Mars, assures the Journalist there is no danger.
Eventually something crashes onto Horsell Common, and in the resulting crater Ogilvy discovers a glowing cylinder, the top of which begins to unscrew.
When this lid falls off, a Martian creature emerges.
By now a crowd has gathered on the common, and when a group of inquisitive men approach the cylinder they are incinerated by the Heat-Ray—an advanced Martian weapon.
The Journalist flees with the crowd.
Later, hammering sounds are heard from the pit.
A company of soldiers is deployed at the common, and that evening an injured and exhausted Artilleryman wanders into the Journalist's house and tells him his comrades have been killed by fighting machines—tripod vehicles built and controlled by Martians, each armed with its own Heat-Ray.
They set off for London—the Journalist to ensure his lover Carrie is safe, the Artilleryman to report to headquarters—but are soon caught in crossfire between soldiers and Martians and separated.
Three days later the Journalist arrives at Carrie's house but finds it empty.
He resolves to escape London by boat and later catches sight of Carrie aboard a steamer, but the gangplank is raised before he can join her.
Fighting machines then approach, threatening the steamer, but they are engaged by the Royal Navy battleship Thunder Child and two are destroyed.
The steamer escapes, but Thunder Child and her crew are melted by heat-rays, leaving England defenceless against the invasion.
The wandering Journalist discovers that red weed—the vegetation that gives Mars its colour—has taken root on Earth and spread rapidly across the landscape.
In a churchyard he encounters the Parson Nathaniel and his wife Beth.
The trio take refuge in a nearby cottage that is soon surrounded by black smoke—a Martian chemical weapon.
Nathaniel, driven mad by his experiences, blames himself for the invasion and believes the invaders are demons arising from human evil.
As Beth attempts to restore his faith in humanity, a Martian cylinder crashes into the cottage and she is buried under the rubble.
The newly-arrived Martians construct a handling machine: a squat, spider-like vehicle used to capture and collect humans.
After nine days hiding in the ruins, the Journalist and Nathaniel see the Martians 'eating'—harvesting human blood and injecting it into their own veins.
Nathaniel resolves to confront the 'demons', believing that he has been chosen to destroy them with his prayers and holy cross.
The Journalist knocks him unconscious to silence his ravings, but the Martians are already alerted.
A mechanical claw explores the cottage and drags Nathaniel away.
Eventually the Martians abandon their camp and the Journalist continues his journey to London.
He again encounters the Artilleryman, who is planning a subterranean utopia that would allow humans to evade the Martians and ultimately strike back with reverse-engineered fighting machines.
The Journalist, however, realising the Artilleryman's ambitions far exceed his abilities, soon leaves.
Upon reaching London he finds it desolate and empty.
Driven to suicide by intense despair and loneliness, he surrenders to a fighting machine but realises it is inert, the Martian inside dead.
In his epilogue, the Journalist reports that the Martians were defeated by Earth's bacteria—to which they had no resistance—and that, as humanity recovered from the invasion, he was reunited with Carrie.
But, he says, the question remains: is Earth now safe, or are the Martians learning from their failures and preparing a second invasion.
In a second epilogue set in the near future, a NASA mission to Mars flounders when the control centre loses contact with the craft.
The controller sees a green flare erupt from Mars's surface.
<EOS>
The story involves the people of Mars, including Momar ("Mom Martian") and Kimar ("King Martian").
They're worried that their children Girmar ("Girl Martian") and Bomar ("Boy Martian") are watching too much Earth television, most notably station KID-TV's interview with Santa Claus in his workshop at the North Pole.
Consulting the ancient 800-year-old Martian sage Chochem (a Yiddish word meaning "genius"), they are advised that the children of Mars are growing distracted due to the society's overly rigid structure; from infancy, all their education is fed into their brains through machines and they are not allowed individuality or freedom of thought.
Chochem notes that he had seen this coming "for centuries", and says the only way to help the children is to allow them their freedom and be allowed to have fun.
To do this, they need a Santa Claus figure, like on Earth.
Leaving the Chochem's cave, the Martian leaders decide to abduct Santa Claus from Earth and bring him to Mars.
As the Martians could not distinguish between all the fake Santas, they kidnapped two children to find the real one.
Once this is accomplished, one Martian, Voldar, who strongly disagrees with the idea, repeatedly tries to kill Santa Claus along with the two kidnapped Earth children.
He believes that Santa is corrupting the children of Mars and turning them away from Mars' original glory.
When they arrive on Mars, Santa and the children build a factory to make toys for the children.
However, Voldar and his assistants, Stobo and Shim, sabotage the factory and change the programming so that it makes the toys incorrectly.
Meanwhile, Dropo, Kimar's assistant, has taken a great liking to Santa Claus and Christmas, puts on one of Santa's spare suits and starts acting like Santa Claus.
He goes to the toy factory to make toys, but Voldar mistakes him for Santa and kidnaps him.
When Santa and the children come back to the factory to make more toys, they discover the machines have been tampered with.
Voldar and Stobo come back to the factory to make a deal with Kimar, but when they see the real Santa Claus they realize that their plan has been foiled.
Dropo, held hostage in a cave, tricks his guard Shim and escapes.
Kimar then arrests Voldar, Stobo and Shim.
Santa notices Dropo acts like him, and says that Dropo would make a good Martian Santa.
Kimar agrees to let Dropo be the Martian Santa Claus and sends Santa and the children back to Earth.
<EOS>
Several screens of text giving some background are shown before a bust is shown flying over a palace wall and shattering into countless pieces.
The film shows the story of a bereaved Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and her relationship with a Scottish servant, John Brown (Billy Connolly), and the subsequent uproar it provoked.
Brown had been a trusted servant of Victoria's then deceased and beloved Prince Consort, Prince Albert; Victoria's Household thought Brown might help to ease an inconsolable Queen since the Prince Consort's death in 1861.
In 1863, hoping to subtly coax the Queen toward resuming public life after years of seclusion, Mr Brown is summoned to court.
The plan succeeds a little too well for the servants' liking, especially Victoria's chief secretary Sir Henry Ponsonby (Geoffrey Palmer) and The Prince of Wales (David Westhead) as well as other members of the Royal family; the public, press and politicians soon come to resent Brown's perceived influence over the queen.
Brown takes considerable liberties with court protocol, especially by addressing Her Majesty as "woman".
He also quickly takes control over the Queen's daily activities, further aggravating the tensions between himself and the royal family and servants.
The moniker "Mrs Brown", used both at the time and in the film, implied an improper, and perhaps sexual, relationship.
The film does not directly address the contemporary suspicions that the Queen and Brown had had a sexual relationship and perhaps had even secretly married (see the article on Brown), though cartoons from the satirical magazine Punch are shown as being passed around in Parliament (only one of the cartoons is revealed to the camera, showing an empty throne, with the sceptre lying unhanded across it).
As a result of Victoria's virtual recluse, especially at Balmoral Castle in Scotland (something initially encouraged by Brown), her popularity begins failing and republican sentiment begins growing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (Antony Sher) has a weakening hold over the House of Commons and a fear of rising anti-monarchical sentiment in the country.
He persuades Brown to use his influence with the Queen to persuade her to return to the performance of her public duties, especially the speech from the throne at the impending opening of Parliament.
Brown is reluctant to do so, rightly fearing that Victoria will take this as a personal betrayal.
When Brown urges Victoria to return to London and fulfill her public duties, an argument ensues.
Feeling betrayed by Brown, the Queen becomes enraged.
When Brown once again refers to her as "woman", she sharply rebukes him.
Leaving the room, she turns to Ponsonby and Jenner requesting that they serve her needs, clearly reducing Mr Brown's contact and influence over her.
Their relationship was never to be the same again.
The Queen's eventual acquiescence and her decision to return to public life eventually leads to a revitalisation of her popularity and a resurgence in public support of the monarchy.
Brown continues to serve Queen Victoria until his death in 1883.
In his final years, his duties become reduced to head of security.
The palace staff has become weary of Brown's dogmatic ways and they mock and rebuke his security efforts as paranoid delusions.
Finally, during a public event, a gun-wielding assassin appears out of the crowd leaping toward the royal family.
An ever-vigilant Brown successfully thwarts the assassination attempt.
At dinner the next evening, the Prince of Wales retells the story, bragging to their dinner companions that he had been the one to warn Brown of the assassin.
Seeing through her son's bragging, the Queen announces instead that a special medal for bravery, the "Devoted Service Medal," will be minted and awarded to Brown.
Some years later, Brown becomes gravely ill with pneumonia after chasing through the woods late at night searching for a possible intruder.
Hearing of Brown's illness, the Queen visits his room and is visibly shaken to see her old friend so ill.
Placing a cool damp cloth against Brown's fevered brow, she confesses that she has not been as good a friend as she might have been in recent years.
It is clear that her apology is accepted by Brown.
The pneumonia proves fatal for Brown and he passes away.
During his years of service, Brown had kept a diary and, upon his passing, Ponsonby and dr Jenner discuss its contents stating that it must never be seen by anyone.
Holding the diary at his side, Ponsonby walks away and it's implied that the diary will be destroyed or will disappear.
dr Jenner also reveals that the Prince of Wales has hurled the Queen's favourite bust of Brown up and over the palace wall, referencing the film's opening sequence.
The film's closing crawl notes that "John Brown's diary was never found".
<EOS>
The book centers on Rosemary Woodhouse, a young woman who has just moved into the Bramford, an old Gothic Revival style New York City apartment building with her husband, Guy, a struggling actor.
The pair is warned that the Bramford has a disturbing history involving witchcraft and murder, but they choose to overlook this.
Rosemary has wanted children for some time, but Guy wants to wait until he is more established.
Rosemary and Guy are quickly welcomed to the Bramford by neighbors Minnie and Roman Castevet, an eccentric elderly couple.
Rosemary finds them meddlesome and absurd, but Guy begins paying them frequent visits.
After a theatrical rival suddenly goes blind, Guy is given an important part in a stage play.
Immediately afterward, Guy unexpectedly agrees with Rosemary that it is time to conceive their first child.
Guy's performance in the stage play brings him favorable notice and he is subsequently cast in other, increasingly important roles; he soon begins to talk about a career in Hollywood.
After receiving a warning from a friend, who also becomes mysteriously ill, Rosemary discovers that her neighbors are the leaders of a Satanic coven, and she suspects they intend to steal her child and use it as a sacrifice to the Devil.
Despite her growing conviction, she is unable to convince anyone else and soon becomes certain that there is no one actually on her side, least of all her own husband.
Ultimately, Rosemary finds that she is wrong about the coven's reason for wanting the baby — the baby that she delivers is the Antichrist, and Guy is not actually the father.
Satan is.
<EOS>
In 1914, aliens known as Mondoshawans arrive at an ancient Egyptian temple to collect, for safekeeping concerning World War I, the only weapon capable of defeating a great evil that appears every 5,000&nbsp;years.
The weapon consists of four stones, containing the energies of the four classical elements, and a sarcophagus containing a fifth element in the form of a human, which combines the power of the other four elements into a divine light capable of defeating the evil.
The Mondoshawans promise their human contact, a priest from a secret order, that they will come back with the element stones in time to stop the great evil when it returns.
In 2263, the great evil appears in deep space in the form of a giant ball of black fire, and destroys an attacking Earth spaceship.
The Mondoshawans’ current contact on Earth, priest Vito Cornelius, informs the President of the Federated Territories of the history of the great evil and the weapon that can stop it.
As the Mondoshawans return to Earth they are ambushed by Mangalores, a race hired by the industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, who has been directed by the great evil (sending messages as “Mister Shadow”) to acquire the stones.
The Mondoshawans’ spacecraft is destroyed, though the stones are not on board; the only item recovered is a hand of The Fifth Element.
Scientists take it to a New York City laboratory and use it to reconstruct a powerful humanoid woman who takes the name Leeloo.
Terrified of the unfamiliar surroundings, she breaks out of confinement and jumps off a high ledge, crashing into the flying taxicab of Korben Dallas, a former major in the special forces.
Dallas delivers Leeloo to Cornelius and his apprentice, David, whereupon Cornelius learns that the Mondoshawans entrusted the four element stones to the alien Diva Plavalaguna, an opera singer.
Zorg kills many of the Mangalores because of their failure to obtain the stones, but their compatriots determine to seize the artifacts for themselves.
Upon learning from the Mondoshawans that the stones are in Plavalaguna’s possession, General Munro, Dallas’ former superior, recommissions Dallas and orders him to travel undercover to meet Plavalaguna on a luxury intergalactic cruise; Dallas takes Leeloo with him.
Meanwhile, Cornelius instructs David to prepare the ancient temple designed to house the stones, then stows away on the space plane transporting Dallas to the cruise liner.
Plavalaguna is killed when the Mangalores attack the cruise ship, but Dallas succeeds in retrieving the stones from the Diva.
During his struggle with the Mangalores he kills their leader.
Meanwhile, Zorg shoots and seriously wounds Leeloo, before finding a carrying case that he presumes contains the stones and takes it back to his spacecraft, leaving behind a time bomb that forces the liner’s occupants to evacuate.
Discovering the case to be empty, Zorg returns to the ship and deactivates his bomb, but a dying Mangalore sets off his own device, destroying the ship and killing Zorg.
Dallas, Cornelius, Leeloo, and talk-show host Ruby Rhod escape with the stones aboard Zorg’s spacecraft.
The four join up with David at the weapon chamber in the Egyptian temple as the great evil approaches.
They arrange the stones and activate them with their corresponding elements, but having witnessed and studied so much violence, Leeloo has become disenchanted with humanity and refuses to cooperate.
Dallas confesses his love for Leeloo and kisses her.
In response, Leeloo combines the power of the stones and releases the divine light on the great evil and destroying its power, causing the planet to be proclaimed dead by Earth scientists as it becomes another moon in Earth orbit.
<EOS>
Architects Oscar Novak (Perry) and Peter Steinberg (Platt) have just landed a career-making opportunity to design of a multimillion dollar cultural center for wealthy businessman Charles Newman (McDermott).
In a ploy for publicity, Newman has pitched Oscar and Peter in a neck-and-neck competition with their archrivals and former colleagues, the hugely successful Decker and Strauss (Bob Balaban and John McGinley).
When Newman meets Oscar and Peter, he assumes that they are lovers, even though Oscar is straight.
(Peter is in fact gay, but his relationship with Oscar is strictly platonic) Under the mistaken impression that Oscar is gay, he asks Oscar to keep an eye on his mistress Amy (Campbell) and make sure that she doesn't talk to his wife.
Oscar falls for Amy virtually on sight, but she thinks he's gay.
He is forced to maintain the charade to avoid getting into trouble with Newman, and losing the commission.
Matters become complicated when a news article about Oscar and Peter's supposed relationship is published in a newspaper, leaving Oscar in the increasingly frustrating position of having to fend off advances from various gay men while convincing his friends and family that he is simply pretending to be gay.
Amy even sets him up on a date with her ex-boyfriend, football player Kevin Cartwright (Cylk Cozart), but Oscar manages to defuse the situation by saying that he's in love with someone else.
Despite the embarrassing misconceptions, Oscar forms a close bond with Amy as they continue to spend time together-to the extent that Amy moves in with him after she is kicked out of her apartment.
At the final presentation for the cultural center, Oscar and Peter receive the commission, but Oscar is simultaneously told that he has won the award for Gay Professional Man of the Year, with Newman deciding that he will reveal his decision after the ceremony.
After an awkward meeting between Amy and Newman's wife at the party, she and Oscar go to a bar.
Amy leaves in frustration after she nearly kisses him, prompting a brief argument between her and Oscar where Oscar states that her relationship with Newman has no future.
After spending the day alone, Oscar attends the award ceremony for Gay Professional Man of the Year.
Although he initially continues his charade, while looking out at the people before him, he instead makes a passionate speech about how he admires all the men and women here who were able to tell the truth to their families about how they feel, ending the speech by "coming out of the closet" as he admits that he's straight and in love with Amy.
As he is applauded for having the courage to admit the truth, he runs after Amy, only for her to punch both him and Newman and storming out.
Peter then awkwardly accepts the prize that comes with the award: a date with Kevin.
However, as Oscar sits in a restaurant where he and Amy ate together on the night they met, Amy comes to see him.
She says that she loves him too, and they kiss.
In a post-credit sequence, Newman's wife Olivia (Kelly Rowan) convinces him to go with Oscar and Peter's design, revealing that she knew about him and Amy and informing him bluntly that Oscar and Peter did the better job.
<EOS>
Alex Whitman (Matthew Perry) is an architect from New York City who is sent to Las Vegas to supervise the construction of a nightclub that his firm has been hired to build.
Alex is a strait-laced WASP-ish type who, while enjoying a night on the town, meets Isabel Fuentes (Salma Hayek), a free-spirited Mexican-American photographer.
Alex and Isabel are overtaken by lust at first sight and end up spending the night together; however, their immediate attraction doesn't last in the cold light of day, and they don't see each other for another three months.
When they do meet again, it's because Isabel has some interesting news for Alex: She's pregnant with his child.
Alex and Isabel decide that they should do the right thing and quickly get married (with an Elvis impersonator serving as witness), but after Isabel meets Alex's mom (Jill Clayburgh) and Alex is confronted by Isabel's father (Tomas Milian), both start to wonder if "doing the right thing" was just that, especially as Alex tries to balance his career in New York with Isabel's desire to continue working in Nevada.
They end up divorced on the night of their daughter's birth, but soon remarry with both of their families present.
<EOS>
The world is managed by a central computer called UniComp which has been programmed to keep every single human on the surface of the earth in check.
People are continually drugged by means of monthly treatments (delivered via transdermal spray or jet injector) so that they will remain satisfied and cooperative "Family members".
They are told where to live, when to eat, whom to marry, when to reproduce, and for which job they will be trained.
Everyone is assigned a counselor who acts somewhat like a mentor, confessor, and parole agent; violations against 'brothers' and 'sisters' by themselves and others are expected to be reported at a weekly confession.
Everyone wears a permanent identifying bracelet which interfaces with access points that act as scanners which tell the "Family members" where they are allowed to go and what they are allowed to do.
Around the age of 62, every person dies, presumably from an overdose of the treatment liquids; almost anything in them is poisonous if an excess dose is given.
Now and then, someone dies at 61 or 63, so no one is too suspicious of the regularity.
Even opposition against such a life by those few who happen to be resistant to the drugs, or those who purposely change their behavior to avoid strong doses of some of the drugs in the monthly treatment, and who consequently wake up to a day which for them turns out to be anything but perfect, is dealt with by the programmers of UniComp.
These long-lived men and women, in their underground hideaway, constitute the real, albeit invisible, world government.
They live in absolute luxury and choose their own members through a form of meritocracy.
In part, people who choose, through evasion and modifying their own behavior, to leave the main Family are subtly re-directed to "nature preserves" of imperfect life on islands.
These, however, have been put in place by the programmers as a place to isolate trouble-making Family members.
The top minds among the outcasts are further manipulated into joining the programmers to help them maintain the equilibrium in the "perfect" world of UniComp and The Family.
Even the basic facts of nature are subject to the programmers' will – men do not grow facial hair, and it rains only at night.
Dampers even control the movement of tectonic plates.
Reference is made in the story to permanent settlements on Mars, Venus and the Moon, outposts on Saturn's moon Titan and Mercury and even to interstellar space exploration; these outposts have their own equivalents of UniComp.
The full rhyme, sung by children bouncing a ball (similar to a Clapping game):  Wei Li Chun is the name of the person who started the Unification, and, unbeknownst to all but the programmers and their attendants, remains alive as the head of the programmers, extending his lifespan by having his head transplanted onto successive youthful bodies.
Bob Wood is mentioned throughout the novel, but never explained in detail.
A painting is mentioned depicting Wood presenting the Unification Treaty—he may be a political leader executing the ideas of Wei.
In one conversation in which the protagonist discusses his discovery that people once had varying lifespans, one character comments that controlling people's lifespans is the ultimate realization of the thinking of Wei and Wood.
The historical Karl Marx is also unusually thought of as a martyr, possibly suggesting the distortion of history (a common theme in the genre) or that this world is the future of an alternative history, although maybe sacrificed is simply a poetic synonym for dead.
