title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: The record for the largest individual total in cash and prizes on a daytime episode is held by Michael Strouber. On the October 14, 2019 episode, which aired during Big Money Week, Strouber won $202,000 (one $200,000 chip, one zero, and two $1,000 chips) in cash during a playing of Plinko. During the episode, game rules were modified to offer a top prize of $1,000,000, with each chip worth up to $200,000. Strouber walked away with $262,743 in cash and prizes, including a new car, a diamond tennis bracelet and a trip to Fiji.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: The record for winnings on the primetime show is currently held by Adam Rose. On February 22, 2008, the first "The Price Is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular" episode since Carey became host, Rose won $20,000 playing Grand Game. By being within $1,000 of the actual retail price of his own showcases, he won both showcases—which included a Cadillac XLR convertible in his showcase and a Ford Escape Hybrid in his opponent's—plus a $1 million bonus. Rose's total is also the record for winnings on any version of the "Price" franchise worldwide, shattering the previous mark set by Joanne Segeviano on the Australian version in 2005.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: Terry Kniess holds the record for the closest bid on a showcase without going over, guessing the exact price of the showcase he was given. Kniess, an avid viewer of the show, recorded and watched every episode for four months prior to when he and his wife had tickets to attend in September 2008. Kniess learned that many prizes were repeatedly used (always at the same price) and began taking notes. Kniess was selected as a contestant on September 22, 2008, lost his pricing game (the only contestant to do so that episode), made it to the final showcase and guessed the exact amount of $23,743 for his showcase. Many show staffers, including Carey, were worried that the show was rigged and that Kniess was cheating. Kniess later explained that he had seen all three items of the showcase before and knew the general prices in the thousands. The 743 he used because it was his PIN, based on his wedding date and his wife's birth month.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: Carey attributed his subdued reaction to the perfect bid by saying, "Everybody thought someone had cheated. We'd just fired Roger Dobkowitz, and all the fan groups were upset about it. I remember asking, 'Are we ever going to air this?' And nobody could see how we could. So I thought the show was never going to air. I thought somebody had cheated us, and I thought the whole show was over. I thought they were going to shut us down, and I thought I was going to be out of a job." Kniess later defended his actions, claiming that he never cheated, and in the end, was awarded his prizes. (His feat can be comparable to the actions of Michael Larson, who appeared on the 1980s CBS game show "Press Your Luck", and won $110,237 by memorizing the board sequence.)


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: "The Price Is Right" has generally been praised and remained a stalwart in television ratings over its long history. In a 2007 article, "TV Guide" named the program the "greatest game show of all time." The introduction of the program ushered in a new era of game shows—moving away from the knowledge-based quiz show format, creating "a noisy, carnival atmosphere that challenged cultural norms and assumptions represented in previous generations of quiz shows."


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: The show's early reception was not as universally positive, as critics lamented the show's stark departure from the highbrow norms of the Golden Age of Television; original nighttime host Dennis James admitted that even his own housekeeper did not watch the show for that reason, but also defended the series, saying "CBS, who never wanted game shows, just put three game shows on the air, so they know they had better join the fight or lose out, because game shows have a tremendous appeal. The critics will always look down their noses, but you can't have "The Bell Telephone Hour" on and still stay in competition. If you want to read books, read books."


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: Since the mid-1990s, the program production company and in some cases the executive producer (both Barker and Richards, the executive producer from 2009 to 2019) have been sued by numerous women. Most of the lawsuits involved models and other staff members in cases of sexual harassment, wrongful termination and racial discrimination. Allegations of sexual harassment brought by Dian Parkinson led to Barker calling a press conference to admit a past consensual sexual relationship with her, while denying any harassment, explaining that she was only angry with him for calling off the relationship. Barker was widowed in 1981 following the death of his wife, Dorothy Jo. It has also been alleged that Barker and senior staff created a hostile work environment, particularly to those who testified for the plaintiffs suing Barker. Responding to the controversy just before his retirement, Barker told William Keck of "USA Today", "They have been such a problem. I don't want to say anything about them. They [were] disgusting, I don't want to mention them." The Barker-era lawsuits, except for one, were settled out of court. After Barker dropped his slander suit against Hallstrom, she eventually countersued and received millions in settlement. Former model Lanisha Cole filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the show's producers in 2011; it was settled in 2013.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: The lawsuits for "Price" affected the popular syndicated game show "Jeopardy!", as Mike Richards (who had been named host of the show before resigning in the span of nine days) was executive producer for "Price" from 2008 to 2019.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: "The Price Is Right" has expanded beyond television to home, live stage shows and casino-based games.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: A four-disc DVD box set, titled "The Best of "The Price Is Right"," was released on March 25, 2008. The set features four episodes of the 1956–1965 Bill Cullen series, 17 episodes of the Barker 1972–1975 daytime series and the final five daytime episodes hosted by Barker. In accordance with Barker's animal-rights wishes, which remain in effect beyond his retirement, any episodes with fur coats as prizes cannot be aired or released onto home media formats. This includes the first three daytime shows recorded in 1972, plus most of the 1970s syndicated run.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: Seven board games have been produced. One of them was a variation of a card game, using prizes and price tags from the 1956 version. The second was based more closely on the original version of the show.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: Three games were produced during the 1970s by Milton Bradley, with Contestants' Row, some pricing games and, in the case of the third version, a spinner for the Big Wheel. In the first two versions, decks of cards had various grocery items, small prizes and larger prizes. The third version simply had cards for each game that included ten sets of "right" answers, all using the same price choices. The instruction book specified what color cards were necessary for each round.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: The 1986 version, again by Milton Bradley, was similar in scope to the earlier version, with new prizes and more games, but lacking the Big Wheel. The instruction book refers to Contestants' Row as the "Qualifying Round" and the pricing games as "Solo Games." The book also instructs players to use items priced under $100 as One Bids. The 1998 version of the game, by Endless Games, was virtually identical to the 1986 release, with the same games, prizes, and even the same prices. The only changes were that the number tiles were made of cardboard bits instead of plastic and the cars from the deck of prizes with four-digit prices were removed.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: The 2004 version, again by Endless Games, was a complete departure from previous home versions. Instead of different prize cards and games, the game consisted of everything needed to play 45 games and enough materials to create all the games not technically included if the "host" wished to and knew their rules. The Big Wheel spinner was also restored, this time with the numbers in the correct order. Additionally, the prices, instead of being random numbers that could change each time the game was played, were actual prices taken from episodes of the TV show. To fit everything in the box, grocery items and prizes were listed in the instruction book and games were played on dry erase boards. A spinner determined the game to be played next, although its use was not necessarily required if the "host" wished to build his own game lineup, or even use a pricing game not included in the lineup.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: In 1990, GameTek created a "Price Is Right" computer game for the DOS and Commodore 64 platforms and other systems to fit in their line of other game show games. A handheld Tiger game was made in 1998 with four pricing games. A DVD game with 12 pricing games, live casino show host Todd Newton and video of prizes taken directly from the show was produced by Endless Games in 2005. A 2008 DVD edition, also from Endless Games, featured many changes based on season 36 and included seven new games: Half Off, More or Less, Swap Meet, Secret X, That's Too Much, Coming or Going, and Hole in One. It also featured both host Drew Carey and announcer Rich Fields. CBS.com featured an online "Price Is Right"-based game in the late 1990s, which was plugged in the closing credits of each episode. The game consisted of choosing which of the four bidders in Contestant's Row was closest to the price of a prize without going over. Additionally, Mobliss provides a suite of pricing games for cellular phones.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: On March 26, 2008, Ludia (in connection with Ubisoft) launched "The Price Is Right" video game for PC. A version for the Wii and Nintendo DS platforms was released in September 2008, while a version for the iOS was released in November 2008. The show's then-current announcer, Rich Fields, was the host of the computer version. The virtual set in the game resembled the set used in Seasons 31 to 34. Ludia announced that all three platforms will receive a new version of the video game that was previewed at the Target Bullseye Lounge during the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show on June 2–4, 2009. "The Price Is Right 2010 Edition" was released on September 22, 2009. In the fall of 2010, Ludia developed a multi-player version for Facebook. A third Ludia adaptation, "The Price Is Right Decades", featuring set designs, pricing games and prizes taken from the 1970s through 2000s, was initially released for the Wii in October 2011, with an Xbox 360 and iOS release following in November and December. "The Price Is Right 2010 Edition" and "The Price Is Right Decades" have also been released as downloads within the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3 in May 2010 and April 2012, respectively. Irwin Toys released an electronic tabletop version in 2008 featuring Contestant's Row, the Big Wheel, a physical Plinko board with chips, Showcases and seven pricing games. Jakks Pacific released a Plug It in and Play version of "The Price Is Right" in 2009, featuring Carey and Fields.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: A series of video slot machines were manufactured for North American casinos by International Game Technology. Although gameplay varies by machine, each feature themes and motifs found on the show, including the Showcase Showdown, with themes used following Carey's start as host. Others feature pricing games as gameplay elements, including Plinko, Cliff Hangers, Punch a Bunch, Dice Game, and Money Game.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: A scratchcard version of the game is being offered by several U.S. and Canadian state/provincial lotteries, featuring adaptations of Plinko, Cliff Hangers, the Showcase Showdown and the Showcase. The top prize varies with each version.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: After the 30th anniversary episode taped in Las Vegas in 2002, Harrah's and RTL Group began producing live licensed shows (dubbed "The Price Is Right Live!") at their venues, with several performers, including Roger Lodge, Newton, and Gray hosting, with West, Rosen, and Dave Walls announcing.