Uniformity is the defining feature; there is only one language and all ethnic groups have been eugenically merged into one race called "The Family".
There are only four personal names for men (Bob, Jesus, Karl and Li) and four for women (Anna, Mary, Peace and Yin).
Instead of surnames, individuals are distinguished by a nine-character alphanumeric code, their "nameber" (a neologism from "name" and "number"),g.
WL35S7497.
Everyone eats "totalcakes", drinks "cokes", wears exactly the same thing and is satisfied – every day.
Li RM35M4419, nicknamed "Chip" (as in "chip off the old block") by his nonconformist grandfather Jan, is a typical child Member who, through a mistake in genetic programming, has one green eye.
Through his grandfather's encouragement, he learns how to play a game of "wanting things", including imagining what career he might pick if he had the choice.
Chip is told by his adviser that "picking" and "choice" are manifestations of selfishness, and he tries to forget his dreams.
As Chip grows up and begins his career, he is mostly a good citizen, but commits minor subversive acts, such as procuring art materials for another "nonconformist" member who was denied them.
His occasional oddities attract the attention of a secret group of Members who, like Chip, are also nonconformists.
There he meets King, a Medicenter chief who obtains members records for potential future recruitment to the group, King's beautiful girlfriend Lilac, a strong-willed and inquisitive woman with unusually dark skin, and Snowflake, a rare albino member.
These members teach Chip how to get his treatments reduced so that he can feel more and stronger emotions.
Chip begins an affair with Snowflake, but is really attracted to Lilac.
Chip and Lilac begin to search through old museum maps and soon discover islands around the world that have disappeared from their modern map.
They begin to wonder if perhaps other "incurable" members like themselves have escaped to these islands.
King tells them that the idea is nonsense, but Chip soon learns that King has already interacted with some "incurables" and that they are indeed real.
Before he can tell Lilac, Chip's ruse is discovered by his adviser.
He and all the other members of the group are captured and treated back into docility (except King, who takes his own life before he can be captured).
Some years later, Chip's regular treatment is delayed by an earthquake.
In the meanwhile, he begins to "wake up" again and remembers Lilac and the islands.
He is able to shield his arm from the treatment nozzle and becomes fully awake for the first time.
He locates Lilac again and kidnaps her.
At first she fights him, but as she too becomes more "awake," she remembers the islands and comes willingly.
In process she was raped by Chip.
Finding a convenient abandoned boat on the beach, they head for the nearest island of incurables, Majorca.
There they learn that UniComp, as a last resort, has planted failsafes that eventually lead all incurables to these islands, where they will be trapped forever away from the treated population.
Chip conceives of a plan—destroy the computer, UniComp, by blowing up its refrigeration system.
He recruits other incurables to join him, and they make their way to the mainland.
Just as they reach UniComp, one of the incurables—an agent of the programmers—betrays his partners and leads the rest of group at gunpoint to a secret luxurious underground city beneath UniComp, where they are met by Wei, one of the original planners of the Unification.
Wei and the other "programmers" who live in UniComp have arranged this test so that the most daring and resourceful incurables will make their way to UniComp, where they, too, will live in luxury as programmers.
After joining the programmers, and after a few tentative attempts to confide in someone, Chip shares his misgivings with no one, lies low, and dedicates himself to the task of gaining Wei’s confidence.
For example, to deceive Wei, Chip consents to the replacement of his green eye with a brown one—even though this involves giving up a cherished part of his identity.
But when, nine months later, a new group of incurables arrives, Chip leaves the welcome party with the intention of using the newcomers' explosives to blow up the master computer.
There follows a harrowing physical struggle with Wei (who has the body of a young athlete), and the shooting of Wei.
Just before he gets killed, Wei betrays his real motive in creating this dystopia:“Chip, listen to me,” he said, leaning forward, “there’s joy in having it, in controlling, in being the only one.
”Chip knew all along that it was power hunger—not altruism—that drove Wei to chicanery and murders.
On his way up from the underground city towards sunlight, Chip tells an angry programmer: “’There’s joy in having it’: those were [Wei’s] last words.
Everything else was rationalization.
And self-deception.
”  The book ends with Chip riding a helicopter toward Majorca where his wife, son, financial sponsors, and friends are hopefully waiting for him.
For the first time in his life, he sees raindrops in daytime—nature’s affirmation that the era of slavery and total control is finally over.
<EOS>
Yakov Liebermann is a Nazi hunter (loosely based on Simon Wiesenthal): he runs a center in Vienna that documents crimes against humanity, perpetrated during the Holocaust.
The waning interest of the Western nations in tracking down Nazi criminals, and the failure of the bank where he kept his center's funds, has forced him to move the center to his own lodgings.
Then, in September 1974, Liebermann receives a phone call from a young man in Brazil who claims he has just finished eavesdropping on the so-called "Angel of Death", dr Josef Mengele, the concentration camp medical doctor who performed horrific experiments on camp victims during World War II.
According to the young man, Mengele is activating the Kameradenwerk for a strange assignment: he is sending out six Nazis (former SS officers) to kill 94 men, who share a few common traits.
All men are civil servants, and all of them have to be killed on or about particular dates, spread over several years.
All will be 65 years old at the time of their killing.
Before the young man can finish the conversation, he is killed.
Liebermann is hesitant and wonders if the call was a prank.
But he investigates and discovers that the killings the young man spoke of are taking place.
As he tries to determine why the seemingly unimportant men are being killed, he discovers by coincidence that the children of two of the men are identical.
It eventually transpires each of the 94 targets has a son aged 13, a genetic clone of Adolf Hitler planted by Mengele.
Mengele wishes to create a new Führer for the Nazi movement, and is trying to ensure that the lives of the clones follow a similar path to Hitler's.
Each civil servant father is married to a woman about 23 years younger, and their killing is an attempt to mimic the death of Hitler's own father.
Liebermann manages to work out who one of the intended targets is, and travels to warn him that his life may be in danger.
However, Mengele reaches the man first, kills him, and then encounters Liebermann.
Liebermann is shot but Mengele is killed by the targeted man's collection of dangerous dogs.
The plan is halted, but 18 Hitler clones have already lost their fathers.
Liebermann destroys the list of the 94 clones so that a younger Nazi hunter will not be able to kill what may still turn out to be harmless boys.
However, the book ends with one of the Hitler clones developing what may be delusions of grandeur.
<EOS>
Young, well-intentioned Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) stumbles upon a secret organization of Third Reich war criminals holding clandestine meetings in Paraguay and finds that Dr Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck), the infamous Auschwitz doctor, is with them.
He phones Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), an aging Nazi hunter living in Vienna, Austria, with this information.
A highly skeptical Lieberman tries to brush Kohler's claims aside, telling him that it is already well known that Mengele is living in Paraguay.
Having learned when and where the next meeting to include Mengele is scheduled to occur, Kohler records part of it using a hidden microphone, but is discovered and killed while making another phone call to Lieberman.
Before the phone is hung up with Lieberman on the other end, he hears the recorded voice of Mengele ordering a group of ex-Nazis to kill 94 men in different countries, including Austria, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Although frail, Lieberman follows Kohler's leads and begins travelling throughout Europe and North America to investigate the suspicious deaths of a number of aging civil servants.
He meets several of their widows and is amazed to find an uncanny resemblance in their adopted, black-haired, blue-eyed sons.
It is also made clear that, at the time of their deaths, all the civil servants were aged around 65 and had cold, domineering and abusive attitudes towards their adopted sons, while their wives were around 42 and doted on the sons.
Lieberman gains insight from Frieda Maloney (Uta Hagen), an incarcerated former Nazi guard who worked with the adoption agency, before realizing during a meeting with Professor Bruckner (Bruno Ganz), an expert on cloning, the terrible truth behind the Nazi plan: Mengele, in the 1960s, had secluded several surrogate mothers in a Brazilian clinic and fertilised them with ova each carrying a sample of Hitler's DNA preserved since World War II.
Ninety-four clones of Hitler had then been born and sent to different parts of the world for adoption.
As Lieberman uncovers more of the plot, Mengele's superiors become more unnerved.
After Mengele happens to meet (and then attacks) one of the agents he believes is in Europe implementing his scheme, Mengele's principal contact, Eduard Seibert (James Mason), informs him that the scheme has been aborted before Lieberman can expose it to the authorities.
Mengele storms out, pledging that the operation will continue.
Seibert and his men destroy Mengele's jungle estate after killing his guards and servants.
Mengele himself, however, has already left, intent on trying to continue his plan.
He travels to rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where one of the Hitler clones, Bobby Wheelock (Jeremy Black), lives on a farm with his parents.
There he murders the boy's father (John Dehner), a Doberman dog breeder, and waits for Lieberman, who is on his way to the farm to warn mr Wheelock of Mengele's intention to kill him.
The instant Lieberman arrives and sees Mengele, he attacks the doctor in a fury.
Mengele gains the upper hand and shoots Lieberman.
He taunts Lieberman by explaining his plan to return Hitler to the world.
Then, with one desperate lunge, Lieberman opens the closet where the Dobermans are held and turns them loose.
The dogs corner Mengele and attack him.
Bobby arrives home from school and, despite telling from the carnage that something is wrong, calls off the dogs and tries to find out what has happened.
The injured Mengele, having now encountered one of his clones for the first time, tells Bobby how much he admires him, and explains that he is cloned from Hitler.
Bobby doubts his story, and is also suspicious of Mengele because the dogs are trained to attack anyone who threatens his family.
Lieberman tells Bobby that Mengele has killed his father and urges him to notify the police.
Bobby checks the house and finds his dead father in the basement.
He rushes back upstairs and sets the vicious dogs on Mengele once again, coldly relishing his bloody death.
Bobby then helps Lieberman, but only after Lieberman promises not to tell the police about the incident.
Later, while recovering from his wounds, Lieberman is encouraged by an American Nazi-hunter, David Bennett (John Rubinstein) to expose Mengele's scheme to the world.
He asks Lieberman to hand over the list (which Lieberman had taken from Mengele's body while Bobby was calling for an ambulance) identifying the names and whereabouts of the other boys from around the world, so that they can be systematically killed before growing up to become bloody tyrants.
Lieberman objects on the grounds that they are mere children, and he burns the list before anyone can read it.
<EOS>
Inspired by the Moskstraumen, it is couched as a story within a story, a tale told at the summit of a mountain climb in Lofoten, Norway.
The story is told by an old man who reveals that he only appears old—"You suppose me a very old man," he says, "but I am not.
It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves".
The narrator, convinced by the power of the whirlpools he sees in the ocean beyond, is then told of the "old" man's fishing trip with his two brothers a few years ago.
Driven by "the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens", their ship was caught in the vortex.
One brother was pulled into the waves; the other was driven mad by the horror of the spectacle, and drowned as the ship was pulled under.
At first the narrator only saw hideous terror in the spectacle.
In a moment of revelation, he saw that the Maelström is a beautiful and awesome creation.
Observing how objects around him were attracted and pulled into it, he deduced that "the larger the bodies, the more rapid their descent" and that spherical-shaped objects were pulled in the fastest.
Unlike his brother, he abandoned ship and held on to a cylindrical barrel until he was saved several hours later.
The "old" man tells the story to the narrator without any hope that the narrator will believe it.
<EOS>
Twelve years after he saved the Earth from an alien invasion, Duke Nukem is a worldwide icon, and has achieved great fame from his heroic deeds.
After sampling a video game based on his past heroics (the game Duke plays is a revamped version of the final level of the third episode of Duke Nukem 3D), he arrives on the set of a talk show for an interview.
On his way to the show, Duke witnesses a news broadcast announcing that aliens have once again invaded.
Unlike previous encounters, the aliens initially appear peaceful and at first seem to pose no harm to the humans of Earth.
Duke's talk show appearance is cancelled to allow television stations to cover the alien invasion, and Duke retires to the "Duke Cave", his personal home.
There, he receives a call from the President and General Graves of the Earth Defense Force (EDF).
The President orders Duke not to harm the invaders, and adds that he is in diplomatic talks with the alien overlord.
Duke obliges this request, but he and Graves remain uneasy about the whole situation from start.
Before he can leave his chambers, he is attacked by hostile aliens who are swearing revenge on Duke.
Duke is forced to disobey the president's orders and fight his way through the alien hordes in an effort to save Earth.
Whilst fighting through his casino, Duke witnesses the aliens abducting women, including his two live-in pop star girlfriends.
Graves tells Duke that the women are being held in the Duke Dome, and that the aliens have a vendetta to settle with Duke.
He also warns Duke that the aliens are using the Hoover Dam to power a wormhole so more aliens can come through.
Duke travels to the Duke Dome, using a wrecking ball to damage the building to gain access.
Inside, he finds swarms of Octabrains and the missing women, who have been impregnated with alien spawn; Duke's girlfriends die after giving "birth" to alien babies.
Duke finds the Alien Queen in control of the Duke Dome and kills her, but is wounded in the process and blacks out.
After regaining consciousness, Duke fights Pigcops and aliens in through the Duke Burger.
Soon, he travels to the Hoover Dam in his monster truck; after battling through the dam, he finds his old friend Dylan, mortally wounded.
He tells Duke that the reborn Cycloid Emperor is at the dam, and that the only way to shut down the portal is to completely destroy the dam.
Before dying, he gives Duke his demolition charges and wishes him luck.
Duke places the explosives and destroys the dam, but the currents nearly drown him.
Duke is revived by an EDF soldier, and awakens to find the portal gone.
The President, who was also at the dam, rages at Duke for ruining his plans to work with the Cycloid Emperor, revealing that the President was actually intending to have the aliens kill Duke and he would cooperate with Cycloid Emperor so he could control the Earth, and that he has ordered a nuclear strike at the site of the dam to wipe out the remaining aliens, intending to leave Duke there to die as revenge for foiling his plans.
The Cycloid Emperor emerges and kills the President and his security detail, revealing that he intended to kill the President after the deal.
Duke kills the Cycloid Emperor and is rescued by Graves just as the nuclear bomb explodes.
The game ends with a satellite surveying the detonation area and listing Duke Nukem as killed in action, to which Duke replies off-screen, "What kind of shit ending is that.
I ain't dead.
I'm coming back for more.
" In a post-credits scene, a short video depicts a press conference, where Duke announces his intent to run for the 69th President of the United States.
In the downloadable content The Doctor Who Cloned Me, Duke wakes up after the nuclear explosion and finds himself alive but trapped in a strange laboratory while video recordings of himself declaring his bid for Presidency play on monitors.
After escaping, Duke discovers that not only are the aliens continuing their invasion, but his old nemesis dr Proton (the antagonist of the original Duke Nukem game) has returned and is building an army of robotic Duke clones to fight the aliens and conquer Earth himself.
Duke infiltrates Proton's laboratory in Area 51 by posing as one of the clones.
Eventually, Proton spots him and attacks Duke but he escapes and is reunited with Dylan (revealed as still alive).
With Dylan's help, Duke locates and kills dr Proton.
General Graves then communicates with Duke to inform him that the aliens are being bred by an Alien Empress that is nesting on the moon.
After finding a teleporter leading up to the moon, Duke commandeers a moon rover and destroy the Alien Empress, saving Earth and its women once again.
<EOS>
Four teenagers: Kathryn, Kevin, Rudy, Tish and 12-year-old Max, go to space camp at Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida for three weeks during the summer to learn about the NASA space program and mimic astronaut training.
They meet their instructor Andie Bergstrom, a NASA-trained astronaut who is frustrated that she has not yet been assigned to a shuttle mission.
Her bitterness is compounded by the fact that her husband, camp director Zach Bergstrom, is an astronaut who has walked on the moon.
Max befriends a robot named Jinx, which was deemed unsuitable for space work because it overheated and was overly-literal.
Max and the robot declare themselves to be "friends forever".
Meanwhile, Kevin pursues Kathryn romantically, Rudy shares his wish to open the first fast food franchise on the moon and Tish reveals that despite appearing to be a Valley girl, she is a genius with a photographic memory.
Kathryn and Kevin sneak away for some romance near the launch pad, but Jinx unintentionally gives them away when Andie and Zach discover they are missing.
During a confrontation, Andie explains that she believes Kathryn has what it takes to accomplish her ambition, and explains the necessity of the harsh treatment Andie is giving her.
While Kathryn vows to improve her performance, Zach's conversation with Kevin is less successful.
Kevin takes out his anger on Max.
Upset, Max states ".
I wish I was in space.
".
Jinx overhears and takes what he said literally.
The group are allowed to sit in the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a routine engine test.
Jinx secretly enters NASA's computer room and triggers a "thermal curtain failure", causing one of the boosters to ignite during the test.
In order to avoid a crash, Launch Control is forced to ignite the second booster and launch the shuttle.
The shuttle is not flight ready, has no long range radio and there is not enough oxygen on board to last to the re-entry window at Edwards Air Force Base.
Andie takes the shuttle to the partially constructed Space Station Daedalus to retrieve oxygen stored there.
Realizing that while they have no voice communications with NASA they do have telemetry, Tish begins using a switch to send a Morse code signal to NASA, but it is not noticed by ground control.
Andie is slightly too big to reach the oxygen cylinders, so Max suits up for an EVA.
During a critical moment, Max begins to panic until Kevin, knowing that Max is a fan of Star Wars, begins calling him "Luke", and tells him to "use the Force", which calms him enough that he can complete the mission, allowing Max and Andie to retrieve the containers.
In the shuttle, Rudy attempts to decipher the technical schematics to work out how to feed the oxygen into the shuttle's tanks.
His lack of confidence combined with the time pressure frustrates Kathryn, who tries reading the diagram herself and gives Andie instructions that conflict with Rudy's.
Andie follows Rudy's correct instructions.
Kathryn's self-confidence is shaken as she realizes her interference nearly caused disaster.
The second oxygen container malfunctions, injuring Andie.
Unaware of this, Ground Control begins the autopilot sequence to land the shuttle – closing the bay doors and stranding Andie outside.
Andie regains consciousness and urges them to leave her and take the re-entry window, as the shuttle does not have enough oxygen to make the next window.
Kathryn is unable to make a decision, but Kevin finally shows himself to be the shuttle Commander and overrides the autopilot enabling Max to rescue Andie.
Having missed the Edwards re-entry window, the crew comes up with a plan to land at White Sands, New Mexico after Kathryn briefly mentions the 1982 Space Shuttle mission that landed there.
Armed with this news, Tish uses Morse Code to signal NASA to let them land there.
At Ground Control, Jinx brings the signal to Zach's attention and they prepare for the White Sands landing.
With Andie injured, Kathryn fulfils her role as pilot, but begins fretting and doubting her abilities until Kevin cajoles and teases her into landing the shuttle.
<EOS>
Lemmy Caution is a secret agent with the code number of 003 from "the Outlands".
Entering Alphaville in his Ford Mustang, called a Ford Galaxie, he poses as a journalist named Ivan Johnson, and claims to work for the Figaro-Pravda.
He wears a tan overcoat that stores various items such as an M1911A1 Colt Commander semi-automatic pistol.
He carries a cheap Instamatic camera (new in 1965) with him and photographs everything he sees, particularly the things that would ordinarily be unimportant to a journalist.
Caution is, in fact, on a series of missions.
First, he searches for the missing agent Henri Dickson (Akim Tamiroff); second, he is to capture or kill the creator of Alphaville, Professor von Braun (Howard Vernon); lastly, he aims to destroy Alphaville and its dictatorial computer, Alpha 60.
Alpha 60 is a sentient computer system created by von Braun which is in complete control of all of Alphaville.
Alpha 60 has outlawed free thought and individualist concepts like love, poetry, and emotion in the city, replacing them with contradictory concepts or eliminating them altogether.
One of Alpha 60's dictates is that "people should not ask 'why', but only say 'because'".
People who show signs of emotion (weeping at the death of a wife, or smiling) are presumed to be acting illogically, and are gathered up, interrogated, and executed.
In an image reminiscent of George Orwell's concept of Newspeak, there is a dictionary in every hotel room that is continuously updated when words that are deemed to evoke emotion become banned.
As a result, Alphaville is an inhuman, alienated society.
Caution is told that men are killed at a ratio of fifty to every one woman executed.
He also learns that Swedes, Germans and Americans assimilate well with Alphaville.
Images of the E&nbsp;=&nbsp;mc² and E = hf equations are displayed several times throughout the film as symbols of the regime of logical science that rules Alphaville.
At one point, Caution passes through a place called the Grand Omega Minus, from where brainwashed people are sent out to the other "galaxies" to start strikes, revolutions, family rows and student revolts.
As an archetypal American anti-hero private eye in trench-coat and with weathered visage, Lemmy Caution's old-fashioned machismo conflicts with the puritanical computer (Godard originally wanted to title the film Tarzan versus IBM).
The opposition of his role to logic (and that of other dissidents to the regime) is represented by faux-quotations from Capitale de la douleur (Capital of Pain), a book of poems by Paul Éluard.
Caution meets Dickson, who soon dies in the process of making love to a "Seductress Third Class".
Caution then enlists the assistance of Natacha von Braun (Anna Karina), a programmer of Alpha 60 who is also the daughter of Professor von Braun (although she says "I have never met him").
Natacha is a citizen of Alphaville, and when questioned says she does not know the meaning of "love" or "conscience".
Caution falls in love with her, and his love introduces emotion and unpredictability into the city that the computer has crafted in its own image.
Natacha discovers, with the help of Lemmy Caution, that she was actually born outside of Alphaville.
(The city name is given as Nueva York—Spanish for New York—instead of either the original English name or the French literal rendering "Nouvelle York".
)  Professor von Braun (the name is a reference to the German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun) was originally known as Leonard Nosferatu (a tribute to Murnau's film Nosferatu), but Caution is repeatedly told that Nosferatu no longer exists.
The Professor himself talks infrequently, referring only vaguely to his hatred for journalists, and offering Caution the chance to join Alphaville, even going so far as to offer him the opportunity to rule a galaxy.
When he refuses Caution's offer to go back to "the outlands", Caution kills him with a pistol shot.
Alpha 60 converses with Lemmy Caution several times throughout the film, and its voice is seemingly ever-present in the city, serving as a sort of narrator.
Caution eventually destroys or incapacitates it by telling it a riddle that involves something Alpha 60 can not comprehend: poetry (although many of Alpha 60's lines are actually quotations from the Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges; the opening line of the film, along with others, is an extract of Borges's essay "Forms of a Legend" and other references throughout the movie are made by Alpha 60 to Borges's "A New Refutation of Time").
The concept of the individual self has been lost to the collectivized citizens of Alphaville, and this is the key to Caution's riddle.
At the end, as Paul Misraki's musical score reaches its climax, Natacha realizes that it is her understanding of herself as an individual with desires that saves her, and destroys Alpha 60.
The film ends with her line, "Je vous aime" ("I love you").
<EOS>
When working woman Kay Norris makes the acquaintance of a handsome and friendly young man who lives in the same "sliver" building, she does not know at first that he is the owner.
While keeping a low profile himself, he turns out to know an awful lot about the other inhabitants including many of their secrets.
It then turns out that he is a modern-day Peeping Tom who, unknown to everyone, has had surveillance cameras and microphones installed in every single apartment, with his own place in the building serving as his headquarters.
The novel is also a murder mystery, and the beautiful heroine soon becomes a damsel in distress herself.
<EOS>
Conspiracy-theorist New York City taxi driver Jerry Fletcher continually expounds his ideas to his friend Alice Sutton, a lawyer at the Justice Department.
She humors him because he once saved her from a mugging, but does not know he has been spying on her at home.
Her own work is to solve the mystery of her father's murder.
Seeing suspicious activity everywhere, Jerry identifies some men as CIA workers, follows them into a building, and is captured.
A doctor injects a wheelchair-bound Jerry with LSD and interrogates him using torture.
Jerry experiences terrifying hallucinations and flashbacks, panics, and manages to escape, incapacitating the doctor by biting his nose.
Handcuffed to the hospital bed and forced into a drug-induced sleep, Jerry persuades Alice to switch his chart with that of a criminal in the next bed or he will be dead by morning.
When Alice visits the next day, the criminal is dead, allegedly from a mysterious heart attack.
The CIA, FBI and other agencies are there, led by CIA psychiatrist dr Jonas, whose nose is bandaged.
Meanwhile, with Alice's help, Jerry fakes a heart attack and escapes again.
The pair go to Alice's apartment and Jerry accidentally reveals he's been watching her.
Jerry confronts FBI agent Lowry and his partner staking out her place, and he warns them at gunpoint not to hurt her.
Jerry sees their operatives rappelling down from black helicopters and hides in a theater, escaping by causing a panic.
Alice calls each person on the newsletter mail-list and finds that all have recently died, except one.
Jerry uses a ruse to get her out of the office, and then immobilizes the operatives watching her.
During their escape, he tells her that he loves her, then flees on a subway train when she brushes off his feelings.
She goes to see the last surviving person on the subscription list, and finds it is Jonas.
He explains that Jerry was brainwashed during dr Jonas' time with Project MKUltra to become an assassin and claims that Jerry killed her father.
She agrees to help find Jerry, who sends her a message to meet him.
They ditch the agents following them and he drives her to her father's private horse stables in Connecticut, but Alice secretly calls her office so that Jonas can track her.
At the stables, Jerry remembers that he was sent to kill her father but found he could not.
Jerry instead promised to watch over Alice before the judge was killed by another assassin.
Jonas' men capture Jerry, and a sniper tries to get Alice, but she escapes.
Meanwhile, Alice finds Lowry and forces him at gunpoint to admit that he is not FBI, but from a "secret agency that watches the other agencies" and has been using the unwitting Jerry to uncover and stop Jonas.
Alice goes to the site of the smokestacks from Jerry's mural and sees a mental hospital next door.
There she bribes an attendant to show her an unused wing, breaks in, and finds Jerry.
As Jonas catches them, Lowry arrives with his men and attacks Jonas' men.
Jerry attempts to drown Jonas, but is shot.
After killing Jonas, Alice finally tells Jerry she loves him before he is taken away in an ambulance.
Some time later, Alice visits Jerry's grave, leaving a pin he gave her upon it, before returning to horse riding.
While watching from a car with Lowry, Jerry agrees not to contact Alice until all of Jonas' other subjects are caught, but she finds the pin attached to her saddle.
<EOS>
EarthBound takes place a few years after the events of Mother.
The player starts as a young boy named Ness as he investigates a nearby meteorite crash with his neighbor, Pokey.
He finds that an alien force, Giygas, has enveloped and consumed the world in hatred and consequently turned animals, humans, and objects into malicious creatures.
A bee from the future instructs Ness to collect melodies in a Sound Stone to preemptively stop the force.
While visiting these eight Sanctuaries, Ness meets three other kids named Paula, Jeff, and Poo—"a psychic girl, an eccentric inventor, and a ponytailed martial artist", respectively—who join his party.
Along the way, Ness visits the cultists of Happy Happy Village, where he saves Paula, and the zombie-infested Threed, where the two of them fall prey to a trap.
After Paula telepathically instructs Jeff in a Winters boarding school to rescue them, they continue to the city of Fourside and the seaside resort Summers.
Meanwhile, Poo, the prince of Dalaam, partakes in a seemingly violent meditation called "Mu Training" before joining the party as well.
The party continues to travel to the Scaraba desert, the Deep Darkness swamp and a forgotten underworld where dinosaurs live and as the Sound Stone is eventually filled, Ness visits Magicant, a surreal location in his mind where he fights his personal dark side.
Upon returning to Eagleland, Ness and his party use the Phase Distorter to travel back in time to fight Giygas, transferring their souls into robots.
The group discovers a device that contains the alien, but it is being guarded by Pokey, who is revealed to have been helping Giygas all along.
After defeating him in a fight, Pokey turns the device off, releasing Giygas and forcing the group to fight a battle known for its "feeling of isolation,.
incomprehensible attacks,.
buzzing static" and reliance on prayer.
In a post-credits scene, Ness, whose life has returned to normal following Giygas' defeat, receives a note from Pokey, who challenges Ness to come and find him.
<EOS>
Scott Calvin is a divorced advertising executive, who is also a father to his son Charlie.
Charlie's mother, Laura, is now married to psychiatrist Neil Miller.
Charlie spends Christmas Eve with his father, who burns the Christmas turkey, forcing them to eat at Denny's.
After Scott reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to Charlie on Christmas Eve, he and Charlie are awakened that night by sounds on the roof.
After confronting a man on the roof, who inadvertently falls off when Scott startles him, then vanishes leaving his Santa Claus outfit behind, they discover eight reindeer on the roof and Charlie convinces Scott to put on the suit and finish Santa's work for him.
As the morning comes, the reindeer return to the North Pole to Santa's Workshop, where the head elf Bernard explains that, due to a clausical contract written on a card Scott found on Santa, in putting on the suit and entering the sleigh he has accepted the "Santa Clause" and has agreed to the responsibilities of that position.
He tells a skeptical Scott that he has eleven months to get his affairs in order before reporting to the workshop at Thanksgiving permanently.
Scott awakens in his own bed on Christmas morning and believes the night before having been a dream, but the enthusiastic Charlie recounts several events he had not told him and leaves him in doubt.
After Charlie proudly tells his class that Scott is Santa Claus, Laura and Neil confide their concerns and ask Scott to put a stop to what they believe is a delusional fantasy.
Not wanting to break Charlie's heart, Scott tells him to keep the North Pole and everything they saw a secret.
However, over the course of the year, strange things begin to happen to Scott.
The first thing to appear is a beard, which always re-grows, even immediately after shaving.
He also develops a fondness for dessert items, primarily cookies.
The taste for these newfound treats cause Scott to gain an inordinate amount of weight seemingly overnight and he balloons to 192lbs, which at first he thinks he is just bloated.
He also begins losing the coloring of his hair, turning it stark white.
Scott's doctor says his weight gain is just fluctuation, even when Scott insists that gaining 45lbs in a week is not right and the changing of his hair color is because he is middle aged.
During a meeting with his company, Scott disrupts the meeting to call out their idea of promoting a television advertisement of Santa riding a toy tank.
Scott's boss mr Whittle takes him aside and asks him to get some help.
He also begins to recount 'naughty' and 'nice' children by name after getting his "list" of children in the mail, as well as his own suit.
These changes prompt further concern from Laura and Neil, who subsequently call to have Scott's visitation rights removed.
Laura confides that she stopped believing in Santa when she was only eight, when he failed to give her a board game Mystery Date for Christmas, while Neil, at the age of three years stopped believing when Santa did not give him an Oscar Mayer Weenie Whistle he wanted.
On Thanksgiving night, Scott arrives to say goodbye to Charlie.
As Neil insists to Charlie that Scott is not Santa, Charlie hands Scott a magical snowglobe he received from Bernard, which finally convinces Scott that he is Santa.
As Laura and Neil steps out of the room for a moment, Bernard comes and takes Scott and Charlie away to the North Pole, leading Laura to believe Scott had kidnapped him.
On Christmas Eve night, Scott begins delivering presents, and is arrested when entering Laura and Neil Miller's house, leaving Charlie stranded in the sleigh on the roof.
TheLFS.
(Effective Liberating Flight Squad) is called and rescues Charlie and frees Scott from custody.
Scott returns to take Charlie home, and manages to convince Laura and Neil of his new identity by giving them the gifts they asked for as children.
Bernard shows up to thank Laura for the cookies and disappears into thin air.
Laura destroys the court order against Scott and tells him that he can visit Charlie anytime he wants.
After a very public departure, Charlie attempts to use the snow globe to summon Scott to him and he eventually arrives.
After getting Laura's permission for a sleigh ride with his father, Charlie and Scott head out to continue the Christmas deliveries and Scott accepts his new life as Santa Claus.
<EOS>
After attending the Springfield Elementary School Christmas pageant, the Simpsons prepare for the holiday season.
Bart and Lisa prepare their letters to Santa; however, Bart's letter enrages Homer and Marge and they forbid Bart from getting a tattoo.
The next day, Marge takes the kids to the mall to go Christmas shopping.
Bart slips away to the tattoo parlor and attempts to get a tattoo that reads "Mother".
With the tattoo practically completed, Marge bursts in and drags Bart two doors down to the dermatologist to have it removed; counting on Homer's Christmas bonus, Marge spends all of the family's holiday money on the procedure.
Meanwhile, at the power plant, Homer's very mean-spirited boss, mr Burns, announces that there will be no Christmas bonus this year.
While discovering there is no money for Christmas presents and not wanting to worry the family, Homer takes a job as a shopping mall Santa at the suggestion of his friend Barney Gumble.
On Christmas Eve, Bart goes to the mall and harasses Santa, exposing Homer's secret.
Bart is apologetic for the prank and actually supportive of Homer's moonlighting, remarking, "You must really love us to sink so low".
After Homer is paid less than expected for his department store work, he and Bart receive a greyhound racing tip from Barney.
At Springfield Downs, Homer, inspired by an announcement about a last-minute entry named Santa's Little Helper, bets all his money on the 99:1 long shot.
The greyhound finishes last.
As Homer and Bart leave the track, they watch the dog's owner angrily disowning him for losing the race.
Bart pleads with Homer to keep the dog as a pet, and he reluctantly agrees.
When Bart and Homer return home, Homer finally comes clean to the family that he did not get his bonus; however, the family assumes Santa's Little Helper is their present and are overjoyed by Homer's gesture.
The Simpsons family then celebrate by singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
<EOS>
Nick and Nora Charles return from vacation to their home in San Francisco on New Year's Eve, where Nora's stuffy family expect the couple to join them for a formal dinner.
Nick is despised by Nora's Aunt Katherine, the family matriarch, as his immigrant heritage and experience as a "flat foot" are considered below Nora.
The true reason for their invitation is that Nora's cousin Selma's ne'er-do-well husband Robert has been missing.
Nick is coerced into a little quiet detective work for the family.
They easily find Robert at a Chinese nightclub, where he's been conducting an affair with Polly, the star performer.
Robert tries to extort money from Selma's unrequited love, David Graham (James Stewart): $25,000 and Robert will leave Selma alone permanently.
Unknown to Robert, Polly and the nightclub's owner, Dancer, plan to grift the money and dispose of him.
After being paid off, and returning home for some clothes, Robert is shot at the stroke of midnight.
David finds Selma standing over Robert and hurriedly disposes of her gun.
Despite this, the police determine that she's the prime suspect, and her fragile mental state only strengthens the case.
Selma insists that she never fired her gun, and Nick is now obliged to investigate and determine the true murderer.
As suspects pile up, schemes and double-crosses are found and two more murders occur, including Polly's brutal brother.
lt Abrams (Sam Levene, making his series debut) readily accepts Nick's assistance.
Nick follows a trail of clues that lead him to the apartment of a mysterious "Anderson".
As in the previous film, the film climaxes with a final interrogation and denouement featuring all the suspects.
The murderer is revealed to be David (the mysterious "Anderson"), who has harbored a vengeful hatred of Selma after she passed him over to marry Robert.
The case solved, and once again traveling by train, Nora reveals to Nick that they are expecting a baby, although Nick has to be prodded into putting the "clues" together and she comments: "And you call yourself a detective".
<EOS>
In this adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's "The Farewell Murder", Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) Charles are back in New York with Asta and a new arrival - Nicky Jr.
They are invited by Colonel Burr MacFay (C.
Aubrey Smith) to spend the weekend at his house on Long Island.
McFay, the former business partner of Nora's father, and the administrator of her fortune, desperately wants Nick to put his well-known detective skills to work, as he has been receiving threats from Phil Church (Sheldon Leonard), a very shady character.
When MacFay is killed, Church seems to be the obvious suspect.
However, Nick is skeptical.
He suspects there is something far more complicated going on.
MacFay's housekeeper, his adopted daughter, and various hangers-on all may have had an interest in seeking the old man's demise.
<EOS>
The story opens with a lengthy explanation of ratiocination.
Dupin demonstrates his prowess by deducing his companion's thoughts as if through apparent supernatural power.
The story then turns to the baffling double murder of Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter at their home in the Rue Morgue, a fictional street in Paris.
According to newspaper accounts, the mother was found in a yard behind the house, with multiple broken bones and her throat so deeply cut that her head fell off when the body was moved.
The daughter was found strangled to death and stuffed upside down into a chimney.
The murders occurred in a fourth-floor room that was locked from the inside; on the floor were found a bloody straight razor, several bloody tufts of gray hair, and two bags of gold coins.
Several witnesses reported hearing two voices at the time of the murder, one male and French, but disagreed on the language spoken by the other.
The speech was unclear, and every witness admits that he does not know the language he claims to have heard.
Paris natives Dupin and his friend, the unnamed narrator of the story, read these newspaper accounts with interest.
The two live in seclusion and allow no visitors.
They have cut off contact with "former associates" and venture outside only at night.
"We existed within ourselves alone", the narrator explains.
When a bank clerk named Adolphe Le Bon is arrested even though no evidence exists pointing to his guilt (other than his delivering the gold coins to the two ladies the day before), Dupin becomes intrigued and remembers a service that Le Bon once performed for him.
He decides to offer his assistance to "G–", the prefect of police.
Because none of the witnesses can agree on the language the murderer spoke, Dupin concludes they were not hearing a human voice at all.
He and the narrator examine the house thoroughly; the following day, Dupin dismisses the idea of both Le Bon's guilt and a robbery motive, citing the fact that the gold was not taken from the room.
He also points out that the murderer would have had to have superhuman strength to force the daughter's body up the chimney.
He formulates a method by which the murderer could have entered the room and killed both women, involving an agile climb up a lightning rod and a leap to a set of open window shutters.
Showing an unusual tuft of hair he recovered from the scene, and demonstrating the impossibility of the daughter being strangled by a human hand, Dupin concludes that an "Ourang-Outang" (orangutan) killed the women.
He has placed an advertisement in the local newspaper asking if anyone has lost such an animal, and a sailor soon arrives looking for it.
The sailor offers to pay a reward, but Dupin is interested only in learning the circumstances behind the two murders.
The sailor explains that he captured the orangutan while in Borneo and brought it back to Paris, but had trouble keeping it under control.
When he saw the orangutan attempting to shave its face with his straight razor, imitating his morning grooming, it fled into the streets and reached the Rue Morgue, where it climbed up and into the house.
The orangutan seized the mother by the hair and was waving the razor, imitating a barber; when she screamed in fear, it flew into a rage, ripped her hair out, slashed her throat, and strangled the daughter.
The sailor climbed up the lightning rod in an attempt to catch the animal, and the two voices heard by witnesses belonged to it and to him.
Fearing punishment by its master, the orangutan threw the mother's body out the window and stuffed the daughter into the chimney before fleeing.
The sailor sells the orangutan, Le Bon is released from custody, and the prefect of police mentions that people should mind their own business once Dupin tells him the story.
Dupin comments to the narrator that G– is " somewhat too cunning to be profound", but admires his ability "de nier ce qui est, et d'expliquer ce qui n'est pas" (a quote from Julie, or the New Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "to deny that which is, and explore that which is not").
<EOS>
The unnamed narrator is discussing with the famous Parisian amateur detective Auguste Dupin some of his most celebrated cases when they are joined by the Prefect of the Police, a man known as G—.
The Prefect has a case he would like to discuss with Dupin.
A letter has been stolen from the boudoir of an unnamed woman by the unscrupulous Minister D—.
It is said to contain compromising information.
D— was in the room, saw the letter, and switched it for a letter of no importance.
He has been blackmailing his victim.
The Prefect makes two deductions with which Dupin does not disagree: The Prefect says that he and his police detectives have searched the Ministerial hotel where D— stays and have found nothing.
They checked behind the wallpaper and under the carpets.
His men have examined the tables and chairs with magnifying glasses and then probed the cushions with needles but have found no sign of interference; the letter is not hidden in these places.
Dupin asks the Prefect if he knows what he is seeking and the Prefect reads off a minute description of the letter, which Dupin memorizes.
The Prefect then bids them good day.
A month later, the Prefect returns, still bewildered in his search for the missing letter.
He is motivated to continue his fruitless search by the promise of a large reward, recently doubled, upon the letter's safe return, and he will pay 50,000 francs to anyone who can help him.
Dupin asks him to write that check now and he will give him the letter.
The Prefect is astonished, but knows that Dupin is not joking.
He writes the check and Dupin produces the letter.
The Prefect determines that it is genuine and races off to deliver it to the victim.
Alone together, the narrator asks Dupin how he found the letter.