title: The Price Is Right (American game show)

text: In 2022, the show launched a coast-to-coast tour of live events celebrating the show's 50th anniversary. Contestants had "a chance to play Plinko, spin the wheel, and compete in a Showcase" to win prizes, and had a chance to win an additional $50,000. The tour visited 50 locations and stopped in Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas, New Orleans, Nashville, St. Louis, Cleveland (the hometown of the show's current host Drew Carey) and New York. In October 2022, the tour returned as part of a special weekend event along with the celebration of Carey's 15th season as host sponsored by the Paley Center for Media called PaleyWKND. In addition, Drew Carey, George Gray and Devin Goda were scheduled to be there in person.


title: ACAB

text: ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards) is an acronym used as a political slogan associated with dissidents who are opposed to the police. It is typically written as a catchphrase in graffiti, tattoos or other imagery in public spaces. It is sometimes numerically rendered as "1312", representing the position of the letters in the English alphabet.


title: ACAB

text: The phrase "All Coppers Are Bastards" first appeared in England in the 1920s, then was abbreviated to "ACAB" by workers on strike in the 1940s. The acronym is historically associated with criminals in the United Kingdom. First reported as a prison tattoo in the 1970s, it is commonly rendered as one letter per finger, or sometimes disguised as symbolic small dots across each knuckle. In 1970, the "Daily Mirror" ran the phrase as a headline, and wrote that it was borne by a Hells Angel on the street. British director Sidney Hayers also used a censored version as the title of his 1972 crime drama "All Coppers Are..." In 1977, a Newcastle journalist saw it written on the walls of a prison cell.


title: ACAB

text: During the 1980s, ACAB became a symbol of anti-Establishment, especially within the punk and skinhead subcultures. It was popularized in particular by the 1982 song "A.C.A.B." by Oi! band The 4-Skins. In later years, ACAB turned into a popular slogan among European football hooligans and ultras, and among anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements across the world. In certain contexts, the Anti-Defamation League categorizes the phrase as a hate symbol and describes it as "a slogan of long standing in the skinhead culture", while noting the phrase is used both by racist and anti-racist skinheads.


title: ACAB

text: In the wake of the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, the use of the term ACAB became more frequently used by those who oppose the police. As protests in response to Floyd's murder and discussions about racially-motivated police violence spread through the United States, ACAB was more frequently referenced on social media and products bearing the acronym became available. Proponents of the term contended that ACAB means every single police officer is complicit in an unjust system. They argued that police officers, even if they did not take part in police brutality or racism in policing themselves, were still responsible for what their colleagues did because they did not speak out against it or try to stop it.


title: ACAB

text: In Germany, usage of the term is a criminal offense when it refers to the honor of an individual; however, it is permitted when used to describe a large group of people. Both "ACAB" and "1312" have been deemed insults by state courts. In 2015, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled in reference to the term "FCK CPS" (read as 'Fuck Cops') that an insult is only punishable when it is directed at a specific, identifiable group, but left interpretation of individual cases to the criminal courts.


title: ACAB

text: In Austria, the use of ACAB was seen as "violating public decency", which could be punished under administrative law, for example, using an administrative penal order. The fine could be up to 700 euros (or alternatively a week police detention). In 2019, the Austrian Constitutional Court (VfGH) ruled that treating the slogan as a violation of decency, in certain cases, violates the fundamental right to freedom of expression under Article 10 ECHR. The specific case involved a soccer fan who had waved an ACAB flag in the stadium. According to the VfGH, the banner should "primarily refer to the tense relationship between some football fans and the police and to express the negative attitude towards the police as part of the state's regulatory power" and should therefore "not be a concrete 'insult' to certain other people". Therefore, the criticism expressed "should be accepted with a view to the special meaning and function of freedom of expression in a democratic society, taking into account all circumstances of the case".


title: ACAB

text: In other European countries, there are examples of police action toward people using ACAB in some fashion. Brian Stableford's 2009 "Exotic Encounters" states that "many years ago" during a fad for wearing ACAB shirts, a British youth was arrested for incitement to riot for wearing one, and ineffectively claimed the shirt stood for "All Canadians Are Bastards". In January 2011, three Ajax football fans in the Netherlands were fined for wearing T-shirts with the numbers 1312 printed on them. On 4 July 2015, a girl in Alicante, Spain, was fined for wearing a T-shirt with the acronym "A.C.A.B." printed on it. On 22 May 2016, a 34-year-old woman in Madrid, Spain, was charged under Article 37 of the Citizen Safety Law for carrying a bag displaying the acronym "A.C.A.B." accompanied by the words "All Cats Are Beautiful". The charges were dropped 3 days later. On 15 September 2017, a man from Karlovac, Croatia posted a photomontage with the message "Fuck da Police A.C.A.B." from his Facebook profile. For this, he was later charged with violating the public order and fined €100 by the Misdemeanor Court in Karlovac. On 4 April 2019, a 26-year-old ice hockey fan was arrested for wearing a T-shirt that had a numeric version of ACAB, 1312. "A.C.A.B." and "1312" are both considered "extremist information" in Belarus.


title: ACAB

text: However, prosecution on the grounds of ACAB being offensive is not limited to Europe. In 2018, a group of Persija Jakarta football fans in Indonesia were arrested for displaying a banner with the message "All Cops Are Bastards" on it during the league match day.


title: ACAB

text: Following a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, 15 protesters were charged with assisting a criminal street gang for using the phrase "all cops are bastards" while wearing black clothes and carrying umbrellas. The police officers who arrested them said the protesters were members of "a group known as ACAB All Cops Are Bastards." Criminal charges against the protestors were dropped and a probe characterized the case as "deeply flawed", "insubstantial", and lacking credible evidence in support of the claim that "ACAB" is a gang.


title: ACAB

text: The abbreviation was often used musically in the 1980s. The 4-Skins, a British Oi! punk band, popularized the initialism A.C.A.B. in their 1980s song of the same name. The term has also been used by:


title: Thriller film

text: Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. Tension is created by delaying what the audience sees as inevitable, and is built through situations that are menacing or where escape seems impossible.


title: Thriller film

text: The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods. Life is typically threatened in a thriller film, such as when the protagonist does not realize that they are entering a dangerous situation. Thriller films' characters conflict with each other or with an outside force, which can sometimes be abstract. The protagonist is usually set against a problem, such as an escape, a mission, or a mystery.


title: Thriller film

text: Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies thriller films as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters' taxonomy, claiming that all feature length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres. The other ten super-genres are action, crime, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, slice of life, sports, war, and western. Thriller films are typically hybridized with other super-genres; hybrids commonly including: action thrillers, fantasy and science fiction thrillers. Thriller films also share a close relationship with horror films, both eliciting tension. In plots about crime, thriller films focus less on the criminal or the detective and more on generating suspense. Common themes include, terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit and romantic triangles leading to murder.


title: Thriller film

text: In 2001, the American Film Institute (AFI) made its selection of the top 100 greatest American "heart-pounding" and "adrenaline-inducing" films of all time. The 400 nominated films had to be American-made films whose thrills have "enlivened and enriched America's film heritage". AFI also asked jurors to consider "the total adrenaline-inducing impact of a film's artistry and craft".


title: Thriller film

text: In his book on the genre, Martin Rubin stated that the label "Thriller" was "highly problematic" declaring that "the very breadth and vagueness of the thriller category understandably discourage efforts to define it precisely.". This was echoed by Charles Derry in his book "The Suspense Thriller" found that the terms "suspense thriller", "thriller" and "suspense film" used continuously in popular press, academic writings and the film industry with no clear idea of what the definition is. Unlike other genres such as the Western which had recognizable iconography (cowboys, saloons, southwestern landscapes), the thriller lacks such unique iconography. Rubin went on to state that thrillers involve an excess of certain qualities beyond the narratives: they tend emphasize action, suspense and atmosphere and emphasize feelings of "suspense, fright, mystery, exhilaration, excitement, speed, movement" over more sensitive, cerebral, or emotionally heavy feelings. Rubin described thrillers as being both quantitative and qualitative as virtually all narrative films could be considered thrilling to some degree, while they could contain suspense to some degree, but at "a certain hazy point", the films become thrilling enough to be considered part of the genre. For Alfred Hitchcock, a director very associated with the genre, he proclaimed that the whodunnit generated "the kind of curiosity that is void of emotion, and emotion is essential ingredient of suspense" and thus for Hitchcock, "mystery is seldom suspenseful"


title: Thriller film

text: In his book "The Suspense Thriller" (1988), the genre-studies specialist Charles Derry found the "suspense thriller" to be crime films that lacked a traditional detective figure and featured non-professional criminals or innocent victims as protagonists and excluded films that are often labeled as thrillers such as hard-boiled detective stories, horror films, heist films and spy films. Derry found the non-professional or victim being placed in unfamiliar situations enhanced their vulnerability and thus increased greater suspense. Derry specifically noted the "innocent-on-the-run" theme a coherent in the genre, presenting them in films such as "The 39 Steps" (1935), "North by Northwest" (1959) and conspiracy thriller films like "The Parallax View" (1974) and the comedy-tinged "Silver Streak" (1976). Alternatively, British communication professor Jerry Palmer in his book "Thrillers" defined the genre by literary roots, ideology and sociological backgrounds and that thrillers could be reduced to just two components: a hero and a conspiracy. Palmer noted the hero in a thriller must be professional and competitive and not an amateur or an average citizen and suggested and declared characters such as spy James Bond or private eye Mike Hammer to be "quintessential thriller heroes". Palmer also noted that audiences must approve of the hero's actions and adopt their moral perspective. Palmer included styles such as detective films as part of the genre. Rubin argued against Palmer's definition, noting that it would include melodramas and courtroom dramas such as "Meet John Doe" (1941) into the genre and eliminate such films as "Purple Noon" (1960) and "Psycho" (1960) from the genre. Rubin borrowed from G. K. Chesterton's "A Defence of Detective Stories", stating that the world of the thriller is in an urban world, opposed to bygone eras of knights, pirates and cowboys which assists with the concept that "one normally does not think of westerns as thrillers, even though they often contain a great deal of action, adventures chases and suspense." Similarly, the adventure film is predominantly set in an environment that is already exotic and primitive, and removed form the realm of mundane and modern-day urban existence. In his book "Crime Movies: An Illustrated History", Carlos Clarens discussed location being related to thrillers as well, stating that crime films as emphasized broad, socially symbolic characters such as the criminal, the Law, and society while thrillers were more concerned with violence or disturbances within a private sphere.


title: Thriller film

text: Ruben declared that thrillers attached itself to other genres such as the spy film, horror film and various sub-genres of crime films more so than Westerns, musicals, and war films. Derry also suggested this, stating that the film was an "umbrella genre" that cuts across several more clearly defined genres. Rubin went as far to suggest that there was possibly no such thing as a pure "thriller thriller" as it was easier to apply it as a quality as a spy thriller, detective thriller, horror thriller, and that there is possibly no such thing as a pure "thriller thriller". Rubin further expanded on the problematic usage of the genre due to its wide usage in media, such as the American magazine "TV Guide" listing "Basket Case" (1982) as a thriller, while its sequel "Basket Case 2" (1990) was a comedy and that films as diverse as the horror film "Halloween" (1978), the detective film "The Big Sleep" (1946), the Harold Lloyd comedy film "Safety Last!" (1923), the Hitchcock spy film "North by Northwest" (1959), the disaster film "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972), and the science fiction monster movie "Alien" (1979) can all be considered thrillers.


title: Thriller film

text: Due to the what Rubin describe as a "wide, imprecise scope", it is unwieldy to attempt a comprehensive history of individual genres, including the thriller, and suggests it better to view the style in terms of cycles.


title: Thriller film

text: Prior to the development of films, the genre has its connections to broadly-based fiction of the 18th century. Elements of the thriller are traced to the earliest gothic novel with Horace Walpole's "The Castle of Otranto" (1765) which led to Matthew Lewis's "The Monk" (1796) and Ann Radcliffe's "The Mysteries of Udolpho" (1794) and "The Italian" (1797). Rubin noted that the extended vunerability of the enthralled protagonists and victims in the thriller anticipated the thriller genre, a statement echoed by Robert D. Hume's 1969 essay which asserts that the Gothic novel involved a reader in a new ay, with increased emphasis on suspense, sensation and emotion opposed to moral and intellectual focuses. The gothics being considered thrillers is problematic as they are set in antiquated decaying worlds and fail the tradition of being considered "modern". The second literay form that predated thrillers was the Victorian sensation novel, starting with Wilkie Collins' "The Woman in White" (1859-1860) which stripped the gothic genre of its mysticism and brought to a contemporary time closer to every day life. These sensation novels often were published in serialized form, sometimes concluding their installments with cliffhangers called "climax and curtain". The third of the proto-types to the thriller was early detective and mystery fiction, such as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), which is widely considered the first detective story. The detective story drew upon the previously mentioned forms, and is shown through stories such as the Sherlock Holmes novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles".


title: Thriller film

text: The roots of the thriller also generally associated with the rise of the urban-industrial society in the 19th century which created new and expanded mass audience, along with new forms of entertainment. This included stage play melodrams such as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852) in which an escaped slave escapes over an ice-choked river and the rural-set melodrama "Blue Jeans" (1890) which features a heroine who unties the hero just before he is cut by and advancing buzz saw. Other forms of entertainment arrived in the 19th century at fairgrounds and amusements parks with thrill-oriented rides and attractions such as Ferris wheels, Shoot the Chutes, which Rubin described as offering a "departure from humdrum reality that is merely a heightened version of that same humdrum reality.".


title: Thriller film

text: At these same fair grounds, is where the earliest venues for film exhibition swith peep-show arcades which film historian Tom Gunning described as "the cinema of attractions". These films provided early novelty-oriented shorts that provided surprise, amazement, laughter, or sexual stimulation with no narrative. The sensation of motion in these early films was later input into a framework known as the "chase film" which came into prominence in 1903.These films were often produced in Britain and France and employed minimal narrative for an extended chase scene that led to one of the most commercially celebrated American films of the period with "The Great Train Robbery" (1903). Elements of heist films are seen in the film, with its depictions of ingeniously planned robberies, as well as the thriller's central emphasis on accelerated motion. Chase films were limited in scope, but their emphasis on the chase sequence would extended into film in the future such as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969), "Vanishing Point" (1971), and "Speed" (1994).


title: Thriller film

text: The period between 1907 and 1913 solidified the film industry's domination of narrative filmmaking, predominantly with D.W. Griffith's films which Rubin described as refining for "enhancing suspense, psychological depth, and spatial orientation." Griffith's applied techniques such as cross-cutting to enhance suspense in film such as "The Girl and Her Trust" (1912), which also applied psychological context for the actions.


title: Thriller film

text: Film serials, featuring stories broken up into a number regularly scheduled episodes expanded on the suspense-educing devices of the earlier chase films. Originally published in newspapers, as fictional story installments, the "Chicago Tribune" came upon the idea in 1913 to by running serialized stories in both newspapers and film versions. This led to "The Adventures of Kathlyn", a serial in 13 parts which was a grand success and led to the newspaper developing "The Million Dollar Mystery" which was even more successful. Serials often ended with cliffhangers, an element that led to thrillers tendencies to break up into a series of self-enclosed set pieces. Film serials were later produced in Europe, with French directors such as Louis Feuillade who previously worked making chase films to later making serials based on novels about master criminals, such as "Fantômas" (1913) and "Les Vampires" (1915). Outside of France, the most significant venue for serails in Europe was Germany with Fritz Lang who wrote serials like "The Mistress of the World" (1919) and later directorial efforts like "The Spiders" (1919). Lang would later make films similar to those of Feuillade with his films based on Dr. Mabuse which were sent in a contemporary time. Lang's "Dr. Mabuse the Gambler" (1922) was described by Rubin as an important part of the development of the thriller with its "duplicitous, labyrinthine network of decadent nightspots and secret dens that are linked together by murky thorough fares, twisting back alleys and subterranean passages." Lang's later film "Spies" (1928), had Lang make extensive use of crosscutting to not only enhance suspense and draw thematic parallels but also to develop what Rubin described as a "paranoid vision of a world where everything seems to together as an ever-widening web of conspiracy". This type of editing was later applied to several "film noirs", such as Robert Siodmak's "The Killers" (1946) and Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing" (1956), Oliver Stone's "JFK" (1991) and Bryan Singer's "The Usual Suspects". During this silent era in Germany, German Expressionism was active from 1905 onward. These films featured distoirted sets and stylized gestures which had an influence on filmmaking all over the world, including the United States. The style has been particularly relevant to the thriller, combining psychology and spectacle.


title: Thriller film

text: The early 1930s saw the rise of two film genre movements: the gothic styled horror film and the gangster film. Universal Pictures was the leader of the horror genre in the early 1930s with its expressionist-derived atmosphere that started with two big hits film: "Dracula" (1931) and "Frankenstein" (1931). Rubin noted that both films lacked the thriller's fundamental tension between the familiar and exotic or adventurous. Also in the early 1930s, the gangster film arrived with early major films including Mervyn LeRoy's "Little Caesar" (1930), William A. Wellman's "The Public Enemy" (1932) and Howard Hawks "Scarface" (1932). These films centered on the rise of and fall of the criminal with Rubin noting that suspense in these films was "relatively slight", with both genres leaving an imprint on subsequent forms of the thriller with mid-1930s G-Man films, the early detective films of the 1940s, and the gangster films of the 1950s. The gangster film itself, entrusted the modern urban environment with larger-than-life overtones.


title: Thriller film

text: Rubin described the mid-1930s as when the thriller entered its "classical period" with the emergence of key genres that were previously either non-existent or minor. These included the spy film, detective film, the "film noir", the police film and the science fiction thriller. The horror films of the early 1930s with their Europeanized settings and villains led to what Rubin described as a "growing uneasiness towards Europe" Such anxieties were directly registered with spy thriller films, that were previously marginalised but grew as the tensions of the 1930s and the outbreak of World War II. The genre grew into popularity in Great Britain in the mid-1930s with the output of the countries leading filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Between 1934 and 1938, Hitchcock directed five spy thrillers: "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934), "The 39 Steps" (1935), "Secret Agent" (1936), "Sabotage" (1936), and "The Lady Vanishes" (1938). Along with Lang's output of the period, Rubin stated that Hitchcock became a "top rank" filmmaker specialising in the classical film thrillers, opposed to his prior output, which only sporadically included films that could be considered thrillers. Compared to Lang, Hitchcock approach to the spy thriller was described by Rubin as "less abstract, less epic" with "a greater emphasis on individual psychology and subjective points of view" while Lang's primary focus was on "the structure of the trap", Hitchcock's was on the "mental state of the entrapped." The first major American spy thriller of the World War II era was "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" (1939). After relocating to the United States, Hitchcock continued his attachment to spy films with films like "Foreign Correspondent" (1940) and "Saboteur" (1942). Despite having these films exist beyond the cityscapes of the thriller genre, they do not deploy the adventure nature of "The Adventures of Kathlyn" or "The Spiders" usually lacking in exaggerated methods of transport, such as parachute drops, safaris, submarines, or even high-speed chases.