Dupin explains the Paris police are competent within their limitations, but have underestimated with whom they are dealing.
The Prefect mistakes the Minister D— for a fool, because he is a poet.
For example, Dupin explains how an eight-year-old boy made a small fortune from his friends at a game called "Odds and Evens".
The boy was able to determine the intelligence of his opponents and play upon that to interpret their next move.
He explains that D— knew the police detectives would have assumed that the blackmailer would have concealed the letter in an elaborate hiding place, and thus hid it in plain sight.
Dupin says he had visited the minister at his hotel.
Complaining of weak eyes he wore a pair of green spectacles, the true purpose of which was to disguise his eyes as he searched for the letter.
In a cheap card rack hanging from a dirty ribbon, he saw a half-torn letter and recognized it as the letter of the story's title.
Striking up a conversation with D— about a subject in which the minister is interested, Dupin examined the letter more closely.
It did not resemble the letter the Prefect described so minutely; the writing was different and it was sealed not with the "ducal arms" of the S— family, but with D—'s monogram.
Dupin noticed that the paper was chafed as if the stiff paper was first rolled one way and then another.
Dupin concluded that D— wrote a new address on the reverse of the stolen one, re-folded it the opposite way and sealed it with his own seal.
Dupin left a snuff box behind as an excuse to return the next day.
Striking up the same conversation they had begun the previous day, D— was startled by a gunshot in the street.
While he went to investigate, Dupin switched D—'s letter for a duplicate.
Dupin explains that the gunshot distraction was arranged by him and that he left a duplicate letter to ensure his ability to leave the hotel without D— suspecting his actions.
If he had tried to seize it openly, Dupin surmises D— might have had him killed.
As a political supporter of the Queen and old enemy of the Minister, Dupin also hopes that D— will try to use the power he no longer has, to his political downfall, and at the end be presented with an insulting note that implies Dupin was the thief: Un dessein si funeste, S'il n'est digne d'Atrée, est digne de Thyeste (If such a sinister design isn't worthy of Atreus, it is worthy of Thyestes).
<EOS>
The film tells the story of dr Henry Jekyll (Fredric March), a kind English doctor in Victorian London, who is certain that within each man lurks impulses for both good and evil.
One evening, Jekyll attends a party at the home of his fiancée Muriel Carew (Rose Hobart), the daughter of Brigadier General Sir Danvers Carew (Halliwell Hobbes).
After the other guests have left, Jekyll informs Sir Danvers that, after speaking to Muriel, he wants Carew's permission to push up their wedding date.
Sir Danvers sternly refuses Jekyll's request.
Later, while walking home with his colleague, dr John Lanyon (Holmes Herbert), Jekyll spots a bar singer, Ivy Pierson (Miriam Hopkins), being attacked by a man outside her boarding house.
Jekyll drives the man away and carries Ivy up to her room to attend to her.
Ivy begins flirting with Jekyll and feigning injury, but Jekyll fights temptation and leaves with Lanyon.
Muriel and Sir Danvers leave London for a few months.
In the meantime, Jekyll develops a drug that releases the evil side in himself, thus becoming the violent Edward Hyde.
Along with his behavior, dr Jekyll's appearance changes as well.
He transforms into something more menacing and primitive looking.
Unlike dr Jekyll, Hyde has no conscience.
Hyde has no restrictions, no boundaries; he is free to do what he pleases.
Hyde returns to the music hall where Ivy works, and offers to tend to her financial needs in return for her company.
Hyde manipulates Ivy into accompanying him by terrorizing her, being violent, controlling and torturing her psychologically.
He remains at her boarding house until he finds out that Muriel and her father are returning to London, and leaves Ivy but threatens her that he'll be back.
On advice from her landlady mrs Hawkins (Tempe Pigott), Ivy goes to see dr Jekyll, hoping that he can free her of the abusive Hyde.
When she arrives, Ivy sees that the celebrated dr Jekyll was the same man who saved her from abuse just months before.
She breaks down in tears over her situation with Hyde.
Jekyll is extremely distraught over the pain that he (Hyde) has caused her and promises Ivy that she will never have to worry about Hyde again.
While on his way to a party at the Carews' home to celebrate their return and the announcement of a new wedding date to Muriel, Jekyll, without the use of his drugs, suddenly changes into Hyde.
Ivy, who thought she was free of Hyde forever, is terrified when Hyde appears before her.
Hyde angrily confronts her about seeing Jekyll and, just before murdering her, reveals that he and Jekyll are one and the same.
Hyde escapes and heads back to Jekyll's house but his servant Poole refuses to open the door.
Desperate, Hyde writes a letter to Lanyon from Jekyll instructing Lanyon to get certain chemicals and have them waiting for him at Lanyon's home.
When Hyde arrives, Lanyon pulls a gun on him and demands that Hyde take him to Jekyll.
Hyde tells Lanyon that Jekyll is safe, but Lanyon doesn't believe him and refuses to let him leave.
Realizing there is not much time, Hyde drinks the formula in front of Lanyon.
Lanyon is shocked to witness the transformation and tells his friend that he has practically damned his soul for tampering with the laws of God.
With Ivy's murder, Sir Danvers' anger towards him for missing the party, and Hyde's persona beginning to dominate his own, Henry Jekyll's life continues to spiral out of control.
He later goes to the Carews' where Sir Danvers coldly rejects his visit but Muriel welcomes him.
Jekyll, realizing the monster he really is, tells Muriel that he cannot be with her anymore.
He feels that he is already damned and fears that he will harm her.
He decides to leave.
Standing out on the terrace and tearfully watching Muriel cry, Jekyll begins to change into Hyde once again.
He then reenters the Carew house through the terrace door and assaults Muriel.
Her screams bring her father and their butler, Hobson.
Hyde then viciously murders Sir Danvers out in the garden by striking him repeatedly with Jekyll's cane until it breaks, then runs off into the night towards Jekyll's home and the lab to mix a new formula to change himself back.
The police and Lanyon are standing over Carew's body in the garden.
Recognizing the broken cane found next to the body, Lanyon tells them that he knows whose cane that is and agrees to take them to its owner.
The police later arrive at Jekyll's lab looking for Hyde and find only Jekyll, who lies that Hyde has escaped.
They begin to leave when Lanyon arrives and tells them that Jekyll is the man they're searching for (because the man they are looking for is hiding inside him).
Just then a nervous Jekyll begins changing into Hyde before their shocked eyes.
Outraged at Lanyon for betraying him, Hyde leaps from behind the table and attacks him.
Hyde then tries to escape from the police but is fatally shot before he can again hurt Lanyon.
As Hyde lies dead on the table full of dr Jekyll's experiments and potions, he transforms one last time back into Henry Jekyll.
<EOS>
The story revolves around a husband-and-wife acting team.
Simply because he is insecure, the husband suspects his wife could be capable of infidelity.
The husband disguises himself as a guardsman with a thick accent, woos his wife under his false identity, and ends up seducing her.
The couple stays together, and at the end the wife tells the husband that she knew it was him, but played along with the deception.
<EOS>
Nick and Nora Charles are looking forward to a relaxing day at a racetrack, but when a jockey accused of throwing a race is found shot to death, Police Lieutenant Abrams requests Nick's help.
The trail leads to a gambling syndicate that operates out of a wrestling arena, a murdered reporter, and a pretty secretary whose boyfriend has been framed.
Along the way, Nick and Nora must contend with a wild wrestling match, a dizzying day at a merry-go-round (accompanied by Nick, Jr), and a table-clearing restaurant brawl.
<EOS>
A charity benefit sponsored by David Thayer is staged aboard theS.
Fortune, Phil Brant's gambling ship.
The entertainment is provided by a jazz band led by Tommy Drake and featuring singer Fran Page and talented but unstable clarinetist Buddy Hollis.
After a set, Drake informs a displeased Brant that he is quitting, having gotten a much better booking through Mitchell Talbin.
However, Drake has a problem; he owes gangster Al Amboy $12,000.
When Amboy (who is at the party) hears the news, he demands full payment that very night.
Drake begs Talbin to give him an advance, but Talbin is unwilling to part with such a large sum.
In desperation, Drake sneaks into Brant's office and opens the safe.
However, he is shot from behind and killed.
Brant and socialite Janet Thayer elope, since her father David disapproves of Brant's lower-class background.
The next morning, they show up at Nick and Nora Charles's apartment, having learned that Brant is the prime suspect in the murder.
When a bullet narrowly misses Brant, Nick turns him in to the police, having decided it is safer for all concerned.
Then Nick starts investigating.
Sneaking aboard the Fortune, Nick discovers on the back side of a sheet of music a receipt signed by Amboy acknowledging that Drake's debt had been paid.
Nick then runs into Drake's band, allowed back on board to collect their instruments.
When he questions them, he learns that the bandleader had many enemies, among them Buddy Hollis.
Musician Clarence "Clinker" Krause agrees to help Nick track Buddy down, but they have no luck.
Nick and Nora visit a hostile Janet.
The bullet that killed Drake likely came from an antique gun, and Nick knows Janet's father is an avid collector.
Sure enough, he finds one gun missing from mr Thayer's collection.
Janet leaves after getting a telephone call.
Nick and Nora follow her to Fran's apartment.
There they find Fran's body; she was stabbed in the back very recently.
Janet claims Fran called to sell her some information, but that she got there after Fran was killed.
Nick finds a matchbook from a hotel in Poughkeepsie.
That eventually leads him to a rest home where Buddy is undergoing treatment.
The musician is too badly shaken up to answer Nick's questions, though Nora's presence seems to calm him down.
When Nora sneaks back later by herself, Buddy becomes agitated, confesses to the murder, pulls out the antique gun, and tries to shoot Nora.
Fortunately, he misses.
Nick does not believe the deranged man's confession; Drake was slain by a well-aimed shot.
Nick decides to gather all the suspects together by arranging a party on the reopened Fortune and announcing that Buddy has fully recovered and will reveal the real murderer's identity that night.
It is Nora who notices the vital clue.
Amboy's wife shows up wearing a valuable necklace that matches the earrings of Mitchell Talbin's wife Phyllis.
Sometime later, the necklace mysteriously reappears on Phyllis's neck.
When Nick confronts Mitchell, Phyllis reveals that it was she who paid off her lover Drake's debt using the necklace.
As Nick prompts Buddy to finger the killer, Mitchell finally confesses to both killings and pulls out a gun.
An enraged Phyllis shoots him first, but her husband is only wounded.
Then, despite Nick's pleas, she fires again and again, finishing the job.
<EOS>
Nick and Nora visit Nick's parents (Lucile Watson and Harry Davenport) in Nick's hometown, Sycamore Springs, in New England.
The residents are convinced that Nick is in town on an investigation, despite Nick's repeated denials.
However, when aircraft factory employee Peter Berton (Ralph Brooks) seeks out Nick and is shot dead before he can reveal anything, Nick is on the case.
An old childhood friend, dr Bruce Clayworth (Lloyd Corrigan), performs the autopsy and extracts a pistol bullet.
Then, when Nick searches Berton's room for clues, he is knocked unconscious by Crazy Mary (Anne Revere), a local eccentric.
Nora's innocent purchase of a painting for Nick's birthday present turns out to be the key to the mystery.
When she shows it to her husband, it brings back unpleasant memories for him, so she donates it to a charity bazaar.
When Edgar Draque (Leon Ames) offers Nora a large sum for the painting, Nick wonders why it is so valuable.
Nick learns that Draque's wife Helena (Helen Vinson) bought the artwork, but she is knocked out and the painting disappears.
Nick discovers that Crazy Mary is Berton's mother and goes to see her, only to come across her lifeless body.
Nick and Nora's dog Asta finds the painting in her shack.
Nick puts the pieces together and has the police bring all the suspects to his father's house.
(Early on, it is revealed that Nick's father, dr Bertram Charles, has never been overly impressed with his son's unusual career choice, so this gives Nick an opportunity to change his father's mind) Using dr Charles's fluoroscope, Nick shows that there is a blueprint hidden underneath the paint.
Several people identify it as part of the specifications for a new aircraft propeller worth a great deal to a "foreign power".
Berton had copied the blueprints and concealed the copies under five paintings.
He had a change of heart and was going to confess all to Nick, but was killed by the spies he was dealing with.
Nick has a souvenir World War II Japanese sniper rifle belonging to dr Clayworth's brother brought in, and claims it was the murder weapon.
Then, after proving that the Draques are members of the spy ring, Nick reveals the identity of its leader: dr Bruce Clayworth.
Clayworth's first slip was the bullet he showed Nick.
Nick knew a handgun bullet would not have the power to penetrate as far into Berton's body as the real one went.
Clayworth grabs the rifle.
He confesses to the murder, and also to a deep hatred for Nick for always being better than him in their youth.
He tries to shoot his nemesis, only to find that Nick had taken the precaution of removing the firing pin.
Nick's father is very impressed.
<EOS>
Flight Lieutenant William Terrance "Terry" Decker of 56 Squadron Royal Flying Corps lands his Nieuport biplane on an American airbase in France, after flying through a strange cloud.
He is taken into custody and questioned by the American base commander, General Harper, and his provost marshal, Major Wilson.
Decker identifies himself and his squadron and claims that the date is March 5, 1917.
He is informed that it is actually March 5, 1959.
Decker tells the officers that he and his comrade Alexander Mackaye were fighting seven German aircraft; Mackaye was shot down and Decker escaped into a cloud.
The Americans tell him that Mackaye is alive and is an Air Vice Marshal in the Royal Air Force, having saved thousands of lives during World War II by shooting down German bombers over London.
Mackaye is coming to inspect the base that day.
Major Wilson tries to help Decker remember what happened.
Decker finally confesses that he consistently avoided combat throughout his service, and that he in fact abandoned the greatly outnumbered Mackaye that day.
He refuses to believe that Mackaye somehow survived against such odds.
Wilson suggests that someone else helped Mackaye.
Decker realizes that he has been given a second chance.
He tells the American officer that there was no one within fifty miles who could have come to Mackaye's aid, so if Mackaye survived, it had to be because he went back himself.
Decker pleads with Wilson to release him from custody.
When Wilson refuses, Decker escapes after assaulting Wilson and a guard.
Decker locates and starts his plane, after punching out a mechanic.
He is about to take off when Wilson catches up and puts a gun to his head.
Decker tells him he will have to shoot him to stop him, as rescuing Mackaye would also mean the thousands who Mackaye had saved during the Second World War would live, and this is his opportunity to redeem himself from his previous cowardice.
Wilson allows him to escape and Decker flies his plane into white clouds and vanishes.
Major Wilson is rebuked by General Harper for believing such a fantastic story and allowing Decker to escape.
When Mackaye arrives, Wilson asks he if he knew a man named William Terrence Decker.
Mackaye, surprised, says Decker saved his life.
After fleeing into a cloud, Decker suddenly returned to shoot down three German planes, before he himself was shot down.
General Harper shows Mackaye Decker's badge and personal effects.
Mackaye informs them that these had never been returned by the Germans.
Major Wilson suggests that he sit down while they explain how they came into their possession.
<EOS>
Both the Duke and Duchess have an eye for beauty and other partners.
The Duke presently fancies a young woman who poses as an artist's model.
The Duchess has her eye on the famous artist, Benvenuto Cellini, who is in the palace making a set of gold plates to be used at ducal banquets.
Cellini purportedly hypnotizes young women, and cuckolds the Duke of Florence.
The somewhat oblivious Duke is loath to punish the young man, for Cellini fashions gold wares for him, but throws him into the torture chamber.
However, a goblet of poisoned wine solves the problem.
<EOS>
The show centers around Donald and teenaged versions of his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
The actual age of the boys is not made certain.
Donald works as a cameraman alongside Daisy, who is a reporter.
The group travel around the world looking for a big scoop.
The three boys are triplets but Huey had once referred to Dewey and Louie as his baby brothers.
Huey must have been the first to be born, therefore making him the eldest of the brothers.
Huey, Dewey and Louie have more distinctive personalities than when they had been presented as younger.
They usually resort to extreme and strange measures to avoid getting into trouble with their uncle and to achieve their ambitions.
They usually do this by tricking Donald, or whoever else they wish to manipulate.
But they usually feel guilty for any of the wrongdoings they had performed which may have upset loved ones, proving that they do possess good morals.
Huey, Dewey and Louie share similar passions such as listening to rock music, getting revenge on those who anger them, impressing girls, getting money, pulling pranks, role models whom they look up to and admire, playing games and reading comics.
They also share a profound knowledge of cars and mechanics.
But there are certain aspects of their personalities that stand out more in each of them.
<EOS>
The crew of the newly commissioned USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) are enjoying shore leave after the starship's shakedown cruise goes poorly.
At Yosemite National Park James Kirk, recently demoted back to Captain after the events of the previous two films, is camping with Spock and dr Leonard McCoy.
Their leave is interrupted when the Enterprise is ordered by Starfleet Command to rescue human, Klingon, and Romulan hostages on the planet Nimbus III.
Learning of the Enterprises mission, the Klingon Captain Klaa decides to pursue Kirk for personal glory.
On Nimbus III, the Enterprise crew discovers that renegade Vulcan Sybok, Spock's half-brother, is behind the hostage crisis.
Sybok reveals the hostage situation was a ruse to lure a starship to Nimbus III.
Sybok wants to use a ship to reach the mythical planet Sha Ka Ree, the place where creation began; the planet lies behind a seemingly impenetrable barrier near the center of the galaxy.
Sybok uses his unique ability to reveal and heal the innermost pain of a person through the mind meld to subvert the wills of the hostages and crew members.
Only Spock and Kirk prove resistant to Sybok; Spock is unmoved by the experience and Kirk refuses the Vulcan's offer, telling him that his pain is what makes him human.
Sybok reluctantly declares a truce with Kirk, realizing he needs his leadership experience to navigate the Enterprise to Sha Ka Ree.
The Enterprise successfully breaches the barrier, pursued by Klaa's vessel, and discovers a lone blue planet.
Sybok, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy journey to the surface, where Sybok calls out to his perceived vision of God.
An entity appears, and when told of how Sybok breached the barrier, demands that the starship be brought closer to the planet.
When a skeptical Kirk inquires, "What does God need with a starship.
", the entity attacks him in retribution.
The others doubt a god who would inflict harm on people for pleasure.
Realizing his foolishness, Sybok sacrifices himself in an effort to combat the creature and allow the others to escape.
Intent on stopping the being, Kirk orders the Enterprise to fire a photon torpedo at their location, to little effect.
Spock and McCoy are beamed back to the ship, but Klaa's vessel attacks the Enterprise before Kirk can be transported aboard.
The vengeful entity reappears and tries to kill Kirk when Klaa's vessel destroys it in a hail of fire.
Kirk is beamed aboard the Klingon ship, where Spock and the Klingon General Korrd force Klaa to stand down.
The Enterprise and Klingon crews celebrate a new détente, and Kirk, Spock, and McCoy resume their vacation at Yosemite.
<EOS>
Phantasy Star is set in Algol, a solar system consisting of three planets.
There is the lush and green Palma, the arid and barren Motavia, and finally, the icy and desolate Dezoris.
As the story begins, Algol is ruled by King Lassic, who while originally benevolent, becomes a cruel, sociopathic tyrant after converting to a new religion.
After a string of harsh political changes, small pockets of rebellion emerge but are mostly ineffective against Lassic's iron rule.
When Nero Landale, the leader of one such rebellion, is killed by Lassic's Robot-cops, his sister Alis swears revenge.
As she travels and witnesses the many victims of Lassic's oppression, Alis' objective becomes less about revenge and more about liberation for the people of Algol.
Joined by Myau, a talking cat, Odin, once a member of Nero's rebellion, and the Esper Noah (Lutz in the Japanese version and further English games), Alis embarks on an adventure spanning all three planets.
Along the way Alis talks to the towns' people who may help her or give her secret information for finding special items.
She encounters many personalities, from the well-meaning Governor of Motavia to the eccentric dr Luveno and other countless enemies on the way to find the weapons and other items are needed to eventually engage King Lassic and determine the fate of Algol.
<EOS>
The work recounts the life of Hikaru Genji, or "Shining Genji", the son of an ancient Japanese emperor, known to readers as Emperor Kiritsubo, and a low-ranking but beloved concubine called Lady Kiritsubo.