title: Thriller film

text: Like the spy film, another genre that grew popular due to the war-generated phenomena in the early to mid-1940s saw the rise of thrillers centered around various phases of crime films such as the rise in popularity of detective films. These ranged from B-film detectives such as Michael Shayne, The Falcon, Boston Blackie, the Crime Doctor as well as modernize Sherlock Holmes stories having him battle Nazis. These smaller budget films led to more major productions such as John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) while "Murder, My Sweet" (1944) introduced the character Philip Marlowe to film. Marlowe would appear again in "The Big Sleep" (1946) while other films Ruben deemed as notable detective mysteries included "Laura" (1944). These detective films drew upon thriller and thriller-related genres with their nocturnal atmosphere and style influenced by expressionism. These detective films often overlapped with "film noir", which arose in the mid-1940s and was coined by French critics in 1946. The style was not acknowledge by American filmmakers, critics or audiences while these films were being developed until the 1970s. Early films considered as harbingers of the movement include Fritz Lang's "You Only Live Once" (1937), the b-film "Stranger on the Third Floor" (1940) and "I Wake Up Screaming" (1941) and the first universally acknowledged major film noir with Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity".


title: Thriller film

text: During the 1940s, due to filmmaker's participation in making war documentaries and the audience's growing familiarity with these films as being gritty and fact-based, and the influence of other foreign movements such as Italian neo-realism, Hollywood began developing crime films with pictures like "The House on 92nd Street" and "Call Northside 777" (1947) and the most acclaimed of these films with "The Naked City" (1948) which re-created a police manhunt for a brutal killer. These films were shot in actual locations opposed to studio sets. These films eventually began toning down their factuality to be applied to more "noir" styles, such as with "Kiss of Death" (1947), "The Street with No Name" (1948), and "He Walked by Night" (1949). Rubin found that placing these films in actual locations increased the tension of the ordinary world opposed to the limited confines of the studio sets.


title: Thriller film

text: Further spy films were made, including "The House on 92nd Street" which now encompassed anti-communist themes that was inaugurated with films like "The Iron Curtain" (1948). These film heavily drew on 1930s gangster film conventions, with the American branch of the communist parties being depicted like a gangster organization. This cycle continued into the 1940s with "I Was a Communist for the FBI" (1951), "The Red Menace" (1949), and Samuel Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" (1953).


title: Thriller film

text: Crime was the significant focus of thrillers in the 1950s. The more realistic crime films of the 1940s and film noir merged into films about police detectives thrillers. Unlike the more clean-cut police officers of the 1940s realistic films, these films often had the police officer following darker paths. These included "The Man Who Cheated Himself" (1951), "The Prowler" (1951), "Pushover" (1954). A smaller wave of similar police thrillers had the police detective having moral weakness, but excessiveness. These included "Where the Sidewalk Ends" (1950), "On Dangerous Ground" (1952), "The Big Heat" (1953). Rubin declared Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" (1958) as another major film of this flawed-cop style. Rubin found that these late noirs collectively represent a peak of character development and moral complexity in the film thriller that was closer to the psychology films of Alfred Hitchcock than the action or mystery-oriented forms of the police thriller. Syndicate gangster films of the era had similarities to the anti-communist spy films and alien-invasion science fiction films of the era with films like "The Enforcer" (1951) while "The Phenix City Story" (1955) and "The Brothers Rico" which contained borderline breakdowns of the criminal world and the lawful world. The gangsters of these films do not resemble conventional criminals of the past, they dressed casually while bing non-confrontational with muted violence.


title: Thriller film

text: The 1950s also saw the movement of the science fiction thriller, which previously was a relatively minor genre. The most prevalent was a hybrid of science fiction and horror in films like "Them!" (1954) and "Tarantula" (1955) while the films more attuned to the thriller occasionally saw an alien invasion theme, such as in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956) which Rubin described as being between "science-fiction mundaneness and film-noir moodiness". The science fiction thrillers of the era are not set on far off planets or but featured in present-day locales such as in "It Came from Outer Space" and "The Incredible Shrinking Man".


title: Thriller film

text: The 1950s also launched what Rubin called "a run of Hitchcock masterpieces", following an uneven part of experimentation in the late 1940s. Rubin noted as Hitchcock hitting his stride with "Strangers on a Train" (1951), "Rear Window" (1954), "Vertigo" (1958), "North by Northwest" (1959), and "Psycho" (1960). During this period, Anglo-American critics of the era preferred Hitchcock's lighter-hearted British classics of the 1930s, these films were declared as "more ambitious and mature works" by Rubin, which became the focus of a major reevaluation of Hitchcock's artistic stature, which included with the first full-length books study of his work: "Hitchcock" (1957), by Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol as well as the first English-language assessment, with Robin Wood's "Hitchcock's Films" (1965). The plots and themes of these films would be re-worked into later directors such as Jonathan Demme ("Last Embrace" (1979)), Brian de Palma ("Dressed to Kill" (1980), "Body Double" (1984), "Obsession" (1976)) and Curtis Hanson ("The Bedroom Window" (1987)).


title: Thriller film

text: The 1970s saw an increase of violence in the thriller genre, beginning with Canadian director Ted Kotcheff's "Wake in Fright" (1971), which almost completely overlapped with the horror genre, and "Frenzy" (1972), Hitchcock's first British film in almost two decades, which was given an R rating for its vicious and explicit strangulation scene.


title: Thriller film

text: One of the first films about a fan's being disturbingly obsessed with their idol was Clint Eastwood's directorial debut, "Play Misty for Me" (1971), about a California disc jockey pursued by a disturbed female listener (Jessica Walter). John Boorman's "Deliverance" (1972) followed the perilous fate of four Southern businessmen during a weekend's trip. In Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation" (1974), a bugging-device expert (Gene Hackman) systematically uncovered a covert murder while he himself was being spied upon.


title: Thriller film

text: Alan Pakula's "The Parallax View" (1974) told of a conspiracy, led by the Parallax Corporation, surrounding the assassination of a presidential-candidate US Senator that was witnessed by investigative reporter Joseph Frady (Warren Beatty). Peter Hyam's science fiction thriller "Capricorn One" (1978) proposed a government conspiracy to fake the first mission to Mars.


title: Thriller film

text: Brian De Palma usually had themes of guilt, voyeurism, paranoia, and obsession in his films, as well as such plot elements as killing off a main character early on, switching points of view, and dream-like sequences. His notable films include "Sisters" (1973); "Obsession" (1976), which was slightly inspired by "Vertigo"; "Dressed to Kill" (1980); and the assassination thriller "Blow Out" (1981).


title: Thriller film

text: In the early 1990s, thrillers had recurring elements of obsession and trapped protagonists who must find a way to escape the clutches of the villain—these devices influenced a number of thrillers in the following years. Rob Reiner's "Misery" (1990), based on a book by Stephen King, featured Kathy Bates as an unbalanced fan who terrorizes an incapacitated author (James Caan) who is in her care. Other films include Curtis Hanson's "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" (1992) and "Unlawful Entry" (1992), starring Ray Liotta.


title: Thriller film

text: Detectives/FBI agents hunting down a serial killer was another popular motif in the 1990s. A famous example is Jonathan Demme's Best Picture–winning crime thriller "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)—in which young FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) engages in a psychological conflict with a cannibalistic psychiatrist named Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) while tracking down serial killer Buffalo Bill—and David Fincher's crime thriller "Seven" (1995), about the search for a serial killer who re-enacts the seven deadly sins.


title: Thriller film

text: Another notable example is Martin Scorsese's neo-noir psychological thriller "Shutter Island" (2010), in which a U.S. Marshal must investigate a psychiatric facility after one of the patients inexplicably disappears.


title: Thriller film

text: In recent years, thrillers have often overlapped with the horror genre, having more gore/sadistic violence, brutality, terror and frightening scenes. The recent films in which this has occurred include "Disturbia" (2007), "Eden Lake" (2008), "The Last House on the Left" (2009), "P2" (2007), "Captivity" (2007), "Vacancy" (2007), and A Quiet Place (2018). Action scenes have also gotten more elaborate in the thriller genre. Films such as "Unknown" (2011), "Hostage" (2005), and "Cellular" (2004) have crossed over into the action genre.


title: Thriller film

text: Action thriller is a blend of both action and thriller film in which the protagonist confronts dangerous adversaries, obstacles, or situations which he/she must conquer, normally in an action setting. Action thrillers usually feature a race against the clock, weapons and explosions, frequent violence, and a clear antagonist. Examples include, "Phantom Raiders", "Nick Carter Master" "Detective", "Dirty Harry", "Taken", "The Fugitive", "Snakes on a Plane", "Speed", "The Dark Knight", "The Hurt Locker", "The Terminator", "Battle Royale", the "Die Hard" series, and the "Bourne" series.


title: Thriller film

text: Comedy thriller is a genre that combines elements of humor with suspense. Such films include "Silver Streak", "Dr. Strangelove", "Charade", Hera Pheri, Malamaal Weekly, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", "In Bruges", "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", "Grosse Point Blank", "The Thin Man", "The Big Fix", "Pocket Listing (film)", "The Lady Vanishes", and "Game Night".


title: Thriller film

text: Conspiracy thriller a genre in which the hero/heroine confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only she/he recognizes. "The Chancellor Manuscript" and "The Aquitaine Progression" by Robert Ludlum fall into this category, as do films such as "Awake", "Snake Eyes", "The Da Vinci Code", "Edge of Darkness", "Absolute Power", "Marathon Man", "In the Line of Fire", "Capricorn One", and "JFK".


title: Thriller film

text: Crime thriller as an genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers, which offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. Such films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Central topics include serial killers/murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, heists, and double-crosses. Some examples of crime thrillers involving murderers are "Seven", "No Country for Old Men", "The French Connection", "The Silence Of The Lambs", "Memento", " To Live and Die in L.A.", "Collateral", and "Copycat". Examples of crime thrillers involving heists or robberies are "The Asphalt Jungle", "The Score", "Rififi", "Entrapment", "Heat", and "The Killing".


title: Thriller film

text: Erotic thriller is a thriller film that has an emphasis on eroticism and where a sexual relationship plays an important role in the plot. It has become popular since the 1980s and the rise of VCR market penetration. The genre includes such films as "Body Heat", "Sea of Love", "Basic Instinct", "Chloe", "Disclosure", "Dressed to Kill", "Eyes Wide Shut", "In the Cut", "Lust, Caution", and "Single White Female".


title: Thriller film

text: Giallo is an Italian thriller film that contains elements of mystery, crime fiction, slasher, psychological thriller, and psychological horror. It deals with an unknown killer murdering people, with the protagonist having to find out who the killer is. The genre was popular during the late 1960s-late 1970s and is still being produced today, albeit less commonly. Examples include "The Girl Who Knew Too Much", "Blood and Black Lace", "Deep Red", "The Red Queen Kills Seven Times", "Don't Torture a Duckling", "Tenebrae", "Opera ", and "Sleepless".


title: Thriller film

text: Legal thriller is a suspense film in which the major characters are lawyers and their employees. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters. Examples include "The Pelican Brief", "Presumed Innocent", "A Time to Kill", "The Client", "The Lincoln Lawyer", "The Firm".


title: Thriller film

text: Political thriller is a type of film in which the protagonist must ensure the stability of the government. The success of "Seven Days in May" (1962) by Fletcher Knebel, "The Day of the Jackal" (1971) by Frederick Forsyth, and "The Manchurian Candidate" (1959) by Richard Condon established this subgenre. Other examples include "Topaz", "Notorious", "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "The Interpreter", "Proof of Life", "State of Play", and "The Ghost Writer."


title: Thriller film

text: Psychological thriller film is a psychological type of film (until the often violent resolution), the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional rather than physical. Characters, either by accident or their own curiousness, are dragged into a dangerous conflict or situation that they are not prepared to resolve. To overcome their brutish enemies characters are reliant not on physical strength but on their mental resources. This subgenre usually has elements of drama, as there is an in-depth development of realistic characters who must deal with emotional struggles. The Alfred Hitchcock films "Suspicion", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Rear Window", and "Strangers on a Train", as well as David Lynch's bizarre and influential "Blue Velvet", are notable examples of the type, as are "The Talented Mr. Ripley", "The Machinist", "Shutter Island", "Mirrors", "Insomnia", "Identity", "Gone Girl", "Red Eye", "Phone Booth", "Fatal Attraction", "The River Wild", "Panic Room", "Misery", "Cape Fear", "10 Cloverfield Lane", and "Funny Games."


title: Thriller film

text: Social thriller are a thriller that uses suspense to augment attention to abuses of power and instances of oppression in society. This new subgenre gained notoriety in 2017 with the release of "Get Out". Other examples include "The Tall Man", "Dirty Pretty Things", "Parasite", and "The Constant Gardner".


title: Thriller film

text: Spy film is a genre in which the protagonist is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of a rival government or (in recent years) terrorists. The subgenre often deals with the subject of espionage in a realistic way (as in the adaptations of John Le Carré's novels). It is a significant aspect of British cinema, with leading British directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed making notable contributions, and many films set in the British Secret Service. Thrillers within this subgenre include "Berlin Express", "Spy Game", "Hanna", "Traitor", "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "The Tourist", "The Parallax View", "The Tailor of Panama", "", "Unknown", "The Recruit", the James Bond franchise, "The Debt", "The Good Shepherd", and "Three Days of the Condor".


title: Thriller film

text: Supernatural thriller films include an otherworldly element (such as fantasy or the supernatural) mixed with tension, suspense, or plot twists. Sometimes the protagonist or villain has some psychic ability and superpowers. Examples include "Fallen", "Frequency", "In Dreams", "Flatliners", "Jacob's Ladder", "The Skeleton Key", "What Lies Beneath", "Unbreakable", "The Sixth Sense", "The Gift", "The Dead Zone", and "Horns".


title: Thriller film

text: Techno-thriller is a suspenseful film in which the manipulation of sophisticated technology plays a prominent part. Examples include "WarGames", "The Thirteenth Floor", "I, Robot", "Source Code", "Eagle Eye", "Supernova", "Hackers", "The Net", "Futureworld", "eXistenZ", and "Virtuosity".


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: In the United Kingdom, a member of Parliament (MP) is an individual elected to serve in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: All 650 members of the UK House of Commons are elected using the first-past-the-post voting system in single member constituencies across the whole of the United Kingdom, where each constituency has its own single representative.


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: All MP positions become simultaneously vacant for elections held on a five-year cycle, or when a snap election is called. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 set out that ordinary general elections are held on the first Thursday in May, every five years. The Act was repealed in 2022. With approval from Parliament, both the 2017 and 2019 general elections were held earlier than the schedule set by the Act.


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: If a vacancy arises at another time, due to death or resignation, then a constituency vacancy may be filled by a by-election. Under the Representation of the People Act 1981 any MP sentenced to over a year in jail automatically vacates their seat. For certain types of lesser acts of wrongdoing, the Recall of MPs Act 2015 mandates that a recall petition be opened; if signed by more than 10% of registered voters within the constituency, the seat is vacated.


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: In the past, only male adult property-owners could stand for Parliament. In 1918 women acquired the right to stand for Parliament, and to vote.


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: To be eligible to stand as an MP, a person must be at least 18 years old and be a citizen of the UK, a Commonwealth nation, or Ireland. A person is not required to be registered to vote, nor are there any restrictions regarding where a candidate is resident.


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: The House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 outlaws the holders of various positions from being MPs. These include civil servants, police officers, members of the armed forces, and judges. Members of the House of Lords are not permitted to hold Commons seats. Members of legislatures outside of the Commonwealth are excluded, with the exemption of the Irish legislature. Additionally, members of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) or the Northern Ireland Assembly are also ineligible for the Commons according to the Wales and Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts respectively, passed in 2014.


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: People who are bankrupt cannot stand to be MPs. The Representation of the People Act 1981 excludes persons who are currently serving a prison sentence of a year or more. People in respect of whom a bankruptcy restrictions order has effect are disqualified from (existing) membership of the House of Commons (details differ slightly in different countries).


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: Members are not permitted to resign their seats. In practice, however, they always can. Should a member wish to resign from the Commons, they may request appointment to one of two ceremonial Crown offices: that of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, or that of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. These offices are sinecures (that is, they involve no actual duties); they exist solely to permit the "resignation" of members of the House of Commons. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is responsible for making the appointment, and, by convention, never refuses to do so when asked by a member who desires to leave the House of Commons.


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: Members of Parliament are entitled to use the post-nominal initials MP. MPs are only referred to as "honourable" as a courtesy during debates in the House of Commons (e.g., "the honourable member for ..."), or if they are the children of peers below the rank of marquess ("the honourable [first name] [surname]"). Those who are members of the Privy Council use the form "The Right Honourable" ("The Rt Hon.") Name MP.


title: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)