For political reasons, the emperor removes Genji from the line of succession, demoting him to a commoner by giving him the surname Minamoto, and he pursues a career as an imperial officer.
The tale concentrates on Genji's romantic life and describes the customs of the aristocratic society of the time.
Genji's mother dies when he is three years old, and the Emperor cannot forget her.
The Emperor Kiritsubo then hears of a woman (Lady Fujitsubo), formerly a princess of the preceding emperor, who resembles his deceased concubine, and later she becomes one of his wives.
Genji loves her first as a stepmother, but later as a woman, and they fall in love with each other.
Genji is frustrated by his forbidden love for the Lady Fujitsubo and is on bad terms with his wife (Aoi no Ue).
He engages in a series of unfulfilling love affairs with other women, but in most cases his advances are rebuffed, his lover dies suddenly during the affair, or he becomes bored with his lover.
Genji visits Kitayama, the northern rural hilly area of Kyoto, where he finds a beautiful ten-year-old girl.
He is fascinated by this little girl (Murasaki), and discovers that she is a niece of the Lady Fujitsubo.
Finally he kidnaps her, brings her to his own palace and educates her to be his ideal lady &mdash; that is, like the Lady Fujitsubo.
During this time Genji also meets the Lady Fujitsubo secretly, and she bears his son, Reizei.
Everyone except the two lovers believes the father of the child is the Emperor Kiritsubo.
Later, the boy becomes the Crown Prince and Lady Fujitsubo becomes the Empress, but Genji and Lady Fujitsubo swear to keep their secret.
Genji and his wife, Lady Aoi, reconcile.
She gives birth to a son but dies soon after.
Genji is sorrowful, but finds consolation in Murasaki, whom he marries.
Genji's father, the Emperor Kiritsubo, dies.
He is succeeded by his son Suzaku, whose mother (Kokiden), together with Kiritsubo's political enemies, takes power in the court.
Then another of Genji's secret love affairs is exposed: Genji and a concubine of the Emperor Suzaku are discovered when they meet in secret.
The Emperor Suzaku confides his personal amusement at Genji's exploits with the woman (Oborozukiyo), but is duty-bound to punish his half-brother.
He exiles Genji to the town of Suma in rural Harima Province (now part of Kobe in Hyōgo Prefecture).
There, a prosperous man known as the Akashi Novice (because he is from Akashi in Settsu Province) entertains Genji, and Genji has a love affair with Akashi's daughter.
She gives birth to Genji's only daughter, who will later become the Empress.
In the capital, the Emperor Suzaku is troubled by dreams of his late father, Kiritsubo, and something begins to affect his eyes.
Meanwhile, his mother, Kokiden, grows ill, which weakens her powerful sway over the throne.
Thus the Emperor orders Genji pardoned, and he returns to Kyoto.
His son by Lady Fujitsubo, Reizei, becomes the emperor.
The new Emperor Reizei knows Genji is his real father, and raises Genji's rank to the highest possible.
However, when Genji turns 40 years old, his life begins to decline.
His political status does not change, but his love and emotional life are slowly damaged.
He marries another wife, the Third Princess (known as Onna san no miya in the Seidensticker version, or Nyōsan in Waley's).
Genji's nephew, Kashiwagi, later forces himself on the Third Princess, and she bears Kaoru (who, in a similar situation to that of Reizei, is legally known as the son of Genji).
Genji's new marriage changes his relationship with Murasaki, who becomes a nun (bikuni).
Genji's beloved Murasaki dies.
In the following chapter, Maboroshi ("Illusion"), Genji contemplates how fleeting life is.
Immediately after Maboroshi, there is a chapter entitled Kumogakure ("Vanished into the Clouds"), which is left blank, but implies the death of Genji.
The rest of the work is known as the "Uji Chapters".
These chapters follow Kaoru and his best friend, Niou.
Niou is an imperial prince, the son of Genji's daughter, the current Empress now that Reizei has abdicated the throne, while Kaoru is known to the world as Genji's son but is in fact fathered by Genji's nephew.
The chapters involve Kaoru and Niou's rivalry over several daughters of an imperial prince who lives in Uji, a place some distance away from the capital.
The tale ends abruptly, with Kaoru wondering if Niou is hiding the lady the former loves away from him.
Kaoru has sometimes been called the first anti-hero in literature.
<EOS>
The story narrates the star-crossed love of King Perión of Gaula and Elisena of England, resulting in the secret birth of Amadís.
Abandoned at birth on a barge in England, the child is raised by the knight Gandales in Scotland and investigates his origins through fantastic adventures.
He is persecuted by the wizard Arcalaús, but protected by Urganda la Desconocida (Urganda the Unknown or Unrecognized), an ambiguous priestess with magical powers and a talent for prophecy.
Knighted by his father King Perión, Amadís overcomes the challenges of the enchanted Insola Firme (a sort of peninsula), including passing through the Arch of Faithful Lovers.
Despite Amadís' celebrated fidelity, his childhood sweetheart, Oriana, heiress to the throne of Great Britain, becomes jealous of a rival princess and sends a letter to chastise Amadís.
The knight (later famously parodied in Don Quixote) changes his name to Beltenebros and indulges in a long period of madness on the isolated Peña Pobre.
He recovers his senses only when Oriana sends her maid to retrieve him.
He then helps Oriana's father, Lisuarte, repel invaders.
A short time later he and Oriana scandalously consummate their love.
Their son Esplandián is the result of this one illicit meeting.
Rodríguez de Montalvo asserts that in the "original" Amadís, Esplandián eventually kills his father for this offense against his mother's honor; however, Montalvo amends this defect and resolves their conflict peaceably.
Oriana and Amadís defer their marriage for many years due to enmity between Amadís and Oriana's father Lisuarte.
Amadís absents himself from Britain for at least ten years, masquerading as "The Knight of the Green Sword".
He travels as far as Constantinople and secures the favor of the child-princess Leonorina, who will become Esplandián's wife.
His most famous adventure during this time of exile is the battle with the giant Endriago, a monster born of incest who exhales a poisonous reek and whose body is covered in scales.
As a knight, Amadís is courteous, gentle, sensitive and a Christian who dares to defend free love.
Unlike most literary heroes of his time (French and German, for example), Amadís is a handsome man who would cry if refused by his lady, but is invincible in battle and usually emerges drenched in his own and his opponent's blood.
<EOS>
In the late 1950s Madame Emery and her beautiful 17-year-old daughter Geneviève (Deneuve) sell umbrellas at their tiny (and financially struggling) boutique in the coastal town of Cherbourg in Normandy, France.
Guy (Castelnuovo), a handsome young auto mechanic, lives with and cares for his sickly aunt and godmother Elise.
Guy and Geneviève are deeply in love; they want to get married, and they intend to name their first child "Françoise".
Madeleine (Ellen Farner) is a quiet young caregiver who looks after Guy's aunt.
She has feelings for Guy, but has not expressed this.
Guy is drafted and must leave to serve as a soldier in the Algerian War.
The night before Guy leaves, he and Geneviève pledge their undying love and make love (apparently for the first time).
The next day, he departs.
After a couple of months Geneviève learns she is pregnant.
She writes to Guy, but she feels abandoned when Guy writes back infrequently.
Her mother says that this shows Guy has forgotten her, and she should give up on him.
Geneviève is courted by Roland Cassard (Marc Michel), a quiet, kind, young Parisian jeweler, who is very wealthy.
He wants to marry her even after learning that she is pregnant by another man.
(In one of the connections among the triology of films, Cassard had previously unsuccessfully wooed the title character in Demy's earlier film Lola (1961); he relates a version of this story to Madame Emery) Geneviève's mother repeatedly tells her daughter to be sensible and choose a secure future with Cassard.
Geneviève finally decides to accept him, and they are married in a great cathedral.
She appears ambivalent about her decision.
Guy returns from the war with a slight limp from an injury.
He learns that the umbrella store has been sold, and that Geneviève married and left Cherbourg.
As a veteran, Guy has difficulty settling in.
He argues with his boss, quits his job, and goes to drink in a seedy port bar.
He spends the night with a friendly prostitute named Jenny.
When he returns to his apartment, he finds Madeleine, who tells him that his godmother and aunt Elise died the night before.
Guy sees that Madeleine loves him, and he cleans up his life with her encouragement.
With an inheritance from his aunt, he finances a new "American-style" Esso gas station.
He asks Madeleine to marry him, and she accepts, although wondering if he is just on the rebound from his lost Geneviève.
The coda is set on Christmas Eve 1963.
Guy is managing his Esso station.
He is happily married, and he and Madeleine have a son named François.
While Madeleine is out with the boy, a new Mercedes pulls into the station.
The mink-clad driver is revealed as Geneviève, now sophisticated and wealthy.
With her is her (and Guy's) daughter Françoise, who stays in the car.
Shocked to see each other, Guy and Geneviève go inside the station to talk.
Geneviève says that this is the first time she has returned to Cherbourg since her marriage.
Her mother died the previous autumn and she has had no children with Cassard.
The two chat while Geneviève's car is being filled with gas.
When Geneviève asks Guy if he wants to meet their daughter, he declines.
The ex-lovers part.
As the film ends, Guy greets his wife with a kiss and plays with his son in the snow.
<EOS>
William Fitzgerald ("Fitz"), a lieutenant serving in World War II, suddenly gains the mysterious ability to see who is about to die via a strange glow on the person's face.
After correctly predicting several deaths, he tells his friend Captain Riker what he is able to see, but the Captain does not know whether to believe him.
Riker consults with a doctor, Captain Gunther, who thinks it may be fatigue and suggests that the lieutenant should take a leave of rest.
Fitzgerald goes to a hospital to see one of his men, Smitty, who is supposed to pull through.
But he sees the strange light on the soldier's face and knows his fate.
Later, his prediction has come true, and he makes a scene in the hospital in front of Captain Gunther.
Back at their tent, Fitz reveals to Riker he has seen the light on his face.
Though he tells Fitz to forget it and get ready for battle, Riker sets out some of his personal possessions &mdash; a few photographs and his wedding ring &mdash; before he goes into combat.
In the camp, the men argue about the rumors of the lieutenant's predictions, but Riker tells all the soldiers there that there are no "mind readers" in the camp.
Fitz, seeing the men's faces and realizing he could cause mutiny (and that none of them are fated to die), agrees with the captain.
In the ensuing battle, all return except for Riker, who is killed by a sniper.
Captain Gunther brings news to Fitzgerald that he is being sent back to division headquarters for some much needed rest, but as the lieutenant gathers his gear, he sees the light on his own face in a mirror.
A jeep driver comes to pick up Fitzgerald for the ride to HQ, and Fitzgerald sees the light on the driver's face as well.
Fitzgerald becomes distant, as if resigned to fate.
The Sergeant sends the two off, telling the driver to be careful as they go; they have not completely checked the area for land mines on the road ahead.
As the soldiers are gathered around the camp at dusk, the sound of an explosion is heard in the distance.
<EOS>
Running out of fuel, astronauts Meyers, Webber, and Kirby land their spaceship on a remote asteroid in 2186.
They find the place quite Earth-like although "655 million miles away from Earth".
After looking around, they begin to wonder where everyone is.
The first place they come to is a farm where they find a farmer gazing off into the distance.
They approach him, tap him on the shoulder and try talking to him, but realize he is nothing more than a statue.
The astronauts explore the area for some time, and grow more and more disturbed by their surroundings as they find everything eerily motionless, even the animals.
Finally, they are startled to find someone who does move: "Jeremy Wickwire", the caretaker of this place.
Wickwire explains to the astronauts that the asteroid they have landed on is an exclusive cemetery called "Happy Glades", founded in 1973, where rich people can live out their life's greatest fantasy after they die.
He is told by the men that a nuclear war destroyed much of the Earth in 1985, and that it has taken over two hundred years to recover from it.
Wickwire serves the three men wine, toasts their safe arrival, and asks each man what his greatest wish is.
All three reply that they wish they were on their ship heading for home.
Suddenly, they realize that their drinks have been poisoned with what Wickwire refers to as "eternifying fluid".
As the men are dying, Wickwire (who is actually a robot that has been deactivated for "about 200 years" and only turns on for occasional duties such as cleaning, dusting, and maintenance on a few clocks) apologizes to them, and explains that it is his job to ensure peace and tranquility at "Happy Glades".
He emphasizes that they "are men, and while there are men there can be no peace".
Later, Wickwire re-installs the embalmed astronauts in their ship, posing them at their posts as if they were on their way home, just as they had wished.
<EOS>
A young woman named Millicent Barnes is waiting in a bus depot in Ithaca, New York, for a bus to Cortland, en route to a new job.
Looking at a wall clock she notices the bus is late.
She walks up to the ticket counter to ask the ticket agent when the bus will arrive, and he gruffly replies that this is her third time there.
Millicent denies this.
While speaking with the ticket agent, she notices a bag just like hers in the luggage pile behind her.
She mentions this to the ticket agent, who says it is her bag.
She doesn't believe this until she notices her bag is not beside the bench anymore.
She goes into the restroom to wash her hands and the cleaning lady there insists this is her second time there.
Again, Millicent denies this.
Upon leaving the restroom, she glances in the mirror and sees, in addition to her reflection, an exact copy of herself sitting on the bench outside.
A few moments later she meets a young man from Binghamton named Paul Grinstead, who is waiting for the same bus.
Millicent tells Paul about encountering her double.
Paul, attempting to calm Millicent, says it is either a joke or a misunderstanding caused by a look-alike.
When the bus arrives and the two of them prepare to board, Millicent looks in the window and sees the copy of herself, already seated on the bus.
In shock, she runs back into the depot and faints.
Millicent lies unconscious on a bench inside the depot while Paul and the cleaning lady attend to her.
Paul agrees to wait for the 7:00 bus.
While they wait, Millicent, now coming to, insists the strange events are caused by an evil double from a parallel world - a nearby, yet distant alternate plane of existence that comes into convergence with this world by powerful forces, or unnatural, unknown events.
When this happens, the impostors enter this realm.
Millicent's doppelgänger can survive in this world only by eliminating and replacing her.
Paul says the explanation is "a little metaphysical" for him, and believes that Millicent's sanity is beginning to unravel.
Paul tells Millicent he'll call a friend in Tully who has a car and may be able to drive them to Syracuse.
In actuality, he calls the police.
After Millicent is taken away by two policemen, Paul begins to settle himself.
After drinking from a water fountain, Paul notices that his valise is missing.
Looking up towards the doors, Paul notices another man running out the door of the bus depot.
Pursuing this individual down the street, Paul discovers that he is chasing his own copy, whose face shows excited delight.
His copy disappears as Paul calls out "Where are you.
" while looking around in confusion and shock.
<EOS>
Maple Street is full of playing children and adults talking when a shadow passes over, accompanied by a roar and a flash of light.
Several adults are slightly alarmed by this, but they carry on with their activities.
Shortly afterwards, the residents discover that their power went off, affecting stoves, lawn mowers, cars and phones.
They gather in the street to discuss the situation.
Pete Van Horn volunteers to walk over to Floral Street, the next street over, to see if it is affected as well.
His neighbor, Steve Brand decides to go into town, but Tommy, a local boy, urges him not to leave the street.
Tommy has read a story of an alien invasion causing similar controversy, and says that the monsters do not want anyone to leave the street.
Furthermore, in the story, the aliens are living as a family that appears to be human.
The power outage is meant to isolate the neighborhood.
At first, Tommy's theory is laughed off, until another resident, Les Goodman, tries unsuccessfully to start his car.
He gets out and begins to walk back to the other residents when the car starts on its own.
The bizarre behavior of his car makes the neighbors suspect that Les may be an alien, as suggested by Tommy's story.
One woman brings up his late nights spent standing in the garden looking up at the sky.
Les claims to be an insomniac.
Steve, acting as the voice of reason, tries to defuse the situation and prevent it from becoming a witch-hunt.
Charlie Farnsworth pressures Steve about his hobby building a secret ham radio.
Steve argues that the whole idea of anyone on the street being an alien is madness.
Darkness descends and a shadowy figure is seen walking toward them.
Charlie panics, grabs a shotgun, and shoots the figure, thinking it to be an alien.
When the crowd reaches the fallen figure, they realize it is Pete van Horn, returning from his scouting mission on Floral Street, instantly killed from the shot.
As Charlie struggles to defend his hasty action, the neighbors voice suspicions that Pete had discovered evidence that Charlie is an alien, and Charlie shot Pete to prevent him from fingering him.
The lights in Charlie's house come on, further fueling their suspicion, and even Steve is too angered by Pete's death to defend Charlie.
Charlie makes a run for his house while the other residents chase him, hurling stones, one hitting Charlie in the forehead, creating a bleeding gash.
Terrified, Charlie attempts to deflect suspicion onto Tommy.
Several neighbors agree, as Tommy was the only one who knew about the aliens' plans.
Lights begin flashing on and off in houses throughout the neighborhood; lawn mower and car engines start and stop for no apparent reason.
The mob becomes hysterical, hurling accusations, smashing windows and taking up weapons as the situation devolves into an all-out riot.
The scene cuts to a nearby hilltop, where it is revealed the shadow that flew overhead is, indeed, an alien spaceship.
Its crew are watching the riot on Maple Street while using a device to manipulate the neighborhood's power.
They comment on how simply fiddling with people's electricity consistently leads them to descend into paranoia and panic.
They also discuss their intention to use this strategy to conquer Earth one neighborhood at a time.
<EOS>
Arthur Curtis is a businessman planning a vacation to San Francisco with his wife.
After arriving at his office and talking with his secretary Sally, he discovers his office to be a set on a sound stage after finding that his telephone is not functional, and hearing someone yell "cut".
He is told that Arthur Curtis is merely a role he is playing, and that his real identity is Gerald Raigan, a movie star who is caught in the middle of a brutal divorce from a hostile wife, his own alcoholism, and a declining career.
He leaves the studio with his wife as she wants money.
He tries in vain to locate Arthur Curtis's house, and mistakes a little girl for his daughter, scaring her.
His wife drives him to their actual home.
Inside, he meets his (Raigan's) agent, who tells him that if he doesn't continue work that day, he will drop him as a client.
Curtis still protests that he is not Raigan, and tries to call his workplace, but the operator can't find any listing of it.
His agent believes that he is having a nervous breakdown, and shows him the shooting script of a movie called The Private World of Arthur Curtis.
He then tells him that the movie is being cancelled due to his outburst in the studio.
Raigan/Curtis rushes back to the set, which is being dismantled, and pleads not to be left in the uncaring world of Gerald Raigan.
Curtis reappears in his office as it was before, just as his wife arrives.
Sally gives Arthur his plane tickets.
As Arthur hears echoes of the studio sounds, he tells Marian that he doesn't want to lose her and that they should leave for their vacation immediately.
Meanwhile, in the "real" world, Raigan's agent shows up on the set to find that Raigan has vanished.
As the set is being dismantled, a teaser shows the "Arthur Curtis" script left on a table, waiting to be thrown in the rubbish bin.
In the last scene, Curtis and his wife board a plane, which takes flight and fades away into the sky.
<EOS>
Walter Jameson, a college professor, is engaged to a young doctoral student named Susanna Kittridge.
Susanna's father, Sam Kittridge, another professor at Jameson's college, becomes suspicious of Jameson because he does not appear to have aged in the 12 years they have known each other and seems to have unrealistically detailed knowledge of some pieces of history that do not appear in texts.
Jameson at one point reads from an original Civil War diary in his possession.
Later, Kittridge recognizes Jameson in a Mathew Brady Civil War photograph.
After he presents these pieces of evidence, Jameson ultimately reveals his real life history.
Agelessness (but no kind of immunity to injury) was imparted to him by an alchemist more than 2,000 years ago.
Jameson does not know what was done to him, only that the alchemist was gone when he recovered, and he then stopped aging.
Soon, he had to become a constant refugee.
He tells Kittridge that he learned a terrible lesson from living for so long and longs for death.
He keeps a revolver in his desk drawer but does not have the courage to use it.
Realizing that if Jameson marries his daughter, she will grow old, and Jameson will eventually abandon her in order to keep his secret, Kittridge refuses permission for Jameson to marry his daughter.
Jameson defies him and proposes to Susanna, and they plan to immediately elope.