text: Theoretically, contemporary MPs are considered to have two duties, or three if they belong to a political party. Their primary responsibility is to act in the national interest. They must also act in the interests of their constituents, where this does not override their primary responsibility. Finally, if they belong to a political party, they may act in the interests of that party, subordinate to the other two responsibilities.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck. The story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively more primitive and wild in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs. By the end, he sheds the veneer of civilization, and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader in the wild.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: London spent almost a year in the Yukon, and his observations form much of the material for the book. The story was serialized in "The Saturday Evening Post" in the summer of 1903 and was published later that year in book form. The book's great popularity and success made a reputation for London. As early as 1923, the story was adapted to film, and it has since seen several more cinematic adaptations.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The story opens in 1897 with Buck, a powerful 140-pound St. Bernard–Scotch Shepherd mix, happily living in California's Santa Clara Valley as the pampered pet of Judge Miller and his family. One night, assistant gardener Manuel, needing money to pay off gambling debts, steals Buck and sells him to a stranger. Buck is shipped to Seattle, where he is confined in a crate, starved, and ill-treated. When released, Buck attacks his handler, the "man in the red sweater" who teaches Buck the "law of club and fang", sufficiently cowing him. The man shows some kindness after Buck demonstrates obedience.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: Shortly after, Buck is sold to two French-Canadian dispatchers from the Canadian government, François and Perrault, who take him to Alaska. Buck is trained as a sled dog for the Klondike region of Canada. In addition to Buck, François and Perrault add ten dogs to their team (Spitz, Dolly, Pike, Jo, Billie, Teek, Koona, Dub, Dave, and Sol-leks). Buck's teammates teach him how to survive cold winter nights and about pack society. Over the next several weeks on the trail, a bitter rivalry develops between Buck and the lead dog, Spitz, a vicious and quarrelsome white husky. Buck eventually kills Spitz in a fight and becomes the new lead dog.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: When François and Perrault complete the round-trip of the Yukon Trail in record time, returning to Skagway with their dispatches, they are given new orders from the Canadian government. They sell their sled team to a "Scotch half-breed" man, who works in the mail service. The dogs must make long, tiring trips, carrying heavy loads to the mining areas. While running the trail, Buck seems to have memories of a canine ancestor who has a short-legged "hairy man" companion. Meanwhile, the weary animals become weak from the hard labor, and the wheel dog, Dave, a morose husky, becomes terminally sick and is eventually shot.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: With the dogs too exhausted and footsore to be of use, the mail carrier sells them to three stampeders from the American Southland (the present-day contiguous United States)—a vain woman named Mercedes, her sheepish husband Charles, and her arrogant brother Hal. They lack survival skills for the Northern wilderness, struggle to control the sled, and ignore others' helpful advice—particularly warnings about the dangerous spring melt. When told her sled is too heavy, Mercedes dumps out crucial supplies in favor of fashion objects. She and Hal foolishly create a team of 14 dogs, believing they will travel faster. The dogs are overfed and overworked, then starved when food runs low. Most of the dogs die on the trail, leaving only Buck and four other dogs when they pull into the White River.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The group meets John Thornton, an experienced outdoorsman, who notices the dogs' poor, weakened condition. The trio ignores Thornton's warnings about crossing the ice and press onward. Exhausted, starving, and sensing the danger ahead, Buck refuses to continue. After Hal whips Buck mercilessly, a disgusted and angry Thornton hits him and cuts Buck free. The group presses onward with the four remaining dogs, but their weight causes the ice to break and the dogs and humans (along with their sled) to fall into the river and drown.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: As Thornton nurses Buck back to health, Buck grows to love him. Buck kills a malicious man named Burton by tearing out his throat because Burton hit Thornton while the latter was defending an innocent "tenderfoot." This gives Buck a reputation all over the North. Buck also saves Thornton when he falls into a river. After Thornton takes him on trips to pan for gold, a bonanza king (someone who struck it rich in the goldfields) named Mr. Matthewson wagers Thornton on Buck's strength and devotion. Buck pulls a sled with a half-ton () load of flour, breaking it free from the frozen ground, dragging it and winning Thornton US$1,600 in gold dust. A "king of the Skookum Benches" offers a large sum (US$700 at first, then $1,200) to buy Buck, but Thornton declines and tells him to go to hell.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: Using his winnings, Thornton pays his debts but elects to continue searching for gold with partners Pete and Hans, sledding Buck and six other dogs to search for a fabled Lost Cabin. Once they locate a suitable gold find, the dogs find they have nothing to do. Buck has more ancestor memories of being with the primitive "hairy man." While Thornton and his two friends pan gold, Buck hears the call of the wild, explores the wilderness, and socializes with a northwestern wolf from a local pack. However, Buck does not join the wolves and returns to Thornton. Buck repeatedly goes back and forth between Thornton and the wild, unsure of where he belongs. Returning to the campsite one day, he finds Hans, Pete, and Thornton along with their dogs have been murdered by Native American Yeehats. Enraged, Buck kills several Natives to avenge Thornton, then realizes he no longer has any human ties left. He goes looking for his wild brother and encounters a hostile wolf pack. He fights them and wins, then discovers that the lone wolf he had socialized with is a pack member. Buck follows the pack into the forest and answers the call of the wild.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The legend of Buck spreads among other Native Americans as the "Ghost Dog" of the Northland (Alaska and northwestern Canada). Each year, on the anniversary of his attack on the Yeehats, Buck returns to the former campsite where he was last with Thornton, Hans, and Pete, to mourn their deaths. Every winter, leading the wolf pack, Buck wreaks vengeance on the Yeehats "as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack."


title: The Call of the Wild

text: California native Jack London had traveled around the United States as a hobo, returned to California to finish high school (he dropped out at age 14), and spent a year in college at Berkeley, when in 1897 he went to the Klondike by way of Alaska during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush. Later, he said of the experience: "It was in the Klondike I found myself."


title: The Call of the Wild

text: He left California in July and traveled by boat to Dyea, Alaska, where he landed and went inland. To reach the goldfields, he and his party transported their gear over the Chilkoot Pass, often carrying loads as heavy as on their backs. They were successful in staking claims to eight gold mines along the Stewart River.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: London stayed in the Klondike for almost a year, living temporarily in the frontier town of Dawson City, before moving to a nearby winter camp, where he spent the winter in a temporary shelter reading books he had brought: Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" and John Milton's "Paradise Lost". In the winter of 1898, Dawson City was a city comprising about 30,000 miners, a saloon, an opera house, and a street of brothels.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: In the spring, as the annual gold stampeders began to stream in, London left. He had contracted scurvy, common in the Arctic winters where fresh produce was unavailable. When his gums began to swell he decided to return to California. With his companions, he rafted down the Yukon River, through portions of the wildest territory in the region, until they reached St. Michael. There, he hired himself out on a boat to earn return passage to San Francisco.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: In Alaska, London found the material that inspired him to write "The Call of the Wild". Dyea Beach was the primary point of arrival for miners when London traveled through there, but because its access was treacherous Skagway soon became the new arrival point for prospectors. To reach the Klondike, miners had to navigate White Pass, known as "Dead Horse Pass", where horse carcasses littered the route because they could not survive the harsh and steep ascent. Horses were replaced with dogs as pack animals to transport material over the pass; particularly strong dogs with thick fur were "much desired, scarce and high in price".


title: The Call of the Wild

text: London would have seen many dogs, especially prized husky sled dogs, in Dawson City and the winter camps situated close to the main sled route. He was friends with Marshall Latham Bond and his brother Louis Whitford Bond, the owners of a mixed St. Bernard-Scotch Collie dog about which London later wrote: "Yes, Buck is based on your dog at Dawson." Beinecke Library at Yale University holds a photograph of Bond's dog, taken during London's stay in the Klondike in 1897. The depiction of the California ranch at the beginning of the story was based on the Bond family ranch.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: On his return to California, London was unable to find work and relied on odd jobs such as cutting grass. He submitted a query letter to the San Francisco "Bulletin" proposing a story about his Alaskan adventure, but the idea was rejected because, as the editor told him, "Interest in Alaska has subsided to an amazing degree." A few years later, London wrote a short story about a dog named Bâtard who, at the end of the story, kills his master. London sold the piece to "Cosmopolitan Magazine", which published it in the June 1902 issue under the title "Diablo – A Dog". London's biographer, Earle Labor, says that London then began work on "The Call of the Wild" to "redeem the species" from his dark characterization of dogs in "Bâtard". Expecting to write a short story, London explains: "I meant it to be a companion to my other dog story 'Bâtard' ... but it got away from me, and instead of 4,000 words it ran 32,000 before I could call a halt."


title: The Call of the Wild

text: Written as a frontier story about the gold rush, "The Call of the Wild" was meant for the pulp market. It was first published in four installments in "The Saturday Evening Post", which bought it for $750 in 1903. In the same year, London sold all rights to the story to Macmillan, which published it in book format. The book has never been out of print since that time.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: "The Call of the Wild" falls into the categories of adventure fiction and what is sometimes referred to as the animal story genre, in which an author attempts to write an animal protagonist without resorting to anthropomorphism. At the time, London was criticized for attributing "unnatural" human thoughts and insights to a dog, so much so that he was accused of being a nature faker. London himself dismissed these criticisms as "homocentric" and "amateur". London further responded that he had set out to portray nature more accurately than his predecessors.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: Along with his contemporaries Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser, London was influenced by the naturalism of European writers such as Émile Zola, in which themes such as heredity versus environment were explored. London's use of the genre gave it a new vibrancy, according to scholar Richard Lehan.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The story is also an example of American pastoralism—a prevailing theme in American literature—in which the mythic hero returns to nature. As with other characters of American literature, such as Rip van Winkle and Huckleberry Finn, Buck symbolizes a reaction against industrialization and social convention with a return to nature. London presents the motif simply, clearly, and powerfully in the story, a motif later echoed by 20th-century American writers William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway (most notably in "Big Two-Hearted River"). E.L. Doctorow says of the story that it is "fervently American".


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The enduring appeal of the story, according to American literature scholar Donald Pizer, is that it is a combination of allegory, parable, and fable. The story incorporates elements of age-old animal fables, such as "Aesop's Fables," in which animals speak the truth, and traditional beast fables, in which the beast "substitutes wit for insight". London was influenced by Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book", written a few years earlier, with its combination of parable and animal fable, and by other animal stories popular in the early 20th century. In "The Call of the Wild", London intensifies and adds layers of meaning that are lacking in these stories.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: As a writer, London tended to skimp on form, according to biographer Labor, and neither "The Call of the Wild" nor "White Fang" "is a conventional novel". The story follows the archetypal "myth of the hero"; Buck, who is the hero, takes a journey, is transformed, and achieves an apotheosis. The format of the story is divided into four distinct parts, according to Labor. In the first part, Buck experiences violence and struggles for survival; in the second part, he proves himself a leader of the pack; the third part brings him to his death (symbolically and almost literally); and in the fourth and final part, he undergoes rebirth.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: London's story is a tale of survival and a return to primitivism. Pizer writes that: "the strong, the shrewd, and the cunning shall prevail when ...life is bestial".