Jameson, is accosted by Laurette Bowen (Estelle Winwood), one of his wives, whom he abandoned when she grew old and frail.
She claims that she cannot allow Jameson to destroy another woman's life.
She discovers Jameson's pistol lying on his desk, and shoots him.
Kittridge enters Jameson's study and finds him bleeding but seemingly at peace.
Jameson rapidly ages and collapses on the floor.
Susanna enters the house.
Kittridge tries to stop her from seeing the aged Jameson, saying only that he is gone.
He is unable to keep her out of the room, but inside she discovers only an empty suit of clothes with a white substance near the collar and sleeves.
When Susanna asks what is on the floor, the professor replies, "Dust, only dust".
<EOS>
The film is the story of a hopeful new immigrant, Janos Szabo (Peter Lorre), who, on his first day in New York City, is trapped in a hotel fire that leaves his face hideously scarred.
Refused employment due to his appearance although he possesses tremendous skill as a watchmaker, the only way he can survive is by turning to theft, using his skilled hands to disable alarms.
Eventually he becomes the leader of a gang of thieves, and raises enough money to commission and wear a realistic latex mask of his own face.
Janos then falls in love with Helen (Evelyn Keyes) a blind woman who sees only the good in him, and attempts to leave his life of crime behind him.
Unfortunately, his gang come to believe that he has betrayed them to the police, and attempt to kill him by car bomb, an attempt on his life that he survives but which kills Helen.
In retaliation, Janos disguises himself as the pilot of the private plane the gang is flying out of the city with, which he lands in the Arizona desert and lets out the fuel, suicidally stranding both the gang and himself without food or water, dooming them all to a slow death.
At the film's end, Janos's body and that of his enemies are discovered by the police.
<EOS>
In 1923, Rocky Sullivan (Frankie Burke) and Jerry Connolly (William Tracy) attempted to rob a railroad car carrying fountain pens.
Jerry, the faster runner, escaped from police, while Rocky was caught and sentenced to reform school.
Thirteen years later, Rocky (James Cagney) is arrested for armed robbery.
His lawyer and co-conspirator, Jim Frazier (Humphrey Bogart), asks him to take the blame and, in exchange, he will give Rocky the $100,000 stolen on "the day" he is released.
Rocky agrees, and is sentenced to three years in prison.
After serving his sentence, he returns to his old neighborhood and visits Jerry (Pat O'Brien), who is now a Catholic priest.
Jerry advises Rocky to get a place "in the old parish"; he does so, renting a room in a boarding house run by Laury Martin (Ann Sheridan), a girl he bullied in school.
He then pays a visit to Frazier's casino.
Frazier claims to have been unaware of Rocky's release, but promises to have the $100,000 ready by the end of the week.
In the meantime, he gives Rocky $500 spending money.
Rocky is pickpocketed after leaving the casino.
The culprits turn out to be a group of youths: Soapy (Billy Halop), Swing (Bobby Jordan), Bim (Leo Gorcey), Pasty (Gabriel Dell), Crab (Huntz Hall), and Hunky (Bernard Punsly).
They admire Rocky's reputation and criminal lifestyle so, after retrieving his wallet, Rocky invites them to dinner.
While they are eating, Jerry shows up and asks the gang why they haven't been playing basketball.
With Rocky's help, he convinces them to play against another team.
At the match, Jerry and Laury express equal concern over the negative influence Rocky may be having on the gang.
While walking home, an attempt is made on Rocky's life by Frazier's hit squad.
Rocky survives, and retaliates by kidnapping Frazier and raiding his house at gunpoint, stealing $2,000 and a ledger.
Frazier's business partner, Mac Keefer (George Bancroft), gives Rocky his $100,000 in full, but informs the police of the kidnapping.
Rocky is arrested, but after discovering he has possession of the ledger, Frazier tells the police it was all a "misunderstanding" and Rocky is released.
Jerry learns of the kidnapping, and decides to go to the press in an effort to expose the corruption in New York.
Rocky tries to reason with him, but to no avail.
On the radio, Jerry publicly denounces the corruption; as well as Rocky, Frazier and Keefer.
Frazier and Keefer assure Rocky that no harm will come to Jerry, but Rocky overhears their plans to kill the both of them.
Rocky kills Frazier and Keefer instead, and makes his way to an abandoned warehouse after escaping the casino.
There, he kills a police officer and a standoff ensues with the rest of the force.
Jerry arrives and tries to reason with Rocky, telling him the entire building is surrounded, but Rocky takes him hostage.
While trying to escape, the latter is shot in the leg and caught.
After standing trial, Rocky is sentenced to death.
On the night of his execution, Jerry pleads with Rocky to show people that he died a coward by begging for mercy on his way to the death house, citing the negative influence he has had on Soapy and the gang as his reason.
Rocky refuses, but on his way to the electric chair, he does start begging and screaming for mercy, though his motive is unclear to the viewer.
The final scene shows Soapy and the gang reading of how Rocky "turned yellow" in the face of his execution, and they lose all respect for him.
<EOS>
Babes in Arms opens in Seaport, Rhode Island in the 1930s.
Val and Marshall’s vaudeville parents leave them behind to do the circuits.
Val then meets Billie, a girl who has driven from the coast, only to have her car break down.
They then sing a love song about how they feel as though they have met before (Where or When).
The Sheriff then visits them to inform them that they have to work at the work farm because they are not yet 21.
They then decide that they will stick around instead and find another way to support themselves (Babes in Arms).
The “kids” form a group with Val as the leader.
After deciding nothing, except that violence is good, they disperse.
Dolores, the Sheriff’s daughter, talks to Gus, her ex, who tries to woo her, failing.
They then sing and flirt about how they do not care that their relationship is over (I Wish I Were in Love Again).
Marshall then arrives, jealous.
Then Val enters mentioning that he has also kissed her, a fight begins and escalates when others enter.
The sheriff comes in and the kids pretend to be dancing.
This causes Val to decide to put on their own follies.
The Sheriff decides to give them two weeks to put on the show (Babes in Arms Reprise).
Later, Val enters and tells Irving and Ivor to practice their number (Light on Our Feet).
Lee then arrives and chastises his brother, Beauregard, for hanging out with “the blacks”.
Billie then uses her womanly guiles to convince Lee to invest his money in the show.
Lee then smears some of her lipstick on his cheek and convinces the boys that she kissed him.
They then bring on “Baby Rose” a former child star to be in their show who performs a number she learned (Way Out West).
Billie then enters with a jealous Val.
After calming him, they discuss the show.
Lee does not want Irving and Ivan in the show, After learning this, Val leaves in a huff.
Billie reflects on her romance with Val (My Funny Valentine).
They transition into the day of show and show the final number of the follies performed by Baby Rose (Johnny One Note).
Backstage, Lee and Val fight over letting Irving and Ivan go on despite their race.
Val punches Lee and Irving and Ivan go and do the big dance finale (Johnny One Note Ballet).
Act 2 opens on the gang sitting despondently trying to cheer each other up because they are at the work farm (Imagine).
Val comes in and calls them away to lunch, staying behind to inform Billie that his parents will be away for 3-4 more months.
They talk and Val mocks Billies beliefs on luck and her immaturity (All at Once).
For the gang’s first night off, the sheriff is throwing a party in a field on Val’s property.
The former communist Peter enters, having won money in a raffle, and proclaims that he is to travel the world and not share his money to which the gang is upset (Imagine Reprise).
Cut to a surprisingly long ballet dream sequence of his travels (Peter’s Ballet).
Continuing pre ballet he decides to invest the money (Imagine Reprise 2).
Later at the party, the Sheriff attempts to make good with the kids.
Billie tells Val that she plans on leaving The Farm for the road.
Val insists on going with her before being called back to the kitchen.
Billie sings about how she doesn’t mind driving around.
She also talks about how she likes living on her own terms (Lady is a Tramp).
Peter returns to the party informing the crew that he lost all the money.
The gang leaves following the radio for news of a cross atlantic flight and Deloris tells Gus that she will come work on the farm to be with him.
He reacts by telling her how she doesn’t return his affections and drags him along (You are so Fair).
After pretending to not care about each other they admit that they like each other.
The gang re-enters and listen to the radio.
They realise the Aviator must make a forced landing, and in their field nonetheless.
After much scrambling, they call the airport to get reporters to come, and Val decides to impersonate the aviator.
The reporters believe his impersonation and the city decides to throw the aviator a party.
After concocting a scheme, Billie takes control of the unconscious and tied up aviator and relishes in the fact that the gang treats her as an equal (Lady is a Tramp Reprise).
At the party, the gang repeatedly interrupts the mayor introducing the aviator to delay it.
Performing a variety of musical numbers (Specialty: You are so fair, Imagine, My Funny Valentine, Light on Our Feet, and Lady is a Tramp).
After The Aviator successfully does the speech the entire chorus performs a rousing closing number (Finale Ultimo).
<EOS>
The novel opens in April 1800.
Jack Aubrey, a shipless lieutenant wasting away in the Royal Navy port of Mahon in Minorca, meets Stephen Maturin, a destitute Irish-Catalan physician and natural philosopher, at a concert at the Governor’s Mansion.
During the performance, Maturin elbows Aubrey who is beating the measure "half a beat ahead".
The men, both at personal low points, treat the matter as one of honour; they exchange names and anticipate a duel.
Later that evening, Aubrey learns that he has been promoted to the rank of commander and has been given command of the 14-gun HM Sloop Sophie.
Meeting Maturin in the street the next day, Aubrey's joy overcomes his animosity and he invites Maturin to dine.
The men discover a shared love of music, Aubrey playing the violin and Maturin the cello.
On learning Maturin's profession, Aubrey asks him to join his ship.
Although as a physician Maturin's expertise goes far beyond that normally expected of a naval surgeon, he agrees.
Sophie is sent to accompany a small convoy of merchant ships in the Mediterranean.
Aubrey takes the opportunity to get to know his sailors and work them into a fighting unit with the aid of his new first lieutenant, James Dillon, a wealthy and aristocratic Irishman.
Dillon and Maturin had met earlier (a fact they keep to themselves) as members of the United Irishmen, a society dedicated to Irish Home Rule and Catholic emancipation.
Dillon suffers a crisis of conscience when ordered to intercept an American ship thought to be harbouring Irish rebels, and he works to help them avoid capture.
Maturin, who has never been aboard a man-of-war, struggles to understand nautical customs, and O'Brian has the crew explain to him (and to the reader) naval terminology and the official practice whereby prize money can be awarded for captured enemy vessels.
Maturin is treated by the crew as a landsman, though without offence.
As a natural philosopher he relishes the opportunity to study rare birds and fish.
His convoy duties complete, Aubrey is permitted by Admiral Keith to cruise the Mediterranean independently, looking for enemy French merchants.
Sophie meets and defeats the much larger and better-armed Cacafuego, a Spanish 32 gun xebec-frigate, though losing a number of crew, including Dillon, in the bloody action.
A victory against such odds would normally bring official recognition, promotion, and significant prize money, but unfortunately for Aubrey his superior at Mahon is Captain Harte, with whose wife Aubrey has been having an affair.
Harte ensures that Aubrey receives none of those things, though he cannot prevent Aubrey gaining a reputation within the Royal Navy as one of its great, young fighting captains.
On escort duty, Sophie is captured by a squadron of four large French warships.
The French Captain Christy Pallière is courteous; he tells Aubrey of his cousins in Bath, and feeds him well.
Aubrey and his crew miss the Algeciras Campaign but are able to observe the fighting from Gibraltar, having been paroled by the French.
Aubrey faces a court-martial for the loss of his ship, and is acquitted.
<EOS>
Abe Lincoln (Raymond Massey) leaves home for the first time, having been hired along with two of his friends by Denton Offut (Harlan Briggs) to take a load of pigs by water to New Orleans.
When the boat gets stuck at a dam at the settlement of New Salem, Abe first sees and loses his heart to Ann Rutledge (Mary Howard), the beautiful daughter of the local tavern keeper.
Thus, when Denton later offers him a job at the store he has decided to set up in New Salem, Abe readily accepts.
Abe discovers however that Ann already has a beau.
Nonetheless, he settles in, making himself the most popular man around with his ready, good-natured humor, and taking lessons from schoolteacher Mentor Graham (Louis Jean Heydt).
When his rival for Ann's affections leaves to better himself, Ann waits for him two years before receiving a letter from him in which he states he does not know when he will return.
Abe seizes the opportunity to express his love for her; she is unsure of her feelings for him and asks for a little time.
Alas, she dies soon after of "brain fever", telling Abe on her deathbed that she could have loved him.
Abe is asked to run for the State Assembly.
He reluctantly accepts and wins, but after his first term in Springfield, Illinois, he decides to study the law instead.
When Mary Todd (Ruth Gordon) visits her sister Elizabeth Edwards (Dorothy Tree) and her wealthy, influential husband Ninian (Harvey Stephens), a party is held in her honor.
All the eligible bachelors show up, including Abe's fiercest political rival, Stephen Douglas (Gene Lockhart).
However, it is the homely, unpolished Abe who catches Mary's fancy, much to her sister's chagrin.
Ambitious, Mary senses greatness in him and is determined to drive him to his rightful destiny, despite his lack of ambition.
Abe does ask her to marry him, but changes his mind at the last minute, discomfited by her drive, and leaves town.
After thinking things over, however, he asks for her hand again.
She accepts.
Years pass, and they have several children.
With a presidential election looming, Abe's party is so split that none of the favorites is acceptable to all.
The party leaders compromise on "dark horse" Abe Lincoln.
He engages in a series of debates with Stephen Douglas, the opposing candidate.
One of the main issues is slavery.
In a stirring speech, Abe contends that "a house divided against itself cannot stand".
He wins the election.
As the film ends, Abe bids his friends goodbye and boards the train to go to Washington, DC.
<EOS>
Applejack Carney pulls from a shelf an album of records entitled "The Story of a Happy Marriage" and places the song "You Were Meant for Me" on the Victrola.
Julie Adams, Applejack's old friend and owner of the album, asks him to turn off the tune and announces that she is leaving her husband Roger.
After glancing at the nursery, Julie restarts the song and remembers meeting Roger years earlier: The same ballad is playing over the loudspeakers at the Brooklyn music store where Julie works.
When the record begins to skip, passerby Roger Adams enters the store and meets Julie.
The two begin to date, and while at the beach one day, Julie breaks open a fortune cookie, which reads "you will get your wish --a baby".
Roger, a confirmed bachelor who has no patience with children, hides his fortune, which predicts a "wedding soon," and replaces it with "you will always be a bachelor".
Roger, a reporter, changes his mind, however, when he bursts into a New Year's Eve party with the news that his paper is assigning him to a post in Japan and asks Julie to marry him that evening.
Knowing that they will not see each other for three months until Roger can earn enough money for Julie's passage to Japan, the newlyweds kiss goodbye in Roger's train compartment.
As they embrace, the train pulls out, and as a result, Julie stays in Roger's compartment until the train stops the next morning.
Three months later, when Julie is reunited with Roger in Japan, she reports that she is pregnant.
Julie becomes concerned for the future of her family when she learns that Roger has lavishly furnished their house by spending advances on his salary.
Later, when Roger inherits a small sum of money and announces that he has quit his job so that they can travel the world, Julie, disturbed by her husband's financial irresponsibility, goes upstairs to pack.
At that moment, a violent earthquake strikes, demolishing the house and causing Julie to lose the baby.
Roger and Julie return to San Francisco, and while hospitalized there, Julie learns that she will never be able to have children.
Roger tries to console her by telling her that he wants to settle down and buy a small town paper, but Julie responds that a baby is all she ever wanted.
Soon after, Roger buys the Rosalia Courier Press, and the couple moves into the apartment above the newspaper office, which is equipped with a small nursery.
Roger hires their friend Applejack to manage the paper, but despite their hard work, circulation remains low.
Two years later, while Roger is working late one night, Applejack encourages Julie to adopt a child, and when Roger returns home, Applejack prods him into agreeing to consider adoption.
When Julie writes to the orphanage to request a two-year-old boy with curly hair and blue eyes, mrs Oliver, the administrator, interviews the prospective parents and later pays a surprise visit to their home.
At first disapproving because the Adams house is a cluttered mess, mrs Oliver is charmed by the little nursery and tells Julie that a five-week-old baby girl is available for adoption.
When Julie and Roger protest that they wanted a two-year-old boy, the age their own baby would have been, mrs Oliver assures them that this is the child for them.
Roger and Julie consent to see the infant, and when Julie falls in love with the baby, mrs Oliver allows them to take her home for a one-year probation period.
One year later, as the time for the adoption hearing approaches, mrs Oliver visits the family to update her records.
When Julie admits that the paper has gone out of business and that Roger has no income, mrs Oliver solemnly caps her pen.
Steeling themselves to return their baby, whom they have named Trina, to the orphanage, Roger bundles up the infant and proceeds to the judge's chambers.
When the judge denies the adoption, Roger, near tears, begs to keep the little girl, pleading that she is like his own child.
Moved by Roger's plea, the judge relents and grants the adoption, prompting Julie cheerily to proclaim that nothing can take Trina from them now.
Years pass, and Trina's proud parents watch their daughter sing the echo to "Silent Night" in her school's Christmas play.
When Trina slips on a platform while onstage, she worries that she will not be allowed to play an angel in the play the following year.
The next Christmas, mrs Oliver receives a tragic letter from Julie, notifying her of Trina's death after a sudden, brief illness.
Julie confides that Roger is punishing himself for Trina's fate and behaves like a stranger to her.
At the Adams home, as Julie and Roger sit wordlessly in their living room, they hear a knock at the door.
Julie answers it and finds a mother, frantic because her car is stalled and her son is due to perform in the school play.
Julie and Roger offer to drive the mother and child to the play, and when the car arrives to the sound of children singing "Silent Night," Roger gets out and proclaims that he never again wants to see anybody or anything that reminds him of Trina.
Julie's thoughts return to the present, and she takes the record off the turntable just as Applejack climbs the stairs to deliver her train ticket.
At that moment, Roger returns, despondent, but as he picks up Julie's suitcase to drive her to the train station, the phone rings.
It is mrs Oliver, calling to offer the couple a two-year-old boy, who is the image of the youngster they requested years earlier.
Their faith and hope restored, Julie and Roger begin planning a new life with their son.
<EOS>
Farmer Jabez Stone, from the small town of Cross Corners, New Hampshire, is plagued with unending bad luck, causing him to finally swear "it's enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devil.
" Stone is visited the next day by a stranger, who later identifies himself as "Mr.
Scratch," and makes such an offer in exchange for seven years of prosperity.
Stone agrees.
After seven years, mr Scratch comes for Stone's soul.
Stone bargains for an additional three years; after the additional three years passes, mr Scratch refuses any further extension.
Wanting out of the deal, Stone convinces famous lawyer and orator Daniel Webster to accept his case.
At midnight of the appointed date, mr Scratch arrives and is greeted by Webster, presenting himself as Stone's attorney.
mr Scratch tells Webster, "I shall call upon you, as a law-abiding citizen, to assist me in taking possession of my property," and so begins the argument.
It goes poorly for Webster, since the signature and the contract are clear, and mr Scratch will not compromise.
In desperation Webster thunders, "Mr.
Stone is an American citizen, and no American citizen may be forced into the service of a foreign prince.
We fought England for that in '12 and we'll fight all hell for it again.
" To this mr Scratch insists on his citizenship, citing his presence at the worst events of the US, concluding, "though I don't like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours".
Webster demands a trial as the right of every American.
mr Scratch agrees after Webster says that he can select the judge and jury, "so long as it is an American judge and an American jury".
A jury of the damned then enters, "with the fires of hell still upon them".
They had all done evil, and had all played a part in the formation of the United States: After five other unnamed jurors enter (Benedict Arnold being out "on other business"), the judge enters last &ndash; John Hathorne, the infamous and unrepentant executor of the Salem witch trials.
The trial is rigged against Webster.
He is ready to rage, without care for himself or Stone, but he catches himself: he sees in the jurors' eyes that they want him to act thus.
He calms himself, "for it was him they'd come for, not only Jabez Stone".
Webster starts to orate on simple and good things – "the freshness of a fine morning.
the taste of food when you're hungry.
the new day that's every day when you're a child" – and how "without freedom, they sickened".