title: The Call of the Wild

text: Pizer also finds evidence in the story of a Christian theme of love and redemption, as shown by Buck's refusal to revert to violence until after the death of Thornton, who had won Buck's love and loyalty. London, who went so far as to fight for custody of one of his own dogs, understood that loyalty between dogs (particularly working dogs) and their masters is built on trust and love.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: Writing in the "Introduction" to the Modern Library edition of "The Call of the Wild", E. L. Doctorow says the theme is based on Darwin's the concept of survival of the fittest. London places Buck in conflict with humans, in conflict with the other dogs, and in conflict with his environment—all of which he must challenge, survive, and conquer. Buck, a domesticated dog, must call on his atavistic hereditary traits to survive; he must learn to be wild to become wild, according to Tina Gianquitto. He learns that in a world where "the club and the fang" are law, where the law of the pack rules and a good-natured dog such as Curly can be torn to pieces by pack members, survival by whatever means is paramount.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: London also explores the idea of "nature vs. nurture". Buck, raised as a pet, is by heredity a wolf. The change of environment brings up his innate characteristics and strengths to the point where he fights for survival and becomes the leader of the pack. Pizer describes how the story reflects human nature in its prevailing theme of strength, particularly in the face of harsh circumstances.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The veneer of civilization is thin and fragile, writes Doctorow, and London exposes the brutality at the core of humanity and the ease with which humans revert to a state of primitivism. His interest in Marxism is evident in the sub-theme that humanity is motivated by materialism, and his interest in Nietzschean philosophy is shown by Buck's characterization. Gianquitto writes that in Buck's characterization, London created a type of Nietzschean Übermensch – in this case a dog that reaches mythic proportions.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: Doctorow sees the story as a caricature of a "bildungsroman" – in which a character learns and grows – in that Buck becomes progressively less civilized. Gianquitto explains that Buck has evolved to the point that he is ready to join a wolf pack, which has a social structure uniquely adapted to and successful in the harsh Arctic environment, unlike humans, who are weak in the harsh environment.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The first chapter opens with the first quatrain of John Myers O'Hara's poem, "Atavism", published in 1902 in "The Bookman". The stanza outlines one of the main motifs of "The Call of the Wild": that Buck when removed from the "sun-kissed" Santa Clara Valley where he was raised, will revert to his wolf heritage with its innate instincts and characteristics.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The themes are conveyed through London's use of symbolism and imagery which, according to Labor, vary in the different phases of the story. The imagery and symbolism in the first phase, to do with the journey and self-discovery, depict physical violence, with strong images of pain and blood. In the second phase, fatigue becomes a dominant image and death is a dominant symbol, as Buck comes close to being killed. The third phase is a period of renewal and rebirth and takes place in the spring, before ending with the fourth phase, when Buck fully reverts to nature and is placed in a vast and "weird atmosphere", a place of pure emptiness.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The setting is allegorical. The southern lands represent the soft, materialistic world; the northern lands symbolize a world beyond civilization and are inherently competitive. The harshness, brutality, and emptiness in Alaska reduce life to its essence, as London learned, and it shows in Buck's story. Buck must defeat Spitz, the dog who symbolically tries to get ahead and take control. When Buck is sold to Charles, Hal, and Mercedes, he finds himself in a dirty camp. They treat their dogs badly; they are artificial interlopers in the pristine landscape. Conversely, Buck's next masters, John Thornton and his two companions are described as "living close to the earth". They keep a clean camp, treat their animals well, and represent man's nobility in nature. Unlike Buck, Thornton loses his fight with his fellow species, and not until Thornton's death does Buck revert fully to the wild and his primordial state.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The characters too are symbolic of types. Charles, Hal, and Mercedes symbolize vanity and ignorance, while Thornton and his companions represent loyalty, purity, and love. Much of the imagery is stark and simple, with an emphasis on images of cold, snow, ice, darkness, meat, and blood.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: London varied his prose style to reflect the action. He wrote in an over-affected style in his descriptions of Charles, Hal, and Mercedes' camp as a reflection of their intrusion into the wilderness. Conversely, when describing Buck and his actions, London wrote in a style that was pared down and simple—a style that would influence and be the forebear of Hemingway's style.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The story was written as a frontier adventure and in such a way that it worked well as a serial. As Doctorow points out, it is good episodic writing that embodies the style of magazine adventure writing popular in that period. "It leaves us with satisfaction at its outcome, a story well and truly told," he said.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: "The Call of the Wild" was enormously popular from the moment it was published. H. L. Mencken wrote of London's story: "No other popular writer of his time did any better writing than you will find in "The Call of the Wild"." A reviewer for "The New York Times" wrote of it in 1903: "If nothing else makes Mr. London's book popular, it ought to be rendered so by the complete way in which it will satisfy the love of dog fights apparently inherent in every man." The reviewer for "The Atlantic Monthly" wrote that it was a book: "untouched by bookishness...The making and the achievement of such a hero [Buck] constitute, not a pretty story at all, but a very powerful one."


title: The Call of the Wild

text: The book secured London a place in the canon of American literature. The first printing of 10,000 copies sold out immediately; it is still one of the best-known stories written by an American author and continues to be read and taught in schools. It has been published in 47 languages. London's first success, the book secured his prospects as a writer and gained him a readership that stayed with him throughout his career.


title: The Call of the Wild

text: After the success of "The Call of the Wild", London wrote to Macmillan in 1904 proposing a second book ("White Fang") in which he wanted to describe the opposite of Buck: a dog that transforms from wild to tame: "I'm going to reverse the process...Instead of devolution of decivilization ... I'm going to give the evolution, the civilization of a dog."


title: Moriarty the Patriot

text: In the late 19th century, the British Empire has become a global power. Due to the strict class stratification, the average citizen has little chance of successfully rising up to the top, where the despicable nobility rules over them all. After Albert Moriarty's family adopts two orphans, William James and Louis James, he learns that they share a common hatred for the corrupt British nobility with William James calling himself a "crime consultant". They scheme together to kill Albert's cruel blood related brother, also named William, burn down the family estate, and then start a new life together aimed at using illegal means to destroy the class system which had plagued the country for centuries. While enacting an elaborate scheme to murder a noble who was hunting commoners, William James Moriarty encounters Sherlock, who is able to deduce a third party was involved in the murder. This piques Moriarty's interest in Sherlock and leads him to frame Sherlock for murdering a count to test his abilities.


title: Moriarty the Patriot

text: The manga series, written by Ryōsuke Takeuchi and illustrated by Hikaru Miyoshi, began serialization in Shueisha's "shōnen" manga magazine "Jump Square" on August 4, 2016. The series ended its first part on December 2, 2022. As of April 2022, it has been collected in seventeen "tankōbon" volumes. The manga is licensed in North America by Viz Media.


title: Moriarty the Patriot

text: A manga adaptation of the novel spin-off series written by Yōsuke Saita titled "Moriarty the Patriot: The Remains" will begin serialization in "Jump Square" on March 3, 2023.


title: Moriarty the Patriot

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced at the Jump Festa '20 event on December 22, 2019. The series was directed by Kazuya Nomura at Production I.G, with Tooru Ookubo designing the characters and serving as chief animation director. Gō Zappa and Taku Kishimoto were in charge of scripts, and Asami Tachibana composed the music. This is the first time for Kazuya Nomura to be a director of an anime adaptation of a manga work.


title: Moriarty the Patriot

text: While the first episode was pre-screened on September 21, 2020, the first half of the series officially aired from October 11 to December 20, 2020, on Tokyo MX, BS11, and MBS. The first opening theme, "DYING WISH", is performed by Tasuku Hatanaka, while first the ending theme, "ALPHA", is performed by STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION. The series ran for 24 episodes, with the second half of 13 episodes airing from April 4 to June 27, 2021. The second opening theme, "TWISTED HEARTS", is performed by Hatanaka, while the second ending theme, "OMEGA", is performed by STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION.


title: Moriarty the Patriot

text: Muse Communication has licensed the anime in Southeast Asia and South Asia, which was streamed on its Muse Asia YouTube channel. Funimation also acquired the series to stream on its website in North America and the British Isles. On August 13, 2021, Funimation announced the series would receive an English dub, which premiered on August 15. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: Like previous "Pokémon" games, "Diamond" and "Pearl" chronicle the adventures of a young Pokémon trainer as they train and battle Pokémon while also thwarting the schemes of a criminal organization called Team Galactic. The games added many new features, such as Internet play over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, changes to battle mechanics and Pokémon Contests, along with the addition of 107 new Pokémon. The games are independent of each other but feature largely the same plot, and while both can be played separately, it is necessary to trade between them in order to complete the games' Pokédex.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: Development of "Diamond" and "Pearl" was announced at a Nintendo press conference in the fourth calendar quarter of 2004. The games were designed with features of the Nintendo DS in mind. It was forecasted to be released in Japan in 2005, but ultimately shipped in 2006, the 10th anniversary year of the franchise. In promotion of the games, Nintendo sold a limited-edition Nintendo DS Lite in Japan, and held a release party celebrating their North American release.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: The games received generally favorable reviews. Most critics praised the addition of Wi-Fi features and graphics, and felt that the gameplay, though it had not received much updating from previous games, was still engaging. The games enjoyed more commercial success than their Game Boy Advance predecessors: with around 18 million units sold worldwide, "Diamond" and "Pearl" have sold over 2 million more units than their predecessors "Pokémon Ruby" and "Sapphire" and almost 6 million more units than "Pokémon FireRed" and "LeafGreen", while also outselling their successors, "Pokémon Black" and "White", by over 2 million copies. The games are among the most successful "Pokémon" games of all time.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: "Pokémon Diamond" and "Pearl" are role-playing video games with adventure elements. The basic mechanics of the games are largely the same as their predecessors. As with all "Pokémon" games for handheld consoles, the gameplay is in a third-person overhead perspective, and consists of three basic screens: a field map, in which the player navigates the main character; a battle screen; and the menu, in which the player configures their party, items, or gameplay settings. Players begin the game with no Pokémon or Poké Balls, but are given the choice of three Pokémon as a part of the storyline. Once Poké Balls are obtained, the player can capture more Pokémon. Players can use their Pokémon to deal damage to other Pokémon in battle. Whenever the player encounters a wild Pokémon or is challenged by a trainer to a battle, the screen switches to a turn-based battle screen where the Pokémon fight. During battle, the player may use a move, use an item, switch the active Pokémon, or flee. Fleeing is not an option during battles against trainers. All Pokémon have hit points (HP); whenever a Pokémon's HP is reduced to zero, it faints and cannot battle unless revived at a Pokémon Center or with an item. If the player's Pokémon defeats the opposing Pokémon by causing it to faint, it receives experience points. After accumulating enough experience points, it will level up; most Pokémon evolve into a new species of Pokémon whenever they reach a certain level. Pokémon's stats also increase every time it levels up, and they will also learn new moves at certain levels as well. If a Pokémon is prevented from evolving it will learn new moves faster.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: Apart from battling, capturing Pokémon is the most important element of "Pokémon" gameplay. Although other trainers' Pokémon cannot be captured, the player can use different kinds of Poké Balls on a wild Pokémon during battle. A successful capture adds the Pokémon to the player's active party or stores it if the player already has the maximum of six Pokémon in their party. Factors in the success rate of capture include the HP of the target Pokémon and the strength of the Poké Ball used; the lower the target's HP and the stronger the Poké Ball, the higher the success rate of capture is. Also, inflicting certain status effects such as sleep or paralysis adds a multiplier to the capture rate, making it easier to capture wild Pokémon. Each species has a capture rate of its own as well.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: As with other generations of "Pokémon" games, "Diamond" and "Pearl" retain the basic gameplay of their predecessors while introducing additional new features. The day-night cycle makes a return and has increased from three times of day in "Gold" and "Silver" to five time periods in "Diamond" and "Pearl": morning, day, afternoon, evening, and night. "Diamond" and "Pearl" also introduce several changes to battle mechanics. In previous generations, Pokémon moves were classified as "physical" or "special" based on their type; for example, all Fire-type moves were special and all Ground-type moves were physical. In "Diamond" and "Pearl", however, moves are categorized into three groups. Attacks that make physical contact with the opponent are "physical", attacks that do not make physical contact are "special", and moves that do not deal damage are classified as "status".