He speaks passionately of how wonderful it is to be human and to be an American.
He admits the wrongs done in the course of American history but points out that something new and good had grown from them and that "everybody had played a part in it, even the traitors".
Mankind "got tricked and trapped and bamboozled, but it was a great journey," something "no demon that was ever foaled" could ever understand.
The jury announces its verdict: "We find for the defendant, Jabez Stone".
They admit, "Perhaps 'tis not strictly in accordance with the evidence, but even the damned may salute the eloquence of mr Webster".
The judge and jury disappear with the break of dawn.
mr Scratch congratulates Webster, and the contract is torn up.
Webster then grabs the stranger and twists his arm behind his back, "for he knew that once you bested anybody like mr Scratch in fair fight, his power on you was gone".
Webster makes him agree "never to bother Jabez Stone nor his heirs or assigns nor any other New Hampshire man till doomsday.
"  mr Scratch offers to tell Webster's fortune in his palm.
He foretells Webster's failure to become President, the death of Webster's sons, and the backlash of his last speech, warning "Some will call you Ichabod" (as in John Greenleaf Whittier's poem in reaction to Webster's controversial Seventh of March Speech supporting the Compromise of 1850 that incorporated The Fugitive Slave Act).
Scratch predicts actual events of Daniel Webster's life: he did have ambitions to become President, his sons died in war, and as a result of the Seventh of March Speech, many in the North considered Webster a traitor.
Webster takes the predictions in stride and asks only if the Union will prevail.
Scratch reluctantly admits that although a war will be fought over the issue, the United States will remain united.
Webster then laughs, "And with that he drew back his foot for a kick that would have stunned a horse.
It was only the tip of his shoe that caught the stranger, but he went flying out of the door with his collecting box under his arm".
It is said that the Devil never did come back to New Hampshire.
The story then ends with Jabez Stone moving from New Hampshire to North Carolina, where he found a new wife and had three children, Samantha, Alex, and Alfie.
<EOS>
In Palestine during the Roman Empire, Jesus Christ of Nazareth travels around the country with his disciples preaching to the people about God and salvation of their souls.
He is the son of God and the prophesied messiah, but not everyone believes his tale.
He is arrested by the Romans and crucified.
He rises from the dead after three days.
<EOS>
Ernie Mott (Cary Grant) is a restless, irresponsible, wandering Cockney with a good musical ear.
On Armistice Day, Ernie visits the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, which memorializes those who died in World War I, including his father.
Ernie wants a better life but does not want to settle down or work for it.
When he returns home, Ma Mott (Ethel Barrymore) asks why he has returned after so long, and she gives him an ultimatum that he must stay home now or leave forever.
He informs her that he will then be leaving next morning, and goes out to get a drink.
He meets fellow musician Aggie Hunter (Jane Wyatt) outside the bar, but instead prefers the company of a gangster's fickle former wife, Ada Brantline (June Duprez).
However, when Ernie becomes smitten with Ada she rejects his offer of a date when he tells her he will be leaving town tomorrow.
The next morning, Ma Mott tells her pawnbroker friend, Ike Weber (Konstantin Shayne), that she has cancer.
Ma and Ernie get into another fight, but after he storms out, Ike shares with him that his mother needs him in her battle with cancer.
Ernie returns and says that he will stay with her at home and help her run her shop.
A month passes, and Ernie continues to pursue Ada.
However, when gangster Jim Mordinoy (George Coulouris) informs him that she's still his wife, Ernie doesn't believe Ada when she says that's a lie and he cuts her off socially.
Ernie begins to notice the poverty surrounding him in London, and chooses to accept Mordinoy's offer to join his activities, even against Ada's pleas.
Ernie begins to steal cars, and he is involved in a police chase until his car collides with a truck and explodes into flames.
Ada implores him to run away with her, but he does not want to leave his dying mother.
When Ernie is eventually bailed out of jail by Ike, he finds out that after the police find Ernie's platinum cigarette case—his birthday gift from Ma—was stolen, the police arrest her and put her in prison.
She begs for forgiveness for shaming the family, and dies in prison hospital.
When he returns home, he learns via a letter from Ada that she decided to stay with Mordinoy because that would make her life easier.
Ernie is crushed, and walks along the street until he gets to Aggie's door and walks in.
<EOS>
In Cambridge, three animal liberation activists break into a medical research laboratory.
A scientist in the lab desperately warns them against releasing the captive chimpanzees, which are infected with a highly contagious rage-inducing virus.
Ignoring his pleas, the activists release a chimp, which infects a female activist.
She then attacks and infects everyone else present.
28 days later, in London, Jim (Cillian Murphy), a bicycle courier, awakens from a coma in St Thomas' Hospital.
He finds the entire hospital deserted.
He wanders the streets of London, finding it deserted as well, with signs of catastrophe everywhere.
Jim enters a church and finds a priest, who turns out to be infected.
Jim flees, attracting attention of more infected, but Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley) rescue him.
At one of their safehouses, they explain to Jim that while he was in a coma, a virus spread among the populace, resulting in societal collapse.
They claim the virus has been reported in Paris and New York City as well, suggesting the infection has spread worldwide.
The next day, Selena and Mark accompany Jim to his parents' house in Deptford, where he discovers they committed suicide in bed together.
That night, the three are attacked by more infected.
Mark is bitten, and Selena kills him.
She curtly explains that the virus spreads through blood and saliva and overwhelms its victims in 10 to 20 seconds.
She warns that should Jim become infected, she will kill him "in a heartbeat".
The two see some blinking Christmas lights from Balfron Tower and head there.
They discover two more survivors – cab driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah (Megan Burns) – who allow them to take shelter.
The next day, Frank informs them that their supplies – particularly water – are dwindling.
He plays them a pre-recorded radio broadcast from a military blockade near Manchester, claiming they have "the answer to infection" and promises to protect any survivors who reach them.
The group board Frank's cab and head to Manchester, bonding with one another throughout the trip.
At the deserted blockade, Frank is infected when a drop of blood falls into his eye.
He is killed by the arriving soldiers, who take the remaining survivors to a fortified mansion under the command of Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston).
West reveals to Jim that his "answer to infection" entails waiting for the infected to starve to death and luring female survivors into sexual slavery, to repopulate the world.
The group attempts to flee, but Jim is captured and chained next to Sergeant Farrell (Stuart McQuarrie), a dissenting soldier.
Farrell shares with Jim his speculation that the virus has not spread beyond Great Britain and that the country is simply being quarantined.
The next day, the soldiers prepare the girls for gang rape, while two soldiers lead Jim and Farrell to execution.
When his executioners argue after killing Farrell, Jim escapes and spots a NATO aircraft flying overhead, proving Farrell's theory correct.
Jim lures West and another soldier to the blockade, where Jim kills the latter and leaves West stranded for arriving infected.
He runs back to the mansion and releases Mailer, an infected soldier West kept for observation.
Mailer quickly spreads the infection among the soldiers in the mansion.
In the confusion, a soldier drags Selena to the top floor to rape her, but Jim interrupts and kills him by gouging his eyes out.
The two reunite with Hannah and run to Frank's cab.
Jim is shot by West, who has been waiting inside the cab.
Hannah reverses the cab towards Mailer, who grabs West through the rear window and kills him.
The trio finally leave the mansion.
Another 28 days later, Jim is recovering at a remote cottage.
Downstairs, he finds Selena sewing large swaths of fabric when Hannah appears.
The three rush outside and unfurl a huge cloth banner, adding the final letter to the word "HELLO" laid out on the meadow.
A lone Finnish jet flies over the landscape, and the infected are shown dying of starvation.
The film ends with the jet flying over the three survivors and the pilot calling in a rescue helicopter.
<EOS>
Redmond Barry of Bally Barry, born to a genteel but ruined Irish family, fancies himself a gentleman.
At the prompting of his mother, he learns what he can of courtly manners and swordplay, but fails at more scholarly subjects like Latin.
He is a hot-tempered, passionate lad, and falls madly in love with his cousin, Nora.
Sadly, as she is a spinster a few years older than Redmond, she is seeking a prospect with more ready cash to pay family debts.
The lad tries to engage in a duel with Nora's suitor, an English officer named John Quin.
He is made to think that he has assassinated the man, though his pistol was actually loaded with tow, a dummy load of heavy, knotted, fibres.
Quin, struck with the harmless load, fainted in fright.
Redmond flees to Dublin, where he quickly falls in with bad company in the way of con artists, and soon loses all his money.
Pursued by creditors, he enlists as a common private in a Royal Army infantry regiment headed for service in Germany during the Seven Years' War.
Once in Germany, despite a promotion to corporal, he hates the army and seeks to desert.
When his Lieutenant is wounded, Redmond helps take him to a German village for treatment.
The Irishman pretends to suffer from insanity, and after several days absconds with the Lieutenant's uniform, papers, and money.
As part of his ruse, he convinces the locals that he is the real Lieutenant Fakenham, and the wounded man is the mad Corporal Barry.
Redmond Barry rides off toward a neutral German territory, hoping for better fortune.
His bad luck continues, though, as he is joined on the road by a Prussian officer.
The German soon realises that Redmond is a deserter, but rather than turn him over to the British to be hanged, impresses him into the Prussian army (for a bounty).
Redmond hates Prussian service as much or more than he hated British service, but the men are carefully watched to prevent desertion.
Redmond marches with Frederick's army into the Battle of Kunersdorf, barely surviving the disastrous cavalry charge that decimates the Prussian army.
He becomes the servant of Captain Potzdorff, and is involved in the intrigues of that gentleman.
After several months have passed, a stranger travelling under Austrian protection arrives in Berlin.
Redmond is asked to spy on the stranger, an older man called Chevalier de Balibari (sic.
Ballybary).
He immediately realises that this is his uncle, the adventurer who disappeared many years ago.
The uncle arranges to smuggle his nephew out of Prussia, and this is soon done.
The two Irishmen and an accomplice wander around Europe, gambling and generally living it up.
Eventually, the Barrys end up in a Rhineland Duchy, where they win considerable sums of money and Redmond cleverly sets up a plan to marry a young countess of some means.
Again, fortune turns against him, and a series of circumstances undermines his complex plan.
Both uncle and nephew are forced to leave Germany—both unmarried.
While cooling their heels in France, Redmond comes into the acquaintance of the Countess of Lyndon, an extraordinarily wealthy noblewoman married to a much older man in poor health.
He has some success in seducing the lady, but her husband clings to life.
Eventually, she goes back to England.
Redmond is upset, but bides his time.
Upon hearing the following year that the husband has died, he strikes.
Through a series of adventures, Redmond eventually bullies and seduces the Countess of Lyndon, who marries him under duress.
After the wedding, he moves into Hackton Castle, which he has completely remodelled at great expense.
Redmond admits several times in the course of his narrative that he has no control over a budget, and spends his new bride's birthright money freely.
He looks after a few childhood benefactors in Ireland, his cousin Ulick (who had often stood up for him as a boy), and makes himself over into the most fashionable man in the district.
As the American War of Independence breaks out, Barry Lyndon (as he now calls himself) raises a company of soldiers to be sent to America.
He also defeats his wife's cousins to win a seat in Parliament.
His good fortunes, though, ebb again.
His stepson, Lord Bullingdon, goes off to the American war—and Barry is accused of trying to get the lad killed in battle.
Then his own child—Bryan—dies in a tragic horse-riding accident.
Combined with Barry's own profligate spending practices, he is ruined on many levels.
As the "memoir" ends, (Redmond) Barry Lyndon is separated from his wife, and lodged in Fleet Prison.
A small stipend allows him to live in moderate luxury, and his elderly mother lodges close by to tend to him.
He spends the last nineteen years of his life in prison, dying of alcoholism-related illness.
<EOS>
Amidst Japan's invasion of China during World War II, Jamie Graham—a British upper middle class schoolboy—is enjoying a privileged and spoiled life in the Shanghai International Settlement.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese begin to occupy the settlement, and in the ensuing chaos, Jamie is separated from his parents.
Jamie's mother shouts at him over the panicked mob to wait at their house and promises that they will come back for him.
He spends some time living in his deserted home, but after eating all the food he ventures out into the city.
Hungry, Jamie tries to surrender to some Japanese soldiers, who shrug and laugh him off.
After being chased by a street urchin, he is taken in by Basie—an American expatriate and hustler—and his partner Frank, who nicknames him "Jim".
They intend to leave the boy in the streets when they are unable to sell his teeth for cash, but Jamie promises to lead them back to his neighborhood where there are valuables to loot.
There, Jamie finds his house lit and sees a figure in the window whom he thinks is his mother.
He runs to the door only to discover the house is occupied by Japanese troops, who take the trio prisoner.
They are then taken to Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center in Shanghai for processing.
A truck later arrives to take selected internees to the Suzhou Creek Internment Camp; Basie is among those selected to go but Jamie is not.
Because he knows of the camp's location, a desperate Jamie convinces the soldiers to take him.
On arrival at the camp Jim wanders to the airfield to witness workers servicing a squadron of Zero fighters.
As Jim reaches out to touch one he is confronted by a trio of fighter pilots.
Jim salutes the pilots, and they salute Jim in return.
It is now 1945, nearing the end of the Pacific War.
Despite the terror and poor living conditions of the camp, Jim survives by establishing a successful trading network—which even involves the camp's commander, Sergeant Nagata.
dr Rawlins, the camp's British doctor, becomes a father figure and teacher to Jim.
One night after a bombing raid, Nagata orders the destruction of the prisoners' infirmary as reprisal.
He only stops when Jim (now fluent in Japanese) begs forgiveness.
Through the barbed wire fencing, Jim befriends a Japanese teenager, who is a trainee pilot.
Jim also visits Basie in the American POW barracks, where Jim idolizes the Americans and their culture.
Basie eventually sends Jim to set snare traps outside the camp's wire; though Jim succeeds, Basie is only using him to test the area for land mines—plotting to escape.
As a reward, Basie allows Jim to move into the American barracks with him.
One morning at dawn, Jim witnesses a kamikaze ritual.
Overcome with emotion, he salutes and sings the Welsh song "Suo Gân".
The base is suddenly attacked by a group of American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft.
Jim is overjoyed and climbs the ruins of a nearby pagoda to better watch the airstrike.
dr Rawlins chases Jim up the pagoda to save him, where the boy breaks down in tears—he cannot remember what his parents look like.
As a result of the attack the Japanese decide to evacuate the camp.
Basie escapes during the confusion, though he had promised to take Jim with him.
The camp's prisoners march through the wilderness where many die of fatigue, starvation, and disease.
Arriving at a football stadium near Nantao—filled with luxuries confiscated by the Japanese—Jim recognizes his parents' Packard.
Waking up next to the corpse of a woman, Jim witnesses flashes from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki hundreds of miles away.
Jim slips away from the group and wanders back to Suzhou Creek.
Along the way he hears news of Japan's surrender and the end of the war.
He encounters the Japanese teenager he befriended earlier, who has since become a pilot but is now disillusioned.
The youth remembers Jim and offers him a mango, and will cut it for him with his katana.
Basie reappears with a group of armed Americans who have arrived to loot the Red Cross containers being airdropped over the area.
One of the Americans, thinking Jim is in danger, shoots and kills the Japanese youth.
Basie offers to help Jim find his parents, but Jim—infuriated over his friend's death—chooses to stay behind.
Jim is eventually found by American soldiers and placed in an orphanage, where he is reunited with his mother and father.
<EOS>
A rocket piloted by two astronauts heads out on a mission to Mars.
One of them, Marcusson, is a positive thinker who believes that people are alike all over, even on the Red Planet.
The other astronaut, Conrad, has a more cynical view of human interplanetary nature.
The impact of landing on Mars is so severe that Marcusson is critically injured.
Knowing that he is dying, Marcusson pleads with Conrad to open the door of their ship so he can at least see that for which he has given his life.
Conrad refuses, still fearful of what may await outside, and Marcusson dies.
Now alone, Conrad hears a rhythmic sound reverberating upon the ship's hull.
Expecting some unnameable evil, his apprehension turns to joy when he opens the hatch and sees Martians that indeed appear to be human, have mind-reading abilities and give the impression of being most amicable, especially the beautiful Teenya, who welcomes and reassures him.
The hospitable locals lead their honored guest to his residence—an interior living space furnished precisely in the same manner as one on Earth would have been.
Conrad relaxes, but soon discovers that his room is windowless and the doors cannot be opened.
One of the walls slides upward, and Conrad realizes that he has become a caged exhibit in a Martian alien zoo.
Conrad picks up a sign that says "Earth Creature in his native habitat" and throws it on the floor.
In the episode's closing lines, Conrad grips the bars and yells to the heavens "Marcusson.
Marcusson, you were right.
You were right.
People are alike.
people are alike everywhere.
".
<EOS>
In 1880, an outlaw cowboy named Joe Caswell is about to be hanged for murder.
But as the noose tightens around his neck, he suddenly disappears and finds himself in 1960, in the laboratory of Professor Manion.
Manion explains that he used a time machine to pluck Caswell from the past.
But when Manion sees Caswell's rope burns around his neck, and hears his admission that in his life he had murdered over twenty men, he knows he must try to send Caswell back.
The discussion leads to an argument.
Caswell attacks Manion, killing him with a desk lamp.
He then flees from the laboratory into a busy street, but is so overwhelmed by the lights and the noise that he returns to the lab.
Caswell, distraught and desperate, breaks down, pleading for the dead scientist to help him.
A thief named Paul Johnson enters the lab.
Caswell fights with Johnson, but Johnson gets the upper hand and strangles Caswell with the cord from the window curtains.
As he tries to find Manion's safe, he accidentally activates the time machine and is sent back to 1880, appearing in the noose intended for Caswell, just in time to be hanged.
The witnesses to the hanging are shocked to see a stranger's body, in strange clothes, in place of Caswell's.
They question whether this was the Devil's work or some other power's, and whether they have just executed an innocent man.
<EOS>
Bolie Jackson is a washed-up boxer who accidentally breaks the knuckles of his hand right before his big comeback fight.
He is knocked down and just about to be counted out when he suddenly, magically switches places with the other boxer.
Bolie is now standing over his vanquished opponent.
Bolie celebrates his victory, though he cannot understand what happened.
He remembers being knocked down and has no memory of getting back up to win, nor can he figure out why his knuckles feel fine.
His manager tells Bolie that he must be crazy, that he was never knocked down at all.
Bolie figures his knuckles must have only been bruised.
However, there is one other person who knows Bolie lost.
Henry Temple, the young son of Bolie's girlfriend Frances, not only remembers, he also has an explanation for what happened.
Henry tells Bolie that he made "the biggest, tallest wish" he could come up with for Bolie, for the two boxers to switch positions, and it came true.
Bolie cannot accept this.
Henry warns him that the only way the wish can have its power is if you believe in it.
If Bolie does not believe, the wish will not work.
But ultimately he is unswayed.
As soon as he finally rejects the idea that a wish could have been responsible for what happened, he is returned to the fight, on the canvas.
This time the referee finishes counting Bolie out.
Neither Bolie nor Henry have any memory of the alternate outcome.
Henry remembers making the biggest wish he possibly could for Bolie, but obviously it did not work, so he declares with resignation that he will not be making any more wishes.
"There ain't no such thing as magic, is there.
", he asks Bolie.
"I guess not, Henry", Bolie replies sadly.
"Or maybe.
maybe there is magic.
And maybe there's wishes, too.
I guess the trouble is.
there's not enough people around to believe.
".
<EOS>
After robbing a pawn shop, Henry "Rocky" Valentine is shot by a police officer as he tries to flee.
He wakes up to find himself seemingly unharmed by the encounter, as a genial elderly man named Pip greets him.
Pip explains that he has been instructed to guide Rocky and give him whatever he desires.
Rocky becomes suspicious, thinking that Pip is trying to swindle him, but Pip proves to have detailed information on Rocky's tastes and hobbies.
Rocky demands that Pip hand over his wallet; Pip says that he does not carry one, but gives Rocky $700 directly from his pocket and says that he can provide as much money as Rocky wants.
Thinking that Pip is trying to entice him to commit a crime, Rocky holds him at gunpoint as the two travel to a luxurious apartment.
Pip explains that the apartment and everything in it are free, and Rocky starts to relax.