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: Some of the games' new features capitalize on the Nintendo DS's features. The Pokétch, a simulated smartwatch, resides on the DS's bottom screen and hosts various applications including a clock, calculator, map, counter, and a drawing pad. These applications are obtained throughout the game. Beneath Sinnoh's surface is the Underground, a large area used for wireless multiplayer gaming; in it, players can create and decorate secret bases, first featured in "Pokémon Ruby" and "Sapphire", and participate in minigames. The items mined in the Underground can then be transferred into the player's bag in the main game. "Diamond" and "Pearl" also employ support for the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (since discontinued), allowing players to communicate through voice chat, trade, and battle online. The main system for trade is the Global Trade Station, which allows players to trade with people around the world. Players can search for any Pokémon that they have seen in the game and can offer their own; if another player is offering the requested Pokémon and is looking for the offered Pokémon, the trade occurs immediately. A trade does not have to be instant; an offer can be left for other players to browse and complete, even while the player is offline. Certain species of Pokémon traded internationally will have a Pokédex entry in the language of the game it originated from. According to "Pokémon" art director Ken Sugimori, the Global Trade Station was the new feature he was most pleased with.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: Pokémon Contests are events in which the player's Pokémon compete in a show to win ribbons and, in "Diamond" and "Pearl", they consist of three stages, two more than the Contests of the Game Boy Advance games. In the Visual Competition stage, players use the Nintendo DS's touchscreen to place accessories on their Pokémon to boost a particular trait, such as "Cool" or "Cute", and earn points. In the Dance Competition stage, the player must tap buttons on the touchscreen in rhythm with the music. The final stage, Acting Competition, is similar to Pokémon Contests of the Game Boy Advance games; Pokémon use their moves to appeal to the judges and crowd. Like Pokéblocks in the third generation games, baked goods called Poffins can be made from berries and fed to Pokémon in order to boost a particular trait, and therefore, the likelihood of success in a relevant Contest.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: In addition to compatibility with each other, "Diamond" and "Pearl" offer compatibility with the third generation "Pokémon" games, "Pokémon Ruby" and "Sapphire", "Emerald", "FireRed" and "LeafGreen", "Pokémon Ranger", and "Pokémon Battle Revolution". After earning the National Pokédex in "Diamond" and "Pearl", the player can "Migrate" Pokémon from the Game Boy Advance games to "Diamond" and "Pearl" by inserting a Game Boy Advance cartridge into the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot of the Nintendo DS while "Diamond" or "Pearl" is in the DS slot. After six Pokémon are uploaded from the cartridge, they are sent to the Pal Park, an area where the player can capture the transferred Pokémon. Pokémon uploads are restricted to six every twenty-four hours per Game Boy Advance cartridge, and the player must capture the uploaded Pokémon before performing another transfer. Pokémon transferred to "Diamond" and "Pearl" this way cannot be sent back to a Game Boy Advance cartridge. After completing a special mission in "Pokémon Ranger", the player will be able to send a Manaphy egg or Riolu from "Ranger" to "Diamond" or "Pearl". Finally, players can wirelessly upload Pokémon from "Diamond" and "Pearl" to the Wii games "Pokémon Battle Revolution" and "My Pokémon Ranch".


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: "Diamond" and "Pearl" are set in the fictional region of Sinnoh, an island based on the Japanese island of Hokkaidō. Sinnoh is not directly connected to any other Pokémon region. It is characterized by large, snow-covered mountains; Mt. Coronet, a part of a mountain range, divides Sinnoh in half. Unlike previous regions, Sinnoh has a "northern" feel to it because it is the first region with snow-covered routes. Sinnoh is also characterized by its waterways with three main lakes, Verity, Acuity, and Valor, that form a triangle. Unlike the Hoenn region, however, which is mostly water routes, only 30 percent of Sinnoh's landscape comprises waterways. Underneath Sinnoh's surface is the Sinnoh Underground, which is a large maze of caves and tunnels.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: (クロガネシティ Kurogane City), Eterna City (ハクタイシティ Hakutai City), Veilstone City (トバリシティ Tobari City), Pastoria City (ノモセシティ Nomose City), Hearthome City (ヨスガシティ Yosuga City), Canalave City (ミオシティ Mio City), Snowpoint City (キッサキシティ Kissaki City), and Sunyshore City (ナギサシティ Nagisa City).


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: The games chronicle the adventures of a new Pokémon trainer who strives to become the Pokémon League Champion by collecting and training Pokémon. Like most games in the series, "Diamond" and "Pearl" feature eight Pokémon Gyms led by Gym Leaders, professional trainers whose expertise lies in a particular Pokémon type. Gym Leaders serve as bosses and reward skilled trainers with Gym Badges, key to the advancement of the plot. As with all core games, the protagonist must also thwart the schemes of a crime syndicate, in this case, Team Galactic, who plan to use Pokémon to create a new universe just for themselves, while destroying the current one.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: As with all other "Pokémon" role-playing games, "Diamond" and "Pearl" begin in the protagonist's hometown. After viewing a television report about a media-conducted search for a red Gyarados, which was spotted at a faraway lake, the protagonist and their best friend, Barry by default, travel together to check the local lake for a Pokémon like it. They spot Professor Rowan, a Pokémon evolution researcher, and his assistant, the playable character not selected in the game: Lucas (boy) or Dawn (girl). After a short discussion, the professor and his assistant leave the lake, leaving a briefcase behind. When they are attacked by a wild Starly each, the protagonist and their rival decide to examine the briefcase. They are then given a choice of one of three Pokémon found within—the Grass-type Turtwig, the Fire-type Chimchar, or the Water-type Piplup—and proceed to battle the attacking Pokémon. After defeating the Starly, Lucas or Dawn retrieves and returns the briefcase to the professor. Noticing that a bond has been forged between the young protagonist and his or her chosen Pokémon, Rowan offers it to them, asking that they embark on a journey and fill their Pokédex.


title: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

text: The protagonist encounters the antagonistic group, Team Galactic, early in the game, when he or she must save Professor Rowan from some of their thugs; however, their motives are unclear until later. The player encounters Team Galactic again when they take over a wind farm and when they set up a base in Eterna City, before eventually taking over Sinnoh's three lakes in an attempt to capture the Mirage Pokémon Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit. Shortly after the player earns their seventh Gym Badge, Team Galactic captures the Mirage Pokémon and imprisons them inside the science laboratory of the Team Galactic Headquarters Building, where its members extract crystals from the Pokémon to create the Red Chain, an object that can control the legendary Pokémon Palkia in "Pearl", or Dialga in "Diamond". After releasing the trio, the protagonist is able to access Spear Pillar, an ancient ruin atop Mt. Coronet, where the leader of Team Galactic summons Dialga or Palkia. The legendary Pokémon's powers begin to overwhelm Sinnoh, causing the newly free Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit to attempt to stop it. The player then battles Palkia or Dialga, and after defeating or capturing the Pokémon, Sinnoh returns to normal. Afterwards, the player continues their journey, eventually making it to the Sinnoh region Pokémon League's Elite Four. After defeating all four members, they then battle the Sinnoh League Champion, a woman named Cynthia, who had appeared before in the game. After the protagonist defeats Cynthia, they become the new Sinnoh League Champion, finishing the main story. In the post-game, there is a new island to explore that contains Pokémon not seen in the main game, and has some new stores and a tournament center. The protagonist's old friend, who challenged them to battles multiple times before, will also be waiting for them here and will challenge them to one more battle.