However, his suspicions rise again when a meal is brought in, and he demands that Pip taste it first to prove that it is not poisoned.
When Pip demurs, Rocky shoots him in the head, only for the bullets to bounce off harmlessly.
Rocky realizes that he is dead, and he believes that he is in Heaven and Pip is his guardian angel.
Rocky visits a casino, winning every bet he makes as beautiful girls gather around him, and enjoys being able to pick on a policeman after Pip shrinks him.
Later, Rocky asks Pip if he can see some of his old friends who have also died, but Pip says that this world is for Rocky alone.
Except for the two men, no one in it is real.
When Rocky wonders what good deeds he could have done to gain entrance to Heaven, Pip takes him to visit the Hall of Records.
Rocky looks through his own file and discovers that it only contains a list of his sins, but decides not to worry about it since God apparently has no problem with his being in Heaven.
One month later, Rocky has become thoroughly bored with having his whims instantly satisfied.
He calls up Pip and asks for a challenge in which he might run the risk of losing.
Pip offers to set up a bank robbery, but Rocky abandons the idea, saying that a pre-planned outcome would take the fun out of the crime.
He tells Pip that he is tired of Heaven and wants to go to "the other place," to which Pip retorts, "Heaven.
Whatever gave you the idea you were in Heaven, mr Valentine.
This is the other place.
" Horrified, Rocky tries in vain to open the apartment door and escape his "paradise" as Pip laughs malevolently at his torment.
<EOS>
A school teacher named Helen Foley finds a strange and very serious little girl named Markie on the stairs outside her apartment.
The little girl seems to know her and tries to jog her memory about a man she saw earlier that day.
The man arrives at Helen's door as Markie runs out the back way.
The man is Peter Selden, who claims that he worked for Helen's mother when Helen was a child and was the first to find her murdered mother's body.
Helen had witnessed the crime but blocked it out.
When she mentions Markie, Selden tells her that her nickname was Markie as a child and shows her an old photo of herself.
The girl in the photo is identical to the Markie she met.
When Selden leaves, Markie reappears.
She tells Helen that she is Helen herself, and that she is there to force her to remember her mother's murder.
Through the child's prodding, Helen begins to remember, then Selden returns and confesses to the murder.
He says he knew that Helen would someday start to remember and that he would also have to do away with Helen, which he hadn't been able to do that night because people had started arriving as they heard screams.
Helen manages to run into the hallway and pushes Selden down the stairs to his death.
After talking to the police and returning to her apartment, Helen hears a young girl's voice singing the same tune as Markie.
To her relief, the girl is just an ordinary girl she does not recognize.
She tells the little girl she has a beautiful smile.
and advises her never to lose it.
<EOS>
Gart Williams is a contemporary (c.
1960) New York City advertising executive who has grown exasperated with his career.
His overbearing boss, Oliver Misrell, angered by the loss of a major account, lectures him about this "push-push-push" business.
Unable to sleep properly at home, he drifts off for a short nap on the train during his daily commute through the November snow.
He wakes to find the train stopped and his car now a 19th-century railway car, deserted except for himself.
The sun is bright outside, and as he looks out the window, he discovers that the train is in a town called Willoughby and that it's July 1888.
He learns that this is a "peaceful, restful place, where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure".
Being jerked back awake into the real world, he asks the conductor if he has ever heard of Willoughby, but the conductor replies, "Not on this run.
no Willoughby on the line".
That night, he has another argument with his shrewish wife Jane.
Selfish, cold and uncaring, she makes him see that he is only a money machine to her.
He tells her about his dream and about Willoughby, only to have her ridicule him as being "born too late", declaring it her "miserable tragic error" to have married a man "whose big dream in life is to be Huckleberry Finn".
The next week, Williams again dozes off on the train and returns to Willoughby where everything is the same as before.
As he is about to get off the train carrying his briefcase, the train begins to roll, returning him to the present.
Williams promises himself to get off at Willoughby next time.
Experiencing a breakdown at work, he calls his wife, who abandons him in his time of need.
On his way home, once again he falls asleep to find himself in Willoughby.
This time, as the conductor warmly beckons him to the door, Williams intentionally leaves his briefcase on the train.
Getting off the train, he is greeted by name by various inhabitants who welcome him while he tells them he's glad to be there and plans to stay and join their idyllic life.
The swinging pendulum of the station clock fades into the swinging lantern of a train engineer, standing over Williams' body.
The modern-day conductor explains to another person that Williams "shouted something about Willoughby", just before jumping off the train and was killed instantly.
Williams' body is loaded into a hearse.
The back door of the hearse closes to reveal the name of the funeral home: Willoughby & Son.
<EOS>
Roger Shackleforth is desperately in love with Leila.
He visits an old professor named Daemon for advice on how to win her.
The professor, after some resistance, sells Roger a love potion for $100.
After its administration, Leila falls madly in love with Roger and marries him, but soon her love becomes stifling.
Roger returns to the professor to buy his "glove cleaner" (really a poison), for $1,000 which is all Roger has in the world.
Daemon cautions Roger that the "cleaner," which is odorless, tasteless, and completely "undetectable," can only be used once before the user loses his nerve.
After Roger leaves, the professor muses, "First, the 'stimulant'.
and then the 'chaser.
'"  When he gets home, Roger prepares a glass of champagne with the new potion.
Just as he is about to give Leila the glass, she reveals that she is pregnant, which shocks Roger into dropping the glass.
He tells himself he could not have gone through with it, anyway.
On his terrace, Daemon is relaxing with a cigar, puffing smoke rings that turn into little hearts before the professor disappears.
<EOS>
Joey Crown (Jack Klugman) is a down-and-out, alcoholic trumpet player in New York, looking for a chance to work again.
After being turned down by the manager at his old club, and insulted by a pawn shop owner (after he is forced to sell his beloved trumpet for cash), Joey decides that his life is worthless, and steps into the path of a speeding truck.
When Joey comes to, he finds that the people around him cannot see or hear him, and assumes that he is dead.
Returning to his old night club, he meets another trumpet player (John Anderson), and is startled to discover that the other man recognizes him.
The other man explains that Joey is in "a kind of limbo"; while the people he encountered are actually dead, he can still return to the living, if he so chooses.
With the player's encouragement, Joey remembers that even at its worst, life still has enough good in it to be worth living, and he chooses to go back.
As the other player leaves, Joey asks his name; he answers, "My name.
Call me Gabe.
Short for Gabriel".
Joey wakes up on the street, just after his collision; he is shaken but otherwise unharmed.
The driver of the truck, not wanting his driving record tarnished, pushes some money into Joey's hand, enough for him to buy his trumpet back.
That night, while Joey is playing to himself, a girl (Mary Webster) approaches to express her appreciation.
Introducing herself as Nan, she explains that she is new to the city; excited to be connected to another human being, Joey offers to show her the town.
<EOS>
A kindly fellow's life is turned topsy-turvy when he receives "help" from his guardian angel.
mr Bevis loses his job, gets tickets on his car (which has tipped over) and gets evicted from his apartment, all in one day.
Bevis then meets and gets assistance from his guardian angel, one Hardy Hempstead.
Bevis gets to start the day over again, except now he is a success at work, his rent is paid and his personal transportation is now a sportscar (Austin-Healey) instead of Bevis's previous jalopy, a soot-spewing 1924 Rickenbacker.
But there's a catch: In order to continue in his new life, Bevis must make some changes: no strange clothes, no loud zither music, no longer can he be the well liked neighborhood goofball.
Realizing all these things are what makes him happy, Bevis asks that things be returned to the way they were.
Hempstead obliges, initially warning him that he'll still have no job, car, or apartment—but, perhaps moved by his kindness and the warmth people have for him, arranges for Bevis to get his old jalopy back.
In the final scene of the episode, mr Bevis is shown finishing his fifth shot of whiskey, and he pays his total tab of $500 with one bill.
He then leaves the bar, where his Rickenbacker was parked in front of a fire hydrant.
When Bevis is about to be ticketed for this infraction, the hydrant suddenly disappears and then reappears next to the officer's motorcycle.
'J.
Hardy Hempstead' is still watching over him after all.
<EOS>
Marsha White (Anne Francis), a woman browsing for a gift for her mother in a department store, decides on a gold thimble.
She is taken by the elevator man to the ninth floor, a floor beyond that shown on the elevator's floor indicia.
She enters the ninth floor and turns to complain to the elevator operator that there is nothing there, but the door closes abruptly, leaving her to ponder her situation.
Upon ringing a buzzer for service, she is approached by a saleslady who guides her to the only item on the floor: the exact gold thimble that Marsha wants.
During the sales transaction, she grows increasingly puzzled by the comments and actions of both the male elevator operator who transported her to the barren, seemingly deserted floor, and the aloof and clairvoyant female salesclerk behind the counter who addresses her by name and sells her the thimble.
The sales lady asks Marsha if she's happy, to which she responds that it's not her business.
The sales lady appears surprised and insulted, and Marsha leaves.
As Marsha rides the elevator down, she notices that the thimble is scratched and dented; she is directed by the elevator operator to the Complaints Department on the third floor.
When she tries to convince mr Armbruster, the sales supervisor, and mr Sloan, the store manager, that she bought the item on the ninth floor, she is told that the store doesn't have a ninth floor.
She has no evidence of the transaction as she paid cash, and has no receipt.
Marsha spots the back of the salesclerk who sold her the thimble, and is shocked to discover that the woman is not a salesclerk at all; she's one of the department store's display mannequins.
While resting in an office following her frightening discovery, Marsha finds herself accidentally locked inside the closed store (after hours).
She attempts to find a way out and becomes alarmed by mysterious voices calling to her and by some subtle movements made by the supposedly lifeless mannequins around her.
Moving about aimlessly, she topples the sailor mannequin, whom she recognizes as the somewhat frustrated elevator operator in earlier encounters.
Becoming hysterical, she flees backward to the now-open elevator, which again transports her to the unoccupied ninth floor.
There she gradually realizes that the "ninth floor" is a storage area occupied by thinking, animated mannequins.
With the mannequins' gentle encouragement, she eventually realizes that she herself is also a mannequin.
Within their society, the mannequins take turns, one at a time, to live among the humans for one month.
Marsha had enjoyed her stay among "the outsiders" so much that she had forgotten her identity and has arrived back a day late.
Now that she has returned, the next mannequin in line — the female salesclerk — departs the store to live among the humans for 30 days.
As the other mannequins bid farewell to the salesclerk, the sailor asks Marsha if she had enjoyed her time among the humans.
Sweetly and sadly, she replies, "Ever so much fun.
Ever so much fun".
She and the sailor assume "mannequin" postures, and grow rigid.
The next day, mr Armbruster is making his energetic morning rounds on the sales floor and does a double-take upon passing the mannequin of Marsha White on display.
The final shot moves in on her, and then her face, which fades into the stars as the closing narration begins.
<EOS>
"Mouth" McGarry, the manager of a broken-down baseball team called the Hoboken Zephyrs on its last legs, allows a robot named Casey to play on his team.
Casey has the ability to throw super-fast balls that cannot be hit.
Eventually, after Casey is beaned by a ball and given a physical examination, the National League finds out and rules that Casey must be taken off the team because he is not human.
Casey's inventor, dr Stillman, gives him an artificial heart to have him classified as human.
Now that Casey has human emotions, he refuses to throw his fast balls anymore.
He says that he feels empathy with the batter and does not want to ruin the batter's career by striking him out.
With the team sure to fold soon, dr Stillman gives McGarry Casey's blueprints as a souvenir.
Glancing at them, McGarry suddenly has a brilliant idea, as he runs off after dr Stillman to tell him his idea.
Rod Serling narrated that McGarry and dr Stillman's idea worked where they have a pitching staff of Casey robots.
<EOS>
Coming home, Victoria West (Phyllis Kirk) spots her husband, playwright Gregory West (Keenan Wynn), through the window sharing a drink in his study with Mary (Mary La Roche), an attractive, affectionate blonde.
When Victoria barges into the room, Mary is nowhere to be found.
Gregory explains to his wife that any character that he describes into his dictation machine will appear according to his description.
To make the character disappear, all he has to do is cut out that portion of the tape and throw it into his fireplace.
He demonstrates this, first with Mary and then with an elephant in the hallway.
Gregory discovered this talent when a male character he had put a great deal of effort and attention into approached him as a real flesh-and-blood person with his own independent will, shook his hand, and thanked him.
Believing none of this (despite seeing and hearing the elephant), Victoria tells Gregory that he is insane and she is going to have him committed.
In response, Gregory pulls a section of tape from his safe and explains that it contains her description.
Victoria snatches the tape away from him and throws it on the fire to prove he is insane, and promptly begins to feel faint.
"You don't mean you were telling the truth.
You were right.
" she cries, and disappears as the flames consume the tape.
Frantic, Gregory rushes to his dictation machine and begins to re-describe Victoria.
He quickly reconsiders and instead describes mrs Mary West as his wife.
Mary reappears and mixes her husband a drink.
Rod Serling begins his closing narration, only to find himself part of Gregory's storytelling (see below).
<EOS>
The Eternity of the title is an organization carefully isolated from the rest of the temporal world, staffed by male humans called Eternals recruited from different eras of human history commencing with the twenty-seventh century.
The Eternals are capable of traveling “upwhen” and “downwhen” within Eternity and entering the conventional temporal world at almost any point of their choice, apart from a section of the far future which they mysteriously cannot enter.
Collectively they form a corps of Platonic guardians who carry out carefully calculated and planned strategic minimum actions, called Reality Changes, within the temporal world to minimize human suffering.
As the plot unfolds, the Eternals feel an unspoken collective guilt which causes them to scapegoat the "Technicians" who execute Reality Changes.
The Eternals are also troubled that beyond a certain point in the future they are prevented from entering Time.
These are the "Hidden Centuries".
Beyond the Hidden Centuries they can emerge, but find Earth devoid of human life.
A plot element is the relatively static nature of the human societies in the various future centuries, and the repeated failure of space travel in all accessible centuries.
We later learn that Laban Twissell (Harlan’s superior and the leading figure on the governing Council) is from "a Century in the 30,000s", yet nothing much is different in that time.
The protagonist is a Technician named Andrew Harlan, who finds himself involved in an ontological paradox orchestrated by his superiors.
He is to secure the creation of Eternity by sending a young Eternal back in time with the mathematical knowledge to make it possible.
To facilitate this, Harlan's superiors in Eternity allow him to pursue his study of "prehistory", prior to the Eternity's creation that, because Eternity had not yet been created, cannot be changed.
This intellectual pursuit is largely frowned upon by the Eternals, especially Harlan's superiors; but it becomes apparent his expert knowledge on the subject will be vital to Eternity's creation.
Harlan himself has been entrapped by one of them into a relationship with a non-Eternal woman, Noÿs Lambent, to prove a point about the effect of Eternity on the individuals from real time who learn of it, with the unintended consequence of making Harlan besotted with the woman, so much so that he smuggles her into Eternity.
Harlan’s whole scheme comes apart when it is revealed the leaders are fully aware of his activities.
Normally, the Eternals traverse from century to century within Eternity in a kind of temporal elevator called a kettle.
A special version of the kettle has been built for Harlan to dispatch a young Eternal, one Brinsley Sheridan Cooper, back to the 24th century, which lies “beyond the downwhen terminus” accessible via Eternity and its kettle system.
Cooper is carefully instructed that he is to teach the principles and technology of time travel to its historic inventor, Vikkor Mallansohn; but unbeknownst to Cooper, he will actually become Mallansohn himself.
Harlan, after (erroneously) concluding that Twissell will deprive him of Noÿs, scrambles the time settings just as the special kettle departs, and Cooper is trapped in the wrong time.
Unless something is done to change the past, Harlan’s reality, and Eternity, will be erased from existence.
Twissell reveals that he too had once improperly loved a woman in Time, and Harlan tries to think of a way that Cooper, also adept in the concept of Reality Change, could send him a message to return and retrieve him.
Harlan believes that the apparently random target setting he chose on the kettle was the 20th century, and it occurs to him that Cooper was interested in his collection of artifacts from that time, particularly magazines.
Here, Asimov’s mistaken “mushroom cloud” appears in the novel: Harlan comes upon an advertisements for stock tips—All the Talk Of the Market, concealing the acrostic A-T-O-M, accompanying a drawing of a mushroom cloud.
The year on the preserved publication is 1932.
Since this predates the first atomic explosion, it must be a coded message from someone from the future—a reality change caused by Cooper.
Before he reveals this discovery to the other Eternals, Harlan exacts a price, that his lover is to be returned to him and both rescue Cooper.
In 1932, Harlan reveals his deduction that Noÿs Lambent is herself an agent of Reality Change, from those centuries the Eternals cannot enter.
She tells Harlan that her people, who prefer rather to watch past time than to change it, discovered that Eternity was, in choosing safety for humanity, suppressing creativity and denying humanity's access to the stars, wherein alien species advance technologically and confine humanity to Earth, until humanity becomes extinct.
On these grounds, they cut themselves off from Eternity and began to plot its demise.
Noÿs Lambent reveals that to make Eternity improbable, Harlan needs only to leave Cooper stranded in 1932.
She also intends to send a carefully worded letter to Italy, causing a man (presumably Enrico Fermi) to "begin experimenting with the neutronic bombardment of uranium".
This will start a chain of events which will lead to the first atom bomb in 1945.
Acquiring the technology sooner than expected, humanity will be diverted to the science of nucleonics and therefore develop interstellar space travel instead of time travel technology, and create a Galactic Empire instead of Eternity.
Harlan at first intends to kill Noÿs and carry out his mission, but confirms his lingering suspicions that Eternity has been wrong for humanity.
At the very last moment, he decides to help her, a Reality Change occurs and the 'kettle' linking them with Eternity vanishes.
<EOS>
In the Sonoran Desert, French scientist Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut) and his American interpreter, mapmaker David Laughlin (Bob Balaban), along with other government scientific researchers, discover Flight 19, a squadron of Grumman TBM Avengers that went missing more than 30 years earlier.
The planes are intact and operational, but there is no sign of the pilots.
An old man who witnessed the event claimed "the sun came out at night, and sang to him".
They also find a lost cargo ship in the Gobi Desert named SS Cotopaxi.
At an air traffic control center in Indianapolis, a controller listens as two airline flights narrowly avoid a mid-air collision with an apparent unidentified flying object (UFO), which neither pilot chooses to report, even when invited to do so.
In Muncie, Indiana, 3-year-old Barry Guiler (Cary Guffey) is awakened in the night when his toys start operating on their own.
Fascinated, he gets out of bed and discovers something or someone (off-screen) in the kitchen.
He runs outside, forcing his mother, Jillian (Melinda Dillon), to chase after him.
Investigating one of a series of large-scale power outages, Indiana electrical lineman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) experiences a close encounter with a UFO, when it flies over his truck and lightly burns the side of his face with its bright lights.
The UFO, joining a group of three other UFOs, is pursued by Neary and three police cars, but the spacecraft fly off into the night sky.
Roy becomes fascinated by UFOs, much to the dismay of his wife, Ronnie (Teri Garr).
He also becomes increasingly obsessed with subliminal, mental images of a mountain-like shape and begins to make models of it.
Jillian also becomes obsessed with sketching a unique-looking mountain.
Soon after, she is terrorized in her home by a UFO which descends from the clouds.
The presence of the UFO energy field makes every appliance in Jillian's house malfunction and Barry is abducted by unseen beings.
Lacombe and Laughlin—along with a group of United Nations experts—continue to investigate increasing UFO activity and strange, related occurrences.
Witnesses in Dharamsala, India report that the UFOs make distinctive sounds: a five-tone musical phrase in a major scale.
Scientists broadcast the phrase to outer space, but are mystified by the response: a seemingly meaningless series of numbers (104 44 30 40 36 10) repeated over and over until Laughlin, with his background in cartography, recognizes it as a set of geographical coordinates, which point to Devils Tower near Moorcroft, Wyoming.
Lacombe and theS.
military converge on Wyoming.
The United States Army evacuates the area, planting false reports in the media that a train wreck has spilled a toxic nerve gas, all the while preparing a secret landing zone for the UFOs and their occupants.
Meanwhile, Roy's increasingly erratic behavior causes Ronnie to leave him, taking their three children with her.
